Proper name for doors within a ship?

[goldhawk]

Not every wall in a ship is a bulkhead (separating a water-tight compartment), so it would make sense (to me) to distinguish them, like fire doors in a building.

(Of course someone would probably say in real life "close that door" rather than "close that bulkhead door". But they might say "close all bulkhead doors" to avoid having to shut the door to the wardroom.)

Correct. As I posted above: a bulkhead is a structural part of the ship, as opposed to a mere wall.

 

[Foxbat]

I stand corrected

 

[HareBrain]

Don't be sad, Foxbat -- exult in your new knowledge! (And I want to see proper exultation, no half-measures.)

 

[Brian G Turner]

Right ... so I'm safe with "doors" but certain doors might be "bulkhead doors" - and hatches lead up to a deck.

I definitely need to brush up on my naval terminology more than I expected!

 

[Danny McG]

Set your tale on a raft. Remove the uncertainty

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Set your tale on a raft. Remove the uncertainty

And whatever you do, don't open the hatch!

 

[Theophania Elliott]

hatches lead up to a deck.

Remembering, of course, that decks are the floors (hence, you deck someone when you hit them so hard they fall down onto the floor). So it's 'up a deck' - like a hatch between the upstairs landing and the loft in a house.

Basically, if it's vertical, it's a door. If it's horizontal, it's a hatch.

The ceiling, by the way, is the 'deckhead'. [Be very careful not to make spelling mistakes with this.]

 

[ralphkern]

Ha, I remember this dilemma in my editing cycle of U.

In the end, I used:

I use hatch when dealing with a door in a ship which has a wheel - especially metal. For doors which would have the appearance of, well, doors - I simply used doors.

I'd certainly defer to Foxbat's source there though. My only point on that is sometimes its a case that it is better to use terms which are common misconceptions if those are more widely accepted.

 

[bpomodonw]

As a submarine sailor during the 1950's we called them 'hatches'. Hatches to the topside were called 'topside hatches'. I'm surprised that no one has brought up the fact that we were trained to not use the term 'close' as it could be confused with 'open' . We used 'shut' as in 'shut the hatch'.

 

[tinkerdan]

bulk·head
ˈbəlkˌhed/
noun

1. a dividing wall or barrier between compartments in a ship, aircraft, or other vehicle.

Purpose. Bulkheads in a ship serve several purposes: increase the structural rigidity of the vessel, divide functional areas into rooms and. create watertight compartments that can contain water in the case of a hull breach or other leak.

Typically you hear of watertight doors and watertight bulkhead doors.
however overall
This is clipped from wikipedia

Doors[edit]

Three types of doors are commonly used between compartments. A closed watertight door is structurally capable of withstanding the same pressures as the watertight bulkheads they penetrate, although such doors require frequent maintenance to maintain effective seals, and must, of course, be kept closed to effectively contain flooding.[7]

A closed weathertight door can seal out spray and periodic minor flow over weather decks, but may leak during immersion. These outward opening doors are useful at weather deck entrances to compartments above the main deck.[7]

Joiner doors are similar to doors used in conventional buildings ashore. They afford privacy and temperature control for compartments formed by non-structural bulkheads within the ship's hull.[7]

However: in space,
This is taken from how stuff works.
How Spacewalks Work

The majority of this takes place inside an airlock. The airlock is a small cylindrical area, only 5.25 feet (1.6 meters) in diameter and 6.9 feet (2.1 meters) high, located on a spacecraft's mid-deck. A hatch from the mid-deck leads to the airlock, and the airlock is connected by another hatch to an unpressurized payload bay, which leads to outer space. After an astronaut dons the full space suit inside the airlock and shuts himself off completely from the outside atmosphere, the inner hatch of the airlock is sealed and the pressure inside is gradually decreased. Once the area reaches the appropriate pressure, the astronaut pulls himself through the outer airlock hatch into the payload bay and finally begins the EVA

 

[-K2-]

And remember; the head is not an escape hatch

K2

 

[Danny McG]

May I suggest...
Doory McDoorface

 

[Ursa major]

Or, to reveal my age, Diana.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Right, I found this link useful: https://fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/beginner.htm

The floors of a ship are called decks, the walls are called bulkheads, and the stairs are called ladders. There are no halls or corridors in a ship, only passageways. There are no ceilings in a room, only the overhead in the compartment. Openings in the outside of the ship are ports, not windows. Entrances from one compartment to another are called doors. Openings from one deck to another are called hatches. The handles on the watertight hatch or door are called dogs.

When you close a door or watertight hatch, you secure it. If you close down the dogs on the door or hatch, you dog it down. You never scrub the floor or wash the walls, rather you swab the deck and scrub the bulkheads. When you get up to go to work, turn to. You never go downstairs, you lay below, and if you are going up from one deck to another, you lay topside.

 

[thaddeus6th]

The ceilings are called deckheads.

I remember because it's filed away for potential use if Sir Edric goes on a ship

Edited extra bit: and certain planks of word are called futtocks, which is rather nice for comedy.

 

[Danny McG]

Edited extra bit: and certain planks of word are called futtocks, which is rather nice for comedy

I remember watching some fairly crap comedy film titled 'Futtocks End' a long time ago, I wondered at the time what a futtock was

 

[sknox]

The name for the doors on a ship is the same as the doors on land: Robbie Krieger, John Densmore, Ray Manzarek, Jim Morrison.

I mean, obviously!

 

[Paul_C]

https://www.britishclassiccomedy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/The_Unforgettable_Larry_Grayson.jpg

 

[KiraAnn]

I suspect some of these differences are differences between Royal Navy and US Navy.

When I was in the US Navy, we were taught that “overheads” were the bottom side of the deck above, I.e. “over the heads of sailors”.

Also “hatches” were doors that could hold pressure but “doors” could not.