Category: Nautical terms in everyday English

A drinking toast akin to saying cheers! This term is said to originate from the common practice of tricking English sailors into joining the Navy. Always looking for ways to boost recruitment numbers, Royal Navy recruiters would manipulate the sailor into joining the Navy by tricking him into accepting the King’s shilling, which was secretly dropped into his drink. The victim would not notice the coin until it was too late. Once pub owners began to realize what was going on, they started to serve beer in tankards with clear bottoms and drinkers would remind each other to check for the hidden payment with the phrase ‘bottoms up’. The practice of offering the king’s shilling was officially brought to an end in 1879. This nautical tale could be just a myth because the Navy press-gangs could recruit by force, making deception unnecessary.

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To take a risky course of action with no margin for error, which could come close to breaking the law or leading to a calamity. In the Age of Sail, it meant to steer the vessel into the direction the wind was blowing from. Doing this would fill the sails and move the vessel along at a faster pace. However, any small error in adjustment would cause the ship change direction and promptly lose speed, it not being possible to sail directly into the wind. Also known as sailing close hauled. The expression was first recorded in A Sea Grammar, a training manual for sailors written by Captain John Smith in 1627, in which he explains the techniques of sailing close to the wind, describing it as sailing against the wind or maintaining one’s course without falling leeward or backward.

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