The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #100495   Message #2017213
Posted By: Charley Noble
05-Apr-07 - 09:54 AM
Thread Name: BS: Cannon Balls, any jokes?
Subject: RE: BS: Cannon Balls, any jokes?
Then there's the old navy expression "Son of a gun":

When in port, and with the crew restricted to the ship for any extended period of time, wives and ladies of easy virtue often were allowed to live aboard along with the crew. Infrequently, but not uncommonly, children were born aboard, and a convenient place for this was between guns on the gun deck. If the child's father was unknown, they were entered in the ship's log as "son of a gun".

Cheerily,
Charley Noble