subs. (nautical).—A whaleman’s term for the visits paid by crews to each other at sea.
1884. G. A. SALA, in Illustrated London News, 19 July, p. 51, c. 2. When two or more American whalers meet in mid-ocean, and there are no whales in sight, it is customary to tack topsails and exchange visits. This social intercourse the whalemen call GAMMING … I cannot help fancying that ‘gam’ is in greater probability an abbreviation of the Danish ‘gammen,’ sport, or that it has something to do with the nautical ‘gammoning,’ the lasting by which the bowsprit is bound firmly down to the cutwater.
1890. Century, Aug. TO GAM means to gossip. The word occurs again and again in the log-books of the old whalers.
