The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #89467 Message #1688442
Posted By: Amos
08-Mar-06 - 02:38 PM
Thread Name: Up the rope and down the cable
Subject: RE: Up the rope and down the cable
Typically, the cable is used to describe either a large rope or a chain connecting the ship to its anchor. But I have never heard this phrase per se before.
There's a similar couplet yelled out at the end of "The Old Orange Flute" in the Clancy Brothers version, IIRC:
"Up a long ladder and down a short rope Here's to King Billy, to hell with the Pope...."