Smoak, smoak, smoak that long clay pipe

[Sherwood, Harrison]

>From: 	LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU Subject: 	Speaking of Conveyances
>
>BTW--in M&D, "smoak" means "understand" or "comprehend" but it is sometimes
>an alternate spelling for "smoke".  Any thoughts?
>
>Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)

Same word, evidently.

_A Sea of Words_, a companion volume to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin
sea stories (Dean King, et al., 1995 Henry Holt), under "smoke" gives,

In common use from roughly 1600 to 1850, meaning to get or understand,
to smell or suspect a plot, design, joke, or hidden meaning.

Jack Aubrey, dreaded scourge of Napoleon's navy but usually outclassed
when it comes to witty badinage, is constantly proudly "smoking" the
punchlines of jokes, occasionally before the tellers can even get to
them.

As to the alternate spelling, I think it's simply a deliberate archaism,
nothing more. Note that TRP also uses the same spelling for "joak."

I'm pretty confident that TRP consulted O'Brian and _A Sea of Words_
pretty assiduously during the writing of the Seahorse/"France ne fait
pas la guerre contre les sciences" section of M&D. He gives O'Brian a
friendly tip o' the wideawake in the form of Seaman Pat O'Brian,
Seahorse's resident ship's expert on Euphroes* and "best yarn-spinner in
the Navy." It is also worth noting that Captain Aubrey is (fictively)
recognized as an authority in celestial navigation, in particular in
determining longitude.

And picture my own personal delight when one of my literary heroes turns
out to be a fan of another. Now if only in the sequel to _The Yellow
Admiral_ Aubrey and Maturin set off to track down a certain *very
special* Congreve rocket, my life will be complete. Tom, Pat and I will
spend our waning years sitting on each others' porches, drinking grog,
smoaking Gen. Washington's latest crop and telling nautical whoppers.

More about about O'Brian and _A Sea of Words_ can be found at
http://www.novagate.com/~schoonerman/book/obrian.htm.

Harrison

*"A long, cylindrical block with a number of holes for receiving the
>legs, or lines, composing the crowfoot." Just in case you were curious.