The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1907-08-04
MANY SEA TERMS
IN COMMON USE
"There Il be the devil to pay"

There II be the devil to pay"
The phrase is in common use, often
with the addition and no pitch hot"
Ninety-nine out OF a hundred persons
would say that II refers to the landlord
Of hades. But, according to a writer
in Macmillians Magazine, the term has
nothing TO do with hades or its chief &C.
cupant. 1t comes straight from the
shipyard.
In caulling a ships deck-that is, in
filling the seams between the planks
with oakum and afterward pouring pitch
over the oakum-the outside seam, being
very difficult TO work, came TO be known
as the devil. The technical term fer
pouring in the pitch was paying. The
expression in now clear enough.
Or take, again. that very common
expression close quarters. Close quar-
tiers, or close fights. were wooden bar
riers. lOop-holed, which stretched across
a merchantman's decks for repelling
boarders. Slaves were occasionally fit
ted thus in case of a rising among the
negroes.
II we take these words and phrases in
something like alphabetical order we
shall at once come upon aback-'T was
completely taken aback." A ship is
taken aback when the wind has headed
her. laid her sails aback and stopped
her way through the water; she halts
in her tracks as the man taken aback
does.
The Bitter End.
To hold aloof is not so often heard
now as in past days. To hold ones
aloof or luff, was by superior sailing to
keep to windward (get the weather
gage Of another vessel The term Is
constantly met with in old voyages; I'VE
held aloof, " or. I'VE kept our loot"
Bitter end is a curious instance of the
entire change of meaning in a phrase; il
was sometimes the better end In early
editions OF Robinson CrusO" we find:
We rode with two anchors ahead. and
the cables veered out to the better end.
Bitter Is, however, the more seamanllke
word.
Old hemp cables were secured to bits,
heavy oak stumps which stood upright
out Of a ships decks. and the bitter end
of the cable was that part which was
abaft the bits. Some read II better end,
on the plea that the part of the cable
abaft the bits was not so much in use
and was therefore the better part; but
this Is not the true term. When cable
was veered out to the bitter end there
was no more, and II is in this sense that
II has come TO mean the extreme in
fight or argument Bitterness usually
characterizes such extremes. and so the
original meaning has been lost
There are many other instances in Ian
guage quite as curious as this: for ex-
ample, the Scotch have turned their old
French petit gateau to petticoat tail,
which is scarcely creditable to the Land
Of Cakes.
To run the gauntlet was q military
term originally, but the seaman has
made it his own. The gant-lope (Ghent
Iun) was invented IN that town, and was
a punishment in which the victim was
compelled to run between two lines OF
men armed with ropes ends. with which
his speed was quickened. At sea it was
q thieves punishment and took tho
place OF the more brutal punishment of
being flOgged and tOwed ashore astern
of q boat and discharged.
Plane Sailing.
All plain sailing; this term is so
spelled even in nautical books Of some
age. but plane sailing is the correct
form. Before Mercator invented the sea
chart which goes by his name all charts
were on a plane projection. In using
these the ships course was treated as
an angle. and the distance, difference of
latitude. and departure as the sides OF
a right-angled triangle
There were very large errors in plane
charts vet all the world was charted on
them and all the great voyages Of dis
covery made before Mercator's proJec-
tion came into use. Plane sailing was
the simplest Of all saliings, ana thus
came the present meaning Of the term.
Rakish, used to describe a man or
woman whose appearance is not quite
respectable. was originally used Of a
vessel generally a pirate or SLAYER,
whose masts had a heavy rake or lean
toward the stern. There are. however,
several deriyaticns of the WORD, some
authorities taking ii from rakehen,
which is referred TO in the Swedish raka,
to roam. Ralkish Is, at any rate. rec
ognized term to describe the extreme
lean aft of the masts and this used TO
be the characteristic of the fast sailing
schooner, Of which rig pirates and
slaverS were fond.
Few Of use realize that the British
sailor is almost a being of the past. Yet
so IL Is; sails have been discarded alto
gether in the British navy. In the mer-
camille marine, sailing vessels are fast
OF sailing ships. was a man apart with
his own ideas and superstitiOns. He has
disappeared now. but not without leaV-
ing bis mark upon our languages