The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #48959 Message #4088062
Posted By: Lighter
15-Jan-21 - 07:12 AM
Thread Name: South Australia:What the hell's a 'Rolling King'?
Subject: RE: South Australia:What the hell's a 'Rolling King'?
"Claudy Banks" or not, "rolling king" is a combination of words with no single, widely recognized or accepted meaning.
To put it another way, it means to anyone whatever the hell they want it to mean.
Not what someone else wants it to mean.
Once it was established in the chantey as a cliche', we have no idea what sailors in general thought it meant - assuming they even thought about it, which I believe they would have considered a damned waste of time.