Glossary of nautical terms

This is a glossary of nautical terms; some remain current, while many date from the 17th to 19th centuries. See also Wiktionary's nautical terms, Category:Nautical terms, and Nautical metaphors in English. See the Further reading section for additional words and references.

A[]

aback: A sail is aback when the wind fills it from the opposite side to the one normally used to move the vessel forward. On a square-rigged ship, any of the square sails can be braced round to be aback. The purpose may be to reduce speed (such as when a ship-of-the-line is keeping station with others), to heave to or to assist moving the ship's head through the eye of the wind when tacking. A sudden wind shift can cause a square-rigged vessel to be "caught aback" with all sails aback. This is a dangerous situation that risks serious damage. In a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel, a headsail is backed either by hauling it across with the weather sheet or by tacking without releasing the sheet. It is used to heave to or to assist with tacking.^[1]^[2]
abaft: Toward the stern, relative to some object (e.g. "abaft the cockpit").
abaft the beam: Farther aft than the beam: a relative bearing of greater than 90 degrees from the bow (e.g. "two points abaft the beam, starboard side" would describe "an object lying 22.5 degrees toward the rear of the ship, as measured clockwise from a perpendicular line from the right side, center, of the ship, toward the horizon").^[3]
abandon ship: An imperative to leave the vessel immediately, usually in the face of some imminent overwhelming danger.^[4] It is an order issued by the Master or a delegated person in command, and must be a verbal order. It is usually the last resort after all other mitigating actions have failed or become impossible, and destruction or loss of the ship is imminent, and is customarily followed by a command to "man the lifeboats" or life rafts.^[4]^[5]
abeam: On the beam, a relative bearing at right angles to the ship's keel.^[6]
able seaman (AB): A merchant seaman qualified to perform all routine duties, or a junior rank in some navies.
aboard: On or in a vessel. Synonymous with "on board". See also close aboard.
about: To change the course of a ship by tacking. "Ready about" is the order to prepare for tacking.^[7]
above board: On or above the deck; in plain view; not hiding anything. Pirates would hide their crews below decks, thereby creating the false impression that an encounter with another ship was a casual matter of chance.^[8]
above-water hull: The hull section of a vessel above the waterline; the visible part of a ship. See also topsides.
absentee pennant: A special pennant flown to indicate the absence of a ship's commanding officer, admiral, his chief-of-staff, or an officer whose flag is nonetheless flying (a division, squadron, or flotilla commander).
absolute bearing: The bearing of an object in relation to north, either true bearing, using the geographical or true north, or magnetic bearing, using magnetic north. See also bearing and relative bearing.
accommodation ladder: A portable flight of steps down a ship's side.
accommodation ship: A ship or hull used as housing, generally when there is a lack of quarters available ashore. An operational ship can be used, but more commonly a hull modified for accommodation is used.
Act of Pardon or Act of Grace: A letter from a state or power authorising action by a privateer. See also letter of marque.
action stations: See battle stations.
admiral: A senior naval officer of flag rank. In ascending order of seniority: in the Royal Navy: rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral and (until about 2001, when all British five-star ranks were discontinued) admiral of the fleet; in the U.S. Navy rear admiral (lower half), rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral, and fleet admiral. The term is derived from the Arabic Amir al-Bahr ("ruler of the sea").
admiralty: 1. A high naval authority in charge of a state's navy or a major territorial component. In the Royal Navy (UK), the Board of Admiralty, executing the office of the Lord High Admiral, promulgates naval law in the form of queen's (or king's) regulations and admiralty instructions.; 2. Another name for admiralty law.
admiralty law: The body of law that deals with maritime cases. In the UK, it is administered by the Admiralty Court, a special court within the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice. The Admiralty Court is now in the Rolls Building.
adrift: 1. Afloat and unattached in any way to the shore or seabed, but not under way. When referring to a vessel, it implies that the vessel is not under control and therefore goes where the wind and current take her ("loose from moorings" or "out of place").; 2. Any gear not fastened down or put away properly.; 3. Any person or thing that is misplaced or missing. When applied to a member of the navy or marine corps, such a person is "absent without leave" (AWOL) or, in US Navy and US Marine Corps terminology, is guilty of an "unauthorized absence" (UA).^[9]
advance note: A note for one month's wages issued to sailors on their signing a ship's articles.
adviso: See aviso.
afloat: Of a vessel that is floating freely (not aground or sunk). More generally of vessels in service ("the company has 10 ships afloat").
afore: 1. In, on, or toward the fore or front of a vessel.; 2. In front of a vessel.
aft: 1. Toward the stern or rear of a vessel.^[2]; 2. The portion of a vessel behind the middle area of the vessel.
afterbrow: On larger ships, a secondary gangway rigged in the area aft of midship. On some military vessels, such as US naval vessels, enlisted personnel below E-7 board the ship at the afterbrow; officers and CPO/SCPO/MCPO board the ship at the brow.^[10]
aftercastle: A stern structure behind the mizzenmast and above the transom on large sailing ships, much larger but less common than a forecastle. The aftercastle houses the captain′s cabin and sometimes other cabins and is topped by the poop deck.
afternoon watch: The 1200–1600 watch.
aground: Resting on or touching the ground or bottom (either unintentionally or deliberately, such as in a drying harbour), rather than afloat.
ahead: Forward of the bow.
ahoy: A cry to draw attention. Used to hail a boat or a ship, e.g. "boat ahoy".
ahull: 1. Lying broadside to the sea.; 2. To ride out a storm with no sails and helm held to leeward.
aid to navigation (ATON): 1. Any device external to a vessel or aircraft specifically intended to assist navigators in determining their position or safe course, or to warn them of dangers or obstructions to navigation.; 2. Any sort of marker that aids a traveler in navigation, especially with regard to nautical or aviation travel. Such aids commonly include lighthouses, buoys, fog signals, and day beacons.
aircraft carrier: A warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Frequently shortened to carrier. Since 1918, the term generally has been limited to a warship with an extensive flight deck designed to operate conventional fixed-wing aircraft. In United States Navy slang, also called a flat top or a bird farm.
alee: 1. On the lee side of a ship.; 2. To leeward.
all hands: A ship's entire company, including both officers and enlisted personnel.
all night in: Having no night watches.
all standing: Bringing a person or thing up short, that is an unforeseen and sudden stop.^[9]
allision: The impact of a stationary object (not submerged), such as a bridge abutment or dolphin, pier or wharf, or another vessel made fast to a pier or wharf. More than incidental contact is required. The vessel is said to "allide" with the fixed object and is considered at fault. Contrast collision.
aloft: 1. In the rigging of a sailing ship.; 2. Above the ship's uppermost solid structure.; 3. Overhead or high above.
alongside: By the side of a ship or pier.
amidships: The middle section of a vessel with reference to the athwartships plane, as distinguished from port or starboard (e.g. "Put your rudder amidships"). Compare midships.
ammunition ship: A naval auxiliary ship specifically configured to carry ammunition, usually for naval ships and aircraft.
anchor: 1. Any object designed to prevent or slow the drift of a ship, attached to the ship by a line or chain; usually a metal, hook or plough-like object designed to grip the solid seabed under the body of water. See also sea anchor.; 2. To deploy an anchor (e.g. "she anchored offshore").
anchor ball: A round, black shape hoisted in the forepart of a vessel to show that it is anchored.
anchor buoy: A small buoy secured to a line attached to the crown of an anchor. The line allows the anchor to be unhooked from an obstruction, such as a rock or another vessel's anchor cable, so preventing raising the anchor in the normal way.^[11]
anchor chain: A chain connecting a ship to an anchor.
anchor detail: A group of men who handle ground tackle when the ship is anchoring or getting under way.
anchor home: When the anchor is secured for sea. Typically rests just outside the hawsepipe on the outer side of the hull, at the bow of a vessel.
anchor light: A white light displayed by a ship to indicate that it is at anchor. Two such lights are displayed by a ship over 150 feet (46 m) in length.
anchor rode: The anchor line, rope or cable connecting the anchor chain to the vessel.
anchor sentinel: A separate weight on a separate line that is loosely attached to the anchor rode so that it can slide down it easily. It is made fast at a distance slightly longer than the draft of the boat. It is used to prevent the anchor rode from becoming fouled on the keel or other underwater structures when the boat is resting at anchor and moving randomly during slack tide.
anchor watch: The crewmen assigned to take care of a ship while it is anchored or moored, and charged with such duties as making sure that the anchor is holding and the vessel is not drifting. Most marine GPS units have an anchor watch alarm capability.
anchor winch: A horizontal capstan in the bow used for weighing anchor.^[2]
anchorage: Any place suitable for a ship to anchor, often an area of a port or harbor.
anchor's aweigh: Said of an anchor to indicate that it is just clear of the bottom and that the ship is therefore no longer anchored.
Andrew: Traditional lower-deck slang term for the Royal Navy.
anemometer: An instrument to measure wind speed.
aneroid barometer: An instrument to measure air pressure. Used to predict changes in weather.
angle on the bow: A naval submariner's term for the angle between a target's course and the line of sight to the submarine. It is expressed as port or starboard, so never exceeds 180 degrees. This is one of the figures entered into the Torpedo Data Computer that makes all the calculations necessary for a torpedo attack on the target. Not to be confused with doubling the angle on the bow
answer: The expected response of a vessel to control mechanisms, such as a turn "answering" to the wheel and rudder. "She won't answer" might be the report from a helmsman when turning the wheel under a pilot's order fails to produce the expected change of direction.
anti-rolling tanks: A pair of fluid-filled tanks mounted on opposite sides of a ship below the waterline. The tanks are cross-linked by piping or ducts to allow water to flow between them and at the top by vents or air pipes. The piping is sized so that as the fluid flows from side to side it damps the amount of roll.
anti-submarine net: A heavy underwater net attached to a boom placed so as to protect a harbor, anchorage, or strait from penetration by submerged submarines.
apeak: More or less vertical. Having the anchor rode or chain as nearly vertical as possible without freeing the anchor.^{[citation needed]}
aport: Toward the port side of a vessel.
apron: Piece of wood fitted to the after side of the stem post and fore side of the stern post of a clinker built boat, where the planking is secured.^[12]
apparent wind: The combination of the true wind and the headwind caused by the boat's forward motion. For example, it causes a light side wind to appear to come from well ahead of the beam.
arc of visibility: The portion of the horizon over which a lighted aid to navigation is visible from seaward.
archboard: A plank along the stern where the name of a ship is commonly painted.^[13]
armament: A ship's complement of weapons.
Articles of War: Regulations governing the military and naval forces of the UK and US; read to every ship's company on commissioning and at specified intervals during the commission.
as the crow flies: As measured by a straight line between two points (which might cross land), in the way that a crow or other bird would be capable of traveling rather than a ship, which must go around land. See also great circle.
ASDIC: Purportedly an acronym for Allied Submarine Devices Investigation Committee. A type of SONAR used by the Allies for detecting submarines during the First and Second World Wars. The term has been generically applied to equipment for "under-water supersonic echo-ranging equipment" of submarines and other vessels.^[14]
ashore: 1. On the beach, shore, or land (as opposed to aboard or on board).; 2. Towards the shore.; 3. "To run ashore": to collide with the shore (as opposed to "to run aground", which is to strike a submerged feature such as a reef or sandbar).
assembly station: See muster station.
astarboard: Toward the starboard side of a vessel.
astern: 1. Toward the stern or rear of a vessel.; 2. Behind a vessel.
astern gear: The gear or gears that, when engaged with an engine or motor, result in backwards movement or force. Equivalent to reverse in a manual-transmission automobile.
asylum harbour: A harbour used to provide shelter from a storm. See harbor of refuge.
ASW: An acronym for anti-submarine warfare.
athwart
athwartships: At right angles to the fore and aft or centerline of a ship.
auxiliary ship: A naval ship designed to operate in any number of roles supporting combatant ships and other naval operations, including a wide range of activities related to replenishment, transport, repair, harbor services and research.
avast: Stop, cease or desist from whatever is being done. From the Dutch hou' vast ("hold on"), the imperative form of vasthouden ("to hold on to") or the Italian word basta.^[9] Compare Ya basta.
aviso: A kind of dispatch boat or advice boat. Survives particularly in the French Navy. They are considered equivalent to modern sloops.
awash: So low in the water that the water is constantly washing across the surface.
aweigh: The position of an anchor that is just clear of making contact with the bottom.
axial fire: Fire oriented towards the ends of the ship; the opposite of broadside fire. In the Age of Sail, this was known as "raking fire".
aye, aye: (/ˌaɪ ˈaɪ/) A reply to an order or command to indicate that it, firstly, is heard; and, secondly, is understood and will be carried out (e.g. "Aye, aye, sir" to officers). Also the proper reply from a hailed boat, to indicate that an officer is on board.
azimuth circle: An instrument used to take the bearings of celestial objects.
azimuth compass: An instrument employed for ascertaining the position of the Sun with respect to magnetic north. The azimuth of an object is its bearing from the observer measured as an angle clockwise from true north.

B[]

B & R rig: A style of standing rigging used on sailboats that lacks a backstay. The mast is said to be supported like a "tripod", with swept-back spreaders and a forestay. Used widely on Hunter brand sailboats, among others. Designed and named by Lars Bergstrom and Sven Ridder.^{[citation needed]}
back: 1. To make a sail fill with wind on the opposite side normally used for sailing forward. A fore and aft headsail is backed by either not moving the sail across when tacking, or by hauling it to windward with the weather sheet. A square sail is backed by hauling the yards round with the braces. The sail is then aback.; 2. (With oars) to push against the water with the oar in the opposite direction than normally used for moving the boat forward. This is used to slow the speed of the boat, or to move astern when manoeuvring.
back and fill: A method of keeping a square-rigged vessel under control while drifting with the tide along a narrow channel. The ship lies broadside to the current, with the main topsail backed and the fore and mizzen topsail full: essentially a hove-to position. Selective backing and filling of these sails moves the ship ahead or astern, so allowing it to be kept in the best part of the channel. A jib and the spanker are used to help balance the sail plan. This method cannot be used if the wind is going in the same direction and at the same speed as the tide.^[15]
backstay: A stay or cable, reaching from the mast heads, of the topmast, the topgallant-mast the royal-mast, the skysail-mast to the ship's side abaft the lower rigging; used to support the mast.^[16]
back wash: Water forced astern by the action of the propeller. Also, the receding of waves.
baggywrinkle: A soft covering for standing rigging (such as shrouds and stays) that prevents sail chafing.
bailer: Any device for removing water that has entered a vessel.
baldie: A type of Scottish sailboat introduced in 1860, used for fishing. A baldie is carvel-built, with her mast far forward and rigged with a lug sail and sometimes a jib. Some historians believe "Baldie" is a contraction of "Garibaldi", a reference to the Italian general and nationalist Giuseppe Garibaldi, whose name was a household word at the time the baldie was introduced.
balance rudder: Actually not a single rudder, but a set of three or four rudders operating in tandem to maneuver a sternwheel steamboat. Placed just forward of the sternwheels, the effectiveness of the balance rudder is increased by the flow of water generated by the sternwheel paddles, giving such steamboats a high degree of maneuverability.^[17]
ballast: Heavy material that is placed in a position low in the hull to provide stability. It can be moveable material, such as gravel or stones, permanently or semi-permanently installed, or integral to the hull, such as the (typically) lead or cast-iron ballast keel of a sailing yacht. See also in ballast.
ballast tank: A device used on ships, submarines and other submersibles to control buoyancy and stability.
balls to four watch: The 0000–0400 watch (US Navy).
bank: A large area of elevated sea floor.
: A traditional Royal Navy term for a day or less of rest and relaxation.
bar: Any large mass of sand or earth formed and raised above the water surface by the surge of the sea. Bars are mostly found at the entrances of great rivers or havens, and often render navigation extremely dangerous, but confer tranquility in the inshore waters by acting as a barrier against strong waves. See also touch and go and grounding.
bar pilot: A navigator who guides a ship over dangerous sandbars at the mouths of rivers and bays.
barber hauler: A technique of temporarily rigging a sailboat lazy sheet so as to allow the boat to sail closer to the wind; i.e. using the lazy jib sheet to pull the jib closer to the mid line, allowing a point of sail that would otherwise not be achievable.^{[citation needed]}
barbette: 1. A fixed armored enclosure protecting a ship's guns aboard warships without gun turrets, generally taking the form of a ring of armor over which guns mounted on an open-topped rotating turntable could fire, particularly on ships built during the second half of the 19th century.; 2. The inside fixed trunk of a warship's turreted gun-mounting, on which the turret revolves, containing the hoists for shells and cordite from the shell-room and magazine, particularly on ships built after the late 19th century.
barca-longa: A two- or three-masted lugger used for fishing on the coasts of Spain and Portugal and more widely in the Mediterranean Sea in the late 17th and 18th centuries. The British Royal Navy also used them for shore raids and as dispatch boats in the Mediterranean.
bareboat charter: An arrangement for the chartering or hiring of a vessel, whereby the vessel's owner provides no crew or provisions as part of the agreement; instead, the people who rent the vessel are responsible for crewing and provisioning her.
bare poles: Sailing without any canvas raised, usually in a strong wind.
barge: 1. A towed or self-propelled flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river, canal or coastal transport of heavy goods.; 2. Admiral's barge: A boat at the disposal of an admiral for his or her use as transportation between a larger vessel and the shore, or within a harbor.
barge slip: A specialized docking facility designed to receive a barge or car float that is used to carry wheeled vehicles across a body of water.
bark: An alternate spelling of barque.
barkentine: An alternate spelling of barquentine.
barque: A sailing vessel of three or more masts, with all masts square-rigged except the sternmost, which is fore-and-aft-rigged.
barquentine: A sailing vessel with three or more masts, with all masts fore-and-aft-rigged except the foremast, which is square-rigged.
barrack ship: A ship or craft designed to function as a floating barracks for housing military personnel.
barratry: In admiralty law, an act of gross misconduct against a shipowner or a ship's demise charterer by a ship′s master or crew that damages the ship or its cargo. Acts of barratry can include desertion, illegal scuttling, theft of the ship or cargo and committing any actions that may not be in the shipowner's or demise charterer′s best interests.
barometer: An instrument for measuring air pressure. Used in weather forecasting.
barrelman: A sailor stationed in the crow's nest.
batten: 1. A stiff strip used to support the roach of a sail, increasing the sail area.; 2. Any thin strip of material (wood, plastic, etc.).
batten down the hatches: To prepare for inclement weather by securing the closed cargo hatch covers with wooden battens so as to prevent water from entering from any angle.
battle stations: 1. An announcement made aboard a naval warship to signal the crew to prepare for battle, imminent damage, or any other emergency (such as a fire).; 2. Specific positions in a naval warship to which one or more crew members are assigned when battle stations is called.
battlecruiser: A type of large capital ship of the first half of the 20th century, similar in size, appearance, and cost to a battleship and typically armed with the same kind of heavy guns, but much more lightly armored (on the scale of a cruiser) and therefore faster than a battleship but more vulnerable to damage.
battleship: A type of large, heavily armored warship of the second half of the 19th century and first half of the 20th century, armed with heavy-caliber guns and designed to fight other battleships in a line of battle. It was the successor to the ship-of-the-line used during the Age of Sail.
beaching: Deliberately running a vessel aground so as to load or unload it (as with landing craft), or sometimes to prevent a damaged vessel from sinking or to facilitate repairs below the waterline.
beacon: A lighted or unlighted fixed aid to navigation attached directly to the Earth's surface. Examples include lighthouses and daybeacons.
beakhead: 1. The ram on the prow of a fighting galley of ancient and medieval times.; 2. The protruding part of the foremost section of a sailing ship of the 16th to the 18th centuries, usually ornate, which was used as a working platform by sailors handling the sails of the bowsprit. It also housed the crew's heads (toilets).
beam: The width of a vessel at its widest point, or a point alongside the ship at the midpoint of its length.
beam ends: The sides of a ship. To describe a ship as "on her beam ends" may mean the vessel is literally on her side and possibly about to capsize; more often, the phrase means the vessel is listing 45 degrees or more.
beam reach: Sailing with the wind coming across the vessel's beam. This is normally the fastest point of sail for a fore-and-aft-rigged vessel.
beam sea: A sea in which waves are moving perpendicular to a vessel's course.^[18]
beam wind: A wind blowing perpendicular to a vessel's course.
bear: A large, squared-off stone used with sand for scraping wooden decks clean.
bear down: To turn or steer a vessel away from the wind, often with reference to a transit.^[2]
bear up: To turn or steer a vessel into the wind.^[2]
bearing: The horizontal direction of a line of sight between two objects on the surface of the Earth. See also absolute bearing and relative bearing.
beat to quarters: Prepare for battle (in reference to beating a drum to signal the need for battle preparation).
beating or beat to: Sailing as close as possible towards the wind (perhaps only about 60°) in a zig-zag course so as to attain an upwind direction into which it is otherwise impossible to sail directly. See also tacking.
Beaufort scale: A scale describing wind speed, devised by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort in 1808, in which winds are graded by the effects of their force on the surface of the sea or on a vessel (originally, the amount of sail that a fully rigged frigate could carry).
becalm: To cut off the wind from a sailing vessel, either by the proximity of land or by another vessel.
becalmed: Unable to move due to a lack of wind, said of a sailing vessel; resigned merely to drift with the current rather to move by controlled management of sails.
becket: A short piece of line usually spliced into a circle or with an eye on either end.
before the mast: Literally, the area of a ship before the foremast (the forecastle). Most often used to refer to men whose living quarters are located here: officers were typically quartered in the sternmost areas of the ship (near the quarterdeck), while officer-trainees lived between the two ends of the ship and become known as "midshipmen". Crew members who started out as seamen and then became midshipmen, and later, officers, were said to have gone from "one end of the ship to the other". See also hawsepiper.
belay: 1. To make fast a line around a fitting, usually a cleat or belaying pin.; 2. To secure a climbing person in a similar manner.; 3. An order to halt a current activity or countermand an order prior to execution.
belaying pin: A short movable bar of iron or hard wood to which running rigging may be secured, or "belayed". Belaying pins are inserted in holes in a pin-rail.^[16]
bell: See ship's bell.
bell rope: A short length of line made fast to the clapper of the ship's bell.
bell buoy: A type of buoy with a large bell and hanging hammers that sound by wave action.^[19]
below: On or into a lower deck.
below decks: In or into any of the spaces below the main deck of a vessel.
belt armor: A layer of heavy metal armor plated onto or within the outer hull of a warship, typically on battleships, battlecruisers, cruisers and aircraft carriers, usually covering the warship from her main deck down to some distance below the waterline. If built within the hull, rather than forming the outer hull, the belt would be installed at an inclined angle to improve the warship's protection from shells striking the hull.
bend: 1. A knot used to join two ropes or lines. See also hitch.^[2]; 2. To attach a rope to an object.^[2]; 3. Fastening a sail to a yard.^[20]
Bermuda rig or Bermudan rig: A triangular mainsail, without any upper spar, which is hoisted up the mast by a single halyard attached to the head of the sail. This configuration, introduced to Europe about 1920, allows the use of a tall mast, enabling sails to be set higher where wind speed is greater.
Bermuda sloop: A fore-and-aft-rigged sailing vessel with a single mast setting a Bermuda rig mainsail and a single headsail. The Bermuda sloop is a very common type of modern sailing yacht.
berth: 1. A location in a port or harbor used specifically for mooring vessels while not at sea.; 2. A safe margin of distance to be kept by a vessel from another vessel or from an obstruction, hence the phrase "to give a wide berth".^[21]; 3. A bed or sleeping accommodation on a boat or ship.
best bower (anchor): The larger of two anchors carried in the bow; so named as it was the last, "best" hope for anchoring a vessel.
between the devil and the deep blue sea: See devil seam.
between wind and water: The part of a ship's hull that is sometimes submerged and sometimes brought above water by the rolling of the vessel.
bight: 1. A loop in a rope or line – a hitch or knot tied "on the bight" is one tied in the middle of a rope, without access to the ends.^[2]; 2. An indentation in a coastline.
bilander: A small European merchant sailing ship with two masts, the mainmast lateen-rigged with a trapezoidal mainsail, and the foremast carrying the conventional square course and square topsail. Used in the Netherlands for coast and canal traffic and occasionally in the North Sea, but more frequently used in the Mediterranean Sea.
bilge: 1. The part of the hull that the ship rests on if it takes the ground; the outer end of the floors. The "turn of the bilge" is the part of the hull that changes from the (approximately) vertical sides of the hull to the more horizontal bottom of the ship.^[22]; 2. (Usually in the plural: "bilges") The compartment at the bottom of the hull of a ship or boat where water collects and must be pumped out of the vessel; the space between the bottom hull planking and the ceiling of the hold.^[2]; 3. To damage the hull in the area of the bilge, usually by grounding or hitting an obstruction.
bilge keel: One of a pair of keels on either side of the hull, usually slanted outwards. In yachts, they allow the use of a drying mooring, the boat standing upright on the keels (and often a skeg) when the tide is out.
bilged on her anchor: A ship that has run upon her own anchor such that the anchor cable runs under the hull.
bill: The extremity of the arm of an anchor; the point of or beyond the fluke.
billethead: 1. On smaller vessels, a smaller, non-figural carving, most often a curl of foliage, might be substituted for a figurehead.; 2. A round piece of timber at the bow or stern of a whaleboat, around which the harpoon line is run out when the whale darts off.
Bimini top: An open-front canvas top for the cockpit of a boat, usually supported by a metal frame.
bimmy: A punitive instrument.
binnacle: The stand on which the ship's compass is mounted, usually near the helm, permitting ready reference by the helmsman.
binnacle list: A ship's sick list. The list of men unable to report for duty was given to the officer or mate of the watch by the ship's surgeon. The list was kept at the binnacle.
bird farm: United States Navy slang for an aircraft carrier.
bite: Verb used in reference to a rudder, as in "the rudder begins to bite". When a vessel has steerageway the rudder will act to steer the vessel, i.e. it has enough water flow past it to steer with. Physically this is noticeable with tiller or unassisted wheel steering by the rudder exhibiting resistance to being turned from the straight ahead – this resistance is the rudder "biting" and is how a helmsman first senses that a vessel has acquired steerageway.
bitt: 1. A post or pair of posts mounted on the ship's bow for fastening ropes or cables.; 2. A strong vertical timber or iron fastened through the deck beams that is used for securing ropes or hawsers.^[2]
bitt heads: The tops of two massive timbers that support the windlass on a sailing barge.^[2]
bitter end: The last part or loose end of a rope or cable. The anchor cable is tied to the bitts; when the cable is fully paid out, the bitter end has been reached.
black gang: The engineering crew of the vessel, i.e. crew members who work in the vessel's engine room, fire room and/or boiler room, so called because they would typically be covered in coal dust during the days of coal-fired steamships.
blinker: A search light, used for signalling by code. Usually fitted with a spring controlled shutter.
block: A pulley with one or more sheaves or grooves over which a line is roved. It can be used to change the direction of the line, or in pairs used to form a tackle.^[2]
block, fiddle: A block with two sheaves in the same plane, one being smaller than the other, giving the block a somewhat violin appearance.
block, snatch: A single sheave block with one end of the frame hinged and able to be opened, so as to admit a line other than by forcing an end through the opening.
blockship: A vessel sunk deliberately to block a waterway to prevent the waterway′s use by an enemy.
Blue Ensign: A flag flown as an ensign by certain British ships. Prior to 1864, ships of the Royal Navy′s Blue Squadron flew it; since the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864 eliminated its naval use, it has been flown instead by British merchant vessels whose officers and crew include a certain prescribed number (which has varied over the years) of retired Royal Navy or Royal Naval Reserve personnel or are commanded by an officer of the Royal Naval Reserve in possession of a government warrant; Royal Research Ships by warrant, regardless of their manning by naval, naval reserve and Merchant Navy personnel; or British-registered yachts belonging to members of certain yacht clubs, although yachts were prohibited from flying the Blue Ensign during World War I and World War II.
Blue Peter: A blue and white flag (the flag for the letter P) hoisted at the foretrucks of ships about to sail. Formerly a white ship on a blue ground, but later a white square on a blue ground.
bluejacket: 1. A sailor or enlisted person of the Royal Navy, Commonwealth navies, the United States Navy, or the United States Coast Guard. Bluejacket derives from a blue jacket naval enlisted personnel once wore while ashore. In the Royal Navy and Commonwealth navies, the term generally is synonymous with rating and often includes petty officers and chief petty officers. In the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard, the term excludes chief petty officers.; 2. More loosely, a sailor or enlisted person of any navy.
board: 1. To step onto, climb onto or otherwise enter a vessel.; 2. The side of a vessel.; 3. The distance a sailing vessel runs between tacks when working to windward.
boat: 1. Any small craft or vessel designed to float on and provide transport over or under water.; 2. Naval slang for a submarine of any size.
boat hook: A pole with a blunt tip and a hook on the end, sometimes with a ring on its opposite end to which a line may be attached. Typically used to assist in docking and undocking a boat, with its hook used to pull a boat towards a dock and the blunt end to push it away from a dock, as well as to reach into the water to help people catch buoys or other floating objects or to reach people in the water.
boat keeper: A boatkeeper was a sailor that knew the harbor thoroughly and was able to act as a pilot. He was in command after the last pilot had left to board a ship and brought the pilot boat back to harbor. He was required to know how to use a sextant as he could be 300 miles from port.
boathouse: A building especially designed for the storage of boats, typically located on open water such as a lake or river. Boathouses are normally used to store smaller sports or leisure craft, often rowing boats but sometimes craft such as punts or small motor boats.
boatsteerer: A member of the crew of a 19th-century whaling ship responsible for pulling the forward oar of a whaleboat and for harpooning whales.
boatswain: A non-commissioned officer responsible for the sails, ropes, rigging and boats on a ship who issues "piped" commands to seamen.
boatswain's call: A high-pitched pipe or a non-diaphragm-type whistle used on naval ships by a boatswain, historically to pass commands to the crew but in modern times limited to ceremonial use.
boatswain's chair or bosun's chair: A short board or swatch of heavy canvas, secured in a bridle of ropes, used to hoist a man aloft or over the ship's side for painting and similar work. Modern boatswain's chairs incorporate safety harnesses to prevent the occupant from falling.
boatswain's pipe: See boatswain's call.
boatswain's whistle: See boatswain's call.
boatwright: A maker of boats, especially of traditional wooden construction.
bob or bobfly: A pennant or flag bearing the owner's colors and mounted on the topsail trunk.^[2]
bobstay: A stay that holds the bowsprit downwards, counteracting the effect of the forestay and the lift of sails. Usually made of wire or chain to eliminate stretching.^[2]
body plan: In shipbuilding, an end elevation showing the contour of the sides of a ship at certain points of her length.
boiler room: See fire room.
bolt rope: A rope, sewn on to reinforce the edges of a sail.^[2]
bollard: From "bol" or "bole", the round trunk of a tree. A substantial vertical pillar to which lines may be made fast. Generally on the quayside rather than the ship.
bomb vessel: A type of specialized naval wooden sailing vessel of the late 17th through mid-19th centuries designed for bombarding fixed positions on land, armed for this purpose with mortars mounted forward near the bow.
bombard: 1. A small, two-masted vessel common in the Mediterranean in the 18th and 19th centuries, similar in design to an English ketch.; 2. An alternative name used in the 18th and 19th centuries for a bomb vessel.
Bombay runner: A large cockroach.
bonded jacky: A type of tobacco or sweet cake.
bone in her teeth: A phrase describing the appearance of a vessel throwing up a prominent bow wave while travelling at high speed. From a vantage point in front of the vessel, the wave rising in either side of the bow evokes the image of a dog carrying a bone in its mouth, and the vessel is said to have a bone in her teeth.
bonnet: An additional strip of canvas laced to the foot of a sail to increase its area in light winds.^[23]
booby: A type of bird that has little fear and therefore is particularly easy to catch.
booby hatch: A raised framework or hood like covering over a small hatchway on a ship.
boom: 1. A floating barrier to control navigation into and out of rivers and harbors.; 2. A spar attached to the foot of a fore-and-aft sail.^[16]; 3. A spar to extend the foot of gaffsail, trysail or jib.^[16]; 3. A spar to extend the yards of square-rigged masts to allow the carrying of studding sails.^[16]
boom defence vessel: An alternative term for a net laying ship.
boomer: Slang term in the US Navy for a ballistic missile submarine.
boom crutch: A frame in which the boom rests when the sail is not hoisted.
boom gallows: A raised crossmember that supports a boom when the sail is lowered (and which obviates the need for a topping lift).
boomie or booms'l rig: A ketch-rigged barge with gaff (instead of spritsail) and boom on main and mizzen. Booms'l rig could also refer to cutter-rigged early barges.^[2]
boom vang or vang: A sail control that lets one apply downward tension on a boom, countering the upward tension provided by the sail. The boom vang adds an element of control to sail shape when the sheet is let out enough that it no longer pulls the boom down. Boom vang tension helps control leech twist, a primary component of sail power.
boomkin: See bumpkin or boomkin.
booms: Masts or yards, lying on board in reserve.
boot-top: The area on the ship's hull along the waterline, usually painted a contrasting color.
bore, as in bore up or bore away: To assume a position to engage, or disengage, the enemy ships.
bosun: See boatswain.
bosun's call: See boatswain's call.
bosun's chair: See boatswain's chair.
bosun's pipe: See boatswain's call.
bosun's whistle: See boatswain's call.
bottlescrew: A device for adjusting tension in stays, shrouds and similar lines.^[2]
bottom: 1. The underside of a vessel; the portion of a vessel that is always underwater.; 2. A ship, most often a cargo ship.; 3. A cargo hold.
bottomry: Pledging a ship as security in a financial transaction.
bow: 1. The front of a vessel.; 2. Either side of the front (or bow) of the vessel, i.e. the port bow and starboard bow. Something ahead and to the left of the vessel is "off the port bow", while something ahead and to the right of the vessel is "off the starboard bow". When "bow" is used in this way, the front of the vessel sometimes is called her bows (plural), a collective reference to her port and starboard bows synonymous with bow (singular).
bow chaser: See chase gun.
bowline: 1. A type of knot producing a strong loop of a fixed size, topologically similar to a sheet bend.^[2]; 2. A rope attached to the side of a sail to pull it towards the bow (for keeping the windward edge of the sail steady).^[2]; 2. A rope attached to the foresail to hold it aback when tacking.^[2]
bowman: The person, in a team or among oarsmen, positioned nearest the bow.
bowpicker: A gillnetter that fishes by deploying a gillnet from her bow.
bowse: To pull or hoist.
bow sea: Seas approaching a vessel from between 15° and 75° to port or starboard.^[18]
bows on: Said of a vessel directly approaching an observer, e.g., "The ship approached us bows on."
bowsprit: A spar projecting from the bow that is used as an anchor for the forestay and other rigging. On a barge it may be pivoted so it may be steeved up in harbor.^[2]
bows under: Said of a vessel shipping water over her bow, e.g., "The ship was bows under during the storm."
bow thruster: A small propeller or water-jet at the bow, used for manoeuvring larger vessels at slow speed. May be mounted externally, or in a tunnel running through the bow from side to side.
bow visor: A feature of some ships, particularly ferries and roll-on/roll-off ships, that allows a vessel's bow to articulate up and down to provide access to her cargo ramp and storage deck near the waterline.
bow wave: The wave created on either side of a vessel's bow as she moves through the water.
boxing the compass: To state all 32 points of the compass, starting at north and proceeding clockwise. Sometimes applied to a wind that is constantly shifting.
boy seaman: A young sailor, still in training.
brace: On square rigged ships, a line attached to the yard to turn it, for trimming the sail.
brace abox: To bring the foreyards flat aback to stop the ship.
brail: 1. To furl or truss a sail by pulling it in towards the mast. "To brail up" or "to hale up the brails" is to stow the sails.^[2]; 2. A small line used to haul the edges or corners of sails up or in before furling them. In a ship rig, brails are most often found on the mizzen sail.
brail net: A type of net incorporating brail lines on a small fishing net on a boat.
brailer: A device consisting of a net of small-mesh webbing attached to a frame, used aboard fishing vessels for unloading large quantities of fish.
brake: The handle of the pump, by which it is worked.
brass monkey or brass monkey weather: Used in the expression "it is cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey". Apocryphally, it is often claimed that a brass monkey was a frame used to hold cannon balls, and low temperature would cause the frame to contract to a greater degree than the iron balls and thus allow them to roll off. The probable actual etymology is given here
brass pounder: Early 20th-century slang term for a vessel's radio operator, so-called because he repeatedly struck a brass key on his transmitter to broadcast in Morse code.
breachway: 1. The shore along a channel.; 2. The whole area around the place where a channel meets the ocean.
break bulk cargo: Goods that must be loaded aboard a ship individually and not in intermodal containers or in bulk, carried by a general cargo ship.
breaker: 1. A shallow portion of a reef over which waves break.; 2. A breaking wave that breaks into foam against the shore, a shoal, a rock or a reef. Sailors use breakers to warn themselves of their vessel's proximity to an underwater hazard to navigation or, at night or during periods of poor visibility, of their vessel's proximity to shore.; 3. A ship breaker, often used in the plural, e.g. "The old ship went to the breakers".; 4. A small cask of liquid kept permanently in a ship's boat in case of shipwreck.
breakwater: 1. A structure constructed on a coast as part of a coastal defense system or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.; 2. A structure built on the forecastle of a ship intended to divert water away from the forward superstructure or gun mounts.
breeches buoy: A ring lifebuoy fitted with canvas breeches, functionally similar to a zip line, used to transfer people from one ship to another or to rescue people from a wrecked or sinking ship by moving them to another ship or to the shore.
breastrope: A mooring rope fastened anywhere on a ship's side that goes directly to the quay, so that it is roughly at right angles to both.^[24]
bridge: A structure above the weather deck, extending the full width of the vessel, which houses a command center, itself called by association the bridge.
bridge wing: A narrow walkway extending outward from both sides of a pilothouse to the full width of a ship or slightly beyond, to allow bridge personnel a full view to aid in the maneuvering of the ship, such as when docking.
brig: 1. (historically) A vessel with two square-rigged masts.; 2. (in the US) An interior area of a ship that is used to detain prisoners (possibly prisoners-of-war, in wartime) or stowaways, and to punish delinquent crew members. Usually resembles a prison cell with bars and a locked, hinged door.
brig sloop: A type of sloop-of-war introduced in the 1770s that had two square-rigged masts like a brig (in contrast to ship sloops of the time, which had three masts).
brigantine: A two-masted vessel, square-rigged on the foremast but fore-and-aft-rigged on the mainmast.
brightwork: Exposed varnished wood on a boat or ship.^[24]
bring to: To cause a ship to be stationary by arranging the sails.
broach: When a sailing or power vessel loses directional control when travelling with a following sea. The vessel turns sideways to the wind and waves and in more serious cases may capsize or pitchpole. Advice on dealing with heavy weather includes various strategies for avoiding this happening.^[11]^[25]
broad: Wide in appearance from the vantage point of a lookout or other person viewing activity in the vicinity of a ship, e.g. another ship off the starboard bow with her side facing the viewer's ship could be described as "broad on the starboard bow" of the viewer's ship.
Broad Fourteens: An area of the southern North Sea which is fairly consistently 14 fathoms (84 feet; 26 metres) deep. On a nautical chart with depths indicated in fathoms, it appears as a broad area with many "14" notations.
broadhorn: An alternate term for a flatboat.
broadside: 1. One side of a vessel above the waterline.; 2. All the guns on one side of a warship or mounted (in rotating turrets or barbettes) so as to be able to fire on the same side of a warship.; 3. The simultaneous firing of all the guns on one side of a warship or able to fire on the same side of a warship.; 4. Weight of broadside: the combined weight of all projectiles a ship can fire in a broadside engagement, or the combined weight of all the shells which a group of ships that have formed a line of battle can collectively fire on the same side.
Brouwer Route: A route used by ships in the 17th century while sailing east from the Cape of Good Hope to the Netherlands East Indies which took advantage of the strong westerly winds in the southern Indian Ocean known as the "Roaring Forties" to speed the trip but required ships to turn north in the eastern Indian Ocean to reach the East Indies. With no accurate means of determining longitude at the time, ships which missed the northward turn ran the risk of being wrecked on the west coast of Australia.
brow: See gangplank.
buffer: The chief bosun's mate (in the Royal Navy), responsible for discipline.
bug shoe: A length of hardened material placed on a skeg to protect the skeg from damage by shipworms.^[26]
bugeye: A type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay by the early 1880s for oyster dredging, superseded as the chief oystering boat in the bay by the skipjack at the end of the 19th century.
bulbous bow: A protruding bulb at the bow of a ship just below the waterline which modifies the way water flows around the hull, reducing drag and thus increasing speed, range, fuel efficiency and stability.
bulk cargo: Commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities.
bulk carrier: A merchant ship specially designed to transport unpackaged bulk cargo in its cargo holds.
bulkhead: An upright wall within the hull of a ship, particularly a watertight, load-bearing wall.
bulwark: The extension of a ship's side above the level of the weather deck.
bull ensign: The senior ensign of a US Navy command (i.e. a ship, squadron or shore activity). The bull ensign assumes additional responsibilities beyond those of other ensigns, such as teaching less-experienced ensigns about life at sea, planning and coordinating wardroom social activities, making sure that the officers' mess runs smoothly, and serving as an officer for Navy-related social organizations. The bull ensign also serves as the focal point for the unit's expression of spirit and pride.
bullseye: A glass window above the captain's cabin to allow viewing of the sails above deck.
bumboat: A private boat selling goods.
bumpkin or boomkin: 1. A spar, similar to a bowsprit, but which projects from the stern rather than the bow. May be used to attach the backstay or mizzen sheets ^[16]; 2. An iron bar projecting outboard from a ship's side to which the lower and topsail brace blocks are sometimes hooked.
bunk: A built-in bed on board ship.
bunker: A container for storing coal or fuel oil for a ship's engine.
bunker fuel or bunkers: Fuel oil for a ship.
bunt: 1. Middle cloths of a square sail. ^[27]; 2. Centre of a furled square sail. ^[27]
bunt-gasket: Canvas apron used to fasten the bunt of a square sail to the yard when furled. ^[27]
bunting tosser: A signalman who prepares and flies flag hoists. Also known in the American Navy as a skivvy waver.
buntline: One of the lines leading from the foot of a square sail over a block at the head and down to the deck; and used to haul it up to the yard when furling.^[27]
buoy: A floating object, usually anchored at a given position and fulfilling one of a number of uses, recognised by a defined shape and color for each, including aids to navigation, warnings of danger such as submerged wrecks or divers, or for attaching mooring lines, lobster pots, etc.
buoyed up: Lifted by a buoy, especially a cable that has been lifted to prevent it from trailing on the bottom.
burthen: The Builder's Old Measurement, expressed in "tons bm" or "tons BOM", a volumetric measurement of cubic cargo capacity, not of weight. This is the tonnage of a ship, based on the number of tuns of wine that it could carry in its holds. One 252-gallon tun of wine takes up approximately 100 cubic feet, and weighs 2,240 lbs (1 long ton, or Imperial ton).
burgee: A small flag, typically triangular, flown from the masthead of a yacht to indicate yacht-club membership.
Burgoo: A dish of ships biscuit crumbs and minced salt pork, usually a meal of last resort for officers when other food stores are exhausted.
butt: Where the butt of one plank joins with the butt of another.
by and large: By means into the wind, while large means with the wind. "By and large" is therefore used to indicate all possible situations, e.g. "the ship handles well both by and large".
by the board: Anything that has gone overboard.

