first-you-will

Updated: August 8, 2026

He advises keeping well in mid-channel, as you are more likely to carry a true wind; and if any of the rovers should make their appearance and attempt pursuit, he says the thing that would terrify them most would be to shape at running them down; but if that course is adopted it must not be done in a halfhearted way. There should be no first-you-will and then-you-won't policy.

Baron Walter Runciman Runciman - The Shellback's Progress: In the Nineteenth Century