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Sea Glossary
| ABACK | A sail is aback when its forward surface is acted upon by the wind |
| ABACK | The situation of the sails when the wind presses their surfaces against the mast, and tends to force the vessel astern |
| ABAFT | Toward the stern of a vessel |
| ABAFT | The hinder part of a ship; behind: thus, abaft the fore-mast, means anything between the stern and the more-mast |
| ABOARD | Within a vessel |
| ABOARD | In the ship: as, the cargo is aboard. A ship is said to fall aboard when she runs foul of another. To get aboard the main deck is to bring the clew of the main-sail down to the chess-tree |
| ABOUT | A ship is said to be going about when in the act of tacking, the order for which is, "Ready about there!" |
| ABOUT | On the other tack |
| ABREAST | Alongside of. Side by side |
| ABREAST | Opposite to |
| ACCOMODATION | (See LADDER) |
| ACCOMODATION LADDER | A temporary stairs at the sides of vessels, for the accomodation of officers and visitors |
| A-COCK-BILL | The situation of the yards when they are topped up at an angle with the deck. The situation of an anchor when it hangs to the cathead by the ring only |
| A-COCKBILL | The anchor is a-cockbill when hanging by the ring or stopper at the cat-head |
| ADRIFT | Broken from moorings or fasts. Without Fasts |
| ADRIFT | Broken loose from the moorings |
| AFLOAT | Resting on the surface of the water |
| AFLOAT | Swimming; not touching the bottom |
| AFORE | Forward. The opposite of abaft |
| AFORE | That part of the ship nearest to the stem or head |
| AFT | AFTER. Near the stern |
| AFT | At, in, toward, or near the back end of a ship |
| AFT | Behind: as, "Stand farther aft!" that is, stand nearer to the stern |
| Aft | Toward the back of the boat |
| AFTER | Nearer the rear of a ship |
| AFTER | Hinder: as, the after ports, those ports nearest to the stern. After-sails, after-hatchways, &c |
| AGROUND | Not having water enough to float the ship, which rests on the ground |
| AGROUND | Touching the bottom |
| AHEAD | In the direction of the vessel's head. Wind ahead is from the direction toward which the vessel's head points |
| AHEAD | Before the ship |
| A-HULL | The situation of a ship when all her sails are furled, and her helm is lashed to the lee-side |
| A-HULL | The situation of a vessel when she lies with all her sails furled and her helm lashed a-lee |
| A-LEE | The situation of the helm when it is put in the opposite direction from that in which the wind blows |
| A-LEE | The helm is a-lee when the tiller is put to the lee-side. Hard a-lee, when it is put as far as it will go in that direction |
| ALL HANDS | The whole crew |
| ALL HANDS, HOY! | The word given to assemble the ship's company |
| ALL IN THE WIND | When all the sails are shaking |
| ALL IN THE WIND | When the wind blows on the leaches or outward extremities of the sails, and causes them to shake |
| ALL-ABACK | When all the sails are aback |
| ALOFT | Above the deck |
| ALOFT | Up above; in the rigging; on the yards; at the mast-head, &c |
| ALONGSIDE | Close to the ship |
| ALOOF | At a distance |
| ALOOF | At a distance. Keep aloof; that is, keep at a distance |
| AMAIN | Suddenly. At once |
| AMAIN | The old term for yield; but it now signifies anything done suddenly, or at once, by a number of men |
| AMIDSHIPS | In the centre of the vessel; either with reference to her length or to her breadth |
| AMIDSHIPS | In the middle of the vessel. The helm is amidships when the tiller is not put over to either one side or the other |
| ANCHOR | The machine by which, when dropped to the bottom, the vessel is held fast |
| ANCHOR: TO ANCHOR | To let the anchor fall overboard, that it may hold the ship |
| ANCHORAGE | Ground fit to anchor in |
| ANCHOR-WATCH | (See WATCH.) |
| AN-END | Any spar or mast placed perpendicularly. The topmasts are an end; that is, they are swayed up and fidded above the lower-mast. All an end; that is, all the masts are up in their proper stations |
| AN-END | When a mast is perpendicular to the deck |
| A-PEAK | The anchor is a-peak when near to the ship. Thus, at different distances, it is called a long peak, a stay peak, a short stay peak |
| A-PEEK | When the cable is hove taut so as to bring the vessel nearly over her anchor. The yards are a-peek when they are topped up by contrary lifts |
| A-PEEK | (See ANCHOR.) |
| APRON | A piece of timber fixed behind the lower part of the stern [sic], just above the fore end of the keel. A covering to the vent or lock of a cannon |
| ARM | YARD-ARM. The extremity of a yard. Also, the lower part of an anchor, crossing the shank and terminating in the flukes |
| ARMING | A piece of tallow put in the cavity and over the bottom of a lead-line |
| ASHORE | On land; aground |
| A-STERN | In the direction of the stern. The opposite of ahead |
| ASTERN | behind the ship |
| A-TAUNT | (See TAUNT.) |
| ATHWART | Across. Athwart-ships. Across the line of the vessel's keel. Athwart-hawse. Across the direction of a vessel's head. Across her cable |
| ATHWART | Across. Athwart-hawse, across the stem. Athwart-ships, anything lying in a direction across the ship. Athwart the forefoot, a shot fired by another ship across the bows |
| ATHWART-SHIPS | Across the length of a vessel. In opposition to fore-and-aft |
| A-TRIP | The situation of the anchor when it is raised clear of the ground. The same as a-weigh |
| A-TRIP | The top-sails are atrip; that is, hoisted up. (See ANCHOR.) |
| ATRIP | The anchor is aweigh or atrip when loosened from the ground by heaving in the cable |
| AVAST | To cease hauling; to stop |
| AVAST or 'VAST | An order to stop; as, "Avast heaving!" |
| AWASH | Even with the surface of the water, and washed by it |
| AWAY | To keep away; to go before the wind |
| A-WEATHER | The situation of the helm when it is put in the direction from which the wind blows |
| A-WEATHER | The helm is said to be aweather when the tiller is put over to the windward side of the ship. Hard aweather, when it is put over as far as it will go in that direction |
| A-WEIGH | The same as a-trip |
| A-WEIGH | (See ANCHOR.) |
| AWEIGH | The anchor is aweigh or atrip when loosened from the ground by heaving in the cable |
| AWNING | A covering of canvass over a vessel's deck, or over a boat, to keep off sun or rain |
| AWNING | A canvas canopy placed over the deck when the sun is powerful |
| AXIS OF ROTATION | An imaginary line round which the ship turns in obedience to the action of either the helm or sails |
| BACK | To back an anchor, is to carry out a smaller one ahead of the one by which the vessel rides, to take off some of the strain. To back a sail, is throw it aback. To back and fill, is alternately to back and fill the sails |
| BACK AND FILL: TO BACK AND FILL | To arrange the sails, when the ship is moving with the tide in a river, and against the wind, so as to keep her as near as possible in the middle of the stream, and to avoid obstacles by advancing or receding, as the case may be |
| BACK ASTERN: TO BACK ASTERN | To manage the oars in rowing in a direction contrary to the usual method |
| BACK ASTERN: TO BACK ASTERN | When rowing, to impel the boat with her stern foremost, by means of the oars |
| BACK THE ANCHOR, TO | To place another anchor, or any heavy material, at a certain distance before it, and attached to it by the cable of the former being fastened to it, which fixes it firmly in the ground |
| BACK THE SAILS: TO BACK THE SAILS | To expose their forward surfaces to the wind by hauling in the weather braces |
| BACKSTAYS | Stays running from a masthead to the vessel's side, slanting a little aft. (See STAYS.) |
| BACKSTAYS | Ropes fixed at the topmast and top-gallant-mast head, and extended to the chains on the ship's sides |
| BAGGYWRINKLE | A means of chafe protection made by tying many short, manila rope-yarns around two strands of twine. The resulting long, bushy product is closely wound around a stay or other piece of standing rigging, to prevent wearing of the sail at the point where it contacts the rigging |
| BAGPIPE | To bagpipe the mizzen, is to lay it aback by bringing the sheet to the weather mizzen rigging |
| BAGPIPE THE MIZZEN: TO BAGPIPE. | To bring the sheet over to the weather mizzen shrouds, in order to lay it aback |
| BALANCE REEF | The upper reef of a fore-and-aft mainsail or spanker, crossing the sail diagonally from a point on the mast near the throat to the leach, a little above the third reef |
| BALANCE THE MIZZEN: TO BALANCE. | Rolling up a portion of it at the peak |
| BALANCE-REEF | A reef in a spanker or fore-and-aft mainsail, which runs from the outer head-earing, diagonally, to the tack. It is the closest reef, and makes the sail triangular, or nearly so |
| BALE | To bale a boat, is to throw water out of her |
| BALE, BALE THE BOAT | Throw the water out of her |
| BALLAST | Heavy material, as iron, lead, or stone, placed in the bottom of the hold, to keep a vessel from upsetting. To freshen ballast, is to shift it. Coarse gravel is called shingle ballast |
| BALLAST | Weight put in a ships hold or seawater pumped into her tanks in order to increase stability |
| BALLAST | A quantity of iron, stone, gravel, &c., placed in the hold, to give a ship proper stability when she has no cargo, or but a small quantity of goods, &c |
| BANDS | Pieces of canvas sewed across the sail, called reef-bands; also, a piece stuck on the middle of a sail to strengthen it, when half worn |
| BANK | A boat is double banked, when two oars, one opposite the other, are pulled by men seated on the same thwart |
| BAR | A bank or shoal at the entrance of a harbor. Capstan-bars are heavy pieces of wood by which the capstan is hove round |
| BAR | A shoal running across the mouth of a harbor |
| BARE POLES | When a ship has no sail set, and in motion, she is under bare poles |
| BARE-POLES | The condition of a ship when she has no sail set |
| BARGE | A large double-banked boat, used by the commander of a vessel, in the navy |
| BARGE | The second class boat of a ship-of-war |
| BARK, OR BARQUE | A three-masted vessel, having her fore and main masts rigged like a ship's, and her mizzen mast like the main mast of a schooner, with no sail upon it but a spanker, and gaff topsail |
| BARKENTINE | A sailing vessel with three or more masts, square-rigged only on the foremast |
| BARNACLE | A shell-fish often found on a vessel's bottom |
| BARQUE | A sailing vessel with three or more masts, which is square-rigged on all but the aftermost mast |
| BARS: CAPSTAN BARS | Pieces of timber put into the holes in the drum-head of the capstan (where they are secured with iron pins), to heave up the anchor |
| BATTENS | Thin strips of wood put around the hatches, to keep the tarpaulin down. Also put upon rigging to keep it from chafing. A large batten widened at the end, and put upon rigging, is called a scotchman |
| BATTENS | Slips of wood nailed on the slings of the yards, which are eight square; also, over the tarpaulings of a hatchway, to keep out the water in stormy weather |
| BAYS | In men-of-war, the starboard and port sides between decks, before the bitts |
| BEACON | A post or buoy placed over a shoal or bank to warn vessels off. Also as a signal-mark on land |
| BEACON | a post or stake erected over a shoal or sand-bank, as a warning to seamen to keep at a distance; also, a signal placed at the top of hills. &c |
| BEAM ENDS: ON HER BEAM ENDS | A ship is said to be on her beam ends when she inclines so much to one side as to lie, as it were, on the ends of her beams |
| BEAM: ABAFT THE BEAM | When the wind or object bears on a point which is more than a right angle, or ninety degrees from the ship's course |
| BEAM: BEFORE THE BEAM | When the wind or object bears on some point less than a right angle or ninety degrees from the ship's head |
| BEAM: ON THE BEAM | When the wind blows at a right angle with the keel |
| BEAMS | Strong pieces of timber across the ship, under the decks, bound to the side by knees. They support and keep the ship together |
| BEAMS | Strong pieces of timber stretching across the vessel, to support the decks. On the weather or lee beam, is in a direction to windward or leeward, at right angles with the keel. On beam ends. The situation of a vessel when turned over so that her beams are inclined toward the vertical |
| BEAR | An object bears so and so, when it is in such a direction from the person looking. To bear down upon a vessel, is to approach her from the windward. To bear up, is to put the helm up and keep a vessel off from her course, and move her to leeward. To bear away, is the same as to bear up; being applied to the vessel instead of to the tiller. To bear-a-hand. To make haste |
| BEAR A HAND! | Make haste, dispatch |
| BEAR AWAY: TO. | To change the destination of the vessel through some necessity |
| BEAR DOWN UPON: TO. | To approach a vessel from the windward |
| BEAR IN WITH: TO. | To sail toward; as, "to bear in with the land." |
| BEAR OFF: TO. | To thrust or keep off from the ship's side, &c., any weight, when hoisting. To steer from the land |
| BEAR UP: TO. | To change the course of a ship, so as to make her sail before the wind |
| BEARING | The direction of an object from the person looking. The bearings of a vessel, are the widest part of her below the plank-shear. That part of her hull which is on the water-line when she is at anchor and in her proper trim |
| BEARING | The point of the compass on which any object appears. It is also applied to an object which lies opposite to any part of the ship; thus the buoy, &,., bears on the beam, the bow, the quarter, &c |
| Bearing Away | Turning away from the wind |
| BEATING | Going toward the direction of the wind, by alternate tacks |
| BEATING TO WINDWARD, | Tacking, and endeavoring to get to windward of some headland |
| BECALM | To intercept the wind. A vessel or highland to windward is said to becalm another. So one sail becalms another |
| BECALMED | Having no wind to fill the sails. The ship being deprived of the power of the wind by the intervention of high land, a large ship, &c |
| BECKET | A piece of rope placed so as to confine a spar or another rope. A handle made of rope, in the form of a circle, (as the handle of a chest.) is called a becket |
| BECKETS | Short straps, having an eye in one end and a double walled-knot on the other, for suspending a yard, &c., till wanted; such are the beckets for the royal yards, for the bights of the sheets, &c |
| BEES | Pieces of plank bolted to the outer end of the bowsprit, to reeve the foretopmast stays through |
| BELAY | To make a rope fast by turns round a pin or coil, without hitching or seizing it |
| BELAY, TO. | To make fast |
| BELAYING PINS | Large wooden or metal pins used on ships to secure running rigging |
| BEND | To make fast. To bend a sail, is to make it fast to the yard. To bend a cable, is to make it fast to the anchor. A bend, is a knot by which one rope is made fast to another |
| BEND | A kind of knot, as a sheet-bend, &c.; or a seizing, such as the bends of the cable |
| BEND, TO. | To make fast; as, to bend the sails, the cable, &c |
| BENDS | The strongest part of a vessel's side, to which the beams, knees, and foot-hooks are bolted. The part between the water's edge and the bulwarks |
| BENDS | The streaks of thick stuff, or strongest planks in the ship's sides, on the broadest part. These are also called wales |
| BENEAPED | (See NEAPED) |
| BENTICK SHROUDS | Formerly used, and extending from the futtock-staves to the opposite channels |
| BERTH | The place where a vessel lies. The place in which a man sleeps |
| BERTH or BIRTH | A place of anchorage; a cabin or apartment |
| BERTH-DECK | Deck where the sailors' hammocks are slung |
| BEST BOWER [ANCHOR] | [one of] The two anchors which are in use [the other being the small bower] |
| BETWEEN DECKS | Any part of the ship below, between two decks |
| BETWEEN-DECKS | The space between any two decks of a ship |
| BIBBS | Pieces of timber bolted to the hounds of a mast, to support the trestle-trees |
| BIGHT | The double part of a rope when it is folded; in contradistinction from the ends. Any part of a rope may be called the bight, except the ends. Also, a bend in the shore, making a small bay or inlet |
| BIGHT | Any part of a rope between the ends. Also, a collar or eye formed by a rope |
| BILGE | That part of the floor of a ship upon which she would rest if aground; being the part near the keel which is more in a horizontal than a perpendicular line. Bilge-ways. Pieces of timber bolted together and placed under the bilge, in launching. Bilged. When the bilge is broken in. Bilge Water. Water which settles in the bilge. Bilge. The largest circumference of a cask |
| BILGE | The flat part of a ship's bottom. To bilge, to break: as, The ship is bilged; that is, her planks are broken in by violence. Bilge-water, that which rests in the bilge, either from rain, shipping water, &c |
| BILL | The point at the extremity of the fluke of an anchor |
| BILLET | A bar of metal in the rough |
| BILLET-HEAD | (See HEAD.) |
| BINNACLE | A box near the helm, containing the compass |
| BINNACLE | The stand on which the compass is supported. The body of the binnacle is usually built of hard, well-seasoned wood. The upper part consists of a protective brass cover or hood |
| BINNACLE | The frame or box which contains the compass |
| BITT THE CABLE, TO | (See Bitts.) |
| BITT, TO | To place a bight of the cable over the bitts |
| BITTER | The turn of the cable round the bitts. Bitter end, that part of the cable which stays within-board, round about the bitts, when the ship is at anchor |
| BITTER, OR BITTER-END | That part of the cable which is abaft the bitts |
| BITTS | Perpendicular pieces of timber going through the deck, placed to secure anything to. The cables are fastened to them, if there is no windlass. There are also bitts to secure the windlass, and on each side of the heel of the bowsprit |
| BITTS | Large upright pieces of timber, with a cross-piece, over which the bight of the cable is put; also, smaller ones to belay ropes, such as top-sail sheets, &c |
| BLACKWALL HITCH | |
| BLADE | The flat part of an oar, which goes into the water |
| BLOCK | A piece of wood with sheaves, or wheels, in it, through which the running rigging passes, to add to the purchase |
| BLOCK-AND-BLOCK | When the two blocks of a tackle are drawn so close together that there is no more of the fall left to haul upon; also termed Chock-a-block |
