• schmidtster@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    That makes sense, appreciate the answer. I’ve just always heard it as “sea-worthy” before, afloat in that sense is a little weird.

    • ZapBeebz_@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Well, knowing the USN, the reason is either a) some extremely long, convoluted line of reasoning formulated through several Senate subcommittee hearings to avoid pissing anyone off or b) someone wrote it that way once 75 years ago, and no one knows enough about why to want to change it.

    • Radicalized
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      1 year ago

      I’m in the navy. “Afloat” means “goes to sea”, generally. A museum ship might literally be floating in water, but it can’t go to sea.