Link to the related website that has useful info: the Age of Nelson.

This forum is devoted to the Royal Navy during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793 - 1815).
And why not the other navies of the period?
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Devils
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abodkin



Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 1
Location: Ruislip, Middlesex

Post Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:37 pm    Post subject: Devils Reply with quote

Does anyone know what "devils" are - I believe they were lit to fumigate ships.
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PMarione
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Joined: 26 Mar 2007
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Post Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 7:26 pm    Post subject: Devils Reply with quote

The only nautical references I can find in OED for "devil" are:
Quote:
The seams which margins the waterway on a ship's hull (Smyth, Sailor's Wordbook). Hence various writers derive the phrase "the devil to pay and no pitch hot"

At the origin of the expression "between the devil and the deep blue sea":
Quote:
Caulker's name for the seam in the upper deck planking next to a ship's waterways. There was very little space to get at this seam, making it a difficult and awkward job. This is the origin of the expression "Between the devil and the deep blue sea, since there is only the thickness of the ship's hull planking between this seam and the sea. also known as the garboard seam.


Quote:
The name of various forms of fireworks; also "a sort of primind made by damping and bruising gunpowder" (Smyth, Sailor's Wordbook).

Seems more related to your query.

So it could have been some kind of match to set fire to the fumigation mixture.
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