Jimmy Ducks

[George Thompson]

As is well known, (except among those to whom it isn't well-known,) sailors carried generic nicknames linked to their jobs on board ship -- as "Chips" (the carpenter) and "Sparks" (the wireless operator).
In the days before refrigeration, ships carried hens, ducks and goats, to supply fresh eggs and milk during the voyage.  The sailor who tended to these critters was "Jimmy Ducks", which HDAS has from 1841.

Patrick, who had been employed on board of ship as a keeper of the pigs, cleaner of the styes and coops, and feeder of the poultry, had the distinction of being nicknamed "Jimmy Ducks". . . .
        N-Y D Express, August 3, 1837, p. 2, col. 4

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much lately.

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