Part of our maritime heritage is the range of expressions which have been absorbed into everyday language. We use these terms from our seafaring past without always being aware of their origin.
All at sea, the title of this article,is obvious, meaning we are not sure what is the best course of action. If a situation is the same for everybody involved we may say we are all In the same boat. If a person in charge does not give much Leeway in an organization we say he Runs a tight ship.
Getting to know the ropes refers to the rigging on the ship. With hundreds of ropes all having various tasks it took an experienced sailor a long time to learn all the ropes. To play safe and not take any chances we are told to Keep things on an even keel and someone penny-pinching on a project and trying to cut costs more than is advisable may be told Do not spoil the ship for a halfpenny worth of tar. If we are annoyed by a person we may not want to see for a while, we will give them a Wide berth, and if we make a mistake and send someone the wrong way we have put them on the Wrong tack.
Most of the above are fairly straight forward, others are a little obscure. To describe someone as Broad in the beam refers to the beam of a ship which is the widest part of the ship. Touch and go was an expression regarding a ship that was scraping the keel in shallow water and risked being stranded. Hard and fast was used to describe the unfortunate ship that was stranded, and By and large was to sail a ship at a slight angle to the wind which was by and large the safest way to sail into an oncoming wind. On days when all is going well its referred to as Plain sailing but when risks are taken by perhaps trying an unsafe trip it is known as Sailing close to the wind. The risk was that a slight shift in the wind might suddenly press the sails back against the mast, causing the ship to lose its stability and course. If one of the crew on watch was on the weather side of the bow he would be subjected to the wind and the sea all the time, not a good experience and he would feel Under the weather. If all was well on board ship with no problems below decks everything would be said to be Above board. If you sailed in an unfriendly manner to another ship and by going close you were diverting the wind from getting to her sails you were said to be Overbearing or Taking the wind out of their sails. The expression used when a ship floundered or capsized was Overwhelmed. We all get like this from time to time.
A few expressions we use today are not easy to see as having a nautical connection, e.g.
Between the devil and the deep blue sea. There are two versions of this: 1) When a sailor was made to walk the plank on a pirate ship, the devil was a sharp toothed or spike tool being shoved into his back by a pirate, so he had not much option either way. 2) The seam between the planks on the side of the ship was also known as the devil, and required constant care. To caulk that seam, a sailor would be lowered by a rope from the deck, a precarious and dangerous position to be in, he would be suspended between the devil and the deep blue sea.
The devil to pay also refers to the devil as a seam on the ship. To pay in this expression meant to apply tar to the ship, its location near the waterline made the devil seam the most dangerous so paying the devil was a rotten task. Tar is also a nickname for sailors and comes from the tarpaulin which was a canvas waterproofed with tar.
Show a Leg is an expression which came about in the early days when sailors were allowed to have their wives or sweethearts on board. During the rounds of inspection, the sailor would often come across hammocks or bunks still occupied after the morning turnout, and in order to make sure that the sleeping figure was a woman rather than a work shy sailor, he would call out the order Show a leg! or sometimes Shake a leg! If a female ankle emerged from under the bedclothes, the sleeper was left in peace. Later the regulations were tightened, and women were no longer allowed to live on board.
Three sheets to the wind. A sheet, to a sailor, is a rope attached to the lower edge of a sail and used for controlling it or binding it to the masts crossbeam. With up to four such sheets on any sail, if all of them were hanging loose, or even three of them, the sail would flap about in the wind and prove difficult to bring under control. Any drunken sailor would move in a comparably jerky way, and was accordingly likened to a loose sail and said to be three sheets to the wind.
Editors Note: The article above, originally published in First Response, the newsletter for the Volunteer Ambulance Officers Association of Tasmania Inc. Vol 20 No 3, February 2016, was reprinted with the authors kind permission. Phil Dennis.
PS. We thought of a few more everyday expressions with a nautical origin.
In the doldrums refers to the equatorial region where the lack of winds mean that a sailing ship is unable to progress. Someone in the doldrums is listless, not motivated.
No room to swing a cat doesnt refer to a four-legged animal but to the cat onine tails. When the assembled crew, obliged to be in attendance to witness a punishment, were all on deck, there was little or no room for the officer in charge to swing the cat. The expression refers to having less space than needed.
Show your true colours / Flying colours both refer to the use of the ships flags. False flags (or colours) could be flown to deceive another ship in wartime. To show your true colours means to be honest, to not be deceitful. Victorious ships would return with their flags flying; defeated ships were obliged to lower their flags. Flying colours means to be triumphant, e.g. passing an examination with distinction.
To bite the bullet is to face an unpleasant situation bravely. The origin of the expression is the practice of giving sailors (and soldiers) a bullet to bite prior to an operation when there were no anaesthetics.
And theres many more, including: The cut of your jib, Pipe down, Toe the line, and Batten down the hatches.
