What is a fanny

A Naval Fanny
Aftrer the first few days of settling in, the feelings of being the new boys on the block was strong, so we tried to strut our stuff, it wasn't easy with forty eight, two left feet. We watched in awe as a class that was further into training went past us, they marched as one, they moved in a majestic way that showed us up for what we were. We had been told we had to make way for senior classes, it was obvious why, it was to show the standards that we had to attain. Even though the overall feeling was, what a load of show offs! it was just pure jealousy.

Class resumed for training.

We marched to class, we were shouted at from windows, from behind and also from in front, we were shouted at by Officers, Senior rates, Junior rates, and Nobodies, "silence", they shouted, "swing your arms, get in step". "Class leader take charge of that shambles", eventually it was like water off a ducks back it was all said so often.
I began to believe that spies had been placed around the camp just to give us grief and report on our movements.

Classes started become interesting:
What is meant by free board, gunwales, running tackle; how many men does it take to man a three in one whaler; and what is a three in one whaler?. What is a rollock?. (rowlock). Sounds moderatly related to the human body.

A rowlock (British) or oarlock (US) is a device that attaches an oar to a boat. When a boat is rowed, the rowlock acts as a fulcrum, and, in doing so, the propulsive force that the rower exerts on the water with the oar is transferred to the boat by the thrust force exerted on the rowlock.

The days seemed to go so quick, we went running at 0600, every morning we ran for two miles around the camp always culminating with a thirty second screaming and shouting session in the marines barracks, it was always strange there never seemed to be any reaction, our instructor was always so keen to send us in to run amok along the long wooden corridor of their accommodation but he said "make sure you get out quick before you get caught". The noise we made was deafining.

Breakfast, parade training, more classes, then stand easy! stand easy was the most wonderful of naval traditions about ten thirty, the bosun's whistle would sound out over the camp followed by a deep melodic voice from the camp broadcast of "stand eeeeasy".

This was when we could relax and have a cup of tea, tradition was that the tea was made in a fanny! a fanny was a very large receptacle, usually made of aluminium, but historically made from tin, enough for everyone to fill there cup by dipping it in it. The tea was folded in a muslin cloth, probably the first tea bag. Latterly anything that held tea was called a fanny! but fanny was a name used for many receptacles used by sailors!


In 1869 new rations of tinned mutton were introduced for British seamen. They were unimpressed by it, and decided it must be the butchered remains of Fanny Adams. The way her body had been strewn over a wide area presumably encouraged speculation that parts of her had been found at the Royal Navy victualling yard in Deptford, which was a large facility which included stores, a bakery and an abbatoir.
"Fanny Adams" became slang for mutton or stew and then for anything worthless - from which comes the current usage of "Sweet Fanny Adams" for "nothing at all" (often shortened to "Sweet F. A."), or with similar meaning as a euphemism for "fuck all".
Incidentally, this is not the only example of tasteless Royal Navy slang relating to unpopular rations: even today, tins of steak and kidney pudding are known as "baby's head".The large tins the muttons were delivered in were reused as mess tins. Mess tins or cooking pots are still known as Fannys.