C[]

cabin: An enclosed room on a deck or flat, especially one used as living quarters.
cabin boy: An attendant to passengers and crew, often a young man.
cable: 1. A large rope.; 2. A cable length.
cable length: A measure of length or distance equivalent to 1⁄10 nautical mile (608 feet; 185 metres) in the United Kingdom and 100 fathoms (600 feet; 183 metres) in the United States; other countries use different equivalents. Sometimes called simply a cable.
caboose: A small ship's kitchen, or galley on deck.
cabotage: The transport of goods or passengers between two points within the same country, alongside coastal waters, by a vessel or an aircraft registered in another country.
cage mast: Alternative term for a lattice mast.
camels: Loaded vessels lashed tightly, one on each side of another vessel, and then emptied to provide additional buoyancy that reduces the draft of the ship in the middle.
can: A type of navigational buoy, often a vertical drum, but otherwise always square in silhouette, colored red in IALA region A (Europe, Africa, Greenland, and most of Asia and Oceania) or green in IALA region B (the Americas, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines). In channel marking its use is opposite that of a "nun buoy".
canal boat: A specialized watercraft designed for operation on a canal.
canister: A type of antipersonnel cannon load in which lead balls or other loose metallic items were enclosed in a tin or iron shell. On firing, the shell would disintegrate, releasing the smaller metal objects with a shotgun-like effect.
canoe stern: A design for the stern of a yacht such that it is pointed like a bow, rather than squared off as a transom.
canvas: A general term for sails. It may be used as a collective term for all of the sails on a vessel, and the total area of sails aboard her may be expressed as the area of her canvas.
cap: A fitting or band used to connect the head of one mast to the lower portion of the mast above.^[27]
Cape Horn fever: A feigned illness a malingerer is pretending to suffer from.
Cape Horn roller: A type of large ocean wave commonly encountered in the stormy seas of the Southern Ocean south of South America′s Cape Horn, often exceeding 60 feet (18.3 m) in height. The geography of the Southern Ocean, uninterrupted by continents, creates an endless fetch that is favorable for the propagation of such waves.
cap-stay: A backstay leading from a mast cap to the ship's side.^[27]
capital ship: One of a set of ships considered a navy's most important warships, generally possessing the heaviest firepower and armor and traditionally much larger than other naval vessels, but not formally defined. During the Age of Sail, capital ships were generally understood to be ships-of-the-line; during the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century, they were typically battleships and battlecruisers; and since the mid-20th century, the term may also include aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines.
capsize: When a ship or boat lists too far and rolls over, exposing the keel. On large vessels, this often results in the sinking of the ship. Compare turtling.
capstan: A large winch with a vertical axis used to wind in anchors or other heavy objects, and sometimes to administer flogging over. A full-sized human-powered capstan is a waist-high cylindrical machine, operated by a number of hands who each insert a horizontal capstan bar in holes in the capstan and walk in a circle.
captain: 1. The person lawfully in command of a vessel. "Captain" is an informal title of respect given to the commander of a naval vessel regardless of his or her formal rank; aboard a merchant ship, the ship's captain is called her master.; 2. A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.; 3. In the US Navy, US Coast Guard, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Corps, a commissioned officer of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half), equal in grade or rank to a US Army, US Marine Corps, or US Air Force colonel.
Captain of the Port: 1. In the United Kingdom, a Royal Navy officer, usually a captain, responsible for the day-to-day operation of a naval dockyard.; 2. In the United States, a US Coast Guard officer, usually a captain, responsible for enforcement of safety, security, and marine environmental protection regulations in a commercial port.
captain's daughter: Another name for the cat o' nine tails, which in principle is only used on board on the captain's (or a court martial's) personal orders.
car carrier: A cargo ship specially designed or fitted to carry large numbers of automobiles. Modern pure car carriers have a fully enclosed, box-like superstructure that extends along the entire length and across the entire breadth of the ship, enclosing the automobiles. The similar pure car/truck carrier can also accommodate trucks.
car float: An unpowered barge with railroad tracks mounted on its deck, used to move railroad cars across water obstacles.
caravel: A small, highly maneuverable sailing ship with lateen rig used by the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.
cardinal: Referring to the four main points of the compass: north, south, east, and west. See also bearing.
careening: Tilting a ship on its side, usually when beached, to clean or repair the hull below the waterline.
cargo liner: A type of merchant ship that became common just after the middle of the 19th century, configured primarily for the transportation of general cargo but also for the transportation of at least some passengers. Almost completely replaced by more specialized cargo ships during the second half of the 20th century.
cargo ship: Any ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another, including general cargo ships (designed to carry break bulk cargo), bulk carriers, container ships, multipurpose vessels, and tankers. Tankers, however, although technically cargo ships, are routinely thought of as constituting a completely separate category.
carpenter: 1. In the Age of Sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars, and boats of a vessel, and whose responsibility was to sound the well to see if the vessel was making water.; 2. A senior rating responsible for all the woodwork aboard a vessel.
carrack: A three- or four-masted sailing ship used by Western Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th through the early 17th centuries.
carrier: An aircraft carrier.
carronade: A short, smoothbore, cast-iron naval cannon, used from the 1770s to the 1850s as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon.
cartel: A ship employed on humanitarian voyages, in particular to carry communications or prisoners between belligerents during wartime. A cartel flies distinctive flags, including a flag of truce, traditionally is unarmed except for a lone signaling gun, and under international law is not subject to seizure or capture during her outbound and return voyages as long as she engages in no warlike acts.
carvel-built: A method of constructing a wooden hull by fixing planks on the frames edge-to-edge, so giving a smooth hull surface, as opposed to clinker-built.^[23]
cat: 1. To prepare an anchor after raising it by lifting it with a tackle to the cat head, prior to securing (fishing) it alongside for sea. An anchor raised to the cat head is said to be catted.; 2. The cat o' nine tails.; 3. A cat-rigged boat or catboat.
cat o' nine tails: A short, nine-tailed whip kept by the bosun's mate to flog sailors (and soldiers in the army). When not in use, the cat was often kept in a baize bag, a possible origin for the term "cat out of the bag".^[28] "Not enough room to swing a cat" also derives from this.
catamaran: Any vessel with two hulls.
catboat: A cat-rigged vessel with a single mast mounted close to the bow and only one sail, usually on a gaff.
catharpin: A short rope or iron clamp used to brace in the shrouds toward the masts so as to give a freer sweep to the yards.
cathead: A beam extending out from the hull used to support an anchor when raised in order to secure or "fish" it.
cat's paws: Light variable winds on calm waters producing scattered areas of small waves.
caulk: To create a watertight seal between structures. In traditional carvel construction this involved hammering oakum (recycled rope fibres) or caulking cotton into the slightly tapered fine gaps between the hull or deck planks and, in older methods, covering with tar. The expansion of the fibres in water tightens up the hull, making it less prone to racking movement, as well as making the joint watertight.^[22]
celestial navigation: Navigation by the position of celestial objects, including the stars, Sun, and Moon, using tools aboard ship such as a sextant, chronometer, and compass, and published tables of the position of celestial objects. Celestial navigation was the primary method of navigation until the development of electronic global positioning systems such as LORAN and GPS.
ceiling: Planking attached to the inside of the frames or floors of a wooden hull, usually to separate the cargo from the hull planking itself. The ceiling has different names in different places: limber boards, spirketting, quickwork. The lower part of the ceiling is, confusingly to a landsman, what you are standing on at the bottom of the hold of a wooden ship.^[23]
center of effort: The point of origin of net aerodynamic force on sails, roughly located in the geometric center of a sail, but the actual position of the center of effort will vary with sail plan, sail trim, or airfoil profile, boat trim, and point of sail.
center of lateral resistance: The point of origin of net hydrodynamic resistance on the submerged structure of a boat, especially a sailboat. This is the pivot point the boat turns about when unbalanced external forces are applied, similar to the center of gravity. On a balanced sailboat, the center of effort should align vertically with the center of lateral resistance. If this is not the case the boat will be unbalanced and exhibit either lee helm or weather helm and will be difficult to control.
centerline: An imaginary line down the center of a vessel lengthwise. Any structure or anything mounted or carried on a vessel that straddles this line and is equidistant from either side of the vessel is said to be "on the centerline".
centerboard: A board or plate lowered through the hull of a sailing vessel on the centerline to resist leeway. Very common in a dinghy, but also found in some larger boats.
chafing: Wear on a line or sail caused by constant rubbing against another surface.
chafing gear: Material applied to a line or spar to prevent or reduce chafing. See baggywrinkle, puddening.^[27]
chain locker: A space in the forward part of a ship, typically beneath the bow in front of the foremost collision bulkhead, that contains the anchor chain when the anchor is secured for sea.
chain-shot: Cannonballs linked with short lengths of chain, used to damage rigging and masts.
Chain plates: Iron bars bolded to a ship's side to which the dead-eyes or rigging screws of the lower figging and the back-stays are bolted.^[27]
chain-wale or channel: A broad, thick plank that projects horizontally from each of a ship's sides abreast a mast, distinguished as the fore, main, or mizzen channel accordingly, serving to extend the base for the shrouds, which supports the mast.^[27]
chains: Small platforms built into the sides of a ship to spread the shrouds to a more advantageous angle. Also used as a platform for manual depth sounding.
chalupa: 1. A small boat that functions as a shallop (q.v.), water taxi (q.v.), or gondola (q.v.).; 2. In Portuguese, a small boat used for cabotage, propelled by either oars or sails. Those equipped with sails have a single mast.; 3. A type of whaling boat used by the Basques in the mid-16th century in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador.
channel fever: 1. The impatient excitement in a ship's crew as the end of a voyage becomes imminent. Characteristics include crew members working harder to get the ship sailing faster, off-watch personnel being on deck to keep track of progress, and everyone being packed and in their shore-going clothes (ready to be paid off) as the vessel arrives alongside.^[29]; 2. (obsolete usage) A crew member avoiding duties with a feigned illness, usually after leaving port.
Charley Noble: The metal stovepipe chimney from a cook shack on the deck of a ship or from a stove in a galley.
chartered ship: A term used by the British East India Company from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century for a merchant ships it chartered to make a single, often only one-way, voyage it between England (later the United Kingdom) and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope, a trade over which the company held a strict monopoly. A "charter ship" during its single voyage was employed much in the same way as what the company called an "extra ship" (q.v.), but the company usually hired a "chartered ships" on special terms and for much shorter period than an "extra ships."^[30]
charthouse: A compartment, especially in the Royal Navy, from which the ship was navigated.
chartplotter: An electronic instrument that places the position of the ship (from a GPS receiver) onto a digital nautical chart displayed on a monitor, thereby replacing all manual navigation functions. Chartplotters also display information collected from all shipboard electronic instruments and often directly control autopilots.
chase gun: A cannon pointing forward or aft, often of longer range than other guns. Those on the bow (bow chasers) were used to fire upon a ship ahead, while those on the rear (stern chasers) were used to ward off pursuing vessels. Unlike guns pointing to the side, chasers could be brought to bear in a chase without slowing.
cheeks: 1. Wooden blocks at the side of a spar.; 2. Flat plates of iron or wood bolted to the mast-head to form angle supports for the cross-trees.^[27]; 3. The sides of a block or gun-carriage.
chine: 1. An angle in the hull.; 2. A line formed where the sides of a boat meet the bottom.^[2] Soft chine is when the two sides join at a shallow angle, and hard chine is when they join at a steep angle.
chock: A hole or ring attached to the hull to guide a line via that point; an opening in a ship's bulwark, normally oval in shape, designed to allow mooring lines to be fastened to cleats or bits mounted to the ship's deck. See also Panama chock and Dutchman's chock.
chock-a-block: Rigging blocks that are so tight against one another that they cannot be further tightened.^[2]
chronometer: A timekeeping device accurate enough to be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation.
cigarette boat: See go-fast boat.
citadel: A fortified safe room on a vessel to take shelter in the event of pirate attack. Previously, a fortified room to protect ammunition and machinery from damage.
civil Red Ensign: The British Naval Ensign or flag of the British Merchant Navy, a red flag with the Union Flag in the upper left corner. Colloquially called the "red duster".
class: 1. A group of naval ships of the same or similar design. Sometimes used informally to refer to a group of non-naval ships of the same or similar design.; 2. A standard of construction for merchant vessels, including standards for specific types or specialized capabilities of some types of merchant vessels. A ship meeting the standard is in class, one not meeting them is out of class.
clean bill of health: A certificate issued by a port indicating that a ship carries no infectious diseases. Also called a pratique.
clean slate: At the helm, the watch keeper would record details of speed, distances, headings, etc. on a slate. At the beginning of a new watch the slate would be wiped clean.
clear: To perform customs and immigration legalities prior to leaving port.
cleat: A stationary device used to secure a rope aboard a vessel.^[2]
clench: A method of fixing together two pieces of wood, usually overlapping planks, by driving a nail through both planks as well as a washer-like rove. The nail is then burred or riveted over to complete the fastening.
clew: One of the lower corners of a square sail or the corner of a triangular sail at the end of the boom.^[2]
clewlines: Used to truss up the clews, the lower corners of square sails. Used to reduce and stow a barge's topsail.^[2]
clinker-built: A method of constructing hulls that involves overlapping planks, and/or plates, much like Viking longships, resulting in speed and flexibility in small boat hulls. Contrast carvel-built.
Clipper: A sailing vessel designed primarily for speed. While the square rigged clipper ships of the middle of the 19th century are well known, others, such as Baltimore Clippers and opium clippers could be rigged differently, often as schooners, and a small number of 19th century clippers were built as barques.
close aboard: Near a ship.
close-hauled: Of a vessel beating as close to the wind direction as possible.
clove hitch: A bend used to attach a rope to a post or bollard. Also used to finish tying off the foresail.^[2]
club hauling: A maneuver by which a ship drops one of its anchors at high speed in order to turn abruptly. This was sometimes used as a means to get a good firing angle on a pursuing vessel. See kedge.
coal hulk: A hulk used to store coal.
coal trimmer: A person responsible for ensuring that a coal-fired vessel remains in "trim" (evenly balanced) as coal is consumed on a voyage.
coaling: Loading coal for use as fuel aboard a steamship. A time-consuming, laborious, and dirty process often undertaken by the entire crew, coaling was a necessity from the early days of steam in the 19th century until the early 20th century, when oil supplanted coal as the fuel of choice for steamships.
coaming: The raised edge of a hatch, cockpit, or skylight, designed to help keep out water.
coaster: A coastal trading vessel; a shallow-hulled ship used for trade between locations on the same island or continent.
coble: A type of open traditional fishing boat, with a flat bottom and high bow, which developed on the northeast coast of England.
cockbill: 1. Use of spars, to stow by swinging askew.^[2]; 2. When a yard is canted at an angle.^[27]
cockpit: A seating area (not to be confused with the deck) towards the stern of a small-decked vessel that houses the rudder controls.
cog: A type of sailing ship with a single mast and square-rigged single sail first developed in the 10th century and widely used, particularly in the Baltic Sea region, in seagoing trade from the 12th through the 14th centuries.
coign (gunnery): 1. A wedge used to assist in the aiming of a cannon: An older form of "Quoin"
collier: A bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially such a ship in naval use to supply coal to coal-fired warships.
combat loading: A way of loading a vessel giving military forces embarked aboard her immediate access to weapons, ammunition, and supplies needed when conducting an amphibious landing. In combat loading, cargo is stowed in such a way that unloading of equipment will match up with the personnel that are landing and in the order they land so that they have immediate access to the gear they need for combat as soon as they land. Combat loading gives primary consideration to the ease and sequence with which troops, equipment, and supplies can be unloaded ready for combat, sacrificing the more efficient use of cargo space that ship operators seek when loading a ship for the routine transportation of personnel and cargo.
comber: A long, curving wave breaking on the shore.
come about: 1. To tack.; 2. To change tack.; 3. To manoeuvre the bow of a sailing vessel across the wind so that the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.; 4. To position a vessel with respect to the wind after tacking.
come to: To stop a sailing vessel, especially by turning into the wind.
commission: To formally place (a naval vessel) into active service, after which the vessel is said to be in commission. Sometimes used less formally to mean placing a commercial ship into service.
commodore: 1. (rank) Prior to 1997, the title used in the Royal Navy for an officer of the rank of captain who was given temporary command of a squadron. At the end of the deployment of the squadron, or in the presence of an admiral, he would revert to his de facto rank of Ccptain.; 2. (rank) A military rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. Often equivalent to the rank of "flotilla admiral" or sometimes "counter admiral" in non-English-speaking navies.; 3. (convoy commodore) A civilian put in charge of the good order of the merchant ships in British convoys during World War II, but with no authority over naval ships escorting the convoy.; 4. (commodore (yacht club)) An officer of a yacht club.; 5. (Commodore (Sea Scouts)) A position in the Boy Scouts of America's Sea Scouts program.
communication tube: An air-filled tube, usually armored, allowing speech between the conning tower and the below-decks control spaces in a warship.
companionway: A raised and windowed hatchway in a ship's deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins.
complement: 1. The number of persons in a ship′s crew, including officers.; 2. A collective term for all of the persons in a ship′s crew, including officers.
comprise: To include or contain. As applied to a naval task force, the listing of all assigned units for a single transient purpose or mission (e.g. "The task force comprises Ship A, Ship B, and Ship C"). "Comprise" means exhaustive inclusion – there are not any other parts to the task force, and each ship has a permanent squadron existence, independent of the task force.
concrete ship: A vessel constructed of steel and ferrocement (a type of reinforced concrete) rather than of more traditional materials, such as steel, iron, or wood.^[31]
conn: To direct a ship or submarine from a position of command. While performing this duty, an officer is said to have the conn.
conning officer: An officer on a naval vessel responsible for instructing the helmsman on the course to steer. While performing this duty, the officer is said to have the conn.
conning tower: 1. An armored control tower of an iron or steel warship built between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries from which the ship was navigated in battle.; 2. A tower-like structure on the dorsal (topside) surface of a submarine, serving in submarines built before the mid-20th century as a connecting structure between the bridge and pressure hull and housing instruments and controls from which the periscopes were used to direct the submarine and launch torpedo attacks. Since the mid-20th century, it has been replaced by the sail (United States usage) or fin (European and British Commonwealth usage), a structure similar in appearance that no longer plays a role in directing the submarine.
consort: Unpowered Great Lakes vessels, usually a fully loaded schooner, barge, or steamer barge, towed by a larger steamer that would often tow more than one barge. The consort system was used in the Great Lakes from the 1860s to around 1920.
constant bearing, decreasing range (CBDR): When two boats are approaching each other from any angle and this angle remains the same over time (constant bearing) they are on a collision course. Because of the implication of collision, "constant bearing, decreasing range" has come to mean a problem or an obstacle which is incoming.^[32]
container ship: A cargo ship that carries all of her cargo in truck-size intermodal containers.
convoy: A group of ships traveling together for mutual support and protection.
corinthian: An amateur yachter.^[33]^[34]
corrector: A device used to correct the ship's compass, e.g. by counteracting errors due to the magnetic effects of a steel hull.
corsair: 1. A French privateer, especially one from the port of St-Malo.; 2. Any privateer or pirate.; 3. A ship used by privateers or pirates, especially of French nationality.; 4. (corsair (dinghy)) A class of 16-foot (4.9-metre) three-handed sailing dinghy.
corvette: 1. A flush-decked sailing warship of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries having a single tier of guns, ranked next below a frigate. In the US Navy, it is referred to as a sloop-of-war.; 2. A lightly armed and armored warship of the 20th and 21st centuries, smaller than a frigate, and capable of trans-oceanic duty.
cotchel: A partial load.^[35]
cottonclad: A steam-powered wooden warship protected from enemy fire by bales of cotton lining its sides, most commonly associated with some of the warships employed by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
counter: The part of the stern above the waterline that extends beyond the rudder stock culminating in a small transom. A long counter increases the waterline length when the boat is heeled, so increasing hull speed. See also truncated counter.
counterflood: To deliberately flood compartments on the opposite side from already flooded ones. Usually done to reduce a list.
country ship: A term used by the British East India Company from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century for a merchant ship owned by local owners east of the Cape of Good Hope which traded within that area and gathered cargoes for shipment west of the Cape to England (later the United Kingdom) by the company's "chartered ships" (q.v.),"extra ships" (q.v.), and "regular ships" (q.v.). "Country ships" were strictly prohibited from trading west of the Cape, which would violate the company's strict monopoly on that trade.^[30]
course: The direction in which a vessel is being steered, usually given in degrees.
courses: The lowest square sail on each mast: the mainsail, the foresail, and the mizzen on a four-masted ship (the aftermost mast usually sets a gaff driver or spanker instead of a square sail).
cowl: 1. A ship's ventilator with a bell-shaped top that can be swiveled to catch the wind and force it below.; 2. A vertical projection of a ship's funnel that directs the smoke away from the bridge.
coxswain: The helmsman or crew member in command of a boat.
crab: A winch used for raising the leeboard, with a barrel for pulling in the staysail sheets.^[2]
crabber: A fishing vessel rigged for crab fishing.
crane vessel or crane ship: A ship with a crane and specialized for lifting heavy loads.
cranse iron: The metal fitting mounted at the end of a bowsprit to which the forestay (or jibstay), bobstay, and bowsprit shrouds are attached. It is also where the tack of the outermost headsail is fastened.^[11]
crash rescue boat or crash boat: A term used in the United States to describe military high-speed offshore rescue boats, similar in size and performance to motor torpedo boats, used to rescue pilots and aircrews of crashed aircraft.
Crazy Ivan: US Navy slang for a maneuver in which a submerged Soviet or Russian submarine suddenly turns 180 degrees or through 360 degrees to detect submarines following it.
crew: 1. On warships and merchant ships, all of those members of a ship's company who are not officers.; 2. On leisure vessels with no formal chain of command, all of those persons who are not the skipper or passengers.
crew boat: A vessel specialized for the transportation of offshore support personnel and cargo to and from offshore installations such as oil platforms, drilling rigs, drill ships, dive ships, and wind farms. Also known as a fast support vessel or fast supply vessel.
crew management: The services rendered by specialised shipping companies to manage the human resources and manning of all types of vessels, including recruitment, deployment to vessel, scheduling, and training, as well as the ongoing management and administrative duties of seafarers, such as payroll, travel arrangements, insurance and health schemes, overall career development, and day-to-day welfare. Also known as crewing.
cringle: A loop of rope, usually at the corners of a sail, for fixing the sail to a spar. They are often reinforced with a metal eye.^[2]
cro'jack: The square sail set on the lower mizzen yard of a square-rigged ship. Many full-rigged ships would not set a sail in this position, as it would be interfered with by the spanker^[36]
crosstrees: Two horizontal struts at the upper ends of the topmasts of sailboats, used to anchor the shrouds from the topgallant mast. Lateral spreaders for the topmast shrouds (standing back stays).^[2]
crow's nest: A masthead constructed with sides and sometimes a roof to shelter the lookouts from the weather, generally by whaling vessels. The term has also become generic for what is properly called a masthead.
cruise ship: A passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way. Transportation is not the prime purpose, as cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port. A cruise ship contrasts with a passenger liner, which is a passenger ship that provides a scheduled service between published ports primarily as a mode of transportation. Large, prestigious passenger ships used for either purpose are sometimes called ocean liners.
cruiser: 1. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, a classification for a wide variety of gun- and sometimes torpedo-armed warships, usually but not always armored, intended for independent scouting, raiding, or commerce protection; some were designed also to provide direct support to a battle fleet. Cruisers carried out functions performed previously by the cruising ships (sailing frigates and sloops-of-war) of the Age of Sail.; 2. From the early to the mid-20th century, a type of armored warship with varying armament and of various sizes, but always smaller than a battleship and larger than a destroyer, capable of both direct support of a battle fleet and of independent operations, armed with guns and sometimes torpedoes.; 3. After the mid-20th century, various types of warships of intermediate size armed with guided missiles and sometimes guns, intended for air defense of aircraft carriers and associated task forces or for anti-ship missile attacks against such forces; virtually indistinguishable from large destroyers since the late 20th century.; 4. A yacht with a cabin(s) containing the facilities for living aboard, thus capable of making voyages.
crutches: Metal Y-shaped pins used to fix oars while rowing.
cuddy: A small cabin in a boat; a cabin, for the use of the captain, in the after part of a sailing ship under the poop deck.
Cunningham: A line invented by Briggs Cunningham, used to control the shape of a sail.^[37]
cunt splice or cut splice: A join between two lines, similar to an eye-splice, where each rope end is joined to the other a short distance along, making an opening that closes under tension.
cuntline: The "valley" between the strands of a rope or cable. Before serving a section of laid rope, e.g. to protect it from chafing, it may be "wormed" by laying yarns in the cuntlines, giving that section an even cylindrical shape.
cut and run: When wanting to make a quick escape, a ship might cut lashings to sails or cables for anchors, causing damage to the rigging, or losing an anchor, but shortening the time needed to make ready by bypassing the proper procedures.
cut of his jib: The "cut" of a sail refers to its shape. Since this would often vary between ships, it could be used both to identify a familiar vessel at a distance, and to judge the possible sailing qualities of an unknown one. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the ships of different nations used visually distinctive types of jibs that could be determined at a distance, providing an easy way to determine friend from foe.^[38] Also used figuratively of people.^[39]
cutter: 1. A small, single-masted boat, fore-and-aft rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit. The mast is set farther back than on a sloop.; 2. A small boat serving a larger vessel, used to ferry passengers or light stores between larger vessels and the shore.; 3. In the 20th and 21st centuries, a small- or medium-sized vessel whose occupants exercise official authority, such as harbor pilots' cutters, US Coast Guard cutters, and UK Border Agency cutters.
cutting out: A surprise attack by small boats, often at night, against an anchored vessel in which the small-boat crews boarded and captured or destroyed the target vessel. Cutting out became a popular tactic in the latter part of the 18th century and saw extensive use during the Napoleonic Wars.
cutwater: The forward curve of the stem of a ship.

