The Merchant Marine Express

I bet you’ve always wondered about a saying or an expression or where it came from!? Well, I have found some interesting nautical definitions. One Merchant Marine Express follower whom I know of, is attending a maritime academy and I bet he would particularly enjoy reading the origins of these sayings as it relates to old maritime lore. Feel free to share these amongst your fellow landlubber pals!

With the help of the Navy Department Library terminology section, I’ve managed to choose a few of some terms you might enjoy!

ADMIRAL

An admiral is the senior ranking flag officer in the US Navy, but his title comes from the name given the senior ranking officer in the Moorish army of many years ago. A Moorish chief was an “emir,” and the chief of all chiefs was an “emir-al.” Our English word is derived directly from the Moorish.

BOKOO

Often an old salt will boast that he has had bokoo this or has done something bokoo times during his seafaring years. The picturesque sound of the word “bokoo” may cause one to wonder how it came to mean “many” or “a lot.”

Actually, bokoo is a legitimate French word, “beaucoup,” meaning “very many.” Americanization changed the spelling and pronunciation but the meaning remains unchanged. Like many foreign terms that have crept into our nautical lingo, “bokoo” is the inevitable product of generations of American seamen meeting peoples of other nations and adopting bokoo phrases from their languages for everyday shipboard use.

CARRY ON

In the days of sail, the officer of the deck kept a weather eye constantly on the slightest change in wind so sail could be reefed or added as necessary to ensure the fastest headway. Whenever a good breeze came along, the order to “carry on” would be given. It meant to hoist every bit of canvas the yards could carry. Pity the poor sailor whose weather eye failed him and the ship was caught partially reefed when a good breeze arrived.

Through the centuries the term’s connotation has changed somewhat. Today, the Bluejacket Manual defines “carry on” as an order to resume work: work not so grueling as two centuries ago.

CHEWING THE FAT

God made the vittles, but the devil made the cook,” was a popular saying used by seafaring men in the last century when salted beef was staple diet aboard ship.

This tough cured beef, suitable only for long voyages when nothing else was as cheap or would keep as well, required prolonged chewing to make it edible. Men often chewed one chunk for hours, just as if it were chewing gum and referred to this practice as “chewing the fat.”

HE KNOWS THE ROPES

When we say someone knows the ropes we infer that he knows his way around at sea and is quite capable of handling most nautical problems. Through the years the phrase’s meaning has changed somewhat. Originally, the statement was printed on a seaman’s discharge to indicate that he knew the names and primary uses of the main ropes on board ship. In other words, “This man is a novice seaman and knows only the basics of seamanship.”

KEELHAUL

To be keelhauled today is merely to be given a severe reprimand for some infraction of the rules. As late as the 19th century, however, it meant the extreme. It was a dire and often fatal torture employed to punish offenders of certain naval laws.

An offender was securely bound both hand and foot and had heavy weights attached to his body. He was then lowered over the ship’s side and slowly dragged along under the ship’s hull. If he didn’t drown — which was rare — barnacles usually ripped him, causing him to bleed to death.

All navies stopped this cruel and unusual punishment many years ago and today any such punishment is forbidden.

KNOT

The term knot or nautical mile, is used world-wide to denote one’s speed through water. Today, we measure knots with electronic devices, but 200 years ago such devices were unknown. Ingenious mariners devised a speed measuring device both easy to use and reliable: the “log line.” From this method we get the term “knot.”

The log line was a length of twine marked at 47.33-foot intervals by colored knots. At one end was fastened a log chip; it was shaped like the sector of a circle and weighted at the rounded end with lead.

When thrown over the stern, it would float pointing upward and would remain relatively stationary. The log line was allowed to run free over the side for 28 seconds and then hauled on board. Knots which had passed over the side were counted. In this way the ship’s speed was measured.

MIDSHIPMEN

“Midshipmen” originally referred to the youngsters aboard British Navy vessels who were in training to become naval officers. Their primary duties included carrying orders from the officers, quartered in the stern, to the crew, quartered in the fo’c’sle. The repeated scampering through the middle part of the ship earned them the name “midshipmen” and the nickname “middle.”

Naval Academy students and Navy Reserve Officer Training Candidates are still called midshipmen because, just like their counterparts of old, they are in training to become officers in the sea service. It is interesting to note that mids (the term middie went out of use only recently) back in the days of sail could begin their naval careers at the ripe old age of eight.

MIND YOUR ‘P’s and ‘Q’s

There are few of us who have not at one time or another been admonished to “mind our Ps and Qs,” or in other words, to behave our best. Oddly enough, “mind your Ps and Qs” had nautical beginnings as a method of keeping books on the waterfront.

In the days of sail when sailors were paid a pittance, seaman drank their ale in taverns whose keepers were willing to extend credit until payday. Since many salts were illiterate, keepers kept a talley of pints and quarts consumed by each sailor on a chalkboard behind the bar. Next to each person’s name a mark was made under “P” for pint or “Q” for quart whenever a seaman ordered another draught.

On payday, each seaman was liable for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to “mind his Ps and Qs” or get into financial trouble. To ensure an accurate count by unscrupulous keepers, sailors had to keep their wits and remain somewhat sober. Sobriety usually ensured good behavior, hence the meaning of “mind your Ps and Qs.”

MOORING LINE

There aren’t many “old salts” in today’s Navy who haven’t been required sometime in their career to heave around on a length of hawser in order to tie up a ship. Hawser used in this backbreaking task is called mooring line and gets its name from a combination of two terms used in the early days of sail. The Middle Dutch word “maren” meant “to tie,” and the Middle English words “moren rap” meant “ship’s rope.” Through the years the terms merged and were Americanized, hence any line used to tie a ship to the pier is called “mooring line.”

PEA COAT

Sailors who have to endure pea-soup weather often don their pea cots but the coat’s name isn’t derived from the weather.

The heavy topcoat worn in cold, miserable weather by seafaring men was once tailored from pilot cloth — a heavy, coarse, stout kind of twilled blue cloth with the nap on one side. The cloth was sometimes called P-cloth for the initial letter of the word and the garment made from it was called a p-jacket — later a pea coat. The term has been used since 1723 to denote coats made from that cloth.

SCUTTLEBUTT

The origin of the word “scuttlebutt,” which is nautical parlance for a rumor, comes from a combination of “scuttle,” to make a hole in the ship’s side causing her to sink, and “butt,” a cask or hogshead used in the days of wooden ships to hold drinking water; thus the term scuttlebutt means a cask with a hole in it. “Scuttle” describes what most rumors accomplish if not to the ship, at least to morale. “Butt” describes the water cask where men naturally congregated, and that’s where most rumors get started. The terms “galley yarn” and “messdeck intelligence” also mean the spreading of rumors and many, of course, start on the messdeck.

TONNAGE

Today tonnage refers to a ship’s displacement in the water or the gross pounds of cargo it is capable of carrying. In the days of sail this was not so. Tonnage was spelled “tunnage” and referred to the number of “tuns” a ship could carry. A “tun” was a barrel normally used for transporting wine and tunnage specified the number of barrels that would fit into the ship’s hold.

YANKEE

Americans are known by their nicknames from Hong Kong to Timbukto; one of the most widely used is “Yankee.” Its origin is uncertain but it is believed to have been given us by the early Dutch.

Early American sea captains were known, but not revered, for their ability to drive a hard bargain. Dutchmen also regarded as extremely frugal, jokingly referred to the hard to please Americans as “Yankers” or wranglers and the nom de plume persists to this day.

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