The situation of the anchor when it is raised clear of the ground. The same as a-weigh.

Back To Top

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.

A navigation instrument used to measure the apparent height of a landmark whose actual height is known such as the top of a lighthouse. From this information, the ship's distance from that landmark can be calculated.

To bale a boat is to throw water out of her.
A fitting on the end of a spar to which a line may be led.

"Whoever, on the high seas, or within the United States, willfully and corruptly conspires, combines, and confederates with any other person, such other person being either within or without the United States, to cast away or otherwise destroy any vessel, with intent to injure any person that may have underwritten or may thereafter underwrite any policy insurance thereon or on goods on board thereof, or with intent to injure any person that has lent or advanced, or may lend or advance, any money on such vessel on bottomry or respondentia; or whoever, within the        United States, builds, fits, out, or aids in building or fitting out, any vessel with intent that the same be cast away or destroyed, with the intent herinbefore mentioned, shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars and imprisoned not more than ten years. (Sec. 296.)"

British maritime writer AC Hardy, Wreck - SOS, 1944, p.33.

"Insurance companies are wise in their generation. They employ technical experts to help them, and he would be a bold or resourceful man who is able to-day to sink his ship without detection."

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.

The direction of an object expressed either as a true bearing as shown on the chart or as a bearing relative to the heading of the boat.
The bearings of a vessel is the widest part of her below the plank-shear. That part of her hull which is on the waterline when she is at anchor and in her proper trim.

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, 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.

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.

The lowest part of the interior hull below the waterline.
Bilge-Ways - Pieces of timber bolted together and placed under the bilge, in launching.
Bilge Water - Water which settles in the bilge.
Bilge - The largest circumference of a cask

Bread intended for naval or military expeditions is now simply flour well kneaded with the least possible quantity of water into flat cakes and slowly baked."

It has been around for a long time - Pliny(c. AD 100) calls it 'panis nauticus' ".

Hard tack was another name for ship's biscuit and became a common term in the 1830s and 1840s.

Good biscuit was supposed to be one third heavier than the flour from which it was made. It was normally kept in cloth bags and rapidly became a home to weevils - no doubt increasing the protein content. It would keep for many years and was a major staple in ships until the advent of shipboard bakeries in the early years of the 20th Century.

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 Crutch - Support for the boom holding it up out of the way when the boat is at anchor or moored. Unlike a gallows frame, a crutch is stowed when sailing.
Boom Vang - A system used to hold the boom down when sailing downwind.

A working anchor, the cable of which is bent and reeved through the hawse-hole.
Best Bower - is the larger of the two bowers.

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.

The sudden rise or fall of the deck when not flush.
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.

Is a 2-Masted vessel with both masts square rigged. On the sternmost mast, the main mast, there is also a gaff sail.

An hermaphrodite brig has a brig's foremast and a schooner's mainmast.

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.)

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.

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.

Scuttlebutt  - A cask with a hole cut in its bilge and kept on deck to hold water for daily use.

Back To Top

A machine used for lifting vessels over a shoal or bar.

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.

The drum-like part of the windlass which is a machine used for winding in rope, cables, or chain connected to an anchor cargo.

To pay a vessel's head off in getting under way; on the tack, she is to sail upon.

A kind of hitch made in a rope.

A light current of air seen on the surface of the water during a calm.

Is the stuff put upon the rigging and spars to prevent their chafing.

Wearing a ship round when taken aback without bracing the head yards.

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.

A rope that hauls up the clew of a square sail. The clew-garnet is the clewline of a course.

Mast-Coat is a piece of canvass tarred or painted placed round a mast or bowsprit where it enters the deck.

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.

Are such as are curved or arched.

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.

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.

Pieces of timber placed across a vessel and nailed to the frames to keep the sides together until the knees are bolted.

A small boat. Also, a kind of sloop.

Back To Top

The planked floor of a vessel resting upon her beams.

The easting or westing made by a vessel. The bearing of an object on the coast from which a vessel commences her dead reckoning.

A method of coaking by letting pieces into the solid or uniting two pieces together by tenoning.