D[]

daggerboard: A type of light centerboard that is lifted vertically; often in pairs, with the leeward one lowered when beating.
dan or dan-buoy: A temporary marker buoy consisting of a long pole with flag and/or light at the top and, lower down, a float and a ballast weight to make it float vertically. May be used with or without an anchor to attach it to the sea bed. In naval use often marks a swept channel created by minesweeping. In other uses may mark fishing equipment (nets or pots), an anchor, or, most commonly, is attached to a lifebuoy to throw into the sea to mark the position of a man overboard.^[11]^[40]
dandy: 1. A rig with a small mizzen abaft the steering post.^[2]; 2. In British usage, another name for a yawl.; 3. In British usage, a small after-sail on a yawl.
danlayer: A mine warfare vessel, usually a small trawler, fitted for laying dans. Danlayers served as a part of minesweeping flotillas during and immediately after World War II (1939–1945).
dart: To run dart; to run dead before the wind.^[2]
davit: 1. A spar formerly used on board ships as a crane to hoist the flukes of the anchor to the top of the bow without injuring the sides of the ship.; 2. A crane, often working in pairs and usually made of steel, used to lower things over the side of a ship, including lifeboats.
Davy Jones' Locker: An idiom for the bottom of the sea.
day beacon: An unlighted fixed structure equipped with a dayboard for daytime identification.
day-blink: The moment at dawn where, from some point on the mast, a lookout can see above low-lying mist around the ship.
dayboard: The daytime identifier of an aid to navigation presenting one of several standard shapes (square, triangle, or rectangle) and colors (red, green, white, orange, yellow, or black).
dead ahead: Exactly ahead; directly ahead; directly in front.
dead in the water: Not moving (used only when a vessel is afloat and neither tied up nor anchored). The term is abbreviated to DIW by the US Navy. It is often used to indicate that a pirate or drug runner vessel has been immobilised.
dead run: See running.
dead slow: See steerageway.
dead wake: The trail of a fading disturbance in the water. See also wake.
deadeye: A wooden block with three holes (but no pulleys) spliced to a shroud. It adjusts the tension in the standing rigging of large sailing vessels, by lacing through the holes with a lanyard to the deck. It performs the same job as a turnbuckle.^[2]
deadhead: A snag.
deadlight: A strong shutter fitted over a porthole or other opening that can be closed in bad weather.
dead reckoning: A method of navigation that estimates a ship's position from the distance run measured by the log and the course steered. If corrections for factors such as tide and leeway are then made, this provides an estimated position.^[41] Dead reckoning contrasts with fixing a position with astronomical navigation or satellite navigation. Some sources consider that a dead reckoning position does include adjustments for wind and tide, so care is needed in interpretation of this term.^[42]
deadrise: The angle of the hull surface, relative to horizontal, either side of the keel and on a line drawn towards the turn of the bilge. Without any other qualifier, it is taken at the midships cross-section of the hull. This can be expressed in degrees or sometimes as a vertical linear measure (such as inches) at a standard distance from the keel. A hull with a lot of deadrise has an obvious "V" shape to the bottom of the hull, whereas no deadrise denotes a flat-bottomed hull. It is usually taken to be one of several measures of the "sharpness" of a hull. It can also be referred to as the "rise of floor".^[43]
deadwood: In a traditional wooden hull, blocks of timber on the top of the keel that form the shape of the hull where its section is too narrow for the method of construction employed elsewhere. It is often used forward of the sternpost.^[22]
death roll: In a keel boat, the act of broaching to windward, putting the spinnaker pole into the water and causing a crash-gybe of the boom and mainsail, which sweep across the deck and plunge down into the water. During a death roll, the boat rolls from side to side, becoming gradually more unstable until either it capsizes or the skipper reacts correctly to prevent it.
debarcation or disembarkation: The process of leaving a ship or aircraft, or removing goods from a ship or aircraft.
debunk: The process of removing fuel from a vessel. After a shipwreck, a "debunkering" operation will be performed in an effort to minimize damage and protect the environment from fuel spills.
deck: 1. The top of a ship or vessel; the surface that is removed to accommodate the seating area.; 2. Any of the structures forming the approximately horizontal surfaces in the ship's general structure. Unlike flats, they are a structural part of the ship.
deck hand: A person whose job involves aiding the deck supervisor in (un)mooring, anchoring, maintenance, and general evolutions on deck.
deck supervisor: The person in charge of all evolutions and maintenance on deck; sometimes split into two groups: forward deck supervisor and aft deck supervisor.
deckhead: The underside of the deck above. The inside of the boat is normally paneled over to hide the structure, pipes, electrical wires. It can be in thin wood planks, often covered with a vinyl lining, or in thin PVC or now even in fiberglass planks.
deckhouse: A cabin that protrudes above a ship's deck.
decks awash: A situation in which the deck of the vessel is partially or wholly submerged, possibly as a result of excessive listing or a loss of buoyancy.
decommission: To formally take (a naval vessel) out of active service, after which the vessel is said to be out of commission or decommissioned. Sometimes used less formally to mean taking a commercial ship out of service.
demurrage: A fee paid by a charter party to a shipowner if the time taken to load or unload a vessel exceeds the laytime — the amount of time stipulated for loading or unloading — specified in a voyage charter.
depot ship: A ship that acts as a mobile or fixed base for other ships and submarines or that supports a naval base.
depth of hold: The distance between the underside of the main deck (or its supporting beams) and the top of the limber boards (the part of the ceiling that lies alongside the keelson), measured at the middle frame.^[22]
derrick: A lifting device composed of one mast or pole and a boom or jib hinged freely at the bottom.
despatch: A fee paid by a shipowner to a charter party if the time taken to load or unload a vessel is less than the laytime — the amount of time stipulated for loading or unloading — specified in a voyage charter.
despatch boat: An alternate spelling of dispatch boat.
destroyer: A type of fast and maneuverable small warship introduced in the 1890s to protect capital ships from torpedo boat attack, and since increased in size and capabilities to become a long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or battle group and defend them against submarines, surface ships, aircraft, or missiles. Originally torpedo boat destroyer.
destroyer depot ship: See destroyer tender.
destroyer escort: A US Navy term for a smaller, lightly armed warship built in large numbers during World War II (and in smaller numbers thereafter), cheaper, slower, and less-well-armed than a destroyer but larger and more heavily armed than a corvette and designed to escort convoys of merchant ships or naval auxiliaries or second-line naval forces. Employed primarily for anti-submarine warfare, but also used to provide some protection against aircraft and smaller surface ships. Generally known as frigates in other navies, and designated as such in the US Navy as well by the 1970s.
destroyer leader: A large destroyer suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships; a type of flotilla leader.
destroyer tender: A naval auxiliary ship designed to provide maintenance support to a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships. Known in British English as a destroyer depot ship.
devil seam: The devil was possibly a slang term for the garboard seam, hence "between the devil and the deep blue sea" being an allusion to keel hauling, but a more popular version seems to be the seam between the waterway and the stanchions, which would be difficult to get at, requiring a cranked caulking iron, and a restricted swing of the caulking mallet.
devil to pay: "Paying" the devil is sealing the devil seam. It is a difficult and unpleasant job (with no resources) because of the shape of the seam (up against the stanchions) or if the devil refers to the garboard seam, it must be done with the ship slipped or careened.
dhow: The generic name of a number of traditional sailing vessels with one or more masts with lateen sails used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean region, typically weighing 300 to 500 tons, with a long, thin hull. They are trading vessels primarily used to carry heavy items, like fruit, fresh water, or merchandise. Crews vary from about thirty to around twelve, depending on the size of the vessel.
diamonds: Glass prisms that were laid between the wooden deck planks to allow natural light below were referred to as diamonds due to the sparkle they gave off in the sunlight.
dinghy: 1. A type of small boat, often carried or towed as a ship's boat by a larger vessel.; 2. A small racing yacht or recreational open sailing boat, often used for beginner training rather than sailing full-sized yachts.; 3. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor, but some are rigged for sailing.
directional light: A light illuminating a sector or very narrow angle and intended to mark a direction to be followed.
dipping the eye: A method of attaching more than one hawser to a single bollard, so that each can be lifted off without disturbing the other(s). The second hawser is passed under the first, then up through the eye of the first (hence the name), before being secured over the bollard.
dispatch boat: A vessel ranging in size from a small boat to a large ship tasked to carry military dispatches from ship to ship, from ship to shore, or, occasionally, from shore to shore.
displacement: The weight of water displaced by the immersed volume of a ship's hull, exactly equivalent to the weight of the whole ship.
displacement hull: A hull designed to travel through the water, rather than planing over it.
disposable ship: A barely seaworthy ship of the 19th century assembled from large timbers lashed or pegged together and designed to make a single voyage from North America to the United Kingdom and then to be disassembled so that her timbers could be sold, thus avoiding high British taxes on lumber imported as cargo. When British taxes on imported lumber fell, the construction of disposable ships ceased.
disrate: To reduce in rank or rating; to demote.
distinguishing mark: A flag flown to distinguish ships of one seagoing service of a given country from ships of the country's other seagoing service(s) when ships of more than one of the country's seagoing services fly the same ensign.
division: 1. Especially in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a permanent battle formation of a fleet, often smaller than a squadron, equipped and trained to operate as a tactical unit under the overall command of a higher command, such as a fleet or squadron.; 2. Especially in modern usage, an administrative naval command, smaller than a squadron and often subordinate to an administrative squadron, responsible for the manning, training, supply, and maintenance of a group of ships or submarines but not for directing their operations at sea.^{[citation needed]}
Divisional Transport Officer: In British usage, a shore-based naval officer responsible for the efficient working of the transports and boats of the flotilla, division, or squadron under his charge.
dock: 1. In American usage, a fixed structure attached to shore to which a vessel is secured when in port, generally synonymous with pier and wharf, except that pier tends to refer to structures used for tying up commercial ships and to structures extending from shore for use in fishing, while dock refers more generally to facilities used for tying up ships or boats, including recreational craft.; 2. In British usage, the body of water between two piers or wharves that accommodates vessels tied up at the piers or wharves.; 3. To tie up along a pier or wharf.
dockyard: A facility where ships or boats are built and repaired. Routinely used as a synonym for shipyard, although dockyard is sometimes associated more closely with a facility used for maintenance and basing activities, while shipyard sometimes is associated more closely with a facility used in construction.
dodger: A hood forward of a hatch or cockpit to protect the crew from wind and spray. Can be soft or hard.
dog watch: A short watch period, generally half the usual time (e.g. a two-hour watch rather than a four-hour one). Such watches might be included in order to rotate the system over different days for fairness, or to allow both watches to eat their meals at approximately normal times.
doghouse: A slang term (in the US, mostly) for a raised portion of a ship's deck. A doghouse is usually added to improve headroom below or to shelter a hatch.
dogvane: A small weather vane, sometimes improvised with a scrap of cloth, yarn, or other light material mounted within sight of the helmsman. See tell-tale.
doldrums: The equatorial trough, with special reference to the light and variable nature of the winds generally encountered there.^[44]
dolly winch: A small winch mounted on the windlass, used as an alternative to the brails winch when that is obstructed in some way (e.g. by deck cargo).^[2]
dolphin: A structure consisting of a number of piles driven into the seabed or riverbed as a marker.
donkey engine: A small auxiliary engine used either to start a larger engine or independently, e.g. for pumping water on steamships.^[45]
donkeyman: One of a ship's engineering crew. Often a crewman responsible for maintaining a steam donkey, or any machinery other than the main engines. On some ships, the Petty Officer in charge of engineroom ratings.
dorade box: A dorade box (also called a dorade vent, collector box, or simply a "ventilator") is a type of vent that permits the passage of air in and out of the cabin or engine room of a boat while keeping rain, spray, and sea wash out.
dory: A shallow-draft, lightweight boat, about 5 to 7 metres (16 to 23 ft) long, with high sides, a flat bottom, and sharp bows. Traditionally used as fishing boats, both in coastal waters and in the open sea.
double-shotted: The practice of loading smoothbore cannon with two cannonballs.
doubling the angle on the bow: A technique for establishing the distance from a point on land, such as a headland that is being passed. This is a type of running bearing which requires no plotting on the chart. The ship is sailed on a constant course and speed. The distance shown on the log is noted when the relative bearing of a fixed point is taken, and the increase in that bearing is watched until it is twice the original bearing, and the log is read again. The distance travelled between the two bearings is the distance of the ship from the fixed point when the second bearing was taken. Allowances for tidal streams may or may not be allowed for, depending on the accuracy required.^[46]^[47]
Dover cliffs: A slang term for very rough seas with large white-capped waves.
downbound: 1. Travel downstream, with a following current.^[48]; 2. Eastward travel in the Great Lakes region (terminology used by the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation).^[49]
downflooding: The entry of water through any opening into the hull or superstructure of an undamaged vessel, such as an open door or porthole, loose or open hatch, ventilator opening, etc. Downflooding can occur due to a ship′s trim, if she heels or lists, or if she becomes totally or partially submerged.
downhaul: A line used to control either a mobile spar, or the shape of a sail. A downhaul can also be used to retrieve a sail back on deck.
drabbler: An extra strip of canvas secured below a bonnet, further to increase the area of a course.
draft: The depth of a ship's keel below the waterline.
dragon boat: One of a family of traditional paddled long boats of various designs and sizes found throughout Asia, Africa, and the Pacific islands. For competitive events, they are generally rigged with decorative Chinese dragon heads and tails. Dragon boat races are traditionally held during the annual summer solstice festival.
dreadnought: A type of battleship designed with an "all-big-gun" armament layout in which the ship's primary gun power resided in a primary battery of its largest guns intended for use at long range, with other gun armament limited to small weapons intended for close-range defense against torpedo boats and other small warships. Most, but not all, dreadnoughts also had steam turbine propulsion. Predominant from 1906, dreadnoughts differed from earlier steam battleships, retroactively dubbed predreadnoughts, which had only a few large guns, relied on an intermediate secondary battery used at shorter ranges for most of their offensive power, and had triple-expansion steam engines.
dress overall: To string International Code of Signals flags, arranged at random, from stemhead to masthead, between mastheads (if the vessel has more than one mast), and then down to the taffrail, on a ship in harbor as a sign of celebration of a national, local, or personal anniversary, event, holiday, or occasion. When a ship is properly dressed overall, ensigns fly at each masthead unless displaced by another flag (e.g. that of a flag officer on board), in addition to the ensign flown in the usual position at the stern.
dressing down: 1. Treating old sails with oil or wax to renew them.; 2. A verbal reprimand.
dressing lines: Lines running from stemhead to masthead, between mastheads, and then down to the taffrail, to which flags are attached when a ship is dressed overall.
drifter: A type of fishing boat designed to catch herring in a long drift net, long used in the Netherlands and Great Britain.
drink: Overboard and into the water (e.g. "it fell into the drink").
driver: The large sail flown from the mizzen gaff.
driver-mast: The fifth mast of a six-masted barquentine or gaff schooner. It is preceded by the jigger mast and followed by the spanker mast. The sixth mast of the only seven-masted vessel, the gaff schooner Thomas W. Lawson, was normally called the pusher-mast.
drogher: See disposable ship.
drogue: A device to slow a boat down in a storm so that it does not speed excessively down the slope of a wave and crash into the next one. It is generally constructed of heavy flexible material in the shape of a cone. See also sea anchor.
: A technique of maintaining steerageway when going downstream with neither engine nor wind to sail. The vessel uses its anchor to draw itself head-to-stream, then lifts the anchor and drifts stern-first downstream, ferry gliding to maintain position within the stream. As steerage begins to reduce, the vessel anchors again and then repeats the whole procedure as required.
drydock: A narrow basin or vessel used for the construction, maintenance, and repair of ships, boats, and other watercraft that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform.
drying harbour: A harbour where the water wholly or partly recedes as the tide goes out, leaving any vessel moored there aground.
dunnage: 1. Loose packing material used to protect a ship's cargo from damage during transport. See also fardage.; 2. Personal baggage.
dunsel: A part on a ship that has no use.
Dutch barge: Any of several types of traditional flat-bottomed shoal-draught sailing barge, originally used for carrying cargo in the Zuyder Zee and on the rivers of the Netherlands.

Term of abuse implying shoddiness or (when directed at a person) stupidity or stubbornness, usually embellished with other oaths and insults tagged on fore and aft.

E[]

earings: Small lines by which the uppermost corners of the largest sails are secured to the yardarms.
East Indiaman: Any ship operating under charter or license to the East India Company (England), or to the Danish East India Company, French East India Company, Dutch East India Company, Portuguese East India Company, or Swedish East India Company from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
echo sounding: The measurement of the depth of a body of water using a SONAR device. See also sounding and swinging the lead.
embayed: A condition in which a sailing vessel (especially one that sails poorly to windward) is confined between two capes or headlands by a wind blowing directly onshore.
en echelon: An arrangement of gun turrets whereby the turret on one side of the ship is placed further aft than the one on the other side, so that both turrets can fire to either side.
engine order telegraph: A communications device used by the pilot to order engineers in the engine room to power the vessel at a certain desired speed.
engine room: One of the machinery spaces of a vessel, usually the largest one, containing the ship's prime mover (usually a diesel or steam engine or a gas or steam turbine). Larger vessels may have more than one engine room.
ensign: 1. (ensign (flag)) The principal flag or banner flown by a ship to indicate her nationality.; 2. (ensign (rank)) The lowest grade of commissioned officer in the US Navy.
escort carrier: A type of aircraft carrier, smaller and slower than a fleet carrier, used by some navies in World War II to escort convoys, ferry aircraft, and provide air support for amphibious operations.
Estimated Position: An approximate geographical position obtained by making allowances for leeway, tide, and currents to a dead reckoning position (which is calculated from the distance run and the course steered).
extra ship: A term used by the British East India Company from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century for merchant ships it hired to make voyages for it between England (later the United Kingdom) and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope, a trade over which the company held a strict monopoly. "Extra ships" were chartered for a single round-trip voyage beginning during a single sailing season (September to April) and augmented the voyages of "regular ships" (q.v.), which were merchant ships under long-term charter to make repeated voyages for the company over many seasons. However, if an "extra ship" operated well and the company needed its services, the company often chartered it repeatedly over a number of seasons.^[30]
extremis: The point under International Rules of the Road (Navigation Rules) at which the privileged (or stand-on) vessel on collision course with a burdened (or give-way) vessel determines it must maneuver to avoid a collision. Prior to extremis, the privileged vessel must maintain course and speed and the burdened vessel must maneuver to avoid collision.
eye splice: A closed loop or eye at the end of a line, rope, cable, etc. It is made by unraveling its end and joining it to itself by intertwining it into the lay of the line. Eye splices are very strong and compact and are frequently employed in moorings and docking lines, among other uses.

