NAVAL PHRASES AND IDIOMS

“How are you, my friend?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve been distinctly under the weather.”

Now, I understood perfectly well what my friend meant but as usual I pondered the origin of that odd phrase ‘under the weather’. It comes, as so many of our idioms do, from maritime slang. It describes the practice of sending seasick or ill sailors below deck, literally under the weather bow, which was taking the brunt of a storm. Thus, the sailor would be protected from the pounding of the waves. The phrase has now taken on a universal meaning for unwell or feeling worse than usual. This set me thinking. How many phrases and idioms in everyday speech owe their origin to our seafaring heritage? Rather more than you might imagine.

Founded by Henry VIII as the Navy Royal, the Royal Navy grew in size and power to become the world’s dominant maritime force. It was never designed or built to gain an empire; its primary purpose was to keep the shipping lanes open and free, so vital for Britain’s trading interests. It can be argued that Britain acquired an empire almost by accident. If the Royal Navy was to protect those all-important trading routes, it needed bases, ports, dockyards, harbours, roadsteads, supply depots around the world to keep her ships afloat. Therefore, it made sense to secure these outposts by conquering the land (and their peoples) roundabout. Eventually, one quarter of the earth’s landmass was coloured pink, the largest empire in history.

Primacy at sea demanded a navy that was unassailable and a string of naval successes, from the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 to the defeat of Napoleon’s navy at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 (which ensured a British hegemony that lasted over a century and was only challenged in the First World War) meant that in the 17^th, 18^th and 19^th centuries, with occasional reverses and setbacks, Britain really did rule the waves.

It is no surprise, therefore, that the Royal Navy, the Senior Service, held a special affection in the hearts of the British people. Inevitably, many naval phrases and slang words entered everyday speech. Today, nautical idioms trip off the tongue without any of us having much of a clue as to their origin, other than a vague feeling that they must have something to do with the sea.

I thought it might be of interest to research and uncover the origins of these curious expressions that have entered the language of everyday speech:

Above board: anything on or above the open deck was in plain sight, above board.

All at sea: before the use of accurate navigational aids, any ship out of sight of land was in danger of being lost.

All sewn up: when a sailor died on board, his body would be sewn into his hammock or sail cloth, weighted with a cannon ball and confined to the deep. Nowadays the phrase refers to an agreement or deal or situation that is fully settled, secured or successfully completed.

At loggerheads: an iron ball attached to a long handle was a loggerhead. When the ball was heated, it was used to seal the pitch in the wooden deck seams. It was also a convenient weapon to hand for quarrelsome seamen.

At a loose end: if the captain of a ship felt that his crew were getting idle, he would order them to check the ends of ropes to make sure they had not become frayed or were starting to unravel.

The bitter end: it is the final part of an anchor chain or rope. To reach the bitter end was to have the chain or rope extended to its furthest point.

Brass monkey weather: originally the phrase was ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’. A monkey was a brass frame stacking cannon balls. In freezing weather, the frame would sometimes collapse.

Occasionally, in very cold weather, the brass monkey holding the cannon balls would collapse.

Close quarters: the confined defensive space as a safe haven from enemy attack. This eventually came to mean close enough for hand-to-hand fighting.

Copper-bottomed: in 1761, the Royal Navy was the first to have her ships fitted with copper plating on the underside of the hull. This reduced barnacles and shipworm and increased speed. Before long, ‘copper-bottomed’ came to mean anything that was reliable and trustworthy.

Cut of one’s jib: the shape of jibs, or foresails, varied across countries and navies. Thus 18^th century sailors could identify warship as friend or foe. If a captain did not like the cut of the jib of an approaching vessel, he could ‘cut and run’, by cutting the cable of his anchor and making a swift getaway.

Devil to pay: nothing to do with Satan. The devil was the longest seam in the hull and caulking it was done with pay or pitch. The task was regarded as the most unpleasant on board a ship. In order for a sailor to caulk the devil, he would have to hang precariously over the side of the ship, giving rise to the phrase ‘caught between the devil and the deep blue sea’.

