jury-rig

Jury rigging refers to makeshift repairs or temporary contrivances, made with only the tools and materials that happen to be on hand. Originally a nautical term, on sailing ships a jury rig is a replacement mast and yards improvised in case of damage or loss of the original mast.

Etymology

The phrase "jury rigged" has been in use since at least 1788.^[1] However, the adjectival use of "jury" in the sense of makeshift or temporary dates from at least 1616, when it appeared in John Smith's A Description of New England.^[1] It appeared again, in a similar passage, in Smith's more extensive The General History of Virginia, New-England, and the Summer Isles published in 1624.^[2][3]

There are several theories about the origin of this usage of "jury":

• From the Latin adjutare ("to aid") via Old French ajurie ("help or relief").^[4]
• Contraction in the nautical tradition for injury

Rigging

Three variations of the jury mast knot.

While ships typically carried a number of spare parts (e.g., items such as topmasts), the lower masts, at up to one meter in diameter, were too large to carry spares. So a jury mast could be various things. Ships always carried a variety of spare sails, so rigging the jury mast once erected was mostly a matter of selecting appropriate size. Contemporary drawings and paintings show a wide variety of jury rigs, attesting to the creativity of sailors faced with the need to save their ships. Example jury-rig configurations are:

• A spare topmast
• The main boom of a brig
• To replace the foremast with the mizzenmast: mentioned in W. Brady's The Kedge Anchor (1852)
• The bowsprit set upright and tied to the stump of the original mast.

The Jury mast knot is often mentioned as a method to provide the anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to the new mast. However, there is a lack of hard evidence regarding the knot's actual historical use.^[5]

Although ships were observed to perform reasonably well under jury rig, the rig was quite a bit weaker than the original, and the ship's first priority was normally to steer for the nearest friendly port and get replacement masts.

Similar phrases

A model showing a method for jury rigging a rudder

• The phrase "jerry-built" has a separate origin and implies shoddy workmanship not necessarily of a temporary nature.^[6][7]
• "Jiggered" is derived from "jerry-rigged". Although this has come into more common usage, it is still a pejorative term used to denote a poor quality short-lasting fix.
• The term "jerry-rigged" is a relatively recent mingling (or perhaps garbling) of "jury rig" with "jerry-built".^[8] The folk etymology that "Jerry-rigged" was employed by World War II British troops to refer to the German use of scavenged parts to keep vehicles and weapons functional, from the use of "Jerry" as a pejorative term for German soldiers, is false, as Merriam-Webster records its first use as 1959.
• Several slang terms combine a noun or adjective with the suffix "-rig" to denote an improvised or poor quality repair, often used pejoratively:

• nigger-rig – Based on the racial slur "nigger", this is likely to be interpreted as offensive and vulgar, and usually denotes particularly poor workmanship. Attested since the mid-1960s, especially in the Southern United States.^[9]

Further reading

• John Harland, Seamanship in the Age of Sail (Naval Institute Press, 1984)

See also

• jerry-built
• MacGyver in popular culture
• Robinsonade
• Sailing ship accidents
• Upcycle

Notes and references

External links

• Jerry-built