NAUTICAL PHRASES

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 141, 18 June 1927, Page 20

NAUTICAL PHRASES

H&W SOME HAVE OEIGIJTAtEJ); <

Expressions.in everyday?speech such. f* "making headway," :,f fmaking up leeway," "three sheets in'tio/wind/-' and many others, are easily recognised a* having a nautical origin/ but there i «re other seafaring terms used jus£: as frequently whose origins are more ob--BM»e' (writes A. A. Bestic in "Bluqi Peter"). There is no acridity W; tho fcxpreseion, "to the bitter cnd;'»J Sj£«y ship of the present day has twjn'i pillars of iron called "bitts," -feed', in' convenient places "round the decks for pooring the vessel. Some years ago, tie end of the anchor cable .used- to-be fastened to one of those bitts in the bow. \Whe"n a vessel is anphpred, the more cable she has out the less chance • she has of dragging her anchor, V But' ii the weather gets vpryA.ba'd. S.he may' have to pay put all her cable <'to the" pitter end," when she can veer no" more. .' ■ . " '••

Again, the term "the devil ..to pay,*.' nas nothing to do withy. paying any trifn*o to tfie_ chief of the fallen: angels,' To pay"'.-in this' sense means to cover ■with pitch' the' seams betwpeu the planks of a; wooden' ship after' they have been filled with oakum. The devij '?efeni to the most awkward spam in the vessel, hence its name, and if the devil is not payed the most* difficult p»rt of the. work yet remains to be done. ' ■■'■'■

Even some of our sailors would not ted it an easy matter to 'explain tho origin of the expression "three sheets in the -wind,'* as used nowadays in de.senbing a djunken man when .he ha? leached the staggering stage. In a three-masted sailing ship the three lar. gest_ Bails are secured on. the lee side (which is the.most phejtered side from the wind) by ropes or wires called Meets.- Should, however,.the^virid unexpectedly shift round so thaWthe side ob which the sheets are made • fast bo.--cornea the weather, or windy ■side; then. these sheets:are "mi the wind,"'and the vessel staggers and yaw^ about jn .«. manner rather reminiscent of a perjson intoxicated. Such a shift of wind ijwonld, of^, course, be unexpected, and .cwonld take the ship f'abapk," that is, iipot the wind.on the wrong side of the fsails. This explains tho rather popular term, ','takeii aback,?' a^ used in conversation when referring: >> some incident that is surprising or Unexpected.

"Beam ends" is the position of a •hip lying on her side, waterlogged, ■»»d in'imminent danger of sinking, ffhe beams referred to are the cross, or athwartship deck beams. Thus a person in very great 'difficulties is said to lac on his "beam ends;"

The "way" of a ship refers to the Sirection or course in which sho is travelling, as can be seen from the words ••headway," "sternway," '-'leeway." When two vessels are approaching, one another so that there is; a possibility: of them eblljding ishouia"they Continue their respective courses, one of them aceordinjf tq^Board of Trade rules,: has to. alter h&r* course or. give her "way" .to the other^'Hence tho term usedon shore, "to give.way," as signifying to yield on a cewain point in question. Many people state that the expres.•jon "under way" may also be spelt **under weigh," but this ia incorrect, M they are two separate words with different meanings. "Weigh" is taken iwm the Anglo-Saxon "woeg," meaning to carry or raise, pn&, as far as a ship is concerned, is only used with re-' iarence to her anchor. Consequently, ■when a ship is "under weigh" it simjplf means that sho luis weighed or raispfJQ h«r anthpr, having no reference JHpawjOO^ver to her movement through