Underway
State of a vessel free to move through the water
Underway, or under way, is a nautical term describing the state of a vessel which is unconstrained from horizontal translational movement relative to the water and the ground. "Way" arises when there is sufficient water flow past the rudder of a vessel that it can be steered. A vessel is said to be underway if it meets the following criteria:
- It is not aground
- It is not at anchor
- It has not been made fast to a dock, the shore, or other stationary object.
If a vessel is adrift and not being propelled by any instrument or device, it is said to be underway, not making way.
"Under weigh" is a variation, coming from folk etymology, first used in 1749. "Under way" is likely [probably] from the Dutch onderweg or Middle Dutch onderwegen (lit. "under" or "among the ways"). Weigh is also a synonym for hanging or dangling, so that the process of raising an anchor, which causes it to hang at the end of the anchor-rope or chain is called “weighing [the] anchor” which leads to confusion between weigh and way, since both are pronounced identically.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Underway”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
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