Garden And Gossip Forums

This is really aimed at Veggie I think.

As you know we went to the Isle of Wight yesterday. We catch the ferry from Southampton and sail down Southampton  Water and end up in  East Cowes. P likes this trip because he's a nerd and likes to look at the ships we see along the route and discover what they are and what theyre up to.  We saw one smallish boat (compared to  cruise liners anyway)  and its name was Sospan Dau. For those interested it is a Dutch trailing suction hopper dredger (I'm no wiser either).  Being Dutch we thought Sospan Dau was Dutch or perhaps Indonesian for something interesting,  being that a ship was so named.  We looked it up and Wikipedia says:

The name Sospan Dau is Welsh and originates from Sosban Fach and Llanelli's tin plating industry, Sospan being the Welsh for Saucepan and Dau being Welsh for Two as the ship is a successor to the original Sospan.

How'd you like to be a ship called Saucepan Two? There's no street cred to that name, its predecessor Saucepan (one) was bad enough but to be the second iteration is just rubbing it in.     Captain to Captain "Hey mate what ship to you drive?"  "Saucepan "  just doesn't cut the mustard in the bragging rights. 

Love it
Maybe the Sosbans are the hoppers they scoop the silt into?
There's a Welsh nursery rhyme that begins:-
Sosban fach yn berwi are y tan (the little saucepan is boiling on the fire)
Sosban fawr yn berwi ar y llawr (the big saucepans boiling on the floor)

and I can't remember the rest but the cat scratches little Johnny.
Scarlet will remember.