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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