Looking up spirketting in the "Oxford Companion to
Ships and the Sea" by Peter Kemp, 1979 reprint, there
may be a connection to "Tomlinson". Tracking through
the definitions from 'spirketting' to 'waterway' I
find a note 'See Also DEVIL'.
Here we find "The caulker's name for the seam in the
upperdeck planking next to a ship's waterways" - hence
the phrase 'Devil to pay'.
Yours
David Page
Harrow UK
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