The Origins of Nautical Sayings

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by scotte

Interesting... The French word for port is "babord" and starboard is "triboard". I wonder where the etymology forked on that?

I understood that the French got these terms from the Dutch. I don't know how they got tribord from stuurboord, but can see that the Dutch follow the convention of calling it the steering side or helm side. The connection between babord and bakboord is a lot clearer - why bakboord you ask? If the helmsman is working the tiller with both hands, he will be facing to starboard and have his back to port, so port is the 'backside' or bakboord.

[TaoJones]

Originally Posted by bstreep

Ah, my favorite is:

"It's your turn in the barrel"

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

Your turn in the Barrel.

Didn't they put Nelson in a Barrel?

Sounds like a threat

Well, once you've heard the joke for which "It's your turn in the barrel" is the punch line, it'll all become clear for you.

TaoJones

[dacust]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

Well, once you've heard the joke for which "It's your turn in the barrel" is the punch line, it'll all become clear for you.

TaoJones

Hehe. And then MY post about "Arrrgh" vs "Arrr" might make sense as well.

[Amgine]

Originally Posted by Lodesman

I think Smythe had it wrong in so many ways. ... Nice story though.

::grin:: That's why I went on to OED. Smythe had a lot of good info, but he and his officers weren't linguists so most of their etymologies are extremely suspect (but often entertaining.)

On the usage, however, they were the bible for about 50 or more years, through the height of the age of commercial sail.

[Chief Engineer]

"Beat the RUSH

[TaoJones]

On Tuesday, February 19th, Sailing Anarchy ran the "Brass Monkey" story exactly as it was posted here in Post #2 in their e-anarchy. This, of course, pushed my buttons, so I sent the editor a short note with citations debunking the story.

I even cited Gord, stating:

"My personal favorite when it comes to citing a source on this is Gord May, Administrator of Cruisers Forum:

" 'The Royal Navy . . . records that cannon-balls were stored in planks with circular holes cut into them, not stacked in pyramids. These planks were known as 'shot garlands', not monkeys, and they date back to at least 1769, when they were first referred to in print.' "

I should have known that the irreverent guys at Anarchy were not to be trusted - I just received an email from the editor that states:

"we knew it was a myth, it was fun to run though!

scot"

I'm pretty sure it was the citation to Gord's unquestioned authority that made them see the error of their ways.

TaoJones

[Amgine]

Heh... I was just looking up 'three sheets' to see if I had a conclusive answer (nope, but in use as "unsteady with drink" further back than my usual references) and came across this chestnut...

Three half-hitches are more than a king's yacht wants.

It's a remark to a newb (green hand, landsman) that two are enough.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by TaoJones

Well, once you've heard the joke for which "It's your turn in the barrel" is the punch line, it'll all become clear for you.

TaoJones

Well???...

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by JohnT

“Balls-up”

Derived from the nautical signal used when a ship was aground (three balls raised) to let other ships not suffer the same fate. Still a signal used today.


John

From the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea:
"A Vessel Aground shall exhibit ....... where it can best be seen (the visual signal) Three Balls in a Vertical Line."