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TRUCK LIGHT, SHOT THE

TRUCK LIGHT, SHOT THE
ScnTUEU
a humorous reference to an error made in navigating. Specifically, this refers to a sailor who, while attempting to determine the altitude of a heavenly body for the purpose of navigation (an action called shooting), accidentally mistakes the light at the top of his ship's mast for a star. A truck is a circular wooden cap fitted to the top of a ship's mast, to which a light (called a truck light) is sometimes attached.