Bracknell Royal Naval Association - Hornpipe

Talking to a business friend over dinner and the conversation went into great depth as to the past three months with a new employee they had employed to undertake a specific task, organising a marketing strategy….. my friend continued to glorify:

“The lad straight from university was fine during the interview and for the first couple of weeks but he soon started to ‘show his true colours’ and that’s when we realised he was a bit of a ‘toss pot”. I put Derek who’s as sharp as nails with him to act as his 'dad', and ‘show him the ropes’. Derek takes no crap and soon made him “toe the Line”. Derek tried his hardest to guide him and pointed out that we all work as a team, you know ‘you scratch my back and I’ll stretch yours’. It seems that the lad was just a ‘flash in the pan’ he was perfect as teaching material but lacked the potential to gain practical experience with the customers, every time I sat to talk it through with him, there was always a ‘yarn’, I could right a book with his excuses and the ‘puns’ he comes out with really he really wound me up”.

I may add that my friend explained that he has now adopted a different approach with the lad and reassigned him to a job more fitting his educational ability and every thing is ‘hunky dory’. We then discussed the common use of Naval Terms he used in his colorful tale – to which he was totally gob smacked that he used the terms as the nearest he'd been to the Navy was on the Callas - Dover ferry.

I will explain for those land lubbers, some phrases speak for themselves………just so you know the next time you slip into slang mode.

‘Show your true colours’ comes from sailing ships that, when passing other ships at sea, would fly their colours (flags) if they wanted to be identified. Even today it is traditional to dip the rear colours when passing another ship, as a mark of respect.

‘Toss Pot” this term describes the losers in a drinking contest, often the favorite pastime of sailors on shore leave in the 18th century. Each contestant who, through having had too much to drink, could no longer find his mouth when trying to drink his "pot of beer", ended up tossing it all over himself – hence the meaning of ‘toss pot’ or ‘idiot’

“Daddy or Sea Daddy” was a senior rating or Instructor in charge of new entries, to help and guide them as well as to instruct them. Similarly, any shipmate who takes a newly-joined sailor under his wing for this purpose, typically “show him the ropes”.

“Toe the Line” the space between each pair of deck planks in a wooden ship was filled with a packing material called "oakum" and then sealed with a mixture of pitch and tar. The result, from afar, is a series of parallel lines a half foot or so apart, running the length of the deck. Once a week, as a rule, usually on Sunday, a warship's crew was ordered to fall in at quarters - that is, each group of men into which the crew was divided would line up in formation in a given area of the deck. To insure a neat alignment of each row, the sailors were directed to stand with “their toes” just touching a particular seam.

Another use for these seams was punitive. The youngsters in a ship, be they ship's boys or student officers, might be required to stand with their toes just touching a designated seam for a length of time as punishment for some minor infraction of discipline, such as talking or fidgeting at the wrong time. A tough captain might require the miscreant to stand there, not talking to anyone, in fair weather or foul, for hours at a time. Hopefully, he would learn it was easier and more pleasant to conduct himself in the required manner rather than suffer the punishment. From these two uses of deck seams comes our cautionary word to obstreperous youngsters to "toe the line."

‘You scratch my back and I’ll stretch yours’ this phrase is linked with the cat of nine tails as discussed before, if your shipmate had the duty of flogging you with the cat of nine tails, effectively carrying out the punishment for a crime committed on a ship, he would request his shipmate ease off on the flogging. This would be repaid in kind when the shoe was on the other foot…hence ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’

‘Flash in the pan’ comes from the meaning of something that shows great promise, only to disappoint by being over too quickly. Flintlock muskets used to have a small pan to hold gun powder, it was always a fact that the gunpowder would flare up but not fire the gun……especially when the ship rolled.

‘Yarn’ Naval expression meaning to tell a tale. The expression originates from the day when rope was made and re-made on board ship; men repairing the rope-yarns could do this and chat at the same time (and did).

‘hunky dory’ in the 19th century, a street in Yokohama, Japan, called "Honcho-dori." It is said that Honcho-dori was the Times Square of Yokohama, and thus a favorite hangout of U.S. sailors on shore leave. So popular did this street become among sailors, it is said, that "Honcho-dori" entered naval slang as "hunky-dory," a synonym for "Easy Street," or a state of well-being and comfort. Very similar to "Bugis (Boogie) Street" a well known and frequented den of pleasure in Singapore for service men straight off the gangway.

‘pun’ is nothing to do with the Navy only that it is often considered obvious humor, since the person relating it is merely balancing the humor in it on a twist of a word's meaning or sound. Sailors (like children) love this type of obvious humor and can laugh at it without reproachments. Adults (Non Sailors), on the other hand, are filled with what the early Romans referred to as 'punus envy' (a term derived from the Latin "epunibus unim," loosely translated as "why think of that didn't I?"). It is this envy in adults that subconsciously causes them to groan upon hearing a ‘pun’. As man evolves, it can only be hoped that he will eventually learn to react more like a child and less like a groan-up!

But most Sailors no matter the age never grow up, so like I said at the start 'Aspire to inspire before you expire'.........signed Shipmate Bidders

P.S: Check out the download, now thats a play on words...poor chap!

DOWNLOAD

[ Not all Words mean the same thing ]

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