F[]

factory ship: A large oceangoing vessel with extensive on-board facilities for processing and freezing caught fish or whales. Some also serve as mother ships for smaller fishing or whaling vessels. Those used for processing fish are also known as fish processing vessels.
fair: 1. A smooth curve, usually referring to a line of the hull with no deviations.; 2. To make something flush.; 3. A line is fair when it has a clear run.; 4. A wind or current is fair when it offers an advantage to a boat.
fair winds and following seas: A blessing wishing the recipient a safe journey and good fortune.
fairlead: A ring, hook, or other device used to keep a line or chain running in the correct direction or to prevent it rubbing or fouling.^[2]
fairwater: A structure that improves the streamlining of a vessel.
fairway: 1. A navigable channel (e.g. in a harbor or offshore) that is the usual course taken by vessels in the area.; 2. In military and naval terms, a channel from offshore, in a river, or in a harbor that has enough depth to accommodate the draft of large vessels.
fake: A single turn of rope in a coil or on a drum. A group of fakes is known as a tier. See also fake down.^[11]^[40]^[50]^{: 200, 286}
fake down: To lay a coil of rope down so that it will run easily - that is with rope feeding off the top of the coil and the bitter end at the bottom. Often confused with flake. See also range.^[40]
falkuša: A traditional fishing boat with a lateen sail on a single mast used by fishermen from the town of Komiža on the Adriatic island of Vis.
fall: The part of the tackle that is hauled upon.^[2]
fall off: To change the direction of sail so as to point in a direction that is more downwind; to bring the bow leeward. This is the opposite of pointing up or heading up.
fantail: The aft end of a ship. Also known as the poop deck.
fardage: Wood placed in the bottom of a ship to keep cargo dry. See also dunnage.
fashion boards: Loose boards that slide in grooves to close off a companionway or cabin entrance.^[2]
fast: Fastened or held firmly (e.g. "fast aground": stuck on the seabed; "made fast": tied securely).^[2]
fast combat support ship: The largest type of U.S. Navy combat logistics ship, designed to serve as a combined oiler, ammunition ship, and supply ship. The first fast combat support ship entered service in the mid-1960s.
fast supply vessel: See crew boat.
fast support vessel: See crew boat.
fathom: 1. A unit of length equal to 6 feet (1.8 m), roughly measured as the distance between a man's outstretched hands. Particularly used in sounding as a measurement of the depth of a body of water.; 2. To measure the depth of water; to engage in sounding.
fathomer: A person engaged in sounding to determine the depth of water.
fathometer: A depth finder that uses sound waves to determine the depth of water.
felucca: A traditional wooden sailing boat with a rig consisting of one or two lateen sails, used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean and particularly along the Nile in Egypt and Sudan, as well as in Iraq.
fend off: A command given to the crew to stop what they are now doing and to immediately manually prevent the boat from banging into the docks or other boats.
fender: A flexible bumper used in boating to keep boats from banging into docks or each other. Often an old car tire.^[2]
ferry: A merchant ship used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water.
ferry glide: To hold a vessel against and at an angle to the current/stream such that the vessel moves sideways over the bottom due to the effect of the current operating on the upstream side of the vessel.
ferry slip: A specialized docking facility designed to receive a ferryboat or train ferry.
fetch: 1. The distance across water a wind or waves have traveled.; 2. To reach a mark without tacking.
fid: 1. A tapered wooden tool used for separating the strands of rope for splicing.; 2. A bar used to fix an upper mast in place.^[51]
fife rail: A freestanding pinrail surrounding the base of a mast and used for securing that mast's sails' halyards with a series of belaying pins.^[51]
Fifie: A sailing boat with two masts with a standard rig consisting of a main dipping lug sail and a mizzen standing lug sail. Developed in Scotland and used for commercial fishing from the 1850s until the 20th century.
fig: US Navy slang for a guided-missile frigate, especially of the Oliver Hazard Perry class, derived from its class designation ("FFG").
fighting top: An enlarged top designed to allow gunfire downward onto an enemy ship. A fighting top could have small guns installed in it or could serve as a platform for snipers armed with muskets or rifles.
figure of eight: A stopper knot.^[2]
figurehead: A symbolic image, particularly a carved effigy, at the head of a traditional sailing ship or early steamer.
fin: A term used in European and British Commonwealth countries for a tower-like structure on the dorsal (topside) surface of a submarine; called a sail in the United States.
fine: Narrow in appearance from the vantage point of a lookout or other person viewing activity in the vicinity of a ship, e.g. another ship off the starboard bow with her bow or stern facing the viewer's ship could be described as "fine on the starboard bow" of the viewer's ship.
fireboat: A specialized vessel equipped with firefighting equipment such as pumps and nozzles for fighting shipboard and shoreline fires.
fire ship: A ship loaded with flammable materials and explosives and sailed into an enemy port or fleet either already burning or ready to be set alight by its crew (who would then abandon it) in order to collide with and set fire to enemy ships.
fire room: The compartment in which a ship's boilers or furnaces are stoked and fired.
first-rate: The classification for the largest sailing warships of the 17th through the 19th centuries. Such vessels often had up to three masts, 850+ crew, and 100+ guns.
first lieutenant: 1. In the Royal Navy, the senior lieutenant on board; responsible to the commanding officer for the domestic affairs of the ship's company. Also known as 'Jimmy the One' or 'Number One'. Removes his cap when visiting the mess decks as a token of respect for the privacy of the crew in those quarters. Officer in charge of cables on the forecastle.; 2. In the US Navy, the officer on a ship serving as the senior person in charge of all deck hands.
first mate: The second-in-command of a commercial ship.
fish: 1. To repair a mast or spar with a fillet of wood.; 2. To secure an anchor on the side of a ship for sea (otherwise known as "catting".); 3. A slang term for a self-propelled torpedo.
fisherman's reef: A sailing tactic for handling winds too strong for the sail area hoisted when reefing the sails is not feasible or possible. The headsail is set normally while the mainsail is let out until it is constantly luffing. This creates a loss of force on the main and also reduces the efficiency of the headsail while still retaining sailing control of the vessel.
fisherman's sail: On a staysail schooner, the fisherman is a quadrilateral sail set between the two masts above the main staysail. It is used in light to moderate airs.
fitting-out: The period after a ship is launched during which all the remaining construction of the ship is completed and she is readied for sea trials and delivery to her owners.
fixed propeller: A propeller mounted on a rigid shaft protruding from the hull of a vessel, usually driven by an inboard motor; steering must be done using a rudder. See also outboard motor and sterndrive.
flag hoist: A number of signal flags strung together to convey a message, e.g. "England expects that every man will do his duty".
flag of convenience: The business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. The practice allows the ship's owner to reduce operating costs or avoid the regulations of the owner's country.
flag officer: 1. A commissioned officer senior enough to be entitled to fly a flag to mark the ship or installation under their command, in English-speaking countries usually referring to the senior officers of a navy, specifically to those who hold any of the admiral ranks and in some cases to those holding the rank of commodore. In modern American usage, additionally applied to US Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps officers and general officers in the US Army, US Air Force, and US Marine Corps entitled to fly their own flags.; 2. A formal rank in the mid-19th century US Navy, conveyed temporarily upon senior captains in command of squadrons of ships, soon rendered obsolete by the creation of the ranks of commodore and rear admiral.
flagship: 1. A vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships. The term derives from the custom of commanders of such a group of ships, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag aboard the ship on which they are embarked.; 2. Used more loosely, the lead ship in a fleet of naval or commercial vessels, typically the first, largest, fastest, most heavily armed, or, in terms of media coverage, best-known.
flake: To set down in folds, as in stowing a sail or to range a cable on deck so that it is clear to run. Not to be confused with fake down.^[11]
flank: The maximum speed of a ship. Faster than "full speed".
flare: 1. A curvature of the topsides outward towards the gunwale.; 2. A pyrotechnic signalling device, usually used to indicate distress.
flatback: A Great Lakes slang term for a vessel without any self-unloading equipment.
flatboat: A rectangular, flat-bottomed boat with square ends used to transport freight and passengers on inland waterways in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries.
flattop: A slang term for an aircraft carrier.
fleet: 1. Naval fleet: The highest operational echelon of command of ships commanded by a single person in a navy, and typically the largest type of naval formation commanded by a single person. In modern times, usually (but not necessarily) a permanent formation.; 2. During the Age of Sail, a Royal Navy term for any naval command larger than a squadron in size, or commanded by a rear admiral and composed of five ships-of-the-line and any number of smaller vessels.; 3. Merchant fleet, a collective term for the merchant marine (known in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries the merchant navy) of a particular country.; 4. Fishing fleet: A term for an aggregate of commercial fishing vessels, commonly used either to describe all fishing vessels belonging to a single country, operating in a single region, operating out of a particular port, or engaged in particular type of fishing (e.g., the tuna fishing fleet). The term does not imply that the vessels operate as part of a single organization.; 5. Informally, any grouping (based on physical proximity or sharing of a common organizational subordination) of naval or civilian vessels.; 6. Of a person, to move from one location to another aboard a vessel, or to change positions within a naval organization.; 7. To move up a rope — especially when drawing the blocks of a tackle part — to allow a greater advantage in hauling.; 8. To cause a rope or chain to slip down the barrel of a capstan or windlass.; 9. A former term for the process aboard a vessel of moving deadeyes when the shrouds become too long.; 10. A location where barges are secured.
fleet in being: A naval force that extends a controlling influence on maritime operations without ever leaving port by forcing an opposing navy to maintain forces on station to oppose it in case it comes out to fight or to blockade it in port. A navy which operates its forces as a fleet in being generally seeks to avoid actual combat with an enemy fleet for fear of losing a naval battle and thereby its ability to influence events and activities at sea.^[52]
flemish: To coil a line that is not in use so that it lies flat on the deck.
flettner rotor: A spinning cylinder that uses the Magnus effect to harness wind power to propel a ship.
flight deck: A flat deck on an aircraft carrier used for the launch and recovery of aircraft.
floor: The transverse structural timbers to which the longitudinal bottom planking is attached. The equivalent side timbers are called the frames. The keelson is fastened on top of the floors, bolting them to the keel. The planking is the exterior of the hull, while the ceiling is attached on top of the floors, and it forms the base of the hold.^[2]
floorhead: Any of the upper extremities of the floor of a vessel.
flotilla: 1. In naval usage, a group of warships under a single commander that is smaller than a fleet but otherwise not formally defined. A flotilla often is larger than a squadron, and usually is made up of smaller vessels than those assigned to a squadron, but some flotillas are smaller than squadrons and some include larger vessels. In some navies, the term flotilla is reserved for naval formations that operate on inland bodies of water, while the terms fleet and squadron denote naval formations that operate at sea. A flotilla may be a permanent or temporary formation. In modern times, a flotilla sometimes is an administrative naval unit responsible for maintaining and supporting vessels but not for commanding their operations at sea.; 2. Informally, a group of naval or civilian vessels operating together or in close proximity to one another.
flotilla holiday: A group of chartered yachts that set out together on the same route.
flotilla leader: A warship suitable for commanding a flotilla of destroyers or other small warships, typically a small cruiser or a large destroyer, in the latter case known as a destroyer leader.
flotsam: Debris or cargo that remains afloat after a shipwreck. See also jetsam.
fluke: The wedge-shaped part of an anchor's arms that digs into the solid bottom beneath a body of water.
flush deck: An upper deck of a vessel that extends unbroken from stem to stern.
flush decker: 1. Any vessel with a flush deck.; 2. A US Navy destroyer of the World War I-era Caldwell, Wickes, or Clemson class, produced in very large numbers.
flushing board: A board inserted vertically in a cabin entrance.^[2]
fluyt: A Dutch transoceanic sailing cargo vessel, square-rigged with two or three masts that were much taller than the masts of a galleon, developed in the 16th century and widely used in the 17th and 18th centuries.
fly by night: A large sail used only for sailing downwind, requiring little attention.
folding propeller: A propeller with folding blades, furling so as to reduce drag on a sailing vessel when not in use.
following sea: Waves going in the same direction as a ship, or within 15° of the heading, at a speed slower than the ship. See overtaking sea for waves travelling faster than the ship.^[18]
foo-foo band: An impromptu musical band on late 19th-century sailing vessels, made up from members of the ship's crew.^[53]^[54]
foot: 1. The lower edge of any sail.^[2]; 2. The bottom of a mast.; 3. An Imperial unit of length equivalent to 12 inches (30 cm).
footloose: If the foot of a sail is not secured properly, it is footloose, blowing around in the wind.
footboat: A barge's boat or dinghy.^[2]
footrope: Each yard on a square-rigged sailing ship is equipped with a footrope for sailors to stand on while setting or stowing the sails.
force: See Beaufort scale.
fore: Toward the bow of a vessel.
fore-and-aft rig: A sailing rig consisting mainly of sails that are set along the line of the keel rather than perpendicular to it. Such sails, and the vessel itself, are often referred to as "fore-and-aft-rigged".
fore-and-afters: Removable wooded beams running along the centre of the hold openings, beneath the hatches that they support.^[2]
fore horse: A transverse wooden or iron beam afore the main mast to which the foresail sheet is attached.^[2]
forecastle: (pronounced /ˈfoʊksəl/) A partial deck above the upper deck and at the head of the vessel; traditionally the location of the sailors' living quarters. The name is derived from the castle fitted to bear archers in time of war.^[2]
forefoot: The lower part of the stem of a ship.
forehold: The forward (i.e., front) part of a hold.
foremast jack: An enlisted sailor, one who is housed before the foremast.
forepeak: The part of the hold of a ship within the angle of the bow.
foresail: 1. A fore-and-aft-rigged sail set on the foremast.; 2. The lowest sail set on the foremast of a full-rigged ship or other square-rigged vessel.
forestay: A long line or cable reaching from the bow of the vessel to the mastheads, used to support the mast.^[2]
forestaysail: A triangular sail set on the forestay.^[2]
foul: 1. Having freedom of motion interfered with by collision or entanglement; entangled; the opposite of clear. For instance, a rope is foul when it does not run straight or smoothly, and an anchor is foul when it is caught on an obstruction.; 2. A ship′s bottom is foul when it is overgrown with marine life such as barnacles.; 3. An area of water treacherous to navigation due to many shallow obstructions such as reefs, sandbars, rocks, etc.; 4. A breach of racing rules.; 5. Foul the range: To block another vessel from firing her guns at a target.
foulies: A slang term for oilskins, the foul-weather clothing worn by sailors.
founder: To fill with water and sink.
four piper: A term sometimes used to refer to United States Navy four-funneled destroyers of the Bainbridge, Paulding, Wickes, and Clemson classes, all built for service in World War I.
fourth rate: In the British Royal Navy during the first half of the 18th century, a ship-of-the-line mounting between 46 and 60 guns.
frame: A transverse structural member that gives the hull strength and shape. Wooden frames may be sawn, bent, or laminated into shape; planking is then fastened to the frames. A bent frame is called a timber.
freeboard: The height of a ship's hull (excluding the superstructure) above the waterline; the vertical distance from the current waterline to the lowest point on the highest continuous watertight deck. This usually varies from one part to another.
freighter: A cargo ship.
frigate: 1. In the 17th century, any warship built for speed and maneuverability.; 2. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a sailing warship with a single continuous gun deck, typically used for patrolling, blockading, etc., but not in line of battle.; 3. In the second half of the 19th century, a type of warship combining sail and steam propulsion, typically of ironclad timber construction, with all guns on one deck.; 4. In the 20th and 21st centuries, a warship, smaller than a destroyer, originally introduced during World War II as an anti-submarine vessel but now general-purpose.; 5. In the US Navy from the 1950s until the 1970s, a type of guided-missile antiaircraft ship built on a destroyer-sized hull, all of which were reclassified as "guided-missile cruisers" in 1975.
full and by: Sailing into the wind (by), but not as close-hauled as might be possible, so as to make sure the sails are kept full. This provides a margin for error to avoid being taken aback in a tricky sea (a serious risk for square-rigged vessels). Figuratively it implies getting on with the job but in a steady, relaxed way, without undue urgency or strain.
full-rigged ship: A sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square-rigged. A full-rigged ship is said to have a "ship rig".
full steam ahead: With as much speed as possible.
funnel: 1. (funnel) Also stack. The smokestack of a ship, used to expel boiler steam and smoke or engine exhaust.; 2. Ventilation funnel: A curved, rotatable tube protruding from the deck of a vessel, designed to direct fresh air into her interior.
Furious Fifties: Strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 50 and 60 degrees. They are stronger than the similar "Roaring Forties" to their north.
furl: To roll or gather a sail against its mast or spar.^[51]
fusta: A narrow, light, and fast ship with a shallow draft, powered both by oars and sail, with a single mast carrying a lateen sail; a favorite of North African corsairs during the 16th and 17th centuries.
futtock shrouds: Rope, wire, or chain links in the rigging of a traditional square-rigged ship running from the outer edges of a top downwards and inwards to a point on the mast or lower shrouds. They carry the load of the shrouds that rise from the edge of the top, preventing the top from tilting relative to the mast.^[51]
futtocks: Pieces of timber that make up a large transverse frame.

G[]

gaff: 1. (gaff rig) The spar that holds the upper edge of a four-sided fore-and-aft-mounted sail. On a hoisting gaff, the lower end supported by gaff jaws which partly encircle the mast. It is hoisted using peak and throat halliards. A standing gaff remains aloft, its sails brailed when not in use.^[51]; 2. (fishing gaff) A hook on a long pole used to haul in fish.
gaff rig: A boat rigged with a four-sided fore-and-aft topsail set abaft the topmast, its foot being spread by the gaff. ^[51]
gaff topsail: a fore-and-aft sail with its upper edge supported by a spar or gaff that extends aft from the mast.^[51]
gaff vang: A line rigged to the end of a gaff and used to adjust a gaff sail's trim.
gale: See ghali.
gali: See ghali.
galleass: 1. An oared warship of the 16th century equipped with a gundeck; larger and equipped with more sails than a galley.; 2. A flat-bottomed commercial sailing vessel of the North Sea and western Baltic Sea.
galleon: A large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries.
galley: 1. (galley (kitchen)) The compartment of a ship where food is cooked or prepared; a ship's kitchen.; 2. (galley) A type of ship propelled by oars used especially in the Mediterranean for warfare, piracy, and trade from the 700s BC to the 1500s AD, with some in use until the early 1800s.; 3. A type of oared gunboat built by the United States in the late 18th century, akin to a brigantine but termed "galley" for administrative and funding purposes.
galliot: See fusta.
gam: A meeting of two (or more) whaling ships at sea. The ships each send out a boat to the other, and the two captains meet on one ship, while the two chief mates meet on the other.^[55]
gammon iron: The bow fitting that clamps the bowsprit to the stem.^[51]
gangplank: A movable bridge used in boarding or leaving a ship at a pier.
gangway: An opening in the bulwark of a ship to allow passengers to board or leave the ship.
gantline: A rope running through a block at or near the masthead, with both ends reaching the deck. It is used solely for hoisting (and lowering) a crew member and/or tools into the rigging for maintenance and repair work.
garbling: The illegal practice of mixing cargo with garbage.
garboard: The strake closest to the keel (from Dutch gaarboard).
garboard planks: The planks immediately on either side of the keel.
gash: Any refuse or rubbish discarded into a refuse container or dustbin, also known as "gash fanny" (South African Navy).
gasket: A rope used to secure a sail (particularly the topsail) when stowed.^[2]
gate ship: An alternative term for a net laying ship.
gear: A vessel's sails and rigging.^[2]
general quarters: See battle stations.
gennaker: A large, lightweight sail used for sailing a fore-and-aft rig down or across the wind, intermediate between a genoa and a spinnaker.
genoa: A large jib, strongly overlapping the mainmast.
ghali: Any of several types of galley-like ships from the Nusantara archipelago. The term refers both to Mediterranean vessels built by local people and to native vessels with Mediterranean influence.
ghost: To sail slowly when there is apparently no wind.
ghost fleet: In the United States in modern times, an informal term for a reserve fleet.
gibe: See gybe.
gig: A boat on naval ships at the disposal of the ship's captain for his or her use in transportation to other ships or to the shore.
gillnetter: A fishing vessel that employs gillnetting as its means of catching fish.
gin-pole: A pole that is attached perpendicular to a mast, to be used as a lever for raising the mast.
girt: 1. Said of a vessel moored by cables to two anchors in such a way that the force of a current or tide causes her to swing against one of the cables.; 2. To capsize because of forces exerted on a cable by another vessel attached to it. Tug girting specifically refers to girting that causes a tugboat to capsize because of forces placed on a cable attached to her by another vessel attached to the same cable.
give-way (vessel): Where two vessels are approaching one another so as to involve a risk of collision, this is the vessel directed to keep out of the way of the other.
glass: A marine barometer. Older barometers used mercury-filled glass tubes to measure and indicate barometric pressure.
Global Positioning System (GPS): A satellite-based radionavigation system providing continuous worldwide coverage of navigation, position, and timing information to air, marine, and land users.
go-fast boat: A small, fast boat designed with a long narrow platform and a planing hull to enable it to reach high speeds. Colloquially equivalent to a "rum-runner" or a "cigarette boat".
goat locker: A mess hall reserved for chief petty officers in the US Navy.
going about: Changing from one tack to another by going through the wind. See also gybe.
gondola: 1. A traditional, flat-bottomed Venetian rowing boat.; 1. An alternative term for a gundalow (q.v.).
gooseneck: A fitting that attaches a boom to a mast yet allows it to move freely. ^[51]
goosewinged: Of a fore-and-aft rigged vessel sailing directly away from the wind, with the sails set on opposite sides of the vessel (e.g. with the mainsail to port and the jib to starboard) so as to maximize the amount of canvas exposed to the wind. See also running.
grapeshot: Small balls of lead fired from a cannon, analogous to shotgun shot but on a larger scale. Similar to canister shot but with larger individual shot. Used to injure personnel and damage rigging more than to cause structural damage.
grave: To clean a ship's bottom.
graving dock: A narrow basin, usually made of earthen berms and concrete, closed by gates or by a caisson, into which a vessel may be floated and the water pumped out, leaving the vessel supported on blocks; the classic form of drydock.
graybeard: See Cape Horn roller.
great-circle navigation: The practice of navigating a vessel along the arc of a great circle. Such routes yield the shortest possible distance between any given pair of points on the surface of the Earth.
green-to-green: A passage of two vessels moving in the opposite direction on their starboard sides, so called because the green navigation light on one of the vessels faces the green light on the other vessel.
Greenlandman: A British term used in the 18th and 19th centuries for any whaling ship operating in the Arctic Ocean or northern waters near the Arctic.
gridiron: A large metal cross-frame on which vessels are placed at high water for examination, cleaning, and repairs after the tide falls.
gripe: A temporary eye in a line (rope).
griping: The tendency of a ship to turn into the wind despite the efforts of the helmsman, usually due to either the design of a ship or more commonly the incorrect distribution of weight on and within the hull.
gripie: A Cockney (London dialect) name for a barge.^[2]
grog: Watered-down pusser's rum consisting of half a gill with an equal part of water, issued to all seamen over twenty. (CPOs and POs were issued with neat rum.) From the British Admiral Vernon who, in 1740, ordered the men's ration of rum to be watered down. He was called "Old Grogram" because he often wore a grogram coat, and the watered rum came to be called grog. Specific quantities of grog were often traded illegally as a form of currency; a sailor might repay a colleague for a favour by giving him part or all of his grog ration, ranging from "sippers" (a small amount) via "gulpers" (a larger quantity) to "grounders" (the entire tot). Additional issues of grog were made on the command "splice the mainbrace" for celebrations or as a reward for performing especially onerous duties. The Royal Navy discontinued the practice of issuing rum in 1970.
groggy: Drunk from having consumed a lot of grog.
grommet: A ring of rope. ^[51]
ground: The bed of the sea; the underwater surface or sea floor to which an anchor holds.
grounding: When a ship (while afloat) touches the bed of the sea, or runs aground. A moored vessel that grounds as the tide goes out is said to "take the ground".
groundway: A substantial foundation of wood or stone for the blocks on which a vessel is built, typically lying on either side of the keel of a ship under construction, which also serve to support and guide the blocks when they slide to carry the vessel into the water when she is launched.
growler: A small iceberg or ice floe barely visible above the surface of the water.
guineaman: A slave ship.
guard ship: 1. Any vessel that makes the rounds of a fleet at anchor to see that due watch is kept at night.; 2. A warship stationed at a port or harbour to act as a guard there.; 3. In former times in the British Royal Navy, a ship that received men impressed for naval service, often the flagship of the admiral commanding along the coast.; 4. In Soviet and Russian terminology, a guard ship (storozhevoj korabl') is a small, general-purpose patrol or escort vessel.
gun deck: 1. Up through the 19th century, a deck aboard a ship that was primarily used for the mounting of cannon to be fired in broadsides.; 2. On smaller vessels (of frigate size or smaller) up through the 19th century, the completely covered level under the upper deck, even though in such smaller ships it carried none of the ship's guns.; 3. On marine seismic survey vessels, the lowest deck on the ship, which carries the seismic source arrays, consisting of air guns arranged in clusters.; 4. In naval slang, to fabricate or falsify something; in modern usage, meaning especially to falsify documentation in order to avoid doing work or make present conditions seem acceptable without having made a real effort to improve them.
gundalow: A type of flat-bottomed sailing barge with a single large lateen sail brailed to a heavy yard, used on rivers in Maine and New Hampshire from the mid-1600s to the early 1900s. Sometimes referred to as a gondola in period accounts.^[56]
gunner's daughter: See kissing the gunner's daughter.
gunport: An opening in the side of a ship or in a turret through which a gun fires or protrudes.
gunter rig: A fore-and-aft sail set abaft (behind) the mast, approximately triangular in shape, with the top half of the luff (front) of the sail attached to a yard (spar) which extends the sail above the top of the mast. The yard is raised and lowered with the sail.^[11] This traditional sail is popular in small boats and produces aerodynamic performance close to that of the highly developed Bermuda rig.^[57]
gunwale: The upper edge of the hull. The top timber on the rail around the outer perimeter of the deck.^[2]
gurdy: A mechanical crank used to set and retrieve fishing lines.
guy: 1. A rope or stay leading to the side of the vessel.^[51]; 2. A rope used to steady a boom^[51]
gybe: To change from one tack to the other away from the wind, with the stern of the vessel turning through the wind. See also going about and wearing ship.^[2]

