Comment on Wey hey and up she rises
Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 5 months agoThink about it inside the context of the song. Every other line is a type of punishment:
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Shave his belly with a rusty razor (give him tetanus)
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Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe on him (scupper= hole in the side of the ship, so stick his head in a hole and hit him with a hosepipe)
Why would this line suddenly be different?
themeatbridge@lemmy.world 5 months ago
Right, but none of those are metaphorical punishments. They’re just literal things that seem funny. And it’s a folk song, so the variations and intended meanings are as ephemeral as a game of telephone.
I’m not saying that it’s not possible that your interpretation is correct, but I would imagine that your average deck hand singing sea shanties isn’t thinking metaphorically when he’s singing about getting drunk and laid. And insisting that the one line in the song isn’t about fucking is feels like wishful thinking rather than a devotion to historical accuracy.
Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Very likely, probably why the whole captain’s daughter = captain’s whip thing took off as sailor slang to begin with.
I never claimed it was a metaphor, it’s slang. Similarly, the “gunner’s daughters” were the gun barrels midships on gunships.
I mean, no skin off my nose if you believe that, but it seems pretty clear judging from the fact that the captain’s daughter is a well known slang term for a whip in a song about punishing a drunk that that is at least the correct original intent. Of course anybody can interpret anything any way they want.