Down in the doldrums: being stuck in the calm, windless oceans of the equator, where ships could be becalmed for days. Nowadays, it means sad, listless and unmotivated.

Dressing down: thin and worn sails were often treated with oil or wax to restore their effectiveness. This was called ‘dressing down’, which is what an officer or sailor would get who had stepped out of line.

Dutch courage: this dates from the Anglo-Dutch wars of the 1600s. English propaganda claimed that the Dutch were too cowardly to fight unless fortified with copious amounts of schnapps.

Even keel: the keel is like the backbone of a vessel. If a ship floats upright without a list, it is even keeled and therefore steady. ‘Keeled over’, meaning that the ship had capsized, came to refer, in sailors’ jargon, to death.

First-rate: British naval ships were rated by the number of heavy cannons they carried. A vessel that carried 100 guns was a first-rate ship of the line (‘line’ here refers to the line of battle, hence ‘battleship’). Second-rate carried 90 guns and so on down to sixth-rate.

HMS Victory was a ‘first-rate’ ship of the line (ie, 100 guns or more).

Footloose: the bottom portion of a sail is called the foot. If not secured, it is footloose and dances randomly in the wind.

Not good when the ‘foot’ of a sail comes loose.

Flying colours: if a ship came through a battle (relatively) unscathed, it would do so with its colours (flag) flying.

Gripe: a sailing vessel gripes when the sails flap around; forward progress is halted and she becomes difficult to steer. The word now refers to ‘complaining’.

Groggy: in 1740, Admiral Edward Vernon ordered his crews’ daily measure of rum to be watered down. As his nickname was Old Grog, the word stood. Thus, anyone who became drunk was known to be ‘groggy’.

Too much grog.

Hand over fist: the action of a sailor using alternate hands to hoist a sail rapidly. Today, it refers to someone making a lot of money very quickly.

Hard and fast: a ship that was hard and fast was one that was firmly beached on land and was likely to remain so for some time. Similarly, ‘high and dry’ was another term for a ship that was firmly aground.

In the offing: the offing is the part of the sea that can be seen from land.

Keel-hauling: this was a severe naval punishment in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. The victim would be dragged from one side of the ship to the other, under its bottom (keel). The term now means a form of rough reprimand.

Keel-hauling was a particularly barbaric punishment in the Royal Navy of the 15^th and 16^th centuries.

To knock seven bells out of someone: The naval day was divided into four-hour watches, and the bell would be rung every half-hour, reaching eight on the conclusion of a watch. In naval slang, ‘eight bells’ came to mean the end of a watch, ie death. If somebody received a severe beating, he would have seven bells knocked out of him, that is, one short of eight, in other words, close to death.

Loose cannon: if a cannon on board a ship broke loose from its moorings, all hell would break out on the gun deck.

Mainstay: the crucial rope that ran the length of the maintop (the flatform at the top of the main mast) to the foot of the foremast. Basically, you can’t do without it.

No room to swing a cat: no, nothing to do with the mistreatment of our feline friends. Punishment in the Royal Navy consisted of a flogging with a cat-o’-nine-tails As the space below decks was too confined to swing the cat, the flogging would take place – in front of the entire ship’s crew – with the poor unfortunate tied to a grill or over a barrel.

The infamous cat-o’-nine-tails.

Pipe down: this was the last order of the day, a note played on the bosun’s whistle, for the off-duty crew members to stop chatting and retire to bed.

Slush fund: cooks on board ship, when cooking meat, would collect the fat, known as ‘slush’, and sell it to candle stick and soap makers when they reached port. This was known as their slush fund.

Toe the line: when the ship’s crew answered the call, ‘all hands on deck’, they would line up with their toes touching the seams of the deck planks.

Three sheets to the wind: to be well and truly plastered. On a sailing ship, if the three sails were loose and blowing about in the wind, the boat would be lurching from side to side.

Perhaps the sea dogs among my readers will point out some phrases that I might have missed.