Naval sayings

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- D -

Dead reckoning:

Estimating position or course; an opinion of how a course of events will develop
Dating from at the sixteenth century, mariners would plot a course and expected position according to last known position, time, compass course and present speed, without allowing for unknown variables such as wind speed and direction, currents and drift. Originally ‘deduced’ reckoning, this navigational method became ‘de’d’, ‘ded’ and then ‘dead’ reckoning.

Devil to pay:

Seriously bad consequences of an act
The original, longer version of this saying was ‘the devil to pay and no pitch hot’, deriving from ‘pay’, meaning to seal a ship’s seams with tar, and the ‘devil’, the name for the longest seam of the ship, which ran from stem to stern along the length of the beam that supported the gun deck. The ‘devil’ was the most difficult seam to reach when repairing ships in dry dock, and sailors often had to squat in the bilges to do so. (see also between the devil and the deep blue sea)

Dogsbody:

Someone considered a menial
Meals made from passengers’ leftovers mixed with ships biscuits were known as dogsbody. This poor-quality food was fed to those with the lowest status, who then became known as dogsbodies.

Down a peg (or two):

Humbled
An admiral flew his personal standard at the highest point of the mast, attached by rope to one of a series of pegs at the base of the mast. If a more senior admiral came aboard, the original standard was taken down a peg or two to make way for the new flag, thus apparently hurting the pride or bruising the ego of the ship’s regular senior officer.

Down the hatch:

Drink a measure of alcohol, usually said as a toast
Cargoes were lowered into a ship’s hold through hatches in the deck, giving the impression of being consumed by the ship.

Dressing down:

Reprimand; telling off
A sail that had worn thin was treated, or ‘dressed down’, with wax or oil to increase its efficiency.

Dutch courage:

False courage induced by alcohol; alcoholic drink
During the Anglo-Dutch wars of the seventeenth century, a descriptive phrase that included the word ‘dutch’, such as ‘go dutch’, ‘dutch uncle’ and ‘double dutch’, was used as an insult. English propaganda at the time claimed that Dutch sailors and other troops were cowards and would only fight when drunk on schnapps.

- E -

Eat my hat:

What will be done if something thought sure to happen, doesn’t happen
Sailors kept their chewing tobacco in their hats, the linings of which became soaked in sweat and tobacco juice. If they ran out of tobacco they would take out the linings of their hats and chew them.

- F -

Fag end:

Last; worst
'To fag’ meant to tease out or separate the single strands of a rope. The tips of the strands were known as ‘fag ends’.

Fall foul of:

Clash with someone; fall out of favour
‘Foul’ was a much-used nautical term, this particular expression meaning the coming together of two ships. In a similar vein, a ‘foul anchor’ was one tangled in its cable; a ‘foul bottom’ described a seabed that provided little or no grip for an anchor; a ‘fouled ship’ was one whose hull was covered in barnacles; and to ‘foul up’ was to blunder due to poor judgement.

Feeling blue:

Sad; downcast
A ship that lost any of its officers during a spell at sea would enter its home port flying blue flags and with a blue line painted around the hull.

First rate:

The very best
British warships were classed (rated) according to the number of guns on board. Those ships with 100 guns or more were classified as 'first', the top of six rates.

Fits the bill:

What is required; satisfactory
A Bill of Lading, a document signed by the captain of a merchant vessel, was an inventory of goods received and a promise to deliver those goods in the same condition and to a stated destination. Once delivered, the cargo was verified according to the bill.

Flake out:

Fall asleep; lie down and relax; collapse from exhaustion
To keep the anchor chain in good condition, it was ‘flaked out’, looped up and down the length of the deck, in order to identify and repair damaged links.

Flogging a dead horse:

Doing something for no apparent gain; act to no effect
It was customary to pay sailors taken on at the start of a voyage one months' wages in advance, usually in order that they could pay off debts run up whilst waiting for their next ship. Sailors called the first month at sea, a period when they were effectively working hard (flogging) for nothing, ‘dead horse’ time. The end of the first month, the end of ‘dead horse’ time, was celebrated by making an effigy of a horse, parading it around the ship, hauling it up a mast, setting fire to it and throwing it into the sea.

Fly by night:

Infrequent; insubstantial; unreliable; impermanent
A fly-by-night was a large sail used only in certain conditions. It was used instead of several smaller sails and was therefore easier to manage, at night and only when sailing downwind.

Footloose:

Acting as one pleases
The bottom of a sail was called the ‘foot’, and mooring ropes attached to the foot called ‘foot lines’. Unsecured foot lines caused the sail to flap freely, to become ‘footloose’.

Freeze the balls off a brass monkey:

Very cold, as in "cold enough to ...."
Brass trays, known as ‘monkeys’, were used to store pyramids of iron cannon balls. In cold weather the trays would contract faster than the iron cannon balls, causing the pyramids to unbalance and the cannon balls to topple over.


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- G -

Get cracking:

Hurry up; move with haste
Carrying the greatest amount of sail as possible, to progress as fast as the ship can, hence also the expressions 'crack on' and 'cracking on'.

Give me some slack:

Make allowances for the completion of an act
It took teams of men to haul in and tie a ship to a pier. As one team hauled on their line, tension on the other line was released (the second team were therefore 'given slack'), and so on until the ship was properly aligned. A variation of this expression in modern use is 'cut me some slack'.

Give someone a wide berth:

Stay away from; keep a distance from
Ships at anchor would leave enough space between them so as not to hit each other as they swung on the tide or in the wind.

Gone by the board:

Discarded; abandoned; lost
The board is the side of the ship. Anything that went ‘by the board’ (overboard) was therefore either unwanted or lost.

Groggy:

Unsteady; dazed; confused
Concerned at their persistent drunkenness, Admiral Edward Vernon started in 1740 to dilute his crews’ daily rum ration, a practice that was soon adopted throughout the navy. Disgruntled seamen referred to Vernon as ‘Old Grog’, after his coats made of grogram, a course mixture of wool, mohair and silk stiffened with gum. The diluted rum itself became known as ‘grog’, and a sailor who had drunk too much grog was ‘groggy’.

Groundswell:

Build-up of public opinion
The ground was always the lowest point, so at sea that meant the bottom of ocean. A groundswell was used to describe deep ocean wave movement caused by a distant storm or underwater earthquake or tremor.

- H -

Hand over fist:

Rapidly (especially when making money)
Originally 'hand over hand'; the quickest method used by sailors to pull in ropes or move up and down the rigging.

Hard and fast:

Fixed; defined; inflexible
An immovable ship was described as ‘hard’, whilst ‘hard and fast’ meant in dry dock.

Hard up:

Financial distress
The position of the helm when the bows of the ship were turned to windward, thus maintaining the stress upon the vessel caused by bearing up.

Hasn’t got a clue:

Without any idea
In this instance ‘clue’ derives from clew, the corner of a sail into which a brass ring was sewn and to which the clew line that held the sail in place, was attached. Should that corner of the sail have become damaged, then the ship could not progress until it was repaired. From this the expression 'get clued up' is derived.

Hunky dory:

OK; satisfactory
Derived from Honki-Dori, a street in the port of Yokohama, Japan, where many a pleasure awaited visiting sailors.

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