H[]

half-breadth plan: In shipbuilding, an elevation of the lines of a ship, viewed from above and divided lengthwise.
halyard: Originally, ropes used for hoisting a spar with a sail attached; today, a line used to raise the head of any sail.^[2]
hammock: Canvas sheets, slung from the deckhead in messdecks, in which seamen slept. "Lash up and stow" was a piped command to tie up hammocks and stow them (typically) in racks inboard of the ship's side so as to protect the crew from splinters from shot and provide a ready means of preventing flooding caused by damage.
hamper: Articles that normally are indispensable aboard ship but at certain times are in the way.
hand: To furl a sail.
hand bomber: A ship using coal-fired boilers shoveled in by hand.
hand over fist: To climb steadily upwards, from the motion of a sailor climbing shrouds on a sailing ship (originally "hand over hand").
handsomely: With a slow even motion, as when hauling on a line "handsomely".
handy billy: A loose block and tackle with a hook or tail on each end, which can be used wherever it is needed. Usually made up of one single and one double block.
hangar deck: An enclosed deck on an aircraft carrier, usually beneath the flight deck and intended for use as a hangar in servicing and storing aircraft.
hank: A fastener attached to the luff of the headsail that attaches the headsail to the forestay. Typical designs include a bronze or plastic hook with a spring-operated gate, or a strip of cloth webbing with a snap fastener.^[58]
harbour of refuge: An artificial harbour constructed on a coast without a natural harbour to provide shelter for small vessels.^[40]
harbour: A place where ships or smaller craft may shelter from the weather, are unloaded/loaded, or stored. Harbours can be man-made or natural.^[40]
harbour dues: The fees charged by the owners or operators of a harbour to those vessels using the harbour. Under British legislation, the person in charge of a vessel must report to the harbourmaster within 24 hours of arrival in a port where harbour dues are payable.^[11]^[40]
harbourmaster: A person in charge of a harbour, with powers including the collection of the harbour dues, instructing the masters of vessels where to moor, and overall safety within the area of the harbour, often including pilotage and navigational aids. In most countries the powers of a harbour master are laid down by legislation, and can be quite extensive.^[11]^[40]
hard: A section of otherwise muddy shoreline suitable for mooring or hauling out.
hard-a-lee: See lee-oh.
harden in: To haul in the sheet and tighten the sails.^[2]
harden up: To turn towards the wind; to sail closer to the wind.
harness cask: A large, usually round tub lashed to a vessel's deck and containing dried and salted provisions for daily use.
hardtack: A hard and long-lasting dry biscuit, used as food on long journeys. Also called a ship's biscuit.
hatchway: A covered opening in a ship's deck through which cargo can be loaded or access made to a lower deck; the cover to the opening is called a hatch.
haul: 1. To steer (a vessel) closer to the direction of the wind.; 2. To shift forward, i.e. more toward the bow of the vessel.
hauling wind: Pointing the ship towards the direction of the wind; generally not the fastest point of travel on a sailing vessel.
hawsepipe: The shaft or hole in the side of a vessel's bow through which the anchor chain passes.
hawsepiper: An informal term for an officer of a merchant ship who began their career as an unlicensed merchant seaman, and so did not attend a traditional maritime academy to earn their officer's licence. See also before the mast.
hawser: A large rope used for mooring or towing a vessel.
head: 1. The forwardmost or uppermost portion of the ship.; 2. The forwardmost or uppermost portion of any individual part of the ship, e.g. masthead, beakhead, stemhead, etc.; 3. The top edge of a sail.^[2]; 4. The toilet or latrine of a vessel, which in sailing ships usually projected from the bow and therefore was located in the "head" of the vessel.
head boat: A fishing boat that takes recreational fishermen out for a fee paid individually by each person (i.e. per head). A head boat differs from a charter boat, which is a fishing boat that a party of fishermen hires for an agreed-upon period.
Head of navigation: The farthest point above the mouth of a river that can be navigated by ships.
head rail: A curved rail that extends from the figurehead to the bow of a ship.
head rope: 1. The mooring rope that goes from the bow of a vessel to a point on a jetty a distance ahead of the bows.^[40]; 2. Part of the bolt rope, at the head of a sail, running from the mast to the sprit.^[2]
head sea: A sea in which waves are directly opposing the motion of the ship, or approaching within 15° of ahead.^[18]
head-sail: 1. Jibs and staysails set between the bowsprit and the fore ^[58]; 2. Sometimes refers to the square sails on the fore-mast of a square rigged vessel. ^[58]
head-stays: Stays between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. ^[58]
header: A change in the wind direction that forces the helmsman of a close-hauled sailboat to steer away from its current course to a less favorable one. This is the opposite of a lift.
heading: The direction in which the nose of a vessel is pointing (which is not necessarily the same as the direction in which the vessel is actually moving).
headsail: Any sail flown in front of the most forward mast. Headsails is the collective name for all sails afore the mast.^[2]
headstick: The spar laced to the head of the topsail.^[2]
heave: A vessel's transient, vertical, up-and-down motion.
heave down: To turn a ship on its side (for cleaning), a process which is also known as careening.
Heave ho!: An exclamation sailors make when pulling forcefully on a rope.
heave to: See Hove to.
heavy weather: A combination of high winds and rough seas that may be dangerous for a ship or boat, sometimes requiring changes to a passage plan (such as a precautionary diversion to a safe harbour), heaving to, running under bare poles, or other similar survival strategies.
heel: 1. The lean caused by the wind's force on the sails of a sailing vessel.; 2. The inclination or canting of a vessel to one side or the other from the vertical as she maneuvers, e.g. "The ship heeled to port as she turned to starboard".; 3. The lowest or last part of something, such as the heel of the mast or the heel of the vessel.
helm: 1. A ship's steering mechanism, such as a tiller or ship's wheel.; 2. The wheel and/or wheelhouse area.; 3. (v.) To take over the steering of a vessel.^[2]
helmsman: A member of the crew who is responsible for steering the ship.
herring buss: A type of seagoing fishing vessel used by Dutch and Flemish herring fishermen from the 15th through the early 19th century.
highfield lever: A type of tensioning lever, usually for running backstays. Their use allows the leeward backstay to be completely slackened so that the boom can be let fully out.
hitch: A knot used to tie a rope or line to a fixed object. See also bend.^[2]
hog: 1. A fore-and-aft structural member of the hull fitted over the keel to provide a fixing for the garboard planks.; 2. A rough, flat scrubbing brush for cleaning a ship's bottom under water.; 3. A semi-permanent bend in a ship's keel, especially in wooden-hulled ships, caused over time by the ship's center being more buoyant than her bow or stern.
Hog Islander: Slang term used for Design 1022 cargo ships and Design 1024 troop transports constructed at Hog Island in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to address merchant marine shortfalls in the United States during World War I. Completed too late for World War I, Hog Islanders saw United States Navy and United States Merchant Marine service prior to and during World War II.
hogging: 1. A condition in which the hull of a vessel bends upward so the ends of the keel are lower than the middle. (Contrast with sagging.) Hogging can occur when the peak of a wave is amidships or during loading or unloading of a vessel and can damage her or even break her in half.; 2. A permanent distortion of the hull in the same manner caused, over time, by the bow and stern of a ship being less buoyant than the midships section. During the Age of Sail, shipwrights employed a number of different designs of braces to stiffen ships' hulls against this warping.
hogging line: A line passed under a ship from side to side to pull a collision mat into place over a leak.^[59] Also a line passed under a ship from side to side used as a reference to indicate position of a frame during underwater inspections.^[60]
hoist: The height of a fore-and-aft-rigged sail as measured next to the mast or stay.
hold: The lower part of the interior of a ship's hull, especially when considered as storage space, as for cargo. In earlier use, the term referred to all interior spaces below the orlop deck; in later merchant vessels it extended up through the decks to the underside of the weather deck.
holiday: A gap in the coverage of newly applied paint, slush, tar, or another preservative.
holystone: A chunk of sandstone used to scrub a ship's decks. The name comes from both the kneeling position sailors adopt to scrub the deck (reminiscent of genuflection for prayer), and the stone itself (which resembled a Bible in shape and size).
home port: The port at which a vessel is based. Often confused with the ship's port of registry, which is the port listed in the vessel's registration documents and lettered on her stern but which may differ from her home port. In the cruise ship industry, the term "home port" is often incorrectly used to refer to a ship's port of departure.
homeward bounder: A slang term for a sail repair, especially one done with large herringbone stitches.^[2]
hoop: Wooden or metal hoops used to secure the topsail to the topmast so it can be speedily raised or lowered.^[2]
horn: A sound signal that uses electricity or compressed air to vibrate a disc diaphragm.
Hornpipe: A dance actively encouraged by officers as the steps are an exercise in sword play,(officers would constantly exhort the hands to use the killing thrust rather than the less deadly chopping blows).
horns: Shaped ends to the chocks where the main horse is bolted.^[2]
horn timber: A fore-and-aft structural member of the hull sloping up and backwards from the keel to support the counter.
horse: 1. Sand lying mid-channel.^[2]; 2. Prominent wooden or iron beams lying across the deck of a sailing barge taking the foresheet and mainsheet.^[2]; 3. Sheets attached to the deck of a vessel (main-sheet horse).; 4. (v.) To move or adjust a sail by manual force (i.e. directly with the hands) rather than by using running rigging.; 5. (v.) A term used since the end of the 17th century for the action of a strong, favorable current on a sailing vessel allowing her to make good progress despite insufficient wind for sailing; the vessel is considered to be horsed by the current, riding it in the way a human rides a horse.
horse latitudes: The latitudes between 30 and 35 degrees in the Northern Hemisphere and between 30 and 35 degrees in the Southern Hemisphere in which weather patterns often result in sailing vessels being becalmed in mid-ocean.
hospital ship: A ship designated and equipped to serve primarily as a floating medical healthcare facility or hospital, usually operated by military forces such as navies for use in or near war zones, or for the support of disaster relief and other humanitarian operations.
hounds: Attachments of stays to masts.^[2]
hotel load: The electrical load for all non-propulsion systems on a ship, including lighting, climate control, and services used by the crew and passengers.
hove to: 1. In a sailing vessel, stopping her by backing some of the sails and lashing the helm to leeward. In a fore-and-aft-rigged sloop, this involves backing the headsail and allowing the mainsail to fill somewhat (the precise arrangement varies from one vessel to another). The vessel will gradually drift to leeward, with the speed of the drift depending on the vessel's design.; 2. In a powered vessel, stopping her by stopping her engines.; 3. See Heave to.
hoveller: A man who makes his living by claiming salvage on a vessel labouring in a heavy seaway.^[61]
how's your head?: A question to the helmsman to report the course the vessel is on at that moment. This may differ from the course to steer that has been ordered.
hoy: 1. A cutter-rigged craft, having a pole masted with a boomless gaff mainsail and a steeved-up bowsprit. Hoys were square, swim headed Thames estuary barges of 40 to 150 tons burthen.^[62]; 2. A barge making regular passages on a fixed route with mixed third-party cargoes. Also passage barge or goods barge.^[2]^[62]
hufflers: Men employed to help the crew of a barge navigate through tortuous channels or beneath bridges. See shooting a bridge.^[2]
hulk: 1. A ship, often an old ship or one that has become obsolete or uneconomical to operate, that has had its rigging or internal equipment removed and is incapable of going to sea, but that is still afloat and continues to serve a useful function, such as providing living, office, training, storage, or prison space.; 2. (v.) To convert a ship into a hulk.; 3. A ship that has been launched but not completed.; 4. An abandoned wreck or shell of a ship.
hull: The shell and framework of the basic flotation-oriented part of a ship.
hull-down: Of a vessel when only her upper parts (e.g., funnel, masts, and superstructure) are visible on the horizon but her hull remains below the horizon. (Compare with "hull-up.")
hull speed: The maximum efficient speed of a displacement-hulled vessel.
hull-up: Of a vessel when her hull as well as her upper parts (e.g., funnel, masts, and superstructure) are visible on the horizon. (Compare with "hull-down.")
hydrofoil: A boat with wing-like foils mounted on struts below the hull, lifting the hull entirely out of the water at speed and therefore greatly reducing water resistance.
hydroplane: A fast motorboat with a hull shaped so that at speed planing forces support the boat′s weight, rather than simple buoyancy. A hydroplane moving at speed thus relies on the water for lift instead of buoyancy.

I[]

icebreaker: A special-purpose ship or boat designed to move and navigate through ice-covered waters.
icing: A serious hazard where cold temperatures (below about −10°C) combined with high wind speed (typically force 8 or above on the Beaufort scale) result in spray blown off the sea freezing immediately upon contact with the ship. If the weight of the ice becomes too great, the ship will become top-heavy and capsize.
idlers: Members of a ship's company not required to serve watches. In general, these were specialist tradesmen such as the carpenter and the sailmaker.
in ballast: (of a vessel) Having only ballast, and no cargo, as a load.
in irons: When a sailing vessel has lost its forward momentum while heading into the wind, rendering it unable to steer.^[2]
in ordinary: An 18th- and 19th-century term originally used to refer to a naval vessel that is out of service for repair or maintenance, later coming to mean naval ships in reserve with no more than a caretaker crew.
in-water Survey: A method of surveying the underwater parts of a ship while it is still afloat instead of having to drydock it for examination of these areas as was conventionally done.
in way of: In the vicinity of; in the area of.
inboard: 1. Situated within a vessel.; 2. Situated within a vessel and positioned close (or closer relative to another object) to her centerline.; 3. Situated outside a vessel but nearer to her hull, e.g. "The larger boat was tied up alongside the ship inboard of the smaller boat."; 4. Nearer the pier or shore, e.g. "The tanker and cargo ship were tied up at the pier alongside one another with the tanker inboard of the cargo ship."
inboard motor: An engine mounted within the hull of a vessel, usually driving a fixed propeller by a shaft protruding through the stern. Generally used on larger vessels. See also sterndrive and outboard motor.
inboard-outboard drive system: See sterndrive.
Inglefield clip: A type of clip for attaching a flag to a flag halyard.
inshore: 1. Near (especially in sight of) or toward the shore.; 2. (of a wind) Blowing from the sea to the land.
interloper: A term used by the British East India Company in the seventeenth century for a merchant ship operating in violation of the company's monopoly over trade between England (later the United Kingdom) and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope. If caught, an "interloper" and her cargo could be confiscated, and her crew faced harsh penalties.^[30]
Iron Mike: A slang term for autopilot.
iron topsail: An auxiliary motor on a schooner.
iron wind: What sailors call inboard engines.
ironclad: A steam-propelled warship protected by iron or steel armor plates of the period from 1859 until the 1890s (when the term "ironclad" fell out of use).
island: The superstructure of an aircraft carrier that extends above the flight deck. A carrier that lacks one is said to be flush-decked.

J[]

jack: 1. A sailor. Also jack tar or just tar.; 2. (jack (flag)) A national or other official flag flown on a short jackstaff at the bow of a vessel indicating nationality or subordination to a navy or other particular seagoing service or to a government department or subnational government (such as a state or province), or to indicate membership in a yacht club. Typically, crew members spoke of the jack as if it were a member of the crew. A jack contrasts with an ensign, which is a flag with a generally similar purpose flown from the vessel′s stern. Typically, vessels fly a jack while in port and an ensign while at sea (in daylight hours).; 3. Informally, any flag flown by a ship.
jackass-barque: A sailing ship with three or more masts, of which the foremast is square-rigged and the main is partially square-rigged (topsail, topgallant, etc.) and partially fore-and-aft-rigged (course). The mizzen mast is fore-and-aft-rigged.
jack dusty: A naval stores clerk.
jack tar: A sailor dressed in "square rig" with square collar. Formerly with a tarred pigtail.
jackline: On a yacht, a deck lifeline of rope or (preferably) flat tape, running fore and aft, to which the crew can clip their harnesses for safety. Sometimes called a jackstay, though this is a misnomer as a jackline is a line rather than a stay. The line must be very strong to take the weight of all crew clipped to it.
jackstaff: A small vertical pole on the bow of a vessel upon which is flown its flag, or jack. The jackstaff was introduced in the 18th century.
jackstay: 1. A rope, bar, or batten running along a ship's yard, to which is attached the head of a square sail.^[58]; 2. A stay for racing or cruising vessels used to steady the mast against the strain of the gaff.; 3. A cable between two ships or from a ship to a fixed point that supports a load during transfer of personnel or materiel along the cable.; 4. On a yacht, a deck lifeline of rope or (preferably) flat tape may be called a jackstay, though this is a misnomer as a jackstay is a stay rather than a line.^[2]
Jacob's ladder: 1. A flexible hanging ladder consisting of vertical ropes or chains supporting horizontal rungs, used to allow access over the side of a ship, either to transfer between the ship and another vessel alongside it or to perform maintenance tasks along the side of the ship. Sometimes mistakenly referred to as a pilot ladder, which differs from a Jacob′s ladder in its use of spreaders and in terms of specific regulations governing step size and step spacing.; 2. A vertical ladder from the ratlines found on square-rigged ships, used to get around the top while climbing between the lower mast and the topmast.
jetty: A man-made pier in a marina or open water, typically made of wood or rocks and rising several feet above high tide in order to create a breakwater, shelter, channel, erosion control, or other function.
jetsam: Floating debris ejected from a ship. See also flotsam.
jib: A triangular staysail at the front of a yacht. The foot will be attached to the bow or to a bowsprit. A large jib that overlaps the mainmast is called a genoa or genny.^[2]
jib top: A high-clewed overlapping headsail for beam reaching in medium to strong winds^[63]
jibboom: A spar used to extend the bowsprit.^[58]
jibe: See gybe.
jibe-ho: See gybe-oh.
jigger-mast: The fourth mast on a ship, or the aftmost mast where it is smallest on vessels of less than four masts.^[58]
jollies: Traditional Royal Navy nickname for the Royal Marines.
jolly boat: On a barge, the ship's boat used to ferry crew and stores when the barge is moored off.^[2]
joggle: A slender, triangular recess cut into the faying surface of a frame or steamed timber to fit over the land of clinker planking, or cut into the faying edge of a plank or rebate to avoid feather ends on a strake of planking. The feather end is cut off to produce a nib. The joggle and nib in this case is made wide enough to allow a caulking iron to enter the seam.
Jonah: A person (either a sailor or a passenger) who carries a jinx, one whose presence on board brings bad luck and endangers the ship.
Jonah's lift: The throwing overboard of a man considered to be a Jonah, almost always in the dark of night.
junk: 1. Old cordage past its useful service life as lines aboard a ship. The strands of old junk were teased apart in a process known as "picking oakum".; 2. A sailing ship of classic Chinese design with characteristic full batten sails that span the masts usually on unstayed rigs.
jury rig: Both the act of rigging a temporary mast and sails and the name of the resulting rig. A jury rig would be built at sea when the original rig was damaged, and then used to sail to a harbor or other safe place for permanent repairs.

K[]

kaep: A type of proa native to Palau.^[64]
: A line or mark on the aft end of a ship indicating the true centerline of the transom.
kedge: A technique for moving or turning a ship by using a relatively light anchor, also known as a kedge. The kedge anchor may be dropped while in motion to create a pivot and thus perform a sharp turn. It may also be carried away from the ship in a smaller boat, dropped, and then weighed, pulling the ship forward.
keel: The principal central longitudinal structural member of a hull, positioned at or close to the lowest point of the hull. Where the keel protrudes below the surface of the hull, it provides hydrodynamic resistance to the lateral forces that give rise to leeway. A ballast keel of (typically) lead or cast iron may be fastened underneath the structural keel in sailing vessels to provide stability and usually providing additional hydrodynamic resistance effects.^[11] See also bilge keel.
keelhauling: A type of maritime punishment by which one is dragged under the keel of a ship.
kellet: See anchor sentinel.
keelson: A baulk of timber or steel girder immediately above the keel that forms the backbone of a wooden ship. Chine keelson of more modest proportions are fitted at the junction of the floors and frames.^[2]
kentledge: Weights, usually pig iron, used as permanent, high-density ballast.
ketch: A two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged sailboat with the aft mast (the mizzen) mounted (stepped) afore the rudder.
killick: A small anchor. A fouled killick is the substantive badge of non-commissioned officers in the Royal Navy. Seamen promoted to the first step in the promotion ladder are called killick. The badge signifies that the wearer is an able seaman skilled to cope with the awkward job of dealing with a fouled anchor.
kicking strap: 1. A rope, tackle, or hydraulic ram running from the mast at or just above deck level to a point partway along the boom of a yacht's mainsail or mizzen. Its function is to pull the boom down, flattening the sail in strong winds, reducing twist, and preventing the boom from kicking up when running.; 2. A chain rigged from rudder to quarter that is tight at anchor, stopping the rudder from kicking and reducing pressure on its gudgeons.^[2]
king plank: The centerline plank of a laid deck. Its sides are often recessed, or nibbed, to take the ends of their parallel curved deck planks.
Kingston valve: A type of seacock designed so that the water pressure from the sea keeps it closed under normal operating conditions, but can be opened from the inside of the ship, allowing seawater to enter internal fuel, water, or ballast tanks. Kingston valves can be opened to scuttle a ship.
kissing the gunner's daughter: Bending over the barrel of a gun for punitive beating with a cane or cat o' nine tails.
kitchen rudder: A hinged cowling around a fixed propeller, allowing the drive to be directed to the side or forwards in order to manoeuvre the vessel.
kite: A spinnaker (q.v.).
knee: 1. Connects two parts roughly at right angles, e.g. deck beams to frames.; 2. A vertical rubber fender used on pushboats or piers, sometimes shaped like a human leg bent slightly at the knee.
knighthead: 1. A mitred backing timber that extends the after line of the rabbet in the stem to give extra support to the ends of the planks and the bowsprit.; 2. A bollard or bitt.; 3. Either of two timbers rising from the keel of a sailing ship and supporting the inner end of the bowsprit.
knock: See header.
knockdown: The condition of a sailboat being pushed abruptly over on its side, i.e. to horizontal or "on its beam-ends", with the masts parallel to the water surface.
knot: A unit of speed equivalent to 1 nautical mile (1.8520 km; 1.1508 mi) per hour. Originally the speed of a moving vessel was measured by paying out a line from the stern; the line was tied into a knot every 47 feet 3 inches (14.40 m), and the number of knots paid out in 30 seconds gave the speed through the water in nautical miles per hour. Sometimes "knots" is mistakenly stated as "knots per hour", but the latter is a measure of acceleration (i.e. "nautical miles per hour per hour") rather than of speed. Both vessel speed and wind speed are commonly reported in knots.
know the ropes: A sailor who knows the ropes can identify all the many ropes used in working a sailing vessel. On a square rigged ship, there would typically be more than 130 named ropes in the running rigging which are made fast at deck level - the majority of these are duplicated on both the port and starboard sides, so doubling that count.^[65] In order to know the ropes, a sailor must first learn the ropes. There were conventions with the positioning of all the many ropes belayed at deck level on a square-rigged ship, so a newly signed-on hand would quickly know where to find a particular rope on a strange ship.

L[]

lace: To attach a sail to a spar by passing a rope through eyelet holes and around the spar or its jackstay.^[2]
ladder: On board a ship, all "stairs" are called ladders, except for literal staircases aboard passenger ships. Most "stairs" on a ship are narrow and nearly vertical, hence the name.
lagan: Debris that has sunk to the seabed.
laid up: To be placed in reserve or mothballed. The latter usage in modern times refers to a specific set of procedures used by the US Navy to preserve ships in good condition.
laker: Great Lakes slang for a vessel that spends all of her time on the five Great Lakes.
lakeshoring: Great Lakes term for the general cargo and passenger trade between settlements on the Great Lakes during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Lakeshoring usually was conducted by schooners of 50 to 60 feet (15 to 18 m) in length, sometimes referred to as lakeshoring schooners.^[66]
land lubber: A person unfamiliar with being on the sea.
landmark: An object ashore that is visible from sea and sufficiently distinct such that it is marked on nautical charts for the purpose of fixing position while at sea.
landsman: A military rank for a naval recruit, used in the United Kingdom in the 18th century and first half of the 19th century and in the United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
lanyard: A rope that ties something off.
larboard: Obsolete term for the left side of a ship. Derived from "lay-board", which provided access between a ship and a quay, when ships normally docked with the left side to the wharf. Later replaced by "port side" or "port", to avoid confusion with starboard.
large: See by and large.
lateen sail: A triangular fore-and-aft sail set on a long yard mounted at an angle to the mast.
lateral system: A system of aids to navigation in which characteristics of buoys and beacons indicate the sides of the channel or route relative to a conventional direction of buoyage (usually upstream).
lattice mast: Also known as a cage mast. A type of observation mast constructed with a hyperboloid structure using an array of thin columns at angles, crossing each other in a double helical spiral configuration. Lattice masts were most common aboard major United States Navy warships in the early 20th century, particularly on dreadnought battleships and armored cruisers. and were replaced by tripod masts during the 1920s and 1930s.
launch: 1. The largest ship's boat carried by a warship - usually an open boat and, in more recent times, fitted with an engine. Historically, fitted both to be rowed or sailed.^[40]; 2. In modern usage, a large motorboat. An example: harbourmaster's launch.^[40]; 3. An elegant power boat of traditional character with a displacement hull- for example a Slipper launch^[11]; 4. To dispatch a newly built ship down a slipway, usually with ceremony, prior to fitting-out and commissioning.^[40]; 5. To put into the water any boat that is stored or temporarily kept out of the water. E.g. "launch the lifeboat", "launch a dinghy".
lay: 1. To come and go, used in giving orders to the crew, such as "lay forward" or "lay aloft".; 2. To direct the course of a vessel.; 3. To twist the strands of a rope together.; 4. To travel to a mark, buoy, or harbor, e.g. "We will lay the mark".
lay day: An unexpected delay time during a voyage often spent at anchor or in a harbor. It is usually caused by bad weather, equipment failure, or needed maintenance.
lay to: To bring a ship vessel into the wind and hold her stationary. A vessel doing this is said to be laying to.
laying down: Laying the keel of a ship in a shipyard, beginning her construction.
laytime: The amount of time stipulated in a voyage charter for a vessel to be loaded or unloaded. If a vessel is loaded or unloaded in less than the laytime, the shipowner may be required to pay despatch to the charter party. If the loading or unloading takes longer than the laytime, the charter party may be required to pay demurrage to the shipowner.
lazaret: 1. A small stowage locker at the aft end of a boat.; 2. A ship or building used for quarantine of sick patients.; 3. An area on some merchant ships where provisions are stored.; 4. In modern shipbuilding and on powerboats of all sizes, the location of the steering gear equipment for the vessel.
lazy jacks: A network of cordage rigged to a point on the mast and to a series of points on either side of the boom that cradles and guides the sail onto the boom when the sail is lowered.
leach: The after edge of a sail.^[2]
lead: 1. A plummet or mass of lead attached to a line, used in sounding depth at sea.; 2. In former usage, to estimate velocity in knots.
leadline: An instrument used in navigation to measure water depth; the line attached to a lead.
leadsman: A sailor who takes soundings with a lead, measuring the depth of the water.
league: A unit of length, normally equal to three nautical miles.
learn the ropes: An apprentice sailor on a sailing ship (especially if square rigged) needs to know which rope of the many that are belayed at deck level does which job. A small square sail will have, at a minimum, two sheets, two clewlines, several buntlines, two braces and may have a halyard. One mast may have five square sails. To do his job, a sailor must be able to identify each rope, from all the many options - and in the dark. Slacking or hauling the wrong one could be dangerous, as well as inefficient. Once proficient in these tasks, a sailor is said to know the ropes.
lee helm: The tendency of a sailboat to turn to leeward in a strong wind when there is no change in the rudder's position. This is the opposite of weather helm and is the result of a dynamically unbalanced condition. See also center of lateral resistance.
lee side
Leeward: The side of a ship sheltered from the wind. Compare weather side.
lee shore: A shore downwind of a ship. A ship that cannot sail well to windward risks being blown onto a lee shore and grounded.
leeboard: A large fan-shaped wooden board or fin mounted in pairs on the side of a boat. They can be lowered on the lee side of the ship to reduce leeway (similarly to a centerboard on a dinghy).^[2]
leeboard irons: The iron bars that run from the mainmast case to the head of each leeboard, which they support.^[2]
leeboard pendant: A wire connecting the fan of the leeboard to a winch on the barges quarter. They control the fall of the leeboard.^[2]
leech: The aft or trailing edge of a fore-and-aft sail; the leeward edge of a spinnaker; a vertical edge of a square sail. The leech is susceptible to twist, which is controlled by the boom vang, mainsheet, and, if rigged with one, the gaff vang.^[2]
lee-oh: A command to come about (tack through the wind) on a sailing boat.
leeward: (pronounced /ˈljuːərd/ in nautical use) In the direction that the wind is blowing towards. Contrast windward.
leeway: The amount that a ship is blown leeward by the wind. Also the amount of open free sailing space available to leeward before encountering hazards. See also weatherly.^[2]
leg: In navigation, a segment of a voyage between two waypoints.
length between perpendiculars: The length of a vessel along the waterline from the forward surface of the stem or main bow perpendicular member, to the after surface of the sternpost or main stern perpendicular member. The measure is believed to give a reasonable estimate of the vessel's carrying capacity, as it excludes the small, often unusable volume contained in her overhanging ends.
length overall (LOA): The maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline, usually measured on the hull alone, and including overhanging ends that extend beyond the main bow and main stern perpendicular members. For sailing vessels, this may exclude the bowsprit and other fittings added to the hull, but sometimes bowsprits are included.
let go and haul: An order indicating that the ship is now on the desired course relative to the wind and that the sails should be trimmed (hauled) to suit.
letter of marque and reprisal: An official warrant granted to a privateer condoning specific acts of piracy against a specific target as a redress for grievances.
liberty: A relatively short period when a sailor is allowed ashore for recreation. See also shore leave.
licensed ship: A term used by the British East India Company from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century for merchant ships not under charter to it that it allowed under a license issued by the company to trade between England (later the United Kingdom) and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope, a trade over which the company otherwise held a strict monopoly. The company placed strict controls on what ports a "licensed ship" could visit and what kinds of trade it could engage in. A "licensed ship" that violated these rules became an "interloper" and faced harsh penalties if caught.^[30]
lie to: To have the ship's sails arranged so that they counteract each other. A ship in this condition or in the process of achieving this condition is lying to.
lifebelt: A portable or wearable device such as a buoyant ring or inflatable jacket designed to keep a person afloat in the water.
lifeboat: 1. (shipboard lifeboat) A small boat kept on board a vessel and used to take crew and passengers to safety in the event of the ship being abandoned.; 2. (rescue lifeboat) A small boat usually launched from shore and used to rescue people from the water or from vessels in difficulty.
liferaft: An inflatable, sometimes covered, raft used in the event of a vessel being abandoned or in the evacuation of an aircraft after a water landing.
lift: An enabling wind shift that allows a close-hauled sailboat to point up from its current course to a more favorable one. This is the opposite of a header.
light irons: Iron bars mounted near the main shrouds that support the navigation lights.^[2]
light screens: Boards on which the navigation lights are hooked and which shield the direction that the red or green light shows.^[2]
lighter: A flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships, traditionally unpowered and moved and steered using "sweeps" (long oars), with their motive power provided by water currents.
lightering: The process of transferring cargo from one vessel to another in order to reduce the draft of the first vessel. Done to allow a vessel to enter a port with limited depth or to help free a grounded vessel.
lightvessel: A permanently anchored vessel performing the functions of a lighthouse, typically in a location where construction of the latter is impractical. These have largely been replaced by buoys or, as construction techniques have improved, actual lighthouses.
limber hole: A channel cut in the underside of a frame, close to the keel, to allow bilge water to drain away to the pump well, rather than being trapped between each set of frames.^[22]
limber board: A part of the ceiling alongside the keelson, easily removable for cleaning out the limber holes.^[22]
line: The correct nautical term for the majority of the cordage or "ropes" used on a vessel. A line will always have a more specific name, such as mizzen topsail halyard, that specifies its use.
line astern: In naval warfare, a line of battle formed behind a flagship.
liner: 1. During the Age of Sail, a ship-of-the-line, a major warship capable of taking its place in the main battle line of fighting ships.; 2. Any cargo or passenger ship running scheduled service along a specific route with published ports of call, excluding ferries and other vessels engaged in short-sea trading. When referring to cargo ships, "liner" contrasts with "tramp," which refers to a ship engaged in spot-market trade that does not follow a regular schedule or make regular calls at specific ports. When referring to passenger ships, "ocean liner" refers to ships providing scheduled transportation between regular ports of call, but excludes cruise ships, which voyage for recreational purposes and not primarily as a form of transportation between ports.
list: A vessel's angle of lean or tilt to one side, in the direction called roll. Typically refers to a lean caused by flooding or improperly loaded or shifted cargo, as opposed to heeling.
lizard: A short length of rope with an eye, used to hold another rope in position.^[2]
loaded to the gunwales: Literally, having cargo loaded as high as the ship's rail. The term is also used as an idiom meaning "extremely drunk".
lofting: The technique used to convert a scaled drawing to full size used in boat construction.
loggerhead: An iron ball attached to a long handle, used for driving caulking into seams and (occasionally) in a fight; hence, "at loggerheads".
lolling: An uncontrollable list caused by inadequate transverse stability in the upright condition.
Long Forties: An area of the northern North Sea which is fairly consistently 40 fathoms (240 feet; 73 metres) deep. On a nautical chart with depths indicated in fathoms, it appears as a long area with many "40" notations.
long stay: The relative slackness of an anchor chain; this term means taut and extended.
longboat: 1. In the Age of Sail, a double-banked open boat carried by a sailing ship, rowed by eight or ten oarsmen, two per thwart, although designed also to be rigged for sailing; more seaworthy than a cutter or dinghy and with a beam greater than that of a gig. Eventually supplanted by the whaleboat.; 2. The largest, and thus the most capable, of boats carried on a ship.
longliner: A fishing vessel rigged for longline fishing ("longlining").
longship: A type of ship invented and used by the Vikings for trade, commerce, exploration, and warfare, evolving over several centuries and appearing in its complete form between the 9th and 13th centuries.
lookout: A member of the crew specifically assigned to watch surrounding waters for other vessels, land, objects in the water, hazards, threats, etc. Lookouts usually have duty stations high on a vessel's superstructure, in a specially designed crow's nest, or in her rigging in order to enhance their field of view.
loose cannon: An irresponsible and reckless individual whose behavior (either intended or unintended) endangers the group he or she belongs to. A loose cannon, weighing thousands of pounds, would crush anything and anyone in its path, and possibly even break a hole in the hull, thus endangering the seaworthiness of the whole ship.
loose-footed: A mainsail that is not connected to a boom along its foot.^[2]
lower deck: 1. The deck of a ship immediately above the hold.; 2. In British usage, those members of a ship's company who are not officers, often used in the plural (e.g. "the lower decks").
lowers: The lower brails on the mainsail.^[2]
lubber's hole: A port cut into the bottom of a masthead or top (crow's-nest) allowing easy entry and exit. It was considered "un-seamanlike" to use this method rather than going over the side from the shrouds, and few sailors would risk the scorn of their shipmates by doing so (at least if there were witnesses). In practice, it is actually quicker and easier for a fit sailor to climb outside the masthead rather than through the lubber's hole.^[67]
lubber's line: A vertical line inside a compass case indicating the direction of the ship's head.
luff: 1. The forward edge of a sail.^[2]; 2. The process of pointing a sailing vessel closer to the wind.^[2]; 3. The fullest or roundest part of a ship's bow.^[68]^[69]
luff and touch her: To bring the vessel so close to wind that the sails shake.^[7]
luff barge: An 18th-century term for a sailing barge with a rounded bow and not a swim-head.^[70]
luff perpendicular (LP): The shortest distance between the clew and the luff, which is a perpendicular line from the luff to the clew. Commonly given as a percentage of the "J" measurement.^[71]
luff up: To steer a sailing vessel more towards the direction of the wind until the pressure is eased on the sheet.
luffing: 1. When a sailing vessel is steered far enough to windward that the sail is no longer completely filled with wind (the luff of a fore-and-aft sail begins to flap first).; 2. Loosening a sheet so far past optimal trim that the sail no longer completely fills with wind.; 3. The flapping of sails from having no wind in the sail at all.
lumber hooker: A Great Lakes ship designed to carry her own deck load of lumber and to tow one or two barges. The barges were big old schooners stripped of their masts and running gear to carry large cargoes of lumber.
lugger: A sailing vessel with lug sails set on one, two, or more masts and perhaps lug topsails, widely used as traditional fishing boats, particularly off the coasts of France, England, and Scotland; also used as privateers and smugglers.
lug sail: A four-sided fore-and-aft sail supported by a spar along the top that is fixed to the mast at a point some distance from the center of the spar. A dipping lug had to be moved to the other side of the mast when tacking (in larger vessels, by partially lowering the sail and hauling down either the peak or the throat to move the yard across). A standing lug can be used on either tack in the same position. It was common for British fishing luggers to have a dipping lug on the foremast and a standing lug on the mizzen.^[72]
lying ahull: Waiting out a storm by dousing all sails and simply letting the boat drift.
lying to: See lie to.

