The Good Shepherd (33 page)

Fitted and retained:
An officer so evaluated by a promotion board is retained on active duty in his present grade but is not promoted.

General quarters:
Everyone at action stations.

Head, the:
Lavatory aboard ship.

Huff-Duff:
High-frequency direction-finding apparatus.

O.D., O.O.D.:
Officer of the deck.

PBY:
U.S. designation of Catalina aircraft.

Pelorus:
A device for taking bearings.

Pillenwerfer:
U-boat’s defensive device producing large bubbles which, floating to the surface, might deceive
sonar
(see below). (The Royal Navy called them S.B.T.s--Submarine Bubble Targets.)

Pitometer or “pit”:
Ship’s “speedometer.”

Secure from general quarters:
Stand down from action stations.

Sonar:
Electronic means of underwater detection.

Take the conn:
Take over responsibility for ship’s course, speed, etc.

T.B.S.:
The radio-telephone “talk between ships.”