SEA SLANG

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11657, 23 October 1923, Page 2

SEA SLANG

SAILORS’ QUAINT PHRASES. In these days of steam and turbinedriven ships much of the quaint sea phraseology is obsolete. Snatches of the ancient sea slang, however, may yet be heard among old "salts,” and in the forecastles of the few "wind-jammers” still sailing the ocean. Salt beef, "junk,” or "old horse” suggests coarse fare, but for many weary weeks it constituted the sole'meat dietary of the old sailor. It used to be said that this diet worked out through the pores of tho skin and contributed to the mahogany complexion common to those who follow the sea; but dear to their hearts •was, and still is, "lobscouse” or "scrouse,” a mess of pounded biscuits often "weevily”—salt beef or pork and potatoes, in the old days, but now composed of more savoury ingredients. A pudding made of peas, boiled in a cloth, was known as "dog’s body,” biscuits as "hard tack,” and white bread as "soft tommy.” Broken pieces of biscuits, serv- i ed in the Navy to junior officers, were "midshipmen’s nuis.” "Lobolly” was a < kind or or "hasty pudding,” and "six to four days” those on which short ■ rations were served, writes Stuart Baker in "The Glasgow Weekly Herald.” To "splice the mainbrace” was to serve out an extra allowance of "grog,” but weak or poor liquor was known as "rumbowling. "Bulling tho cask,” meant to wash out an empty rum barrel with water and so secure a weak dilution of tho spirit, while tho old-time sailors 1 often managed to gain entrance to the j store-room of the ship, where they "sucked the monkey”—that is, made a gimlet * hole in a cask, inserted a straw, and - sucked the rum through it. |