Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-07-18
Eastern shore Nautica,,s.ns.

guage is affected, in great measure,
by the physical environment of the
people that use it. The reason is not
far to see. A form of thought
expression, language presupposes
thought, but back of thought is the
thinker, whose way of thinking is in
evitably colored by the natural envi
ronment in which he finds himself.
The literature of section, and, more
especially, the ordinary speech OF its
people must always reflect, to greater
or less degree, the geography of that
section, the natural features of its
landscape. For instance, the every
day conversation of people living
inland, surrounded by "the everlast-
ing hills" is not apt to be character
! lied by the salty metaphors OF old
ocean. Widely different conditions
of physical life are productive of
widely different results even in the
realm of colloquial language. Each
kind of environment preserves its
own peculiar shop-talk, as it were,
which is, in every case, distinctly in
dividual, and as characteristic of each
section as the time honored customs
of it's people.
Thus, the mother-tongue of our
nearly sea-girt Eastern Shore is
tinged with enthusiastically re-
alistic metaphors smacking of water
life. and graceful epithets and SMILES
as delicately beautifula as oceans own
seaweed. To any but born and bred
Eastern Shoremen, many of our nau-
tical colloquialisms, if you will, are
little more than mere outlandish i'm
proprieties or crude oddities of speech
"a kind of unintelligible sea-slang
but few removes from the jargon of
genuine tars. Be that as it may,
| tho no loyal Eastern Shoreman
would make such an unqualified con-
cession), the fact remains that such
sea slang does exist on the Peninsula
to day, in our hearing and on our
lips. What Eastern Shoreman but
has, at some flood tide" felt las
happy as a clam at high water?" And
alas-fulI many one has, likewise,
made shipwreck of faith" or, at
best, found himself merely drifting
with the tide" There are those with
mo Storage" that have gone up
and down the narrows" under full
SAIL" soon to lie thigh and dry on a
shell bank" Wise acres, beholding
such tragedy, are given to moralizing
that there's many a "weak vessel' on
the high seas, more than one 'frail
craft" But human nature is indom-
liable. The Eastern Shoreman isl
soon 'off on another tack" never
Stacking sheet nor tackle" till he is
"out of sight of land" Sometimes,
indeed, there's such smooth sailing"
that he we'll nigh forgets to "look out
for the breakers Then comes
trough weather." and. like a ship
in Storm" he "keels right over"
Yet, truly, one need never mind the
weather, SO the wind don't blow"
But whence comes this highly
figurative sea-slang? And what is its
significance2 The wild waves of the
Atlantic and the blue waters of the
Chesapeake would tell US, perhaps,
that our forefathers gathered these
nautical colloquialisms-with their
living-along our shores, fishing them
up from the creeks and broad waters,
or drinking them in with the salty
breezes that blow from sea to bay.
Many of them are to day nothing
short of enigmas to the rising genera
ton, especially if that generation be
high woods born. The thrush of
railroad traffic,-with all that it has
accomplished in the broadening of
our life as people-forever destroy
ing the once partial isolation of the
Peninsula, tends always to make us
Jess sectional. our language less I'M
like that of our neighbors. And yet
these time worn relics are not to be
cast aside as meaningless jargon.
The strength of homely idiom is in
them, the forceful suggestiveness of
figures that rise spontaneously to the
lips of the people. What could be
more signifcant-to ears attuned-|
than the flgurative use of Riding
the high side," "Too much by the
bow" "Off for deep water" or cat a
low ebb"?
A philosopher might read in these
sea-born metaphors the tale of human
III whether by mountain or sea-
the Joy and sorrow of human hearts.
There is smooth sailing, flood tide;
and there are. just as truly, ship
wrecks and breakers and rough
weather-till life Gibbs out it's little
day. Perhaps there were no grander
wish than that of an old time couplet
inscribed in many an autograph
album, which says, tersely. MAY
your JOY be as deep as the ocean, your
sorrow as light as its foam"
Then, too, there is in this sea slang
an occasional touch of the humorous
sly iunuendo, or a delicious bit OF
sarcasm. 1t may be interesting, tho
somewhat surprising, to recognize in
"Nipkin''-the superStitious terror OF
old sailors-the once classic Neptune
of ancient mythology. On the other
hand, it is not surprising that Eastern
Shore youths with those of other
! Iondel shou16 find such scanning con