M[]

Mae West: A Second World War personal flotation device used to keep people afloat in the water; named after the 1930s actress Mae West, well known for her large bosom.
magnetic bearing: An absolute bearing using magnetic north.
magnetic north: The direction towards the North Magnetic Pole. Varies slowly over time.
main deck: The uppermost continuous deck extending from bow to stern.
mainbrace: One of the braces attached to the yard of the mainsail (the largest and lowest sail on the mainmast) on a square-rigged vessel.
mainmast: The tallest mast on a ship.^[67]
mains: The main brails on the mainsail.^[2]
mainsheet: A sail control line that allows the most obvious effect on mainsail trim. Primarily used to control the angle of the boom, and thereby the mainsail, this control can also increase or decrease downward tension on the boom while sailing upwind, significantly affecting sail shape. For more control over downward tension on the boom, a boom vang may be used.
mainstay: The stay running from the top of the mainmast to the bottom of the foremast, or from the top of the foremast to the ship's stem.
making way: When a vessel is moving under its own power.
man-of-war: A warship from the Age of Sail.
man overboard: 1. An emergency call that alerts the crew that someone aboard has gone overboard and must be rescued.; 2. A person who has fallen into the water from a ship or boat - the object of the resulting rescue attempt.
man the rails: To station the crew of a naval vessel along the rails and superstructure of the vessel as a method of saluting or rendering honors.
man the yards: To have all of the crew of a sailing vessel not required on deck to handle the ship go aloft and spread out along the yards. Originally used in harbors to display the whole crew to harbor authorities and other ships present to show that the vessel's guns were not manned and hence her intentions were peaceful, manning the yards has since become a display used in harbor during celebrations and other special events.
manifest: A document listing the cargo, passengers, and crew of a ship for the use of customs and other officials.
Marconi rig: An archaic term for Bermuda rig. The mainsail is triangular, rigged fore-and-aft with its luff fixed to the mast. The foresail (jib) is a staysail tanked onto the forestay. Refers to the similarity of the tall mast to a radio aerial.
marina: A docking facility for small ships and yachts.
marine: 1. A soldier trained for service afloat in a (primarily) infantry force that specializes in naval campaigns and subordinated to a navy or a separate naval branch of service rather than to an army. Often capitalized (e.g. a Marine or the Marines). Notable examples are the United Kingdom's Royal Marines, formed as the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot in 1664 with many and varied duties including providing guard to ship's officers should there be a mutiny aboard, and the US Marine Corps, formed in 1775 as a separate naval service alongside the US Navy. It is incorrect, and often viewed by marines as offensive, to refer to a marine as a "soldier" or "infantryman", as these terms refer to personnel of an army rather than those of a marine force. It also is incorrect, and sometimes considered offensive by both merchant mariners and marines, to refer to merchant mariners as "merchant marines", because merchant mariners are civilian sailors responsible for operating merchant ships and are not marines. Marines sometimes are thought by seamen to be rather gullible, hence the phrase "tell it to the marines", meaning that one does not believe what is being said.; 2. An alternative term for a navy, uncommon in English but common in other languages.; 3. Of or pertaining to the sea (e.g. marine biology, marine insurance, marine salvage).; 4. A painting representing a subject related to the sea.
mariner: A sailor.
maritime: 1. Of or related to the sea (e.g., maritime activities, maritime law, maritime strategy).; 2. Bordering on the sea (e.g., maritime provinces, maritime states).; 3. Living in or near the sea (e.g., maritime animals).; 4. Of or relating to a mariner or sailor.
marlinspike: A tool used in ropework for tasks such as unlaying rope for splicing, untying knots, or forming a makeshift handle.
mast: A vertical pole on a ship that supports sails or rigging. If a wooden multi-part mast, this term applies specifically to the lowest portion.
mast case: A yachtsman's tabernacle. The iron fitting in which the heel of the mast is mounted.^[2]
mast stepping: The process of raising a mast.
masthead: A small platform partway up the mast, just above the height of the mast's main yard. A lookout is stationed here, and men who are working on the main yard will embark from here. See also crow's nest.
master: 1. The captain of a commercial vessel.; 2. A senior officer of a naval sailing ship in charge of routine seamanship and navigation but not in command during combat.; 3. (master) A former naval rank.
master-at-arms: A non-commissioned officer responsible for discipline on a naval ship. Standing between the officers and the crew, commonly known in the Royal Navy as "the Buffer".
matelot: A traditional Royal Navy term for an ordinary sailor.
material: Military equipages of all descriptions for the naval services. The bombs, blankets, beans, and bulletins of the Navy and Marine Corps. Taken from Nelson's British navy as the US services became professional. See also materiel – the military equipages of the Army and Air Force, taken from Napoleon's French army as the US services became professional.
merchant marine: A collective term for all merchant ships registered in a given country and the civilians (especially those of that nationality) who man them; the ships and personnel in combination are said to constitute that country's merchant marine. Called the merchant navy in the United Kingdom and some other countries.
merchant mariner: A civilian officer or sailor who serves in the merchant marine. Sometimes such personnel are incorrectly called "merchant marines", but both merchant mariners and marines frown on this term; although merchant mariners are part of the merchant marine, they are civilians and are not in any way marines, which are a specialized type of military personnel.
merchant navy: A name bestowed upon the merchant marine of the United Kingdom by King George V, and since adopted by some other countries as well. The merchant navy's personnel are civilians, and the term "merchant navy" does not imply that they or their ships are a part of the navy. Synonymous with the term merchant marine.
merchantman: Any non-naval passenger- or cargo-carrying vessel, including cargo ships, tankers, and passenger ships but excluding troopships.
mess: 1. An eating place aboard a ship.; 2. A group of crew who live and eat together.
mess deck catering: A system of catering in which a standard ration is issued to a mess supplemented by a money allowance, which the mess may use to buy additional victuals from the pusser's stores or elsewhere. Each mess was autonomous and self-regulating. Seaman cooks, often members of the mess, prepared the meals and took them, in a tin canteen, to the galley to be cooked by the ship's cooks. As distinct from "cafeteria messing" where food is issued to an individual hand, which is now the general practice.
metacenter: The midway point between a vessel's center of buoyancy when upright and her center of buoyancy when tilted.
metacentric height (GM): A measurement of the initial static stability of a vessel afloat, calculated as the distance between her center of gravity and her metacenter. A vessel with a large metacentric height rolls more quickly and therefore more uncomfortably for people on board; a vessel with a small metacentric height will roll sluggishly and may face a greater danger of capsizing.
Middle Passage: The portion of the triangular trade pattern of the late 16th through the early 19th centuries in the Atlantic Ocean in which slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas. In the terminology of the slave trade itself, the Middle Passage linked the First Passage (the transportation of captives from the interior of Africa to African ports for sale as slaves) with the Final Passage (the transportation of slaves from their port of disembarkation in the Americas to the location where they were to work).
middles: The middle brails on the mainsail, higher than the lowers, and lower than the mains.^[2]
midship house: A superstructure built over the midships section of the hull, often housing the bridge and officers quarters, as well as passenger quarters aboard cargo liners. A common feature of tankers, cargo liners, and cargo ships up until the mid-20th century, when ship design moved away from the use of midship houses.
midshipman: 1. During the 17th century, a naval rating for an experienced seaman.; 2. From the 18th century, a naval commissioned officer candidate.; 3. From the 1790s, an apprentice naval officer.; 4. From the 19th century, an officer cadet at a naval academy.; 5. In contemporary British usage, a non-commissioned officer below the rank of lieutenant. Usually regarded as being "in training" to some degree. Also known as "Snotty". It is "the lowest form of rank in the Royal Navy" where he has authority over and responsibility for more junior ranks, yet, at the same time, relying on their experience and learning his trade from them.; 6. In contemporary American usage, a cadet of either sex at the United States Merchant Marine Academy or the United States Naval Academy. When plural (midshipmen), the term refers to the student body of either academy, and more formally as "the Regiment of Midshipmen" for the Merchant Marine Academy and "the Brigade of Midshipmen" for the Naval Academy.
midshipman's hitch: An alternative to the Blackwall hitch, preferred if the rope is greasy. Made by first forming a Blackwall hitch and then taking the underneath part and placing it over the bill of the hook.^[73]
midshipman's nuts: Broken pieces of biscuit as dessert.^[69]
midshipman's roll: A slovenly method of rolling up a hammock transversely and lashing it endways by one clue.^[69]
midships: The middle section of a vessel with reference to the longitudinal plane, as distinguished from fore or aft. Compare amidships.
mile: See nautical mile.
military mast: A hollow, tubular mast used in warships in the last third of the 19th century, often equipped with a fighting top armed with light-caliber guns.
Millers: Shipboard rats
mine: A self-contained explosive device intended to damage or sink surface ships or submarines, designed to be placed in water and left to wait until they are triggered by the approach of, proximity of, or contact with, a surface ship or submarines.
minehunter: A vessel designed or equipped to detect and destroy individual mines. It differs from a minesweeper, which is designed or equipped to clear areas of water of mines without necessarily detecting them first.
minelayer: A vessel designed or equipped to deploy (or "lay") mines.
minesweeper: A vessel designed or equipped to clear areas of water of mines without necessarily detecting them first. It differs from a minehunter, which is designed or equipped to detect and destroy individual mines.
misstay: To be "in irons" (i.e. to lose forward momentum) when changing tack.
mizzen: 1. A mizzen sail is a small sail (triangular or gaff) on a ketch or yawl set abaft the mizzenmast.^[2]; 2. A mizzen staysail is an occasional lightweight staysail on a ketch or yawl, set forward of the mizzenmast while reaching in light to moderate airs.^[2]; 3. A mizzenmast is a mast on a ketch or yawl, or spritsail barge. Its positioning afore of abaft the rudder post distinguishes between a ketch or a yawl. On a barge its rig determines if she is a muffie or a mulie.^[2]
mizzenmast: The third mast, or the mast aft of the mainmast, on a ship.
mole: A massive structure, usually of stone or concrete, used as a pier, breakwater, or causeway between places separated by water. May have a wooden structure built upon it and resemble a wooden pier or wharf, but a mole differs from a pier, quay, or wharf in that water cannot flow freely underneath it.
monitor: 1. A turreted ironclad warship of the second half of the 19th century characterized by low freeboard, shallow draft, poor seaworthiness, and heavy guns, intended for riverine and coastal operations.; 2. In occasional 19th-century usage, any turreted warship.; 3. A shallow-draft armored shore bombardment vessel of the first half of the 20th century, designed to provide fire support to ground troops, often mounting heavy guns.; 4. (breastwork monitor) A 19th-century monitor designed with a breastwork to improve seaworthiness.; 5. (river monitor) A monitor specifically designed for riverine operations, used during the 19th and 20th centuries and more recently than other types of monitor. River monitors generally are smaller and lighter than other monitors.
monkey bridge: A high platform above the wheelhouse offering better visibility to the operator while maneuvering.
monkey's fist: A ball woven out of line used to provide heft to heave the line to another location. The monkey fist and other heaving-line knots were sometimes weighted with lead (easily available in the form of foil used e.g. to seal tea chests from dampness) although Clifford W. Ashley notes that there was a "definite sporting limit" to the weight thus added.
moor: 1. To attach a boat to a mooring buoy or post.; 2. To dock a ship.; 3. To secure a vessel with a cable or anchor.
mooring: A place to moor a vessel.
mother ship: A vessel that leads, serves, or carries smaller vessels, in the latter case either releasing them and then proceeding independently or also recovering them after they have completed a mission or operation. A mother ship sometimes contrasts with a tender, which often (but not necessarily) is a vessel that supports or cares for larger vessels.
mould: A template of the shape of the hull in transverse section. Several moulds are used to form a temporary framework around which a hull is built.
mould loft: Where the lines of the ship are drawn out full-size and the templates for the timbers are made.
mousing: Several turns of light line around the mouth of a hook, to prevent unhooking accidents.^[2]
mulie: A barge rigged with a spritsail main, and a large gaff rigged mizzen afore the steering wheel. It is sheeted to the saddle chock.^[2]
multipurpose vessel: A cargo ship that has fittings to carry standard shipping containers and retractable tweendecks that can be moved out of the way so that the ship can carry bulk cargo.
muster drill: An exercise conducted by the crew of a ship prior to embarking on a voyage. Passengers are required to participate in the drill so that they can be instructed how to evacuate safely in the event of an emergency on board the ship.
muster station: A specific location on a vessel planned as a gathering place during an emergency or a muster drill. If a person is believed missing, all passengers must report to their muster station for a head count.
muzzle: Iron ban around the mast to hold the heel of the sprit.^[2]
M.V. (or MV): An abbreviation for Motor Vessel, used before a ship's name.
M.Y. (or MY): An abbreviation for Motor Yacht, used before a yacht's name.

N[]

natural harbour: A body of water that is protected from the weather by being mostly surrounded by land, and is deep enough to provide anchorage for the vessels using it.
narrowboat: A type of boat designed specifically to fit the narrow canal locks of the United Kingdom.
narrows: A narrow part of a navigable waterway.
nautical: Of or pertaining to sailors, seamanship, or navigation; maritime.
nautical chart: A map designed specifically for navigation at sea. Nautical charts use map projections designed for easy use with hand instruments, such as the Mercator projection, and indicate depths, hazards, landmarks, aids to navigation such as buoys, and ashore facilities of interest to mariners. Nautical charts are generally originally published by government agencies such as the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and are now provided in both print form and digital for use in chartplotters.
nautical mile: A unit of length corresponding approximately to one minute of arc of latitude along any meridian arc. By international agreement, it is equivalent to exactly 1,852 metres (6,076 ft).
naval programme: The British system of authorizing naval construction by an annual bill in Parliament.
naval infantry: 1. Sailors subordinated to a navy trained and equipped to operate ashore temporarily as an organized infantry force, but at other times responsible for the normal duties of sailors aboard ship.; 2. A specialized, permanent force of troops subordinated to a navy and responsible for infantry operations ashore. Although more specialized than sailors trained to operate temporarily as naval infantry and bearing similarities to a marine force or marine corps, such permanent naval infantry forces often lack the full capabilities of a marine force. Naval infantry forces also usually differ from marine forces in being subordinated directly to a navy rather than to a separate branch of naval service such as a marine corps.
navigation: All activities related to determining, plotting, and tracking the position and course of a ship in order to keep track of its position relative to land while at sea. Navigation charts have been used since ancient times, and remain in use as back-ups to modern satellite-based positioning systems. Numerous map projections including the common Mercator projection were developed specifically to make navigation at sea simple to perform with straight-edges and compasses.
navigation rules: Rules of the road that provide guidance on how to avoid collision and also used to assign blame when a collision does occur.
nay: "No"; the opposite of "aye."
net laying ship: A type of naval auxiliary ship equipped for and primarily tasked with laying torpedo nets or anti-submarine nets to protect individual ships at anchor, harbors, or other anchorages from torpedo attack and intrusions by submarines.
net tender: An alternative term for a net laying ship.
New Company ship: A term used for a ship trading between England and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope for the English Company Trading to the East Indies, a new company chartered in 1697 to compete with the "old" East India Company. The term fell into disuse when the two companies merged in 1707.^[30]
nipper: A short rope used to bind a cable to the "messenger" (a moving line propelled by the capstan) so that the cable is dragged along, too (used where the cable is too large to be wrapped around the capstan itself). During the raising of an anchor, the nippers were attached and detached from the (endless) messenger by the ship's boys. Hence the term for small boys: "nippers".
nock: The throat of the mainsail.^[2]
no room to swing a cat: The entire ship's company was expected to witness floggings, assembled on deck. If it was very crowded, the bosun might not have room to swing the cat o' nine tails (the whip).
non-self-sustaining: See self-sustaining.
nun: A type of navigational buoy, often cone-shaped, but if not, always triangular in silhouette, colored green in IALA region A or red in IALA region B (the Americas, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines). In channel marking its use is opposite that of a "can buoy".

O[]

oakum: Any material, often tarred hemp fibres picked from old untwisted ropes, used for caulking gaps or seams between the planks of hulls.
ocean liner: See liner.
offing: The more distant part of the sea as seen from the shore and generally beyond anchoring ground.
offshore: 1. Moving away from the shore.; 2. (of a wind) Blowing from the land to the sea.; 3. At some distance from the shore; located in the sea away from the coast.
oiler: 1. (ship) A naval auxiliary ship with fuel tanks, which refuels other ships.; 1. (occupation) The job title of a seaman holding a junior position in a ship's engineering crew, senior only to the engine room wiper.
oilskins: Foul-weather clothing worn by sailors.
old man: Crew's slang for the captain, master, or commanding officer of a vessel.
old salt: Slang for an experienced mariner.
on board: See aboard.
on her own bottom: Said of a vessel making a voyage without being carried aboard another vessel, e.g., "The yacht crossed the ocean on her own bottom," or in the plural, "Yachts rarely cross the ocean on their own bottoms."
on station: A ship's destination, typically an area to be patrolled or guarded.
on the beach: A Royal Navy term that means "retired from the Service."^[74]
on the hard: A boat that has been hauled and is now sitting on dry land.
open registry: An organization that will register merchant ships owned by foreign entities, generally to provide a flag of convenience.
ordinary: See in ordinary.
ordinary seaman: 1. A seaman in the British Royal Navy in the 18th century who had between one and two years of experience at sea. Later, a formal rank in the Royal Navy for the lowest grade of seaman, now obsolete.; 2. The second-lowest rank in the United States Navy from 1797 to 1917, between landsman and seaman. Renamed "seaman second class" in 1917.; 3. The rating for entry-level personnel in the deck department of a ship in the United States Merchant Marine. An ordinary seaman (abbreviated "OS") is considered to be serving an apprenticeship to become an able seaman.
ore carrier: A type of bulk carrier specially designed to carry ore.
oreboat: A Great Lakes term for a vessel primarily used in the transport of iron ore.
orlop deck: 1. The lowest deck of a ship-of-the-line.; 2. The deck covering in the hold.
outboard: 1. Situated outside the hull of a vessel.; 2. Situated within a vessel but positioned away (or farther away, when contrasted with another item) from her centerline.; 3. Farther from the hull, e.g. "The larger boat was tied up alongside the ship outboard of the smaller boat."; 4. Farther from the pier or shore, e.g. "The tanker and cargo ship were tied up at the pier alongside one another with the tanker outboard of the cargo ship."; 5. An outboard motor.; 6. A vessel fitted with an outboard motor.
outboard motor: A motor mounted externally on the transom of a small boat. The boat may be steered by twisting the whole motor, instead of or in addition to using a rudder.
outdrive: The lower part of a sterndrive.
outhaul: A line used to control the shape of a sail.
outrigger: 1. Generally, a structure projecting from the side of a vessel.; 2. Any contraposing float rigging beyond the side of a vessel to improve the vessel's stability.; 3. A thin, long, solid, hull used to stabilize the inherently unstable main hull of an outrigger canoe or a sailboat.; 4. A variety of structures projecting from a keelboat by which the running rigging may be attached outboard of the hull.; 5. A pole or series of poles projecting from a fishing vessel that allow the vessel to trawl with more fishing lines in the water without the lines tangling and allowing lures and bait to simulate a school of fish.; 6. A triangular frame on a rowboat or galley that holds the rowlock away from the saxboard or gunwale to optimize leverage for the rowers. Also called a rigger.
outward bound: To leave the safety of port, heading for the open ocean.
over-canvassed: To have too great a sail area up to safely maneuver in the current wind conditions.
over-reaching: Holding a course too long while tacking.
over the barrel: Adult sailors were flogged on the back or shoulders while tied to a grating, but boys were beaten instead on the posterior (often bared), with a cane or cat o' nine tails, while bending, often tied down, over the barrel of a gun, known as kissing the gunner's daughter.
overbear: To sail downwind directly at another ship, stealing the wind from its sails.
overboard: Off or outside a vessel. If something or someone falls, jumps, or is thrown off of a vessel into the water, the object or person is said to have gone overboard. See "Man overboard!"
overfalls: Dangerously steep and breaking seas due to opposing currents and wind in a shallow area, or strong currents over a shallow rocky bottom.
overhead: The ceiling of any enclosed space below decks in a vessel, essentially the bottom of the deck above.
overhaul: Hauling the buntline ropes over the sails to prevent them from chafing.
overtaking sea: Seas approaching a vessel from between 15° to port or starboard of astern at a speed greater than that of the vessel.^[18]
overwhelmed: Capsized or foundered.
owner: Traditional Royal Navy term for the captain, a survival from the days when privately owned ships were often hired for naval service.
ox-eye: A cloud or other weather phenomenon that may be indicative of an upcoming storm.

