Nautical Origins of things we all say today!!

Here are some commonplace sayings we all use with deep marine roots.

But where did they all come from??

• Bootleg
• Splice the main brace
• Close quarters
• Taken aback
• Know the ropes
• Turn a blind eye (very interesting involving Adm. Nelson)
• Touch and go

etc. etc.

 

One of my favorites!

“Crying out loud! Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!"

An old saying, but still commonly used in colder climes. 

As a small child some of my relatives, who were naval officers and their friends would say this, and I’d just be so shocked. I always pictured just what you’re picturing.  There it was, in my mind’s eye: An anatomically correct monkey sculpture cast in bronze or some other yellowish metal.  How could they talk this way in front of me, their young, innocent child?? Oh, I was so embarrassed!

As the story goes, in olden days, when great sailing navies plied the seas, each was equipped with many cannons, of course. And what good is a cannon without cannon balls? Right? Lots of cannon balls.  So to solve the problem of storage, the balls were placed close at hand, stacked, pyramid-style on a brass tray called a Brass Monkey. During periods of very cold weather at sea, the iron balls and the brass tray would contract at different rates thereby allowing the cannon balls to roll around on deck. Step lively, boys!!

One might speculate that this is where dancing the Sailor's Hornpipe originated. View HERE. 

This story has been repeated so often that, true or not, the saying stuck and is still used today.

Barge: “Well, he just barged into my conversation last night!”
A large, cumbersome flat bottomed boat only able to be towed. The early days employed mule power to tow these through canals. When the tow line parted, as it often did, the barge went on its own and was like a loose cannon (more on loose cannons later) So, when someone just “barges in”, their tow line has broken!

Flotsam and Jetsam:  “My life is full of flotsam and jetsam!”

An early description of items lost overboard thereby bringing salvage rights into the picture. 

“Flotsam” are goods that have been swept overboard and can be found floating on the surface of the water.

“Jetsam” are goods deliberately thrown overboard or “jettisoned” to lighten a ship during an emergency. The terms have been also used to describe cast-off members of society. Present company excepted, of course.

Head:  “Excuse me, I’m going to the head.”

(Heads up! Bathroom talk coming.)

Unlike in modern charter boats and yachts, the bathroom facilities were more than primitive.

The bows or heads of Roman galleys were once fitted with ornate bronze beaklike structures that served as ramming instruments. As sailing ships progressed in design, the term “beakhead” was given to a structure projecting forward from the stem and ‘sprit (traditional shortening of the word, bowsprit). It was decked with grating and open to the sea below. As the bow plunged up and down, “flushing” occurred making it an ideal place to ummmm, perform ablutions. Ships of olden days had to return to port frequently to replenish their crew as you might expect.

Fly by night: “The guys who put my new roof on were fly by nighters.”
An accessory squaresail normally set on a temporary yard (a yard is one of the wooden “posts” that jut from the mast of squareriggers). It was easily handled (yeah, right) which made it useful for sailing in the dark of night. A human “fly by night” is known to be prone to less than savory activities and often is prone to nocturnal excursions.


Pooped: (Not to belabor the topic, sorry.)
Read on. It’s innocent.
The actual poop deck of auld meant the stern or aftmost part of the ship, usually a short deck raised above the main deck aft. This deck was prone to being heavily beset by large, following seas presenting a very dangerous situation to vessels, even today, when making open-ocean passages while running before the wind. The poop deck always took a beating. And if water in great quantities entered the actual cockpit/deck area, the vessel could easily founder and sink. So now, we use the term to describe anyone who has been basically and figuratively beaten up and is exhausted.

Hand over Fist: “They rake in money, hand over fist.”

A slight aberration of the original “hand over hand” which is said to come from British sailors. They used the phrase as a literal description of the technique used for climbing ropes or hauling in or out of sails.

American sailors changed the phrase.

Nowadays, hand over fist has become to be used as a means to describe greedy persons just helping themselves. Often for financial gain. If we still used plank walking, there would be fewer of them.

Flog a dead Horse:  “We’ve been over this, again and again. You're flogging a dead horse!”

Trading ships, square riggers of old, depended on the predictable winds off the coasts of Africa and points a little bit further North. These winds are called Trade Winds to this day. They are almost always some shade of East enabling the square riggers to be blown to the New World.  Yes, it was much harder to get back!

For the Virgin Islands, and much of the Caribbean points South, this is the usual pattern too. Easterly winds. Dependable.

But, a band of variable calm near the Canary Islands is known as the Horse Latitudes. There, the ships would lie….slatting in the roll of the sea, waiting….waiting for some wind. See, these sailors were customarily paid one month in advance. But in those bawdy port towns, sailor’s money never lasted for long. After the ship put to sea, and was making a very slow passage, they called the first month at sea “the dead horse month”.  They’d gone through all their money and now they were delayed in getting to port where they would receive more wages.

When it was done, and they made it through the calms, they hoisted a makeshift straw filled horse effigy up to the yardarm and then cut it adrift. Sailors chanted: “Old man (Captain), your horse must die!” One Admiral William Smythe suggested that flogging a dead horse into activity was a total waste of time, as much as trying to get his frustrated crew to get to work.

Loose cannon: "You know? That guy is one loose cannon!"

Warships and their gear had even more problems with heavy seas.  Imagine! A heavy, wooden warship, cannon all over the deck. Any change of trim of the ship challenged the carriages of these heavy iron cannons and then, they broke free. This was not a rare event, rather, it was pretty common with varying results. Ships went to the bottom with all hands.

So, often do you hear “She/he is one loose cannon.” Still used today. 

Over a barrel: “Okay, okay. You’ve got me over a barrel.”

Picture this: Guy goes overboard and somehow is brought back up. Lungs full of sea water. Well, they didn’t know anything about mouth to mouth or any other modern resuscitation techniques. So, of course, they invented a miraculous method to bring the unlucky one back from the brink.

They strapped them to a barrel! Then they rolled it back and forth and back and forth, expecting the victim to have the water forced out of the lungs. Bet that was fun… NOT! Wonder how many survived it?

Alternate use for the barrel: Lashings or beatings, of course! The bad guy, the unfortunate miscreant, was strapped to a barrel and flogged. A seemingly popular pastime aboard in those days.

 Over a barrel, indeed!

Posh:  “The penthouse listed for sale has a posh decorating style”.  “The property is in a posh neighborhood”.

What is “posh”?

Well, here’s how that came to be. There is still some controversy about this, but it does seem to be holding water.  (So to speak.)

In the days when the ships of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company carried the elite to and from India, of course, there were few modern comforts.  There was certainly no air conditioning. So the tickets of the wealthy and discriminating passengers were stamped with the letters POSH: Port out….Starboard Home.  This ensured that accommodations on board for them would be the most comfortable for both directions of the sailing. The reason for this was the winds were steady, but if they had the same cabins for both out and back, one leg would be uncomfortable. So they moved their cabins on the ship from one side to the other. Those in steerage contented themselves with rowing!! 

Book your week long charter with us and we’ll be very happy to send you a complimentary copy of this little book from which much of this fun and fascinating information is taken.

“When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There’s the Devil to Pay” by Oliva A. Isil.

  

It makes for some lively discussion and conversation with your like-minded seafaring friends.

Enjoy! 

And go sailing!!!!! Fair winds!