I guess I’ve been living under a rock. Didn’t know of the word “affray”. Nor “abseiled”.

“Four men accused of trying to take over a cargo ship in the English Channel have been arrested.

The men have been charged with affray after police boarded the ship on Friday in the Thames Estuary amid reports of stowaways threatening crew.

Samuel Jolumi, 26, Ishola Sunday, 27, Toheeb Popoola, 26, and Joberto McGee, 20, all of no fixed address are all due to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court on Monday.
…
A dozen heavily armed Special Boat Service commandos abseiled from a helicopter on to a cargo ship on a daring mission to end a hostage drama.

Under cover of darkness, the crack troops swung on to the deck of the 770ft Grande Tema to tackle a gang of iron- bar-wielding stowaways who had forced the terrified crew to lock themselves in the bridge.

https://mol.im/a/6524815

Abseil is Brit speak for rapell. It's from the German for "slide down a rope."

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I guess I’ve been living under a rock. Didn’t know of the word “affray”. Nor “abseiled”.

Well, they aren't terms commonly used in the US. As noted already, they are British terms.

I only knew what "abseil" meant because I was introduced to it while on Table Mountain in South Africa. My wife though in some irony did know the word prior to that. But she learned english living in Ireland, Scotland, and Austrailia so it's not surprising that she would be familiar with common English words that I had never seen before.

So a bunch of club weilding thugs took over a ship of grizzled sea hardened merchant marines. I don't beleive it.

What a bunch of choads for “thinking” they could hijack a vessel in the English Channel. The Royal Navy without a doubt has had the English Channel pirate free for many, many generations.

Abseiled is pretty common in my line of work, for some reason rappelled is no longer used.

But in the tower industry we prefer "controlled decent", it sounds safer

I always liked "dope on a rope"

Honest sir, all 4 of them suddenly jumped overboard and sank like rocks before we could stop them...

quote:

Originally posted by Pipe Smoker:
I guess I’ve been living under a rock. Didn’t know of the word “affray”. Nor “abseiled”.

You might be more familiar with one of the derivative words "Fray"...as in, to enter the fray = get into the fight

Affray means a fight in a public place

Abseil is from the German, while Rappel is from the French

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
So a bunch of club weilding thugs took over a ship of grizzled sea hardened merchant marines. I don't beleive it.

More like scrawny East Indian/African sailors.

Learned something new. Been Abseiling all this time and didn’t know it. Last one was 500’ vertical face in NH...

Not only the Royal Navy, but the SBS, Special Boat Service, the seagoing version of the SAS (except, of course, they belong to the RN). Every bit as tough, capable and well trained as the SAS, but much less publicised and romanticised. Somehow I don't think a bunch of club wielding Nigerian stowaways (I think that's where I read the came on board) posed much of a challenge for the British answer to our Seals!