Wednesday 28 September 2011

Jackspeak

In an above board story, the BBC takes a new tack and shows us the ropes of Jackspeak.

I had the first edition of Mr Rick Jolly OBE's copper-bottom guide to Royal Navy slang and that's not just swinging the lead, so cop a shufti while I get myself a cuppa NATO standard, negative two.

1 comment:

eon said...

I prefer black gang with a pinch of salt, myself. ;-)

I know that the old saying "between the devil and the deep blue sea" has nothing to do with Old Scratch. A caulked seam on a sailing ship was called a "deviled" seam, and was right inside the hull, with the water just beyond it. So we're talking about a very short distance, indeed.

USN slang is a little different. Nukes tend to be "solid gold", unless they're B63 free-fall H-bombs, known as "silver bullets" due to their polished metal finish. When a ship is moving at "four bells and a jingle", she's topping 40 knots plus some change.

And when you grab the "loud handle", it's because your aircraft is doing something unrecoverable, and you're sincerely hoping that Messrs. Martin & Baker got their sums right when they designed your "panic rack" (ejector seat).

cheers

eon