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Some obscure nautical terms - a few will be familiar.... A couple of new items at the bottom of the page!   About Ship And Reef Tops'ls In One: With the wind ahead a sailing ship has to proceed on a zigzag course, sailing with the wind on one bow for a certain distance (a board), then crossing the wind to bring it on the other bow. The master gives the order "About Ship!," the men rush to their stations, haul and slack braces, the helmsman puts the wheel down, and the ship is brought on to a new tack. In the old Navy, when reefing, the three big tops'ls would be lowered a little, the reef-tackles hauled on ( as to shorten the area of sail exposed to the wind), and the men would race aloft to "pass the earrings" and tie the reef-points - a "pleat" of sail having been hauled up to the yard to make a new or temporary head to the shortened sail. After the close of the Napoleonic Wars, in the so-called fancy frigates of the British Navy, in order to keep the men active and fit ( in peacetime) these two maneuvers were performed together as a drill, three watches of men racing against each other on different masts.
Advance-Note: A piece of paper worth a month's pay, handed to a sailor when he signs on a ship, which can be turned into cash by one of the sailor's relatives after his ship has sailed. In actual fact, the sailor would hand the note to the crimp, boarding house master, or ship chandler, these "gentlemen" cashing it for him at a usurious rate. The reduced amount he recieved would then buy him some shoddy clothing from the chandler, but would more usually would be splashed on women and booze in dives owned by the above "gentlemen."
Aloof! An old expression meaning 'Keep your luff', or sail as
close to the wind as possible. Sometimes, in old books of voyages, written as 'ALUFFE'. The expression was most often used when a ship was sailing along a lee shore, the order to 'keep aloof' meaning to keep the ship's head nearer to the wing to prevent her being driven closer to the shore.
Armstrong's Patent: Sailor term covering muscular, non-mechanical labor.
Aye Aye Sir! The correct and seamanlike reply on board ship on receipt of an order, "AYE AYE" is also the reply in the Royal Navy from a boat which has a commissioned officer below the rank of captain on board, when hailed from a ship. If no commissioned officer is on board, the reply is "NO NO"; if a captain is on board the reply is the name of the ship, and if an admiral, the reply is "FLAG". Boats are hailed in this fashion
so that watchkeepers on board ship may know the form of salute required when officers arrive on board.
Banyan Days were meatless days in the diet of seamen in the English Navy, so called from the name of Hindu merchants noted for their abstinence from eating flesh. The custom was introduced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1 to economize on the cost of meat. Fish or cheese being issued on banyan days in place of salt meat.
Barratry: Any wrongful act knowingly done by the master or crew of a vessel to the detriment of the owner of either ship or cargo; and which was done without knowledge or consent of owner or owners.
Bleed the Monkey: Surreptitiously to remove spirit from a keg or cask by making a small hole and sucking through a straw.
Blood is thicker than water A well known saying attributed to commodore Josiah Tattnail, U.S.N., when justifying his intervention in the British attack on the Peiho forts in June 1859 during the
second China war (1856-9). He used his ship, the Toeywan, to tow the British boat's from the shore with the survivors of the land attack, and is credited with using this expression in conversation with the British commander- in-chief, Sir James Hope, the following day.
Bluenose: A general nautical term for Canadians, but more especially for Nova Scotian sailing ships and men.
Blue Peter: A blue flag with an oblong white center, indicating a ship is about to sail when hoisted, at different periods, at the foremast or mainmast. Its name is said to derive from the French verb partir, to leave; or from Sir Peter Parker (1783), Admiral Cornwallis, known as "Billy Blue"; a corruption of "blue pierced"; or from "peter", an old name for a cabin trunk. Take your pick!
Bloodboat: The name applied to the Down Easter "hell-ships" that hailed from the Eastern American seaboard and engaged in the Cape Horn trade, whose masters and mates were all "buckos" or "bullies." The Down Easter Gatherer was the most infamous.
Bucko:
A bullying and tyrannical officer.
Burgoo:
Seaman's name for oatmeal porridge. First mentioned in Edward Coxere's Adventures by Sea" (1656)
Cachalot: The sperm whale, hunted mainly by Yankee whalers in the South Pacific. This name comes from the French word cache, "box," which itself is the name given to a small bony section of the whale's head containing spermaceti, the precious oily substance used for making candles, ointments, and cosmetics. The English-speaking whalemen called this a "case," and because it was often a difficult place from which to extract the oil, it was sometimes called a "hard case." The man engaged in extracting it also became known as a "hard case" and so the term entered the English language for someone who is considered tough.
