how did they come about ?

[Ivan Cloherty]

You haven't mentioned sheerlegs to Keith yet Ivan. Mine are sheer bloody awful. JWS

The ones in Cuba were lovely

[j.sabourn]

They came in all hues. ( cant say colours that's a no no ) JS

[cappy]

###can honestly say never had tab nabs on any ship ......new what they were ....many times would have heard the saying we had tabnabs on the last ship .....but never saw tabnabs ever ....even at xmas still the same old duff every sunday at sea.......loved the sunday duff .....one chief steward from north shields gave his ice cream ....which believe me was a hard job to make in the monkey organ ......with pineapple coupe hawaii....with orange coupe seville with banana coupe jamaica......with nuts he couldnt think of a name ...so of course....it was coupe with nuts ......cappy

[Keith Tindell]

Same here Cappy, apart from a Castle boat, never had tab nabs on the trampers, but having said that was never on a bad feeder, some better than others, but i was eating at sea what we could not afford at home, Friday night steak night!!! at sea, not at home, kt

[thomas michael]

How did cakes etc become ``tab nabs``? Why a Rosie ? Fiddles ? and many more``ship board`words which have faded from my mind over the years. When some of these words came out in conversations with `land lubbers` the look you got was like you were speaking a foreign language ! I can recall too that it was often said if something was no good it was said ``it`s under the arm``!!....Nudge my memory fella`s there are many more. Brian W.

hi brian Charles Williams

the term tabnabs I remember the first time I heard it was when joining a ship when I was a lad, and a glasweigan AB pointed at a couple of donkeymen making there way down below and called them tabnabs,
as for the rest of the sea or merchant navy vernacular these words are used everyday in liverpool parlance and the the words have crossed into common language, most likely because we are a seaport and most of the families are connected to the sea.
tom

[Evan Lewis]

Would have been a long walk ,Down Aft to the Forecastle ,Keith Unless of course. the Galley was . 0n the Knights Head? Still waiting for a 2nd Cook ,to arrive with the Tea and Tab Nabs. The author obviously had a sense of humour.

[happy daze john in oz]

You haven't mentioned sheerlegs to Keith yet Ivan. Mine are sheer bloody awful. JWS

No doubt John seen better ones on a Queen Anne Table.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Most of the gay staff were in catering. They worked long hours and used time off intensively - for courting, partying and preparing for camp crew shows.

The secret language of polari:

If you were not aware, most likely not gay ?

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/...the-exhibition