The Crow's Nest: Scoresby's 1807 Arctic Barrel and a Viking Crow Myth

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The crow's nest is the lookout at the very top of a ship's mainmast, distinct from the top, the lower platform where sailors handled sails and sharpshooters fired in battle. Sitting far from the ship's center of mass, it turns every pitch, roll, and yaw of the hull into wide, violent arcs, so a 10 degree roll could fling a lookout dozens of feet in seconds. The seasickness was so notorious that a shift up there could serve as punishment. Egyptian reliefs from as early as 1200 BC show lookouts in woven baskets lashed near the top of A frame bipod masts, useful for spotting sandbars and reefs, and similar platforms appear on Phoenician and Etruscan ships. The Greeks and Romans called it the carchesium after a flared drinking cup whose rim gave the lookout a place to rest his arms, and Theon of Smyrna described how climbing a mast reveals land hidden from the deck.

Height matters because the horizon sits about three miles away at sea level but roughly 12 miles away from 100 feet up. The English name first appears in 1807, describing the enclosed barrel designed by Arctic whaler William Scoresby Senior to keep lookouts alive while they spotted whale spouts and channels through pack ice. A popular legend credits Viking sailors who released caged crows from the masthead to find land, but historians have found no evidence for it. The name was a visual pun: a dark round nest high in the branches of the rigging.

• Scoresby's barrel shielded the lookout up to the chest or neck and was entered through a trap door in the floor.
• A canvas screen on a sliding iron ring could be turned to block the wind from any direction.
• It came with a seat, a place for a telescope, and a speaking trumpet for calling down to the deck.
• Railroaders called the cupola on a caboose the crow's nest, where conductors watched for smoking hot boxes.
• Hunters use the name for improvised elevated blinds, and New England widow's walks are also called crow's nests.