Greenwich.
"_A Tub to the Whale_" (Vol. viii., pp. 220. 304.).--I observe that a
Querist, PIMLICO, asks the origin of the phrase to "throw a tub to the
whale." I think an explanation of this will be found in the introduction
to Swift's _Tale of the Tub_. I cannot lay my hand on the passage, but it
is to the effect that sailors engaged in the Greenland fisheries make it
a practice to throw over-board a _tub_ to a wounded whale, to divert his
attention from the boat which contains his assailants.