Boat-Building and Boating

by Daniel Carter Beard

For'ard is toward the bow of the boat.

Aft is toward the stern of the boat. Both terms are used by sailors as forward and backward are used by landsmen.

The hull is the boat itself without masts, spars, or rigging. A skiff and a birch-bark canoe are hulls.

The keel is the piece of timber running along the centre of the bottom of the hull, like the runner of a skate, and used to give the boat a hold on the water, so that she will not slide sideways.

When you are sitting in the stern of a boat, facing the bow, the side next to your right hand is the right-hand side of the boat, and the side next to your left hand is the left-hand side of the boat. But these terms are not used by seamen; they always say

Starboard for the right-hand side of the boat, and

Port for the left-hand side of the boat. Formerly the left-hand side was called the larboard, but this occasioned many serious mistakes on account of the similarity of the sound of larboard and starboard when used in giving orders.

Fig. 122.—Top view of small boat.