Chalk A Score: In sailortown pubs it was a common thing for a known sailor customer to be allowed credit, and what he owed for a night's drinking would be chalked up on a blackboard behind the bar.
Crackerhash: Biscuits broken into pieces and baked with small portions of salt beef or pork.
Crimp: A person who procures men to serve as sailors or soldiers by tricking or coercing them.
Cut and run To cut and run an expression often thought to imply the cutting of a hemp cable with an axe, thus abandoning an anchor, when a ship needed to get quickly under way in an emergency. The more accurate origin of the saying was at anchor in an open roadstead, of furling their sails with them stoppered to the yards with ropeyarns, so that the yarn's could be cut and the sails let fall when the need to get under way quickly was urgent.
Cut of his(her) jib This saying has taken its place in the English language as the recognition of a person by, originally, the shape of his or her nose, but now probably extended to embrace other
recognizable characteristics. The term originated in the sailing natives of the 18th century, when the nationality of a warship sighted at sea could be accurately determined by the shape of
their jib long before the national flag could be seen, Spanish ships for instance, had only a very small jib or none at all; French ships very often had two jibs when other ships had only
one; moreover, the French jib was cut much shorter on the luff than English jibs, giving a distantly more acute angle in the clew.
Dandyfunk:Biscuits pulverized with a belayin' pin (after being put in a canvas bag), the resultant mass being smeared with slush left over from the boiling of salt beef and baked in the galley oven (if permitted by the cook) in a cut down bully tin.
Dogsbody: 1. Sea biscuits soaked in water to a pulp, with added sugar. 2. A general factotum.
Donkey's Breakfast: This was the sailor name for the straw-stuffed bag of hessian which up to the Second World War was the only sleeping paillasse used by merchant seamen. It is even referred to in an early sea-ballad of 1400; "A sak of strawe were there right good." As the seamen headed toward his ship on sailing day, with a seabag over one shoulder, he would call on a dockside chandler, buy his donkey's breakfast, and hitch it up over his other shoulder. If it were pouring with rain, he'd sleep that night on its sodden straw, and before the voyage was over the straw would have wormed itself into great knotted lumps and possibly become the home of vicious bedbugs.
Dukes: Slang name for "fists."
Flotsam: Any part of the wreckage of a ship or her cargo which
is found floating on the surface of the sea. It was originally in Britain a part of the prerequisites of the Lord High Admiral, but is today considered as derelict property and goes to the finder or salvor. To be flotsam, however, it must be floating and not on the bottom of the sea, when other questions of ownership arise.
Flogging Aaround The Fleet: A punishment for mutiny, insubordination, and desertion carried out in the British and other navies for over 400 years. The victim would be lashed to capstan bars laid athwart the launch, the latter proceeding around all the ships in the harbor, the man being flogged at each gangway until he had had his quota of lashes - up to 300 in extreme cases.
Fufu Band: A ship's "orchestra" in the days of sail. Although often including normal instruments - a melodeon, concertina, banjo, fiddle, and/or guitar - at times it would be made up of little more than a fiddle formed from a Havana cigar box, a penny whistle, a paper and comb, a drum shaped from an old paint tin with its top and bottom removed and replaced with pig bladder skins (obtained from the galley if the cook was amicable), and the stamping of the men.
Gunwale, Gunnel: The upper edges of the bulwark or wall around the ship's sides, which in men-o'-war was pierced for guns. Gunwale is a corruption of "gun-wall."
Hair Cut Short: Yankee seamen always preferred their hair cut "short back and sides," decrying the English and continental sailor fashion of the queue or pigtail.
Half-Seas-Over: Half drunk.
Hoosegow: On the West Coast of South America jails were called in the Spanish tongues juzgados. Sailing-ship seamen who spent a lot of time behind bars called the phonetically, "hoosegows," and from the Spanish spelling, "jughouses."
Hoosiers: Cotton stevedores who worked on the wharves and levees of New Orleans and Mobile. The majority were black, but after the 1840s Creoles and white sailors who "screwed cotton" were also referred to by this name.
