RE: Nautical Terms - 2

Hit the deck.stands a chance

No Room to Swing a Cat (o' nine tails), this one had never occurred to me.
It refers to a cramped space.

The Cat was kept in a canvas bag so "Letting the Cat out of the Bag" was a dead giveaway that someone was about to be flogged.

"Hit the Deck" could just be from our use of the word deck for the ground. But it would mean the same on a ship as it does now providing they would have used the word Hit to mean get down on.

I read somrwhere that there were floggings that the crew were to witness and there was barley enough room for the crew and the floggers on most RN ships of the day , hence the phrase ,but this is relying on my memory , never a good thing Bernie

The watches were interesting such as the Dog Watch...Anyone know any more.?

Over a barrel VM

Two versions of how to Get Someone Over a Barrel.
They used to tie a floggee to the barrel of a cannon and therefore he was at the mercy of the flogger.
They used to place a drowned man belly down over a barrel, on it's side, and roll it back and forth to get the water out of his lungs, so his life was in the hands of the barrel rollers.
VM

A Loose Cannon was considered dangerous as it would roll about and smash holes in the hull.

Slush Fund.
The fat and grease on the sides and bottoms of the barrels of salted pork was called Slush, it was scraped out and sold at port to candlemakers.
The money obtained from the sale was called the slush fund and used to buy little luxuries for the crew.

If rations were running desperately low then fat at the bottom of the barrels was scraped out and fed to the sailors, that was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Between the devil and the deep blue sea maybe VM

While chewing the pork and fat from the barrels the sailors would gossip and complain to each other, this is the source of "Chewing The Fat"

Between the devil and the deep blue sea is referring to a dangerous position sailors found themselves in when they were lowered over the side to waterproof the seam between the the deck boards and the uppermost side planks. The seam was some sort of water drainage channel, outside of the side rail, known as the "Devil" and pitch had to be "Payed" into the joint to make it water tight. From this also came the phrase "There'll be the Devil to pay"

Figurehead, an ornamental bust fixed to the front of a ship, possibly to inspire the crew.
Now used to refer to a public figure at the head of an organisation.

Volty
I would add "often ineffectual" after "public figure"

That's pretty much what the book I got it from said mikejee.

Neither figurehead serves any practical purpose.