SOME NAUTICAL TERMS AND THEIR MEANINGS
Aback. A sail is said to be aback when its forward side is acted upon by the wind.
Abaft. A position toward the stern from any stated point.
Abeam. At right angles to the line of the keel.
About. To go from one tack to the other.
Adrift. Broken loose or uncontrolled.
Aft. Towards the stern.
A-lee. To the side of the craft opposite the wind. To the leeward side.
All in the wind. When the sails have the wind edge-on and shake.
Amidships. In the middle. In line with the keel.
Athwartships. Across the boat. At right angles to the keel.
Avast. An order to stop or discontinue anything.
A-weather. The side towards the wind; to the windward side.
Backstays. Stays or shrouds leading aft to support a mast or topmast.
Bear up. To turn from the wind.
Belay. To secure a rope about a cleat or pin.
Bend. To make fast. A kind of knot.
Berth. An anchorage or mooring. A slip or place where a boat rests at a dock. A sleeping place.
Bight. A curve, noose or slack portion of rope.
Bitts. Upright pieces of timber or metal to which ropes or cables are fastened.
Blocks. Contrivances with sheaves or rollers through which ropes are passed to make them move readily.
Block and block. When two blocks of a tackle are brought as close together as possible.
Block and tackle. Blocks with the ropes rove through them.
Board. The distance made on a tack.
Bobstay. A stay from the cutwater to the bowsprit-end.
Bolt rope. The rope sewn around the edges of sails.
Boom. A spar at the bottom or foot of a sail. A spar extended from a vessel’s side to which small boats are fastened. A raft of logs in a river fastened together to hold other logs in place.
Bowline. A line used on square sails to extend the forward edge of the sail when running close to the wind. To Sail on a Bowline is to sail close to the wind.
Bowse. To haul upon.
Bowsprit. A spar extending forward from the bow.
Brails. Ropes for drawing up a sail to the mast in order to furl it.
Bring to. To come to an anchor or mooring.
Bull’s eye. A piece of wood with a hole in the center through which a rope may be passed.
By the head. To be deeper in the water at the bow than at the stern.
By the wind. As near the wind as the boat will sail without the sails shaking; also called Full and By.
Cable. A line or chain by which a vessel is anchored or moored. A left-handed-laid rope.
Capsize. To upset. To loosen a knot.
Carry away. To break or tear loose.
Cast off. To untie; to free.
Casting. To pay a vessel off on the desired tack.
Cat’s paw. A light puff or current of wind seen on the surface of the water. A kind of knot or bend.
Chock a block. See Block and Block. Also used to denote fully laden.
Cleat. A metal or wooden object to which ropes are fastened.
Clew. The after corner of a fore-and-aft sail. The two lower corners of a square sail.
Close hauled. Sailing as nearly as possible into the wind.
Cockpit. The open after part of a boat.
Course. The direction in which a boat is to proceed. The lower sails on square-rigged vessels.
Crank or cranky. Not stable. Unable to carry sail well. To tip easily. Unsteady.
Cringle. A thimble or eye worked in a sail and through which a rope may be passed.
Crotch. A support of crossed pieces of wood, or metal, in which the boom rests when the sail is furled.
Cutwater. The extreme forward edge of the bow.
Davits. Curved iron or wooden objects to which boats are hoisted.
Downhaul. Rope used to haul down sails.
Dowse. To lower rapidly. Also to extinguish.
Draught or draft. The amount of water in which a boat is immersed when afloat.
Earrings. Lines passed through cringles.
Ease off. To slacken.
Ensign. The national flag of any country.
Entrance. The lower part of a vessel’s stem.
Fag end. The end that is frayed.
Fall off. To move away from the wind.
Fathom. Six feet.
Fid. A sharp, tapered tool used in splicing rope.
Fill away. To have the wind fill the after surfaces of the sails and the vessel proceed on her course.
Fore reach. To pass to windward of another vessel when close hauled.
Foul. Anything entangled. To come into contact.
Furl. To stow a sail.
Gaff. The spar that supports the top of a fore-and-aft sail. A pole with a sharp hook on the end.
Gangway. The place where people come aboard. An opening in a vessel’s side. Room to pass.
Garboard strakes. The planks next to the keel on a boat’s bottom.
Gasket. A lashing of rope or a strip of canvas used to secure sails, etc.
Go about. To tack. To alter the course so the sail fills on the other side.
Grapnel. A four-pronged anchor.
Griping. Carrying a hard weather helm.
Grommet. A ring of rope. A metal ring used in place of an eyelet in a sail.
Ground tackle. The anchor, cable and fittings.
Halyards or Halliards. Ropes used to hoist sails.
Handsomely. Carefully, smartly.
Handy billy. A small tackle used in hauling on a rope.
Hanks. Metal rings for attaching sails to stays so they will slide easily.
Heave to. To stop a vessel’s movement by so arranging sails that she will lie head to the wind and almost stationary.
Heeling. Tipping to one side.
Hitch. A kind of knot.
In irons. When headway is lost and the boat will not answer her helm.
Jammed. Any rope or other object caught so it will not move or cannot be readily freed.
Jib. A triangular sail set between the mast and bowsprit.
Jibe or Gybe. To let the mainsail swing from one side to the other when running free.
Jury mast. A temporary mast to replace a mast which has been carried away.
Jury rig. Sails set on jury masts.
Kedge. A small anchor.
