Term

Description

Advantage
(rove to)

A method of reeving* a tackle* in order to gain the maximum increase in power.

Becket

Short lengths of cordage attached in bights at intervals along the jackstay to allow a man working on the yard to pass his arm through for extra security.

Belay (to)

The operation of making fast a rope by taking turns with it around a cleat or belaying pin.

Belaying Pins

Short lengths of wood, iron or brass set up in racks, in convenient places in the ship, around which the running rigging can be secured or belayed.

Bitts

A frame composed of 2 strong pillars of straight, hard, timber, fixed upright in the fore part of the ship called the pins and a cross-piece fastened horizontally on the top of them, to which were secured the cables* when the ship rode to anchor.

Block

A wooden or metal case in which one or more sheaves* are fitted.

Bobstay

Holds the bowsprit* down.

Bowsprit

Large spar projecting over stem of vessel to stay the fore topmast and from which jibs are set.

Brace

Wires or ropes* rove* to the ends of all yards* by which the yards are braced or swung to make the most of a wind.

Brace pendant

A strop or short length of rope or wire with a thimble* spliced into the end, fixed to each side of the main and fore masts just below the shrouds* to which the main and fore tackles* are hooked.

Bull Rope

A rope used to hoist a topmast* or t'gallant* mast.

Bullseyes

A circular piece of lignum vitae* hollowed in the centre to take a rope and grooved round the outside to accommodate a strop which enables it to be fixed in its required position.

Bumpkin (or Bumkin)

Originally a boom or spar extending both sides of the bows used to haul, by tackle, the clew* of the foresail to windward.

Cable 1/10 of a nautical mile

A large diameter (originally) hemp or wire rope normally associated with the anchor* of a ship.

Cable laid rope

A very thick and strong rope* made by twisting together three ordinary ropes which have themselves been made by laying up three strands.

Cable-Holders

The 2 capstan*-like fittings mounted on the focs'le deck by which the 2 bower anchors* are weighed or veered*.

Cap

The wooden block* or iron on top of the mast through which the mast above is drawn when being raised (stepped) or lowered.

Catharpings

Short ropes under the tops at the lower end of the futtock* shrouds used to brace in the shrouds more tightly and thus give space to brace the yards* at a sharper angle to the fore and aft line when a ship sails close-hauled.

Chain Plate

Strips of iron with their lower ends bolted to the ships side under the channels*.

Cheeks

Pieces of timber bolted to the mast, below the masthead to support the trestle trees*.

Chesstrees

Two pieces of oak secured to the topsides* of a square rigged sailing ship at the point where the curve of the bow began to straighten out for the run aft, one on each side of the ship.

Crane Lines

Small ropes which were set up to keep the lee backstays* from chafing against the yards* when running with a quartering wind.

Deadeye

A circular block, usually of lignum vitae*, grooved around the edge and pierced with three holes, used in pairs to secure, via a lanyard*, the shrouds to the chainplates*.

Dolphin Striker

A short, perpendicular, spar under the bowsprit* cap used for holding down the jibboom* by means of martingale* stays.

Eyebolt

Metal bolts with an eye in the end secured in various convenient places on board ship to which the blocks* of purchase* can be hooked or other lines secured.

Fall

The handling end of a tackle* , the end of the rope, rove through tackle blocks on which the pull is exerted to achieve power.

Fid

The square bar of wood or iron with a wider shoulder at one end which takes the weight of a topmast when stepped on a lower mast.

Fiddle Block

See Sister Block*.

Fife Rail

The rail (usually circular or semicircular) around the base of the mast which holds the belaying pins to which the halyards* of the sails are secured.

Futtock Band

See Spider Band or a band about the mast where the Futtock shrouds terminate.

Futtock Plates Futtock Chain Plates

Fixed to the underside of the "top" .

Futtock Shrouds

Futtock - believed to be a sailor's contraction of "Foothook"
Short shrouds, originally chain or large hemp, but later metal rods which give support to the top* on a lower mast.

Gaff

A spar to which the head of a 4-sided, fore-&-aft sail is laced and hoisted on the after side of a mast.

Halyard

Ropes, wires or tackles used to hoist or lower sails to their yards excluding the heavy courses* which are hoisted by their jeers*.

Harpings

See Catharpings*.

Hawser

A heavy rope* or small cable* with a circumference of 5" or more.

Hawser Laid Rope

"Normal" laid rope in which three strands are laid up against the twist to form rope.

