From Richard Henry Dana's "The Seaman's Friend: A Treatise on Practical Seamanship" (1879)
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.
ABOARD. Within a vessel.
ABOUT. On the other tack.
ABREAST. Alongside of. Side by side.
ACCOMMODATION. (See LADDER.)
A-COCK-BILL. The situation of the yards when they are topped tip at an angle with the deck. The situation of an anchor when it hangs to the cathead by the ring only.
ADRIFT. Broken from moorings or fasts. Without fasts.
AFLOAT. Resting on the surface of the water.
AFORE. Forward. The opposite of abaft.
AFT—AFTER. Near the stern.
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.
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.
ALL-ABACK. When all the sails are aback.
ALL HANDS. The whole crew.
ALL IN THE WIND. When all the sails are shaking.
ALOFT. Above the deck.
ALOOF. At a distance.
AMAIN. Suddenly. At once.
AMIDSHIPS. In the centre of the vessel; either with reference to her length or to her breadth.
ANCHOR. The machine by which, when dropped to the bottom, the vessel is held fast.
ANCHOR-WATCH. (See WATCH.)
AN-END. When a mast is perpendicular to the deck.
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.
APRON. A piece of timber fixed behind the lower part of the stern, 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.
A-STERN. In the direction of the stern. The opposite of ahead.
A-TAUNT. (See TAUNT.)
ATHWART. Across. Athwart-skips. Across the line of the vessel's keel. Athwart-hawst. Across the direction of a vessel's head. Across her cable.
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.
AVAST, or 'VAST. An order to stop ; as. "Avast heaving!"
A-WEATHER. The situation of the helm when it is put in the direction from which the wind blows.
A-WEIGH. The same as a-trip.
AWNING. A covering of canvass over a vessel's deck, or over a boat, to keep off sun or rain.
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 to throw it aback. To back and Jill, is alternately to back and fill the sails.
BACKSTAVS. Stays running from a masthead to the vessel's side, slanting a little aft. (See STAYS.)
BAGPIPE. To bagpipe the mizzen is to lay it aback by bringing the sheet to the weather mizzen rigging.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BARK, or BARQUE. (See PLATE 4.) 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.
BARNACLE. A shell-fish often found on a vessel's bottom.
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.
BEACON. A post or buoy placed over a shoal or bank to warn vessels off. Also as a signal-mark on land.
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.
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.
BEATING. Going toward the direction of the wind, by alternate tacks.
BECALM. To intercept the wind. A vessel or highland to windward is said to becalm another. So one sail becalms another.
BICKET. 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.
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.
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.
BENDS. (See PLATE 3.) 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.
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
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.
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. BILL. The point at the extremity of the fluke of an anchor.
BILLET-HEAD. (See HEAD.)
BINNACLE. A box near the helm, containing the compass.
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.
BITTER, or BITTER-END. That part of the cable which is abaft the bitts
BLACKWALL HITCH. (See PLATE 5.)
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.
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.
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.
BOATSWAIN. (Pronounced bo-s'n.) A warrant officer in the navy, who has charge of the rigging, and calls the crew to duty.
BOBSTAYS. Used to confine the bowsprit down to the stem or cutwater.
BOLSTERS. Pieces of soft wood, covered with canvass, placed on the trestle-trees, for the eyes of the rigging to rest upon.
BOLTS. Long cylindrical bars of iron or copper, used to secure or unite the different parts of a vessel.
BOLT-ROPE. The rope which goes round a sail, and to which the canvass is sewed.
BONNET. An additional piece of canvass attached to the foot of a jib, or a schooner's foresail, by lacings. Taken off in bad weather.
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.
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.
BOUND. Wind-bound. When a vessel is kept in port by a head wind.
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.
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. (See PLATE 5.)
BOWSE. To pull upon a tackle.
BOWSPRIT. (Pronounced bo-sprit.) A large and strong spar, standing from the bows of a vessel. (See PLATE 1.)
BOX-HAULING. Wearing a vessel by backing the head sails. (See page 75.) Box. To box the compass, is to repeat the thirty-two points of the compass in order.
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 more 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.
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.
BREAKER. A small cask containing water.
