Maritime Meanings

LASSIE In itself, Lassie is not a nautical term, but the name of this famous collie has an interesting connection with maritime history. The first British battleship to be torpedoed by a German submarine was HMS Formidable, sunk just off Portland Bill in the English Channel in 1915. A few hours after ther sinking, some fishermen found the body of a seaman that had been washed ashore in Lyme Bay; they carried it to West Bay and laid it out on the floor of the Pilot Boat Inn, and out of decency, covered it with a tarpaulin. However, the dog belonging to the landlord of the inn kept pulling aside the tarpaulin and licking the face of the dead seaman. Despite every discouragement, the dog persisted until the landlord was forced to see for himself what the dog had apparently known all along: that the seaman was not yet dead. The man was revived, and that is the end of his part in this story. Eventually, though, the incident inspired the famous film featuring the collie who won the hearts of millions of children the world over for her bravery, loyalty and intelligence. The point of this anecdote is that the dog was named after the survivor of the sinking of HMS Formidable, John Lassie.

Source: An Ocean of Words: A Dictionary of Nautical Words and Phrases, by Peter D. Jeans; Birch Lane Press , 1998