To reduce the end of a timber.

Back To Top

A piece of wood by which the legs of the crow-foot to an awning are extended. (See UVROU.)

Back To Top

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.

Block - A long shell having one sheave over the other, and the lower smaller than the upper.

The tackle used for fishing an anchor.

The Flemish Horse was for the man who straddled the yardarm facing inward, whose duty it was to pass the reef-earring when a sail was being reefed.

That part of a flag which extends from the Union to the extreme end. (See UNION.)

Lengthwise with the vessel. In opposition to athwart-ships. (See SAILS.)

A vessel founders when she fills with water and sinks.

A Spanish fox is made by untwisting a single yarn and laying it up the contrary way.

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.

Back To Top

To hand a sail is to furl it.

Bear-a-hand is to make haste.

Lend-a-hand is to assist.

Hand-over-hand is hauling rapidly on a rope by putting one hand before the other alternately.

A spear used for striking whales and other fish.

Open Hawse - When a vessel rides by two anchors without any cross in her cables.

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 masthead. (See BY-THE-HEAD. See FAST.)

To go about in tacking.

To heel is to lie over on one side.

The state of a vessel when, by any strain, she is made to droop at each end, bringing her center up.

The main body of the boat, not including the deck, mast or cabins.(see A-Hull)

Back To Top

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.

Back To Top

A triangular foresail in front of the foremast.

Flying jib sets outside of the jib; and the jib-o'-jib outside of that.

A small tackle, used about decks or aloft.

Back To Top

To kedge is to warp a vessel ahead by a kedge and hawser.

Two-masted boats, the after mast shorter, but with a ketch the after mast is forward of the rudder post .

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 figurehead.

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.

A speed of one nautical mile per hour.

Intertwining the parts of one or more ropes.

To crown a knot is to pass the strands over and under each other above the knot.

Back To Top

A good land-fall is when a vessel makes the land as intended.

See Canister

See Canister

Ropes rove through dead-eyes for setting up rigging.

A vessel is said to be going large when she has the wind free.

The side sheltered from the wind. If a vessel has the wind on her starboard side, that will be the weather, and the larboard will be the lee side.

Under the lee of anything is when you have that between you and the wind.

By the lee is 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.

A rope or tackle, going from the yardarms to the masthead, 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.

Chain-locker - Where the chain cable are kept.

Boatswain's locker - Where tools and small stuff for working upon rigging are kept.

The largest boat in a merchant vessel. When at sea, it is carried between the fore and main masts.

(See Lie-To.)

Back To Top

A kind of hitch used in marling.

The timbers at the broadest part of the vessel. (See AMID-SHIPS.)

The act of confining and securing a ship in a particular station by chains or cables, which are either fastened to the adjacent shore or to anchors on the bottom. A ship may be either moored by the head or by the head and stern; that is to lay, she may be secured by anchors before her, without any behind or she may have anchors out, both before and behind her; or her cables may be attached to polls, rings, or moorings which answer the same purpose. When a ship is moored by the head with her own anchors, they are disposed according to the circumstances of the place where the lies and the time she is to continue therein. Thus, wherever a tide ebbs and flows, it is usual to carry one anchor out towards the flood, and another towards the ebb, particularly where there is little room to range about, and the anchors are laid in the same manner, if the vessel is moored head and-stern in the same place. The situation of the anchors in a road or bay is usually opposed to the reigning winds or those which are most dangerous so that the ship rides therein with the effort of both her cables. Thus if she rides in a bay or road, which is exposed to a northerly wind and heavy sea from the same quarter, the anchors passing from the opposite bows ought to lie east and west from each other: hence, both the cables will retain the ship in her station with equal effort against the action of the wind and sea.

Small iron or brass hand gun used for anti-personnel defence (agains boarders)aboard ship. A spike was provided to allow the weapon to be used at various places around the ship.