| BLOCKS | Instruments with sheaves or pulleys, used to increase the power of ropes |
| BLUFF | A bluff-bowed or bluff-headed vessel is one which is full and square forward |
| BOARD | The stretch a vessel makes upon one tack, when she is beating. Stern-board. When a vessel goes stern foremost. By the board. Said of masts, when they fall over the side |
| BOARD | To board a ship is to enter it in a hostile manner; to enter a ship |
| BOARDING | Entering an enemy's ship by force. The men thus engaged are called Boarders |
| BOARDING NETTING | Network triced round the ship to prevent boarders from entering |
| BOAT-HOOK | An iron hook with a long staff, held in the hand, by which a boat is kept fast to a wharf, or vessel |
| BOATS | Small vessels. Those belonging to ships are the Launch or Long-boat, the Barge, the Pinnace, the Cutter, the Gig, the Jolly-boat, and the Yawl |
| BOATSWAIN | (Pronounced bo-s'n.) A warrant officer in the navy, who has charge of the rigging, and calls the crew to duty |
| BOATSWAIN | The officer who has the charge of the cordage, boats, rigging, &c |
| BOBSTAYS | Used to confine the bowsprit down to the stem or cutwater |
| BOBSTAYS | Ropes reeved through or chains fastened to the cutwater, and set up with dead-eyes under the bowsprit, to act against the power of the forestays |
| BOLD SHORE | A steep coast permitting the close approach of shipping |
| BOLSTERS | Pieces of soft wood, covered with canvass, placed on the trestle-trees, for the eyes of the rigging to rest upon |
| BOLSTERS | Pieces of wood or canvas stuffed, placed on the lower trestle-trees, to keep the rigging from chafing |
| BOLT-ROPE | The rope which goes round a sail, and to which the canvass is sewed |
| BOLT-ROPES | Ropes sewed round the edges of the sails |
| BOLTS | Iron or copper fastenings, by which the ship is secured in her hull |
| BOLTS | Long cylindrical bars of iron or copper, used to secure or unite the different parts of a vessel |
| BONNET | An additional piece of canvass attached to the foot of a jib, or a schooner's foresail, by lacing. Taken off in bad weather |
| BONNET OF A SAIL | An additional piece of canvas put to the sail in moderate weather to hold more wind. Lace on the bonnet! that is, fasten it to the sail. Shake off the bonnet! take it off |
| BOOM | A spar used to extend the foot of a fore-and-aft sail or studding-sail.. Boom-irons. Iron rings on the yards, through which the studding-sail booms traverse |
| Boom | A pole running at a right angle from the mast |
| BOOMING | The application of a boom to the sails. When a ship is said to come booming toward us, it signifies that she comes with all the sail she can make |
| BOOM-IRONS | Iron caps fixed on the yard-arms, for the studding-sail booms to rest in |
| BOOMS | Large poles used to extend the studding sails, spanker &c. Also, spare yards, masts, &c |
| BOOT-TOPPING | Cleaning the upper part of a ship's bottom, or that part which lies immediately under the surface of the water, and daubing it over with tallow, or with a mixture of tallow, sulphur, rosin, &c |
| BOOT-TOPPING | Scraping off the grass, or other matter, which may be on a vessel's bottom, and daubing it over with tallow, or some mixture |
| BOTH SHEETS AFT | The situation of a ship sailing right before the wind |
| BOUND | Wind-bound. When a vessel is kept in port by a head wind |
| BOW | Forward end of a vessel |
| BOW | The rounded part of a vessel, forward |
| BOWER | A working anchor, the cable of which is bent and reeved through the hawse-hole. Best bower is the larger of the two bowers |
| BOWER | The largest sized anchors |
| BOW-GRACE | A frame of old rope or junk laid out at the bows, stems, and sides of ships, to prevent them from being injured by flakes of ice |
| BOW-GRACE | A frame of old rope or junk, placed round the bows and sides of a vessel, to prevent the ice from injuring her |
| BOWLINE | (Pronounced bo-lin.) A rope leading forward from the leech of a square sail, to keep the leech well out when sailing close-hauled. A vessel is said to be on a bowline, or on a taut bowline, when she is close-hauled. Bowline-bridle. The span on the leech of the sail to which the bowline is toggled. Bowline-knot |
| BOWLINES | Ropes made fast to the leeches or sides of the sails, to pull them forward. To run on a bow-line, is to run right before the wind. [sic; cf. LARGE, SAILING] |
| BOWS | The round part of the ship forward |
| BOWSE | To pull upon a tackle |
| BOWSE, TO | To haul upon |
| BOWSPRIT | (Pronounced bo-sprit.) A large and strong spar, standing from the bows of a vessel |
| BOWSPRIT | A spar projecting forward and slanting upward from a sailing vessel’s stem. On larger vessels, it serves as a stiffening support for the jibboom |
| BOWSPRIT | A mast projecting over the stem |
| BOWSPRIT SHROUDS | (See SHROUDS.) |
| BOX | To box the compass, is to repeat the thirty-two points of the compass in order |
| BOX-HAULING | Wearing a vessel by backing the head sails |
| BOX-HAULING | a method of wearing or turning a ship from the wind |
| BOXING OFF | Turning the ship's head from the wond by backing the head-sails |
| BRACE | A rope by which a yard is turned about. To brace a yard, is to turn it about horizontally. To brace up, is to lay the yard fore fore-and-aft. To brace in, is to lay it nearer square. To brace aback. (See ABACK.) To brace to, is to brace the head yards a little aback, in tacking or wearing |
| BRACE | noun: One of the lines attached to each yardarm which are used to trim the yard horizontally [swing the yard from side to side]. verb: to move the yards from side to side, so that the sails can be adjusted to their proper angle to the wind |
| BRACES | Ropes fastened to the yard-arms to brace them about. Also a security to the rudder, fixed to the stern-post |
| BRAIL UP | The order to haul up a spanker or spencer |
| BRAILS | Ropes applied to the after leach and foot of the mizzen and some of the stay-sails to draw them up |
| BRAILS | Ropes by which the foot or lower corners of fore-and-aft sails are hauled up |
| BRAKE | The handle of a ship's pump |
| BREAK | To break bulk, is to begin to unload. To break ground, is to lift the anchor from the bottom. To break shear, is when a vessel, at anchor, in tending, is forced the wrong way by the wind or current, so that she does not lie so well for keeping herself clear of her anchor |
| BREAK BULK, TO | To begin to unload |
| BREAK SHEER, TO | To swerve from the proper direction in which a ship should be when at anchor |
| BREAKER | A small cask containing water |
| BREAMING | Cleaning a ship's bottom by burning |
| BREAMING | Burning the stuff collected on the ship's bottom during a long voyage |
| BREAST-FAST | A rope used to confine a vessel sideways to a wharf, or to some other vessel |
| BREAST-FAST | A rope employed to confine a ship sidewise to a wharf or other ship |
| BREAST-HOOKS | Knees placed in the forward part of a vessel, across the stem, to unite the bows on each side |
| BREAST-HOOKS | Pieces of timber placed across the bows of the ship to keep them together |
| BREAST-ROPE | A rope passed round a man in the chains, while sounding |
| BREASTWORK | Railing on the forepart of the quarter-deck where ropes are belayed |
| BREECH | The outside angle of a knee-timber. The after end of a gun |
| BREECHING | A strong rope used to secure the breech of a gun to the ship's side |
| BREECHING | A stout rope fixed to the cascabel of a gun, fastened to the ship's side, to prevent its running in |
| BRIDLE | Spans of rope attached to the leeches of square sails, to which the bowlines are made fast. Bridle-port. The foremost port, used for stowing the anchors |
| BRIDLES | The upper part of the moorings laid in harbors for men-or-war. Also ropes attached from the leaches of the square ssils to the bowlines |
| BRIG | A square-rigged vessel, with two masts. An hermaphrodite brig has a brig's foremast and a schooner's mainmnast. |
| BRIGANTINE | A two-masted, square-rigged sailing ship, having a fore-and-aft mainsail |
| BRIGHTWORK | Scraped and cleaned woodwork on a vessel, which may or may not be varnished, but never painted. Also, those metal fittings which are kept bright by polishing |
| BRING BY THE LEE, TO | When a ship is sailing with the wind very large, and flies off from it so as to bring it on the other side, the sails catching aback; she is then said to be brought by the lee; this is a dangerous position in a high sea |
| BRING TO THE WIND, TO | To put the helm to leeward |
| BRING TO, TO | To heave to: to make a ship stationary, stopping her way by bracing some of the sails aback and keeping others full, so that they counterpoise each other; also, to compel another vessel to heave to |
| BRING UP, TO | To come to an anchor; to stop suddenly |
| BROACH TO, TO | Flying up in the wind so as to bring it on the other side, when blowing fresh |
| BROACH-TO | To fall off so much, when going free, as to bring the wind round on the other quarter and take the sails aback |
| BROADSIDE | The whole side of a vessel |
| BROADSIDE | A discharge of all the guns on one side of a ship, both above and below |
| BROKEN-BACKED | The state of a ship when so loosened in her frame as to drop in the middle |
| BROKEN-BACKED | The state of a vessel when she is so loosened as to droop at each end |
| BUCKLERS | Blocks of wood made to fit in the hawse-holes, or holes in the half-ports, when at sea. Those in the hawse-holes are sometimes called hawse-blocks |
| BULGE | (See BILGE) |
| BULK | The whole cargo when stowed. Stowed in bulk, is when goods are stowed loose, instead of being stowed in casks or bags. (See BREAK BULK.) |
| BULK HEAD | Temporary partitions of boards to separate different parts of a vessel |
| BULKHEAD | An upright partition that divides the inside of a ship into compartments |
| BULKHEADS | Partitions in the ship |
| BULL | A sailor's term for a small keg, holding a gallon or two |
| BULL'S EYE | a small piece of stout wood with a hole in the centre for a stay or rope to reeve through, without any sheave, and with a groove round it for the strap, which is usually of iron. Also, a piece of thick glass inserted in the deck to let light below |
| BULL'S EYE | A wooden thimble |
| BULWARK | Strake of plating or planking forming an extension of a vessel’s side above her weather deck. It serves as a protection against rough seas |
| BULWARKS | The boarding of a vessel's side, between the deck and main rail |
| BULWARKS | The wood work round a vessel, above her deck, consisting of boards fastened to stanchions and timber-heads |
| BUM-BOATS | Boats which lie alongside a vessel in port with provisions and fruit to sell |
| BUMKIN or BOOMKIN | A short boom fitted to the bows of the ship for the purpose of hauling down the fore tack to. It is supported on each side by a shroud |
| BUMPKIN | Pieces of timber projecting from the vessel, to board the fore tack to; and from each quarter, for the main brace-blocks |
| BUNT | The middle of a sail |
| BUNT | The middle part of a square sail. Also, the fore leach of a quadrangular stay-sail |
| BUNTINE | (Pronounced buntin.) Thin woolen stuff of which a ship's colors are made |
| BUNTLINE CLOTH | The lining sewed up the sail, to the direction of the buntline, to prevent that rope from chafing the sail |
| BUNTLINES | Ropes attached to the foot of a square sail to haul up the bunt |
| BUNTLINES | Ropes used for hauling up the body of a sail |
| BUOY | A floating cask, or piece of wood, attached by a rope to an anchor, to show its position. Also, floated over a shoal, or other dangerous place as a beacon. To stream a buoy, is to drop it into the water before letting go the anchor. A buoy is said to watch, when it floats upon the surface of the water |
| BUOY | A floating conical cask, moored upon shoals, to show where the danger is; it is also attached to anchors, to show where they lie, in case the cable breaks |
| BURTON | A tackle, rove in a particular manner. A single Spanish burton has three single blocks, or two single blocks and a hook in the bight of one of the running parts. A double Spanish burton has three double blocks |
| BURTON PENDANTS | The first piece of rigging which goes over the topmast head, to which is hooked a tackle, to set up the topmast shrouds |
| BURY | That part of a mast which is below the deck |
| BUSH | Metal let into the sheaves of blocks which have iron pins |
| BUTT | The end of a plank where it unites with the end of another. Scuttle-butt. A cask with a hole cut in its bilge, and kept on deck to hold water for daily use |
| BUTT END | The end of a plank in the ship's side |
| BUTTOCK | That part of the convexity of a vessel abaft, under the stern, contained between the counter above and the after part of the bilge below, and between the quarter on the side and the stern-post |
| BUTTOCK | That part of the ship's hull under the stern, between the water line and wing transom |
| BY | by the head. Said of a vessel when her head is lower in the water than her stern. If her stern is lower, she is by the stern. by the lee (See LEE. See RUN.) |
| BY THE BOARD | Over the side. A mast is said to go by the board when it is carried or shot away just above the deck |
| BY THE HEAD | When a ship is deeper in the water forward than aft |
| BY THE STERN | The reverse of By the head |
| BY THE WIND | When a ship is as near to the wind as her head can lie with the sails filled |
| CABIN | The after part of a vessel, in which the officers live |
| CABIN | A room or apartment; also a bed-place |
| CABLE | A large rope or chain by which the ship is secured to the anchor. Cables take thir names from the anchors to which they belong, as the sheet cable, the best bower cable, &c. They are generally 120 fathoms in length |
| CABLE | A large, strong rope, made fast to the anchor, by which the vessel is secured. It is usually 120 fathoms in length |
| CABLE TIER | That part of the orlop deck where the cables are coiled. The coils or rolls of a cable |
| CABLE-TIER | (See TIER.) |
| CABOOSE | A house on deck, where the cooking is done. Commonly called the Galley |
| CABOOSE | The place where the victuals are dressed in merchantmen. Also, the iron cook-stove or range for vessels |
| CALK | (See CAULK.) |
| CALK, TO | To drive oakum into the seams of the sides, decks, &c |
| CALL | A silver pipe or whistle used by the boatswain and his mates, by the sounding of which they call up the hands, direct them to haul, to veer, to belay, &c |
| CAMBERED | When the floor of a vessel is higher at the middle than towards the stem and stern |
| CAMEL | A machine used for lifting vessels over a shoal or bar |
| CAMFERING | Taking off an angle or edge of a timber |
| CAN-HOOKS | Slings with flat hooks at each end, used for hoisting barrels or light casks, the hooks being placed round the chimes, and the purchase hooked to the centre of the slings. Small ones are usually wholly of iron |
| CANTED | Anything turned from its square position |
| CANT-PIECES | Pieces of timber fastened to the angles of fishes and side-trees to supply any part that may prove rotten |
| CANT-TIMBERS | Timbers at the two ends of a vessel, raised obliquely from the keel. Lower Half cants [reads "cints"] Those parts of frames situated forward and abaft the square frames, or the floor timbers which cross the keel |
| CANVAS | Strong cloth, of which the sails are made |
| CANVASS | The cloth of which sails are made. No. 1 is the coarsest and strongest |
| CAP | A thick, strong block of wood with two holes through it, one square and the other round, used to confine together the head of one mast and the lower art of the mast next above it |
| CAP | A block of wood which secures the top-mast to the lower mast |
| CAPSIZE | To overturn |
| CAPSIZE | To turn over |
| CAPSTAN | A machine for drawing up the anchor by the messenger which is taken round it, and applied to the cable by the nippers |
| CAPSTAN | A machine placed perpendicularly in the deck and used for a strong purchase in heaving or hoisting. Men-of-war weigh their anchors by capstans. Merchant vessels use a windlass. (See BAR.) |
| CAPSTAN | A vertical drum revolving on a spindle [a slender revolving mechanical part], used for exerting power required in heaving on a rope |
| CAREEN | To heave a vessel down upon her side by purchases upon the masts. To lie over, when sailing on the wind |
| CAREENING | Heaving a vessel down on one side, to clean or repair her bottom |
| CARLINGS | Short and small pieces of timber running between the beams |
| CARRICK BEND | A kind of knot |
| CARRICK-BEND | A kind of knot. Carrick-bitts are the windless bitts |
| CARRIED AWAY | Broken off; as, A ship has carried away her bowsprit |
| CARRY-AWAY | To break a spar or part a rope |
| CAST | To pay a vessel's head off, in getting under way, on the tack she is to sail upon |
| CAST, TO | To pay a ship's head off, by backing the head-sails when heaving up the anchor so as to bring the wind on the side required |
| CAT | The tackle used to hoist the anchor up to the cat-head. Cat-block. The block of this tackle |
| CAT-BLOCK | A large double or three-fold block, used for drawing the anchor up to the cat-head |
| CAT-HARPIN | An iron leg used to confine the upper part of the rigging to the mast |
| CAT-HARPINS | Short legs of rope seized to the upper part of the lower shrouds and futtock-staves, to keep them from bulging out by the strain of the futtock-shrouds, and to permit the bracing up of the lower yards |
| CAT-HEAD | A large piece of timber or crane, projecting over the bow, for drawing up the anchor clear from the ship's side |
| CAT-HEAD | Large timbers projecting from the vessel's side, to which the anchor is raised and secured |
| CAT'S-PAW | A kind of hitch made in a rope. A light current of air seen on the surface of the water during a calm |
| CAT'S-PAW | A light air, perceived by its effect on the water, but not durable. Also, a twist made on the bight of a rope |
| CATTED | The anchor is catted when drawn up to the cathead |
| CAULK | To fill the seams of a vessel with oakum |
| CAVIL | (See KEVEL) |
| CEILING | The inside planking of a vessel |
| CENTRE OF EFFORT | Two forces act upon a ship under sail, the propelling force of the wind upon the sails and the resisting force of the water upon the hull. The centre of effort is that point of each at which, if the whole force were concentrated instead of being diffused over the entire surface, the effect upon th ship would be the same |
