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Just after Titanic hits an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean the captain appears (after going to sleep) and announces:

All stop

captain saying All Stop

In 'captains talk' what does this mean exactly? Are we expected as an audience to just 'kind of' accept and know what is meant here?

Is this a 'formality' for saying: "We aren't going anywhere else. Stop?"

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    Downvoters. Do explain.
    – cmp
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 0:41
  • downvoting makes them feel good about themselves, but to answer why they might do it and feel justified outside of this explanation, this is far from a difficult question to research on your own. www.google.com <--use to research memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Military_parlance <--star trek! and answer quora.com/… <--real life. CTRL+F then type all stop. this will help you find the term on the page. F stands for "Find"
    – NOP
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 1:08
  • P stands for Prick @NOP
    – cmp
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 20:52
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    I was hoping you'd find my comment helpful, as nobody answered you, and it's bad form to assume everybody understands how to use the WWW and browser software proficiently. You didn't display any working knowledge of a search engine, so I tried to help you learn to use the tools to find your answer. For all we know, you've never heard of modern technology until last week, which is why you're just now seeing Titanic.
    – NOP
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 21:55

2 Answers 2

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The "All" part of it is because large ships had twin screws (propellers), each one connected to an engine with a clutch. The Titanic (and her sister, Olympic) actually had 3 screws. To assist the rudder in making a turn, you would run one faster than the other(s), to turn hard, you would stop or reverse one screw (or two). To stop completely, you stopped all engines. "All Stop" meant to stop all 3 screws on the Titanic.

Olympic screws

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It's an order to "Stop All Engines" usually passed to the Engineer / Engine Room by an Engine Order Telegraph or E.O.T.

enter image description here

Wikipedia

An engine order telegraph or E.O.T., often also chadburn, is a communications device used on a ship (or submarine) for the pilot on the bridge to order engineers in the engine room to power the vessel at a certain desired speed.

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    Weren't they already sent to Stop by the assistant. Murdock wasn't it? Or was that reverse?
    – cmp
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 22:33
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    Couldn't tell you...never watched the movie....but that's a different question.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jan 18, 2017 at 22:34
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    you've never watched the movie? What the hell are you commenting/answering for? Dear me.
    – cmp
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 0:40
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    Because it's a known command. I don't have to watch the movie to know that.
    – Paulie_D
    Commented Jan 19, 2017 at 7:15
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    @cmp because it's not a fictional term? Do I need to know you personally to understand the term "Dear me."?
    – NOP
    Commented Mar 8, 2018 at 1:10

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