To Boldly Go

I've always been a great fan of Star Trek (the original TV series, of course – if it didn't have Captain Kirk and Mr Spock, it wasn't Star Trek in my opinion) and I still get a tingle when I hear the words, 'Captain's log, star date…'. So I was fascinated to learn the history of the word log.

About 300 years ago, the captain of a ship would record the rate of his vessel's progress every day. To do this, every so often a sailor would tie a piece of wood to string and throw it overboard. The speed at which the string uncoiled would enable him to estimate the ship's speed. This piece of wood was called a log. So the captain would note his measurements in a log book.

Another familiar term came from this unsophisticated method. The string attached to the log had knots tied at regular intervals. The sailor would turn an hourglass over and count the number of knots that went by until all the sand had passed through. This is why the speed of ships is measured in knots!

My final musing on Star Trek: the word trek was originally an Afrikaans word meaning 'to travel by ox wagon'. What would the Klingons have made of that?