| CHAFE | To rub the surface of a rope or spar. Chafing-gear is the stuff put upon the rigging and spars to prevent their chafing |
| CHAIN-PLATES | Links of iron bolted to the ship's side, having dead-eyes in the upper ends, to which the shrouds are connected by the laniards |
| CHAIN-PLATES | Plates of iron bolted to the side of a ship, to which the chains and dead-eyes of the lower rigging are connected |
| CHAINS | Strong links or plates of iron, the lower ends of which are bolted through the ship's side to the timbers. Their upper ends are secured to the bottom of the dead-eyes in the channels. Also, used familiarly for the CHANNELS, which see. The chain cable of a vessel is called familiarly her chain. Rudder-chains lead from the outer and upper end of the rudder to the quarters. They are hung slack |
| CHAINS or CHANNELS | Broad planks on the sides of a ship, projecting out, and at which the shrouds are fastened, for the purpose of giving them a greater angle than they could have if fastened to the ship's side, and of course giving them a greater power to secure the mast |
| CHANNELS | Broad pieces of plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel. Used for spreading the lower rigging. (See CHAINS.) |
| CHANNELS | Strong broad planks bolted to the sides, to keep the dead-eyes in the chains from the side, to spread the rigging farther out |
| CHAPELING | A ship is said to build a chapel when, by neglect in light winds, she turns round so as to bring the wind on the same part which it was before she moved |
| CHAPELLING | Wearing a ship round, when taken aback, without bracing the head yards |
| CHASE | A ship pursued by another. Bow-chaser, a gun in the forepart of the ship. Stern-chaser, a gun pointing astern in the after part of the ship |
| CHASE, TO | To pursue; to follow |
| CHECK | A term sometime used for slacking off a little on a brace, and then belaying it |
| CHEEKS | The projections on each side of a mast, upon which the trestle-trees rest. The sides of the shell of a block |
| CHEER, TO | To huzza. What cheer ho! a salutation |
| CHEERLY | A term implying heartily, quickly, cheerfully |
| CHEERLY! | Quickly, with a will |
| CHESS-TREE | A piece of timber with a sheave in, secured to the sides of a ship, to extend the tack of the main course to windward; the sheet is then hauled aft to leeward |
| CHESS-TREES | Pieces of oak, fitted to the sides of a vessel, abaft the fore chains, with a sheave in them, to board the main tack to. Now out of use |
| CHIMES | The ends of the staves of a cask, where they come out beyond the head of the cask |
| CHINSE | To thrust oakum into seams with a small iron |
| CHOCK | A wedge used to secure anything with, or for anything to rest upon. The long boat rests upon two large chocks, when it is stowed. Chock-a-block. When the lower block of a tackle is run close up to the upper one, so that you can hoist no higher. This is also called hoisting up two-blocks |
| CHOCK-A-BLOCK | (See Block-and-block.) |
| CISTERN | An apartment in the hold of a vessel, having a pipe leading through the side, with a cock, by which water may be let into her |
| CLAMPS | Thick planks on the inside of vessels, to support the ends of beams. Also, crooked plates of iron fore-locked upon the trunnions of cannon. Any plate of iron made to turn, open, and shut so as to confine a spar or boom, as, a studdingsail boom, or a boat's mast |
| CLAP ON, TO | To make fast; as, "Clap on the stoppers, ["] &c |
| CLASP-HOOK | (See CLOVE-HOOK.) |
| CLAW OFF, TO | To beat to windward from a lee shore |
| CLEAR | This word is variously applied. The weather is said to be clear when it is fair and open; the sea-coast is clear when the navigation is not interrupted by rocks, &c. It is applied to cordage, cables, &c., when they are disentangled, so as to be ready for immediate service. In all these senses it is opposed to foul. To clear the anchor, is to get the cable off the flukes, and to disencumber it of ropes, ready for dropping. Clear hawse, when the cables are directed to their anchors without lying athwart the stem. To clear the hawse, is to untwist the cables when entangled by either a cross, an elbow, or a round turn |
| Clear Astern and Clear Ahead | One boat is clear astern of another when her hull and equipment in normal position are behind a line abeam from the aft most point of the other boat's hull and equipment in normal position. The other boat is clear ahead |
| CLEAT | A piece of wood used in different parts of a vessel to belay ropes to |
| CLEATS | Pieces of wood to fasten ropes to |
| CLEW | The lower corner of square sails, and the after corner of a fore-and-aft sail. To clew up, is to haul up the clew of a sail |
| CLEW | The main or principal corner of a sail at which the sheet is fixed. It comprehends the two lower corners of all square sails; also, the lower and after corner of all fore-and-aft sails, and the lower and inner corner of all studding-sails |
| CLEW DOWN THE TOPSAILS, TOP-GALLANT SAILS, &c | The order to haul the yards down upon the cap, by manning the clew-lines, &c |
| CLEW UP THE TOPSAILS, TOP-GALLANT SAILS, &c | The order to haul these sails up for furling |
| CLEW-GARNET | A rope that hauls up the clew of a foresail or mainsail in a square-rigged vessel |
| CLEWLINE | A rope that hauls up the clew of a square sail. The clew-garnet is the clewline of a course |
| CLEW-LINES | Ropes which come down from the yards to the lower corners of the sails, and by which the corners or clews of the sails are hauled up |
| CLEW-ROPE | A short rope, larger than the bolt-rope on the sail, into which it is spliced at the after-corners of stay-sails, jibs, and boom-sails. In the corner is put a cringle, through two holes, to which the sheets are fastened |
| CLINCH | A half-hitch, stopped to its own part |
| CLINCHED | Made fast, as the cable is to the ring of the anchor |
| CLIPPER | A vessel characterized by fine lines and an unusually large sail area, built and rigged for fast sailing rather than cargo capacity. Usually, this term refers to vessels built between 1840 and 1870, during which time the wooden full-rigged ship attained her highest development in construction and sailing qualities |
| CLOSE-HAULED | Applied to a vessel which is sailing with her yards braced up so as to get as much possible to windward. The same as on a taut bowline, full and by, on the wind, &c |
| CLOSE-HAULED | As near the wind as the ship can lie |
| CLOSE-REEF | The fourth or lowest reef of a topsail, and uppermost reef of a fore-and-aft main-sail |
| CLOVE-HITCH | Two half-hitches round a spar or other rope |
| CLOVE-HOOK | An iron clasp, in two parts, moving upon the same pivot, and overlapping one another. Used for bending chain sheets to the clews of sails |
| CLUBBING | Drifting down a current with an anchor out |
| CLUB-HAUL | To bring a vessel's head round on the other tack, by letting go the lee anchor and cutting or slipping the cable |
| CLUB-HAULING | Tacking by means of an anchor |
| COAKING | Uniting pieces of spar by means of tabular projections, formed by cutting away the solid of one piece into a hollow, so as to make a projection in the other, in such a manner that they may correctly fit, the butts preventing the pieces from drawing asunder. Coaks are fitted into the beams and knees of vessels to prevent their drawing |
| COAL TAR | Tar made from bituminous coal |
| COAMINGS | Raised work round the hatches, to prevent water going down into the hold |
| COAMINGS | The borders of the hatchways which are raised above the deck |
| COAT | Mast-Coat is a piece of canvass, tarred or painted, placed round a mast or bowsprit, where it enters the deck |
| COCK-BILL | To cock-bill a yard or anchor. (See A-COCK-BILL.) |
| COCK-BILL | To place the yards at an angle with the deck. To suspend an anchor to the cat-head by the ring only |
| COCK-PIT | An apartment in a vessel of war, used by the surgeon during an action |
| CODLINE | An eighteen thread line |
| COIL | To lay a rope up in a ring, with one turn or fake over another. A coil is a quantity of rope laid up in that manner |
| COILING | Laying a rope down in a circular form. To coil a rope, a cable, &c., to lay it round in a ring, one turn or fake over another |
| COLLAR | An eye in the end or bight of a shroud or stay, to go over the mast-head |
| COME | Come home, said of an anchor when it is broken from the ground and drags. To come up a rope or tackle, is to slack it off |
| COME HOME, TO | The anchor is said to come home when it loosens from the ground by the effort of the cable, and drags |
| COME TO THE WIND, TO | To broach to (which see) |
| COMING TO | The act of anchoring |
| COMING UP | Luffing to the wind |
| COMPANION | A wooden covering over the staircase to a cabin. Companion-way, the staircase to the cabin. Companion-ladder. The ladder leading from the poop to the main deck |
| COMPANION | A wooden covering over the cabin hatchway |
| COMPASS | The instrument which tells the course of a vessel. Compass-timbers are such as are curved or arched |
| CONCLUDING-LINE | A small line leading through the centre of the steps of a rope or Jacob's ladder |
| CONNING, OR CUNNING | Directing the helmsman in steering a vessel |
| COUNTER | That part of a vessel between the bottom of the stern and the wing-transom and buttock. Counter-timbers are short timbers put in to strengthen the counter. To counter-brace yards, is to brace the head-yards one way and the after-yards another |
| COURSE | The point of the compass on which the ship sails. The main-sail, fore-sail, and mizzen, are also called courses |
| COURSE | The sail bent to the lowest yard on each mast of a square-rigged vessel |
| COURSES | The common term for the sails that hang from a ship's lower yards. The foresail is called the fore course and the mainsail the main course |
| COXSWAIN | (Pronounced cox'n.) The person who steers a boat and has charge of her |
| COXWAIN | The person who steers the boat |
| CRAB | A portable or movable capstan |
| CRANES | Pieces of iron or timber at the vessel's sides, used to stow boats or spars upon. A machine used at a wharf for hoisting |
| CRANES | Swinging iron davits at a vessel's side, to hoist or suspend boats or spars |
| CRANK | The condition of a vessel when she is inclined to lean over a great deal and cannot bear much sail. This may be owing to her construction or to her stowage |
| CRANK | The ship is crank; that is, she has not a sufficient cargo or ballast to render her capable of bearing the sail without danger of oversetting |
| CREEPER | An iron instrument, like a grapnell, with four claws, used for dragging the bottom of a harbor or river, to find anything lost |
| CRINGLE | A short piece of rope with each end spliced into the bolt-rope of a sail, confining an iron ring or thimble |
| CRINGLE | A short piece of rope, having each end spliced into the bolt-rope of a sail, and confining an iron ring or thimble |
| CROSS-BARS | Round bars of iron, bent at each end, used as levers to turn the shank of an anchor |
| CROSS-CHOCKS | Pieces of timber fayed across the dead-wood amidships, to make good the deficiency at the heels of the lower futtocks |
| CROSS-JACK | (Pronounced croj-jack.) The cross-jack yard is the lower yard on the mizzen mast |
| CROSS-PAWLS | Pieces of timber that keep a vessel together while in her frames |
| CROSS-PIECE | A piece of timber connecting two bitts |
| CROSS-SPALES | Pieces of timber placed across a vessel, and nailed to the frames, to keep the sides together until the knees are bolted |
| CROSS-TREES | Pieces of oak supported by the cheeks and trestle-trees, at the mast-heads, to sustain the tops on the lower mast, and to spread the topgallant rigging at the topmast-head |
| CROSS-TREES | Pieces of oak at the mast-head, to sustain the tops on the lower masts, and to spread the top-gallant shrouds at the top-mast head |
| CROW-FOOT | A number of small lines rove through the uvrou [sic] to suspend an awning by |
| CROW-FOOT | A number of small lines spread from the fore part of the tops by means of a piece of wood, through which they pass, and, being hauled taught upon the stays, they prevent the foot of the top-sails catching under the top rim; they are also used to suspend the awnings |
| CROWN | of an anchor, is the place where the arms are joined to the shank. To crown a knot, is to pass the strands over and under each other above the knot |
| CRUTCH | A knee or piece of knee-timber, placed inside of a vessel, to secure the heels of the cant-timbers abaft. Also, the chock upon which the spanker-boom rests when the sail is not set |
| CUCKOLD'S NECK | A knot by which a rope is secured to a spar, the two parts of the rope crossing each other, and seized together |
| CUDDY | A cabin in the fore part of a boat |
| CUN THE SHIP, TO | To direct the helmsman how to steer |
| Cunningham (also called a Downhaul) | Adjusting the tension of a sail's luff |
| CUNTLINE | The space between the bilges of two casks, stowed side by side. Where one cask is set upon the cuntline between two others, they are stowed bilge and cuntline |
| CUTTER | A small boat. Also, a kind of sloop |
| CUTTER | The fourth class boat of a ship-of-war |
| CUT-WATER | The foremost part of a vessel's prow, which projects forward of the bows |
| CUT-WATER | The fore part of a ship's prow, that cuts the water |
| DAGGER | A piece of timber crossing all the puppets of the bilge-ways to keep them together. Dagger-knees. Knees placed obliquely, to avoid a port |
| DAVITS | Pieces of timber or iron, with sheaves or blocks at their ends, projecting over a vessel's sides or stern, to hoist boats up to. Also, a spar with a roller or sheave at its end, used for fishing the anchor, called a fish-davit |
| DAVITS | Projecting beams for hoisting or supporting. Fish-davits, for hoisting the lower end of the anchor. Boat-davits, for hoisting or suspending a boat. Quarter-davits are boat-davits on the quarter; and stern-davits, boat-davits on the stern |
| DEAD RECKONING | A reckoning kept by observing a vessel's courses and distances by the log, to ascertain her position |
| DEAD WATER | The eddy of water which appears like whirlpools closing in with the ship's stern as she sails on |
| DEADEN A SHIP'S WAY, TO | To impede her progress through the water |
| DEAD-EYE | A block with three holes in it, to receive the laniard of a shroud or stay |
| DEAD-EYE | A circular block of wood, with three holes through it, for the lanyards of rigging to reeve through, without sheaves, and with a groove round it for an iron strap |
| DEAD-FLAT | One of the bends, amidships |
| DEAD-LIGHTS | Ports placed in the cabin windows in bad weather |
| DEAD-RISING, OR RISING-LINE | Those parts of a vessel's floor, throughout her whole length, where the floor-timber is terminated upon the lower futtock |
| DEAD-WATER | The eddy under a vessel's counter |
| DEAD-WOOD | Blocks of timber, laid upon each end of the keel, where the vessel narrows |
| DECK | The planked floor of a vessel, resting upon her beams |
| DECK-HOOKS | Pieces across the stern and stem posts to support the ends of the decks |
| DECK-STOPPER | A stopper used for securing the cable forward of the windlass or capstan, while it is overhauled. (See STOPPER.) |
| DEEP-SEA-LEAD | (Pronounced dipsey.) The lead used in sounding at great depths |
| DEPARTURE | The easting or westing made by a vessel. The bearing of an object on the coast from which a vessel commences her dead reckoning |
| DERRICK | A single spar, supported by stays and guys, to which a purchase is attached, used to unload vessels, and for hoisting |
| DINGY | [sic] The smallest boat of a ship-of-war |
| DISEMBARKATION | To put, go, or cause to go ashore from a ship |
| DOG | A short iron bar, with a fang or teeth at one end, and a ring at the other. Used for a purchase, the fang being placed against a beam or knee, and the block of a tackle hooked to the ring |
| DOG-VANE | A small vane, made of feathers or buntin, to show the direction of the wind |
| DOG-VANE | A vane, placed on the weather-side of the quarter-deck |
| DOG-WATCH | The watches from four to six and from six to eight in the evening |
| DOG-WATCHES | Half watches of two hours each, from 4 to 6, and from 6 to 8, P.M. (See WATCH.) |
| DOLPHIN | A rope or strap round a mast to support the puddening, where the lower yards rest in the slings. Also, a spar or buoy with a large ring in it, secured to an anchor, to which vessels may bend their cables |
| DOLPHIN | A wreath of rope placed round a mast to support the pudding. A spar or buoy made fast to an anchor, supplied with a ring, to which a cable may be bent. A mooring-post, placed at the entrance of a dock, or on a quay or wharf |
| DOLPHIN-STRIKER | A short, perpendicular spar, under the bowsprit end, used for guying down the head-stays. By some called martingale. |
| DOUSE | To lower suddenly |
| DOUSE, TO | To let fly by the halliards of a top-sail; to lower away briskly |
| DOWELLING | A method of coaking, by letting pieces into the solid, or uniting two pieces together by tenoning |
| DOWNHAUL | A rope used to haul down jibs, staysails, and studdingsails |
| DOWN-HAULER | A rope to pull down the stay-sails, top-mast studding-sails, &c |
| DRABLER | A piece of canvass laced to the bonnet of a sail, to give it more drop |
| DRAFT | The depth of a vessel’s keel below the waterline |
| DRAG | A machine with a bag net, used for dragging on the bottom for anything lost |
| DRAG THE ANCHOR, TO | When the ship pulls it with her, from the violence of the wind |
| DRAUGHT | The depth of water which a vessel requires to float her |
| DRAW | A sail draws when it is filled by the wind. To draw a jib, is to shift it over the stay to leeward, when it is aback |
| DRIFT | Driving to leeward; driving with the tide. Drifts are, also, those parts where the rails are cut off and end with scrolls |
| DRIFTS | Those pieces in the sheer-draught where the rails are cut off |
| DRIVE | To scud before a gale, or to drift in a current |
| DRIVER | A large sail suspended to the mizzen gaff |
| DRIVER | A spanker |
| DROP | The depth of a sail, from head to foot, amidships |
| DRUM-HEAD | The top of the capstan |
| DUB | To reduce the end of a timber |
| DUCK | A kind of cloth, lighter and finer than canvass; used for small sails |
| DUNNAGE | Loose wood or other matters, placed on the bottom of the hold, above the ballast, to stow cargo upon |
