Just for the fun of it ;-) When on a boat in the USA or Canada the word
bumper is used to identify a protective rubber rail or similar device
permanently mounted on the freeboards of a boat to absorb small impacts.
Fenders are not permanently mounted and are attached with ropes to the deck
rail when needed as an additional protection when docking, rafting or other
situations that can cause damages. When you see a tug boat with numerous
black tires attached with rope on its freeboards they are used as fenders.
FWIW.

"Gunner" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 22:53:07 -0500, Jeff Wisnia
wrote:

It's the same etymology, Jeff. Fenders on a car are so named because
they
fend off other cars, or possibly cows. Incidentally, in Britain,
fenders
really can fend off things--they are what Americans call "bumpers."


Ah yes, and I'm old enough to remember when cars HAD bumpers, not the
wussy things they still call bumpers which get scarred from their first
kiss.

I also remember "bumper bolts"; Chromed carriage bolts which held the
old chromed bumpers onto their brackets.

Jeff

I can remember when you jacked up a car by the bumper. Nowdays hit a
curb and its $800 in repairs

Gunner

"The French are a smallish, monkey-looking bunch and not dressed any
better,
on average, than the citizens of Baltimore.
True, you can sit outside in Paris and drink little cups of coffee,
but why this is more stylish than
sitting inside and drinking large glasses of whiskey I don't know."
-- P.J O'Rourke (1989)
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