You think tall ship spotting is sad - you should try our local game of spotting "sailing expressions". Meaning English language phases that are in everyday (or at least common) useage that originated on board sailing ships. There are squillions of them, and it proves what big influence sailing and sailors had in GB.

A few examples are (which I would be happy to explain the origin if not already obvious):

Batten down the hatches

Any port in a storm

Given a fair wind

Go overboard

Go by the board

Catch my drift

No room to swing a cat

The bitter end

A slush fund

Skimming off the top

A square meal

Kick the bucket

Money for old rope

Show someone the ropes

Sailing too close to the wind

Under the weather

Keep a weather eye

In the offing

Have a set back

A load of bilge

Between the devil and the deep blue sea

Toe the line

Welcome on board

Hoisted by his own petard

Pin your colours to the mast

A loose cannon

Son of a gun

All hands on deck

Ship shape and Bristol fashion

A1 condition

Float (as in float a company on the stock exchange)

Cuts no ice

Go below decks

On the rocks

Cut and run

Break new ground

Tacky

Four sheets to the wind

Shiver me timbers

Splice the main brace

Go down with the ship

Clear the decks

Over a barrel

In the doldrums

Welcome on board

Choc a bloc

Make sail

The cats out of the bag

The cats got his tongue

Dick the cabin boy

Seaman Stains

A waister

Rats from a sinking ship

POSH

Gangway

Copper bottomed

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

Nipper

Shove off

Ships that pass in the night

Scrapping the bottom of the barrel

Miss the boat

Making headway

Swinging the lead

Lifeline

Laid up

All in the same boat

Left high and dry

Hard and fast

Chunder

Flotsam & jetsam

First rate

Under rated



I could go on and on, but would welcome any others ........... RRS TDv8 HSE Rimini
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Thanks for that Smarticus!  MY12 SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ebony/Piano/Sidesteps/Privacy/Overfinch Olympus/JLR DRLs

scuttlebutt.

a scuttle is a small rectangular hole cut into the side of a ship for light and ventilation or a way of communicating at times to another deck.
a butt is a receptacle for water.

to stop the crew from drinking a butt each day when it was to last two days and to ration the water they drilled a hole half way up and hung it from the top deck and poured the fresh water up to the hole.  no regrets!
ONE LIFE LIVE IT.

http://www.bluewatersailing.com/expressions.php



 no regrets!
ONE LIFE LIVE IT.

Great list Pussy - but they have overlooked "Dick the Cabin Boy"

You might be able to help with "Shiver me timbers". The origin of that is the subject of some debate, but it has been explained as the sound a wooden ship's hull makes when the hull is moving backwards in the water. In that direction the seams on the wooden hull catch the water and this makes a reasonance that is then magnified by the shape of the hull, creating a "shiver". Any sailor would live in fear of that noise as a hull moving backwards in the water is inherently very unstable (usually as a result of such a big sea that the ship cannot crest a large wave and falls backwards, or having sailed so close to the wind that the sails "set back" and start pushing the ship backwards). Not being a sailor myself I cannot relate to that explanation very well. Does it sound reasonable to you ?

And to any Aussi readers - I am told that Chunder is the expression used for throwing up / vomiting in Aus. The origin is apparently from the sailing ships that took convicts or emigrees to Aus. The berths were bunk beds, often 3 or 4 layers high. Someone in an upper bunk who was suffering from sea sickness would try to warn the people in the lower bunks that they were about to throw up by shouting "watch out under". This would get shortened (given the time available to bark the warning) to "chunder". Any confirmation ?

And finally, "Freeze the balls off a brass monkey". I believe that a brass monkey is a brass plate with 4 holes cut out of it which was used to store cannon balls beside the cannon. Each cannon ball would slot into a hole, which was cut to allow the ball to sit in the hole and not be able to roll out in a heavy sea. The plate was made of brass so there was no risk of a ball rubbing against the metal creating a spark (very dangerous when there was lots of gun powder around). In very very cold weather the brass plate would shrink and the 4 holes would therefore move closer together. If it shrunk far enough the 4 cannon balls would push each other out of the holes and the balls would fall off the brass monkey. Any confirmation ? RRS TDv8 HSE Rimini
Disco 4 TDv6 HSE Ipanema
Defender 90, 200tdi CSW

Smarticus wrote:

Great list Pussy - but they have overlooked "Dick the Cabin Boy"

Smarticus wrote:

And finally, "Freeze the balls off a brass monkey". I believe that a brass monkey is a brass plate with 4 holes cut out of it which was used to store cannon balls beside the cannon. Each cannon ball would slot into a hole, which was cut to allow the ball to sit in the hole and not be able to roll out in a heavy sea. The plate was made of brass so there was no risk of a ball rubbing against the metal creating a spark (very dangerous when there was lots of gun powder around). In very very cold weather the brass plate would shrink and the 4 holes would therefore move closer together. If it shrunk far enough the 4 cannon balls would push each other out of the holes and the balls would fall off the brass monkey. Any confirmation ?

This was the explanation I'd heard too....  

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not quite, but very nearly.

http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.htm

 no regrets!
ONE LIFE LIVE IT.

Misled again!!!  

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re "shiver me timbers"


Timber:
branching outwards from the keel of a ship and bending upward into a vertical direction. constructed of several pieces of wood.

Shiver:
to tremble in the wind as the wind strikes one side of a sail and then another.

possible:

linked to pirates, the shock of a large wave hitting wooden ships broadside. or a ferry to Ireland

shiver me timbers first recorded in script 1835. no regrets!
ONE LIFE LIVE IT.

shmoogle wrote:

Smarticus wrote:

Great list Pussy - but they have overlooked "Dick the Cabin Boy"

I always thought that was "Roger the Cabin Boy"?

Plus.., Seamen Staines, Master Bates, and then let's not forget the main man, Captain Pugwash, which also has a sexual connotation!!!  MY12 SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ebony/Piano/Sidesteps/Privacy/Overfinch Olympus/JLR DRLs

Sounds like your average Friday night out in Essex!  

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That would be a QUIET weekend night out in Essex. Lucky I only work there and dont actually live there!  MY12 SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ebony/Piano/Sidesteps/Privacy/Overfinch Olympus/JLR DRLs

....as you're always at pains to point out. I've seen you going into the Pink Toothbrush on more than one occasion!!  

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shmoogle wrote:

....as you're always at pains to point out. I've seen you going into the Pink Toothbrush on more than one occasion!!

In Rayleigh? OMG S.., dont tell me YOU'RE an ex-Essex Boy? I do recall you talking about owning a sooped-up XR3 and cruising at Southend. Or was that cruisin on Clapham Common?  MY12 SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ebony/Piano/Sidesteps/Privacy/Overfinch Olympus/JLR DRLs

So it WAS you!!

Nope, I'm glad to say I have nothing to do with Essex and have only ever crossed the border into Lakeside on a couple of occasions, but since Bluewater opened stopped doing that as soon as was humanely possible. I think the whole place should be napalmed. 

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