A "yardarm" is the piece of wood that would hold out the sail on old square rigged sailing ships. The Captain would sometimes observe the position of the sun from where he stood on board ship and , if the crew had done well in something, reward them all with a drink. The yardarm in question would usually be the main yardarm which was more or less a-midships and therefore the sun would need to be quite high in the sky to get over it; usually around midday.
By SailingQuiz November 2019 Category: Nautical Saying
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