Charlie Noble is the smoke stack on a ship's galley.
Around 1850, a British merchant service captain, Charles Noble, upon discovering that the stack of his ship's galley was made of copper, ordered that it be kept bright. Then onwards, the ship's crew then started referring to the galley smokestack as the "Charlie Noble".
Famous quotes containing the words charlie and/or noble:
“Don’t pay any attention to Ah Ling. He has a mania for quoting Confucius. And Charlie Chan.”
—Joseph O’Donnell. Clifford Sanforth. Mrs. Houghland, Murder by Television, reassuring her friends after the houseboy has pointed out a sign of ill omen (1935)
“That which in mean men we entitle patience
Is pale cold cowardice in noble breasts.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)