Leech. The after edge of a fore-and-aft sail. The ends of a square sail.
Lee helm. When a tiller or helm must be held to leeward to prevent the boat from falling off the wind.
Leeward. The direction toward which the wind is blowing. Away from the wind.
Leg. The distance sailed on a tack in one direction.
Log. An instrument used to measure a boat’s speed or the distance travelled. A record of the ship’s travel and what has been done each day. A book in which the log is kept.
Long leg. The longest course sailed when tacking.
Luff. To bring the boat’s head to the wind. The forward edge of a fore-and-aft sail.
Lying to. Heading close into the wind under reduced sail so as to remain practically stationary.
Missing stays. Failure to come about when tacking.
Moor. To secure by anchors or cables.
Moorings. A spot where a vessel is kept when at anchor.
Mouse. To secure by means of spun yarn or line to prevent its becoming detached. A seizing about a hook.
Off and on. Approaching on one tack and bearing off on the other especially when approaching or near land.
Offing. Out to sea. Sea room.
Overhaul. To slack up a rope and haul it through blocks. To straighten out a line and arrange it. To examine and make right. To overtake.
Painter. The line by which a boat is made fast and which is attached to the bow.
Part. To break or pull apart.
Pay. To coat with pitch or tar. To let out rope or cable.
Pay off. To recede from the wind. To bring a boat’s head around to catch the wind.
Pendant. A short piece of rope.
Pennant. A narrow flag or streamer.
Pooped. To be struck by a sea which comes over the stern.
Port. Left hand. Also sometimes called Larboard.
Preventer sheet. A sheet used to relieve unusual strain.
Preventer stay. A temporary or movable stay set up to relieve a strain on the rigging under certain conditions.
Quarter. Part between beam and stern.
Rake. The lean or cant of a mast or other object from the perpendicular.
Reaching. Sailing with wind abeam.
Reef. To reduce the area of a sail. A line or group of sunken rocks.
Reeve. To run a rope through anything.
Rooting. Burying by the head.
Run. The submerged after-part of the hull.
Scud. To run before a wind. A kind of cloud.
Seize. To make fast or bind.
Selvage. A strap made of yarns loosely bound together.
Sheave. The wheel within a block or any wheel over which a rope runs.
Sheer. To vary from a direct course. The curve from bow to stern horizontally.
Sheet. A rope attached to a sail and by which the sail is held and worked. On a square sail, ropes which spread the sails.
Snorter or snotter. A rope strap into which the heel of a sprit is slipped.
Soldier’s wind. A beam wind.
Spill. To throw the wind out of a sail.
Splice. A method of joining two objects together so the joint is no larger than the rest of the object.
Spring. To crack or bend a spar. A rope made fast to a cable, to some spot ashore, to a buoy or mooring, or to another vessel and then led aft in order to swing a vessel’s stern in any desired direction. To start a plank. To start a leak.
Sprit. A light spar used to extend a sail.
Squatting. Settling down by the stern.
Starboard. The right-hand side.
Stay. A rope or wire used as a support to a spar.
Sternboard. To move backward stern first.
Tack. To proceed against the wind by zigzags. The forward corner of a fore-and-aft sail.
Tackle. Any arrangement of ropes and blocks.
Taut. Tight.
Truck. The top of a mast.
Unbend. To cast off; to unfasten.
Veer. To turn. To pay out cable.
Wake. The track left by a vessel in the water.
Watch. A division of the crew. The length of time a man is on duty.
Wear. To turn a boat’s head into the wind and then around until she has the wind on the opposite side.
Weather helm. When a tiller or helm must be kept to windward to prevent a boat from flying into the wind.
Weathering. Surviving anything, such as a gale or storm. Getting to windward of anything.
Weigh. To hoist or lift, especially to lift the anchor.
Wind’s eye. The exact direction from which the wind blows.
Yaw. To swerve wildly or violently from a true course despite the action of the rudder.
Transcriber’s note:
All figure references in the text have been regularized.
Table of Contents, ‘Latteen’ changed to ‘Lateen,’ “sails. Lateen, lug, gunter”
Page 29, full stop changed to comma after ‘say,’ “he will say, “Starboard”
Page 44, semicolon inserted after ‘topmast,’ “the topmast; it may also”
Page 46, ‘leg-o’mutton’ changed to ‘leg-o’-mutton,’ “is a leg-o’-mutton sail”
Page 48, closing parenthesis added after ‘lines),’ “course in dotted lines))”
Page 52, ‘Waterline’ changed to ‘Water line,’ “11—Water line. 12—Starboard quarter.”
Page 53, ‘it’ changed to ‘is,’ “have to do is to learn”
Page 70, ‘Sailing’ diagrams 12, depicting approaches to moorings, and 13, depicting approaches to and departures from docks, are absent from original caption.
Page 92, ‘water-line’ changed to ‘water line,’ “especially below the water line”
Page 112, ‘show’ changed to ‘shown,’ “as shown in the illustration”
Page 118, ‘whch’ changed to ‘which,’ “the strands which form the”
Page 133, comma struck after ‘small,’ “is some small reef”
Page 147, full stop inserted after ‘blowing,’ “which it is blowing. All these”
Page 152, second ‘and’ struck, “underrunning her and leaving”
Page 167, ‘diamter’ changed to ‘diameter,’ “from 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter”
Page 169, ‘certerboard’ changed to ‘centerboard,’ “and the centerboard should be”