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One punishment on board ship was flogging with a cat-o-ninetails. So "cat out of the bag" was literally the cat-o-ninetails was out of its storage bag and ready to use...or the cat is out and ready to apply punishment.I was watching a show the other night, they showed that French Had a new weapon, heating cannon balls red hot ( hot shot) and it burnt ships down. When they went through a sail, is caused a fire immediately.
so where did the cat out of the bag come from?
One theory is that it refers to the Cat-o-nine-tails used to whip sailors who transgressed. It was supposedly kept in a bag when not in use. May or may not be true. It would be interesting to know the origin of some of these sayings, some are obvious but many are not.I was watching a show the other night, they showed that French Had a new weapon, heating cannon balls red hot ( hot shot) and it burnt ships down. When they went through a sail, is caused a fire immediately.
so where did the cat out of the bag come from?
Keel hauled!