Jeri, Then stand by your cat-stoppers, see clear your shank-painters, Haul all your clew garnets, stick out tacks and sheets. This (with the usual poetic licence) describes the process of getting ready to anchor. As Roll&Go says, the anchors were secured to the cathead and the forward bitts (shank being the vertical part of the anchor). Clew garnets are lines that pull the bottom corners of the sails (the clews) up to the cente of the yard prior to stowing. Tacks and sheets are lines controling the set of the sail and also run from the clews, so prior to clewing up they have to be let go (NOT "stuck out"!). Clear as Mud??

Naemason missed one bit in his description of "the devil to pay", which is better seen in the other saying "between the devil and the deep blue sea". The devil is name applied to the seam between the last hull plank and the deck planking outboard of the gunwhale both a dangerous and difficult places to work.

Pete M