Origins of the term "crossing the bar"?!

[maffism]

Question 1 - What does "crossing the bar" mean in jackspeak? Does it mean dying?

Question 2 - What's the origin of the term?

Sorry if I've posted this in the wrong forum.

 

[dapperdunn]

1. It does.
2. http://shenandoahliterary.org/blog/2015/02/crossing-the-bar-by-alfred-lord-tennyson/

 

[maffism]

THANKS VERY MUCH dapperdunn.

 

[Wightsparker]

To add to Dapperdunn's post.

http://farringford.co.uk/tennyson

This link gives a bit more information, referring to Tennyson's home at Farringford near Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. It says the poem was written during a journey from the mainland to the Island.

I think he usually made the crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth, but whilst there are "bars" in other estuaries I'm not aware of a particular bar in the Lymington river.

However, the channel is pretty twisting, and anyone heading towards the Isle of Wight from Lymington in a small boat could well cross sandbanks at high water, which could have inspired Tennyson to write his poem.

 

[maffism]

To add to Dapperdunn's post.

http://farringford.co.uk/tennyson

This link gives a bit more information, referring to Tennyson's home at Farringford near Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. It says the poem was written during a journey from the mainland to the Island.

I think he usually made the crossing from Lymington to Yarmouth, but whilst there are "bars" in other estuaries I'm not aware of a particular bar in the Lymington river.

However, the channel is pretty twisting, and anyone heading towards the Isle of Wight from Lymington in a small boat could well cross sandbanks at high water, which could have inspired Tennyson to write his poem.

Thanks wightsparker. I forgot the fact that bar was also a nautical term.

 

[Wightsparker]

It was doubly significant for the late Oliver Reed when he got into a drinking contest with members of HMS Cumberland's ship's company in a Malta bar.......

 

[WreckerL]

The Doom Bar at the mouth of the Camel estuary is so famous they named a beer after it (and very nice it is too, on draught).

 

[Stirlin]

The Doom Bar at the mouth of the Camel estuary is so famous they named a beer after it (and very nice it is too, on draught).

Does not travel well Wrecks , the DB I have sampled down south is as you say pretty good , oop north it is bloody awful , suspect it may be brewed up here on license , different water and all that.

 

[dapperdunn]

Does not travel well Wrecks , the DB I have sampled down south is as you say pretty good , oop north it is bloody awful , suspect it may be brewed up here on license , different water and all that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-33175395

 

[WreckerL]

Does not travel well Wrecks , the DB I have sampled down south is as you say pretty good , oop north it is bloody awful , suspect it may be brewed up here on license , different water and all that.

As it says on Dappers link, the bottled stuff is way inferior to the cask stuff, I would definitely put it down to the water.

Makes oi larf when the bottled stuff is brewed oop North and transported back down here for my local supermarkets when the real stuff is brewed 30 miles away.

Same as Ginsters pasties (spit) are made where I live, transported up to a distribution centre near Coventry, then brought all the back down again to be sold in the Tesco's next door to the factory, it would be cheaper just chucking them over the wall.
There again, no-one who lives in Cornwall eats Ginsters.

 

[dapperdunn]

As it says on Dappers link, the bottled stuff is way inferior to the cask stuff, I would definitely put it down to the water.

Makes oi larf when the bottled stuff is brewed oop North and transported back down here for my local supermarkets when the real stuff is brewed 30 miles away.

Same as Ginsters pasties (spit) are made where I live, transported up to a distribution centre near Coventry, then brought all the back down again to be sold in the Tesco's next door to the factory, it would be cheaper just chucking them over the wall.
There again, no-one who lives in Cornwall eats Ginsters.

I agree with you buddy, but I'd hardly class Burton upon Trent as 'oop North'!

 

[WreckerL]

I agree with you buddy, but I'd hardly class Burton upon Trent as 'oop North'!

'Tiz from down 'ere, it's in England across that there Tamar moi luvver