concept
Naval Rigging Commands
rigging jargon
also: марсовые к вантам, брам и бом-брам-шкоты
The dense technical vocabulary of sail-handling commands (topgallants, royals, halyards, braces, sheets) that the retired rear admiral recites at exhausting length to a bewildered wedding party, mistaking his own nostalgia for entertainment -- the story's comic engine.
Reading notes
- The Wedding with the General (a story) §109 topmen to the shrouds, on fore and main
The first of the admiral's long strings of authentic sail-handling commands, incomprehensible to his civilian audience -- his one remaining source of pride, and the joke that overstays its welcome by the story's end.