Wednesday what-is-it answer! It has acquired multiple names over the years, but quite a few claimed it is a Bosun’s Chair used to transport people between ships at sea. A smaller number of responses identified it as a “Transfer Chair”. A bosun’s chair has been used in the navy since the days of sailing ships. As shown in the illustration below, it was a simple plank of wood with lines passing through the ends and secured to a halyard for hoisting a bosun (crewman) up the mast or over the side to perform maintenance. It is still used today on modern naval vessels for the same purpose. The transfer of personnel between moving ships at sea is a relatively new practice. When the first transfers were accomplished around the time of WWII the bosun’s chair was the device used. There is a US Navy training film from 1948 that shows the old bosun’s chair being used in such a manner. However, that same training film introduces a simple “pipe-frame” chair that provided a measure of safety to the passenger from getting injuries from the pulley-trolley just inches above their head. Later training films and documents refer consistently to the modern device as a “transfer chair”. Lastly, there is always the fact that individual ship crews had their very own version of what to call the transfer chair. We heard from one bosun’s mate that said on his ship the deck crew called it a “monkey cage”.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 19:30:01 +0000
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