In the early days, sailors were permitted to keep their "wives" on board ship. The term was used to refer to children born alongside the guns of the broadsides. The expression questioned the legitimacy of a person.The old definition of a man-o'-war was: "Begotten in the galley and born under a gun. Every hair a rope yarn, every tooth a marline spike; every finger a fish hook and in his blood right good Stockholm tar."A British officer commanding a brig off the Spanish coast in 1835 wrote in his diary. "This day the surgeon informed me that a woman on board had been laboring in child for twelve hours, and if I could see my way to permit the firing of a broadside to leeward, nature would be assisted by the shock. I complied with the request and she was delivered of a fine male child." Gunners Mate's to the rescue!