| DUNNAGE | Wood, &c., laid at the bottom of a ship, to keep the cargo dry |
| EARING | A rope attached to the cringle of a sail, by which it is bent or reefed |
| EARINGS | Small ropes to make fast the upper corners of square sails, &c |
| EASE OFF | To slacken |
| EASE THE SHIP! | The command given by the pilot to the steersman, to put the helm hard a lee when the ship is expected to plunge her forepart deep in the water when close hauled |
| EDGE AWAY, TO | To decline gradually from the shore, or from the line of the course which the ship formerly held, in order to go more large |
| EDGE IN WITH, TO | To advance gradually toward the shore, or any other object |
| EIKING | A piece of wood fitted to make good a deficiency in length |
| ELBOW | Two crosses in a hawse |
| END FOR END | To let a rope or cable run quite out |
| END ON | When a ship's bows and head-sails are only seen |
| ENTERING-ROPES | Ropes at the sides of the entering-ladder |
| ESCUTCHEON | The part of a vessel's stern where her name is written |
| EUVROU | A piece of wood, by which the legs of the crow-foot to an awning are extended. (See UVROU.) |
| EVEN KEEL | When the keel is parallel with the horizon, a ship is said to be upon an even keel |
| EVEN-KEEL | The situation of a vessel when she is so trimmed that she sits evenly upon the water, neither end being down more than the other |
| EYE | The circular part of a shroud or stay, where it goes over a mast. Eye-bolt. A long iron bar, having an eye at one end, driven through a vessel's deck or side into a timber or beam, with the eye remaining out, to hook a tackle to. If there is a ring through eye, it is called a ring-bolt. An Eye-splice is a certain kind of splice made with the end of a rope. Eyelet-hole. A hole made in a sail for a cringle or roband to go through. The Eyes of a vessel. A familiar phrase for the forward part |
| FACE-PIECES | Pieces of wood wrought on the fore part of the knee of the head |
| FACING | Letting one piece of timber into another with a rabbet |
| FAG | A rope is fagged when the end is untwisted |
| FAG END | The end of a rope which is untwisted |
| FAIR WAY | The channel of a narrow bay, river, or haven, in which ships usually advance in their passage up and down |
| FAIR-LEADER | A strip of board or plank, with holes in it, for running rigging to lead through. Also, a block or thimble used for the same purpose |
| FAIR-LEADERS | Holes for keeping a running rope in its place |
| FAKE | One of the circles or rings made in coiling a rope |
| FAKE | One circle of a coil of rope |
| FALL | That part of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting |
| FALLING OFF | When a ship moves from the wind farther than she ought |
| FALSE-KEEL | Pieces of timber secured under the main keel of vessels |
| FANCY-LINE | A line rove through a block at the jaws of a gaff, used as a downhaul. Also, a line used for cross-hauling the lee topping-lift |
| FASHION-PIECES | The aftermost timbers, terminating the breadth and forming the shape of the stern |
| FASHION-TIMBERS | the aftermost timbers, terminating the breadth, and forming the shape of the stern |
| FAST | A rope by which a vessel is secured to a wharf. There are bow or head, breast, quarter, and stern fasts |
| FATHOM | Six feet |
| FEATHER | To feather an oar in rowing, is to turn the blade horizontally with the top aft as it comes out of the water |
| FEATHER-EDGED | Planks which have one side thicker than another |
| FENDERS | Pieces of rope or wood hung over the side of a vessel or boat, to protect it from chafing. The fenders of a neat boat are usually made of canvass and stuffed |
| FID | A block of wood or iron, placed through the hole in the heel of a mast, and resting on the trestle-trees of the mast below. This supports the mast. Also, a wooden pin, tapered, used in splicing large ropes, in opening eyes, &c |
| FID | A tapered piece of wood or iron to splice ropes with. Also, a piece of wood which supports one mast upon the trestle-trees of another |
| FIDDLE-BLOCK | A long shell, having one sheave over the other, and the lower smaller than the upper |
| FIDDLE-HEAD | (See HEAD.) |
| FIFE-RAIL | The rail going round a mast |
| FIGUREHEAD | The ornamental figure or other carving, usually in the likeness of a mythical being or of a highly regarded person, which adorns the bow of a ship |
| FIGURE-HEAD | A carved head or full-length figure, over the cut-water |
| FILL, TO | To brace the yards so that the wind may strike the sails on their after surfaces |
| FILLER | (See MADE MAST.) |
| FILLINGS | Pieces of timber used to make the curve fair for the mouldings, between the edges of the fish-front and the sides of the mast |
| FINISHING | Carved ornaments of the quarter-galley, below the second counter, and above the upper lights |
| FISH | To raise the flukes of an anchor upon the gunwale. Also, to strengthen a spar when sprung or weakened, by putting in or fastening on another piece. Fish-front, Fishes-sides.. (See MADE MAST.) |
| FISH | A piece of wood fastened lengthwise on another to strengthen it; as, To fish the mast |
| FISH-DAVIT | The davit used for fishing an anchor |
| FISHED | The anchor is fished when its inner arm is drawn up by the fish pendent |
| FISH-HOOK | A hook with a pennant, to the end of which the fish-tackle is hooked |
| FISH-TACKLE | The tackle used for fishing an anchor |
| FIXING | The act of sticking or forming the cringles in sails |
| FLAGSHIP | In a fleet or squadron of naval vessels, the ship bearing the flag officer or commanding officer of such a group. Also, a vessel bearing the commodore of a group of yachts or merchant ships |
| FLARE | When the vessel's sides go out from the perpendicular. In opposition to falling-home or tumbling-in |
| FLAT | A sheet is said to be hauled flat, when it is hauled down close. Flat-aback, when a sail is blown with it's after surface against the mast |
| FLATTING-IN | Bringing the clew of the sail toward the middle of the vessel, to get more effect from the wind |
| FLAW | A sudden breeze or gust of wind |
| FLEET | To come up a tackle and draw the blocks apart, for another pull, after they have been hauled two-blocks. Fleet ho! The order given at such times. Also, to shift the position of a block or fall, so as to haul to more advantage |
| FLEMISH COIL | (See FRENCH-FAKE.) |
| FLEMISH DOWN | To coil closely and carefully |
| FLEMISH-EYE | A kind of eye-splice |
| FLEMISH-HORSE | An additional foot-rope at the ends of topsail yards |
| FLOOR | The bottom of a vessel, on each side of the keelson |
| FLOOR TIMBERS | Those timbers of a vessel which are placed across the keel |
| FLOWING SHEET | When a vessel has the wind free, and the lee clews eased off |
| FLUKES | The broad triangular plates at the extremity of the arms of an anchor, terminating in a point called the bill |
| FLUKES | The broad parts or palms of the anchor |
| FLY | That part of a flag which extends from the Union to the extreme end. (See UNION.) |
| FOOT | The lower end of a mast or sail. (See FORE-FOOT.) |
| FOOT OF A SAIL | The lower edge or bottom |
| FOOT-ROPE | The rope stretching along a yard, upon which men stand when reefing or furling, formerly called horses |
| FOOT-ROPE | The rope to which the lower edge of a sail is sewed or fixed |
| FOOT-WALING | The inside planks or lining of a vessel, over the floor-timbers |
| FORE | That part of the ship nearest to the head |
| FORE | Used to distinguish the forward part of a vessel, or things in that direction; as, fore mast, fore hatch, in opposition to aft or after |
| FORE BRACES | Ropes applied to the fore-yard arms, to change the position of the fore-sail occasionally |
| FORE MAST | The forward mast of all vessels |
| FORE-AND-AFT | Lengthwise with the vessel. In opposition to athwart-ships. (See SAILS.) |
| FORE-AND-AFT | The lengthway of the ship, or in the direction of the keel |
| FORE-AND-AFT-SAILS | Sails which are set generally parallel to the length of the ship |
| FORECASTLE | A short deck in the forepart of the ship. In merchantmen, the forepart of the vessel, under the deck, where the sailors sleep |
| FORECASTLE | That part of the upper deck forward of the fore mast; or, as some say, forward of the after part of the fore channels. Also, the forward part of the vessel, under the deck, where the sailors live, in merchant vessels |
| FORE-FOOT | A piece of timber at the forward extremity of the keel, upon which the lower end of the stem rests |
| FORE-GANGER | A short piece of rope grafted on a harpoon, to which the line is bent |
| FORE-LOCK | A flat piece of iron, driven through the end of a bolt, to prevent its drawing |
| FOREMAST | The mast located first, or nearest the bow, or front of the ship |
| FOREREACH | To shoot ahead, especially when going in stays |
| FORE-REACHING | Sailing better than another ship; passing ahead |
| FORE-RUNNER | A piece of rag, terminating the stray-line of the log-line |
| FORGE | To forge ahead, to shoot ahead; as, in coming to anchor, after the sails are furled. (See FOREREACH.) |
| FORGING A HEAD | Forced ahead by the wind |
| FORMERS | Pieces of wood used for shaping cartridges or wads |
| FOTHER, OR FODDER | To draw a sail, filled with oakum, under a vessel's bottom, in order to stop a leak |
| FOTHERED SAIL | A sail swung under the vessel, to cover a leak |
| FOUL | The term for the opposite of clear |
| FOUL ANCHOR | When the cable has a turn round the anchor |
| FOUL HAWSE | When the two cables are crossed or twisted, outside the stem |
| FOUL HAWSE | When the cables are twisted at anchor |
| FOUL THE ANCHOR | To let the cable be twisted round the upper fluke, &c |
| FOUNDER | A vessel founders, when she fills with water and sinks |
| FOUNDER, TO | To sink |
| FOX | Made by twisting together two or more rope-yarns. A Spanish fox is made by untwisting a single yarn and laying it up the contrary way |
| FRAP | To pass ropes round a sail to keep it from blowing loose. Also, to draw ropes round a vessel which is weakened, to keep her together |
| FREE | A vessel is going free, when she has a fair wind and her yards braced in. A vessel is said to be free, when the water has been pumped out of her |
| FRENCH-FAKE | To coil a rope with each fake outside of the other, beginning in the middle. If there are to be riding fakes, they begin outside and go in; and so on. This is called a Flemish coil |
| FRESHEN | To relieve a rope, by moving its place; as, to freshen the nip of a stay, is to shift it, so as to prevent its chafing through. To freshen ballast, is to alter its position |
| FRESHEN THE BALLAST | Divide or separate it |
| FRESHEN, TO | When a gale increases, it is said to freshen. To freshen the hawse, to veer out or heave in a little cable, to let another part of it endure the stress of the hawse-hole. It is also applied to the act of renewing the service round the cable at the hawse-hole |
| FULL AND BY | (See Close-hauled.) |
| FULL-AND-BY | Sailing close-hauled on a wind. Full-and-by! The order given to the man at the helm to keep the sails full and at the same time close to the wind |
| FURL | To roll a sail up snugly on a yard or boom, and secure it |
| FURLING | Making fast the sails to the yards by the gaskets |
| FURLING IN A BODY | A particular method of rolling up a topsail, only practised in harbor. [vs furling in the bunt.] |
| FURLING-LINES | Cords employed in furling. They are generally flat, and are also known by the name of gaskets |
| FUTTOCK | A distortion of foot ‘hook’. The futtock shrouds are extensions of the topmast shrouds which pass through the tops [platform] and down to an iron band attached to the lowermost mast just below the tops |
| FUTTOCK BAND | The band or hoop around a lower mast, having a number of eyebolts to which the lower extremity of the topmast futtock shrouds fasten |
| FUTTOCK SHROUDS | Short iron or steel rods which are downward extensions of topmast shrouds, leading from the rim of the top to the futtock band. The stiffen the top in addition to taking the stress of the topmast rigging |
| FUTTOCK-PLATES | Iron plates crossing the sides of the top-rim perpendicularly. The dead-eyes of the topmast rigging are fitted to their upper ends, and the futtock-shrouds to their lower ends |
| FUTTOCK-SHROUDS | Short shrouds, leading from the lower ends of the futtock-plates to a bend round the lower mast, just below the top |
| FUTTOCK-STAFF | A short piece of wood or iron, seized across the upper part of the rigging, to which the catharpin legs are secured |
| FUTTOCK-TIMBERS | Those timbers between the floor and naval timbers, and the top-timbers. There are two - the lower, which is over the floor, and the middle, which is over the naval timber. The naval timber is sometimes called the ground futtock |
| GAFF | A spar or yard, to which the mizzen of a ship or the main-sail of a brig or cutter is bent |
| GAFF | A spar, to which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is bent |
| GAFF KETCH | A two-masted, fore-and-aft, gaff-rigged sailing vessel, with a smaller mast aft the mainmast and forward of the rudder post |
| GAFF-TOPSAIL | A light sail set over a gaff, the foot being spread by it |
| GAGE | The depth of water of a vessel. Also, her position as to another vessel, as having the weather or <> |
| GAGE or GUAGE | The depth of water of a ship, or what water she draws. The order of a line of battle, as Weather-gaga or Lee-gage |
| GALLEY | The place where the cooking is done |
| GALLEY | Place where the caboose is. The kitchen of a ship-of-war |
| GALLOWS-BITTS | A strong frame raised amidships, to support spare spars, &c., in port |
| GAMMON THE BOWSPRIT | Secure it by turns of a strong rope passed around it and into the cutwater, to prevent it from having too much motion |
| GAMMONING | The lashing by which the bowsprit is secured to the cut-water |
| GANG-CASKS | Small casks, used for bring water on board in boats |
| GANG-PLANK | A plank laid from the shore to the gangway, on which to walk aboard |
| GANGWAY | That part of a vessel's side, amidships, where people pass in and out of the vessel |
| GANGWAY | A platform, reaching from the quarter-deck to the forecastle on each side. Also, the place where persons enter the ship. Openings in the bulwarks, for admission of passengers and cargo |
| GANTLINE | (See GIRTLINE.) |
| GARBOARD STREAK | The first range or streak of planks laid in a ship's bottom, next the keel |
| GARBOARD-STRAKE | The range of planks next the keel, on each side |
| GARLAND | A large rope, strap or grommet, lashed to a spar when hoisting it inboard |
| GARNET | A purchase on the main stay, for hoisting cargo |
| GARNET | A purchase on the main-stay, for hoisting cargo |
| GASKET | A piece of plat to fasten the sails to the yard |
| GASKETS | Ropes or pieces of plated stuff, used to secure a sail to the yard or boom when it is furled. They are called a bunt, quarter, or yard-arm gasket, according to their position on the yard |
| GIG | The fifth class boat of a ship-of-war |
| GIMBLET | Tu turn an anchor round by its stock. To turn anything round on its end |
| GIMLETING | The action of turning the anchor round by the stock, so that the motion of the stock appears similar to that of the handle of a gimlet when employed to turn the wire |
| GIRT | The situation of a vessel when her cables are too taut |
| GIRT | A ship is girted when her cables are too tight, which prevents her swinging |
| GIRTLINE | A rope rove through a single block aloft, making a whip purchase. Commonly used to hoist rigging by, in fitting it |
| GIVE WAY! | An order to men in a boat to pull with fore force, or to begin pulling. The same as, Lay out on your oars! or, Lay out! |
| GLUT | A piece of canvass sewed into the centre of a sail near the head. It has an eyelet-hole in the middle for the bunt-jigger or becket to go through |
| GOB-LINE, or GAUB-LINE | A rope leading from the martingale inboard. The same as back-rope |
| GOING LARGE | Wind from one point forward the beam to three points abaft the beam |
| GOODGEON | (See GUDGEON.) |
| GOOSE-NECK | An iron hook fitted to the inner end of a boom |
| GOOSE-NECK | An iron ring fitted to the end of a yard or boom, for various purposes |
| GOOSE-WINGED | The situation of a course when the buntlines and lee clew are hauled up, and the weather clew down |
| GOOSE-WINGS | The outer extremities of a main or fore sail when loose, the rest of it being furled |
| GORES | The angles at one or both ends of such cloths as increase the breadth or depth of a sail |
| GORING | Cutting a sail obliquely |
| GORING-CLOTHS | Pieces cut obliquely and put in to add to the breadth of a sail |
| GRAFTING | A manner of covering a rope by weaving together yarns |
| GRAINS | An iron with four or more barbed points to it, used for striking small fish |
| GRAPNEL | A small anchor with several claws, used to secure boats |
| GRAPPLING IRONS | Crooked irons, used to seize and hold fast another vessel |
| GRATING | Open lattice work of wood. Used principally to cover hatches in good weather |
| GRAVE | To burn off the filth from a ship's bottom |
| GREAVE | To clean a ship's bottom by burning |
| GRIPE | A piece of timber which joins the keel and the cutwater |
| GRIPE | The outside timber of the fore-foot, under water, fastened to the lower stem-piece. A vessel gripes when she tends to come up into the wind |
| GRIPES | Bars of iron, with lanyards, rings and clews, by which a large boat is lashed to the ring-bolts of the deck. Those for a quarter-boat are made of long strips of matting, going round her and set taut by a lanyard |
| GRIPING | When a ship carries her helm much to windward |
| GROMMET | A ring formed of rope, by laying round a single strand |
| GROMMETS | Rope-rings worked in the sails to form eyelet-holes; pieces of rope laid into a circular form, and used for large boats' oars instead of rowlocks, and also for many other purposes |
| GROUND TACKLE | Everything belonging to a ship's anchors, and which are necessary for anchoring or mooring, such as cables, hawsers, tow-lines, warps, buoy-ropes, &c |
| GROUND TACKLE | General term for anchors, cables, warps, springs, &c. everything used in securing a vessel at anchor |
| GROUND TIER | The tier of water-casks which is lowest in the hold, and is among the shingle-ballast |
| GUESS-WARP or GUESS-ROPE | A rope fastened to a vessel or wharf, and used to tow a boat by; or to haul it out to the swing-boom-end, when in port |
| GUN-TACKLE PURCHASE | A purchase made by two single blocks |
