Sailors stand at attention on their ships as they come to shore is called Manning the Rails for show. True?

Question

Sailors stand at attention on their ships as they come to shore is called Manning the Rails for show. True?

Answer 1

yes

Answer 2

Manning the rails sucks! I had to do it for 25 years and never liked it. Yes it was to show the locals you were friendly, now it is to look nice coming into port. It does look good to the people waiting on the pier but having to stand in freezing weather for 30 minutes in dress uniform more than once in a great while gets old really fast. Even better was the time the USS Iowa (big battleship) had to man the rails in the middle of the Atlantic so an admiral could show off to a general and a couple of senators. Isn't politics great!

Answer 3

Yes.

It dates back to the days of showing peaceful intentions coming into port; if the crew is all up on deck they aren't below manning the guns........