Navy slang -- Gundeck

[Mullins, Bill]

>From _All Hands_ (Bureau of Naval Personnel magazine), Sept 1968, letters to
the editor:

"Sir:  I have been trying to find some clue as to the origin of the term
"gundeck" as used to refer to the doctoring of records, reports and the
like.

I have asked many old salts about this and checked dictionaries of naval
terms buthave been unable to come up with anything specific . . . .

[answer] The origin of "gundeck" as a slang expression, meaning the altering
or falsifying of records, is obscure ....."

>From letters in the May 1968 issue:
"SIR: After reading your explanation of the term  gundecking  in your
September 1968 issue (Letters to the Editor, p. 28), and the continuing
controversy on the subject since then, I believe a more colorful explanation
is one which I ran across some years ago in an old book of naval slang and
expressions. It describes how the commodore of an early British squadron
received his position reports from his navigator who had a somewhat
oversimplified method of determining his fix.  By using the reports received
from the other ships in company, the navigator obtained his position without
so much as taking one celestial. He never had to leave the gundeck, the one
below the main deck. As a result, it became known that at fix time, the
navigator was below  gundecking  his position.  As an added matter of
interest, I ve also learned that  gundecking  also means pretending to be
sober whereas  smokestacking  describes pretending to be drunk.
-G. W. Crowninshield, LCDR, USN.

SIR: In your September 1968 LTE section you invited readers to submit
explanations for the term  gundecking.   I so submit.
You are correct in assuming that the gundeck was the deck below the upper
deck and one upon which no
guns were actually mounted. It was the living quarters for the midshipmen.
The term  gundecking  arises from the fact that this was also the place
where the midshipmen did their navigation lessons. They would take sun lines
at noon and celestial fixes at night, then go below to the gundeck, work out
their calculations and show them to the navigation officer who taught the
classes.
Certain of these young men, however, had a special formula worked out ahead
of time which aided them
in arriving at a pretty safe and correct conclusion. They would note the
noon or last position on the quarterdeck traverse board and determine an
approximate current position by dead reckoning plotting, using the
quarterdeck log information, such as speedand course changes from the last
calculated
position. With this dead reckoning position in hand, they would return to
the gundeck and proceed to  gundeck  their navigation homework by simply
working backwards from the dead reckoning position.
-E. F. Speck, Jr."


Also seen:

" I maintain that in order to draw advance pay (better known as a dead horse
) ..." (Nov, 1968)