Definition

Noun

  1. A vessel that provides services (personnel, parts, supplies, etc.) to another vessel.

Adjective

  1. Any craft with low stability.

Origin

(First definition) Probably earlier than the 17th century. From the Old French and French word, tendre, meaning to aid. (Second definition) 18th century. From the French, tendre, meaning tender or delicate.

Comments

Tenders would be situated in a harbor to service vessels, such as submarines. In older times, a press tender was a small vessel commanded by a Lieutenant and used to round up “volunteers” and impressed men to transfer them to receiving ships in home ports and eventually to a naval ship. The men were placed into holds with the hatches battened down and had to suffer in miserable conditions.

To some extent, the filthy and overcrowded conditions on press tenders were responsible for the outbreaks of typhus fever that ravaged the British fleets during the Revolutionary (1793 – 1801) and Napoleonic wars (1803 -1815) against France.

References

Kemp, P. (1994). The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Oxford University Press.

King, D., Hattendorf, J.B, & Estes, J.W. (1997). A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O’Brian’s Seafaring Tales (2nd Ed.). Owl Books.

Rogers, J.G. (1985). Origins of Sea Terms. Mystic Seaport.