Re: Monday Answer
Ray and Dale get gold stars for themselves.
This is a decent bar bet and unless the bettee is deep into derivations of language or read this trivia, you can probably win a beer or two.
The answer is one of definition. Think more general, less contemporary. Don�t go looking for a comfy captain�s chair as furniture - although it is.. A ship�s furniture consists of practically everything other than the build and sealing of the hull. Once the sheathing was applied, the ship launched, and it stayed afloat, the ship was fitted out. Guns, masts, spars, sails, anchors, boats, and rigging are all furniture. Consumables like food, water, fuel were not considered furniture.
A man named David Steel (David Steel. The elements and practice of rigging and seamanship. London: printed for David Steel, 1794. Volume 1 (of 4) �with current book prices from $200 to $4000 (1794 1st Edition)) described - with some illustrations- the items of furniture including the numbers, diameters, lengths etc. by item, in a list for every naval craft right down to the barge, yawl, and launch.
The Admiralty used furniture as a essential part of their budget but also as a giant slush account. There was practically no limit to the amount of money granted to actual combat commanders to have their ship ready. Spending was winked at (national security and all that) and the additional money spent on the more recent ship meant that the next ship started at that point and overruns were common (has anything changed).
Furniture \Fur"ni*ture\, n. [F. fourniture. See FURNISH, v. t.]
1. That with which anything is furnished or supplied; supplies; outfit; equipment.
2. Articles used for convenience or decoration in a house or apartment, as tables, chairs, bedsteads, sofas, carpets, curtains, pictures, vases, etc.
3. The necessary appendages to anything, as to a machine, a carriage, a ship, etc.
(a) (Naut.) The masts and rigging of a ship.
(b) (Mil.) The mountings of a gun.
(c) Builders' hardware such as locks, door and window trimmings.
(d) (Print) Pieces of wood or metal of a lesser height than the type, placed around the pages or other matter in a form, and, with the quoins, serving to secure the form in its place in the chase.
4. (Mus.) A mixed or compound stop in an organ; -- sometimes called mixture.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Similar in Oxford English Dictionary (Compact Edition) p 1098, Furniture, definition #5
Warships of GB of that time were huge floating gun platforms and rarely was strength sacrificed for any other function. While strong, they could be floating pigs in certain situations. There are records of seasoned warship captains putting to sea in new craft where they promptly stripped the furniture of the ship to essentials in order to increase speed/maneuverability. Once you know what the definition of ship�s furniture is, that action goes well beyond tossing overboard ornament and toilet seats.
