4.1.6. The Maststep/Tabernacle (question 11)[1]

There is a semantic difference between the tabernacle and the maststep. The former is a socket on deck into which the mast is stepped (it was usually used on larger, decked boats) while the latter is a wooden block (usually fixed into the kelson) into which the mast is stepped.[2]

Step and mast-stop are answers referring to the latter type which were only given in Burnmouth and Gourdon where also different types of boats were mentioned: coble in Burnmouth and nobby in Gourdon (cf. chapter 3.2).

As sails have long since been replaced by engines and cannot be found even on smaller fishing boats nowadays, it was difficult for some fishermen to answer this question (informants III, IV, VI, X, XII, XIII, XIV gave no answer).

Crutch was not a spontaneous answer. It seemed as if the informant had not used the word himself although he heard other people use it: "What you put the mast in was a crutch I think... I think they called it a crutch."

Choks is not listed in the dictionaries as the meaning of maststep. OED, however, states that chok is used in various applications on ship-board. Its etymology may go back to Old Northern French *chuque, choque, chouque (= a log or block of wood).

[1]              Cf. map 4 in appendix III.

[2]              Elmer 1973, p.120.