Royal Navy Slang You Use Without Knowing It
Jack speak, the secret language of sailors
I have family connections to the British Royal Navy and spent several years volunteering for a youth organisation based on a naval ethos. It didn’t take me long to discover that British sailors have a language all of their own, based on centuries of tradition.
Royal Navy sailors were known as Jack Tars.
They often had long hair which they kept tied back in a pigtail. They smothered the pigtail in tar - a substance which had multiple uses on a ship so was readily available - to form a stiff queue and to stop their hair getting in their eyes during high winds and battles. They also sometimes covered their clothes with tar to help waterproof them and make them last longer.
The Union Flag, when flown by a Royal Naval vessel at sea, is called the Union Jack and is flown from a pole called the jackstaff on the front of the ship.
So, the British sailor became known as a Jolly Jack Tar or Jack for short
The Naval slang that developed over the centuries is known as Jack Speak.
Fascinated by the idea of Jack Speak, I did some digging and discovered that many colourful phrases used in everyday life on land had naval origins.
