Fanny Adams was murdered in 1867 and parts of her dis-membered body turned up in the Royal Navy Yard at Deptford at the time when the navy was switching to tinned meat. In typical sailors humour the, somewhat inferior, tinned meat became known as "sweet Fanny Adams".The complicated link to meaning "nothing" comes from the initials S.F.A. which came to mean "sweet fuck all" but in more polite circles "scotch mist" would have been used."Fannies" are also square tins.
By SailingQuiz October 2019 Category: Nautical Saying
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