chimney's afire
English
editPhrase
edit- (nautical) A phrase shouted when blood gushes out of a whale's blowhole after a killing blow is struck with a lance
- 2015 December, Nathaniel Philbrick, “How Nantucket Came to Be the Whaling Capital of the World”, in Smithsonian Magazine[1]:
- Success would show itself as a geyser of crimson blood gushing from the whale’s blowhole, which caused whalemen to cry out, ‘Chimney’s afire!’