Heart (see also deadeye*)

A particular type of deadeye
A form of deadeye* which was used for setting up the stays* of a square rigged ship in the same way that deadeyes were used for setting up the shrouds*.

Horse

The footrope* of a yard* on which seamen stand when working aloft.

Jackstay

An iron stay, carried on short iron stanchions, fitted along the top of the yard, to which square sails are tied or "bent" with what are known as rovings or robands*.

Jeers

Heavy tackle with double or treble blocks for hoisting the lower yards (swaying up the yards).

Jigger

A light tackle consisting of a double and single block and multiplying the power by 4 when rove to advantage* - used for many purposes on the ship.

Jumper

A chain or wire stay which leads down from the outer end of the jibboom* to the dolphin striker*.

Keelson

An internal keel in the form of a stringer bolted onto the keel to provide additional strength and to support the floors.

Lanyard

A short length of rope set up to tauten the shrouds by being rove through the deadeyes.

Lay of Rope

The twist given to the strands of a rope.

Lift

The wire ropes or chains which are led from the various mastheads to the two ends of the corresponding yards to support them.

Lizard

A short length of rope with a thimble* spliced into the end, used for various purposes; in square rigged ships as a fairlead for the buntlines* for example.

Martingales (Martingale Stays)

Chains or ropes from the bow of the vessel to the bottom of the dolphin striker* to the end of the jibboom* to hold the jibboom down against the pull exerted by the fore topgallant mast stays.

Mast

A vertical spar set in a ship to carry the sails.

Nave Line or Navel Line

A rope or small tackle, in square rigged ships, leading from the main & fore mast heads and secured to the parrels* or trusses* of the yards*.

Parcelling

The operation of winding strips of tarred canvas round a rope after it has been wormed* and before it is served* (or marled).

Parrel

An iron collar around the mast by which yards are fixed to the mast.

Peak

The upper after corner of a 4-sided, fore and aft sail extended by a gaff.

Peak halyard

The halyard attached to the upper, aft, corner of a four sided fore and aft sail extended by a gaff.

Pendant

A strop* or short length of wire with a thimble* spliced into the end, fixed on each side of the main and foremasts of a square rigged ship just below the shrouds and to which the main and fore tackles are hooked.

Ratlines

A series of rope steps up the shrouds 15 - 16 inches apart.

Reef Tackle

A tackle which is hooked into the reef-cringles* of a square rig sail to hoist it up to the yard* for reefing.

Reeve (to)

The operation of passing the end of a rope through the throat and thus onto the sheave* of a block when forming a tackle* or through an eye*, thimble*, or cringle*.

Rope

Yarns are spun from fibres.

Running Rigging

All rigging used in hoisting, lowering or trimming the sails or hoisting or striking the yards* in a square rigged ship.

Sail Burton

The purchase which extends from the heads of the topmasts to the deck, used for hoisting sails aloft when it is required to bend them to the yards.

Seizing

The operation of binding with cord or rope (generally known as small stuff) one rope to another or the end of a rope to itself to form an eye.

Serving

The operation of winding spun yarn with a mallet or serving board to obtain maximum tension close round a rope which has been wormed* and parcelled*, with the turns made against the lay of the rope.

Shackle

A U-shaped iron closed with a threaded pin across the jaws and used for securing such things as halyards* to sails etc.

Sheave

The revolving wheel in a block*.

Sheer pole

A horizontal steel rod at the base of the mast supporting shrouds.

Sheets

A purchase used for trimming a sail to the wind.

Shiver, Shiv

See Sheave*.

Shrouds

The standing rigging which gives a mast its lateral support in the same way as stays give it fore and aft support.

Sister Block

A block with 2 sheaves in a single plane, one above the other.

Sling

The rope or chain which helps support a yard and fitted alongside the mast - see "Lift".

Snatch Block

A block* with a single sheave* which has a hinged opening above the sheave to allow the bight of a rope to be dropped in thus saving the necessity of reeving the whole length of the rope through the block.

Spar

A general term for any wooden support used in the rigging of a ship.

Spider Band

Also to hold belaying pins.

Swallow the anchor

A maritime term to indicate giving up, or retiring from, a life at sea and setting down to life ashore

Sweat

The means of getting the last bit of hoist, particularly in relation to halyards, in order to get rid of any sign of slackness in the setting of a sail when it is hoisted by hand. A halyard is sweated up by taking a single turn round a cleat, hauling the standing part out from the mast horizontally while keeping tension on the end to prevent it slipping on the cleat. This raises the sail fractionally. The slack is then taken up round the cleat as the halyard is released so that the extra hoist gained is not lost..

