Expression "hand over fist" -- A History Channel folk etymology?

[Douglas G. Wilson]

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>     A colleague told me about hearing the origin of the expression "(making money) hand over fist" on the History Channel, and I asked him if he could e-mail me the information as best he remembered it.
>
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Looks wrong to me. But let's see the evidence!

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>      First, though, I checked OED online and tried to include its "hand over fist" attestations in this ads-l message, but the ads-l website is configured to reject such inclusions. So I'll just retype the earliest two entries (which aren't all that early and don't refer to the making of money):
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> 1825: W.N. GLASCOCK, _Naval Sketch-Bk. (1826) I.26 The French..weathered our wake, coming up with us, 'hand over fist', in three divisions.
> 1833 S. SMITH _Life Major J. Downing_ (1834) 116 They..clawed the money off of his table, hand over fist.
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>     Might the original context have been a furious climbing motion (perhaps in an attack), with one hand grasping onto the rung of a ladder while the other hand reaches up to the next rung?  Then by extension, the clawing of money off the gambling table (one hand over the other, raking it all in) and hence: "making money hand over fist"?
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My poor-man's OED shows "hand over fist" = "hand over hand"; seems right
to me.

Then from Google Books one can retrieve many early examples (back to
about 1800) of "and over hand" and "hand over fist" in apparently
equivalent application (e.g. "coming up on [someone] hand over
fist/hand" = "gaining on [someone]").

In particular:

http://books.google.com/books?id=9ZUVAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA396&dq=%22hand+over+hand%22+date:1600-1833&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES

[English-language dictionary dated 1830 (N. Webster)]

<<hand over hand ... rapidly, as to come up with a chase hand over hand;
used by seamen.>>

Some reckon that these nautical terms sometimes have Dutch origins.
Indeed there are lots of pre-1800 examples of "hand over hand" _in Dutch_.

Here it is on the Dutch side of a bilingual dictionary:

http://books.google.com/books?id=yGAIAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA313&dq=%22hand+over+hand%22+date:1600-1800&lr=&num=100&as_brr=3&as_pt=ALLTYPES#PRA1-PA314,M1

[Dutch/English dictionary dated 1766 (Sewel)]

<<Hand over hand, _More and more, continually._ / De wind wakkert hand
over hand, _The wind increases more and more._ / Zyne ziekte neemt hand
over hand toe, _His sickness increases from time to time._>>

-- Doug Wilson

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