Old Naval Sayings

[Mike Noc]

Back in the day before departing for sea-going training as a marine engineering cadet I was given an advice list of what and what not to do.

On that list was 'Don't kick the cat in hot climates'. To this day I am none the wiser, but hopefully I soon will be. Can anyone enlighten me?

Mike

 

[Sandyman]

Back in the day before departing for sea-going training as a marine engineering cadet I was given an advice list of what and what not to do.

On that list was 'Don't kick the cat in hot climates'. To this day I am none the wiser, but hopefully I soon will be. Can anyone enlighten me?

Mike

Sorry Mike can't help. New one on me. Have checked all the Naval slang, sayings & quote sites I know & found nothing.

Here's an interesting one:
Believe it or not the expression SWEET FANNY ADAMS (SFA) was a Naval expression that became incorperated within normal language. Fanny Adams (Sweet Fanny Adams) Was the child victim of a notorious Victorian murder case. Fanny Adams aged approximately nine was murdered at Alton, Hants on 24 April 1867. The murderer (Frederick Baker, a solicitor\'s clerk, aged 29) cut the body up into pieces, some of which were allegedly found in Deptford Victualling Yard.

Baker was tried at Winchester and hanged in December 1867. At about this time tinned mutton was introduced into the Navy and soon acquired the name of Fanny Adams. The tins were subsequently used by sailors as mess gear. The name "fanny" is still the Naval slang for a cooking pot as well as being used in the nickname sense. wink.gif

Binch may have a clue when next onboard.

 

[A1Sailor]

Not slang, but having spent some years working in "The Plymouth Hospitals", when then working in Glasgow and trying to find patients supposedly on the ward, "Is he in the Heads?" just got disbelieving stares from the nurses! But just occasionally, someone would know what you meant...

Slang - "I'll just be a Dog Watch"
Queen's English - "It'll take a couple of hours"

 

[ffiill]

Here are some from Captain John Smiths "An Accidence for yo(u)ng Sea-men-1626"
a boune voyage
ley fagnes(let fly?)
younkers(yank-pull)-young men who work the topsails.
The Lyer(this I love-work it out for yourselves)is to hold his place for but a weeke;and he is that first taken with a lye,euery Monday is so proclaimed at the main Mast by a general cry, "A lyer, a lyer, a lyer". He vis under the "Swabber" and only keeps clean the beake head and chaines.(The clue is in what he keeps clean)
Finally a clue perhaps to cats at the beake head(-the part of bow that looked like a beak)-"The Cat, the cats head, and Cats holes.-catting is part of securing the anchor up along side or inside of bulwark to secure for sailing.Cat rope assume used to cat the anchor and cat holes possibly holes through the bulwark to pass cat rope through when tying anchor stock against it?
The cat head usually a post at right angles to ships hull from which to launch anchor-sometimes iron with inside end bolted down onto deck so catching it with a barefoot not very nice?maybe?
see http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~pbtyc/B_S_M/Fittings.html
"an ouergrown sea"-overgrown
The book is also full of advise on how to catch an enemy ship;sail into position to broadside her;how to board her; not forgettiing how to built a 500 ton vessel-from timber variety;basic measurements ;construction etc.
Captain John Smith was the Captain in charge of The Virginia Companies ships and a member of the Company.

 

[pampas]

it means dont kick the cat in hot climate

If you got the cat o nine tails for punishment in a hot climate is stuck like mad with the salt from your sweat.

I asked on a RN site your question, above is the answer that was posted by 3 of the 5 who replied.

 

[Mike Noc]

Thanks pampas. I can see the logic of their answers, but how would that advice help anyone who was joining a 210,000 Tonne oil tanker?
I don't think Shell made use of the cat.

And many thanks for the other replies. Alton is only up the road from me and I didn't know the story of Fanny Adams.

Mike

PS ffiill, can't remember what held the anchors down on my first ship, but it I do remember each anchor weighed 45 tonnes.

 

[ffiill]

Its forgotten just how labour intensive raising the anchor was-before the advent of the Admiralty patent anchor which is winched up the hawser pipe and held there the anchor had to be stored away whether outboard or inboard of the bulwark.
Even in the days of sail and manual anchor windlass some of the main bower anchors weighed a good number of tons.
Actually wonder whether the word catting is a variation on catching as this would make sense in this context.
Just reading the Seamanship manual gives some idea of the process of both dropping and raising the anchor. Even more detail can be had in the book Schooner Sunset which details the last days of Sailing Coastal vessels in the 1930s.
For example the chain was never just allowed to run out of the locker-the necessary amount required was laid carefully out on deck to avoid any chance of it jamming with perhaps a tons of anchor on the end.
Even on these small vessels a very strict procedure was used down to exactly where the crew stood;how the relase pin was knocked out with a hammer etc to avoid serious injury and or being taken over the side with the chain..

