The Cairn
gone long
also: went long
Returned having lived more time than the route allows — said of ships first, then of people.
In full
Route and dock shorthand for operational displacement: a hull comes home with more days in her logs than the passage can account for, and her crew have lived every one of them. It starts as professional language and becomes ordinary station speech — of a ship, then of a person, and in the end of anything a stretch of unshared time has changed. The Tallow goes long in the saga's opening pages, and the phrase never leaves the Cairn after that.
Key facts
- Operational displacement, in the mouth of the people who deal with it.
- Of a ship first; later of a person; later still of a relationship.
- The Tallow's return is the founding case.
- Professional shorthand that became ordinary speech.