Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jack n.⁵

a sailor.

1676		Wycherley Plain-Dealer I i: Here’s a finical Fellow Jack! What a brave fair weather Captain of a Ship he wou’d make!
1707		N. Ward Wooden World 94: Let us e’en turn about, and view honest Jack the Sailor.
c.1720		‘Merchant’s Courtship . . .’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 177: And Jack he heard of another pretty fancy.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 282: Which when some honest tar shall see / [...] / Thus to himself poor Jack will cry.
c.1780		‘Sailor’s Frolick’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 237: For white wine and canary, poor Jack must pay for all.
a.1790		C. Dibdin ‘True English Sailor’ in Collection of Songs II 115: Jack dances and sings, and is always content.
1800		‘Signal’s Gave’ in Jovial Songster 50: Jack sings yo heave ho, / He braves the dangers of the main.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 234: ‘Avast there,’ says Jack [...] ‘I’ll be damned if I do,’ says the sailor, and sheered off.
1817		J.T. Smith Vagabondiana 25: My worthy heart, stow a copper in Jack’s locker – for poor Jack has not had a quid to-day.
1827		P. Cunningham New South Wales II 273: Jack, as soon as tired of the ‘happy state,’ would take to ship again.
1837		‘Sailor Jack and Queen Victoria’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 57: Now Jack, who’d travelled far away / Returned to port the other day.
1849		J.P. Townsend Rambles in New South Wales 274: There is a sweet little cherub that sits up above, to look out for the life of poor Jack.
1853		Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Nov. 81/1: ‘The Jacks forard’ [...] regale him with tough and eyebrow-elevating yarns.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 42: ‘Jack’ (alluding, under that cognomen, to the general ‘seafaring’ class).
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 29: The crimps have their strong-hold here, and Jack’s hard-earned wages [...] is the in-flowing capital upon which these sharks carry on their infamous calling [...] Jack ashore has long been notable for his tendency to indulge in the lively dance.
1875		J.H. Warren Crying Shame of NY 121: The first thing ‘Jack’ wants when he gets on shore is a glass of grog, a female companion, and then a dance.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 2 Oct. 4/4: ‘Good enough for sailors!’ / Bread unfit for human food / Bitter, sour, baked quite black, / That bread’s good enough for ‘Jack’!
1884		Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday 21 June 63/2: Wicked men, called navy agents, hung around and touted for Jack, to whom they advanced certain sums of money.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 7 Oct. 6/7: Jack ashore [...] is proverbially free-handed and generous in ‘shouting’ for all and sundry.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 205: The orders came from Headquarters to keep the women out of the saloons there for the protection of Jack ashore.
1898		H.H. Lewis A Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 9: We became full-fledged ‘Jackies’.
1898		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2/1: No longer can the loafer, the shiftless, or the criminal pose as a decent ‘Jack’ down on his luck.
1900		Punch 24 Jan. 64/1: While we proudly tell of TOMMY’S pluck, / And of JACK the handy man of war, / Of Cornstalk ready, and keen Canuck.
1900		E.W. Rogers [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Red and The White and The Blue 🎵 And they catch a glimpse of colour through the kitchen window-pane, / Of their girl with Jack and Tommy, then they say, We'll call again.
1907		D. Runyon ‘Fat Fallon’ in From First to Last (1954) 31: They were a bunch of jackies from the Olympia under a lieutenant.
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Sept. 11/1: Jack at sea and Tom in barrack / Got blind drunk on rum or arrack.
1913		T.A. Dorgan Daffydils 3 Jan. [synd. cartoon strip] If a jackie on a battleship was promised promotion for a brave act, would the target it?
1914		G.D. Chase ‘Navy Sl.’ in DN IV: ii 150: jackshite, n. A blue jacket.
1916		‘Anzac’ On the Anzac Trail 127: hey were white right through, those boys from the warships, from the plucky little middies and the jolly ‘Jacks’ right up to the senior officers.
1916		C. Sandburg ‘Iron’ Chicago Poems 88: Straight, shining, polished guns, / Clambered over with jackies in white blouses, / Glory of tan faces, tousled hair, white teeth, / Laughing lithe jackies in white blouses.
1917		Mills & Scott ‘Cheerio! Sailor Boy, How Do?’ 🎵 In storm or calm, whatever the luck may be / Jack doesn't care a continental ‘D’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1933		(con. late 19C) F. Riesenberg Log of the Sea 19: A nice new-looking pilot jacket, recently hocked by a jack tar [...] ‘Some hard-up jackie parted with that for two dollars’.
1943		M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 131: Yer can’t muck abaht wiv the Navy. They’re good lads, the Jacks is!
1945		H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/2: Rooms upstairs, rents them to Jacks. Hit the beach, maybe thousand [...] of cabbage.
1967		S. Hugill Sailortown 4: The sailor ‘on the beach’ automatically became a ‘beachcomber [...] a John who [...] would disappear among the dives of sailortown [and] hide until his ship sailed.
2002		J. Meades Fowler Family Business 194: Jacks from Chatham [and] pongos from Brompton Barracks.

In compounds

jack ashore (adj.) [his habits when in port]

larky, excited, tipsy.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.