about ship

English

Etymology

From the imperative phrase used as an order aboard sailing ships.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˌbaʊt ˈʃɪp/

Verb

about ship (third-person singular simple present about ships, present participle about shipping, simple past about ship or about shipped, past participle about shipped)

1. (intransitive) Tack; to cause to turn into the wind and through the other side ending with a full 180 degree turn.
   • 1807, A Journal kept at Nootka Sound, John R. Jewitt, page 27:

     The ships fired grape shot but to no effect. They about ship and went to sea.

   • 1841 October 17, Amanda Green, "Life of the Nymphs 11", The Sunday Flash, quoted in The Flash Press: Sporting Male Weeklies in 1840s New York, page 148

     This Amanda refused and was about shipping to the other side, when the gentleman sprang out, clasped her in his arms, lifted her in, whistled to his horse and the next moment was flying about like mad [...]

   • 1857, John Askew, A Voyage to Australia and New Zealand, page 251:

     The captain saw that no further progress could be made with safety, so he about ship, and ran for Newcastle.

   • 1857, From Bombay to Bushire, and Bussora, William Ashton Shepherd, page 193:

     "Jones fired first and broke its leg, so he charged; Noland hit him in the back, so he about ship and wanted to make mince meat of him for his trouble; when the Doctor sent a shot through his shoulder, and he sprawled," coolly replied the boatswain's mate, as he was cutting the animal's throat, to the numerous inquiries.

   • 1858, James Anthony Froude, John Tulloch, editors, Fraser's Magazine, volume 58, page 23:

     We are told repeatedly that the King advised, restrained, coerced, conceded; that he alone saw the end from the beginning, and that in his hand only the helm of the State "about-shipped" or stood still at the right moment.

   • 1859, Ancient dominions of Maine, Rufus King Sewall, page 82:

     They stood for the land, and as they could not fetch in before dark, they about ship, and lay "a hull, all that night," finding abundance of fish, "very large and great" [...]

   • 1863 March 24, Edward Redington, transcribed letter to his wife, Wisconsin Historical Society, page 81:

     So we about shipped and started back (did not the steamboat men swear some then)?

   • 1863, William Charles Baldwin, African hunting from Natal to the Zambesi, including Lake Ngami, the Kalahari Desert &c. from 1852 to 1860, page 14:

     as the sea and the wind were so dead ahead that they found they could make no way, and the boat was at times half full of water, so they about ship and ran before the wind, much to their delight, living on geese and water melons (capital things on a hot day); spent a very comfortable night before the fires, without any blankets [...]

   • 1875, anonymous soldier, The Campaigns of Walker’s Texas Division, Lange, Little & Co., page 151:

     She “about-shipped,” and returned up the river again.

   • 1928, Johannes Carl Andersen, Myths & legends of the Polynesians, published 1969, page 86:

     Birds in the air, and seaweeds in the water, indicated the nearness or absence of lands; and there is actual record of one voyage aiming at Rarotonga from the north knowing he had missed it by the coldness of the sea; without delay he about ship, and soon made the island.

   • 1993, Leslie Conron Carola, editor, The Irish: A treasury of art and literature, page [191]:

     Then, his men sweating and straining and reloading, he about ship and did it again and again.

Usage notes

• Usually used as an order or command.