What's the source of the original phrase? Well, we would really like to know. CANOE, the Committee to Ascribe a Nautical Origin to Everything, would have us believe that it has a nautical origin (well, they would wouldn't they?). In her book 'When a loose cannon flogs a dead horse there's the devil to pay' Olivia Isil unambiguously attributes a nautical origin to the phrase, albeit without providing any evidence for that.