Previously published cartoon strip, on this website in June and December 2010.

‘Proffing’ is an old naval term for acquiring an item without the owner’s authority, which in landsman’s language is sometimes called ‘stealing’.  In the good old naval tradition of having many names for the same thing (to confuse the lubbers), proffing was also often referred to as ‘unhooking’.

The heads were the so-called seats of ease, where the crew carried out their unavoidable natural bodily functions.

The Captain of the Heads was the name given to the crew-member whose duties included cleaning the heads, and those parts of the ship’s hull beneath them that inevitably got soiled.  This duty was given to a minor recalcitrant, and so the title was gleefully passed on quickly to the next ‘victim’.