For those of you lovelies who indulged in my latest blog on the wonderful Portsmouth Historic Dockyard – I thought I would spoil you further. It seems the Royal Navy has a language all of its own, aka Jackspeak and although not commonly used as much today, many of the phrases still remain in our daily jargon. 

Here is a taster of some of the gems:

Ankle biters      – children (makes me chuckle)

Chateau crappers – cheap and nasty wine

Square meal     – food was served on a square plate

On the fiddle       – The square meal plate had a raised edge, called a fiddle, if a sailor overfilled the plate onto the edge, he was said to be on the fiddle.

Head     – ships toilet

Agony bags      – bagpipes (I heartily guffawed)

Scab lifter      – medic (gross)

Let the cat out of the bag/no room to swing a cat – the nine tailed whip known as the ‘cat’ was used as severe discipline, if taken out of the bag there would be trouble.

Over a barrel     – sailors were strapped over a barrel before being flogged.

These are just a taster – so many sayings over the centuries are still in use today. Although ‘Tow Rag’ was originally a long piece of rope, frayed at the end and dangled from the boat into the sea, used after a sailor had used the ‘head’ to lift out of the water and wipe himself!

Well, me hearties, do visit Portsmouth Dockyard if you are in the area, there is so much to learn and when onboard refuse to look for the ‘golden rivet’ should someone ask you.