The fo'c'sle is the front part of a ship, in the bow, where the ordinary sailors live. On old sailing ships it was crowded, low, and often damp. Officers slept further back. You will meet the word in sea stories, navy talk, and ship history more than in everyday English. The full word is forecastle: fore means front, and castle is from the old fighting towers that used to sit on a ship's bow, like little castles. Sailors said it so fast that letters fell out of the spelling, and the short written form became fo'c'sle. The apostrophes stand for missing letters. You say it like FOKE-sul — one word, stress on the first bit — not letter by letter, and not “fo-c-sle”. Though actually, modern ships still put crew space forward, but many people will just say the crew quarters in the bow. Using fo'c'sle marks the old sailor's way of talking. If the spelling frightens you, forecastle is still understood.

艏樓、船首水手艙