this post was submitted on 28 May 2024
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He was found in bed with the Captain's daughter.
I always wondered if it's implied that she's ugly or that the sailor will get in trouble with the captain.
The "captain's daughter" was a euphemism for the cat o' nine tails. So in other words, that line meant give the drunken sailor a lashing as punishment.
Yooo really?? I never knew, always interpreted it literally
That sounds like something a prude would invent to reconcile their strict moral code with their desire to join in singing sea shanties.
Think about it inside the context of the song. Every other line is a type of punishment:
Shave his belly with a rusty razor (painfully pull chest hair out with a dull blade)
Put him in a long boat till he's sober (put him somewhere uncomfortably cramped on his own)
Give him a dose of salt and water (probably the nicest variation of the song, make him vomit)
Stick him in a scupper with a hosepipe on him (scupper= hole in the side of the ship, so stick his head in a hole and hit him with a hosepipe)
There's also loads of other variations on the song with tons of different punishments for the drunken sailor.
Why would this line suddenly be different?
Right, but none of those are metaphorical punishments. They're just literal things that seem funny. And it's a folk song, so the variations and intended meanings are as ephemeral as a game of telephone. Having one line about sleeping with the captain's daughter might have been even more amusing (and thus more catchy) because of the double meaning.
I'm not saying that it's not possible that your interpretation is correct, but I would imagine that your average deck hand singing sea shanties isn't thinking metaphorically when he's singing about getting drunk and laid. And insisting that the one line in the song isn't about fucking is feels like wishful thinking rather than a devotion to historical accuracy.
Very likely, probably why the whole captain's daughter = captain's whip thing took off as sailor slang to begin with.
I never claimed it was a metaphor, it's slang. Similarly, the "gunner's daughters" were the gun barrels midships on gunships.
I mean, no skin off my nose if you believe that, but it seems pretty clear judging from the fact that the captain's daughter is a well known slang term for a whip in a song about punishing a drunk that that is extremely likely the correct original intent. Of course anybody can interpret anything any way they want.
It seems more likely to me than that a captain would bring his daughter onto his ship with a bunch of untrustworthy men and career violence.
my critical thinking skills are sorely lacking because this makes a lot of sense and I've never thought of this point before
Don't worry about it, maybe if you train up your critical thinking skills you'll be able to find the fault in my point.
I think it's the latter