Fitted and retained:
An officer so evaluated by a promotion board is retained on active duty in his present grade but is not promoted.
General quarters:
Everyone at action stations.
Head, the:
Lavatory aboard ship.
Huff-Duff:
High-frequency direction-finding apparatus.
O.D., O.O.D.:
Officer of the deck.
PBY:
U.S. designation of Catalina aircraft.
Pelorus:
A device for taking bearings.
Pillenwerfer:
U-boat’s defensive device producing large bubbles which, floating to the surface, might deceive
sonar
(see below). (The Royal Navy called them S.B.T.s--Submarine Bubble Targets.)
Pitometer or “pit”:
Ship’s “speedometer.”
Secure from general quarters:
Stand down from action stations.
Sonar:
Electronic means of underwater detection.
Take the conn:
Take over responsibility for ship’s course, speed, etc.
T.B.S.:
The radio-telephone “talk between ships.”