P[]

packet: 1. Originally, a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies, and outposts.; 2. Later, any regularly scheduled ship, carrying passengers, as in packet trade.
packet trade: Any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger, and mail trade conducted by ship.
packetman: A seaman aboard a ship engaged in packet trade.
paddle box: A covering, usually made of wood, for the upper part of a paddle wheel on a paddle steamer.
pagoda mast: A large and distinctive type of foremast installed aboard Imperial Japanese Navy battleships and battlecruisers during modernization and reconstruction of the ships in the 1930s. A pagoda mast was created by strengthening a ship's existing tripod foremast and adding platforms to it for searchlights, lookouts, sbelters, and other structures, giving the mast the appearance of a pagoda temple.
painter: A rope attached to the bow of a vessel, used to make the vessel fast to a dock or a larger vessel, including when towed astern.^[75]
panting: The pulsation in and out of the bow and stern plating as the ship alternately rises and plunges deep into the water.
paravane: 1. (weapon) A device stabilized by vanes that functions as an underwater glider and is usually streamed from the bow of a vessel and towed alongside so that the cable attaching it to the vessel cuts the moorings of submerged mines.; 2. (water kite) A towed underwater object with hydrofoils, of use in commercial and sport fishing, water sports, marine exploration, the marine industry, and military operations, sometimes equipped with sensors and also of use in exerting a sideward holding force on a vessel. Also called a water kite.
parbuckle: A method of lifting a roughly cylindrical object such as a spar. One end of a rope is made fast above the object, a loop of rope is lowered and passed around the object, which can be raised by hauling on the free end of rope.
parley: A discussion or conference, especially between enemies, over terms of a truce or other matters.
parrel: A movable loop or collar, used to fasten a yard or gaff to its respective mast. A parrel still allows the spar to be raised or lowered and swivel around the mast. It is sometimes with made of wire or rope and fitted with beads to reduce friction.
part brass rags: Fall out with a friend. From the days when cleaning materials were shared between sailors.
passageway: An interior corridor or hallway on a ship.
passenger-cargoman: See cargo liner.
passenger-cargo ship: See cargo liner.
pawls: Small bars used to stop the barrel of a winch or capstan moving backward under an increased load or if the turning power was reduced. In early capstans, the pawls had to be manually moved in and out of the notches in which they worked. Later capstans had automatic pawls that dropped into notches as the barrel turned. In breaking out an anchor, a crew would "heave and pawl" if the bow was rising and falling with the waves, so giving a varying load on the cable.^[76]
pay off: 1. To let a vessel's head fall off from the wind (to leeward.)^[2]; 2. During the Age of Sail, the practice of paying a crew its wages for the voyage when a vessel completed her voyage, at which point the crew was paid off.; 2. In British and Commonwealth usage, to decommission a warship, e.g., "The old destroyer paid off after returning to port at the end of her final cruise."
paying: Filling a seam (with caulking or pitch), lubricating the running rigging; paying with slush, protecting from the weather by covering with slush. See also the devil to pay.
paymaster: The officer responsible for all money matters in Royal Navy ships including the paying and provisioning of the crew, all stores, tools, and spare parts. See also purser.
peak: 1. The upper aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail; used in many combinations, such as peak-halyards, peak-brails, etc.^[2]; 2. The narrow part of a vessel's bow, or the hold within it.; 3. The extremity of an anchor fluke; the bill.
peaks: The uppermost brails on the mainsail. Upper and lower peaks are normal, but a barge may carry a third set, too.^[2]
pelagic: 1. Living in the open ocean rather than coastal or inland waters (e.g. a pelagic shark).; 2. Taking place in the open ocean (e.g. pelagic fishing, pelagic sealing).
pendant: 1. A length of wire or rope secured at one end to a mast or spar and having a block or other fitting at the lower end.; 2. A length of wire or rope hooked to a tackle on leeboards.^[2]; 3. An alternate spelling of pennant.^[77]
pennant: A long, thin triangular flag flown from the masthead of a military ship (as opposed to a burgee, the flags thus flown on yachts).
picaroon: An obsolete (circa 17th century) term for a pirate: From Spanish
picket boat: A boat on sentry duty, or one placed on a line forward of a position to warn against an enemy advance.
pier: A raised structure, typically supported by widely spread piles or pillars, used industrially for loading and unloading commercial ships, recreationally for walking and housing attractions at a seaside resort, or as a structure for use by boatless fishermen. The lighter structure of a pier contrasts with the more solid foundations of a quay or the closely spaced piles of a wharf. In North America, the term "pier" used alone connotes either a pier used (or formerly used) by commercial shipping or one used for fishing, while in Europe the term used alone connotes a recreational pier at a seaside resort.
pier-head jump: When a sailor is drafted to a warship at the last minute, just before she sails.
pilot: A specially knowledgeable person qualified to navigate a vessel through difficult waters, e.g. harbour pilot, etc.
pilot boat: A type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting.
pilot ladder: A highly specialized form of rope ladder, typically used to embark and disembark pilots over the side of a ship. Sometimes confused with Jacob's ladders, but the design and construction of pilot ladders is governed tightly by international regulation and includes spreaders – elongated versions of the standard machined step – rather than the type of steps generally found on Jacob′s ladders.
pIM: Points (or plan) of intended movement. The charted course for a naval unit's movements.
pinnace: 1. (ship's boat) A small, light boat propelled by oars or a sail, used as a tender to larger vessels during the Age of Sail.; 2. (full-rigged pinnace) A small "race built" galleon, square-rigged with either two or three masts.; 3. In modern usage, any small boat other than a launch or lifeboat associated with a larger vessel.
pintle: The pin or bolt on which a ship's rudder pivots. The pintle rests in the gudgeon.
pipe (bos'n's): A whistle used by boatswains (bosuns or bos'ns) to issue commands. Consisting of a metal tube that directs the breath over an aperture on the top of a hollow ball to produce high-pitched notes. The pitch of the notes can be changed by partly covering the aperture with the finger of the hand in which the pipe is held. The shape of the instrument is similar to that of a smoking pipe.
pipe down: A signal on the bosun's pipe to signal the end of the day, requiring lights (and smoking pipes) to be extinguished and silence from the crew.
piping the side: A salute on the bosun's pipe(s) performed in the company of the deck watch on the starboard side of the quarterdeck or at the head of the gangway, to welcome or bid farewell to the ship's captain, senior officers, and honoured visitors.
piracy: An act of robbery or criminal violence at sea by the occupants of one vessel against the occupants of another vessel (and therefore excluding such acts committed by the crew or passengers of a vessel against others aboard the same vessel). Piracy is also distinguished from privateering, which is authorized by national authorities and therefore a legitimate form of war-like activity by non-state actors.
pirate: One who engages in an act of piracy.
pitch: A vessel's motion, rotating about the beam/transverse axis, causing the fore and aft ends to rise and fall repetitively.
pitchpole: To capsize a boat stern over bow, rather than by rolling over.
pivotting: To turn a sailing barge in shallow water by dropping the leeboard so it drags in the mud, then putting the helm hard over. The maneuver is often used to enter congested harbours.
plane: To skim over the water at high speed rather than push through it.
Plimsoll line: A special marking, positioned amidships, that indicates the draft of the vessel and the legal limit to which the vessel may be loaded for specific water types and temperatures.
plotting room: See transmitting station.
point: A unit of bearing equal to 1⁄32 of a circle, i.e. 11.25 degrees. A turn of 32 points is a complete turn through 360 degrees.
point up: To change the direction of a sailboat so that it is more upwind. To bring the bow windward. This is the opposite of falling off.
points of sail: The course of a sailing vessel in relation to the direction of the wind, divided into six points: in irons (pointed directly into the wind), close hauled (sailing as close into the direction of the wind as possible), close reach (between close hauled and beam reach), beam reach (perpendicular to the wind), broad reach (wind behind the vessel at an angle), and running downwind or running before the wind (wind directly behind the vessel).
polacca: A 17th-century sailing vessel commonly seen in the Mediterranean, similar to a xebec with two or three masts; two-masted polaccas were known as brig-polaccas and three-masted polaccas as ship-polaccas or polacca-settees. Polacca-settees had a lateen sail on the foremast, a European-style square rig on the mainmast, and a gaff or lateen on the mizzenmast.
polacca-settee: A three-masted polacca.
polacre: Another name for a polacca.
polacre-xebec: A type of xebec with a square rig on her foremast, lateen sails on her other masts, a bowsprit, and two headsails. A polacre-xebec differed from a felucca in that a felucca had only lateen sails.
pontoon: A flat-bottomed vessel used as a ferry, barge, or car float, or a float moored alongside a jetty or a ship to facilitate boarding.
poop deck: A high deck on the aft superstructure of a ship.
pooped: 1. Swamped by a high, following sea.; 2. Exhausted.
port: The left side of a ship or vessel. Towards the left-hand side of the ship facing forward (formerly larboard). Denoted with a red light at night.^[2]
port of registry: The port listed in a vessel's registration documents and lettered on her stern. Often used incorrectly as a synonym for home port, meaning the port at which the vessel is based, but it may differ from the port of registry.
port tack: When sailing with the wind coming from the port side of the vessel. Vessels on port tack must give way to those on starboard tack.
porthole: An opening in a ship's side, especially a round one for admitting light and air, fitted with thick glass and, often, a hinged metal cover, used as a window.
portolan: An obsolete form of nautical chart used prior to the development of lines of latitude and longitude that indicated distances and bearing lines between ports.
post-captain: An obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy; once achieved, promotion thereafter was entirely due to seniority.
post ship: The British term used from the second half of the 18th century until 1817 for a sixth rate ship-rigged sailing warship armed with 20 to 26 guns, smaller than a frigate but large enough to require a post-captain as her commanding officer.
powder hulk: A hulk used to store gunpowder.
powder magazine: A small room/closet area in the hull of the ship used for storing gunpowder in barrels, or "kegs", usually located centrally so as to have easy access to the grated loading area. Sometimes may be an enclosed closet with a door, so it can be locked and only the captain would have the key, similar to how rum is stored.
pratique: The license given to a ship to enter port on assurance from her captain that she is free from contagious disease. A ship can signal a request for pratique by flying a square solid-yellow flag. The clearance granted is commonly referred to as free pratique.
predreadnought: A term used retrospectively after 1906 for a wide variety of steam battleships built between the 1880s and c. 1905 designed with only a few large guns for long-range fire, relying on an intermediate secondary battery used at shorter ranges for most of their offensive power, and having triple-expansion steam engines. They were rendered obsolete by the revolutionary dreadnought battleships, which began to appear in 1906 and differed from predreadnoughts in having steam turbine propulsion and an "all-big-gun" armament layout in which the ship's primary gun power resided in a primary battery of its largest guns intended for use at long range, with other gun armament limited to small weapons intended for close-range defense against torpedo boats and other small warships.
press gang: Formed body of personnel from a ship of the Royal Navy (either a ship seeking personnel for its own crew or from a "press tender" seeking men for a number of ships) that would identify and force ("press") men, usually merchant sailors, into service on naval ships, usually against their will.
preventer: A sail control line originating at some point on the boom leading to a fixed point on the boat's deck or rail (usually a cleat or pad eye) used to prevent or moderate the effects of an accidental jibe.
Principal Naval Transport Officer: In British usage, a Principal Naval Transport Officer is a shore-based flag officer or captain responsible for sea transport duties, and for assisting the Senior Naval Officer in the preparation of naval orders and conducting disembarkations.
Principal Warfare Officer (PWO): One of a number of Warfare branch specialist officers.
prison ship: A vessel used as a prison, often to hold convicts awaiting transportation to penal colonies; particularly common in the British Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries.
private ship: In British usage, a commissioned warship in active service that is not being used as the flagship of a flag officer. The term does not imply in any way that the ship is privately owned.
privateer: A privately owned ship authorised by a national power (by means of a letter of marque) to conduct hostilities against an enemy.
prize: A property captured at sea in virtue of the rights of war, as a vessel.
prize crew: Members of a warship's crew assigned to man a vessel taken as a prize.
propeller: 1. (fixed) A propeller mounted on a rigid shaft protruding from the hull of a vessel, usually driven by an inboard motor.; 2. (folding) A propeller with folding blades, furling to reduce drag on a sailing vessel when not in use.
propeller walk: The tendency for a propeller to push the stern sideways. In theory, a right-hand propeller in reverse will walk the stern to port.
prow: 1. The forwardmost part of a vessel′s bow above her waterline.; 2. An alternative term for the bow of a vessel, sometimes used poetically.
puddening: Fibres of old rope packed between spars or used as a fender.^[78]
punt: A flat-bottomed boat with a square-cut bow designed for use in small rivers or other shallow water and typically propelled by pushing against the riverbed with a pole. In this way it differs from a gondola, which is propelled by an oar.
punting: Boating in a punt.
purchase: A mechanical method of increasing force, such as a tackle or lever.^[2]
purser: The person who buys, stores, and sells all stores on board ships, including victuals, rum, and tobacco. Originally a private merchant, latterly a warrant officer.

Q[]

quarterdeck: The aftermost deck of a warship. During the Age of Sail, the quarterdeck was the preserve of the ship's officers.
quartering sea: Seas approaching a vessel from between 105° and 165° to port or starboard. Aft of a beam sea and abeam of a following sea.^[18]
Queen's Regulations: The standing orders governing the British Royal Navy issued in the name of the current Monarch.
quay: 1. A stone or concrete structure on navigable water used for loading and unloading vessels, generally synonymous with a wharf, although the solid foundations of a quay contrast with the closely spaced piles of a wharf. When "quay" and "wharf" are used as synonyms, the term "quay" is more common in everyday speech in the United Kingdom, many Commonwealth countries, and the Republic of Ireland, while "wharf" is more commonly used in the United States.; 2. To land or tie up at a quay.
quayside: 1. An area alongside a quay.; 2. Being alongside a quay, e.g. "The ship is moored quayside."
quickwork: The ceiling inside the hull above the turn of the bilge, usually being of lighter dimensions than the ceiling lower down (spirketting).^[22]
quoin (gunnery): A wedge used to assist in the aiming of a cannon

R[]

rabbet: A groove cut in wood to form part of a joint.
radar: An electronic system designed to transmit radio signals and receive reflected images of those signals from a "target" in order to determine the bearing and distance to the target. The term is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging.
radar reflector: A special fixture fitted to a vessel or incorporated into the design of certain aids to navigation to enhance their ability to reflect radar energy. In general, these fixtures materially improve the visibility for use by vessels with radar.
raft: A flat structure used for support or transportation over water, lacking a hull and kept afloat by buoyant materials or structures such as wood, balsa, barrels, drums, inflated air chambers such as pontoons, or extruded polystyrene blocks.
raft ship: Another name for a disposable ship.
rail meat
rake: To incline from the perpendicular; something so inclined is said to be raked or raking (e.g. a raked or raking stem, stern, mast, funnel, etc.
ram: 1. A weapon consisting of an underwater prolongation of the bow of a vessel to form an armored beak, intended to be driven into the hull of an enemy vessel in order to puncture the hull and disable or sink that vessel.; 2. An armored warship of the second half of the 19th century designed to use such a weapon as her primary means of attack.; 3. To intentionally collide with another vessel with the intention of damaging or sinking her.; 4. To accidentally collide bow-first with another vessel.
range: 1. To lay out a rope or chain on deck in a zig-zag or (for rope) a figure of eight pattern (as opposed to in a coil) so that it can run freely. The zig-zag pattern may be described as flakes.^[11]^[40]; 2. The difference between the height of high and low tide - a figure that will vary from place to place and day to day.^[40]; 3. Distance from observer to object, such as in gunnery.^[40]
range clock: A clockwork device used aboard a warship to continuously calculate the range to an enemy ship.
range lights: Two lights associated to form a range (a line formed by the extension of a line connecting two charted points, sometimes called a transit), which often, but not necessarily, indicate the channel centerline. The front range light is the lower of the two, and nearer to the mariner using the range; the rear light is higher and further from the mariner.
rating: 1. In British usage, an enlisted member of a country's navy, i.e. all members of the navy who are not officers or warrant officers.; 2. In contemporary U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard usage, the occupational specialty of an enlisted member of the service.
ratlines: The rungs fastened between the shrouds permanently rigged from bulwarks and tops to the mast to form ladders enabling access to the topmasts and yards.^[2]
razee: 1. A sailing ship that has been cut down to reduce the number of decks.; 2. To cut down a sailing ship to reduce the number of decks.
reaching: Sailing across the wind: from about 60° to about 160° off the wind. Reaching consists of "close reaching" (about 60° to 80°), "beam reaching" (about 90°), and "broad reaching" (about 120° to 160°). See also beating and running.
reaching sail: A sail specifically designed for tighter reaching legs. Reaching sails are often used in racing with a true wind angle of 35 to 95 degrees. They are generally used before the wind angle moves aft enough to permit spinnakers to be flown.
ready about: A call to indicate imminent tacking. See going about.^[2]
Receiver of Wreck: A government official whose duty is to give owners of shipwrecks the opportunity to retrieve their property and ensure that law-abiding finders of wrecks receive an appropriate reward.
receiving hulk: A hulk used in harbor to house newly recruited sailors before they are assigned to a crew.
Red Duster: A traditional nickname for the Red Ensign, the civil ensign flown by civilian vessels of the United Kingdom.
Red Ensign: A British flag flown as an ensign by certain British ships. Since 1854, it has been flown by British merchant ships (except for those authorized to fly the Blue Ensign) as the United Kingdom′s civil ensign. Prior to 1864, ships of the Royal Navy′s Red Squadron also flew it, but its naval use ended with the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864.
Red Right Return: A phrase used as a mnemonic to remember that the navigational standard for a vessel entering ("returning to") a port in the Americas (excluding Greenland), Japan, South Korea, and the Philippines is for her to steer so that red-marked navigational aids lie to starboard (to the "right") of an observer facing forward on the vessel, while green-marked aids must lie to port (i.e., to the left). This contrasts with the rest of the world, where the standard is the opposite, i.e., green markers must lie to starboard and red ones to port.
red-to-red: A passage of two vessels moving in the opposite direction on their port sides, so called because the red navigation light on one of the vessels faces the red light on the other vessel.
reduced cat: A light version of the cat o'nine tails for use on boys.
reef: 1. (noun) Rock or coral that is either partially submerged or fully submerged but shallow enough that a vessel with a sufficient draft may touch or run aground.; 2. (verb) To temporarily reduce the area of a sail exposed to the wind, usually to guard against adverse effects of strong wind or to slow the vessel.^[2]
reef-points: Lengths of rope attached to a sail and used to tie up the part of a sail that is taken out of use when reefed. In older systems, such as square or gaff rigs, the reef points take some of the load on the sail and distribute it to the boltrope; with slab reefing, the reef-points just keep the sail fabric controlled in a tidy manner. Reef points may either be sewn to each side of the sail or passed through eyelets.^[24]^[11]^[79]
reef-bands: Long pieces of rough canvas sewed across the sails to give them additional strength.
reef-tackles: Ropes employed in the operation of reefing.^[80]
reefer: 1. A refrigerated cargo ship used to carry perishable goods that require refrigeration. Also reefer ship.; 2. A shipboard refrigerator.
reeve: To thread a line through blocks in order to gain a mechanical advantage, such as in a block and tackle.^[80]
regatta: A series of boat races, usually of sailboats or rowboats but occasionally of powered boats.
regular ship: A term used by the British East India Company from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century for merchant ships that made "regular voyages" for it between England (later the United Kingdom) and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope, a trade over which the company held a strict monopoly. The company chartered most of its ships; "regular ships" were those under long-term charter, and the company kept their operations under tight control. A set of "regular ships" set off for Asian ports during each sailing season (September through April), and returned up to two years later. The status and role of "regular ships" differed from that of ships the company referred to as "chartered ships" (q.v.), "country ships" (q.v.), "extra ships" (q.v.), and "licensed ships" (q.v.).^[30]
relative bearing: A bearing relative to the direction of the ship: the clockwise angle between the ship's direction and an object. See also absolute bearing.
repair ship: A naval auxiliary ship designed to provide maintenance support to other ships.
replenishment oiler: A naval auxiliary ship which provides fuel and dry stores to other ships.
research vessel: A ship designed and equipped to carry out research at sea, especially hydrographic surveys, oceanographic research, fisheries research, naval research, polar research, and oil exploration.
reserve fleet: A collection of naval vessels fully equipped for service but partially or fully decommissioned because they are not currently needed. In the modern United States, a reserve fleet is sometimes informally called a ghost fleet. During the Age of Sail and well into the 19th century, ships in a reserve fleet were said to be in ordinary.
rib tickler: A bargeman's name for the tiller.^[2]
riding light: A light hung from the forestay when at anchor.^[2]
rigging: The system of masts and lines on ships and other sailing vessels.^[80]
rigging chocks: Thick blocks of wood fixed outside the rails to take the chain plates for the shrouds.^[2]
rigging screw: A bottle screw used to keep wires taut.^[2]
righting couple: The force that tends to restore a ship to equilibrium once a heel has altered the relationship between her center of buoyancy and her center of gravity.
rigol: The rim or "eyebrow" above a porthole or scuttle.
rip rap: A man-made pile of rocks and rubble used as a base to support an aid to navigation, often an offshore lighthouse.
ro-ro: See roll-on/roll-off ship.
roads: See roadstead.
roadstead: A sheltered area outside a harbour where a ship can lie safe at anchor.
Roaring Forties: Strong westerly winds found in the Southern Hemisphere, generally between the latitudes of 40 and 50 degrees. During the Age of Sail, ships took advantage of the Roaring Forties to speed their trips, and yacht sailors still do today.
rode: The anchor line, rope, or cable connecting the anchor chain to the vessel.
rogue wave: Any surprisingly large wave for a given sea state; formally, a wave whose height is more than twice the significant wave height (i.e. the mean of the largest third of waves in a wave record).
roll: 1. The side-to-side motion of a vessel as it rotates about the fore-aft (longitudinal) axis. Listing is a lasting, stable tilt, or heel, along the longitudinal axis.; 2. Another name for the longitudinal axis itself (e.g. the "roll axis").
roll-on/roll-off ship: A vessel designed to carry wheeled cargo that can drive on and off the ship on its own wheels.
rolling-tackle: A number of pulleys, engaged to confine the yard to the weather side of a mast; this tackle is much used in a rough sea.^[81]
rolling vang: A second set of sprit-head vangs played out forward to rail near the bows, used to give additional control and support when needed in a seaway.^[2]
romper: In a convoy, a ship that breaks ranks and "romps" ahead.
ropes, the: 1. All cordage, the lines in the rigging.; 2. Any cordage of over 1 inch (2.5 cm) in diameter.^[81]
rope's end: A summary punishment device.
rope yarn: 1. A period, traditionally on Wednesday afternoons, when a tailor boarded a sailing warship while the vessel was in port; the crew was excused from most duties and had light duty mending uniforms and hammocks and darning socks. When the ship was at sea, the crew similarly was excused from most duties on Wednesday afternoons to engage in mending chores. Wednesday afternoons, like Sundays, thus were a more social time when crewmen rested from normal duties, similar to a Sunday, and, because the crew used rope yarn for mending, Wednesday afternoon became known as rope yarn Sunday.; 2. After uniforms began to require less care, and through the mid-20th century, a period on Wednesday afternoons when naval crew members were excused from their regular duties to run personal errands.; 3. Since the mid-20th century, any period of free time when a naval crew is given early liberty or otherwise excused from its normally scheduled duties.; 4. One of the threads in a rope.^[81]
round to: To turn the bow of a vessel into the wind.
rove: Past tense of reeve.^[80]
rowlock: A bracket providing the fulcrum for an oar. See also thole.
royal: 1. On large sailing ships, a mast right above the topgallant mast.; 2. The sail of such a mast.
rubbing strake: An extra plank fitted to the outside of the hull, usually at deck level, to protect the topsides.
rudder: A steering device that is placed aft and is pivoted about a (usually vertical) axis to generate a yawing moment from the hydrodynamic forces that act on the rudder blade when it is angled to the flow of water over it. There are several types of rudder, which generally divide into outboard or inboard. An outboard rudder is hung (hinged) on the stern of the vessel. An inboard rudder has a stock which passes through a gland in the hull, with the structure of the hull continuing towards the stern above the rudder. A spade rudder is hinged solely on the stock and has no lower bearing to help take the loads. Other rudder types may be hinged on an extension of the keel or on a skeg. Rudders may be balanced, by having some of the blade extend in front of the stock.
rudderstock: The structural part of a rudder that transmits the torque created by the tiller or steering gear to the rudder blade. It may consist of a steel tube which passes through bearings in the hull above the rudder, or with a stern-hung rudder, is the structure carrying all or some of the pintles or gudgeons on which the rudder pivots.
ruffle: Part of the anchor winch. This is a serrated iron ring attached to the barrel, to which the pawl is applied to prevent backruns of the anchor chain.^[2]
rum-runner: See go-fast boat.
rummage: 1. A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a vessel.; 2. The act of stowing cargo aboard a vessel.; 3. To arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a vessel; to move or rearrange such goods; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage aboard a vessel.; 4. To search a vessel for smuggled goods, e.g. "The customs officers rummaged the ship."
rummage sale: A sale of damaged cargo (from French arrimage).
run: 1. The stern of the underwater body of a ship from where it begins to curve upward and inward.; 2. A voyage, particularly a brief or routine one.
running before the wind: Sailing more than about 160° away from the wind. If directly away from the wind, it is called a dead run.
running backstays: A backstay that can be released and moved out of the way so that it does not interfere with sails or spars on the leeward side. On tacking, the new windward running backstay must be set up promptly to support the mast.^[2]
running gear: 1. The propellers, shafts, struts, and related parts of a motorboat.; 2. The running rigging (q.v.) of a sailing vessel.
running rigging: Also running gear.
Rigging used to manipulate sails, spars, etc. in order to control the movement of a sailing vessel. Contrast standing rigging.^[82]

S[]

T[]

