kedge

The etymology of kedge is uncertain. It may derive from Middle English caggen (to tie, to fasten) or from a dialectal English word meaning to move something heavy by alternating holds. A kedge anchor is a small, light anchor used not for holding a ship in place but for moving it. The technique — kedging — involves loading the kedge anchor into a ship's boat, rowing it ahead, dropping it, and then hauling the ship forward by winding the anchor cable on a capstan. When the ship reaches the anchor, the process repeats.

Kedging was exhausting, slow, and sometimes the only option. A ship hard aground on a falling tide could kedge itself free before the tide dropped further and left it stranded. A becalmed ship could kedge itself into a current or toward shore. During the Battle of the Nile in 1798, Nelson's ships kedged into position in the shallow waters of Aboukir Bay, using kedge anchors to pivot and maneuver where sails could not. The technique that crews hated was the technique that won battles.

The word became figurative in naval and then general English. 'Kedging along' means making slow, laborious progress by any available means — hauling yourself forward grip by grip, without the benefit of wind or momentum. The metaphor captures the experience perfectly: kedging is movement without propulsion. You are not sailing. You are pulling.

Kedge anchors remain standard equipment on modern vessels, though they are rarely used for their original purpose. Power-driven ships do not need to kedge. But the word survives in boating vocabulary and in the figurative sense of grinding forward without help. The nautical technique of last resort became the English word for stubborn incremental progress.