Whammies..........

[Jim Brady]

I wonder is this just a Liverpool saying.You suffer two mishaps for the same problem so you were hit with a double whammie,or you suffered a double whammie.What it's origin is I don't know,it's even used by people with no sea connections.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Possibly:

Whammie was formed through sound symbolism of one object hitting another, or the sound 'wham,' which may have echoic origin, and means 'heavy blow.'

Etymology : Whammie has the root 'wham,' which may have echoic origin. There is onomatopoeia involved, as the word has a similar sound to what it describes, mainly the hitting of one object against another.

Source : "These two waves of storms from Hurricane Ike have been double whammies." - A reporter on television.

A whammy was originally an evil influence or hex. It originated in the USA in the 1940s and is associated with a variety of sports. The first reference to it in print that I can find is in the Syracuse Herald Journal, October 1939:

"Nobody would have suspected that the baseball gods had put the whammy on Myers and Ernie when the ninth opened."

A 'Double whammy' emerged not long afterwards, in the Oakland Tribune, August 1941, in an interview with the then eccentric boxing manager Wirt Ross:

Interested in knowing more:

K.

[Chris Allman]

The above definition is in direct opposition to the benefits that a whammy gave to a maritime use. It could be said that it tied up loose ends and made things tidy. In the above definition it was a hex or disaster. Very strange as I cannot see how the two can be related in any way and how they came to be named with the same name.

[Jim Brady]

So reading Keiths post if you suffered a double whammy you were hit twice,that makes sense in the context that I have heard it used.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Ivan Cloherty]

So reading Keiths post if you suffered a double whammy you were hit twice,that makes sense in the context that I have heard it used.
Regards.
Jim.B.

Yes Jim me old mucker, but not in the context that we used it on deck, which is what the post is about, I'm sure we are all aware of what a double whammie is in the other context, especially those who had a double 'DR'

[Keith at Tregenna]

The above definition is in direct opposition to the benefits that a whammy gave to a maritime use. It could be said that it tied up loose ends and made things tidy. In the above definition it was a hex or disaster. Very strange as I cannot see how the two can be related in any way and how they came to be named with the same name.

As said possibly: and interested in knowing more:

K.

[Lou Barron]

According to a old sailing ship man he told it was used in the old sailing ship days would that be right????

[j.sabourn]

Probably used one without knowing it Keith, by hanging your paint pot from. Cheers John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

This post has gone off at different tangents like an exploding grenade. To put it to a layman who had never been at sea, he would naively call it a piece of string. And this is the purpose it was used more or less. I have seen some use it for a shoe lace. Cheers John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

And others to keep their trousers up, I may have been one of them when I couldn't afford a belt. John Sabourn