Jack Tar

 

Jack Tar

The True British Tar, 1785

Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

John was the most popular name for a boy from around 1150 to 1470 and its pet name or diminutive was Jack, which became widespread from the late fourteenth century onwards. It denoted an ordinary or low-class man, or peasant, and was applied to any low-born or common male.

It gave rise to expressions like, ‘Every man Jack,’ meaning every man in a group, with no exemptions.

 ‘Jack of all trades (master of none)’ indicated a person who could turn his hand to any task, while ‘Jack the lad’ described a youth who was self-assured and maybe roguish. These idioms are still used today.

In the seventeenth century, someone trying to improve his social standing, to ‘rise above his station in life,’ would be described as ‘Jack would be a gentleman.’

Royal Navy Boatswain (Bosun) 1820
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons

There are a few suggestions for how the name Jack Tar came to be applied to sailors. In the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, when wooden sailing vessels relied on wind for power and propulsion, the rigging for the sails was hemp rope. Being permanently in a damp atmosphere, they were prone to rot, so were covered in tar, which had to be replaced frequently. Tar was also used on the deck planking, and the ship’s hull, to make everything waterproof. Sailors were therefore often liberally coated in tar. Tarpaulins, canvas material coated in tar, were used to cover objects on deck, and sailors’ clothing was made of tarpaulin. It was but a short jump from the name of the material to the name for the man.

There is a belief, unsubstantiated, that sailors tarred their hair, which they wore in a long plait, to prevent it being caught in the rigging. This led to another plausible legend, that the purpose of the square collar of a sailor’s uniform was to protect his uniform being stained by tar from his queue or plait.

Coopers were skilled craftsmen in the nineteenth century whose job was to assemble or maintain casks on board. When a barrel of wine or spirits was emptied, it would be filled with boiling water and rolled about. The drink thus produced was known as grog and the coopers became known as Jolly Jack Tars or groggers.

The invention of grog is ascribed to Admiral Edward ‘Old Grog’ Vernon. His nickname came from his habit of wearing coats of grogram (grosgrain) In 1740, he sought to counteract and reduce inebriation among his crew, by adding water to the rum. With the addition of lime juice, to combat scurvy (and the reason Englishmen are called ‘limeys’) and sugar to sweeten the taste, grog became a staple drink.

Natives of Swansea, in South Wales, are known as Jacks, or ‘Swansea Jacks.’ Swansea men had a reputation for being skilled seamen and, as such, their services were greatly desired by the navy.