Ferrara, your memory is okay. In his glossary to 'The Valiant Sailor', Palmer stated that 'tarry-breeks' was a north country name for a sailor. He wrote: 'Perhaps the sailor was associated with tar because he used it for his pigtail and he came into contact with it so much - for it was used to preserve standing rigging from the weather - that the smell of it hung about him'.

--Stewie.