Origin of the term “Cocked Hat”?

[ChrisJHC]

Another thread on using Navionics to plot back bearings has led me to wonder about the term “Cocked Hat” for the triangle formed at the nexus of three lines.

I’ve done many of these over the years and never thought that it looked like any sort of hat, cocked or not!

Anyone know why we use the term “Cocked Hat” rather than the more accurate “Triangle”?

[Paws-on-Paws]

An interesting question. This is what I found:



A cocked hat is a hat with three corners that used to be worn with some uniforms

Kind regards

Arto

[goboatingnow]

Slow day on CF hmmm

[El Pinguino]

Maybe the midshipmen saw more tricorns ( cocked hats ) on the quarter deck than they did triangles .

In primary school I always thought the triangle was the least desirable instrument in the band.

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Slow day on CF hmmm

If you were in the far antipodes just now your days would maybe be a bit slow as well. The scruff end of winter - cold, dark, wet.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

If you were in the far antipodes just now your days would maybe be a bit slow as well. The scruff end of winter - cold, dark, wet.

Not much better in large parts of the Northern hemisphere. Hot and miserable, which can be just as de-motivating.

[ChrisJHC]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Slow day on CF hmmm

Actually the days are flying by:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/...tion/101289964

[Kelkara]

Somewhere near Cape Horn on HMS Bounty ... a young midshipman is failing to get a good fix.

He looks at the bosun and says "my LOPs don't meet, I've cocked up!" ... Suddenly Captain Bligh roars "say that again young man, I give 50 lashes to any officer who uses language only fit before the mast".

The terrified young lad repeats "I said sir, my LOPs don't meet, I've a cocked hat." ... and the term stuck.

[Idaho]

A cocked hat was a tricorn, decorated with the tail feathers of a cock; that's a rooster for you non-agricultural folks.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by Idaho

A cocked hat was a tricorn, decorated with the tail feathers of a cock; that's a rooster for you non-agricultural folks.

"..cocked hat in the sense of a hat with the brim permanently turned up (i.e. cocked), especially the three-cornered hat of this shape worn at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century."

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Kelkara

Somewhere near Cape Horn on HMS Bounty ... a young midshipman is failing to get a good fix.

He looks at the bosun and says "my LOPs don't meet, I've cocked up!" ... Suddenly Captain Bligh roars "say that again young man, I give 50 lashes to any officer who uses language only fit before the mast".

The terrified young lad repeats "I said sir, my LOPs don't meet, I've a cocked hat." ... and the term stuck.

Captain Bligh was one of the RN most enlightened captains and a truly excellent seaman , despite the nonsense of many Disney movies later. His biography makes interesting reading ( he was the subject of two mutinies , and responsible for either , the first was sex , the second was money )

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Idaho

A cocked hat was a tricorn, decorated with the tail feathers of a cock; that's a rooster for you non-agricultural folks.

A rooster is a US term , cock being one used around here , but of course often in contexts that have nothing to do with Gallus domesticus

[goboatingnow]

By the way , around here yiu used to hear the term used to mean “better then before “ , ie “that new idea beats the old one into a cocked hat “

[SeanPatrick]

There was a discussion on NavList a few years ago about this.

Originally Posted by Frank Reed

The earliest references I have found for the expression "cocked hat" referring to three crossing lines of position date from 1908-1910. Two describe problems in piloting or hydrographic surveying. A third reference was in Blackburne's tables and this one directly addressed astronomical lines of position, but this was at a point where he was quoting and then critiquing another author's book on "Sumner's Method" (which at this point in time reasonably meant any method for producing a celestial line of position). Because this feels like a later addition to the work, it may not date from 1908. In all of these the expression "cocked hat" is used without explanation. To me, this suggests that the metaphoric expression rose up from practitioners and was already popular before it appeared in print. So I would go with c.1900 as the origin of the metaphor.