Tony Dalton

RUNNING THE GAUNTLET: One of the worst crimes in a ship was, and is,  theft.  A thief was made to run the gantlet – note the spelling.  (probably from the Dutch “gantlope.” (“Gant” = all; “Loopen” = run). For this,  the men were given ropes with a half-hitch in the end. They then stood in two rows, facing each other, to leave a corridor between. The thief then stripped-off his shirt and walked slowly through the corridor, the master-at-arms walking slowly backwards in front of him holding a cutlass at his chest. A  ship's corporal followed with another cutlass. The men then thrashed the offender with the ropes as he passed . He slowly WALKED , not ran, the gantlet. (The word “gauntlet” is an English mis-construction).  Major theft was punished by flogging, and the seriousness with which it was treated on board a Royal Navy ship is shown by the fact that ONLY  for theft was the cat of nine tails knotted: three knots, at three-inch intervals, were put in each tail. (For all other offences, including desertion and mutiny, the tails were not altered.)
                                         ………………………………

TOE THE LINE:  The space between each pair of deck planks was filled with a packing material called “oakum” and then sealed with a mixture of pitch and tar.  The result, from a distance, was a series of parallel lines ,6” or so apart, running fore and aft.  Once a week, a warships crew would be ordered to fall in at quarters;  that is, each group of men into which the crew was divided would line up in formation on a given area of deck.  To insure a neat alignment of each row, the sailors were directed to stand with their toes just touching a particular seam.  Another use for these seams was punitive.  A miscreant would be required to stand to attention, with his toes just touching a designated seam, for a period of time determined by his superior – no easy task in a ship that was pitching and rolling. From these two uses of deck seams comes the order to “Toe the line” when dealing with somebody who is being difficult or who has committed a misdemeanour.
 

CAPE HORN FEVER: An illness feigned by a seaman seeking relief from duty.

DAMAGE HIS PEPPER-BOX: To attempt to assassinate the master-at-arms by dropping a round shot on his head from aloft or through an open hatchway.

DANCE AT THE GRATINGS: To be flogged with a cat o’ nine tails.

KISS THE WOODEN LADY: To be forced to stand facing the bole of a wooden mast, with arms encircling it and wrists lashed together, as a minor punishment. Shipmates were encouraged to kick the offender in the buttocks whilst passing by.

PURSER-RIGGED AND PARISH-DAMNED: Said of a man who entered the navy to escape problems ashore; also of a man who entered the navy in a destitute condition.

ROSEWATER SAILOR: An incompetent, foppish or un-seamanlike officer

GUN-DECK LANGUAGE: Under certain circumstances drunkenness was not a naval crime. Shore-leave was infrequent and it was expected that many of the men would return to the ship drunk. The officers of the deck merely recorded the return of each man in the logbook. A man returning in reasonable condition was logged as "CS," meaning clean and sober. A drunk was logged as "DD," which stood for drunk and dirty. He was expected to conduct himself as best he could in the presence of the gangway watch; but upon reaching the gun deck, he was allowed to curse the officers, the ship, the navy, or any other institution in the vilest language he was capable of uttering with impunity. This practice was called "gundecking" and constituted one of the few ways which the men of the Old Navy had for releasing pent-up emotions.

NORWEGIAN SHOWER:  Changing clothes without bathing, usually just applying deodorant.

MIND YOUR P’ AND Q’s:  In the past, when sailors got paid and went for a run ashore, the tavern keepers had a good idea of how much money they were carrying. They’d keep tally of a sailor’s beer consumption by marking-up ‘P’ for pints and ‘Q’ for quarts, then settle-up with the sailor at the end of the evening. If a sailor had failed to ‘mind his Ps and Qs,’ there was a good chance that his final tally would be a lot more than it should have been.

PECKER CHECKER: A Navy doctor.

HUNKY DORY:  This term, meaning everything is O.K., was coined from a street named Honki-dori in Yokohama. As the inhabitants of this street catered to the pleasure of sailors, the street's name became synonymous for anything that is enjoyable or satisfactory.

IN THE BRIG: Because Admiral Nelson once assigned a small ship (a brig) to carry captives taken in one of his naval engagements, and because his seamen ever afterwards associated that vessel with prisoners, the name "brig" became a sailor's universal slang for Jail.

AT LOGGER-HEADS: This term, descriptive of an angry relationship, dates back to the days when implements known as “logger-heads” were used in spreading hot pitch along deck-seams. Men doing this work for long hours were apt to grow quarrelsome and the logger-heads made effective weapons with which to settle arguments.

SPINNING A YARN: This term for tale-telling was coined in days when sailors would be given old ropes to unravel for the making of sennit. As this was the only duty during which they could talk at will, the act of making yarn because synonymous for free and unrestricted conversation.

TOOK THE WIND OUT OF HIS SAILS:  An expression by which we describe besting an opponent in some argument. Originally, it was a manoeuvre by which one vessel would pass close to windward of another, thereby blanketing the breeze from the other's canvas and making him lose way.

DEAD HORSE: (“Working for a dead horse”) British seamen generally preferred to live in waterfront boarding-houses whilst waiting for ships to take on crews. During these periods, many ran out of money so the innkeepers carried them on credit until hired for another voyage. When a seaman was signed-on a ship, he was generally advanced a month's wages, if needed, to pay off his boarding debt. Thus, whilst paying-back the Captain, he worked for nothing but "salt horse" during the first few weeks aboard ship. Salt horse was the staple diet of Victorian sailors and consisted of  low-quality beef. When the debt was repaid, the salt horse was said to be dead and a wooden effigy was cast overboard to the cheers of the ex-debtors.

HE KNOWS THE ROPES: When we say someone “knows the ropes” we infer that he is competent in his job. Originally, the statement was printed on a seaman's discharge papers to indicate that he knew the names and primary uses of the main ropes aboard ship. In other words, "This man is a seaman and knows the basics of seamanship".

SKYLARKING: Originally, skylarking described the antics of sailors who climbed and slid down the backstays for fun. Since the Old English word "lac" means to play, and the game started high in the masts, the term was known as skylacing. (Note the spelling). Later, corruption of the word changed it to "skylarking".

HURDY-GURDY: An English seaman’s name for a Norwegian because the inflexions of the  Norwegian language make it  sound like the constant repetition of “hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy, hurdy gurdy.”

MAROONED: To be stranded in a strange place with no means of escape – rather like missing the last train home and having no money left for a taxi. It got its name from the Cimaroon Indians who had been transplanted to the West Indies as cheap labour by the Spanish and who had been left to starve to death. Captain Drake discovered them and returned them to their home.

Index  Bosun's Locker

Last updated 20.04.02