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Sailors' Slang

Sailors' Slang image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
March
Year
1891
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A "yard"' on shore means the empty space at the rear or front oí a dwelling; at sea it means the spar that crosses the mast, carrying a sail. A "whip" is a thing well known to small boys and coachmen, but at sea it is the tackle formed by a single rope drove through a block. "Lizards"' are not reptiles, but pieces of rope, with a ring spliced in; while the "cathead" has no connection with pussy, but refers to a projecting piece of tiraber that is seen on the icrward part of a ship. "Bees" are heavy pieces of planking, and "knees" and "knightheads"' are timbers forming1 part of a ship's frame. A "fiferail" is the rail on the poop, and has nothing whatever to do with a musical instrument "lieating" does not mean striking, but sailing a ship by tacks; a "bonnet" is a piece of canvas laced to the jb, and not an article of ladies' headwear. An "earring" is not an ornament, but a ring sewed into a sail. So, too, with expressions denoting the force of wind. "A snorter" is a heavy gale, a "catspaw" being a little breeze, and by no means indicating a feline's foot "Fiddles" are racks put on a table to keep plates from falling, and are destitute o ïnusic, while the "glory hole" is not reached by Jacob's ladder, but is in the stern portion of steamers, wrhere the under stewards and waiters sleep. These terms, however, are not confined by "Jack" t) parts of a ship or her sails; the food, the captain and petty officers of a ship all have their peculiar nomenclatura. The captain is dignifled by the title of "oíd man," the eook is called "doctor," the doctor is "pills," while the stewards rejoice in being classed as "flunkeys." Strange names are given to the various articles of sea dietary. "Dandy funk," "hish hash," "sea pie" and "lobscouses" are combinations of flour biscuit, salt pork and beef. "Hard tack" is the g-eneral name for sea biscyt, while "soft tack" and "tommy" is the article known to landlubbers as bread. "Salt horse" ia the name for salt beef, and a refrain about the origin of salt beef, should it be unusually tough, is well known to sailors: "Salt horae, BHlt horse, what do you hear? You've carrled turf for many a yeur Krom Bantry bay to Iiallyaok, Where you feil down and broke your back. M'lth kicks and thumps and foul abuse, Nowyou're salted for sailors' use; They eat your flesh and plek your bones, Then throw you oyer to Davy Jones." Whether a sailor is a native of Holland, Scandinavia or Germany he is a Dutchinan;" a Frenchman is known as "Frenchy," and an Engllshman as a "Limejuicer." Individuáis on board of a vessel that is not in the regular passenger trade are saidto be in "everybody's mess and nobody's watch." When the order to "lay aloft" or ''tumblo up" is g-iven the sailor is expected to climb up the as fast as he can, or to come from his sleeping quarters at a rapid pace. "Shantys," or sailors' songs, are seldom heard in these modern days, when steam performs nearly all the work of hauling or raising the anchor; but in the olden times, when the stately clipper had no donkey engine to heave the anchor, sailors walked around the capstan to the tune of a rattling song, heaving and hanling until "mudhook" eame to the bow. "Shenandoah, I Love Your Daughter," "Give Me Some Time to Knock a Man Down," "Rio Grande" and "Homeward Bound" were the favorite "shantys" of the old-time tar. A man'schest or cabin kopt in a state of disorder is said to be like a "bosun's locker," and when a ship is homeward bound and a fair, strong breeze propels along". "The girls have hold of the tow rope," is a favorite saying. When a dead calm prevails it is said to be like "Paddy's hurrieane- up and down the mast," and on" means the state of the ship when, with a fresh breeze, every sail is set and the 6hip to its utmost. Should some loquacious and imaginative sailor start & tale or "yarn"' some disbeliever is sure to venture the remark: "Go teil that to the marines," thereby expressing- doubt as to the veracity of the narrative. Many similar phrases and terms are in constant use by the se;imen of evory nation. To enumérate them would fill quite a large volume.-

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier