loose captain

A phrase commonly used in Philadelphia, meaning that the person’s mental faculties are basically not working normally because of either a drug/narcotics problem or serious mania of schizophrenia, bipolar, or BPD. In this phrase essentially, the captain is a metaphor for the person’s mind and loose means they have basically lost it.

“you see that fellow, Matthew?”
“yes, something does not seem normal”
“Exactly, he has lost his mind. His mind is a loose captain . He has been like that for a while.”
“Oh, the captain is loose? That saddens me.”