Terry Blanton <hohlr...@gmail.com> wrote: > Why does a 65-year-old fisherman set out in stormy weather, with a leaking > > 10 m boat, three sheets to the wind (drunk)? > > > A very appropriate phrase considering it's etymology: > > http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/three-sheets-to-the-wind.html
Yup. That's what my dad would have called it. He grew up in the 1920s in Freeport Long Island and Bermuda, sailing and motoring boats. He got out of the business in the late 30s after he was hurt, and went to college on Workman's Comp. A good thing too, because that ship was torpedoed in WWII. He was in the black gang (engine room crew) and they seldom escaped from a torpedo. It is a funny thing about sailors from that era and people who grew up around the sea, such as my father-in-law. They might be able to swim like seals but they never did if they could avoid it. I saw my dad swim in the ocean maybe a dozen times. He said he probably set a new swimming record once when the police in Caracas were coming after him and he dove into the harbor to swim to the ship, and realized the harbor was filled with sharks . . . but he never swam for fun. Many sailors back then could not swim. By the way, "sheets" are ropes, not sails. - Jed