BREAMING. Cleaning a ship's bottom by burning.
BREAST-FAST. A rope used to confine a vessel sideways to a wharf, or to some other vessel.
BREAST-HOOKS. Knees placed in the forward part of a vessel, across the stem, to unite the bows on each side. (See PLATE 3.)
BREAST-ROPE. A rope, passed round a man in the chains, while sounding.
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.
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.
BRIO. A square-rigged vessel, with two masts. An hermaphrodite brig has a brig's foremast and a schooner's mainmast. (See PLATE 4.)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
BUNTINE. (Pronounced buntin.) Thin woollen stuff of which a ship's colors are made.
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.
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.
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.
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. (See PLATE 3.)
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.)
CABIN. The after part of a vessel, in which the officers live.
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. (See TIER.)
CABOOSE. A house on deck, where the cooking is done. Commonly called the Galley.
CALK. (See CAULK.)
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.
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. Those parts of frames situated forward and abaft the square frames, or the floor timbers which cross the
keel.
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 part of the mast next above it. (See
PLATE 1.)
CAPSIZE. To overturn.
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.)
CAREEN. To heave a vessel down upon her side by purchases upon the masts. To lie over, when sailing on the wind.
CARLINGS. Short and small pieces of timber running between the beams
CARRICK-BEND. A kind of knot. (See PLATE 5.) Carrick-bitts are the windlass bitts.
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.
CAT. The tackle used to hoist the anchor up to the cat-head. Cat-block, the block of this tackle.
CAT-HARPIN. An iron leg used to confine the upper part of the rigging to the mast.
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. (See PLATE 5.) A light current of air seen on the surface of the water during a calm.
CAULK. To fill the scams of a vessel with oakum.
CAVIL. (See KEVEL.)
CEILING. The inside planking of a vessel
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.
CHAINS. (See PLATE 1.) 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.
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.
CHANNELS. Broad pieces of plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel. Used for spreading the lower rigging. (See CHAINS.)
CHAPELLING. Wearing a ship round, when taken aback, without bracing the head yards.
CHECK. A term sometimes 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.
CHEERLY. Quickly, with a will.
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.
CISTERN. An apartment in the hold of a vessel, having a pipe leading put 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 n boat's mast.
CLASP-HOOK. (See CLOVE-HOOK.)
CLEAT. A piece of wood used in different parts of a vessel to belay ropes to.
CLEW. The lower corner of square sails, and the after cornet of a fore and-aft sail. To clew up, is to haul up the clew of a sail.
CLEW-GARNET. A rope that hauls up the clew of a foresail or mainsail ii 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.
CLINCH. A half-hitch, stopped to its own part.
CLOSE-HAULED. Applied to a vessel which is sailing with her yards braced up so as to get as much as possible to windward. The same as on a taut bowline, full and by, on the wind, &c.
CLOVE-HITCH. Two half-hitches round a spar or other rope. (See PLATE 5.)
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.
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.
CLUBBING. Drifting down a current with an anchor out.
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.
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-PIT. An apartment in a vessel of war, used by the surgeon during an action.
CODLINE. An eighteen thread line.
COXSWAIN. (Pronounced cox'n.) The person who steers a boat and has charge of her.
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.
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.
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.
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. (See PLATE 3.) 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 counler. To counter-brace yards, is to brace the head-yards one way and the after-yards another.
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.
CRANES. Pieces of iron or timber at the vessel's sides, used to stop boats or spars upon. A machine used at a wharf for hoisting.
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.
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.
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 of the heels of the lower futtocks.
CROSS-JACK. (Pronounced croj-jack.) The cross-jack yard is the lower yard on the mizzen mast. (See PLATE 1.)
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. (See PLATE 1.) Pieces of oak supported by the cheeks and trestle-trees, at the mast-heads, to sustain the tops on the lower wast, and to spread the topgallf nt rigging at the topmast-head.
CROW-FOOT. A number of small lines rove through the euphroe to suspend an awning by.
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. (See PLATE 5, page 46.)
CROTCH. 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.
CUT-WATER. The foremost part of a vessel's prow, which projects forward of the bows.
CUTTER. A small boat. Also, a kind of sloop.
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