Spanking Limerick On A Postcard
Found this spanking and sailing gem on eBay:
It reads:
The pretty young wife of the banker
Sweetly slept while the yacht lay at anchor,
But she woke in dismay
When she heard the mate say:
“Let’s life up the top sheet and spanker.”
This is a rather complicated naughty nautical double entendre.
A top sheet is a part of the rigging of a sailboat, a spanker is, per Meriam-Webster:
spanker
Pronunciation:
\ˈspaŋ-kər\
Function:
noun
Etymology:
origin unknown
Date:
1794
1 : the fore-and-aft sail on the mast nearest the stern of a square-rigged ship
2 : the sail on the mast nearest the stern of a schooner of four or more masts
Er, thanks, I think.
But it’s not all that complicated — those terms are familiar (at least, as part of sailing jargon, if not fully understood) to anybody who’s read any nautical fiction.