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| aback | The situation of the sails when the wind presses their surfaces against the mast, and tends to force the vessel astern. |
| abaft | Towards the stern of the vessel. |
| about | On the other tack. |
| aloft | Above the deck. |
| aloof | "Keep aloof" or "Keep your luff". An order to keep a ship nearer the point of compass the wind blows from and used most often when following a lee shore. |
| amidships | In the centre of the vessel. |
| a-trip | As applied to sails, meaning they are fully hoisted. |
| athwart | Across. |
| awning | Cover of canvas over vessel's deck. |
| bark | A three-masted vessel, the two mainmasts ship rigged, the mizzen mast rigged with a spanker and gaff topsail. Name also given to broad sterned ships in coal trade without a beak or figurehead. |
| bear | An object bears so-and-so when it is in that direction from the person looking. |
| beating | Go toward direction of wind by alternate tacks. |
| belay | Make rope fast by turns round a pin or coil without hitching or seizing it. |
| bend | To make fast. |
| binnacle | A box near helm where navigation instruments are stowed. |
| block | Piece of wood with sheaves or wheels in it through which running rigging passes to aid purchase (similar to block and tackle). |
| boats | Long boat - fitted with masts, sails, armed for cruising, used for conveying heavy stores. Launch - longer and flatter, more oarsmen, used for landing large parties of men in shallow water. Barge (gig) - long and narrow, used mainly for transporting higher officers short distances. Pinnace - similar but smaller than barge, eight oars, used by lieutenants. Cutters (jollyboat) - broader, deeper, shorter than pinnace, well suited for sailing, 6 oars. Yawl - like pinnace, but with 6 oars. |
| boot-topping | The act of scraping grass, slime and barnacles from ship's bottom and daubing with a mixture of tallow, sulphur, or lime and resin. |
| box-hauling | Wearing a vessel by backing the head sails. |
| braces | Ropes by which the yards are turned horizontally about the mast. |
| breaker | Cask containing water. |
| breaming | Cleaning a ship's bottom by burning. |
| breach to | To fall off so much, when going free, as to bring wind around on other quarter and take sails aback. |
| buntlines | Ropes used for hauling up the body of a sail. |
| burgoo | Sea porridge made from oatmeal. |
| by the head | When a ship is deeper in the water forward than aft. |
| caboose | House on deck where cooking is done. |
| cappanus | "The worm", a common variety the "Terado", which destroyed wooden ships bottoms. Thin wooden sheathing, broad-headed iron nails and sheet lead were used for protection before the introduction of copper sheathing. |
| careen | To heave a vessel down upon her side by purchases on the masts. |
| cathead | Large timbers projecting from the ship's side, to which the anchor is raised and secured while in coastal waters. |
| choke his luff | Seaterm for "put the spoke in his wheel". To choke the luff of a tackle or running purchase meant to stop the action of one of the blocks. |
| clew | The lower corner of square sails and after corner of fore and aft sails. |
| clew up | To haul up the clew of a sail. |
| club-haul | Method of tacking a ship when dangerously near a lee shore, or when a "miss-stay" would be fatal. The anchor is let go as soon as wind out of sails after which the moment the head-sails are aback, the helm is put amidships, the cable cut, and sails trimmed upon the other tack. |
| courses | Common name for sails hanging from lower yards. Foresail, forecourse, main sail, maincourse. |
| crank | Condition of vessel when she is inclined to lean over a great deal and cannot bear much sail, owing to construction or stowage. An unseaworthy condition. |
| "doctor" | The cook, a nickname. |
| dolphin | A wreath of plaited cordage round the mast, to support the puddening, helping the jears to carry the lower yards if the chain slings were shot away. |
| fake | A circle or ring made while coiling a rope. |
| fall off | A ship would fall off, when owing to the wind heading her, the course had to be changed for the worse. |
| filling a ship's bottom | Covering it with flat headed nails to keep out worms. |
| flog the glass | To turn the half-hour glass too soon, either by mistake, or in order to shorten the length of a watch on deck. |
| frapping a ship | Passing many turns of a rope hawser round her to strengthen her. |
| garland | Collar of rope round a mast to support rigging and keep it from chafing the mast. |
| gooswinged | The situation of a course when the buntlines and lee clew are hauled up, and the weather clew down. |
| gunwhale | (pronounced gunnel). The heavy strake which bounds the top plank of a ship. The lower edge of a gun-port was also called this. |
| bear a hand | Make haste. |
| lend a hand | Assist. |
| hand over hand | Hauling on a rope. |
| handsomely | "Lower handsomely" and other orders, meaning slowly or carefully. |
| hawse-bags | Bags of oakum to stuff up the hawseholes in a seaway. |
| head like a scupper | A sailor who forgets to carry out an order has one. |
| heave-to | To put a vessel in position of lying to. |
| helm | The machinery, including rudder, by which a vessel is steered. |
| hog | A rough broom used for scrubbing the bottom of a vessel. |
| house a mast | To lower it about half its length and secure it by lashing its heel to the mast below. |
| irish whisper | Sailor giving vent to his anger at the orders given to him. |
| jacobs ladder | A ladder of rope with wooden steps. |
| jears | Tackles by which lower yards are hoisted. |
| keel-haul | To haul a man under bottom of vessel by ropes at the yardarms on each side. A punishment on old men-o-war ships. |
| labour | A ship labours when she rolls or pitches heavily. |
| lay | An order to move from place to place - "Lay aft" - "Lay aloft", etc. |
| lee | The opposite side to that side facing the wind. |
| leeway | The distance a vessel loses by drifting to leeward. |
| lifts | Ropes used to retain yards in horizontal position. |