| GUNWALE or GUNNEL | Fore-and-aft piece covering the top of the timbers, just above the level of the deck. The lower part of any port where any ordnance is |
| GUNWALE | (Pronounced gun-nel.) The upper rail of a boat or vessel |
| GUY | A rope to steady a boom, &c |
| GUY | A rope attaching to anything to steady it, and bear it one way and another in hoisting |
| GYBE | (Pronounced jibe.) To shift over the boom of a fore-and-aft sail |
| GYBING | When (by the wind being large) it is necessary to shift the boom of a fore-and-aft sail |
| HAIL, TO | To call out to another ship |
| HAIL | To speak or call to another vessel, or to men in a different part of a ship |
| HALF-HITCH | |
| HALLIARDS | Tackles or ropes to hoist up the sails |
| HALYARDS | Ropes or tackles used for hoisting and lowering yards, gaffs, and sails |
| HAMMOCK | A piece of canvass, hung at each end, in which seamen sleep |
| HAND, TO | The same as to furl |
| HAND | To hand a sail is to furl it. Bear-a-hand; make haste. Lend-a-hand; assist. Hand-over-hand; hauling rapidly on a rope, by putting one hand before the other alternately |
| HAND-LEAD | A small lead, used for sounding in rivers and harbors |
| HANDSOMELY | Slowly, carefully. Used for an order, as, "Lower handsomely!" |
| HANDSPIKE | A long wooden bar, used for heaving at the windlass |
| HANDY BILLY | A watch-tackle |
| HANKS | Rings fixed upon the stays, upon which the stay-sails traverse when hoisted or lowered |
| HANKS | Rings or hoops of wood, rope, or iron, round a stay, and seized to the luff of a fore-and-aft sail |
| HARPINGS | The fore part of the wales, which encompass the bows of a vessel, and are fastened to the stem |
| HARPOON | A spear used for striking whales and other fish |
| HATCH, or HATCHWAY | An opening in the deck to afford a passage up and down. The coverings over these openings are also called hatches. Hatch-bar is an iron bar going across the hatches to keep them down |
| HATCHWAY | A square hole in the deck, which communicates with the hold or another deck |
| HAUL HER WIND, TO | To change her course |
| HAUL HOME, TO | To pull the clew of a sail, &c., as far as it will go |
| HAUL UP THE COURSES | The order for clewing up the fore-sail, main-sail, and mizzen (if a square-sail) |
| HAUL, TO | To direct the course of a ship. To pull |
| HAUL | Haul her wind, said of a vessel when she comes up close upon the wind |
| HAWSE | The situation of the cables before a vessel's stem, when moored. Also the distance upon the water a little in advance of the stem; as, a vessel sails athwart the hawse, or anchors in the hawse of another. Open hawse. When a vessel rides by two anchors, without any cross in her cables |
| HAWSE-BLOCK | A block of wood fitted into a hawse-hole at sea |
| HAWSE-HOLE | The hole in the bows through which the cable runs |
| HAWSE-HOLES | The holes through which the cables pass |
| HAWSE-PIECES | Timbers through which the hawse-holes are cut |
| HAWSER | A small cable |
| HAWSER | A large rope used for various purposes, as warping, for a spring, &c |
| HAWSER-LAID ROPE | The same as cable-laid rope |
| HAWSER-LAID, or CABLE-LAID rope | , ...is rope laid with nine strands against the sun |
| HAZE | A term for punishing a man by keeping him unnecessarily at work upon disagreeable or difficult duty |
| HEAD LEDGES | The thwartship pieces which frame the hatchways or ladder-ways of ships |
| HEAD RAILS | The elliptic rails at the head of a ship |
| HEAD SAIL | A sail that is set forward of the fore-mast |
| HEAD SEA | The waves that meet the head of a vessel, or roll against her course |
| Head Up | Sailing closer to the wind |
| HEAD WIND | A wind blowing in an opposite direction to the ship's course |
| HEAD | The work at the prow of a vessel. If it is a carved figure, it is called a figure-head; if simple carved work, bending over and out, a billet-head; and if bending in, like the head of a violin, a fiddle-head. Also, the upper end of a mast, called a mast-head. (See BY-THE-HEAD. See FAST.) |
| HEAD-FAST | A rope at the head of the ship, to fasten it to a wharf or other fixed object |
| HEADLAND | A term nearly synonymous with cape, mull, or promontory |
| HEAD-LEDGES | Thwartship pieces that frame the hatchways |
| HEAD-ROPE | That part of a bolt-rope which terminates any sail on the upper edge to which it is fastened |
| HEAD-SAILS | A general name given to all sails that set forward of the fore-mast |
| HEADWAY | The motion of advancing |
| HEART | A block of wood in the shape of a heart, for stays to reeve through |
| HEART-YARNS | The centre yarns of a strand |
| HEAVE AHEAD, TO | To advance the ship by heaving in the cable or other rope fastened to an anchor at some distance before her |
| HEAVE A-PEAK, TO | To heave in the cable till the anchor is a-peak |
| HEAVE ASTERN | To heave a ship backward by an operation similar to heaving ahead |
| HEAVE DOWN, TO | To careen |
| HEAVE HANDSOMELY | Heave gently or leisurely |
| HEAVE HEARTY | Heave strong and quick |
| HEAVE IN STAYS, TO | To bring a ship's head to the wind by a management of the sails and rudder, in order to get on the other tack |
| HEAVE IN STAYS | To go about in tacking |
| HEAVE IN THE CABLE, TO | To draw the cable into the ship by turning the capstan |
| HEAVE IN THE CABLE, TO | To pull it into the ship by the capstan or windlass |
| HEAVE OUT, TO | To unfurl or loose a sail; more particularly applied to the stay-sails: thus, we say, "loose the top-sails, and heave out the stay-sail." |
| HEAVE SHORT, TO | To draw so much of the cable into the ship as that she will be almost perpendicularly over her anchor |
| HEAVE SHORT | To heave in on the cable until the vessel is nearly over her anchor |
| HEAVE THE CAPSTAN | Turn it round with the bars |
| HEAVE THE LEAD, TO | To throw the lead overboard in order to find the depth of water |
| HEAVE THE LOG, TO | To throw the log overboard in order to find the velocity of the ship |
| HEAVE TIGHT or TAUGHT | To turn the capstan round till the rope or cable becomes straightened |
| HEAVE TO, TO | To stop the vessel by bringing some of the sails aback. (See To bring to.) |
| HEAVE, TO | To turn about a capstan; or other machine of the like kind, by means of bars, handspikes, &c |
| HEAVER | A short wooden bar, tapering at each end. Used as a purchase |
| HEAVE-TO | To put a vessel in the position of lying-to. (See LIE-TO.) |
| HEEL | The after part of a ship's keel; the lower end of a mast or boom; the lower end of the stern-post |
| HEEL, TO | To incline to one side |
| HEEL | The after part of the keel. Also, the lower end of a mast or boom. Also, the lower end of the stern-post. To heel, is to lie over on one side |
| HEELING | The square part of the lower end of a mast, through which the fid-hole is made |
| HELM | A wooden bar put through the head of a rudder; also called the tiller |
| HELM AMIDSHIPS | To keep the helm even with the middle of the ship |
| HELM DOWN | Tiller put to leeward |
| HELM UP | Tiller put to windward |
| HELM | The machinery by which a vessel is steered, including the rudder, tiller, wheel, &c. Applied more particularly, perhaps, to the tiller |
| HELM-PORT | The hole in the counter through which the rudder-head passes |
| HELM-PORT-TRANSOM | A piece of timber placed across the lower counter, inside, at the height of the helm-port, and bolted through every timber, for the security of that port |
| HIGH AND DRY | The situation of a vessel when she is aground, above water mark |
| HITCH, TO | To make fast |
| HITCH | A peculiar manner of fastening ropes |
| HOG | A flat rough broom, used for scrubbing the bottom of a vessel |
| HOGGED | State of a vessel when, bent by a strain, she droops at both ends, bring her centre up |
| HOGGED | The state of a vessel when, by any strain, she is made to droop at each end, bringing her centre up |
| HOIST | That part of a fore-and-aft sail which is extended by hoisting, either on a mast or stay |
| HOLD | The interior of a ship in which cargo is stored |
| HOLD | The lower apartment of a ship, where the provisions and goods are stowed |
| HOLD WATER | To stop the progress of a boat by keeping the oar-blades in the water |
| HOLD | The interior of a vessel, where the cargo is stowed |
| HOLY-STONE | A large stone, used for cleaning a ship's decks |
| HOME | The sheets of a sail are said to be home, when the clews are hauled chock out to the sheave-holes. An anchor comes home when it is loosened from the ground and is hove in toward the vessel |
| HOOD | A covering for a companion hatch, skylight, &c |
| HOOD-ENDS, or HOODING-ENDS, or WHOODEN-ENDS | Those ends of the planks which fit into the rabbets of the stem or stern-post |
| HOOK-AND-BUTT | The scarfing, or laying the ends of timbers over each other |
| HOOKS | Curved timbers or knees, to bind the sides of the vessel together at the stem and stern posts outside. Those forward are breast-hooks; those aft, crutches; and those under the ends of the decks, deck-hooks |
| HORNS | The jaws of booms. Also, the ends of cross-trees |
| HORSE | A rope made fast to the yard on which the men stand |
| HORSE | (See FOOT-ROPE.) |
| HOUNDS | Projections at the mast head for the trestle-trees to rest upon |
| HOUNDS | Those projections at the mast-head serving as shoulders for the top or trestle-trees to rest upon |
| HOUSE | To house a mast, is to lower it almost half its length, and secure it by lashing its heel to the mast below |
| HOUSING | Height from the step of the mast to the uppermost deck |
| HOUSING, or HOUSE-LINE | (Pronounced houze-lin.) A small cord made of three small yarns, and used for seizings |
| HOVE TO | The vessel's way stopped by placing the sail or sails aback |
| HULK | A ship without masts or rigging; also, a vessel employed in the removal of masts into or out of ships by means of sheers, when it is called a sheer hulk |
| HULL | The body of a vessel exclusive of masts, yards, sails, rigging, machinery, and equipment |
| HULL | The body of a ship. Hull down is when a ship is so far off that you can only see her masts. To hull a ship, to fire cannon-balls into her hull within point-blank range. Hull to, the situation of a ship when she lies with all her sails furled, as in trying |
| HULL | The body of a vessel. (See A-HULL.) |
| IN-AND-OUT | A term sometimes used for the scantline [sic] of the timbers, the moulding way, and particularly for those bolts that are driven into the hanging and lodging knees, through the sides, which are called in-and-out bolts |
| INNER-POST | A piece brought on at the fore side of the main-post, and generally continued as high as the wing-transom, to seat the other transoms upon |
| IRONS | A ship is said to be in irons, when, in working, she will not cast one way or the other |
| Irons | Boat is pointing into the wind, sail is flapping and probably also going backwards |
| JACK | A common term for the jack-cross-trees. (See UNION.) |
| JACK-BLOCK | Block used in sending top-gallant masts up and down |
| JACK-BLOCK | A block used in sending topgallant masts up and down |
| JACK-CROSS-TREES | Iron cross-trees at the head of long topgallant masts |
| JACK-SCREW | A purchase, used for stowing cotton |
| JACK-STAFF | Staff on the bowsprit cap, on which the union jack is hoisted |
| JACK-STAFF | A short staff, raised at the bowsprit cap, upon which the Union Jack is hoisted |
| JACK-STAYS | Ropes or strips of wood or iron stretched along the yard of a ship, to which the sails are bound |
| JACK-STAYS | Ropes stretched taut along a yard to bend the head of the sail to. Also, long strips of wood or iron, used now for the same purpose |
| JACOB'S LADDER | Rope ladder from the deck to the shrouds above the bulwarks |
| JACOB'S LADDER | A ladder made of rope, with wooden steps |
| JAMMING | Enclosing any object between two bodies, so as to render it immovable |
| JAWS | The inner ends of booms or gaffs, hollowed in |
| JEER-BLOCKS | The blocks through which jeers are reeved |
| JEERS | The ropes by which the lower yards are suspended |
| JEERS | Tackles for hoisting the lower yards |
| JEWEL-BLOCKS | Blocks at the top-sail and top-gallant yard arms for the studding-sail halliards |
| JEWEL-BLOCKS | Single blocks at the yard-arms, through which the studdingsail halyards lead |
| JIB | The triangular sail of a ship set on a stay leading from the end of the jib-boom to the foremost top head. In cutters and sloops the jib is on the bowsprit, and extends toward the lower mast-head |
| JIB TOP-SAIL | A jib high up on the stay |
| JIB | A triangular sail set on a stay, forward. Flying jib sets outside of the jib; and the jib-o'-jib outside of that |
| JIBBER-JIB | The jib forward of the flying jib |
| JIBBOOM | The spar extending forward from, and secured on top of, the bowsprit. The jibs are attached here |
| JIB-BOOM | A spar that runs out upon the bowsprit |
| JIB-BOOM | The boom, rigged out beyond the bowsprit, to which the tack of the jib is lashed |
| JIBS | Triangular sails set forward of the foreward-most mast |
| JIGGER | A purchase used in merchant-ships to hold on the cable |
| JIGGER TACKLE | A small light tackle for hauling up the bunt of the topsail |
| JIGGER | A small tackle, used about decks or aloft |
| JOLLY-BOAT | A small boat used for going on shore, &c |
| JOLLY-BOAT | A small boat, usually hoisted at the stern |
| JUNK | Pieces of old cable, out of which mats, gaskets, &c., are made |
| JUNK | Condemned rope, cut up and used for making mats, swabs, oakum, &c |
| JURY-MAST | A temporary mast, rigged at sea, in place of one lost |
| JURY-MASTS | Temporary masts, stepped when the others are carried or shot away |
| KECKLING | Old rope passed round the cable at short distances |
| KECKLING | Old rope wound round cables, to keep them from chafing. (See ROUNDING.) |
| KEDGE | A small anchor with an iron stock |
| KEDGE ANCHOR: THE KEDGE ANCHOR | The smallest of the anchors, to which a hawser or cablet is generally bent |
| KEDGE, TO | To bring or drive down or up a river with the tide, and set the sails so as merely to avoid the shore when the wind is contrary |
| KEDGE | A small anchor, with an iron stock, used for warping. To kedge, is to warp a vessel ahead by a kedge and hawser |
| KEEL | The principal structure of a ship, running lengthwise along the centerline from bow to stern, to which the frames are attached |
| KEEL | The principal piece of timber in a ship, which is usually first laid on the blocks in building |
| KEEL | The lowest and principal timber of a vessel, running fore-and-aft its whole length, and supporting the whole frame. It is composed of several pieces, placed lengthwise, and scarfed and bolted together. (See FASLE KEEL.) |
| KEELAGE | Duty paid by a ship |
| KEELER | A small tub for holding stuff used in calking vessels |
| KEEL-HAUL, TO | To drag a person backward and forward under a ship's keel for certain offences. (Now abolished.) |
| KEEL-HAUL | To haul a man under a vessel's bottom, by ropes at the yard-arms on each side. Formerly practised as a punishment in ships of war |
| KEELSON | A timber placed over the keel on the floor-timbers, and running parallel with it |
| KEEP AWAY | To go from the wind |
| KELSON | A piece of timber forming the interior or the keel, being laid on the middle of the floor timbers immediately over the keel, and serving to unite the former to the latter |
| KENTLEDGE | Pigs of iron for ballast, laid upon the floor near the kelson fore and aft |
| KENTLEDGE | Pig-iron ballast, laid each side of the keelson |
| KETCH | A two-masted, fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel, with a smaller mast aft of the mainmast and forward of the rudder post |
| KEVEL or CAVIL | A strong piece of wood, bolted to some timber or stanchion, used for belaying large ropes to |
| KEVEL-HEADS | Timber-heads, used as kevels |
| Kicker (also called a Vang) | A device used to keep the boom from rising |
| KINK | A twist or turn in a rope |
| KINK | A twist in a rope |
| KNEES | Crooked pieces of timber, having two arms, used to connect the beams of a vessel with her timbers. (See DAGGER.) Lodging-knees, are placed horizontally, having one arm bolted to a beam, and the other across two of the timbers. Knee of the head, is placed forward of the stem, and supports the figure-head |
| KNIGHT-HEADS, or BOLLARD-TIMBERS | The timbers next the stem on each side, and continued high enough to form a support for the bowsprit |
| KNITTLES, or NETTLES | The halves of two adjoining yarns in a rope, twisted up together, for pointing or grafting. Also, small line used for seizings and for hammock-clews |
| KNOCK-OFF! | An order to leave off work |
| KNOT | A division of the logline, answering, in the calculation of the ship's velocity, to one mile |
| KNOT | A division on the log-line, answering to a mile of distance |
| KUMATAGE | A bright appearance in th horizon under the sun or moon, arising from the reflected light of those bodies from the small rippling waves on the surface of the water |
| LABOR, TO | To pitch and roll heavily |
| LABOR | A vessel is said to labor when she rolls or pitches heavily |
| LACING | The rope or line used to confine the heads of sails to their yards or gaffs |
| LACING | Rope used to lash a sail to a gaff, or a bonnet to a sail. Also, a piece of compass or knee timber, fayed to the back of the figure-head and the knee of the head, and bolted to each |
| LADEN IN BULK | Freighted with a cargo not packed, but lying loose, as corn, salt, &c |
| LAND HO! | The cry used when land is first seen |
| LAND-FALL | Discovering the land |
| LAND-FALL | The making land after being at sea. A good land-fall, is when a vessel makes the land as intended |
| LAND-LOCKED | The situation of a ship surrounded with land, so as to exclude the prospect of the sea, unless over some intervening land |
| LANIARDS | Of the shrouds are the small ropes at the ends of them, by which they are hove taught or tight |
| LANYARDS | Ropes rove through dead-eyes for setting up rigging. Also, a rope made fast to anything to secure it, or as a handle, is called a lanyard |
| LARBOARD | The left side of the ship looking forward. Obsolete: now called Port |
| LARBOARD | The left side of a vessel, looking forward |
| LARBOWLINES | The familiar term for the men in the larboard watch |
| LARGE | (See Wind.) |
| LARGE, SAILING | Advancing with a large wind, with the sheets slackened and flowing, and the bowlines entirely disused |
| LARGE | A vessel is said to be going large, when she has the wind free |
| LASH | To bind |
| LATCHINGS | Loops on the head of a bonnet by which it is laced to the foot of a sail |
| LATCHINGS | Loops on the head rope of a bonnet, by which it is laced to the foot of the sail |
| LATEEN SAIL | A triangular sail frequently used by xebees [sic], poleacres, settees, and other vessels navigated in the Mediterranean |
| LAUNCH | The first class boat of a ship-of-war; a long-boat |
| LAUNCH HO! | To let go the top-rope when the topmast is fidded |
| LAUNCH | A large boat. The LONG-BOAT |
| LAUNCH-HO! | High enough! |
| LAY | To come or go, as "lay aloft," "lay forward," "lay aft,", &c |
| LAY AHOLD, TO | To bring as near the wind as possible |
| LAY ALONG, TO | To heel over on the side |
| Lay line | The course on which your boat, sailing close - hauled on starboard tack, can just make a windward mark which is to be rounded to port is the starboard - tack lay line for that mark, and the most windward line on which you would approach the mark on port tack is the port - tack lay line |
| LAY THE LAND, TO | To sail from it so that it sinks or disappears |
| LAY | To come or to go; as, Lay aloft! Lay forward! Lay aft! Also, the direction which the strands of a rope are twisted; as, from left to right, or from right to left |
| LEACH | The border or edge of a sail at the side. Written also leech |
| LEACH ROPE | That part of the bolt rope to which the border or edge of a sail is sewed |
| LEACH | (See LEECH.) |
| LEACH-LINE | A rope for hauling up the leach of a sail |
| LEACHLINE | A rope used for hauling up the leach of a sail |
| LEAD | A plummet or piece of lead used in sounding |
| LEAD | A piece of lead, in the shape of a cone or pyramid, with a small hole at the base, and a line attached to the upper end, used for sounding. (See HAND-LEAD, DEEP-SEA-LEAD.) |
| LEADING WIND | A fair wind for a ship's course |
| LEADING-WIND | A fair wind. More particularly applied to a wind abeam or quartering |
| LEAK | A hole or breach in a vessel, at which the water comes in |
| LEDGES | Small pieces of timber placed athwart-ships under the decks of a vessel, between the beams |
| LEE | That part of the hemisphere to which the wind is directed |
| LEE BEAM, ON THE | In a direction to leeward, at right angles to the keel |
| LEE LURCHES | The sudden and violent rolls which a ship often takes to leeward in a high sea, particularly when a large wave strikes her on the weather-side |
| LEE QUARTER | That quarter of a ship which is on the lee side |
| LEE SHORE | Shore upon which the wind blows |
| LEE SIDE | That half of a ship, lengthwise, which lies between a line drawn through the middle of her length and the side which is farthest from the point of wind |
| LEE, BY THE | Noting the situation of a vessel, going free when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round the stem [sic], so as to take the sails aback on the other side |
| LEE | The side opposite to that from which the wind blows; as, if a vessel has the wind on her starboard side, that will be the weather, and the larboard will be the lee side. A lee shore is the shore upon which the wind is blowing. Under the lee of anything, is when you have that between you and the wind. By the lee. The situation of a vessel, going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side |
| LEE: UNDER THE LEE OF | On the lee side of; under the shelter of, as "under the lee of the land." |
| LEE-BOARD | A board let down into the water on the lee-side of flat-bottome[d] vessels, to oppose the action of the wind to drive them to leeward |
| LEE-BOARD | A board fitted to the lee side of flat-bottomed boats, to prevent their drifting to leeward |
| LEECH, or LEACH | The border or edge of a sail, at the sides |
| LEEFANGE | An iron bar, upon which the sheets of fore-and-aft sails traverse. Also, a rope rove through the cringle of a sail which has a bonnet to it, for hauling in, so as to lace on the bonnet. Not much used |
| LEE-GAGE | A ship or fleet to leeward of another is said to have the lee gage |
| LEE-GAGE | (See GAGE.) |
| LEEWARD SHIP | A ship that falls much to leeward of her course when sailing close-hauled |
| LEEWARD TIDE | A tide that sets to leeward |
| LEEWARD, TO | Toward that part of the horizon to which the wind blows |
| LEEWARD | (Pronounced lu-ard.) The lee side. In a direction opposite to that from which the wind blows, which is called windward. The opposite of lee is weather, and of leeward is windward; the two first being adjectives |
| Leeward | The direction the wind is going downwind |
| LEEWAY | The lateral movement of a ship to leeward |
| LEEWAY | What a vessel loses by drifting to leeward. When sailing close-hauled with all sail set, a vessel should make no leeway. If the topgallant sails are furled, it is customary to allow one point; under close-reefed topsails, two points; when under one close-reefed sail, four or five points |
| LIE TO, TO | In a storm, to keep the vessel with her head to wind, with as little sail as possible |
| LIE-TO | is to stop the progress of a vessel at sea, either by counterbracing the yards, or by reducing sail so that she will make little or no headway, but will merely come to and fall off by the counteraction of the sails and helm |
| LIFE-LINES | Ropes carried along yards, booms, &c., or at any part of the vessel, for men to hold on by |
| LIFT | A rope or tackle, going from the yard-arms to the mast-head, to support and move the yard. Also, a term applied to the sails when the wind strikes them on the leeches and raises them slightly |
| LIFTS | The ropes which come to the ends of the yards from the mast-heads, and by which they are suspended when lowered down |
| LIGHT | To move or lift anything along; as, to "Light out to windward!" that is, haul the sail over to windward. The light sails are all above the topsails, also the studdingsails and flying jib |
| LIGHTER | A large boat, used in loading and unloading vessels |
| LIMBERS or LIMBER-HOLES | Square holes cut through the lower part of a ship's floor-timbers, very near the keel, forming a channel for water, and communicating with the pump-well throughout the whole length of the floor |
| LIMBERS, or LIMBER-HOLES | Holes cut in the lower part of the floor-timbers, next the keelson, forming a passage for the water fore-and-aft. Limber-boards are placed over the limbers, and are movable. Limber-rope. A rope rove fore-and-aft through the limbers, to clear them if necessary. Limber-streak. The streak of foot-waling nearest the keelson |
| LINE | General term for ropes, cords, or wire ropes used for various purposes on board ship |
| LIST | The inclination of a vessel to one side; as, a list to port, or a list to starboard |
| LIZARD | A small piece of rope with a thimble spliced into a larger one |
| LIZARD | A piece of rope, sometimes with two legs, and one or more iron thimbles spliced into it. It is used for various purposes. One with two legs, and a thimble to each, is often made fast to the topsail tye, for the buntlines to reeve through. A single one is sometimes used on the swinging-boom topping-lift |
| LOCKER | A chest or box, to stow anything away in. Chain-locker. Where the chain cable are kept. Boatswain's locker. Where tools and small stuff for working upon rigging are kept |
| LOG | Apparatus for measuring the rate of a vessel's velocity. The log-book |
| LOG, or LOG-BOOK | A journal kept by the chief officer, in which the situation of the vessel, winds, weather, courses, distances, and everything of importance that occurs, is noted down. Log. A line with a piece of board, called the log-chip, attached to it, wound upon a reel, and used for ascertaining the ship's rate of sailing |
| LOG-B0OK | A journal in which are recorded the contents of the log-board, with such other observations relating to navigation as may be made during the day; - called also the log |
| LOG-BOARD | A board or tablet on which are marked the ship's velocity, as ascertained by the log, the course at the moment, direction of the wind, &c., which thence are copied into the log-book every twenty-four hours |
| LONG-BOAT | The largest boat in a merchant vessel. When at sea, it is carried between the fore and main masts |
| LONGERS | The longest casks, stowed next the keelson |
| LONG-TIMBERS | Timbers in the cant-bodies, reaching from the dead-wood to the head of the second futtock |
| LOOF | That part of a vessel where the planks begin to bend as they approach the stern |
| LOOM | That part of an oar which is within the row-lock. Also, to appear above the surface of the water; to appear larger than nature, as in a fog |
| LOOMING | The appearance of a distant object, such as a ship, the land, &c |
| LOOSE, TO | To unfurl or cast loose any sail |
| LUBBER | A sailor who does not know his duty |
| LUBBER'S HOLE | A hole in the top, next the mast |
| LUFF TACKLE | A large tackle consisting of a double and a single block |
| LUFF | To put the helm so as to bring the ship up nearer to the wind. Spring-a-luff! Keep your luff! &c. Orders to luff. Also, the roundest part of a vessel's bow. Also, the forward leech of fore-and-aft sails |
| LUFF | A direction to the steersman to put the helm to leeward; to make the ship sail nearer the wind; luff round or luff-a-lee, is the extreme of this movement, intended to throw the ship's head into the wind. A ship springs her luff when whe yields to the helm in sailing near the wind |
| Luffing | Pointing the boat into the wind - sail flapping |
| LUFF-TACKLE | A purchase composed of a double and single block. Luff-upon-luff. A luff tackle applied to the fall of another |
| LUGGER | A small vessel, commonly with three masts, carrying lug sails |
| LUGGER | A small vessel carrying lug-sails. Lug-sail. A sail used in boats and small vessels, bent to a yard which hangs obliquely to the mast |
| LUG-SAIL | A small square sail bent upon a yard which lays obliquely to the mast; used in boats and small vessels |
| LURCH | The sudden rolling of a vessel to one side |
| LYING TO | (See To bring to.) |
| LYING-TO | (See LIE-TO.) |
| MADE | A made mast or block is one composed of different pieces. A ship's lower mast is a made spar, her topmast is a whole spar |
| MAIN DECK | The principal deck, or deck below the spar deck |
| MAIN MAST | The middle mast of a ship; the after-mast of a brig or schooner |
| MAIN SAIL | The principal sail of a ship; the sail of the main-mast |
| MAINMAST | The principal mast of a sailing ship. |
| Mainsheet | Line that controls the position of the mainsail |
| MAKE A BOARD, TO | To tack |
| MAKE A BOARD, TO | To run a certain distance upon one tack in beating to windward |
| MAKE A PORT, TO | To come in sight of it |
| MAKE A STERN-BOARD, TO | To drive a ship stern foremost by laying the sails aback |
| MAKE FOR A PLACE, TO | To sail for it |
| MAKE FOUL WATER, TO | To muddy the water by running in shallow places, so that the ship's keel disturbs the mud at the bottom |
| MAKE SAIL, TO | To increase the quantity of sail set, by unreefing or by setting others |
| MAKE STERN-WAY, TO | To retreat or move with the stern foremost |
| MAKE THE LAND, TO | To discover it from afar |
| MAKE WATER, TO | To leak |
| MALL, or MAUL | (Pronounced mawl.) A heavy iron hammer used in driving bolts. (See TOP-MAUL.) |
| MALLET | A small maul, made of wood; as, caulking-mallet; also, serving-mallet, used in putting service on a rope |
| MAN ROPES | Entering ropes |
| MAN THE YARDS, TO | To send men upon them |
| MANGER | A coaming just within the hawse hole. Not much in use |
| MANILA | The fiber of the abaca, used for making rope |
| MAN-ROPES | Ropes used in going up and down a vessel's side |
| MARITIME | Anything related to commerce or navigation on the sea |
| Mark (buoy) | An object the sailing instructions require a boat to pass on a specified side |
| MARL | To wind or twist a small line or rope round another |
| MARLINE | A small line of two strands, but little twisted, used for winding round ropes or cables to prevent their being fretted |
| MARLINE | (Pronounced mar-lin.) Small two-stranded stuff, used for marling. A finer kind of spunyarn |
| MARLINE-SPIKE | An iron pin, sharpened at one end, with or without a short wooden handle, used in splicing ropes |
| MARLING HITCH | Hammock hitch; a hitch made with a half-knot |
| MARLING-HITCH | A kind of hitch used in marling |
| MARLINGSPIKE | An iron pin, sharpened at one end, and having a hole in the other for a lanyard. Used both as a fid and a heaver |
| MARRY | To join ropes together by a worming over both |
| MARTINET or MARTNET | A small rope fastened to the leach of a sail |
| MARTINGAL | A short perpendicular spar, under the bowsprit end, used for guying down the head stays |
| MARTINGALE | A short perpendicular spar, under the bowsprit-end, used for guying down the head-stays. (See DOLPHIN-STRIKER.) |
| MAST | A tall vertical spar that rises from the keel of a sailing vessel to support the sails and rigging |
| MAST | The upright timber on which the yards and sails are set |
| MAST CLOTH | The lining in the middle on the aft side of top-sails and top-gallant-sails, to prevent them being chafed by the masts |
| MAST | A spar set upright from the deck, to support rigging, yards and sails. Masts are whole or made |
| Mast | A pole usually going straight up from the deck (height can be tuned for different body weights), used to attach sail and boom |
| MAT | Made of strands of old rope, and used to prevent chafing |
| MATE | An officer under the master |
| MAUL | (See MALL.) |
| MEND | To mend service, is to add more to it |
| MESHES | The places between the lines of a netting |
| MESS | Any number of men who eat or lodge together |
| MESSENGER | A rope attached to the cable to heave up the anchor by |
| MESSENGER | A rope used for heaving in a cable by the capstan |
| MIDSHIPS | The timbers at the broadest part of the vessel. (See AMID-SHIPS.) |
| MIRAGE | An optical phenomenon arising from an irregular refraction or reflection of the light near the horizon |
| MISS STAYS, TO | A ship is said to miss stays when her head will not fly up into the direction of the wind, in order to get her on the other tack |
| MISS-STAYS | To fail of going about from one tack to another |
| MIZZEN or MIZEN MAST | The mast which stands abaft, and from which its rigging and sails are named; as of the sails, mizzen, mizzen top-sail, &c., And so, also, are the other sails, &c., named from the other masts |
| MIZZENMAST | The mast located third when counting from the bow, in a vessel having three or more masts. Also the after mast in a ketch or yawl |
| MIZZEN-MAST | The aftermost mast of a ship. The spanker is sometimes called the mizzen |
| MONKEY BLOCK | A small single block strapped with a swivel |
| MONKEY SAIL | A small sail above the main sail |
| MOON-SAIL | A small sail sometimes carried in light winds, above a skysail |
| MOOR, TO | To secure a ship by more than one cable |
| MOOR | To secure by two anchors |
| MOORINGS | The place where a vessel is moored. Also, anchors with chains and bridles laid in rivers for men-of-war to ride by |
| MORTICE | A morticed block is one made out of a whole block of wood with a hole cut in it for the sheave; in distinction from a made block |
| MOULDS | The patterns by which the frames of a vessel are worked out |
| MOUSE | A kind of ball or knob wrought upon the collar of the stay |
| MOUSE | To put turns of rope yarn or spunyarn round the end of a hook and its standing part, when it is hooked to anything, so as to prevent its slipping out |
| MOUSING | A knot or puddening, made of yarns, and placed on the outside of a rope |
| MUFFLE | Oars are muffled by putting mats or canvass round their looms in the row-locks |
| MUNIONS | The pieces that separate the lights in the galleries |
| MUSTER | To assemble |
| NAVAL HOODS, or HAWSE BOLSTERS | Plank above and below the hawse-holes |
| NEAP TIDES | Low tides, coming at the middle of the moon's second and fourth quarters. (See SPRING TIDES.) |
| NEAPED | A ship is said to be neaped when she is left on shore by these [neap] tides, and must wait for the next spring tides |
| NEAPED, or BENEAPED | The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height of the spring tides |
| NEAP-TIDES | The tides when the moon is in the quarter, and which are the lowest tides |
| NEAR THE LAND, TO | To approach the shore |
| NEAR! or NO NEAR! | [sic] A direction to the helmsman to put the helm a little aweather, to keep the sails full; to let her come no nearer the wind |
| NEAR | Close to wind. "Near!" the order to the helmsman when he is too near the wind |
| NETTING | Network of rope or small lines. Used for stowing away sails or hammocks |
| NETTLES | (See KNITTLES.) |
| NINEPIN BLOCK | A block in the form of a ninepin, used for a fair-leader in the rail |
| NIP | A short turn in a rope |
| NIPPERS | A large kind of platted rope, which, being twisted round the messenger and cable in weighing, binds them together |
| NIPPERS | A number of yarns marled together, used to secure a cable to the messenger |
| NOCK | The forward upper end of a sail that sets with a boom |
| NOTHING OFF! | A direction to the steersman not to go from the wind |
| NUN BUOY | The kind of buoys used by ships-of-war |
| NUN-BUOY | A buoy tapering at each end |
| NUT | Projections on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock to its place |
| OAKUM | Old rope untwisted and pulled open |
| OAKUM | Stuff made by picking rope-yarns to pieces. Used for caulking, and other purposes |
| OAR | A long wooden instrument with a flat blade at one end, used for propelling boats |
| Obstruction | Is an object that a boat could not pass without changing course substantially to avoid it. e.g. a mark, a rescue boat, the shore, perceived underwater dangers or shallows |
| OFF AND ON | Coming near the land on one tack, and leaving it on the other |
| OFF-AND-ON | To stand on different tacks towards and from the land |
| OFFING | Out to sea; from the land |
| OFFING | Distance from the shore |
| ON BOARD | Within the ship; as, He is come on board |
| ON THE BEAM | Any distance from the ship on a line with the beams, or at right angles with the keel. (See Bearing.) |
| ON THE BOW | An arc of the horizon comprehending about four points of the compass on each side of that point to which the ship's head is directed. Thus, they say, the ship in sight bears three points on the starboard bow, i.e., three points toward the right hand, from that part of the horizon which is right ahead. (See Bearing.) |
