GDG- GDG: "The Devil to Pay"

[Batrinque at aol.com]

In a message dated 10/17/06 12:01:01 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
gerldoc at aol.com writes:

> According to this book, it says that the full phrase was "The Devil to pay 
> and no pitch hot".  They state the meaning is: "There will be serious trouble 
> arising from this".  According to this text, "The 'devil' was the seam 
> between the outboad plank and the waterways of a ship and very awkward of access.  
> It also needed more pitch (tar) when caulking and paying, hence the 'the 
> devil to pay'."
> 
> I thought that was very interesting!
> 

Son of a gun or, to take another tack, it is quite extraordinary how many 
common terms and phrases are nautical in origin, used without people at all 
thinking about that.

Bruce Trinque
Amston, CT