Posted by Peter Ceresole on November 05, 2009 at 07:24:47 user PeterC.
In Reply to: Re: Literary allusions posted by Woll on November 05, 2009 at 00:36:22:
The saying appears to be from: SALT-WATER BALLADS BY JOHN MASEFIELD
Well done; that ticks all the boxes- although how 'a swab' translates into 'the mate', I'm not sure. Still, it's the kind of thing that AR/the Walkers would have read.
It might even have been adapted into a pantomime, in which the mate would have danced on. Who knows?