Vedette (sentry)

Gardjola is a type of vedette. (Senglea, Malta)

A vedette is a mounted sentry or picket, who has the function of bringing information, giving signals or warnings of danger, etc., to a main body of troops.^[1][a] In modern terms, the soldiers who man listening-posts are the equivalent of vedettes.

Naval

Navies use the term vedette to refer to a small scouting or patrol boat.

The term has also been used for specific naval vessels (see USS Vedette), and a class of flying boat (see Canadian Vickers Vedette).

Structures

All around Salisbury Plain in southern England, the roads connecting the plain with the surrounding countryside feature brick-built guard-posts, staffed by security officers whenever there is military activity beyond such points. They are known as vedettes, and each one is named for a local geographic feature.^[2]

The Gardjola is a prominent guard tower on Maltese forts in Malta and an example of a vedette.^[3][4][5] It may be referred to in French as an échauguette.^[6]

Notes

1. The word originated as a French military term vedette (formed from Latin videre, to see) (Chisholm 1911), also spelled vidette.

1. Chisholm 1911, p. 965.
2. "Lavington Hill Vedette".
3. "About The Island of Malta". seemalta.net.
4. "Senglea. Vedette". maltavista.net.
5. Morana, Martin (September 2011). Bejn kliem u storja: glossarju enċiklopediku dwar tradizzjonijiet - toponimi - termini storiċi Maltin (in Maltese). Malta: Best Print. p. 85. ISBN 978-99957-0-137-6. OCLC 908059040.
6. "Malte échauguette Isla Senglea 1994". panoramio.com.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Vedette". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 27 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 965.

External links

• The dictionary definition of vedette at Wiktionary