Rick Jolly - Jackspeak: A Guide to British Naval Slang & Usage

A Conway book

Rick Jolly, 1989, 1999, 2011
Volume Conway, 2011

First published in Great Britain in 1989
as Jackspeak: The Pussers Rum Guide to Royal Navy Slanguage

Second edition published 1999

This fully revised and updated third edition published in Great Britain in 2011 by Conway, an imprint of Anova Books Ltd.
10 Southcombe Street
London
W14 0RA
www.conwaypublishing.com
www.anovabooks.com

Please send all potential new additions and suggestions for Jackspeak to the address above.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a data retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

Dr Rick Jolly OBE has asserted his moral right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

A CIP catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781844861446

Printed and bound by Everbest Printing Ltd, China.

Distributed in the U.S. and Canada by:
Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.
387 Park Avenue South
New York
NY 10016-8810

To receive regular email updates on forthcoming Conway titles, email with Conway Update in the subject field.

Dedicated to Jack and Royal,
but not forgetting Jenny.

On their broad and willing shoulders
the destiny of this island nation
has so often depended.

Who knows what trials of
their devotion to duty
are yet to come

An Alternative Authors Biography

Rick Jolly was *launched in October 1946, coming down the *slipway in *Honkers. His old man had gone in the bag there six years before, but was eventually saved by two *buckets of American sunshine that changed the Japanese Emperors mind. After *rug rat time in *Singers, Doc J then returned from the *far flung to a college of knowledge for *left footers in Lancashire. From there he did the long *scab lifters course in *Smoke, and was going to be a *dagger *fanny mechanic, but joined the *Andrew instead. He got his *green lid in 1972, did the *bubblehead course, and split *watches between the *bootnecks and *wafus, apart from time in the *Madhouse and later, the *Pompey *Puzzle Palace. He also qualified as an *avquack, and during six years at *Cul-D was the *dope on the rope more than fifty times, even breaking the thing one memorable day.

Throughout the Falklands *shebang he was *Top Quack of the *Green Death, and also ran the Ajax Bay *boneyard. Thanks to the efforts of all the *bootneck, *cherryberry, *matelot and *pongo medics, cutters and gasmen in his teams, the *butchers bill was much reduced. He *issued an *arduous duty tot on twelve occasions, running up a personal account which Their Lordships were happy to settle. The *junglie, *pinglie, and *teeny-weeny crews also helped *big style, along with the lone and *mankey (but really *bramah) *shuddering shithouse, in getting all the *WIA to the floating boneyard UGANDA. From here the *droggies took charge, then the *Crabfat flying *blood wagons did the business as *freedom birds from Uruguay to home. Rick went to *Buck House to meet the *Lord High Admiral when the sweeties were handed out; seventeen years later he received an equivalent recognition from the Argies in Buenos Aires. To be *gonged by both sides in a war is rarer than a *Fleet Jossmans sea draft.

In 1996, Doc J got the *Golden Toecap in a daft series of defence spending cuts, and *swallowed the anchor down in *Oggieland. When not operating a *tripewriter he likes to *goof at the *war canoes playing with their *brown envelopes in the *Thursday War. His *CINC-NAG-HOME since 1970 is Susie; their only son James (who helped with the first edition) *crossed the bar, aged 17, in 1989. As well as Jackspeak, Rick has written a couple of novels and dreams of the day when Hollywood bids for the film rights to his weekly shopping list.

This book is the direct result of a hobby that began over forty years ago, on a sunny Mediterranean morning in 1971 very soon after I had joined the Royal Navy as a rather young and green Surgeon Lieutenant. My memories of that first patient are still embarrassingly clear; a tall and very fit-looking Royal Marines Corporal told me that he had managed to catch the boat up. As Mr Dom Mintoff was then in the process of kicking the British forces out of Malta, I presumed that my customer was delighted to have been chosen for a sea voyage back to England or maybe he had been selected for service in submarines?

Those of you who are familiar with Naval slang will no doubt understand his total confusion at my proffered congratulations! I had to excuse myself rather hurriedly, then popped out to the front office and questioned the Sick Bay tiff. This splendid character, the wonderful Jock Noble, slid under his desk for laughing, and then dined out on the story for the rest of his career. I returned to the consulting room, sorted my patient out in a more conventional manner, and then decided never to be caught out again

Seventeen years later, during a stint as Principal Medical Officer of the Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, I finally had a chance to sit down at my computer keyboard during the long duty hours that the airfield remained open for night flying. Of course, if I had known then how much work was going to be required for completion of this little project, I would have abandoned it there and then! Fortunately the Sick Bay manager, the splendid and late Sam Parker, never allowed his Boss to flag. My Commanding Officer and fellow Falklands veteran, the marvellous Paul Bootherstone DSC, gave me permission to use Culdrose resources, and in 1989 the final result of those highly enjoyable labours appeared.

Another eleven years on, I retired from the Andrew and pupated into a Naval pensioner; the revision of this book became a much needed labour of love. As a former obstetrician, I should have remembered that labour often lasts much longer than planned! The first edition of Jackspeak was a great success, and the response from those who wrote to us about the book was almost universally positive apart from the lady who bought it for her Sea Cadet nephew, and then thought that some of the definitions and usages were a bit strong for the young lad. She got her money back

There had also been a steady trickle of other letters, which, while thanking me for the industry and effort displayed in collecting all the components of the first Jackspeak, also pointed out its Royal Marines and Fleet Air Arm bias. I apologised proudly, since I was only the product of that Service experience, but I also agreed readily with their comments. When I asked those same correspondents to help me in this respect, they came back without hesitation. My files were soon bulging with the lovely suggestions, corrections and additions that came pouring in. Also, I finally got to sea as Principal Medical Officer in the Dartmouth Training Ship HMS Bristol, and that helped too.

I remain very grateful to all those who helped along the way, and especially thankful to my part-time secretary, assistant and family friend, Rosalie Dunn. She marshalled all the new potential additions onto the computer, helped me to sort them into alphabetical order, and then inserted them into the text as we revised the book. The first edition was created on an Acorn Archimedes computer; the files then had to be ported to a PC, and sent from there to an Apple G4 Mac. The carry-across was not exactly bloodless, since all the previous text settings were stripped out in the conversion, and they had to be replaced and carefully checked. I used my time as ships surgeon of the unique little South Atlantic vessel RMS