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From the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

It means she had the wind in her favor, therefore control of the engagement. And she had longer guns, so she could hit us beyond our range. The simple fact is we were soundly beaten.

Heavy frigate like that in the Pacific could tip the war in Napoleon's favor. By comparison, the Surprise is a somewhat aged man-of-war. Am I not correct?

Would you call me an aged man of war? The Surprise is not old. No one would call her old. She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She's a fine sea boat, weatherly, stiff and fast. Very fast, if she's well-handled. No, she's not old. She's in her prime.

What does bluff bow mean?

Michael Rybkin
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At Merriam-Webster's online definition of bluff, it says:

  1. a : having a broad flattened front
    b : rising steeply with a broad flat or rounded front

Either or both of which are clearly applicable to the bow of a ship (the frontmost section).

Hellion
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DOUBLE ENTENDRE

She [the boat] has a bluff bow, lovely lines.

Bow - (5th definition) - noun - the front part of a ship.

Bluff - (1st definition) - having a broad and flattened front.

Here we have a literal interpretation:

The boat has a broad and flattened front and has a nice shape.

She [a woman] has a bluff bow, lovely lines.

Bluff - (1st definition) - adjective - having a very open, honest, and direct way of talking that is friendly but not always polite.

1a. a broad and flattened front

Bow - (1st definition) - intransitive verb - to bend the head, knee, body in reverence

Consider the 3rd and 4th definitions as well to see the many forms of BLUFF and bluffing

Here we have a metaphorical interpretation:

She bends her body to show respect rather quickly and freindly but maybe deceptively, she also has (lovely lines) a beautiful body.

Because of the boat being referred to as a she, combined with the fact bow has two seperate meanings for a boat and a woman, the author has created a double entendre.

This is done by a writer exploiting ambiguity and puns.

Per the arguments below I have cleaned my answer up to make the poetics more apparent. I sometimes write quickly and fail to consider that not everyone is of the same reading capability or I may sometimes be ambiguous unintentionally.

At most, you could say that the author did not intend to do this. Which would make it out of context in relation to the authors desire of meaning. However, I think the author intended to mean this as a way to embellish HER.

SHE IS A DEADLY, DECEPTIVE, GRACEFUL, BEAUTIFUL THING.

Morever, both contructions follow pragmatic rules of literature.

Although there are no specific instances of 'bluff bow' [adj + verb] there are instances of other [bluff+verb] formations as well as many other [adj + verb] formations. Which concludes this formation is acceptable at least colloquially.

bluff run - 1) used to signify a practice race or 2) a sample test

  1. "Are you going to participate in the 5K bluff run?"
  2. "We are going to conduct a bluff run on the fire alarm"

It's up to YOU to decide what you think the author's intentions are.

Resources from Merriam-Webster and Google Ngram

David
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  • That's a bit strange. I thought a bluff bow of a fine sea boat would mean she has a steep bow. – Damkerng T. Nov 17 '14 at 08:27
  • @David. The bow is 'the forward end or part of a vessel' (Collins online dictionary). – tunny Nov 17 '14 at 10:05
  • @Damkerng - it was a bit strange. I read so many shes in there. good catch. – David Nov 17 '14 at 10:06
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    I really don't think we'd ever refer to the act of a woman bowing as 'the bluff bow on a woman. I see only a single meaning here, the steep forward part of the ship. – tunny Nov 17 '14 at 11:13
  • hmm... I'm sticking to my guns on this. bluff on a ship is more evident. bluff on a woman's bow is a verb acting as an adjective. Consider: The bow is bluffing. (as in a game of poker.) – David Nov 17 '14 at 15:47
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    @David, you're trying way too hard to add meanings where nothing beyond the obvious is required or intended. – Hellion Nov 17 '14 at 17:16
  • @Hellion Intended or not, it is still there and I only pointed it out. In fact, that is what I seen initially. There were so many SHE references that I totally lost track that we were even reading about a ship. Which was my mistake(to forget the boat) but my answer isn't incorrect either. – David Nov 17 '14 at 17:28
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    @David. Are you not aware that seafarers almost always refer to their vessels as 'she'? All seven lines quoted in the OP are about a ship, and only about a ship. The only wordplay is with man-of-war. – tunny Nov 17 '14 at 17:34
  • @tunny - not only am I aware. I even wrote an answer about this here : http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/39444/parliament-a-she/39445#39445 – David Nov 17 '14 at 17:37
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    Then I fail to see how you lost track of the fact that you were reading about ships, when the seven lines contain such clues as she had longer guns ... Heavy frigate like that ... man-of-war, She has a bluff bow, lovely lines. She's a fine sea boat. – tunny Nov 17 '14 at 17:49
  • @tunny - i think it's unfair to discredit my answer entirely because of blunder. It happens sometimes. You could interpret "She has lovely lines" as the shape of a woman's body also. But, my answer stands. Sorry. :) – David Nov 17 '14 at 17:55
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    @David, I still don't see how you can reasonably attach "bluff" to "bow (the verb)". Quite simply, you misread the passage the first time and you've spent way too much time and effort trying to justify your mistake instead of simply admitting it and moving on. – Hellion Nov 17 '14 at 20:51
  • Thank you for your thoughts on my time management. Irrelevant to the answer. I'd rather spend my time editing a good response than leave one that is not understood. I DID admit my mistake of misreading it, however, I'm not justifying it. We should both move on. We can still be SE friends. :) – David Nov 17 '14 at 21:05
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    There is also the term the adjective bluff-bowed (http://www.onelook.com/?other=web1913&w=Bluff-bowed, 7 citations in the Corpus of Hitorical American English). Bluff bow, has two citations and bluff bows six. In all the 15 sentences cited, the words refer only to ships. – tunny Nov 17 '14 at 21:11
  • IF the author had placed a hyphen, then I would conclude that your sentiments are correct. However, there is NOT a hyphen. While we can both agree that the MOST COMMON usage is as you say. The fact that poetics allow skewed grammar rules and many famous authors choose to disobey a grammar rule to gain a desired effect still leaves my assertions intact. Consider these links: http://www.writingforward.com/grammar/grammar-rules/breaking-grammar-rules-in-poetry-writing /// http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/20/grammar-rules_n_4768485.html – David Nov 17 '14 at 21:35