Gundecking

One of the earliest skills I learned in the navy was "gundecking." That was the practice of running off to a quiet secluded compartment and making up records ("logs") just before an inspection. These were invariably logs that were supposed to be maintained on a real time basis, but that had been overlooked. It was a kind of petty dishonesty. Sometimes more than petty.

There was an art to gundecking. Those unskilled in the art would have one person make the entries and use the same pencil or pen. Those more skilled would change the writing instrument from time to time and leave a smudge or two on the log book. Gundecking would seem more plausible if the entries were made in at least three different hands.

Sailors (and officers) who gundecked records always had ample justification. Records hadn't been kept in real time because they had more urgent tasks. Doing the job was more important than all that pesky paperwork. The ship had to be painted. The guns had to be fired. Collecting empty brass and accounting for it was an annoyance. Besides, with fifty or a hundred pounds of brass, you could have the whole ship painted in Hong Kong. Surely that was more important. The crew was too small for all that paperwork, anyhow.

So usage data wasn't accurate and the Supply Officer didn't know what to order. We could make up the difference with cumshaw. What does cumshaw mean? Watch "Operation Petticoat."