The ‘scuttlebutt’: Keeping nautical expressions afloat

Published: Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 3:10 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 4, 2014 at 3:10 p.m.

It’s pretty clear how expressions such as “run a tight ship,” “hit the deck,” “take the wind out of your sails,” “keel over” and “batten down the hatches” came about. But how did “cup of joe” originate?

It supposedly dates back to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels, who in 1914 banned alcoholic beverages on navy ships. The strongest drink became coffee, and a “cup of Josephus” was shortened to a “cup of joe.”

What about “shake a leg?” One theory is when wives were at sea with their husbands, they didn’t have to get up as early as the men. “Shake a leg” was announced, and women would swing their legs out to reveal they were not men.

Because sailing vessels relied on winds, it was hot and boring to travel through the area of calm near the equator called the doldrums — thus the expression for being emotionally down. Going the “whole nine yards”? This comes from the fact that large sailing ships had three sails with three yards on each mast; so all sails unfurled would mean all nine yards.

The cat o’ nine tails (a multi-tailed whip used for punishment) was stored in a bag. So the “cat is out of the bag,” meant someone was getting punished (the secret is out). Since all hands were called on deck to witness the flogging, it would be so crowded that the whip couldn’t be swung with full force. Therefore, there was no room to “swing a cat.”

On ships, a scuttled butt was used for drinking water, and since sailors conversed when gathered for a drink, scuttlebutt became slang for gossip/rumors.

Posh has come to mean elegant or stylish, but P.O.S.H. stood for “Port Outward, Starboard Home,” referring to wealthy passengers traveling from Britain to India having cabins on the shady side of the ship.

The boatswain would signal maneuvers to the crew by blowing his whistle or pipe. “Piping down the hammocks,” meant to go below and retire, so “pipe down” means be quiet.

To ignore information is to “turn a blind eye.” The phrase is attributed to Adm. Horatio Nelson, who during the Battle of Copenhagen deliberately held the telescope to his blind eye in order to not see the flag signal from his commander to withdraw. (By the way, he won.)

If women aboard ships had a baby, the child was normally delivered between the ship’s two guns, leaning on them for support. If the child’s father was unknown, it was entered into the log as a “son of gun.” A bitt is a post fastened on a ship’s deck for cables. When there’s no more rope, it’s been played to the “bitter end.”

The devil was the longest seam down the ship’s hull, and caulking was done with pay (tar). Paying the devil was one of the most unpleasant tasks (“devil to pay”).

And finally, at least once a month every sailor had to have his hair trimmed. So at that time everyone would get — you guessed it — a “crew cut.”

Claudine Dervaes’ column is published the first Sunday of each month.


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