was a historic coincidence that her separate parts should turn up in a trunk at the Deptford Navy Yard just at the time that the navy was switching to tinned meat. No prizes for guessing what the meat was subsequently called.
However, time has sweetened the injury and compassion, even utility has crept in. Instead of the meat it was the large square containers which were to finally immortalise her name. They were called fannies and were popular with sailors who used them as receptacles for collecting food from the galley. (Even today’s stainless steel replacements are called ‘fannies’.) The suggestion of being dispossessed, which the expression means today, comes from the idea of a completed meal and the fanny being empty. The ‘sweet’ followed later, with atonement.
Swinging the Lead
Before instruments were introduced, the usual method of ascertaining the depth of water was a long length of line weighted with a lump of lead. It was called the ‘hand lead line’, or more simply ‘the lead’. A sailor would climb over the ship’s rail, secure himself to the chain plates and make a continuous number of ‘casts’. This entailed swinging the lead over his head several times then letting it fly ahead. It was necessary to twirl the line and shoot it ahead so that by the time the lead had sunk to the bottom the ship’s headway would have brought the line perpendicular and the correct depth could be seen. Less competent leadsmen would make a great display of twirling the lead around their heads to mask their inability to read the depth correctly. In other words they were faking it, merely pretending to work.
Swinging the lead
Another explanation is that soldiers, travelling in troopships and watching the leadsman, considered it such effortless work they borrowed the term for laziness.
T
Take Down a Peg
It is believed to date from the 17th century when flags began to play an important part in indicating command or rank. Admirals already had their own flag (hence the term flag officer) but from this time it became the general practice for an Admiral of the Fleet to fly a Union flag on the main, or highest mast, and lesser admirals to fly their flags from the foremast or the mizzen. Flag halyards were secured to pegs, and if a senior admiral handed over his command to a junior then the flag would have to be flown in a subordinate position, or taken down a peg. Thus the phrase has come to mean to blunt somebody’s pride.
Taken Aback
A ship is said to be taken aback when through a dramatic shift in the wind or careless steering her sails suddenly billow out in reverse. The helmsman is then taken aback in more senses than one.
Take the Gilt off the Gingerbread
When Hans Andersen published his enormously successful Hansel and Gretel , the gilded scrollwork which had decorated sailing ships since mediaeval times suddenly found a name! It was called gingerbread after the ornate and over-embellished witch’s cottage. However, the name had come too late and gingerbread , which had once blossomed high over the sterns and quarters of all the great warships, was in decline. Labour costs had risen so that it was now more expensive to decorate the ship then equip her with cannon. The Admiralty severely restricted its use. It spoilt the attraction, or as the saying puts it ‘took the gilt off the gingerbread’.
Take the Wind Out of Your Sails
A sailing ship passing to windward of another will blanket the wind blowing on its sails thus causing her to slow or even stop. It was a tactic used in warfare, later by pirate ships and is very common in yacht racing today.
Tariff
List of duties to be paid on imports and exports, lists of prices and charges. From the Spanish sea port of Tari’fa about twenty miles from Gibraltar from where the Moors levied contributions according to a certain scale on vessels entering the Mediterranean.
Tattoo
The skin decoration produced by the injection of coloured pigments, was introduced to
However, time has sweetened the injury and compassion, even utility has crept in. Instead of the meat it was the large square containers which were to finally immortalise her name. They were called fannies and were popular with sailors who used them as receptacles for collecting food from the galley. (Even today’s stainless steel replacements are called ‘fannies’.) The suggestion of being dispossessed, which the expression means today, comes from the idea of a completed meal and the fanny being empty. The ‘sweet’ followed later, with atonement.
Swinging the Lead
Before instruments were introduced, the usual method of ascertaining the depth of water was a long length of line weighted with a lump of lead. It was called the ‘hand lead line’, or more simply ‘the lead’. A sailor would climb over the ship’s rail, secure himself to the chain plates and make a continuous number of ‘casts’. This entailed swinging the lead over his head several times then letting it fly ahead. It was necessary to twirl the line and shoot it ahead so that by the time the lead had sunk to the bottom the ship’s headway would have brought the line perpendicular and the correct depth could be seen. Less competent leadsmen would make a great display of twirling the lead around their heads to mask their inability to read the depth correctly. In other words they were faking it, merely pretending to work.
Swinging the lead
Another explanation is that soldiers, travelling in troopships and watching the leadsman, considered it such effortless work they borrowed the term for laziness.
T
Take Down a Peg
It is believed to date from the 17th century when flags began to play an important part in indicating command or rank. Admirals already had their own flag (hence the term flag officer) but from this time it became the general practice for an Admiral of the Fleet to fly a Union flag on the main, or highest mast, and lesser admirals to fly their flags from the foremast or the mizzen. Flag halyards were secured to pegs, and if a senior admiral handed over his command to a junior then the flag would have to be flown in a subordinate position, or taken down a peg. Thus the phrase has come to mean to blunt somebody’s pride.
Taken Aback
A ship is said to be taken aback when through a dramatic shift in the wind or careless steering her sails suddenly billow out in reverse. The helmsman is then taken aback in more senses than one.
Take the Gilt off the Gingerbread
When Hans Andersen published his enormously successful Hansel and Gretel , the gilded scrollwork which had decorated sailing ships since mediaeval times suddenly found a name! It was called gingerbread after the ornate and over-embellished witch’s cottage. However, the name had come too late and gingerbread , which had once blossomed high over the sterns and quarters of all the great warships, was in decline. Labour costs had risen so that it was now more expensive to decorate the ship then equip her with cannon. The Admiralty severely restricted its use. It spoilt the attraction, or as the saying puts it ‘took the gilt off the gingerbread’.
Take the Wind Out of Your Sails
A sailing ship passing to windward of another will blanket the wind blowing on its sails thus causing her to slow or even stop. It was a tactic used in warfare, later by pirate ships and is very common in yacht racing today.
Tariff
List of duties to be paid on imports and exports, lists of prices and charges. From the Spanish sea port of Tari’fa about twenty miles from Gibraltar from where the Moors levied contributions according to a certain scale on vessels entering the Mediterranean.
Tattoo
The skin decoration produced by the injection of coloured pigments, was introduced to
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