 

[Mike Noc]

One other saying I don't know the origins of but could be sea related: When visiting engineering workshops any jobs that the engineers bought in to do from home were approproately known as Homers, except one in Portsmouth where they were called Rabbits.

Quite a few of the engineers there were ex sailors so is it a naval saying or just something local?

Mike

 

[Sandyman]

One other saying I don't know the origins of but could be sea related: When visiting engineering workshops any jobs that the engineers bought in to do from home were approproately known as Homers, except one in Portsmouth where they were called Rabbits.

Quite a few of the engineers there were ex sailors so is it a naval saying or just something local?

Mike

From Jackspeak

Rabbits..............frequent descriptive term for a gift, something proffed.

Originating from Chats Dockyard where a small island inside the harbour area was overun
with rabbits. These were often taken home as a welcome (and free) source of fresh meat.
Rabbitwork is material made in a workshop on a semi-official basis.

 

[Mike Noc]

Perfect. Thanks Sandyman.

Mike

 

[Evadne]

One other saying I don't know the origins of but could be sea related: When visiting engineering workshops any jobs that the engineers bought in to do from home were approproately known as Homers, except one in Portsmouth where they were called Rabbits.

Quite a few of the engineers there were ex sailors so is it a naval saying or just something local?

Mike

"Rabbit" is commonly used and understood at my workplace, both by seagoers and people who have come in from outside, so I think it may be endemic to Hampshire and the surrounding counties at well as the Navy. Not that we ever do any in work time, obviously

 

[Sandyman]

Perfect. Thanks Sandyman.

Mike

My ditty box doth overfoweth

Chefs Delight............Unsavory habit of a chef (cookie boy) who spits into his deep fat fryer in order to test the oil's temperature. Also man-made ingredient they used to put in the Wardroom custard

Chief Stokers method.....................hit something really hard with a big hammer

 

[uxb]

"Can't crack me- I'm a rubber duck..."

Only a select few will get this.

 

[LADY B]

"Can't crack me- I'm a rubber duck..."

Only a select few will get this.

 

[uxb]

Them were the days.

 

[ffiill]

My Dad used to remember how once when serving in the RAF during the war he came across the cooks mixing up a pudding in the sink they washed the pots in!
A probation officer who had worked in prison always told me to steer clear of any prison food when visiting clients because of what went into the prison officersw food-leave that to the imagination!
Hey just realised "steer clear" sounds like a good old naval saying.

 

[OGITD]

Jack Speak, I was in Baghdad when you were in your dads-bag.
Queens, My service to HM has been a considerable number of years.
Jack Speak, I was on the Main Gate when you were on Cow & Gate.
Queens, (as above)
Jack Speak, That Part 3’s only been in a Dog Watch.
Queens, He’s unqualified with very limited experience.
Jack Speak, He’s just a big OD.
Queens, This gentleman’s rather foolish.
Jack Speak, Skimmers.
Queens, Surface vessels.
Jack Speak, Targets.
Queens, Surface vessels.
Jack Speak, Rosy Dawn.
Queens, Concoction provided by the Doc in a specimen glass to reduce the effects of a hangover (compulsory donations to the ships charity).

 

[Cruiser2B]

From Jackspeak

Rabbits..............frequent descriptive term for a gift, something proffed.

Originating from Chats Dockyard where a small island inside the harbour area was overun
with rabbits. These were often taken home as a welcome (and free) source of fresh meat.
Rabbitwork is material made in a workshop on a semi-official basis.

I've always understood 'rabbit' to be anything nicked from work - whether it be material or personal projects done on the Queen's time.

 

[prv]

I've always understood 'rabbit' to be anything nicked from work - whether it be material or personal projects done on the Queen's time.

Does the Navy use the term "buckshee"?

Pete

 

[Cruiser2B]

Does the Navy use the term "buckshee"?

Pete

Not in the RCN afaik - perhaps in the RN. We do tend to use the term backsheesh, from whence buckshee originated. Only used in its original meaning, usually to discuss the palm-greasing that's common in many parts of the world.