Jetsam: The legal term for goods or equipment thrown overboard
from a ship at sea, differing from flotsam in that the goods are deliberately thrown overboard from a ship, for instance to lighten her if she is in danger, while flotsam covers goods accidentally lost overboard or which may float up from a hull of a wrecked ship. In the strict and original legal sense, jetsam is the place where such goods are thrown overboard, and not necessarily the goods themselves, and also implies total abandonment of such goods to a later finder.
Jollyboat: A general purpose ship's boat, its name probably stemming from the seventeenth-century name for a small boat - "gellywatte."
Keelhauling: A severe naval punishment for desertion in which the victim was hauled from one yardarm to the other under the keel of the ship. The victim rarely survived; he would either be cut to ribbons by the shellfish on the ship's bottom or become bloated with seawater.
Longsplice: Sailor slang for marriage.
Marry the Gunner's Daughter: Old Navy nickname for a flogging, particularly when across a gun.
Mudhook:This and "killick" are sailor slang words for anchor.
Paddy's Purchase
: : Seaman's scornful name for any lead of a rope by which effort is lost or wasted. "Paddy's purchase, spunyarn over a nail."
Packet Rats: This was the name given to the tough seamen who manned the Western Ocean (Atlantic) packet ships running between Liverpool, New York and Boston in the second and third decades of the nineteenth century. They were Irishmen hailing from New York, Liverpool, or Ireland herself. They were, in the main, great drinkers and singers, but awkward customers to handle. They were good seamen, too - with such men aboard a master could leave the shortening of sail to the last moment and be certain that these sailormen would be out and up aloft in a brace o' shakes and in no time have the sails muzzled and stowed. On the other hand, they weren't "fancy" sailormen, like the men of the clippers; i.e., they weren't interested in "sailorizing" - the arts of splicing, knotting, sewing canvas, and so on.
St. Helena Soger:To call a seaman a "soger" or "soldier," casting aspersions on his seamanlike qualities, was one of the worst epithets one could use in the days of sail. Shortly after the execution of Admiral Byng and the French taking of Minorca from Britian (1756), other derogatory epithets came into use among naval seamen - e.g., "Port Mahon soger" and "Port Mahon baboon."
Salt Horse: Salt beef. On account of its stringlike qualities it was also known as "junk," a name for a certian type of bulrush from which rope was made in ancient times. Because it was kept in a barrel called a "harness cask," there arose the idea of a "horse" in its "harness."
Shiver my timbers! An expression of surprise or unbelief, as when a ship strikes a rock or shoal so hard that her timbers shiver. Although the saying has an obviously nautical origin, and is widely attributed to seamen by many writers of sea stories, it is unlikely that it was much, if at all, used by seaman at sea or ashore.
Show a leg! The traditional call of the boatswains mate on a British warship when the hands were called to turn out in the morning. It arose from the old days when seaman, who were signed on for the duration of a ships commission, were always refused shore leave when in harbor for fear that thy would desert. Instead of shore leave, women, ostensibly wives were allowed to live on board while the ship remained in harbor, and of course joined the men in their hammock's at night. When hands were called in the morning the women were allowed to lie in, and the boatswain's mate, when he saw a hammock still occupied would check the sex of the occupant by requiring him/her to show a leg over the side of the hammock. If it was hairy, it was probably male, if hairless, probably female. The call remained in use for many years after the scandal of woman living on board was finally abolished in the British navy around 1840.
Snifters: Savage squall met off the coast of Tierra del Fuego.
Splice the main brace: A traditional term in the British Navy for serving out an additional tot of rum or grog to a ship's crew. The main brace itself was a purchase attachment to the main lower yard of a square-rigged ship to brace it round to the wind. but it probably has little to do with the saying beyond the fact that hauling on the main brace called for a maximum effort by the crew. In sailing ship days the main brace was spliced (in terms of drink) in very bad weather or after a period of severe exertion by the crew, more as a pick-me-up for the crew than for nay other purpose. But with the introduction of steamships, with machines to take most of the hard labor out of seagoing, the main brace was spliced only on occasions of celebration or, occasionally, after battle. Now that, since 1970, rum is no longer issued in the British Navy, it is no longer possible to splice the main brace.
Sundowner A slang name for a bullying officer on a ship. The
origin of the name comes from those captains who would only give shore leave to their crews up to the time of sunset.
