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I found this expression on this reading passage:

The RMS Titanic left Southampton for New York on April 10, 1912. On board were some of the richest and most famous people of the time who had paid large sums of money to sail on the first voyage of the most luxurious ship in the world. Imagine her placed on her end: she was larger at 269 metres than many of the tallest buildings of the day.

I can't really understand what "Imagine her placed on her end" means here. Can anybody help me explain what this means?

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    It means "upright" - balancing on the prow (front of ship), with the stern (rear of ship) 269 metres up in the air.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jun 21 at 0:36
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    Ships are feminine. Placed on her end refers to the ship. One does not need to be an English speaker to understand that from context alone; few people are 260 meters tall.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented Jun 21 at 0:37
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    Also note that its common to speak of the bow (front) and stern (back) of a ship as an 'end'. We often tell newbies that the "bow" (pronounced like "wow") is the "pointy end" of the boat.
    – user8356
    Commented Jun 21 at 14:09
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    The imperative sentence you asked about contains only six words, and it has a relatively simple grammatical structure to it. What aspect of that sentence is giving you trouble: is it the grammar, the vocabulary, resolution of antecedents, or something else entirely? Please edit your question to clarify where your confusion lies.
    – tchrist
    Commented Jun 21 at 14:43
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    Please use the "edit" button to explain more about what is confusing you. If it's the antecedent to "her," that's a very different answer than confusion about the imaginary orientation, which is also different than confusion about the use of the participle. Voting to close as unclear.
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Jun 21 at 15:35

3 Answers 3

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The author is attempting to provide a sense of the Titanic's massive scale by way of comparison between the ship's length and a tall building's height.

Normally, a ship would be oriented horizontally floating in the water, but by telling the reader to "imagine [the ship] placed on her end," the author aims to make the size comparison more direct by having the reader mentally rotate the ship.

So, instead of this:

BBB  
BBB  
BBB  
BBB  TTTTT

Imagine this:

     T
BBB  T
BBB  T
BBB  T
BBB  T

So, the "end" of the ship (bow or stern) would be placed on the ground in the second example.

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  • 3
    "B" is for 'building,' "T" is for 'Titanic'
    – Quack E. Duck
    Commented Jun 21 at 0:37
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    I'm glad you made that clear!
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jun 21 at 8:45
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    Ah, not "B" for "boat" and "T" for "tower" then.
    – OrangeDog
    Commented Jun 21 at 12:15
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    @OrangeDog - to me, the Bs look like a stack of Bottles, and Ts are Tipsy people who are emptying them, first lying down, and then standing on top of each other in a Tower, like they do in Spain.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Jun 21 at 12:45
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    Clarifications should be put in the answer, not comments.
    – Acccumulation
    Commented Jun 22 at 23:15
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When an object is rectangular, that is, longer than it is tall, to "place it on its end" means to place it so that the short end is on the ground or floor or table, and it extends upward the maximum height. Like instead of

XXXX

to place it

X
X
X
X

Perhaps the confusion here comes because the writer said "placed on HER end" rather than "placed on ITS end"? "Her" here is not referring to a female person, but to the ship. People used to refer to ships as "she" and "her" rather than "it". That's a convention that has mostly gone out of style, but you see it in older writing and occasionally from modern writers.

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  • 1
    +1. or simply "Imagine her standing on end". No need for any possessive pronoun there (on her|its end).
    – TimR
    Commented Jun 21 at 10:35
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    The usage of "rectangular" = "longer than it's tall" is new, and confusing, to me. Did you want to use horizontal?
    – StrangerToKindness
    Commented Jun 21 at 12:34
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    @StrangerToKindness I think they're trying to distinguish from square or circular, with similar dimensions in multiple directions. A rectangle is one of the simplest such shapes, and a rough approximation of a ship.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jun 21 at 14:58
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    @StrangerToKindness You're not wrong to be confused. Most definitions of rectangle include squares as well. In other words, a rectangle can be exactly as long as it is tall. Since this is ELL and not mathematics, I suppose we can let it slide this time:)
    – Thierry
    Commented Jun 21 at 23:14
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    @Thierry Yes, technically mathematically, a square is just a special case of a rectangle. But in common speech, if I say "rectangle", people generally understand that to mean longer on one side than the other, not a square. One could say the same about many geometric figures. A circle is a special case of an ellipse, but if I say "ellipse" in common speech, few would picture a circle in their minds. Etc.
    – Jay
    Commented Jun 22 at 3:25
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LIKE THIS:

enter image description here

Innumerable examples ... https://www.urbanthree.com/blog/some-inspired-heights-comparisons-in-downtown-asheville/

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