As someone who sings this song, I'm watching the thread with great interest. When anyone has ever asked its origins, I've told the "Aunt Virtue" story becauce I understood it was pretty credible. Can't wait to learn more as things are discussed.

In the meantime, can't a case be made that the use of homebuilding terms actually reinforce the Aunt Virtue story? She ran a boarding house and was herself a landlubber. She may have been a captain's wife, but wouldn't it be a big assumption that she would use trade specific terms?

For example:
* A doctor might talk over dinner about how he treated a fractured fibula, but his wife would say broken leg to the other soccer moms. * A stock broker might complain about a collapsing market due to subprime lending practices, but her husband might only say "headed for a recession" while working on the car with his buddy.

I understand the community she lived in would have a maritime culture, but should we assume that Aunt Virtue would use shipbuilding terms rather than house building terms? Does that expectation change if she is singing the song to landlubbers -- like the doctors who were her boarders -- who might be more familiar with landsman terms?

And I don't necessarily agree with the position that the use of the incorrect term isn't supposed to disparage the subject. She could be implying Lukey didn't know what he was doing, as in: "ha-ha, look at that fool...he 'chinked' his boat instead of corking it."

Peter