Sun over the yardarm: A traditional maritime saying to indicate that it is time for a morning drink, it was generally assumed that in northern latitudes the sun would show above the foreyard of a ship by 11.00 which was approximately the time in many ships of the forenoon "stand-easy", when many officers would slip below for their first drink of the day.
Three sheets to the wind: A phrase with a nautical derivation, meaning unsteadiness through drink. It implies that even if a man who has had too much to drink had three sheets with which to trim his sails, he would still be too incapacitated to steer a steady course.
Ticket-O'-Leave Men: Convicts permitted a certian amount of parole, but not allowed to leave the country, especially in the case of those from the penal settlements of Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania)
Tip The Chink: To issue grog to the men
Tom Cox's Traverse:
Work done by a man who bustles about doing nothing. Usually amplified by adding "running twice round the scuttle butt and once round the longboat".
Whack: After the Merchant Shipping Act of 1845, with its food allowance tables for seamen, sailors would demand their "whack" or full amount of food from the master if they thought they were being given short rations.
Whistling for Wind:
Based on a very old tradition that whistling at sea will cause a wind to rise.
Whistling Psalms to the Taffrail: Nautical phrase that means giving good advice that will not be taken.
Here are some new terms(well, not really "new") from Nautical Bob bobnew@gte.net Splice the Mainbrace - according to the folks at Pusser's (corruption of purser) Rum of the BWI, who have adopted the phrase as a logo, the rum keg was generally located on deck near the mainmast. Sailors hanging around in hopes of snitching a tot would claim to be
"splicing the Main Brace" as an excuse for being in the area. (The Main Brace being one of the shrouds supporting the mast.)
Son of a Gun - When sailors managed to sneak a woman on board while in port, the gun deck was the favorite place for amorous activities. Later when the woman returned seeking paternity support but didn't know the father's name, the child was logged in as a "Son of a Gun".
My personal favorite..."Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"...has nothing what so ever to do with simian anatomy. It seems that those neat pyramids of cannonballs wer formed by creating a base in a dimpled try called a monkey. Normally, the "monkey" was made of iron, but for dress ship occasions, a brass tray,or monkey, was used. The
difference in the co-efficient of expansion (or contraction) between the two metals was often enought to cause the pyramid to topple...hence "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey".
Johnny-Come-Lately The Name Johnny Raw was a name given to inexperienced British Sailors. In the American Navy the term eventually evolved into Johnny-come-lately and is used to describe the new guy or a new comer.
Hotshot Sometimes aboard ship, iron cannon balls would be heated in the galley fires and then carried in buckets to different parts of the ship to provide a bit of warmth on cold or especialy damp nights. A "hotshot" then became something that provided comfort during uncomfortable times. The term eventually grew to describe a person especially adept at a certain task or skilled.
Mind your P's and Q's An admonishment to stay alert or be on your best behavior. Originated from tavern owners who allowed Sailors to drink "on credit" until they were hired by a ship. P's refers to pints, Q's refers to quarts. Some unscrupulous tavern owners would try to put extra check marks under the P's and Q's columns if they saw the Sailor wasn't paying attention (or was obviously inebriated).
Stepping the mast In the days of wooden ships and iron men a gold coin was placed under the main mast when the ship was built. The coin was to pay the toll to the ferryman (the reaper) to cross the river Styx if the ship was sunk.
Here's a definition I found on the 'net: From: captkeywest@webtv.net Newsgroups: alt.sailing.asa from a recent email from a fellow sailor-- Have you heard about Plucking the Yew? Before the battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. For without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow, and therefore they would be incapable of fighting in the future. This weapon was made of the native English Yew tree and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "Plucking the Yew." However, much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset that day and began mocking the French by waving their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still Pluck the Yew!" Over the years some "folk etymologies" have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since "Pluck Yew" is rather difficult to say, like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker" which is where you had to go for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow. The difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative "F" and so, sometimes the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. In addition, because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows, the ancient symbolic gesture is also known as "giving the bird." So now you know why there are so many boaters out there who seem to think this is the proper gesture for displaying a, uh, shall we say, less than favorable gesture to those who anchor too close, or jet-ski around anchored boats. It has been a natural and nautical gesture for sailors since the 1400's.  BACK© 1997-2000 Bob 
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