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Seaman’s Words, Pirates & Armed Grappling by Mark Hatmaker

 


First, a 17th to 18th Century Nautical Expression

“Hard Up in a Clinch and No Knife to Cut the Siezing!”

When wind is high and a but fluky [subject to hard to read shifts] a sailing vessel could wind up “sailing by the lee.” Yes, more jargon, but stay with me—sailing by the lee was essentially having all sails and rigging set for an opposite tack or jibe.

The fluky wind, particularly if high enough will pin yards of canvas and rigging in dangerously precarious fashion.

The psi on a single yard of sail is amazingly powerful and productive when set right, and devastatingly destructive when set wrong.

Poorly set sails and rigging, or sails caught by fluke can unstep masts [break them], render rigging and running lines so taut they can no longer be handled [bad news as this is your sail control—essentially your brake and gas pedals], and if not addressed can knockdown or turtle the vessel [breach her to beam or capsize.]

Needless to say, these are all very very bad outcomes.

Good seamanship in steady wind conditions will not see such hazards, but…Mother Nature being the mercurial one she is, can render wind fluky, shifty and gusty and quickly render good seamanship chaotic if one is not attuned to any and all signs of atmospheric change.

Another Nautical Expression

You’ve likely heard the piratical, “Well, shiver me timbers” dripping from some cinema pirate’s lips. The expression was based on a sign of imminent danger.

The “timbers” in this expression were the masts, when poorly set sail is caught by strong gusts the masts/timbers literally shake, shiver and make audible groans as the sail psi signals it will snap the masts, heel the ship past control, or shake her apart.

If you can hear the shake, you’re in trouble.

“Hey Mark, that’s all well and good but, you never defined the one we started this little essay with.”

Indeed.

“Hard Up in a Clinch and No Knife to Cut the Siezing!”

When we are in the dangerous predicament of sailing by the lee and the sails and rigging are no longer responsive, we must make a drastic choice and cut running rigging to release sail pressure.

It is a drastic step as the sails will flog and likely shred themselves and you are no longer in control of the boat but…the alternative is likely worse.

If one is in a hard upwind [pressing wind] and the running lines are taut they are said to be seized. The sails plaster/clinch to the masts and leeward rigging are said to be seized. We must defeat this clinch by cutting what is seized.

You must then use your ever-present knife and cut the seized rigging.

No knife to cut? Well, more bad news is coming for that carrying neglect.

There was an alternate definition to “Hard Up in a Clinch and No Knife to Cut the Siezing!”

When boarding an enemy or booty vessel the fight was often “Hand-to-Hand” [man-to-man, with sailors being called hands.]



Hand-to-hand was not to imply unarmed, it simply defined one-on-one.

These Hands were most definitely armed.

Ships of war preferred cannon shot to destroy a vessel.

Whereas pirates or those who preferred to capture the ship and/or cargo itself sought not to destroy the ship but to board her so that the prize of the ship could be retained and not wind up at the bottom of the sea.

Hand-to-Hand fighting was a premium for winning the prize.

Since no Hand intended to be unarmed, no Hand wanted to fight “hand-to-hand” in the modern sense. If one did wind up in the melee without a weapon, well, again, you were “Hard Up in a Clinch and No Knife to Cut the Siezing!”

Weaponized Clinches, implement-in hand-grappling was the first choice in these altercations, not some “What if?” maundering for tactical class.

It was always assumed that grappling upright or down involved a weapon—for close range-- knife or boarding ax aka tomahawk. To not have a weapon meant something has gone horribly awry.

Weaponized clinches differ from unarmed grappling in more than a few particulars. We lean hard on the weaponized and “Hard Up in a Clinch and No Knife to Cut the Siezing!” versions of both in The Black Box Project.

[Black Box 12 & 13 in particular. You can view a complete Black Box 12 syllabus here.]

Black Box 13 and beyond go far deeper into this old world of red-deck melee, where the goal was weapon in hand Hand-to-Hand.

For more on The Black Box Project.

For more nautical mayhem.

For our Free Newsletter w/ Video.



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