Green’s Dictionary of Slang

jack n.5

also jackie, jackshite, jacky, john
[abbr. jack tar n.1 (1); the cry of ‘Jack ashore’ was used by early 19C smuggling gangs to indicate the arrival of boat filled with contraband]

a sailor.

[UK]Wycherley Plain-Dealer I i: Here’s a finical Fellow Jack! What a brave fair weather Captain of a Ship he wou’d make!
[UK]N. Ward Wooden World 94: Let us e’en turn about, and view honest Jack the Sailor.
[UK] ‘Merchant’s Courtship . . .’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 177: And Jack he heard of another pretty fancy.
[UK]Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 282: Which when some honest tar shall see / [...] / Thus to himself poor Jack will cry.
[UK] ‘Sailor’s Frolick’ in Holloway & Black I (1975) 237: For white wine and canary, poor Jack must pay for all.
[UK]C. Dibdin ‘True English Sailor’ in Collection of Songs II 115: Jack dances and sings, and is always content.
[UK] ‘Signal’s Gave’ in Jovial Songster 50: Jack sings yo heave ho, / He braves the dangers of the main.
[Ire]Spirit of Irish Wit 234: ‘Avast there,’ says Jack [...] ‘I’ll be damned if I do,’ says the sailor, and sheered off.
[UK]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.
[Aus]P. Cunningham New South Wales II 273: Jack, as soon as tired of the ‘happy state,’ would take to ship again.
[UK] ‘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.
[Aus]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.
[Ind]Delhi Sketch Bk 1 Nov. 81/1: ‘The Jacks forard’ [...] regale him with tough and eyebrow-elevating yarns.
[UK]G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 42: ‘Jack’ (alluding, under that cognomen, to the general ‘seafaring’ class).
[US]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.
[Aus]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’!
[UK]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.
[Aus]Truth (Sydney) 7 Oct. 6/7: Jack ashore [...] is proverbially free-handed and generous in ‘shouting’ for all and sundry.
[US]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.
[US]H.H. Lewis A Gunner Aboard the ‘Yankee’ 9: We became full-fledged ‘Jackies’.
[Aus]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.
[UK]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.
[UK]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.
[US]D. Runyon ‘Fat Fallon’ in From First to Last (1954) 31: They were a bunch of jackies from the Olympia under a lieutenant.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Sept. 11/1: Jack at sea and Tom in barrack / Got blind drunk on rum or arrack.
[US]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?
[US]G.D. Chase ‘Navy Sl.’ in DN IV: ii 150: jackshite, n. A blue jacket.
[NZ]‘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.
[US]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.
[UK]Mills & Scott ‘Cheerio! Sailor Boy, How Do?’ 🎵 In storm or calm, whatever the luck may be / Jack doesn't care a continental ‘D’.
[US]Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
[US](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’.
[UK]M. Harrison Reported Safe Arrival 131: Yer can’t muck abaht wiv the Navy. They’re good lads, the Jacks is!
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.
[UK]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.
[UK]J. Meades Fowler Family Business 194: Jacks from Chatham [and] pongos from Brompton Barracks.

In compounds