Back To Top

1 nm = 1853 meters = 2000 yards = 6080 feet.  Contrary to some earlier replies, a nautical mile is (or was) the length of a minute of latitude at the latitude in question, not at the equator. (Since the Earth isn't a perfect sphere, the length on the surface that is subtended by a degree or a minute of latitude decreases slightly towards the poles and the length of a nautical mile decreases with it.) The confusion may have arisen because a "geographic mile", a rarely used unit, is the length of a minute of longitude on the equator. As someone has already noted, a nautical mile is approximately 6080 English feet and that is often useful as a working measurement. Noted above is that the definition of "nautical mile" might no longer be the same because, approximately 25 years ago, it was admitted as a metric unit under the System Internationale (SI). Since the original designers of the metric system, about 1780, got their calculations wrong, Distances in kilometres cannot readily be related to the spherical geometry used in navigation. Maybe the idea was that one-kilometer should have been the distance subtended by one centigrade or 1/100 or 1/100 of a right angle, meaning that 10,000 km would have equaled 3,600 nautical miles, though that implies an unbelievably large error. So, in the 1970s, the committees, which control SI, were persuaded to accept the nautical mile as a valid unit.

While there are 3600 seconds in a degree, there are (of course!) 5400 minutes in a right angle. Thus, 10,000 km should be equal to 5400 nautical miles, if the former was defined correctly and the world was a perfect sphere. That makes 1.85185... (the three figures go on recurring into infinity), which suggests that the people who marked the metal bar to define the metre had their dimension very close indeed.

The nautical mile was originally defined as one minute of angle of the Earth's meridian. Since the meter originally was defined as a 10.000.000 part of the distance from Equator to the pole, it follows that a nautical mile is 10000000/5400 = 1851,851851 meters.

Projections on each side of the shank of an anchor, to secure the stock to its place.

Back To Top

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.

Back To Top

A thick mat placed at the slings of a yard or elsewhere.

To pawl is to drop a pawl and secure the windlass or capstan.

Outer end of the gaff of upper aft corner of a gaff sail. (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.

A long narrow piece of bunting carried at the masthead.

Broad pennant is a square piece, carried in the same way, in a commodore's vessel.

A rope to which a purchase is hooked. A long strap fitted at one end to a yard or masthead with a hook or block at the other end for a brace to reeve through, or to hook a tackle to.

Thick, strong boards used for covering the sides and decks of vessels.

It is related to 'Pommel', the knob terminating the hilt of a sword; also used for the saddlebow. Pommellum: diminutive of Latin 'Pomum' 'Fruit', or 'Apple' [French 'Pomme], etc.]

 A vessel is pooped when the sea breaks over her stern.

Perpendicular pieces of timber fixed to the fore-and-aft part of the bilge-ways in launching.

To port the helm is to put it to the larboard.

Holes in the side of a vessel to point cannon out of. (See BRIDLE.)

Semi-dreadnoughts included an intermediate battery of 8-10 inch guns.

Dreadnoughts had a uniform main battery of 10-12 inch guns, in number at least twice as many as on Predreadnoughts and semidreadnoughts. The intermediate guns gave the ships additional hitting power above and beyond “true” Predreadnoughts, but the multiple calibers caused great difficulties in fire control (a splash from a 9.2 inch shell is indistinguishable from that of a 12 inch). This was one of the motivators for the design of the all-big-gun battleship, AKA dreadnought.

Cargo from captured ship

Pricker. A small marlinspike, used in sail-making. It generally has a wooden handle.

To purchase the anchor is to loosen it out of the ground.

To purchase is to raise by a purchase.

Back To Top

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.

Small stay sail located between the foremast and mainmast.

Back To Top

Red flag used by pirates prior to 1700 replace by black flag.

Under the Red - Jack Pirates

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.

A figurative term for a vessel's timbers.

Also, casks forming the second tier in a vessel's hold.

The iron ring at the upper end of an anchor, to which the cable is bent

A service of rope hove round a spar or larger rope.

A name given in East Indiamen and other large merchant ships to square cabins built on the after-part of the quarterdeck and having the poop for its roof; such an apartment is frequently called the "coach" in ships of war. Round, because one can walk around it. In some trading vessels the round house is built on the deck, generally abaft the main mast.

By the run is to let go altogether, instead of slacking off.

