The entry into the cabin. In modern small boats just a doorway through the main bulkhead, because most small boats don’t have a companion; or if they do, people call it a Dog-house wherever possible. And while we’re on the subject, you may wonder, as I did for many years, what the devil this has to do with friendship. Not much, unless you go right back to Roman times since both words started life from the idea of ‘with bread’. The human companion shared your bread, but ‘companaticum’ was what you had with your bread – cheese, butter, Gentleman’s Relish and the like. Later the Italians liked to have a little storehouse on deck for cheese and suchlike stores which they called ‘campagna’. The Dutch and English picked up the word, the Dutch using it to mean quarterdeck, and the English bending it into ‘companion’ and using it to describe any small deckhouse, and even a skylight. So there …