| log | A journal kept by Chief Officer in which the situation of a vessel, winds, courses, weather, distances and everything of importance is noted. |
| luff | To put the helm so as to bring the vessel up nearer to the wind. "Keep your luff". |
| mahogany | Salt beef nickname. |
| mess | Any number of men who eat or lodge together. |
| midships | The broadest part of vessel. |
| off-and-on | To stand on different tacks towards and from land. |
| plying | Making way by tacking. |
| poop | A deck raised over the after-part of the spar deck. |
| port | The left side of a ship, looking forward. |
| pump | The most powerful of older forms of pump was the chain pump, operated by two men, discharging a ton of water in fifty-five seconds. |
| purchase | The mechanical power which increases the force applied. |
| quarter | The part of a vessel's side between the after part of the main chains and the stern. |
| quartermaster | In a man-o-war, a petty officer who attends the helm and binnacle at sea and watches for signals in port. |
| rake | The inclination of a mast from perpendicular. |
| rate | The rating of a naval ship: 20-100 guns of 160-875 tons were commanded by a post-captain. Vessels with fewer than 20 guns were commanded by commanders and masters. |
| ratlines | (pronounced ratlins). Lines running horizontally across shrouds like rungs of a ladder, used for climbing aloft. |
| rigging | General term for all ropes of a vessel. |
| rope-band | (roband) Plaited line tying a sail to its yard. |
| running rigging | Ropes that reeve through blocks and are pulled and hauled, such as braces, halyards, etc. |
| standing rigging | Rigging whose ends are securely seized, such as stays, shrouds, etc. |
| scraper | A small iron instrument with a handle for scraping decks and masts. |
| scud | Drive before a gale with no sail or only enough to keep vessel ahead of the sea. |
| scuppers | Holes lined with lead in the waterways, draining water from the decks. |
| scuttlebutt | Cask with square hole in top, kept on deck to hold water for daily use. |
| seize | To fasten ropes together by turns of small stuff. |
| serve | To wind small stuff, such as rope-yarns, spun-yarns, etc., around a rope to keep it from chafing. |
| set | To set up rigging is to tauten it by tackles, then put seizings on afresh. |
| to ship | To enter on board a vessel. |
| sheathing | A casing or covering on a vessel's bottom. |
| skeet | A long scoop for wetting the sides of ship in hot weather to render more air-tight. |
| slops | Sailors clothes, etc., supplied by a purser at a certain price, to crew of a man-o-war. |
| smoke-sail | A small sail hoisted on foremast, when anchored head to wind, to keep smoke from the gally blowing aft. |
| sounding | Finding depth of water using a leadline. |
| spar | General term for all masts, yards, booms, gaffs, etc. |
| splice the mainbrace | A term for a drink all round. |
| standing to, or from | ... an object at sea, means sailing towards or away from it. |
| starboard | The right side of a ship, looking forward. |
| steady | An order to keep the helm as it is. |
| stretch | A term used in the same sense as tack - (We made a long stretch out to sea). |
| strike | A sea-term for lowering anything from aloft in a ship. |
| swabber | A sailor given the job of swabbing decks with a swab, a mop of old ropes used for cleaning and drying. |
| tabling | A broad hem around edges of sails. |
| taffrail | Rail around ship's stern. |
| tail-on | (Tally-on). Order given to take hold of a rope and pull. |
| taunt | In sea terms, high or tall. |
| thus | An order to keep a ship's head as it was when sailing close-hauled. |
| transom | Beams across sternpost which support frame of stern. |
| unbeard | Cast off, or untie. |
| veer | A wind veers when it changes direction. A ship veers when it is turned before the wind. |
| waft | A signal made from the stern of a ship by hoisting the ensign, tied into a long roll to the top of the staff or to the mizzen peak, used especially to recall boats. |
| waist | The part of upper deck between quarter deck and forecastle. Waisters are men employed here. |
| warp | To move a vessel from one place to another by means of a rope made fast to some fixed object, or to a kedge (a small anchor used for this purpose). |
| wear | To turn a vessel around so that from having the wind on one side, you bring it to the other, carrying the stern around by the wind. |
| weigh | To lift up. |
| wheel | Steering wheel. |
| winding a call | Piping an order through a boatswain's whistle. |
| windlass | The machine used by merchant vessel to weigh an anchor. |
| wingers | Small casks stowed close to the side of a ship's hold where larger ones would raise the tier of casks too high. |
| yard-arm | The extremities of a yard (yard - the spars from which sails are hung). |
| yaw | The motion of a vessel when she goes off from her course. |
WATCHES: A sea day was divided into watches (or shifts) commencing at noon. Half the crew, the duty watch, sailed the ship for four hours, while the other half, did cleaning and maintenance. After four hours the watch changed, each taking over the other watches jobs. Two two-hour watches, the dog watches, were instituted to make an uneven number of watches, for otherwise, the same watch would be on duty during the same hours each day for the whole voyage, and this was considered unfair. The watches were:
| 12 noon - 4 pm | 12 am - 4 am |
| 4 pm - 6 pm (dog watch) | 4 am - 8 am |
| 6 pm - 8 pm (dog watch) | 8 am - 12 noon |
| 8 pm - 12 midnight |
CHANGING WATCH: At 8 bells, the Officer of the watch orders to call the watch. One of the crew goes to the skuttle, knocks on the door and calls "All the starboard (or larboard) watch, ahoy! Eight bells". (or the hour). He makes sure he has been heard by waiting for an answer. The watch below must turn out at once and the first man on deck should be the man who is taking over the helm. If he is slack at relieving helm he is considered to be a poor seaman. When he takes over, it is a sign the watch has changed.
© 1996 Michael Dickinson
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