Back To Top

Sailing ships with at least 2 masts (foremast and mainmast) with the mainmast being the taller. Word derives from the term "schoon/scoon" meaning to move smoothly and quickly. ( a 3-masted vessel is called a "tern").

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.

To sculll  is to impel a boat by one oar at the stern.

Holes through the shipsides, which drain water at deck level over the side.

To scuttle is to cut or bore holes in a vessel to make her sink.

The intervals between planks in a vessel's deck or side.

The main piece in an anchor, at one end of which the stock is made fast, and at the other the arms.

The principal function of the shell is to act as a watertight skin. It also gives strength to the construction of intermediate parts.

The outer part or body of a block in which the sheave revolves.

An old sailor who has a vast knowledge of seamanship and who is able to pass on their knowledge. The name come from being at sea for so long seashells grew on his back. Can also be used to identify an old fashion seaman.

To enter on board a vessel.

To fix anything in its place.

To shore is to prop up.

The function of the shot garlands was to house the ready-use stock of round shot. Garlands were usually made from a plank of oak of suitable length, fashioned with hollows or bowels in which the shot sat. The width and depth of the plank was governed by the size of the shot; therefore, it can be assumed that its width was generally twice that of the diameter of the shot and its depth no less than three quarters the diameter. The hollows had to be sufficiently deep to ensure that the shot would not roll out when the ship healed in heavy seas. Usually each garland was situated around hatches and other features along the centreline of the deck. They were also fitted to the ships side and to the bulwarks of the foc'sle and the quarter deck, but this practice was eliminated by the end of the eighteenth century. This abolition was ordered by the Navy Board in 1780.This ensured that most of the weight borne by the vessel was as close to the centreline as possible.

Lavery's book 'The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War

1600-1815' tends to agree with the above, late 1600's shot was stacked in piles held together by tarpaulins. Then in the early 1700's shot racks fitted to bulwarks between gun positions and abolition of same resulting in oak shot racks around coamings and hatchways near midline as possible.

Some ships were fitted with brass shot racks around the hatchways,  Another fond name for a shot rack was a monkey, like the powder monkey, and these were referred to as brass monkeys.

In winter when these brass shot racks got water into the hollows it didn't soak away like it would in a wooden rack, it just froze and expanded, then more water from scrubbing decks, etc. would add to it until the ball was pushed out of the rack, This was referred to as freezing the balls off a brass monkey and it has been part of English language ever since.

See ADMIRAL and ENGAGEMENT.

Signals ought to be distinct with simplicity. They are simple when every instruction is expressed by a particular token in order to avoid any mistakes arising from the double purport of one signal. They are distinct when issued without precipitation when sufficient time is allowed to observe and obey them, and when they are exposed in a conspicuous place so as to be readily percieved at a distance. All signals may be reduced into three different kinds, viz. Those which are made by the sound of particular instruments as the trumpet, horn, or fife to which may be added, striking the bell, or beating the drum. Those which are made by displaying pendents, ensigns, and flags of different colours, or by lowering or altering the position of the sails. And, finally, those which are executed by rockets of different kinds by firing cannon or small arms.  By artificial fire-works and by lanthorns. Firing of great guns will serve equally in the day or night, or in a fog to make or confirm signals or to raise the attention of the hearers to a future order. This method, however, is attended with some inconveniencies and should not be used indiscriminately. Too great a repetition of the cannon is apt to introduce mistakes and confusion, as well as, to discover the track of the squadron. The report and flight of the rockets is liable to the same objection when at a short distance from the enemy. It is then, by the combination of signals previously known, that the admiral conveys orders to his fleet, every squadron, every division, and every ship of which has its particular signal. The instruction may, therefore, occasionally be given to the whole fleet, or to any of its squadrons; to any division of those squadrons, or to any ship of those divisions. Hence the signal of command may at the same time be displayed for three divisions and for three ships of each division, or for three ships in each squadron and for only nine ships in the whole fleet. For, the general signal of the fleet being shown if a particular pendent be also thrown out from some remarkable place on the same mast with the general signal, it will communicate intelligence to nine ships that wear the same pendent.