The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1907-11-14
SEA TERMS m COMMON USE.
Remote Origin of Well-Known Phrases.
Vanishing Sailors. Large Errors in
Plane Charts.

4
Vanishing Sailors. Large Errors ii
Plane Charts.
ihere'll be the devil to pay"
1he phrase Is in common use, Otter
M MIN the addition land no pitch hot
NlneIy-nlne out of hundred persons
| would say that it refers to the Landlord
o1 hades: But the term has nothing te
10 with hades or its chief occupant. II
IL comes straight from the shipyard.
In caiklng a ships deck-that is. in
niiihg the seams between the planks
WIN oaKum and afterward pouring
pitch over the Oakum - the outside
seam, being very difficult to work. came
70 oe known as the devil. The techni.
cal term for pouring in the pitch was
paying. The expression is now clear
enough. "'
Or take again that very common -ex.
preston, close quarters. Close quar-.
ters, or close fights, were wooden bar
rlers, loopholed, which stretched across
merchantman's decks for repellinp
Doarders. Slavers were occasionally
htted thus in case of rising among the
negroes.
If we take these words and phrases
IN something like alphabetical order we
shall at once come upon aback-'I was
completely taken aback." A shin is
taken aback when the wind has headed
her, laid her sails aback and STONED
her way through the water; she halts in
her tracks as the man taken aback does.
10 hold aioof is not so often heard
now as IN past days. To hold ones
aloof, or huff, was by superior sailing to
keep to windward (get the weather
gage) OF another vessel The term is
constantly met with in old voyages:
we held aloof," or eve kept our loot"
Bitter end is curious instance of the
entire change of meaning in a phrase ::
it was sometimes the better end. In
early editions of Robinson Crnsoe', we
lind: 1--WE rode with two anchors a.
head, and the cables veered out to the
better end" Bitter is, however. the
more Seamanlike 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
it better end on the plea that the part
OF the cable abaft the bits was not so
much Ill use and was therefore the bet
ter part; but this is not the true term.
When cable was veered out to the
Dltter END there was no more, and it is
In this sense that it has come to mean
the extreme in fight or argument. Bit
terness usually characterizes such ex-
tremes, and so the original meaning
has been lost.
There are many other instances in
language quite as curious as this; for
example, the Scotch have turned their
old French petit gateau to petticoat
tail, which is scarcely creditable to the
land of cakes.
To run the gantlet was military
term originally, but the seaman has
made it his own. The gant-lope (Ghent
rum 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
thieves punishment and took the
place of the more brutal punishment of
being logged and lowed ashore astern
of a boat and discharged.
AL plain sailing; this term is SO spell
led even in nautical works 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 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
right-angled triangle.
There were very large errors in plane
charts, yet all the world was charted on
them and all the great voyages of dis
coyery made before MercatOr's pro-
lection came into USE Plane sailing
was the simplest of all sailingS and
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 pirate or SLAYER,
whose masts had heavy rake or lean
toward the stern. There are, however,
several derivations of the word, some
authorities taking it from rakehell,
which is referred to the Swedish raka,
to roam. Rakish 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 slav-
erS were fond.
Few of us realize that the British
sailor is almost a being of the past.
Yet SO it is; sails have been discarded
altogether in the British navy. In the
mercantile marine sailing vessels are
days of sailing ships was man apart,
with his own customs and language,
his own ideas and snperstitions- He
has disappeared now, but not without
leaving his mark upon our language
Macmillan's Magazine.