Tabling

The name given to an extra strip of canvas sewn around the edges of sails to reinforce them where the boltrope is sewn on.

Tack

The name given to the lower forward corner of a fore-and-aft sail.

Tackle

A purchase in which two or more blocks are used in order to multiply the power exerted on a rope. The gain in power is equivalent to the number of parts which enter and leave the moving block of the tackle, depending on whether the tackle is rigged to advantage or disadvantage. Tackles are employed for most lifting or moving jobs in a vessel, from trimming the sails in a sailing vessel to shifting cargo in a mechanical ship. They are of many varieties, depending partly on their particular purpose, e.g. a luff tackle, and partly on the number and nature of the blocks used.

Tackline

A six-foot length of signal line with signal clips at each end. It is used, mainly in naval vessels, for inserting in a flag signal hoist to indicate a break in the signal, and that the flags below it form a new signal. All flags used in signals at sea have a clip at each end of the hoist, so that they can be clipped quickly to each other to form a particular signal; the clips on the tack lane are of the same pattern and can be slipped equally quickly to signal flags when it is required to insert a break in the hoist.

Thole pin

A wooden pin fixed in the gunwale of the boat to which, by means of a grommet, an oar is held when rowing. A more usual method is to use two thole pins close together, with the oar between them when rowing. They form a substitute for a crutch or a rowlock.

Thwart

The transverse wooden seat in a rowing boat on which the oarsman sits. Thwarts are normally supported by grown wooden knees fitted to the ribs of the two sides. In the larger ships’ boats, such as launches, cutters, etc., they are additionally supported by hanging knees, fixed to the ribs above the level of the thwarts so that the thwarts is held securely between a knee above it and one below it.

Topmast

In sailing vessels that mast next above the lower mast, the second division of a complete mast. Many of the larger warships in the steam era used to carry a topmast, but in general in practice today in most steam vessels is to step only a leer mast, although in the larger naval ships a fitted topmast as it cannot normally be housed or struck, and is thus a permanent fitting.

Topgallant mast

The mast in a square-rigged ship stepped next above the topmast to form the third division of a complete mast, the uppermost of the three until the days when yet more sails, known as kites, were piled upon the masts, when an additional temporary mast was rigged above the topgallant mast. The name is believed to be derived from the garland round the original ale masts used as an additional support for the yards. That part of the mast above the circular top was naturally named topmast, and when the third yard was added, the part of the mast above the garland was named top-garland, which in time became topgallant. Topgallant masts were always pole masts, in distinction to the made-up lower masts.

Trail board

A carved board fitted one on each side of the stem of a square-rigged ship, which helped to support the figurehead. In the older ships there were always richly carved and often gilded; later the carving became more simple and austere.

Transom

The athwart ship timbers bolted to the sternpost of a ship to give her a flat stern. In the older square-rigged ships, particularly warships, they were usually rather heavier than other timbers in order to support the overhang of the stern and quarter galleries. In modern vessels there is no overhang with a transom stern, and in consequence no need for the stern timbers to be heavier that any others.

Treenails

Pronounced trennels, long cylindrical pins of oak which were used to secure the planks of a wooden ship’s sides and bottom to her timbers. Holes were bored with an auger through the planks and into the timbers, and the treenail driven home with a mallet. After the ends were cut flush with the planking and frame face, hard wood wedges were driven in at each ed, the wedges lying at right angles to the run of the grain of planking and frame to prevent them splitting. They were of a diameter of one inch for every 10 feet of a ship’s length; thus a shi with an overall length of 150 feet would use treenails 1, 5 inches in diameter. The treenails are justly esteemed superior to spike-nails or bolts, which are liable to rust and loosen as well as to rot the timber; but it is necessary that the oak of which they are formed should be solid, close, and replete with gum, to prevent them from braking and rotting in the ship’s frame. They ought also to be well dried so as to fill their holes when they are swelled with moisture.

Truck (1)

A circular wooden cap fitted to the top of a vessel’s mast and often furnished with one or two small sheaves through which re rove signal halyards for the hoisting of distinguishing flags, battle ensigns, commissioning pendants, etc.

