ringbolt, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

ringbolt n.

[the use of SE ringbolts on ships]

(N.Z.) a free sea voyage obtained by posing as a ship’s crew member; usu. as v. and phr. do/get a ringbolt; thus ringbolter n., the person who obtains such a passage.

1965		J. Watson Stand in Rain 16: They would go possum-trapping...or maybe even-do a ringbolt on a ship somewhere [DNZE].
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 192: Because Mata was a seaman he knew he’d have no trouble getting a ringbolt or a stowaway back to the Islands.
1989		Dominion (Wellington) 11 Jan. 3: Officially Hinckesman was a stowaway, but the Auckland Star said he had done a ‘ringbolt’, paying a crew member to hide him during the voyage [DNZE].
1991		Metro (Auckland) July 94: She went to Australia as a ‘ring bolt’, a stowaway, on the Monowai [DNZE].
1999		D. Looser ‘Boob Jargon’ in NZEJ 13 34: ringbolt n. Clandestine vovage by sea used bv escapees.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 153/2: ringbolt n. a clandestine sea voyage used by escapees [...] ringbolt (also ringbolt it) v. to escape from prison and to head overseas, usually by sea.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 173: ringbolter Stowaway, from play on ‘bolthole’ and the ‘ringbolts’ used on ships for tying ropes to the jetty, up which the ringbolter can travel.

In compounds

ringbolting (n.)

(N.Z. gay) (orig. female prostitute use) for a male prostitute to be taken on board in one port, to ply their trade on board and then disembarked, for further work, in another port.

2010

W. Ings ‘Trolling the Beat to Working the Soob’ in Int’l Jrnl Lexicog. 23:1 67: Ringbolting described the process of being picked up in one port, taken to a ship for sex, then remaining on board to travel on vessels to other locations.

In phrases

walk up to the ring-bolt (v.)

(US) to be hanged.

1842

Boston Satirist (MA) 21 Oct. n.p.: We have a few in our ‘mind’s eye eye’ that must shortly ‘walk up to the ring-bolt’.