Oldweather mondegreens

[Michael]

[studentforever]

Oh dear. I've just transcribed 'Employed watering ship' in USS Jamestown's log and had a vision of the crew walking up and down the decks watering cans in hand. I can't decide whether this is a warped sense of humour or the onset of senility.

[Randi]

Warped sense of humour!
I had the same reaction many years ago
That picture and also standing on the dock holding out a bucket of water for the ship to drink from.

[Michael]

[AvastMH]

[Hanibal94]

Did a couple in real life while writing documentation for work:

- "End of lice" instead of "End of life"
- "One-too-many relationships" instead of "One-to-many relationships"

When I saw this, I realized it was probably time to quit for the day, and indeed it was

[Randi]

A relationship with lice would definitely be one too many

[Michael]

[AvastMH]

[Hanibal94]

For a second, I read "120 fathoms of wine" instead of "120 fathoms of wire" (for measuring depth)

*hic*

[Randi]

[studentforever]

I've heard of a yard of ale but 120 fathoms!!!

[Randi]

[AvastMH]

You'd have a bit of a headache after that lot

[Michael]

[Hanibal94]

Haida, June 24th 1940:
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 6-0029.JPG

Near the end of the third paragraph, it says "Checked small arms and ammunition", which I initially read as "Chucked small arms and ammunition [overboard]"

Probably because in the previous month, they really did throw 2000 rounds of blanks overboard!

[Michael]

[Randi]

There were probably times when the people being drilled wanted to chuck them overboard.

[Hanibal94]

Haida, July 6th 1940, 07:40:
https://catalog.archives.gov/OpaAPI/med ... 7-0011.JPG

For a while, I was reading "Angry Personnel came aboard" before realizing it was likely "Army Personnel came aboard"

[Michael]

Being army, and on a ship, they probably were angry!