BELL-BOTTOMED
TROUSERS
The uniform trousers of a seaman of height about
5ft 10ins measure 25 inches round the bottom. It is said that the
practice of making sailors' trousers very full arose from the days
when the men made their own clothes, when they found it easier and
less wasteful of material to use the full width of the material. A
bolt of serge in Britain has for years measured 54" across. This,
allowing for two, two inch turn-ins, would be just perfect for two
trousers legs. That wide trousers legs were subsequently found to
be easier to roll up when scrubbing decks is often given as the reason
why trousers were made wide, but it seems that this was not the original
reason.
BOWLINE
The bowline was originally a special knot used
by archers for securing their bowstrings
BROWNED
OFF
In its early days, this expression was a naval
one, meaning "reprimanded". The Army, however, produced the expression
in the early stages of the 1939-45 war, with the meaning "fed up".
This, by frequent usage, has now become the accepted meaning of the
expression.
LET
THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG
Common slang expression, meaning "The secret
is out". From the practice of keeping the Naval cat o' nine tails
in a red baize bag and not removing it until the offender was secured
to the gratings and there was no possibility of a reprieve.
CHOCK
A BLOCK, CHOCKER
Chock-a-block is an old Naval expression, meaning
"Complete" or "Full up"; synonyms were "Two blocks" and "Block and
block". It derives from the use of a hauling tackle - when the two
blocks of the purchase were touching each other the lower one could
obviously be hoisted no further, and so the work was completed. Modern
slang has corrupted the expression to "Chocker", meaning "Fed up".
SEWING
UP A CORPSE FOR BURIAL AT SEA
It is the custom when sewing up a corpse
previous to burial at sea for the sailmaker (or other rating doing
this job) to put the last stitch through the nose of the corpse. This
is done to make certain that the body is indeed a corpse, since it
happened once that when the sailmaker inadvertently put his needle
through the nose of the body, the alleged corpse suddenly made a move
to sit up, the shock of having his nose pierced being sufficient to
revive him from his state of catalepsy.
