CHAPTER II 
EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED IN CONNECTION WITH 
PORTS AND HARBOURS 
Tie nomenclature of ports and harbours and their appur- 
tenances is not in a very satisfactory condition, there being 
2 considerable amount of divergence of meaning attached 
to the use of particular terms in different localities. Tt 
would undoubtedly be a convenience, not only to the 
student, but to the mercantile world generally, if some 
authoritative body were to take in hand and define the 
designations to be used in connection with port work, with 
a view to obtaining uniformity of use and meaning. 
The American Association of Port Authorities did, in 
1921, take the step of nominating a committee for the 
purpose, with instructions to deal with terms in vogue in 
the United States, and the committee presented a report 
which, while serviceable enough so far as it went, was 
defective to this extent—that it failed to take into account 
the use of the very same terms by English-speaking 
peoples in other parts of the world, oftentimes with quite 
contrary signification. Thus, while in America, the author 
remembers reading, as an item of news in a daily journal, 
a statement respecting an accident, to the effect that a 
man fell off a dock and was drowned,” the meaning in 
English terminology being that he fell off a pier or jetly 
into the water. In this country, if the term were used in 
connection with a similar accident, it would be that the 
man “ fell nto a dock.” This simple illustration indicates 
the radical difference of ideas, with a consequent difficulty 
in securing uniformity of signification in regard to port 
terms, and, at the same time, the obstacles placed in the 
way of the student who is endeavouring to understand the 
meaning of terms in other countries and localities. 
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