Tell It to the Marines

"Tell it to the Marines" is a catchphrase, originally with reference to Britain's Royal Marines, connoting that the person addressed is not to be believed ("tell it to the marines because the sailors won't believe you").

The earliest published use of the phrase is in 1804 in John Davis's novel The Post Captain; or, the Wooden Walls Well Manned; Comprehending a View of Naval Society and Manners: "You may tell that to the marines ... may I be d----d if the sailors will believe it.", and several similar shorter phrases in speeches by characters. Davis was a veteran of the navy. This original meaning of the phrase is pejorative to the Marines, implying that they are gullible.

In 1824 Sir Walter Scott used the phrase "Tell it to the Marines – the sailors won't believe it" in his novel Redgauntlet.

In 1864 Anthony Trollope used the phrase in his novel The Small House at Allington in the chapter titled Domestic Troubles: an angry speech by the character Mr.Lupex about his wife's doings ended with "... Is that a story to tell to such a man as me! You may tell it to the marines!".

In 1904 William Price Drury, a novelist and retired Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Marine Light Infantry, in a preface of a 1904 collection of his stories, The Tadpole of the Archangel, wrote that King Charles II of Great Britain (reigned 1660–1685) said the phrase to Samuel Pepys, and it was formerly widely believed; but Drury later admitted that it was a fabrication. In Drury's story, the Marines knew from their travels that flying fish exist, but Charles II did not believe this; this version shows the Marines as astute and experienced world travelers.)

In 1917 in the United States, a recruitment poster shows a variation of the phrase and an enraged civilian who wants to enlist: if there's a wrong to be avenged, tell the Marines, because they will do something about it.

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