| ON THE QUARTER | An arc of the horizon comprehending about four points of the compass on each side of that point to which the ship's stern is directed |
| OPEN HAWSE | When the cables of a ship, at her moorings, lead straight to their respective anchors without crossing, she is said to ride with an open hawse |
| ORLOP DECK | The lowest deck in the ship, lying on the beams of the hold; the place where the cables are coiled, and where other stores are kept |
| ORLOP | The lower deck of a ship of the line; or that on which the cables are stowed |
| OUT OF TRIM | The state of the ship when she is not properly balanced for the purposes of navigation |
| OUT-HAUL | A rope used for hauling out the clew of a boom sail |
| Outhaul | An adjuster that tensions the sail's foot |
| OUT-RIGGER | A spar rigged out to windward from the tops or cross-trees, to spread the breast-backstays |
| OVERBOARD | Out of the ship |
| OVERHAUL | To overhaul a tackle, is to let go the fall and pull on the leading parts so as to separate the blocks. To overhaul a rope, is generally to pull a part through a block so as to make slack. To overhaul rigging, is to examine it |
| OVERHAULING | To haul a fall of rope through a block till it is slack. Examining a ship, &c |
| OVER-RAKE | When a ship at anchor is exposed to a head sea, the waves of which break in upon her, the waves are said to over-rake her |
| OVER-RAKE | Said of heavy seas which come over a vessel's head when she is at anchor, head to the sea |
| PAINTER | A rope by which a boat is made fast |
| PAINTER | A rope attached to the bows of a boat, used for making her fast |
| PALM | (See Fluke.) |
| PALM | A piece of leather fitted over the hand, with an iron for the head of a needle to press against in sewing upon canvass. Also, the fluke of an anchor |
| PANCH | (See PAUNCH.) |
| PARBUCKLE | To hoist or lower a spar or cask by single ropes passed round it |
| PARCEL A ROPE | To put a quantity of old canvas upon it before the service is put on. parcel a seam, to lay a narrow piece of canvas over it after it is calked, before it is payed |
| PARCEL | To wind tarred canvass, (called parcelling,) round a rope |
| PARCELLING | (See PARCEL.) |
| PARLIAMENT HEEL | The situation of a ship when she is made to stoop a little to one side, so as to clean the upper part of her bottom on the other side. (See Boot-topping.) |
| PARLIAMENT-HEEL | The situation of a vessel when she is careened |
| PARRAL | The collar by which the yard is confined to the mast |
| PARRAL | The rope by which a yard is confined to a mast at its centre |
| PART | To break a rope |
| PARTING | Being driven from the anchors by the breaking of the cable |
| PARTNERS | A frame-work of short timber fitted to the hole in a deck, to receive the heel of a mast or pump, &c |
| PASS, TO | To hand anything from one to another, or to place a rope or lashing round a yard, &c |
| PASSENGER MANIFEST | Also called a passenger list. Document showing detailed information concerning each passenger embarking for a foreign country, as required by customs offices at the ports of departure and arrival |
| PAUNCH MAT | A thick mat, placed at the slings of a yard or elsewhere |
| PAWL | [see also PAUL (Steel)] A short bar of wood or iron, fixed close to the capstan or windlass of a ship, to prevent those engines from rolling back or giving way when they are charged with any great effort |
| PAWL | A short bar of iron, which prevents the capstan or windlass from turning back. To pawl, is to drop a pawl and secure the windlass or capstan |
| PAY OFF, TO | To make a ship's head recede from the wind by backing the head-sails, &c |
| PAY OUT THE CABLE | To run it out of the hawse-hole |
| PAY, TO | To rub tar, pitch, &c., on anything with a brush |
| PAY-OFF | When a vessel's head falls off from the wind. To pay. To cover over with tar or pitch.To pay out. To slack up on a cable and let it run out |
| PAZAREE | A rope attached to the clew of the foresail and rove through a block on the swinging boom. Used for guying the clews out when before the wind |
| PEAK | The angle formed by the gaff and mast of a fore-and-aft sail [sic]. To peak up, to raise the after end of a gaff. To ride a stay-peak is when the cable and the fore-stay form a line. To ride a short peak, is when the cable is so much in as to destroy the line formed by the stay-peak. To ride with the yards a-peak, is to have them topped up by contrary lifts, so as to represent St. Andrew's cross |
| PEAK | (See A-PEAK.) A stay-peak is when the cable and fore stay form a line. A short stay-peak is when the cable is too much in to form this line |
| PEAK | The upper outer corner of a gaff-sail |
| PEAKS OF THE HOLD | Fore-peak, narrow part of the lower hold forward. After-peak, the run or narrow part aft |
| PENDANT | The long, narrow flag, worn at the mast-head by all ships of the navy. Brace pendants are those ropes which secure the brace-blocks to the yard-arms. Broad pendant, a broad flag, terminating in a point, used to distinguish the chief of a squadron. [also PENNANT] |
| PENDANT, or PENNANT | A long narrow piece of bunting, carried at the mast-head. Broad pennant, is a square piece, carried in the same way, in a commodore's vessel. Pennant. A rope to which a purchase is hooked. A long strap fitted at one end to a yard or mast-head, with a hook or block at the other end, for a brace to reeve through, or to hook a tackle to |
| PILLOW | A block which supports the inner end of the bowsprit |
| PIN | The axis on which a sheave turns. Also, a short piece of wood or iron to belay ropes to |
| PINK-STERN | A high, narrow stern |
| PINNACE | The third class boat of a ship-of-war |
| PINNACE | A boat, in size between the launch and a cutter |
| PINRAIL | A stout hardwood rail fitted along a ship’s bulwark, parallel to and below the caprail [top of the bulwark]. It is rounded on its projecting edge and fitted with necessary holes to receive belaying pins for running rigging |
| PINTLE | A metal bolt, used for hanging a rudder |
| PITCH | A resin taken from pine, and used for filling up the seams of a vessel |
| PITCHING | The movement of a ship, by which she plunges her head and after part alternately into the hollow of the sea |
| PLANKS | Thick, strong boards, used for covering the sides and decks of vessels |
| PLANK-SHEER | The gunwale |
| PLAT | A braid of foxes. (See FOX.) |
| PLATE | (See CHAIN-PLATE.) |
| PLUG | A piece of wood, fitted into a hole in a vessel or boat, so as to let in or keep out water |
| PLYING | Turning to windward |
| POINT | To take the end of a rope and work it over with knittles. (See REEF-POINTS.) |
| POINTERS | The lowest of the breast-hooks |
| POINTS | Platted ropes made fast to the sails for the purpose of reefing |
| POLE | Applied to the highest mast of a ship, usually painted; as, sky-sail pole |
| POLEACRE | A ship with three masts, each formed of one piece, with neither tops nor cross-trees, usually navigated in the Mediterranean |
| POOP | The highest and aftermost deck of a ship |
| POOP | A deck raised over the after part of the spar deck. A vessel is pooped when the sea breaks over her stern |
| POOPING | The shock of a high and heavy sea upon the stern or quarter of a ship, when she scuds before the wind in a tempest |
| POPPETS | Perpendicular pieces of timber fixed to the fore-and-aft part of the bilge-ways in launching |
| PORT | A town or city with a harbor. Also the left side of the ship, facing forward |
| PORT | The left side, looking forward. Thes term is now used instead of the word larboard, to make a distinction from the affinity of sound in the word starboard |
| PORT OF CALL | A port where ships dock in the course of voyages to load or unload cargo, obtain supplies, or undergo repairs |
| PORT OF ENTRY | A place where travelers or goods may enter or leave a country under official supervision |
| Port Tack | Wind across the port side |
| PORT, or PORT-HOLE | Holes in the side of a vessel, to point cannon out of. (See BRIDLE.) |
| PORT | Used instead of larboard. To port the helm, is to put it to the larboard |
| Port | The left side of the boat when you are looking forward |
| PORTOISE | The gunwale. The yards are a-portoise when they rest on the gunwale |
| PORTS | The holes in the ship's sides from which the guns are fired |
| PORT-SILLS | (See SILLS.) |
| PRESS OF SAIL | All the sail that a ship can set or carry |
| PREVENTER | Anything for temporary security, as a preventer brace, &c |
| PREVENTER | An additional rope or spar, used as a support |
| PRICE | A quantity of spunyarn or rope laid close up together |
| PRICKER | A small marlinspike, used in sail-making. It generally has a wooden handle |
| PUDDENING | A quantity of yarns, matting or oakum, used to prevent chafing |
| PUDDING AND DOLPHIN | Pads made of ropes, and put round the mast under the lower yards |
| PUMP-BRAKE | The handle to the pump |
| PURCHASE | Any sort of mechanical power employed in raising or moving heavy bodies |
| PURCHASE | A mechanical power which increases the force applied. To purchase, is to raise by a purchase |
| QUARTER | That part of a ship's side between the main chains and the stern |
| QUARTER | The part of a vessel's side between the after part of the main chains and the stern. The quarter of a yard is between the slings and the yard-arm. The wind is said to be quartering, when it blows in a line between that of the keel and the beam and abaft the latter |
| QUARTER-BLOCK | A block fitted under the quarters of a yard on each side the slings, for the clewlines and sheets to reeve through |
| QUARTER-DECK | That part of the upper deck abaft the main-mast |
| QUARTER-MASTER | A petty officer in a man-of-war, who attends the helm and binnacle at sea, and watches for signals, &c., when in port |
| QUARTER-PIECES | Fashion-pieces |
| QUARTER-TIMBERS | Fashion-timbers; bullock-timbers |
| QUICK-SAVER | A spar sometimes used in veering under courses |
| QUICK-WORK | That part of a vessel's side which is above the chain-wales and decks. So called in ship-building |
| QUILTING | A coating about a vessel, outside, formed of ropes woven together |
| QUOIN | A wooden wedge for the breech of a gun to rest upon |
| RACE | A strong, rippling tide |
| RACK | To seize two ropes together, with cross-turns. Also, a fair-leader for running rigging |
| RACK-BLOCK | A course of blocks made from one piece of wood, for fair-leaders |
| RACKING A FALL | Seizing the parts of a tackle-fall together by cross turns |
| RAIL | (See Main-rail and Monkey-rail.) |
| RAKE | The projection of a ship at the stem and stern beyond the extent of the keel. Also, the inclination of a ship's masts, either forward or aft, from a perpendicular line |
| RAKE | The inclination of a mast from the perpendicular |
| RAMLINE | A line used in mast-making to get a straight middle line on a spar |
| RANGE OF CABLE | A sufficient length hauled up to permit the anchor to drop to the bottom |
| RANGE OF CABLE | A quantity of cable, more or less, placed in order for letting go the anchor or paying out |
| RATLINES | The small ropes fastened to the shrouds, by which the men go aloft |
| RATLINES | (Pronounced rat-lins.) Lines running across the shrouds, horizontally, like the rounds of a ladder, and used to step upon in going aloft |
| RATTLE DOWN RIGGING | To put ratlines upon rigging. It is still called rattling down, though they are now rattled up; beginning at the lowest |
| RATTLE DOWN THE SHROUDS, TO | To fix the ratlines on them |
| RAZEE | A vessel of war which has had one deck cut down |
| REACH | The distance between any two points on the banks of a river wherein the current flows in an uninterrupted course |
| Reaching | Sailing with the sail eased |
| READY ABOUT! | A command of the boatswain to the crew, and implies that all the hands are to be attentive and at their stations, for tacking |
| REEF | Portion of a sail that is tied up to make it smaller |
| REEF, TO | To reduce a sail by tying it round the yard with points |
| REEF | To reduce a sail by taking in upon its head, if a square sail, and its foot, if a fore-and-aft sail |
| REEF-BAND | A band of stout canvass sewed on the sail across, with points in it, and earings at each end for reefing. A reef is all of the sail that is comprehended between the head of the sail and the first reef-band, or between two reef-bands |
| REEF-BANDS | Pieces of canvas sewed across the sail to strengthen it where the eyelet-holes of the reefs are formed |
| REEFED, CLOSE | [orig: close-reefed] When all the reefs of the top-sail are taken in |
| REEF-EYELETS | The rows of eyelets in the sails in which the reef-points are fastened |
| Reefing | Reducing the amount of sail area |
| REEF-LINES | Small ropes stretched across the reefs, and spliced into the cringles, for the men to catch hold of |
| REEF-POINTS | The rows of plaits used to take in (tie up) the reefs |
| REEF-TACKLE | A tackle upon deck, used to lighten the labor of reefing |
| REEF-TACKLE | A tackle used to haul the middle of each leech up toward the yard, so that the sail may be easily reefed |
| REEVE, TO | To put a rope through a block, &c |
| REEVE | To pass the end of a rope through a block, or any aperture |
| RELIEVING TACKLE | A tackle hooked to the tiller in a gale of wind, to steer by in case anything should happen to the wheel or tiller-ropes |
| RENDER | To pass a rope through a place. A rope is said to render or not, according as it goes freely through any place |
| RENDERING | The giving way or yielding to the efforts of some mechanical power. It is used in opposition to jamming or sticking |
| RIB-BANDS | Long, narrow, flexible pieces of timber nailed to the outside of the ribs, so as to encompass the vessel lengthwise |
| RIBS OF A SHIP | A figurative expression for the timbers |
| RIBS | A figurative term for a vessel's timbers |
| RIDE AT ANCHOR | To lie at anchor. Also, to bend or bear down by main strength and weight; as, to ride down the main tack |
| RIDE, TO | To be held by the cable. To "ride easy" is when a ship does not labor much. To "ride hard" is when the ship pitches with violence |
| RIDERS | Interior timbers placed occasionally opposite the principal ones, to which they are bolted, reaching from the keelson to the beams of the lower deck. Also, casks forming the second tier in a vessel's hold |
| RIG, TO | To fit the rigging to the masts |
| Rig | The arrangement of a boat's mast, sails and spars |
| RIGGING | A broad term for all ropes, chains, and gear used for supporting and operating masts, yards, booms, gaffs, and sails. More generally, rigging is the whole apparatus of masts, yards, sails, and cordage, by which the force of the wind is utilized to move a sailing vessel against the resistance of the water |
| RIGGING | The general term for all the ropes of a vessel. (See RUNNING, STANDING.) Also, the common term for the shrouds with their ratlines; as, the main rigging, mizzen rigging, &c |
| RIGHT, TO | A ship is said to right when she rises to her upright position, after being laid down by a violent squall. To right the helm, to put it amidships, or in its fore-and-aft position, parallel to the keel |
| RIGHT | To right the helm, is to put it amidships |
| RI | The edge of a top |
| RING | The iron ring at the upper end of an anchor, to which the cable is bent |
| RING-BOLT | An eye-bolt with a ring through the eye. (See EYE-BOLT.) |
| RING-TAIL | A small sail, shaped like a jib, set abaft the spanker in light winds |
| ROACH | A curve in the foot of a square-sail, by which the clews are brought below the middle of the foot; the forward leach of a fore-and-aft sail |
| ROACH | A curve in the foot of a square sail, by which the clews are brought below the middle of the foot. The roach of a fore-and-aft sail is in its forward leech |
| ROAD, or ROADSTEAD | An anchorage at some distance from the shore |
| ROBANDS or ROPE-BANDS | Short, flat pieces of platted rope, having an eye worked at one end. They are used in pairs, to tie the upper edges of the square sails to their respective yards |
| ROBANDS | (See ROPE-BANDS.) |
| ROLLING | The motion by which a ship rocks from side to side, like a cradle |
| ROLLING TACKLE | Tackles used to steady the yards in a heavy sea |
| ROMBOWLINE | Condemned canvass, rope, &c |
| ROPE-BANDS, or ROBANDS | Small pieces of two or three yarn spunyarn or marline, used to confine the head of the sail to the yard or gaff |
| ROPE-YARN | A thread of hemp, or other stuff, of which a rope is made |
| ROUGH-TREE | A name applied to any mast, yard, or boom, placed, in merchant-ships, as a rail or fence above the vessel's side, from the quarter-deck to the forecastle |
| ROUGH-TREE | An unfinished spar |
| ROUND IN, TO | To brace in a yard. Rounding in, the pulling upon any rope which passes through one or more blocks in a direction nearly horizontal; as, round in the weather-braces! Round to, is to stop |
| ROUND IN | To haul in on a rope, especially a weather-brace |
| ROUND UP | To haul up on a tackle |
| ROUNDING | A service of rope, hove round a spar or larger rope |
| ROUND-TOP | Same as top |
| ROUSE IN, TO | To haul in the slack part of the cable |
| ROW-LOCK | The niche in a boat's side in which the oars are used |
| ROWLOCKS or ROLLOCKS | Places cut in the gunwale of a boat for the oar to rest in while pulling |
| ROYAL YARD | The yard from which the royal is set. The fourth from the deck |
| ROYAL | A light sail next above a topgallant sail |
| ROYALS | Sails spread immediately above the top-gallant-sails, to whose yard-arms the lower corners of them are attached. They are sometimes termed top-gallant royals, and are never used but in fine weather |
| RUBBER | A small instrument used to rub or flatten down the seams of a sail in sail-making |
| RUDDER | A vertically hinged plate of metal or wood mounted at the stern of a vessel for directing its course |
| RUDDER | The machine by which the ship is steered |
| RUDDER PENDANTS | Strong ropes spliced in the rings of the rudder-chain, to prevent the loss of the rudder |
| RUDDER | The machine by which a vessel or boat is steered |
| Rudder | Underwater part of a boat used for steering |
| RUN | The aftermost part of a ship's bottom, where it grows extremely narrow as the stern approaches the stern-post. Run is also the distance sailed by a ship, and is likewise used by sailors to imply the agreement to work a single passage from one place to another. To run down, when one ship sinks another by running over her. Running on a bow-line sailing with the wind right aft [sic; cf. LARGE, SAILING]. To let run, to make loose, as a rope; to slacken; to let go |
