We burnt our boats!

[Aquagility]

"We burnt (burned) our boats" Where does this come from?

"But we saved the nails!" Is this from the same source, or was it an afterthought?

[Quizmonster]

The earliest recorded use of the phrase 'burn one's boats' - meaning to give up irrevocably the opportunity of going back - dates only to the 1880s. However, the story goes that the leader of the Spanish conquistadors did just that on landing in South America centuries earlier, in order to compel his men to commit themselves fully to the action in hand.
The nails addition did not apply in the case I mention above!

[Quizmonster]

As a matter of interest, Mark Twain was first to use the 'burn one's bridges' version a decade later.

[andy-hughes]

I was interested in the fact that reading the phrase 'burnt our boats' led me instantly to think of the Mutiny On The Bounty, which occured in 1789 - when the mutineers did indeed burn The Bounty to prevent it being seen by passing ships, and no doubt the attraction of a certain focusing of minds on the part of the mutineers who may have had thoughte about returning to England.

So doesn't that pre-date the recorded use mentioned by the esteemed and knowledgable QM?

[Quizmonster]

Andy, I'm sure the action of burning boats has happened many times throughout history, but the use of the actual phrase to mean there's no going back is recorded nowhere prior to the date I offered above. Cheers

[Aquagility]

Thank you both. I tend to go with Q's conquistadors, if only because the phrase is only ever used with 'boatS'.

'We saved the nails', of course implys that new boats could be built - given any available timber. So things were not entirely irrevocable. Which makes me think that there must have been some literary (possibly naval) reference.

[andy-hughes]

Thank you for your clarification QM - you are of course right, and may I say, not for the first, and I confidently predict - last time.

Always a pleasure sir.