by Dean King
bullock Originally a young bull or bull calf, but later, a castrated bull, an ox. Applied loosely to a bull or bovine beast.
bulwark The raised woodwork running along the sides of a vessel above the level of the deck.
bum A BAILIFF.
bumboat A scavenger’s boat, employed to remove filth from ships lying in the Thames. Aboat employed to carry provisions, vegetables, and small merchandise for sale to ships, either in port or lying at a distance from the shore. Also used to carry prostitutes to ships in port.
bumkin A short BOOM projecting from each side of the BOW of a ship, to extend the lower edge of the FORESAIL to WINDWARD. Also, similar booms for extending the MAINSAIL and the MIZZEN.
bumper A cup or glass of wine or other drink filled to the brim, especially when drunk as a toast.
bung A large cork stopper for the mouth of a cask; also a sobriquet for the sailor who was responsible for supplies stored in the hold.
bunt The middle part of a sail formed into a bag so that the sail may gather more wind. When the sail is being FURLed, the bunt is the middle gathering that is tossed up on the center of the YARD.
bunting Fabric made of coarse wool often used for flags. Also, naval slang for a signaler.
buntline One of the lines used for HAULing up the foot of a sail in FURLing.
burgoo To seamen, a thick oatmeal gruel or porridge. Easily cooked and cheap to provide, it was frequently served excessively at sea, and so unloved by seamen.
Buriton A village in Hampshire near the London-Portsmouth route. In 1811 Buriton consisted of 48 houses and 72 families, 56 of which were employed in farming, primarily cereals as well as turnips and rape.
burr A rough or dialectal pronunciation, a peculiarity of utterance.
bursten Alternate form of “burst.”
burton A small TACKLE consisting of two or three BLOCKS or pulleys used to set up or tighten rigging or to shift heavy objects.
buss A small, strong vessel of about 60 tons prevalent in the North Sea fishing industry in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Bustamente, Rear-Admiral don José Commanding a squadron of four frigates, the Medea (40) and three 34s, Fama, Clara, and Mercedes, Bustamante was responsible for carrying nearly six million pieces of eight and a valuable cargo of tin, copper, seal oil, skins, and vicuna wool (a payload estimated to be worth anywhere from one million to two million pounds by various historians) to CADIZ from MONTEVIDEO in the year 1804. Although Spain was technically at peace with Britain, it had a special agreement with France and war with Britain was imminent. On October 5, Sir Graham Moore on board Indefatigable (44) and three other British FRIGATES—the Lively (38), Captain Hammond; the Amphion (32), Captain Sutton; and Medusa (32), Captain Gore—waylaid the squadron about 30 miles southwest of Cape Santa Maria, Portugal. A Lieutenant Arscott attempted to persuade Bustamente to surrender but failed, as the impatient Moore fired a gun signaling Arscott to return. O’Brian’s account of the ensuing action in Post Captain is largely historically correct.
In his memoirs, Vice-Admiral William Lovell (who was not present at the action) writes: “I always did think ... that it was a cruel thing to send only four frigates to detain four others, when by increasing the force by two or three line-of-battle ships, this might have been effected without loss of blood, or honour to the Spaniards.... It would have been humane to have sent such a force as would have put resistance out of the question; for what man, who was not a traitor, could yield without fighting (and with such a valuable cargo on board), to a force, in all appearance, not greater than his own. It was an untoward event” (Personal Narrative of Events from 1799 to 1815, p. 37). Prior to the event, Maturin recommends to the Admiralty that just such a superior force be sent.
bustard A member of a family of birds remarkable for its great size and running power. The great bustard is the largest European bird and was formerly common in England, though now nearly extinct.
butt A cask for wine or ale, varying from 108 to 140 gallons. Also, a measure of capacity equaling two hogsheads—in ale usually 108 gallons, in wine 126 gallons—but these standards were not always precisely adhered to. A cask for fish, fruit, etc.
butt or butt-end The end of a plank in a vessel’s side that joins or butts on to the end of the next, or the juncture of two such planks. Also, a small BLOCK consisting of two wings containing rollers for a chain to pass over.
butterbox A derisive British nickname for a Dutch seaman.
Byng, Admiral John (1704-1757) Having failed to prevent the French from taking MINORCA in 1756, Admiral Byng was COURT-MARTIALed and shot on the QUARTERDECK of H.M.S. Monarch on March 14, 1757, for lack of resolution. The execution was strongly decried after the fact as an act of face-saving by the government and is mocked in Voltaire’s Candide.
by the wind As near as possible to the direction from which the wind is blowing.
