On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 09:55:29 +0200, "Lars Johansson"
wrote:

Hi all speaker of nautical english
Can somone explain to an ignorant furriner:
Why is the toilet on a boat called "head"

/Lars J

Lacking a stronger source, I speculate:
a wooden bucket or small barrel was formerly used for the sanitary
purpose.
The top surface of a barrel is called the head.
This word head is graced with more than 20 distinct usages in an
Oxford dictionary

Brian Whatcott Altus OK