Re: (1835) "Leviathan" ships

 In message 1835, [email removed] (Jim Cheetham) writes:
 >
 >...throw such a huge spanner in the works...

     I've seen this phrase before.  Never understood it, though.  What's
a "spanner?"

 >(Mind you, that's AOK for 1/2 man fighters, but how do they protect
 > the Leviathan ships? They're several kilometers long ... Hmmm ...)

     I had to look twice at this.  If "Leviathan" is being used as an
adjective, then okay.  If you mean the merchant ship from Adventure 4,
that's only 53.5 meters long (from the specs).

     Come to think of it, I've never heard of a ship several kilometers
long in Traveller.  Even the big ships from Supplement 9 aren't anywhere
near that big.  Have I missed something?


- - --
     Brent

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[A spanner is a wrench with a handle and an adjusting screw so you can
use it on a wide range of bolt sizes.  In the states we call this a
"crescent wrench", or a "monkey wrench" (the latter refers to an
aggressively-toothed and levered version used by plumbers for turning
threaded pipe).  Imagine a large machine with gears and rods, etc.  (the
"works") then throw one of these wrenches into it (the "spanner") to get
caught on a gear...  There is also the joke played on new Navy recruits,
where they are asked to find a left-handed spanner -- all spanners are
usable by either hand! -- James]