guarded. The crew found it perfect for greasing masts to make sail hoisting easier and for preserving leather fittings. The cook, unhappy about this, would secrete it in his ‘slush fund’. It was a perquisite so far as he was concerned. He sold it ashore, mostly to candle makers and people in the fish and chip trade.
Snub
To snub a ship is to cut short her progress, either by dropping the anchor onto the bottom to act as a brake, or by holding onto any ropes which might connect her to the shore. Eventually the word was applied to members of a crew, and to snub a man was to humiliate him with a curt remark, or to ignore him.
Another word with similar meaning is jibe . This is the sudden and dramatic movement of a sailing vessel bringing the wind across her stern and filling the sails on the other side – done carelessly it can bring the mast down. The evidence which suggests this is an authentic sea word is jib , the Viking word for sail.
Sold Down the River
From the perpetual threat held against slaves working in areas bordering the Northern States of America. If they misbehaved or proved lazy, they could be sold down the river (the Mississippi) to work in the southern sugar plantations. From this comes the notion of cheated, hoodwinked, taken for a ride.
So-long
A seaman’s farewell, from the East Indian word ‘salaam’. Common in shore-side use, but originally nautical.
Son of a Gun
Complimentary term for a sailor suggesting he was a natural born to the job, or more precisely born on the job. It comes from the time when women shared the gun deck accommodation with men aboard ships in port and sometimes at sea. Since the working spaces and gangways had to be kept clear, the only undisturbed place a woman could give birth to a child would be behind screens between the guns. The expression also meant being conceived alongside a gun, since a hammock wasn’t convenient for that sort of thing.
The following is an extract from the Captain’s Journal of a brig sailing off the Spanish coast in 1835:
This day the surgeon informed me that a woman on board had been labouring in child for 12 hours and asked if I could fire a broadside to leeward. I did so and she was delivered a fine male child.
In cases where the paternity was uncertain, the child was entered in the Deck Log as son of a gun .
S.O.S.
The international radio signal for distress. The letters were chosen because their morse code characteristics were distinctive, easy to remember and make. The mnemonic ‘save our souls’ was originally ‘save our ship’ and the first time the signal was made at sea was in 1908 from the American ship Azaoahe . Years later a new international distress signal was born at sea. This time the spoken word MAYDAY from the French m’aidez! help me.
Sounding Out
Researchers sound out public opinion, which means search and enquire, in exactly the same way as the sailor does when he sounds the depth of water beneath his ship with an echo-sounder or sounding line. From the Anglo-Saxon sund – messenger.
Sou’wester
It is an abbreviation for south-westerly wind which around the shores of Northern Europe is the one which brings the rain. Hence it became the sailor’s name for his oilskin cap and now more generally, a wide-brimmed waterproof hat which fastens under the chin.
Spic and Span
In pristine condition; it referred originally to a newly built ship. A spic was a spike or nail, a span a length of timber, both primary items of ship construction.
Spin a Yarn
It has the ring of a salty expression and is popularly thought to have come from wet weather days when crews would be given the job of ‘spinning’ or loosely twisting together yarns of old rope to be used for small tying jobs. Sheltering under the foc’sle head it would have been a great time for telling stories. However, spinning yarn was carried on ashore long before it was at sea and this is probably one of the few shore expressions adopted by seamen.
To spin
Snub
To snub a ship is to cut short her progress, either by dropping the anchor onto the bottom to act as a brake, or by holding onto any ropes which might connect her to the shore. Eventually the word was applied to members of a crew, and to snub a man was to humiliate him with a curt remark, or to ignore him.
Another word with similar meaning is jibe . This is the sudden and dramatic movement of a sailing vessel bringing the wind across her stern and filling the sails on the other side – done carelessly it can bring the mast down. The evidence which suggests this is an authentic sea word is jib , the Viking word for sail.
Sold Down the River
From the perpetual threat held against slaves working in areas bordering the Northern States of America. If they misbehaved or proved lazy, they could be sold down the river (the Mississippi) to work in the southern sugar plantations. From this comes the notion of cheated, hoodwinked, taken for a ride.
So-long
A seaman’s farewell, from the East Indian word ‘salaam’. Common in shore-side use, but originally nautical.
Son of a Gun
Complimentary term for a sailor suggesting he was a natural born to the job, or more precisely born on the job. It comes from the time when women shared the gun deck accommodation with men aboard ships in port and sometimes at sea. Since the working spaces and gangways had to be kept clear, the only undisturbed place a woman could give birth to a child would be behind screens between the guns. The expression also meant being conceived alongside a gun, since a hammock wasn’t convenient for that sort of thing.
The following is an extract from the Captain’s Journal of a brig sailing off the Spanish coast in 1835:
This day the surgeon informed me that a woman on board had been labouring in child for 12 hours and asked if I could fire a broadside to leeward. I did so and she was delivered a fine male child.
In cases where the paternity was uncertain, the child was entered in the Deck Log as son of a gun .
S.O.S.
The international radio signal for distress. The letters were chosen because their morse code characteristics were distinctive, easy to remember and make. The mnemonic ‘save our souls’ was originally ‘save our ship’ and the first time the signal was made at sea was in 1908 from the American ship Azaoahe . Years later a new international distress signal was born at sea. This time the spoken word MAYDAY from the French m’aidez! help me.
Sounding Out
Researchers sound out public opinion, which means search and enquire, in exactly the same way as the sailor does when he sounds the depth of water beneath his ship with an echo-sounder or sounding line. From the Anglo-Saxon sund – messenger.
Sou’wester
It is an abbreviation for south-westerly wind which around the shores of Northern Europe is the one which brings the rain. Hence it became the sailor’s name for his oilskin cap and now more generally, a wide-brimmed waterproof hat which fastens under the chin.
Spic and Span
In pristine condition; it referred originally to a newly built ship. A spic was a spike or nail, a span a length of timber, both primary items of ship construction.
Spin a Yarn
It has the ring of a salty expression and is popularly thought to have come from wet weather days when crews would be given the job of ‘spinning’ or loosely twisting together yarns of old rope to be used for small tying jobs. Sheltering under the foc’sle head it would have been a great time for telling stories. However, spinning yarn was carried on ashore long before it was at sea and this is probably one of the few shore expressions adopted by seamen.
To spin
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