Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In episode 8 of our series Talking Ship, you're in for a wild ride! We'll be wrangling the surprising origin of the phrase "flogging a dead horse".
Poor Old Horse Shanty: youtu.be/mKc1ouBWZIw?si=4cS-90k_XCqp2L6p
Click here to donate to the USS KIDD: usskidd.com/support-our-mission
The USS KIDD Veterans Museum is a non-funded state agency that receives no regular state or federal funding. We appreciate your support!
For USS KIDD merch: usskidd.com/museum-store
#museumtok #usskidddd661 #talkingship #etymology #learningisfun #educational
Sources
1. When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There’s the Devil to Pay by Olivia A. Isil (not available online)
2. phrases.org.uk/meanings/flogging-a-dead-horse.html
3. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/o/origin-navy-terminology.html
4. seahistory.org/sea-history-for-kids/horse
5. usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1994/october/salty-talk
6. grammarist.com/idiom/beat-a-dead-horse-and-flog-a-dead-horse
7. oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/horse-latitudes.html
8. archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-voyage-round-the-world_forster-georg_1777_2/mode/2up
9. marinersmuseum.org/2014/10/the-dead-horse-festival
10. https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/harpers/3/
11. books.google.com/books?id=i1MoAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=dead+horse+festival&article_id=1238,5921319&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0ppL7gOeVAxVknWoFHV2nPOgQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false
12. Folk-Lore, 1897, Vol. 8 A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution and Custom (no longer available online)
13. archive.org/details/seafaringloreleg0000jean/page/99/mode/1up
In episode 8 of our series Talking Ship, you're in for a wild ride! We'll be wrangling the surprising origin of the phrase "flogging a dead horse".
Poor Old Horse Shanty: youtu.be/mKc1ouBWZIw?si=4cS-90k_XCqp2L6p
Click here to donate to the USS KIDD: usskidd.com/support-our-mission
The USS KIDD Veterans Museum is a non-funded state agency that receives no regular state or federal funding. We appreciate your support!
For USS KIDD merch: usskidd.com/museum-store
#museumtok #usskidddd661 #talkingship #etymology #learningisfun #educational
Sources
1. When a Loose Cannon Flogs a Dead Horse There’s the Devil to Pay by Olivia A. Isil (not available online)
2. phrases.org.uk/meanings/flogging-a-dead-horse.html
3. https://www.history.navy.mil/research/library/online-reading-room/title-list-alphabetically/o/origin-navy-terminology.html
4. seahistory.org/sea-history-for-kids/horse
5. usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/1994/october/salty-talk
6. grammarist.com/idiom/beat-a-dead-horse-and-flog-a-dead-horse
7. oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/horse-latitudes.html
8. archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-voyage-round-the-world_forster-georg_1777_2/mode/2up
9. marinersmuseum.org/2014/10/the-dead-horse-festival
10. https://digitalcommons.whitworth.edu/harpers/3/
11. books.google.com/books?id=i1MoAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=dead+horse+festival&article_id=1238,5921319&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj0ppL7gOeVAxVknWoFHV2nPOgQ6AF6BAgMEAM#v=onepage&q&f=false
12. Folk-Lore, 1897, Vol. 8 A Quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition, Institution and Custom (no longer available online)
13. archive.org/details/seafaringloreleg0000jean/page/99/mode/1up
