Crow's nest

The form of crow's nest used by the ancient Greeks and Romans was the carchesium (, karkhḗsion), named after a supposed similarity to a kind of ritual wine goblet. According to William Scoresby Jr., the crow's nest was invented in the 19th century by his father, William Scoresby Sr., a whaler and also an Arctic explorer. However, Scoresby Sr. may simply have made an improvement on existing designs. Crow's nests appear in Egyptian reliefs as early as 1200 BC and on eighth to seventh century BC representations of Phoenician, Etruscan, and Boiotian ships. Similar structures can also been seen in 15th-century sources, for example Jean Froissart's depiction of the Battle of Sluys. Theon of Smyrna wrote that by climbing the mast of a ship, one could see land that is invisible to those on deck. However, other naval scholars have found no evidence of the masthead crow cage and suggest the name was coined because Scoresby's lookout platform resembled a crow's nest in a tree. Since the crow's nest is a point far away from the ship's center of mass, rotational movement of the ship is amplified and could lead to severe seasickness, even in accustomed sailors. Therefore, being sent to the crow's nest was also considered a punishment. ==Other uses==

In classic railroad trains, the box-like structure above the caboose, the cupola, was also called the crow's nest. It served for observation of the whole train when in motion. In hunting, a crow's nest is a blind-like structure where a hunter or a pair of hunters commit themselves to stalking game. A crow's nest is not a normal type of purchasable blind, but an improvised position, built by using locally discovered natural flora (tree branches, moss, snow (during winter) or sand (during summer), etc.). A crow's nest works in most environments and provides a good lookout point (hence the name) when built in an elevated position like a hillside or top of a hill. The term is sometimes used metaphorically for the topmost structures in buildings, towers, etc. Such structures are often referred to as a Widow's walk. ==References==