| RUN OUT A WARP, TO | To carry the end of a rope out from a ship in a boat, and fasten it to some distant object, so that by it the ship may be removed by pulling on it |
| RUN | The after part of a vessel's bottom, which rises and narrows in approaching the stern-post. By the run. To let go by the run, is to let go altogether, instead of slacking off |
| RUNG-HEADS | The upper ends of the floor-timbers |
| RUNNER | A rope used to increase the power of a tackle. It is rove through a single block which you wish to bring down, and a tackle is hooked to each end, or to one end, the other being made fast |
| RUNNING RIGGING | The ropes that reeve through blocks, and are pulled and hauled, such as braces, halyards, &c.; in opposition to the standing rigging, the ends of which are securely seized, such as stays, shrouds, &c. |
| Running | Sailing before the wind with the sail out |
| RUN-TIMBERS | The timbers or ribs on each side of the run |
| SADDLES | Pieces of wood hollowed out to fit on the yards to which they are nailed, having a hollow in the upper part for the boom to rest in |
| SAG TO LEEWARD, TO | To make a considerable leeway |
| SAG | To sag to leeward, is to drift off bodily to leeward |
| SAGGED | Depressed in the middle; the reverse of hogged |
| SAIC | A sort of Grecian ketch, with neither top-gallant-sail nor mizzen-sail |
| SAIL HO! | The cry used when a sail is first discovered at sea |
| Sail trim | The position of the sails relative to the wind and desired point of sail. Sails that are not trimmed properly may not operate efficiently. Visible signs of trim are luffing, excessive heeling, and the flow of air past telltales. Also see sail shape |
| SAILING RIG | The configuration of masts, sails and lines on a ship |
| SAILS | are of two kinds: square sails, which hang from yards, their foot lying across the line of the keel, as the courses, topsails, &c.; and fore-and-aft sails, which set upon gaffs, or on stays, their foot running with the line of the keel, as jib, spanker, &c |
| Sand bar | An area in shallow water where wave or current action has created a small, long hill of sand. Since they are created by water movement, they can move and may not be shown on a chart |
| SAVE-ALL | A small sail sometimes set under the foot of a lower studdingsail. (See WATER SAIL.) |
| SCANTING | The variation of the wind, by which it becomes unfavorable to a ship's making great progress, as it deviates from being large, and obliges the vessel to steer close-hauled, or nearly so |
| SCANTLING | A term applied to any piece of timber, with regard to its breadth and thickness, when reduced to the standard size |
| SCARF | To join two pieces of timber at their ends by shaving them down and placing them over-lapping |
| SCHOONER | Generally, a ship with two or more fore-and-aft-rigged masts, the mainmast being taller than the foremast |
| SCHOONER | A small vessel with two masts and no tops. A fore-and-aft schooner has only fore-and-aft sails. A topsail schooner carries a square fore topsail, and frequently, also, topgallant sail and royal. There are some schooners with three masts. They also have no tops. A main-topsail schooner is one that carries square topsails, fore and aft |
| SCORE | A groove in a block or dead-eye |
| SCOTCHMAN | A large batten placed over the turnings-in of rigging. (See BATTEN.) |
| SCRAPER | A small, triangular iron instrument, with a handle fitted to its centre, and used for scraping decks and masts |
| SCROWL | A piece of timber bolted to the knees of the head, in place of a figure-head |
| SCUD, TO | To run before the wind, in a storm, so as to keep ahead of the waves |
| SCUD | To drive before a gale, with no sail, or only enough to keep the vessel ahead of the sea. Also, low, thin clouds that fly swiftly before the wind |
| SCULL | A short oar. To scull, is to impel a boat by one oar at the stern |
| SCUPPERS | Holes cut in the water-ways for the water to run from the decks |
| SCUTTLE A SHIP, TO | To make holes in her bottom to sink her |
| SCUTTLE | A hole cut in a vessel's deck, as, a hatchway. Also, a hole cut in any part of a vessel. To scuttle, is to cut or bore holes in a vessel to make her sink |
| SCUTTLE-BUTT | (See BUTT.) |
| SEA CHANTIES | A song sailors sing to the rhythm of their work |
| SEAMS | The intervals between planks in a vessel's deck or side |
| SEA-ROOM | A sufficient distance from the coast or any dangerous rocks, &c., so that a ship may perform all nautical operations without danger of shipwreck |
| SEIZE | To fasten ropes together by turns of small stuff |
| SEIZING | The operation of fastening any two ropes or different parts of one rope together, with several round and cross turns of small cord or spun-yarn. Seizing also implies the cord which fastens them |
| SEIZNGS | The fastenings of ropes that are seized together |
| SELVAGEE | A skein of rope-yarns or spunyarn, marled together. Used as a neat strap |
| SEND | When a ship's head or stern pitches suddenly and violently into the trough of the sea |
| SENNIT, or SINNIT | A braid, formed by plaiting rope-yarns or spunyarn together. Straw, plaited in the same way for hats, is called sennit |
| SERVE THE CABLE, TO | To wrap it round with rope, plat, or horse-hide, to keep it from chafing |
| SERVE, TO | To wind anything round a cable or rope, to prevent its being chafed |
| SERVE | To wind small stuff, as rope-yarns, spunyarn, &c., round a rope, to keep it from chafing. It is wound and hove round taut by a serving-board or mallet |
| SERVICE | The materials, generally spun-yarn and old canvas, used for the above purpose |
| SERVICE | is the stuff so wound round |
| SET SAIL, TO | To unfurl and expand the sails to the wind, in order to give motion to the ship |
| SET UP, TO | To increase the tension of the shrouds, backstays, &c., by tackles, laniards, &c |
| SET | To set up rigging, is to tauten it by tackles. The seizings are then put on afresh |
| SETTEE | A vessel (peculiar to the Mediterranean sea) of two masts, equipped with triangular or lateen sail |
| Sextant | A navigational instrument used to determine the vertical position of an object such as the sun, moon or stars. Used with celestial navigation |
| SHACKLES | Links in a chain cable which are fitted with a movable bolt so that the chain can be separated |
| SHAKES | The staves of hogsheads taken apart |
| SHANK | The beam or shaft of an anchor. Shank-painter, the rope by which the shank of the anchor is held up to the ship's side. It is also made fast to a piece of iron chain, in which the shank of the anchor lodges |
| SHANK | The main piece in an anchor, at one end of which the stock is made fast, and at the other the arms |
| SHANK-PAINTER | A strong rope by which the lower part of the shank of an anchor is secured to the ship's side |
| SHARP UP | Said of yards when braced as near fore-and-aft as possible |
| SHEAR HULK | An old vessel fitted with shears, &c., and used for taking out and putting in the masts of other vessels |
| SHEARS | Two or more spars, raised at angles and lashed together near their upper ends, used for taking in masts |
| SHEATHING | A casing or covering on a vessel's bottom |
| SHEAVE | The wheel in a block upon which the rope works. Sheave-hole, the place cut in a block for the ropes to reeve through |
| SHEEP-SHANK | A kind of hitch or bend, used to shorten a rope temporarily |
| SHEER | The sheer of a ship is the curve that is between the head and the stern upon her side. The ship sheers about; that is, she goes in and out |
| SHEER, or SHEER-STRAKE | The line of plank on a vessel's side, running fore-and-aft under the gunwale. Also, a vessel's position when riding by a single anchor |
| SHEERS | Are spars lsahed together and raised up for the purpose of getting out or in a mast |
| SHEET | A rope fastened to one or both of the lower corners of a sail, in order to extend and retain it in a particular situation. When a ship sails with a side wind, the lower corners of the main and fore sails are fastened by a tack and a sheet, the former being to windward and the latter to leeward. The tack is never used with a stern wind, whereas the sail is never spread without the assistance of one or both of the sheets. The stay-sails and studding-sails have only one tack and one sheet each. The stay-sail-tacks are fastened forward and the sheets drawn aft, but the studding-sail-tacks draw the outer corner of the sail to the extremity of the boom, while the sheet is employed to extend the inner corner |
| SHEET ANCHOR: THE SHEET ANCHOR | Is of the same size and weight as the two bower anchors and the spare anchor. It is a resource and dependence should either of the bowers part, for which purpose the cable or chain is always kept ready bend, with a long range, that it may be let go on an emergencey |
| SHEET HOME, TO | To haul the sheets of a sail home to the block on the yard-arm |
| SHEET | A rope used in setting a sail, to keep the clew down to its place. With square sails, the sheets run through each yard-arm. With boom sails, they haul the boom over one way and another. They keep down the inner clew of a studdingsail and the after clew of a jib. (See HOME.) |
| SHEET-ANCHOR | A vessel's largest anchor; not carried at the bow |
| SHELL | The case of a block |
| SHIFT THE HELM, TO | To alter its position from right to left or from left to right |
| SHINGLE | (See BALLAST.) |
| SHIP, TO | To put anything on board. To set a thing, a mast, for instance, up in its place. Ship a sea, when the sea breaks into the ship |
| SHIP | A vessel with three masts, with tops and yards to each. To enter on board a vessel. To fix anything in its place |
| SHIPSHAPE | In a seamanlike manner; as, That mast is not rigged shipshape, Put her about shipshape, &c |
| SHIVER, TO | To make the sails shake |
| SHIVER | To shake the wind out of a sail by bracing it so that the wind strikes upon the leech |
| SHOE OF THE ANCHOR | A small block of wood, convex on the back, and having a hole sufficiently large to contain the point of the anchor-fluke on the fore side. It is used to prevent the anchor from tearing the planks on the ship's bow when ascending or descending |
| SHOE | A piece of wood used for the bill of an anchor to rest upon, to save the vessel's side. Also, for the heels of shears, &c |
| SHOE-BLOCK | A block with two sheaves, one above the other, the one horizontal and the other perpendicular |
| SHOOT AHEAD, TO | To advance forward |
| SHORE | A prop or stanchion, placed under a beam. To shore, to prop up |
| SHORTEN SAIL, TO | Used in opposition to make sail |
| SHOULDER-OF-MUTTON-SAIL, | A triangular sail similar to the lateen, but attached to a mast instead of a yard |
| SHROUD | A grouping of steel ropes which laterally support a mast, preventing it from moving from side-to-side, and facilitate climbing the rig. They are a key part of a vessel’s standing rigging |
| SHROUDS | A range of large ropes, extending from the mastheads to the right and left sides of a ship, to support the masts, and enable them to carry sail |
| SHROUDS | A set of ropes reaching from the mast-heads to the vessel's sides, to support the masts |
| SILLS | Pieces of timber put in horizontally between the frames to form and secure any opening; as, for ports |
| SINNETT | A small platted rope, made from rope-yarns |
| SISTER BLOCK | A long piece of wood with two sheaves in it, one above the other, with a score between them for a seizing, and a groove around the block, lengthwise |
| SKIDS | Pieces of timber placed up and down a vessel's side, to bear any articles off clear that are hoisted in |
| SKIN | The part of a sail which is outside and covers the rest when it is furled. Also, familiarly, the sides of the hold; as, an article is said to be stowed next the skin |
| SKYSAIL | A light sail next above the royal |
| SKY-SCRAPER | A name given to a skysail when it is triangular |
| SLABLINE | A small line used to haul up the foot of a course |
| SLAB-LINES | Small ropes, by which seamen truss up the main-sail or fore-sail |
| SLACK | That part of a rope which hangs loose. Slack in stays, slow in going about. Slack water, the interval between the flux and reflux of the tide, when no motion is perceptible in the water |
| SLACK | The part of a rope or sail that hangs down loose. Slack in stays, said of a vessel when she works slowly in tacking |
| SLATCH | The period of a transitory breeze |
| SLEEPERS | The knees that connect the transoms to the after timbers on the ship's quarter |
| SLING | To set a cask, spar, gun, or other article, in ropes, so as to put on a tackle and hoist or lower it |
| SLINGS OF A YARD | Iron chains fixed to a hoop in the middle of a yard, and serving to suspend it for the greater ease of working |
| SLINGS | The ropes used for securing the centre of a yard to the mast. Yard-slings are now made of iron. Also a large rope fitted so as to go round any article which is to be hoisted or lowered |
| SLIP THE CABLE, TO | To let it run quite out when there is not time to weigh the anchor |
| SLIP THE CABLE, TO | To let run clear out |
| SLIP | To let a cable go and stand out to sea |
| SLIP-ROPE | A rope bent to the cable just outside the hawse-hole, and brought in on the weather quarter, for slipping |
| SLOOP OF WAR | A vessel of amy rig, mounting between 18 and 32 guns |
| SLOOP | A small vessel with one mast |
| SLUE, TO | To turn any cylindrical piece of timber about its axis without removing it; thus, to slue a mast or boom is to turn it in its cap or boom-iron. Also, to turn any package or cask round |
| SLUE | To turn anything round or over |
| SMACK | A small vessel commonly rigged as a cutter, and used in the coasting and fishing trade |
| SMALL BOWER [ANCHOR] | [one of] The two anchors which are in use [the other being the best bower] |
| SMALL STUFF | The term for spunyarn, marline, and the smallest kinds of rope, such as ratline-stuff, &c |
| SMOKE SAIL | A small sail hurled against the foremast, when the ship rides head to wind, to protect the quarter-deck from the smoke of the galley |
| SNAKE | To pass small stuff across a seizing, with marling hitches at the outer turns |
| SNATCH-BLOCK | A single block, with an opening in its side below the sheave, or at the bottom, to receive the bight of a rope |
| SNOTTER | A rope going over a yard-arm, with an eye, used to bend a tripping-line to in sending down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war |
| SNOW | A vessel equipped with two masts, resembling the fore and main masts of a ship, and a third small mast just abaft the main-mast, carrying a try-sail |
| SNOW | A kind of brig, formerly used |
| SNUB | To check a rope suddenly |
| SNYING | A term for a circular plank edgewise, to work in the bows of a vessel |
| SO! | An order to 'vast hauling upon anything when it has come to its right position |
| SOLE | A piece of timber fastened to the foot of the rudder, to make it level with the false keel |
| SOUND, TO | To find the bottom by a leaden plummet |
| SOUND | To get the depth of water by a lead and line. The pumps are sounded by an iron sounding rod, marked with a scale of feet and inches |
| SOUNDING-LINE | A line to sound with, which is marked in the following manner: Black leather at 2 and 3 fathoms, white at 5, red at 7, black at 10, white at 13 (some seamen use black at 10 and 13), white at 15 as at 5, red at 17 as at 7, two knots at 10 fathoms, and an additional knot at every 10 fathoms, with a single knot midway between each 10 fathoms, to mark the line at every five fathoms |
| SOUNDING-ROD | A rod or piece of iron used to ascertain the dapth of water in a ship's hold. It is let down in a groove by a pump |
| SOUTHING | Course or distance south. Southing of the moon, the time at which the moon passes the meridian |
| SPAN | A small line or cord, the middle of which is attached to a stay |
| SPAN | A rope with both ends made fast, for a purchase to be hooked to its bight |
| SPANKER | A ship's driver. A large sail occasionally set upon the mizzen yard or gaff, the foot being extended by a boom |
| SPANKER | The after sail of a ship or bark. It is a fore-and-aft sail, setting with a boom and gaff |
| SPAR | General term for a boom, mast, yard, stout pole, etc., on board a vessel |
| SPAR | The general term for all masts, yards, booms, gaffs, &c |
| SPAR-DECK | The upper deck |
| SPELL, TO TAKE A | To be in turn on duty at the lead, the pump, &c |
| SPELL | The common term for a portion of time given to any work. To spell, is to relieve another at his work. Spell ho! An exclamation used as an order or request to be relieved at work by another |
| SPENCER | A fore-and-aft sail, set with a gaff and no boom, and hoisting from a spencer-mast |
| SPENCER | A fore-and-aft sail, set with a gaff and no boom, and hoisting from a small mast called a spencer-mast, just abaft the fore and main masts |
| SPENCER-MAST | A small mast just abaft the fore and main masts |
| SPILL, TO | To take the wind out of the sails by the braces, &c., in order to reef or hand them |
| SPILL | To shake the wind out of a sail by bracing it so that the wind may strike its leech and shiver it |
| SPILLING LINE | A rope used for spilling a sail. Rove in bad weather |
| SPILLING-LINES | Ropes contrived to keep the sails from being blown away when they are clewed up in blowing weather |
| SPINDLE | An iron pin upon which the capstan moves. Also, a piece of timber forming the diameter of a made mast. Also, any long pin or bar upon which anything revolves |
| Spinnaker pole | Sometimes called a spinnaker boom. A pole used to extend the foot of the spinnaker beyond the edge of the boat, and to secure the corner of the sail |
| Spinnaker | A very large lightweight sail used when running or on a broad reach |
| SPIRKETING | The planks from the water-ways to the port-sills |
| SPLICE, TO | To join two ropes together by uniting the strands |
| SPLICE | To join two ropes together by interweaving their strands |
| SPOONDRIFT | A continued flying of the spray and waves over the surface of the sea |
| SPOON-DRIFT | Water swept from the tops of the waves by the violence of the wind in a tempest, and driven along before it, covering the surface of the sea |
| SPRAY | The sprinkling of a sea driven occasionally from the top of a wave and not continual as a spoondrift |
| SPRAY |