gulch
n.— «For Glyn Willacott, there was never a dull moment aboard HMS Cardiff. The 59-year-old served as a weapons engineer between 1982 and 1985, travelling to the Falklands, the Persian Gulf and, of course, back to the ship’s home city of Cardiff.…“We were at sea all the time once we were there—it was very rare you managed to set foot off the ship. But we would all really look forward to the trips there and back because we would call inland (during the journeys),” he said. He said there were 60 men in each mess—or the “gulches” as they were called—and they would sleep in the bottom, middle or top bunk depending on rank.» —“HMS Cardiff veteran rues the scrapping of his old vessel” by Gerry Holt WalesOnline (United Kingdom) Nov. 21, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
When there’s no evening meal planned at home, what do you call that scramble to cobble together your own dinner? Some people apply acronyms like YOYO — “you’re on your own” — or CORN, for “Clean Out your Refrigerator...
In a nautical context, the word heave refers to the action of a ship rising or lifting with the waves. The past tense is hove, and if a boat hove into view, it slowly came into sight, as if gradually appearing on the horizon. This is part of a...