Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) askew, crooked, scattered in all directions whether lit. or fig.; usu. as go galley-west, knock galley-west.

1834		N. Ames ‘Morton’ An Old Sailor’s Yarns 308: One of that bloody Don Dego’s shot gone right through the galley door [...] and knocked all the beef and hot water galley-west.
1875		‘Mark Twain’ letter 10 Feb. in Letters (1917) I 250: Your verdict [...] has knocked what little [critical penetration] I did have gally-west!
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 267: Says enough to knock their little game galley-west, don’t it?
1884		(con. c.1840) ‘Mark Twain’ Huckleberry Finn 321: Then she grabbed up the basket and slammed it across the house, and knocked the cat galleywest.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1896		‘Frederick Benton Williams’ (H.E. Hamblen) On Many Seas 165: We were resolved [...] that before we went to jail we’d have a taste of the good things the old man had down there, thereby killing two birds with one stone; i. e. treating ourselves, and knocking the old man’s profits ‘galley west’ at the same time.
1901		Monroe & Northup ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:iii 140: gally-west, adv. ‘John knocked him gally-west,’ i.e., gave him a telling or finishing blow.
1908		Chicago Trib. 24 Sept. in Fleming Unforgettable Season (1981) 249: Kroh [...] swarmed upon the human potato bugs and knocked six of them galley-west.
1912		J. London Smoke Bellew Pt 7 🌐 My wife knew I’d strike it. I’ve got faith enough, but hers knocks mine galleywest.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 26–7: Mr. and Mrs. Wilton got together for their Cereal one morning and read the Letter and were knocked Galley-west.
1933		J. Conroy Disinherited 123: A street light burst through the window, knocking a Granger Twist display galley-west.
1951		R. Moody Man of the Family (1993) 154: When the first tie came out of the pipe and hit the skidway, it stuck to the plank and knocked things galley-west in a hurry.
1962		J.D. Horan Desperate Men (1997) 55: When the smoke had cleared the illusion that the Middle Border badmen were crack marksmen had been sent galley-west.
1979		C.E. Aronoff Business and the Media 283: But labor unions can blow a newspaper galley west, and the oracles of received opinion seem to think nothing of it.
2004		R.E. Armstrong Canis 251: Frothing bulls had pinned him in hot dusty squeeze chutes, bug-eyed stallions had knocked him galley west in the snow.