A Portsmouth

[Old Bloke]

Not an archery round of arrows but a slang word commonly found in areas of Naval Dockyards, especially the largest, Portsmouth. A commonly used phrase (with much sexual connotation) found around the streets of these Dockyards, when Naval Ships arrived at home ports after long days at sea. The Ladies of the Night, keen to entertain the said sailors off these said ships, and in order not to sound too vulgar and sound to forward in their approach, would use the saying:
*'ere, Darling, fancy a Portsmouth?*

It was not uncommon in the olden days to hear of a Round of Portsmouths especially if time on the dockside was short.

[Meddler]

And the motto for the French navy (la Marine Nationale), translates as

"To sea! It is time!"

or

"À l’eau! C’est l’heure!"

[mk1]

Oh Dear - thanks for that Old Bloke. As if there isn't already enough innuendo to be had from archery

[bkupris]

A good place to pour the Port

[English Bowman]

Originally Posted by Old Bloke

Not an archery round of arrows but a slang word commonly found in areas of Naval Dockyards, especially the largest, Portsmouth. A commonly used phrase (with much sexual connotation) found around the streets of these Dockyards, when Naval Ships arrived at home ports after long days at sea. The Ladies of the Night, keen to entertain the said sailors off these said ships, and in order not to sound too vulgar and sound to forward in their approach, would use the saying:
*'ere, Darling, fancy a Portsmouth?*

It was not uncommon in the olden days to hear of a Round of Portsmouths especially if time on the dockside was short.

You say that in jest (I think) but one of the suggested reasons that Portsmouth has the nickname Pompey, is that it was thought that Pompei was destroyed by God because of the sin that went on there, and Portsmouth was heading the same way due to the sailor's sinning, hence it was the new Pompei or Pompey. I don't know how true that is, but it makes as much sense as any of the other explainations of our city's nickname.

Daniel

[Old Bloke]

Hi Daniel,

It is true what you say about Pompey, for it is what I have heard also from *Old Sea Dogs* and did give rise to my post about Portsmouth.
The difficult bit was trying to link that knowledge with archery.

And yes, it was said with jest as are all my posts in the Glossary section but all have a tenuous link with archery either through observation, connotation or action.

[chrism]

This is common misconception, that the round name is taken from the place name
Below is an extract from "Bow and Beyond, a history of competative archery"


Because of the relatively short distance between bow and boss the arrows seemed to instantaneously disappear from the bow and appear (or apport ) at the target. Normally there would be some noise either from the bow or from the boss as it was stuck. This was known as an “apport rough” Occasionally the shot would be performed perfectly, with no noise at all, and the arrow would appear as if by magic at the target, this was known as shooting an “apport smooth”. Over time this was corrupted to “a Portsmouth”, and was erroneously linked with the harbour town of the same name.

[Old Bloke]

A quiet day at work Chrism?

[komtox]

Originally Posted by mk1

Oh Dear - thanks for that Old Bloke. As if there isn't already enough innuendo to be had from archery

Innuendo ??? Isn't that a brand of suppositary ?.

[moo-mop]

One of the older Portsmouth archery clubs (not mine or english's) was said to do a great deal to help promote and reinvent archery after the second world war and it is said by them that that's one of the reasons one of our major rounds is named the Portsmouth. Course all promotional... but they were around at the time unlike most clubs.

And there are worse place to live than by the sea.