Landships II

The customary way round this sort of thing (as when sending profane emails to friends who work for companies with profanity filters - usually American firms, even in the UK) is to substitute numerals for letters, as in:

c0ckpit

c0ckup

And worse, much worse...

And what if any c0ckneys want to post, gorblimey guv'nor, strike a light, apples 'n' pears, and all that...?

And does the forum stop us mentioning S****horpe?

EDIT: Ha ha, yes it does! And for the non-Brits wondering what on earth I'm on about, I refer to the proud Northern town of

S c u n t h o r p e

The Profanity Filter has now been turned off!

But no profanity cockups are allowed anyway...

Off topic a bit but you might be interested in one very likely source of the phrase cock up. In the old days of the sailing navies the RN (and the young USN for all I know) had a phrase to describe when all the yards were set (but the sails not sheeted home) at exactly 90 degrees to the mast and also 90 degrees to the centre line of the ship (typically if in harbour or at anchor but ready to set sail if needed). This was cock a bill, if the yards were not cock a bill the 1st lieutenant would probably go a slight shade of purple and the crew might tremble ( but no self respecting crew would allow this situation to occur for fear of the derision of other ships companies). If a yard was out of alignment it was said to be cocked up. Now the French Navy in the Napoleonic Wars spent much of its time in port being blockaded, many of its seamen were conscripted into the French Army (who were always looking for men who had been trained to load and fire cannon) and replaced with raw recruits who had no sea experience. Confined to port with no sea time moral and abilities tended to flag a little and the appearance of some ships tended to deteriorate and the yards were not always properly aligned. The observing frigates and corvettes of the blockading fleet when 'looking in' to the French ports would often report that the French ships were 'all cocked up'. From this the phrase cock up to decribe any major muddle or error derived

In the same vein originally the phrase Sweet F A did not contain an anglo saxon 4 letter word begining with f but actually meant Sweet Fanny Adams. Fanny Adams was an unfortunate girl who was murdered by her sweetheart. He was a butcher and it was reported that he had tried to dispose of the body over the counter (probably a myth). About this time tinned foot was first being introduced to the RN in the form of corned beef. It was not popular and in grim humour the contents of the tins were said to be Sweet Fanny Adams. On enquiring of one's mess mates of what was available to eat the reply might be given ' nothing but Sweet Fanny Adams mate'

Mark Hansen wrote:

---

Centurion wrote:

---

About this time tinned foot was first being introduced to the RN in the form of corned beef. It was not popular and in grim humour the contents of the tins were said to be Sweet Fanny Adams. On enquiring of one's mess mates of what was available to eat the reply might be given ' nothing but Sweet Fanny Adams mate'

---

Close but the real story of Fanny Adams' death is more gruesome and more disturbing. I've attached a link to the article which describes the original Fanny Adams. The RN corned beef reference is spot on though.

---