Shore leave

Shore leave

Shore leave is the leave that professional sailors get to spend on dry land. It is culturally infamous for its excess.

Books, films, and songs about sailors on shore leave include a song with the same name by Tom Waits' from the album Swordfishtrombones, Jean Genet's 1953 novel, "Querelle of Brest"; Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen's 1949 film musical of Leonard Bernstein's "On the Town"; and Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel's 1964 ballad "Amsterdam".

The US singer-songwriter Tom Waits wrote a song entitled "Shore Leave" in 1982, and included it on his album of the following year "Swordfishtrombones". As well as describing the excesses noted above, it also details the loneliness that many sailors feel when they suddenly find themselves with free time but without loved ones to share it with. His separation from his wife (he's in Hong Kong, she's back in the USA) is most poignantly put in a beautifully haunting line: "And I wondered how the same moon over this Chinatown fair/ Could look down on Illinois, and find you there"."

In many science fiction genres where space travel is depicted, shore leave has the same basic principle, but is more of a symbolic term, as a spacecraft crew will not necessarily be disembarking to a planetary location with a shoreline; sometimes said crew will not visit a planet at all, but instead spend their shore leave on a space station with recreational facilities for crewpersons on leave. Filk musician Leslie Fish recorded a song based on the called "Banned from Argo", detailing the debauchery and chaos caused by the Starfleet crew on shore leave.

During the Age of Sail, shore leave was often abused by the members of the crew, who took it as a prime opportunity to drink in excess, indulge in other pleasures denied to them aboard the solely masculine ships, and desert. Many captains were forced to take on new members of the crew to replace the ones lost due to shore leave.


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  • Shore Leave — may refer to:* Shore leave, the leave that professional sailors get to spend on dry land * Shore Leave ( Star Trek ), a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series …   Wikipedia

  • shore leave — shore ,leave noun uncount a period of time when sailors on a ship are allowed to go on land and do not have to work: on shore leave: They met when he was on shore leave in Singapore …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • shore leave — n. leave granted to a ship s crew for going ashore …   English World dictionary

  • shore leave — shore′ leave n. 1) permission given to a sailor or ship s officer to spend time ashore 2) the time so spent • Etymology: 1905–10 …   From formal English to slang

  • shore leave — noun leave granted to a sailor or naval officer • Syn: ↑liberty • Hypernyms: ↑leave, ↑leave of absence * * * noun : a leave of absence to go on shore granted to a sailor or naval officer * * * Navy. 1. permission to spend time ashore, usually 48… …   Useful english dictionary

  • shore leave — {n.} Permission given to a man in the Navy to leave his ship and go where he wants for a certain length of time. * /Jim went to visit New York when he was given three days shore leave./ * /The ship did not dock long enough for the sailors to get… …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • shore leave — {n.} Permission given to a man in the Navy to leave his ship and go where he wants for a certain length of time. * /Jim went to visit New York when he was given three days shore leave./ * /The ship did not dock long enough for the sailors to get… …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • shore\ leave — noun Permission given to a man in the Navy to leave his ship and go where he wants for a certain length of time. Jim went to visit New York when he was given three days shore leave. The ship did not dock long enough for the sailors to get shore… …   Словарь американских идиом

  • shore leave — Leave granted a sailor or seaman to go ashore for recreation …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • Shore Leave (Star Trek) — NOTOC ST episode name = Shore Leave Oh! My paws and whiskers! I ll be late! series = TOS ep num = 15 prod num = 017 remas. num = 32 date = December 29 1966 writer = Theodore Sturgeon director = Robert Sparr guest = Marcia Brown Emily Banks Oliver …   Wikipedia

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