Word: brightwork
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Dates: during 1991-1991
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...reign was largely unfit for combat. Weighed down by moribund traditions that Winston Churchill acidly defined as "rum, sodomy, and the lash," British tars were ill fed and worse led. While their social-climbing officers fopped and preened, sailors spent long days at sea scrubbing decks and polishing brightwork, or wielding cutlasses in boarding drills as if they were still in the age of sail. Meanwhile, gunnery practice was cursory even though naval bombardments were ludicrously inaccurate. In 1881, for example, eight British battleships fired 3,000 rounds at forts guarding the Egyptian city of Alexandria and scored precisely...