The meaning of Charlie Noble is derived from its two parts:  Noble, in this instance, is grand – in size and/or stature; and,  Charlie, coming from Middle English and is a form of Churl – which was to mean a peasant or a boorish/rude person. Churl latter became both Charlie and Carl. So, Charley Noble then is a grand rude person.

Sailors have always personified ships.  It is comforting and has utility in morale and communications. So, let’s forget about the name Charlie for a sec in relation to living being, and think about the name being applied to ships.   The smoke stack in this case is the grand and rude thing named Charlie(Churl).  The Charley Noble is the copper(brass) kitchen smoke stack.

During most of sailing history, ships were wood and wind driven.  Any smoke stack would have come from the kitchen stove, not the engine room.  And if you think about a kitchen stove during the pre-industrial revolution you would correctly think of a wood/coal burning stove.  This stove would produce embers, a dangerous thing with so much canvas in the breeze.  And so, the Charlie Noble was fitted with wire mesh inside, to block embers from dancing into the sails and killing everyone aboard.  And wire mesh meant clogs in the chimney, another danger for everyone.  And so, Charlie Noble must be cleaned!  An endeavor for any seaman to undertake with pride and frustration.  We must take a moment to visualize the conditions of the centuries of global exploration, from the 15th century to the 18th.  There is a seaman is this picture – malnourished and showing skin signs of scurvy – he is shimming down a smoke stack to clean it. The seas are rocking, and there is a officer watching him.  He has become a brass cleaner in an unknown part of the world, on a monstrous ship, in monstrous seas, and he wants nothing more than to vomit and then to die.

Yes, you are thinking that you’ve heard the saying “Shooting Charlie Noble,” and you have.  To shoot Charlie Noble is to shoot a pistol into the galley’s chimney.  This action would cause the copper to reverberate, which would break loose the hard-caked soot.  Shooting Charlie Noble is cleaning the soot out of the chimney, to prevent fires, thus being a preventative way to prevent horrible mishaps at sea.  21^st century sailors who say “shoot Charlie Noble” are refering to preventative maintenance on themselves, to ensure their characters are clean for future use: i.e. A drunken sailor at a bar stands up, wobbles, and explains he has to go shoot Charlie Noble – this means he understands he is in a stupor and he needs to go clean himself up.

And there is more.  Language changes.  There is always a funky dance of vernacular through the ages, and Charley Noble, one day, means a thing, and the next a person.  So Charile Noble then is the cranky old chief that has you polish the brass on the boat, for no apparent reason other than he gets kicks out of watching people polish things that will soon re-tarnish.