I've never sailed, this is based on a dream, I am not sure if the slang is accurate. The term "leather and lye" has to do with the treatment of leather in past centuries -- the tanners would rub it down well with lye sollution and the leather would become as hard as wood but much lighter, and could be nailed and hammered and used for shoring up parts of ships. Of course, the lye also created severe cracking of the leather, so the look of leather and lye simply means the old sailors visage was very scary and wrinkled with early aging.