tabernacle: A large bracket attached firmly to the deck, to which the foot of the mast is fixed. It has two sides or cheeks and a bolt forming the pivot around which the mast is raised and lowered.^[2]
tack: 1. A leg of the route of a sailing vessel, particularly in relation to tacking and to starboard tack and port tack.; 2. Another name for hard tack.; 3. The front bottom corner of a sail.^[2]; 4. A rope or purchase holding down the clew of a course.^[83]
tacking: 1. Zig-zagging so as to sail directly towards the wind (and for some rigs also away from it).^[83]; 2. Another name for going about.
tacking duels: In sailboat racing, on an upwind leg of the race course, the complex manoeuvres of lead and overtaking boats to vie for the aerodynamic advantage of clear air. This results from the ongoing strategy of the lead boat's effort to keep the following boat(s) in the blanket of disturbed bad air he is creating.
tackle: A pair of blocks through which is rove a rope to provide an advantageous purchase. Used for lifting heavy loads and to raise and trim sails.^[2]
tactical diameter: The perpendicular distance between a ship's course when the helm is put hard over and her course when she has turned through 180 degrees; the ratio of the tactical diameter divided by the ship's length between perpendiculars gives a dimensionless parameter that can be used to compare the manoeuvrability of ships.
taffrail: A rail at the stern of a boat that covers the head of the counter timbers.
tail: The loose end of a rope that has been secured to a winch or a cleat.^[2]
tailshaft: A kind of metallic shafting (a rod of metal) to hold the propeller and connected to the power engine. When the tailshaft is moved, the propeller may also be moved for propulsion.
taken aback: An inattentive helmsman might allow the dangerous situation to arise where the wind is blowing into the sails "backwards", causing a sudden (and possibly dangerous) shift in the position of the sails.
taking the wind out of his sails: To sail in a way that steals the wind from another ship. Compare overbear.
taking on water: Said of a vessel, to fill with water slowly, either because of a leak or because of waves washing across the deck. The term can be used to describe water entering the vessel by waves washing over her bow or stern, e.g., "The freighter took water over her bow," or "The motorboat took water over her stern." A vessel which continues to take on water eventually will sink.
tall ship: A large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel.
tally: The operation of hauling aft the sheets, or drawing them in the direction of the ship's stern.
tanker: A ship designed to transport liquids in bulk.
target ship: A vessel, typically an obsolete or captured warship, used for naval gunnery practice or for weapons testing. The term includes both ships intended to be sunk and ships intended to survive and see repeated use as targets.
tartane: A small, lateen-rigged, single-masted sailing ship used in the Mediterranean for fishing and coastal trade from the 16th century to the late 19th century.
Task Force: Any temporary naval organisation composed of particular ships, aircraft, submarines, military land forces, or shore service units, assigned to fulfill certain missions. Seemingly drawn originally from Royal Navy heritage, the emphasis is placed on the individual commander of the unit, and references to "CTF" are common for "Commander Task Force".
tattle tale: Light cord attached to a mooring line at two points a few inches apart with a slack section in between (resembling an inchworm) to indicate when the line is stretching from the ship's rising with the tide. Obviously only used when moored to a fixed dock or pier and only on watches with a flood tide.
tell-tale: A light piece of string, yarn, rope, or plastic (often magnetic audio tape) attached to a stay or a shroud to indicate the local wind direction. They may also be attached to the surface and/or the leech of a sail to indicate the state of the air flow over the surface of the sail. They are referenced when optimizing the trim of the sails to achieve the best boat speed in the prevailing wind conditions. See dogvane.
tender: 1. A type of naval auxiliary ship designed to provide advanced basing services in undeveloped harbors to seaplanes, flying boats, torpedo boats, destroyers, or submarines.; 2. A vessel used to provide transportation services for people and supplies to and from shore for a larger vessel.; 3. A vessel used to maintain navigational aids, such as buoys and lighthouses.
T.E.V. (or TEV): A prefix for "turbo-electric vessel", used before a ship's name.
texas: A structure or section of a steamboat that includes the pilothouse and the crew's quarters, located on the hurricane deck, in this case also called the texas deck.
texas deck: The deck of a steamboat on which its texas is located.
thimble: A round or heart-shaped grooved ring of iron inserted into an eye-splice.^[84]
third mate: A licensed member of the deck department of a merchant ship, typically fourth, or on some ocean liners fifth, in command; a watchkeeping officer, customarily also the ship's safety officer, responsible for the ship's firefighting equipment, lifeboats, and other emergency systems. Other duties of the third mate vary depending on the type of ship, its crewing, and other factors.
third officer: See third mate.
thole: A vertical wooden peg or pin inserted through the gunwale to form a fulcrum for oars when rowing. Used in place of a rowlock.
throat: 1. The forward top corner of a square fore-and-aft sail.^[2]; 2. The end of the gaff, next to the mast.^[85]
three sheets to the wind: On a three-masted ship, having the sheets of the three lower courses loose will result in the ship meandering aimlessly downwind. Also used to describe a sailor who has drunk strong spirits beyond his capacity.
thunderboat: Alternative term for a hydroplane.
thwart: A bench seat across the width of an open boat.
tier: Vessels moored alongside each other offshore.^[86]
tiller: A lever used for steering, attached to the top of the rudder stock. Used mainly on smaller vessels, such as dinghies and rowing boats.
tilt boat: A square sail ferry operating out of Gravesend. Not less than 15 tons, carrying no more that 37 passengers, it had 5 oarsmen afore the mast.^[87]
timber drogher: Another name for a disposable ship.
timber ship: Another name for a disposable ship.
timoneer: A name given, on particular occasions, to the steersman of a ship. From the French timonnier.
tin can: United States Navy slang for a destroyer; often shortened to can.
tinclad: A lightly armored steam-powered river gunboat used by the United States Navy during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Also called a light draft. A tinclad had thin iron armor, or in some cases thick wooden bulwarks rather than armor, sufficient to protect her machinery spaces and pilothouse against rifle fire but not against artillery fire. A tinclad contrasted with an ironclad, which had armor thick enough for protection against artillery fire.
tingle: A thin temporary patch.
toe-rail: A low strip running around the edge of the deck like a low bulwark. It may be shortened or have gaps in it to allow water to flow off the deck.
toe the line: At parade, sailors and soldiers were required to stand in line, their toes in line with a seam of the deck.
tompion: A block of wood inserted into the barrel of a gun on a 19th-century warship to keep out the sea spray; also used for covers for the ends of the barrels of the guns on more modern ships, the larger of which are often adorned with the ship's crest or other decoration.
tonnage: 1. Any of various measures of the size or cargo-carrying capacity of a ship in terms of weight or volume.; 2. Builder's Old Measurement, also tons burden: a volumetric measurement of cubic capacity used to calculate the cargo capacity of a ship, used in England and later the United Kingdom, from approximately 1650 to 1849 and in the United States from 1789 to 1864. It estimated the tonnage of a vessel based on her length and maximum beam. The British formula yielded a slightly higher value than the U.S. formula.; 3. Deadweight tonnage: the total weight a vessel can carry, exclusive of the mass of the vessel itself.; 4. Displacement tonnage: the total weight of a vessel.; 5. Gross register tonnage: the total internal volume of a vessel, with one gross register ton equal to 100 cubic feet (2.8316846592 cubic meters).; 6. Gross tonnage: a function of the volume of all of a ship's internal spaces.; 7. Lightship or lightweight tonnage: the weight of a ship without any fuel, cargo, supplies, water, passengers, etc. on board.; 8. Net register tonnage: the volume of cargo a vessel can carry.; 9. Net tonnage: the volume of all cargo spaces on a ship.; 10. Thames Measurement tonnage: the volume of a small vessel, calculated based on her length and beam.
top: The platform at the upper end of each (lower) mast of a square-rigged ship, typically one-fourth to one-third of the way up the mast. The main purpose of a top is to anchor the shrouds of the topmast that extend above it. See also fighting top.^[88]
topgallant: The mast or sails above the tops. See topgallant mast and topgallant sail.^[83]
tophamper: 1. A collective term for the masts, yards, sails, and rigging of a sailing ship, or for similarly insubstantial structures above the upper deck of any ship.^[89]; 2. Unnecessary spars and rigging kept aloft on a vessel′s masts.
topman: A crewmember stationed in a top.
topmast: The second section of the mast above the deck; formerly the upper mast, later surmounted by the topgallant mast; carrying the topsails.^[83]
topmast pole: Part of the spar between the hounds and the truck.^[2]
topping lift: A line that is part of the rigging on a sailing boat; it applies upward force on a spar or boom. The most common topping lift on a modern sailing boat is attached to the boom.^[88]
topsail: The second sail (counting from the bottom) up a mast. These may be either square sails or fore-and-aft ones, in which case they often "fill in" between the mast and the gaff of the sail below.
topsail schooner: A schooner that sets a square topsail on yards carried on the foremast. A topgallant may also be set above the topsail. (The term does not apply to a schooner setting just fore and aft topsails above gaff sails.) There is some terminological variation, both over time and place, on what square sails a vessel may set and still be termed a schooner.^[90]^[91]^[92]
topsides: The part of the hull between the waterline and the deck. See also above-water hull.
torpedo: 1. Prior to about 1900, the term for a variety of explosive devices designed for use in water, including mines, spar torpedoes, and, after the mid-19th century, "automotive", "automobile", "locomotive", or "fish" torpedoes (self-propelled weapons which fit the modern definition of torpedo).; 2. Since about 1900, a term used exclusively for a self-propelled weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with its target or in proximity to it.
torpedo net: A heavy net a ship could deploy around herself using booms or spars while at anchor, moored, or otherwise stationary to protect herself from torpedo attack. A torpedo net hung at a distance from the hull sufficient to detonate a torpedo without significant damage to the ship. Torpedo nets first appeared in the late 1870s and were used through the World War I era, and they were used again during World War II.
touch and go: 1. The bottom of the ship touching the bottom, but not grounding.; 2. Stopping at a dock or pier for a very short time without tying up, to let off or take on crew or goods.; 3. The practice of aircraft on aircraft carriers touching the carrier deck and taking off again without dropping hooks.
towing: The operation of drawing a vessel forward by means of long lines.
traffic separation scheme: Shipping corridors marked by buoys that separate incoming from outgoing vessels. Sometimes improperly called sea lanes.
trailboard: A decorative board at the bow of a vessel, sometimes bearing the vessel's name.
training ship: A ship used to train students as sailors, especially a ship employed by a navy or coast guard to train future officers. The term refers both to ships used for training at sea and to old, immobile hulks used to house classrooms.
tramp freighter: A cargo ship engaged in the tramp trade.
tramp steamer: A steamship engaged in the tramp trade.
tramp trade: The shipping trade on the spot market in which the vessels involved do not have a fixed schedule or itinerary or published ports of call. This contrasts with freight liner service, in which vessels make regular, scheduled runs between published ports.
tramper: Any vessel engaged in the tramp trade.
transmitting station: British term for a room located in the interior of a ship containing computers and other specialised equipment needed to calculate the range and bearing of a target from information gathered by the ship's spotters and range finders. These were designated "plotting rooms" by the United States Navy.^[93]
transom: 1. A lateral member fastened inside the sternpost, to which the hull and deckplanks are fitted.^[2]; 2. The aft "wall" of the stern; often the part to which an outboard unit or the drive portion of a sterndrive is attached.; 3. A more or less flat surface across the stern of a vessel. Dinghies tend to have almost vertical transoms, whereas yachts' transoms may be raked forward or aft.
transport: See troopship.
travellers: 1. Small fittings that slide on a rod or line. The most common use is for the inboard end of the mainsheet.; 2. A more esoteric form of traveller consists of "slight iron rings, encircling the backstays, which are used for hoisting the top-gallant yards, and confining them to the backstays".^[88]; An iron ring that moves on the main horse on a sailing barge. It is fitted with an eye onto which is hooked the main sheet, of the loose-footed mainsail.^[2]
trawler: 1. Commercial trawler: a fishing boat that uses a trawl net or dragnet to catch fish.; 2. A fisherman who uses a trawl net.; 3. Naval trawler: a converted trawler, or a boat built in that style, used for naval purposes.; 4. Recreational trawler: a pleasure boat built in the style of a trawler.
treenail: A wooden peg, pin, or dowel used to fasten pieces of wood together, such as the hull, gunwales, thwarts, etc.^[88]
triangular trade: A historical term for a pattern of trade among three ports or regions in which each port or region imports goods from one of the other two ports or regions in which there is no market for its exports, thus rectifying trade imbalances between the three ports or regions as well as allowing vessels to take the best advantage of prevailing winds and currents along the three trade routes. The best known example is the Atlantic triangular trade pattern of the late 16th through the early 19th centuries, in which vessels carried finished goods from northeastern North America or Europe to Africa, slaves from Africa to the Americas, and cash crops and raw materials from the Americas to either northeastern North America or Europe.
trice: To haul and tie up by means of a rope, to make it less inconvenient.^[94]
trick: A period of time spent at the wheel, e.g. "my trick's over".
trim: 1. The relationship of a ship's hull to the waterline.; 2. Adjustments made to sails to maximize their efficiency.
trimaran: A vessel with three hulls.
trimmer: A person responsible for ensuring that a vessel remains "in trim" (that the cargo and fuel are evenly balanced). An important task on a coal-fired vessel, as it could get "out of trim" as coal is consumed.
tripod mast: A type of mast introduced aboard warships in the first decade of the 20th century, consisting of three large cylindrical tubes or columns supporting a raised platform for lookouts and fire control equipment and later for radar antennas and receivers. In succeeding decades, tripod masts replaced the earlier pole masts and lattice masts. Tripod masts persisted in some navies until the 1960s, when plated-in structures began to replace them, and in other navies until the early 2000s, when stealth designs began to move away from any type of open mast.
troller: A fishing vessel rigged to fish by trolling.
trooping: Operating as a troopship.
troopship: Any ship used to carry soldiers. Troopships are not specially designed for military operations and, unlike landing ships, cannot land troops directly onto a shore; instead they unload troops at a harbor or onto smaller vessels for transportation to shore.
truck: 1. A circular disc or rectangle of wood or a wooden ball- or bun-shaped cap near or at the top of a wooden mast, usually with holes or sheaves in it through which signal halyards can be passed. Trucks are also used on wooden flagpoles to keep them from splitting. The main truck is located on the main mast, the mizzen truck on the mizzen mast, and so on.^[83]; 2. A temporary or emergency place for a lookout.
true bearing: An absolute bearing using true north.
true north: The direction of the geographical North Pole.
: A counter stern that has been truncated to provide a kind of transom. It may have windows, serving a large aft stateroom. Popular on larger cruising yachts.
truss: The rope or iron used to keep the center of a yard to the mast.
trysail: A small, strong, fore-and-aft sail set abaft (behind) the mainmast or other mast of a sailing vessel in heavy weather.^[83]
tugboat: A boat that manoeuvers other vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going.
tumblehome: A hull shape, when viewed in a transverse section, in which the widest part of the hull is someway below deck level.
turn: A knot passing behind or around an object.
Turn To (Turn Two): A term meaning "get to work", often hand-signed by two fingers and a hand motion in turning fashion.
turnbuckle: See bottlescrew.
turret: 1. Originally (in the mid-to-late 19th century), a rotating, enclosed, armored, cylindrical box with guns that fired through gunports. Turret-equipped ships contrasted sharply with those equipped with barbettes, which in the second half of the 19th century were open-topped armored rings over which rotating gun(s) mounted on a turntable could fire.; 2. Since the late 19th century, an enclosed, armored, rotating gunhouse mounted above a barbette, with the gun(s) and their rotating turntable mounted in the barbette protected by the gunhouse; in 20th- and 21st-century usage, this generally is any armored, rotating gun installation on a warship.
turtleback deck: 1. A deck that has slight positive curvature when viewed in cross-section. The purpose of this curvature is usually to shed water, but in warships it also functions to make the deck more resistant to shells.; 2. "deck, turtle nautical: A term applied to a weather deck that is rounded over from the shell of the ship so that it has a shape similar to the back of a turtle. Used on ships of the whaleback type and on the forward weather deck of torpedo boats."^[14]
turtling: In dinghy sailing especially (but also in other boats), a boat is said to be "turtling" or to "turn turtle" when the boat is fully inverted with the mast pointing down to the lake bottom or seabed.^[A]^[95]^[96]^[97]
tweendeck: A deck on a general cargo ship located between the main deck (or weather deck) and the hold space. A general cargo ship may have one or two tweendecks (or none at all).
tweendeck space: The space on a tweendeck available for carrying cargo or other uses.
tweendecker: A general cargo ship equipped with one or more tweendecks.
two six heave: A command used to co-ordinate a group of people pulling on a rope. Originally a sailing navy term referring to the two members of a gun crew (numbers two and six) who ran out the gun by pulling on the ropes that secured it in place.
two blocks: When the two blocks in a tackle have become so close that no further movement is possible as in chock-a-block.^[2]
tye: A chain or rope used for hoisting or lowering a yard. A tye runs from the horizontal center of a given yard to a corresponding mast and from there down to a tackle. Sometimes more specifically called a chain tye or a rope tye.^[83]

U[]

unassisted sailing: Any sailing voyage, usually single-handed, with no intermediate stops or physical assistance from external sources.
under the weather: Serving a watch on the weather side of the ship, exposed to wind and spray.
underway: (of a vessel) A vessel is underway when not at anchor, made fast to the shore, or aground. This definition has legal importance in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea.^[98]
underwater hull or underwater ship: The underwater section of a vessel beneath the waterline, normally not visible except when in drydock or, historically, when careened.
underway replenishment: A method employed by navies to transfer fuel, munitions, and stores from one ship to another while underway. Sometimes abbreviated as UNREP.
U.N.P.O.C.: An abbreviation for Unable to navigate, probably on course; a 19th-century term used in log books of vessels left without accurate navigational guidance due to poor visibility and/or proximity to the North Pole. Dropped out of common usage in the 1950s with improvements in maritime navigational aids.
unreeve: To pull a rope from a sheave or block.^[2]
unship: 1. To remove from a vessel.; 2. To remove an oar or mast from its normal position.
up-and-down: The description given to the position of the anchor chain, usually used when the anchor is being raised and indicates that the chain has been hauled in tightly so that the vessel is above the anchor, which is just about to be broken out of the ground. Used more rarely to refer to a situation where the anchor chain is slack and hangs vertically down from the hawsepipe.^[40]
up-behind: Slack off quickly and run slack to a belaying point. This order is given when a line or wire has been stopped off or falls have been four-in-hand and the hauling part is to be belayed.
upbound: 1. Traveling upstream, against the current.^[48]; 2. In the Great Lakes region, traveling westward (terminology used by the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation).^[49]
uppers: The brails above the mains; synonym of peaks.^[2]
upper-yardmen: Specially selected personnel.

V[]

V-hull: The shape of a boat or ship in which the contours of the hull come in a straight line to the keel.
vang: 1. A rope (line) leading from the gaff to either side of the deck, used to prevent the gaff from sagging.^[83]; 2. One of a pair of ropes leading from the deck to the head of a spritsail. It steadies the sprit and can be used to control the sail's performance during a tack. The vang fall blocks are mounted slightly afore the main horse while rolling vangs are extra preventers which lead forward to keep the sail to leeward in heavy weather.^[2]; 3. See boom vang.; 4. See gaff vang.
vanishing angle: The maximum degree of heel after which a vessel becomes unable to return to an upright position.
vedette: A small naval patrol boat used for scouting enemy forces.
veer away: To let go a rope gently.^[94]
very good: An affirmative response given by a senior to the report of a junior, e.g. if the helmsman reports, "Rudder is amidship, sir," an officer might respond, "Very good."^[40]
very well: An affirmative response given by a senior to the report of a junior, e.g. if the helmsman reports, "Rudder is amidship, sir," an officer might respond, "Very well."
vessel: Any craft designed for transportation on water, such as a ship or boat.
viol: A large rope used to unmoor or heave up the anchor.^[94]
voice pipe: See communication tube.
voyage: 1. A long journey by ship.; 2. To go on such a journey.
voyl: See viol.^[94]

W[]

waft: A signal flag on a vessel.
waist: The central deck of a ship between the forecastle and the quarterdeck.^[99]
waist clothes: Colored cloths or sheets hung around the outside of a ship's upper works, used as an adornment and as a visual screen during times of action
wake: Turbulence behind a vessel. Not to be confused with wash.
wale: A thicker plank (or group of planks) in the outer skin of the hull, running in a fore and aft direction, to provide extra stiffening in selected regions.^[22]
wardroom: 1. The living quarters of a naval ship designated for the use of commissioned officers other than the captain.; 2. A collective term for the commissioned officers of a naval ship excluding her captain; e.g., The captain rarely referred to his wardroom for advice, and this led to their discontent.
warp: 1. To move a vessel by hauling on a line or cable that is fastened to an anchor or pier; especially to move a sailing ship through a restricted place such as a harbour.^[100]; 2. A line or cable used in warping a ship.^[2]; 3. The length of the shrouds from the bolster to the deadeye^[100]
wash: The waves created by a vessel. Not to be confused with wake.
watch: A period of time during which a part of the crew is on duty. Changes of watch are marked by strokes on the ship's bell.
watchstanding: The allocation of crew or staff to a watch.
water bus: A watercraft used, usually in an urban environment, to provide transportation on a scheduled service with multiple stops, analogous to the way a bus operates on land. It differs from a water taxi (q.v.), which is a similar watercraft that provides transport service on demand to various locations, analogous to the way a taxicab operates on land, although in North America the terms water bus and water taxi are considered roughly synonymous. A water bus also differs from a ferry (q.v.), a term which usually refers to a watercraft that shuttles between two points.
water kite: See paravane (definition 2).
water taxi: A watercraft used, usually in an urban environment, to provide transportation on demand to various locations, analogous to the way a taxicab operates on land. It differs from a water bus (q.v.), which is a similar watercraft that provides transportation on a scheduled service with multiple stops, analogous to the way a bus operates on land, although in North America the terms water bus and water taxi are considered roughly synonymous. A water taxi also differs from a ferry (q.v.), a term which usually refers to a watercraft that shuttles between two points.
water kite: See paravane (definition 2).
watercraft: Water transport vessels. Ships, boats, personal water craft, etc.
waterline: The line where the hull of a ship meets the water's surface.
watersail: A sail hung below the boom on gaff rig boats for extra downwind performance when racing.^[83]
waterway: 1. Waterway, a navigable body of water.; 2. A strake of timber laid against the frames or bulwark stanchions at the margin of a laid wooden deck, usually about twice the thickness of the deck planking.
way: Speed, progress, or momentum, or more technically, the point at which there is sufficient water flow past a vessel's rudder for it to be able to steer the vessel (i.e., the rudder begins to "bite," sometimes also called "steerage way.") To make way is to move; to "have way on" or "to have steerage way" is to have enough speed to control the vessel with its rudder; to lose way is to slow down or to not have enough speed to control with the rudder. "Way enough" is a coxswain's command that the oarsmen stop rowing, and allow the boat to proceed with its existing way.
way-landing: An intermediate stop along the route of a steamboat.
way-lay: The verb's origin, from wegelage, means "lying in wait, with evil or hostile intent." So to be waylaid referred to a ship taken off its course, route, or way, by surprise, typically by unfortunate or nefarious means. In H. Melville's novel, 'Moby Dick', the great white whale waylaid the ship and sank it with only a few souls surviving in lifeboats.^[101]
waypoint: A location defined by navigational coordinates, especially as part of a planned route.
ways: The timbers of shipyard stocks that slope into the water and along which a ship or large boat is launched. A ship undergoing construction in a shipyard is said to be on the ways, while a ship scrapped there is said to be broken up in the ways.
wearing ship: Tacking away from the wind in a square-rigged vessel. See also gybe.
weather deck: Whichever deck is that exposed to the weather – usually either the main deck or, in larger vessels, the upper deck.
weather gage or weather gauge or weather-beam: Favorable position over another sailing vessel with respect to the wind.
weather helm: The tendency of a sailboat to turn to windward in a strong wind when there is no change in the rudder's position. This is the opposite of lee helm and is the result of a dynamically unbalanced condition. See also Center of lateral resistance.
weather ship: A ship stationed in the ocean as a platform for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting.
weather side: The side of a ship exposed to the wind.
weatherly: A ship that is easily sailed and maneuvered; makes little leeway when sailing to windward.
weigh anchor: To heave up (an anchor) preparatory to sailing.^[2]
well: Place in the ship's hold for pumps.
well-found: Properly set up or provisioned.
West Indiaman: A British term used in the 18th and 19th centuries for any merchant sailing ship making voyages between the Old World and the West Indies or east coast of the Americas. The term most frequently was applied to British, Danish, Dutch, and French ships.
wet: in reference to a ship, prone to taking water over her decks at sea. For example, a ship that tends to take water over her bow can be said to be "wet forward."
wetted area: In sailboating, portion of the hull immersed in water.
whaleback: 1. A type of cargo steamship of unusual design formerly used on the Great Lakes of North America, notably for carrying grain or ore. The hull continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal, and when the ship was fully loaded, only the rounded portion of her hull (the "whaleback" proper) was visible above the waterline. With sides curved in towards the ends, whalebacks had a spoon bow and a very convex upper deck.; 2. A type of high-speed launch first designed for the Royal Air Force during World War II, or certain smaller rescue and research vessels most common in Europe that, like the Great Lakes vessels, have hulls that curve over to meet the deck, although the "whaleback" designation comes not from the curve along the gunwale as in the Great Lakes vessels, but from the fore-and-aft arch in the deck.; 3. A sheltered portion of the forward deck on certain British fishing boats designed, in part, so that water taken over the bow is more easily shed over the sides. The feature has been incorporated into some pleasure craft – aboard which it is known as a whaleback deck – based on the hull design of older whaling boats.
whaleboat: 1. A type of open boat that is relatively narrow and pointed at both ends, enabling it to move either forwards or backwards equally well.; 2. On modern warships, a relatively light and seaworthy boat for transport of ship's crew.; 3. A type of vessel designed as a lifeboat or "monomoy" used for recreational and competitive rowing in the San Francisco Bay area and coastal Massachusetts.; 4. Informally, any whaler of any size.; 5. Informally, any vessel engaged in whale watching.
whaler: 1. A specialized vessel designed for catching or processing whales.; 2. A person engaged in the catching or processing of whales.; 3. In the Royal Navy, a Montagu whaler, a ship's boat often used as a seaboat.
wharf: A structure on the shore of a harbor or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more berths (i.e., mooring locations), and may also include piers, warehouses, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships. The term "wharf' is generally synonymous with "quay" (q.v.), although the solid foundations of a quay contrast with the closely spaced piles of a wharf. When "quay" and "wharf" are used as synonyms, the term "quay" is more common in everyday speech in the United Kingdom, many Commonwealth countries, and the Republic of Ireland, while "wharf" is more commonly used in the United States.
wharfage: 1. A collective term for docks, piers, quays, and wharfs.; 2. A collective term for all wharfs in a given port, area, country, region, etc.; 3. A fee charged for the use of a wharf.
wheel or ship's wheel: The usual steering device on larger vessels: a wheel with a horizontal axis, connected by cables to the rudder.
wheelhouse: Location on a ship where the wheel is located; also called pilothouse or bridge.
whelkie: A small sailing pram.
wherry: A type of boat traditionally used for carrying cargo or passengers on rivers and canals in England, particularly on the River Thames and the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads.
whiff: A chiefly British term for a narrow clinker-built skiff having outriggers, for one oarsman.
whip: A small single block tackle, used to raise light loads from a hold^[100]
whip upon whip: Connecting two whips together. This runs more smoothly than using a double block with single block tackle, which would have the equivalent purchase. Can be used for topsail and top-gallant halliards.^[100]
whipping: The binding with twine of the loose end of a rope to prevent it unravelling.^[2]
whipstaff: A vertical lever connected to a tiller, used for steering on larger ships before the development of the ship's wheel.
whiskers: Spreaders from the bows to spread the bowsprit shrouds.
whiskerstay: One of the pair of stays that stabilize the bowsprit horizontally affixed to forward end of the bowsprit and just aft the stem.
white horses or whitecaps: Foam or spray on wave tops caused by stronger winds (usually above Force 4).
White Ensign: A British flag flown as an ensign by certain British ships. Prior to 1864, ships of the Royal Navy′s White Squadron flew it; since the reorganisation of the Royal Navy in 1864, it has been flown by all Royal Navy ships and shore establishments, yachts of members of the Royal Yacht Squadron, and ships of Trinity House escorting the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom.
wide berth: To leave room between two ships moored (berthed) to allow space for manoeuvre.
winch: A mechanical device for pulling on a rope (such as a sheet or halyard), usually equipped with a pawl to assist in control. It may be hand operated or powered.
wind-over-tide: Sea conditions with a tidal current and a wind in opposite directions, leading to short, heavy seas.
windage: Wind resistance of the boat.
windbound: A condition wherein the ship is detained in one particular station by contrary winds.
winding tackle: A tackle formed of two triple blocks or a triple and a double, used to raise heavy loads such as guns and anchors^[100]
windjammer: A large iron- or steel-hulled square-rigged sailing ship of the late 19th and early 20th centuries with three, four, or five masts, built mainly between the 1870s and 1900 to carry cargo on long voyages.
windlass: A winch mechanism, usually with a horizontal axis. Used where mechanical advantage greater than that obtainable by block and tackle was needed (such as raising the anchor on small ships).^[100]
windsail: A wide tube or funnel of canvas, used to convey a stream of air into the lower compartments of a ship for ventilation.
windward: In the direction that the wind is coming from.
wing: An extension on the side of a vessel. A bridge wing is an extension of the bridge to both sides, intended to allow bridge personnel a full view to aid in the manoeuvring of the ship.
wiper: The most junior rate among personnel who work in the engine room of a ship, responsible for cleaning the engine spaces and machinery and assisting the engineers as directed. A wiper is considered to be serving an apprenticeship to become an oiler (q.v.).
working up: Training, usually including gunnery practice.
worm, parcel and serve: To protect a section of rope from chafing by: laying yarns (worming) to fill in the {cuntlines, wrapping marline or other small stuff (serving) around it, and stitching a covering of canvas (parceling) over all.^[102]
wrecking tug: Alternative term for a salvage tug (q.v.).

X[]

Xebec, also zebec, xebeck, xebeque, xebecque, zebeck, zebecque, chebec, or shebeck: 1. A Mediterranean sailing ship, usually employed for trading, propelled by a combination of lateen sails and oars and characterized by a distinctive hull with a pronounced overhanging bow and stern; early xebecs had two masts and later ones had three.; 2. A small, fast warship of the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries of a similar design to a trading xebec, used almost exclusively in the Mediterranean Sea. A xebec was slightly smaller than a contemporary frigate (q.v.) and mounted slightly fewer guns.
Xebec-frigate: A European warship that appeared late in the history of the xebec (q.v.). It was fully square-rigged (q.v.) but otherwise designed like a xebec.

Y[]

yacht: A recreational boat or ship; the term includes sailing yachts, motor yachts, and steam yachts.
yard: 1. Yard: The horizontal spar from which a square sail is suspended.^[102]; 2. The spar on which a lugsail or gunter sail is set.^[103]; 3. A dockyard or shipyard.
yard number: Each shipyard typically numbers the ships that it has built in consecutive order. One use is to identify the ship before a name has been chosen.
yard tackle: Tackle to raise boats^[102]
yardarm: The very end of a yard. Often mistaken for a yard, which refers to the entire spar. As in to hang "from the yardarm" and the sun being "over the yardarm" (late enough to have a drink).^[83]
yar: Of a vessel, especially of a sailing vessel: Quick, agile, and easy to steer, hand (q.v.), and reef (q.v.).
yarr: Acknowledgement of an order, or agreement. Also aye, aye.
yaw: A vessel's rotational motion about the vertical axis, causing the fore and aft ends to swing from side to side repetitively.
yawl: 1. A fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel with two masts, main and mizzen, the mizzen stepped abaft the rudder post.; 2. An un-decked boat, often beach-launched, worked under both oar and sail. Generally clinker built. Used for fishing, serving ships in anchorages, salvage work, etc. Those from the northern parts of Britain tended to be double ended.^[104]
yawl boat: A rowboat on davits at the stern of the boat.

Z[]

zebec: An alternative spelling of xebec (q.v.).
zulu: A type of Scottish sailboat introduced in 1879, used for fishing. A zulu is carvel-built (q.v.), with the vertical stem of a fifie (q.v.) and the steeply raked stern of a skaffie (q.v.); two masts rigged with three sails (fore, mizzen, and jib); and a longer deck and shorter keel than previous Scottish fishing boats, allowing greater maneuverability. The term "zulu" came from the Zulu War, which the United Kingdom fought in 1879 at the time the zulu was introduced.

Notes[]

^ However, "to turn turtle" means putting a turtle on its back by grabbing it by the flipper, and conversely is used to refer to a vessel that has turned upside-down, or has cast off its crew.

References[]

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^ http://www.dictionary.com/browse/cut-of-one-s-jib
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^ Karamanski, Theodore J., Schooner Passage: Sailing Ships and the Lake Michigan Frontier, Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8143-2911-X, pp. 46, 47 Accessed July 8, 2021
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^ Carr 1951, p. 59.
^ "Encyclopedia – 4.2 -Genoas and Other Jibs". Uksailmakers. UK Sailmakers International. Retrieved 2018-08-11.
^ March 1972, p. passim.
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^ Manual of Seamanship. 1. London: HMSO. 1937.
^ Harland 1984, pp. 260–261, 276.
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^ Underhill 1955, p. 112.
^ Cunliffe 2016, p. 125.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Biddlecombe 1990, p. 24.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Biddlecombe 1990, p. 25.
^ Biddlecombe 1990, p. 26.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Underhill 1955, p. 115.
^ Underhill 1955, p. 114.
^ Biddlecombe 1990, p. 34.
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^ Carr 1951, p. 37.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Biddlecombe 1990, p. 35.
^ Keegan, John (1989). The Price of Admiralty. New York: Viking. p. 281. ISBN 0-670-81416-4.
^ Cunliffe 2016, p. 26.
^ MacGregor, David R (1997). The Schooner, Its Design and Development from 1600 to the Present. London: Chatham Publishing. p. 48. ISBN 1-86176-020-5.
^ Greenhill, Basil (1951). The Merchant Schooners (1988 ed.). London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-475-X.
^ Friedman, Norman (1985). U.S. Battleships: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. p. 173. ISBN 0-87021-715-1.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d Biddlecombe 1990, p. 36.
^ Smyth, W. H.; Belcher, E. (1867). The sailor's word-book: An alphabetical digest of nautical terms, including some more especially military and scientific... as well as archaisms of early voyagers, etc. London: Blackie and Son. pp. 702–703.
^ "turtle, turn turtle (of a boat) to turn over completely while sailing". Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
^ "Definition of turtle in English "turn turtle" (chiefly of a boat) turn upside down: ". Oxford Dictionaries. Oxford University Press. 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-03.
^ "International Regulations for the Prevention of Collision at Sea" (PDF).
^ "waist definition". Dictionary.com. Retrieved 2008-12-11.
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Biddlecombe 1990, p. 37.
^ Moby Dick, Melville H
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c Biddlecombe 1990, p. 38.
^ Leather, John (1979). Spritsails and Lugsails (1989 ed.). Camden, Maine: International Marine Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87742-998-7.
^ McKee, Eric (1983). Working Boats of Britain: Their Shape and Purpose (1997 ed.). London: Conway Maritime Press. p. 74. ISBN 0-85177-277-3.

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Mayne, Richard (2000). The Language of Sailing. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-57958-278-4.
Palmer, Joseph (1975). Jane's Dictionary of Naval Terms. London: Macdonald and Janes. ISBN 0-356-08258-X.
Steffy, J. Richard (2013) [1994]. "Illustrated Glossary of Ship and Boat Terms". In Catsambis, Alexis (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Maritime Archaeology (Oxford Handbooks). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537517-6.
Underhill, Harold (1946). Masting and Rigging, the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier (1958 reprint ed.). Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson.
Underhill, Harold (1952). Deep-water sail. Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson, Nautical publishers.
Underhill, Harold (1955). Sailing Ships Rigs and Rigging (2nd ed.). Glasgow: Brown, Son & Ferguson, Nautical publishers.

show v Passage planning
General References	American Practical Navigator
Nautical charts	Chart correction
Lights and Buoys	List of lights Light List
Geographic Information	Coast Pilots Sailing Directions Distances Between Ports
Celestial Navigation	Nautical almanac
Tidal Information	Tide Tables
Radio Information	Radio Navigational Aids
Periodicals	Notice to Mariners Local Notice to Mariners
See also	Glossary of nautical terms, Further reading

show v t Works about sailing
Books	Bowditch's American Practical Navigator Chapman Piloting Coast Pilots The Cruise of the Snark The Last Grain Race Light List Local Notice to Mariners Nautical almanac Notice to Mariners Radio Navigational Aids Sailing Alone Around the World Sailing Directions Sea Survival: A Manual Swallows and Amazons series Two Years Before the Mast
Magazines	Australian Sailing Blue Water Sailing Boating Life Classic Boat Lakeland Boating WoodenBoat Yachting
See also	Glossary of nautical terms, Further reading

Glossary of nautical terms

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