The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77777   Message #2505928
Posted By: EBarnacle
02-Dec-08 - 11:41 AM
Thread Name: Origins: The Cruel Ship's Captain (Broadside?)
Subject: RE: Origins: The Cruel Ship's Captain (Broadside?)
Garling spykk is pretty clearly a corruption of marling spike, commonly pronounced as marlin spike. I double checked in Steel's Elements of Mastmaking, Sailmaking and Rigging, 1797, and found no reference to a garling spykk. Marling is the process of making use of marling [marline] or cordage involved in knotting and splicing.