Truck (2)

Spherical pieces of wood with a hole drilled trough the centre through which is rove the rope of the parrel in the days when parrels were used in square-rigged ships to hold the yards when they were braced to the wind. Similarly, the wooden balls which are threaded on the jaw-rope of a gaff, and which serve to ease the gaff up and down the mast when the sail is hosted or lowered, are also known as trucks.

Truss

The parrel of the yard which bound it to its mast in a square-rigged ship, but the introduction of a metal goose-neck which centered and secured the yard well free of the mast made the original truss obsolete and itself took on the name of truss. It is hinged to allow both vertical and horizontal movement of the yard

Tumble-home

The amount by which the two sides of a ship are brought in towards the centerline after reaching their maximum beam. It is the opposite of flare, in which the sides curve outwards. Wooden ships of the 15^th to 18^th centuries, and particularly wooden warships, were built with a very pronounced tumble-home, making the width of the upper deck considerably less then that of the main and lower decks. Warships had to have this table-home to accommodate the main and lower deck guns which were much larger than those mounted on the upper gundeck and needed more space for the gun crews to work them. An older term for tumbling-home was housing-in

Vangs

The ropes leading from the outer end of a gaff of a fore-and-aft sail to the rail of sailing vessels, one on each side, to steady the gaff and prevent the sail from sagging way to leeward when sailing close hauled or off the wind. They were used in squire –rigged ships on the gaff of the mizen, from which mast a gaff sail, known as a spanker, was normally spread. The sprit mainsails of barges are also fitted with vangs. The kicking –strap on the boom of yacht is also often as a vang.

Veer (1)

The operation of paying out a rope or cable in a ship. The word is most usually applied to a vessel’s anchor cable, as there are many occasions when it is necessary to veer the cable, as for example when mooing or unmooring, one of the two cables being veered while he other is shortened in. I a ship is lying to single anchor and the weather deteriorates seriously, veering more cable frequently adds to her safety, a, generally speaking, the greater the scope of the cable, the greater the security.

Veer (2)

Another form of the verb to wear, when a sailing vessel brings her stern instead of her bows across the wind in order to sail on the other tack. It is not quite so old a term as to wear a ship, and is hardly ever used in this sense today.

Veer (3)

The operation of the wind when it changes direction in a clockwise direction. A wind which veers is frequently a sign of settled weather in the northern hemisphere, of unsettled weather in the southern.

Warp (1)

A light hawser used in the movement of a ship from one a capstan, or of men hauling on it. It is not a tow-rope, which involves the power of another ship.

Warp (2)

The ropes or wires attached to a trawl by which it is veered to the sea bottom and later hauled in by the trawler on completion of the fishing operations.

Warp (3)

The ropes used for securing a ship alongside a quay, jetty, etc., or another ship.

Wear

A term used afloat in connection with the flying of flags. In nautical parlance a ship flies her national flag or ensign but wears a personal flag, such as an admiral’s flag. In the past tense a flag is worn, not wore as in the preceding entry.

Windlass

A small capstan-like fitting, but on a horizontal shaft, in the fore part of a vessel by which she rode to her anchor. It was also used sometimes for weighing an anchor if this could be done without recourse to the capstan. Like the old-time capstan, windlasses were fitted with bars to be worked by manpower, and had a pawl and ratchet gear to provide rotary motion to the spindle on which the windlass was mounted from an p and down motion of the bars.

The modern windlass takes the place in smaller vessels of the capstan and allied cable-holders of a larger ship. Powered by steam or electricity, the motor drives a warping drum at each end of the horizontal shaft with, inboard of the drum, a pair of gypsies for working the chain cables of the bower anchors.

Yard

A large wooden or metal spar crossing the masts of a ship horizontally or diagonally, from which a sail is set. Yards crossing the masts of a square-rigged ship horizontally are supported from the mastheads by slings and lifts and are held to the mast by a truss or parrel. Square sails are laced by their heads to the yards. By means of braces, the yards can be turned at an angle to the fore-and-aft line of the vessel. When a yard crossed a mast diagonally, it is known as a lateen yard and is not supported by braces but hoisted by a halyard attached to a point on the yard about one-third of its length from the forward end.

Yardarm

The outer quarters of a yard, that part which lies outboard of the lifts, on either side of the ship, i.e., the port and starboard yardarms. They were the positions in a square-rigged ship , where most of the flag signals were hoisted, and in the older days of sail, when the disciplinary code on board included punishments of death by hanging, were the traditional points from which men were hanged on board.