I never knew and got curious and looked it up. I guess it makes more sense than slamming your testicals against the wall.

  • @[email protected]
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    14 hours ago

    Another fun one is that in the phrase “three sheets to the wind” Sheets do not refer to the sails as many believe, they actually refer to the ropes that tie down the sales. So you lose a sheet, the sail becomes less predictable. If you lost 3 sails I think you’d just be dead in the water most times, not stumbling about

    • @kalpol
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      412 hours ago

      Patrick O’Brian has a bunch of opinions about these. “The devil to pay” was spreading pitch on, or paying, the hard-to-reach seam between deck and hull called the devil. At loggerheads means fighting with the long poles with a hot iron ball on the end , or loggerheads, used to heat pitch.