shootingstar
Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2022
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Germany
- Current Location
- Germany
(A chief officer of a ship (the Gleaner) that has entered harbour tells . . .)
". . . You see, they might corral us with the captain, and that's no kind of berth for me. I've sailed with some hard cases in my time, and seen pins flying like sand on a squally day - but never a match to our old man. It never let up from the Hook to the Farallones, and the last man was dropped not sixteen hours ago. Packet rats our men were, and as tough a crowd as ever sand-bagged a man's head in; but they looked sick enough when the captain started in with his fancy shooting."
(The captain killed five seamen on their homeward journey)
(The Wrecker by R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, chapter viii, Faces On The City Front, published 1892)
Please, what do you take fancy to mean in this context? What meaning of fancy fits shooting there?
". . . You see, they might corral us with the captain, and that's no kind of berth for me. I've sailed with some hard cases in my time, and seen pins flying like sand on a squally day - but never a match to our old man. It never let up from the Hook to the Farallones, and the last man was dropped not sixteen hours ago. Packet rats our men were, and as tough a crowd as ever sand-bagged a man's head in; but they looked sick enough when the captain started in with his fancy shooting."
(The captain killed five seamen on their homeward journey)
(The Wrecker by R. L. Stevenson and L. Osbourne, chapter viii, Faces On The City Front, published 1892)
Please, what do you take fancy to mean in this context? What meaning of fancy fits shooting there?
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