C
cabbage white A white butterfly whose larvae feed on cabbage.
cabinet pudding A pudding made of bread or cake, dried fruit, eggs, and milk, usually served hot with a sauce.
cable The strong thick rope to which a ship’s anchor is fastened. Also, a HAWSER or rope smaller than a BOWER used to move or hold the ship temporarily during a calm in a river or in a sheltered haven. Also, a unit of measurement that differs from country to country. In the Royal Navy it is equal to 100 fathoms or one tenth of a sea mile (approximately 200 yards, or 185 meters).
cable-laid Originally said of a rope of nine strands, made by laying up three plain ropes together left-handed. Today, three-stranded ropes twisted together in the opposite direction to the twists of the individual ropes. See also HAWSER-LAID.
cablet A small CABLE or CABLE-LAID rope less than ten inches in circumference.
cable-tier The place in a hold, or between decks, where the CABLES are coiled away.
Cacafuego Literally, “shit fire” (Spanish). The 32-gun XEBEC-FRIGATE that Aubrey boldly attacks in the SOPHIE. The event is based on Thomas COCHRANE’S attack on the El Gamo in the Speedy.
cachexy Malnutrition or wasting caused by disease.
cacothymia A vicious state of mind; a form of insanity resembling what might now be labeled psychopathic behavior.
cadenza In music, a flourish of indefinite form given to a solo voice or instrument at the close of a movement or between two divisions of a movement.
Cadiz The seaport on Spain’s southern Atlantic coast that headquartered the Spanish treasure fleet. The site of a famous raid by Sir Francis Drake in 1587, it was blockaded by England in 1797 and 1798, and in 1800 it was bombarded by NELSON.
caecum or blind-gut In humans, most mammals and birds, and many reptiles, the first part of the large intestine, which forms a pouch into which the ileum opens from one side.
Cagliari Seaport on the south coast, and capital, of Sardinia.
caiman Any of a group of large tropical American reptiles of the crocodile family that are closely related and similar in appearance to alligators.
Cainites A gnostic sect of the second century, probably from the eastern area of the Roman Empire. The Christian theologian Origen declared that the Cainites had “entirely abandoned Jesus.” They believed that Yahweh (the God of the Jews) was evil because the world he created was perversely designed to prevent the reunion of the divine element in man with the unknown perfect God. The Cainites revered such rejected figures as Cain, Esau, and the Sodomites, whom they considered to be bearers of an esoteric, saving knowledge (gnosis). The Cainites are sometimes called libertine gnostics for believing that true perfection, and hence salvation, comes only by breaking all the laws of the Old Testament. Because it was difficult to violate all of them during a single lifetime, they did not look for salvation on earth but rather escape from it.
caique A light boat or SKIFF propelled by one or more rowers, common on the Bosporus. Also, a LEVANTINE sailing vessel.
Calais A city and port on the northwest coast of France. Just 20 miles across the Engl
ish Channel from Dover, it is the closest Continental port to England and the site of many battles over the centuries.
calamary Squid.
calcareous Of the nature of, composed of, or containing calcium, calcium carbonate, or limestone. Also, growing on limestone or in soil impregnated with lime. Chalky.
calcification Conversion into lime. Also, the hardening of a structure, tissue, etc., by the deposit of salts of lime, as in the formation of teeth and in many forms of petrifaction.
calculus, vesical Bladder stone.
Calder, Sir Robert (1745-1818) Admiral Calder joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14 and was knighted after carrying home the dispatches following the Battle of CAPE ST. VINCENT in 1797. In 1805, Calder, commanding 14 ships, captured two ships in an action against the 20-vessel fleet of French Admiral VILLENEUVE. After failing to engage Villeneuve the following day, he was COURT-MARTIALed at his own request and acquitted of cowardice. In 1810 he was promoted to FLAG-RANK.
Caledonia Roman name of part of northern Britain, later applied poetically or rhetorically to Scotland or the Scottish Highlands.
calenture A tropical disease characterized by delirium in which the victim, it is said, believes the sea to be green fields and wants to leap overboard. Most commonly, any fever.
calipash The upper shell, or carapace, of the turtle. Also, the part of the turtle next to the upper shell, containing a dull green gelatinous substance.
calipee The lower shell, or plastron, of the turtle. Also, the part next to the lower shell, containing a light yellowish gelatinous substance.
callosity The condition of being callous; an abnormal hardness and thickness of the skin or other tissues. A callus.
calomel Mercurous chloride, a tasteless medicinal white powder often used as a cathartic.
calor, rubor, dolor Heat, redness, pain (the classic signs of inflamation), Latin.
calumba root Columbo root, prescribed as a mild astringent tonic.
calvity Baldness.
Calvinistical Of the nature of or pertaining to the doctrines of John Calvin (1509-1564), the Protestant reformer.
Camaret or Cameret-sur-Mer A village lying on the tip of a peninsula about ten miles south of Brest, at the northern extremity of the west coast of France.
camber A slight convexity or curve so that the center is higher than the ends. To bend (a beam, etc.) upward in the middle, to arch it slightly.
cambric A kind of fine white linen, originally made at Cambray in Flanders, usually used for handkerchiefs. Also applied to an imitation made of cotton.
cameloleopard A giraffe.
Camperdown, Battle of A British victory in the North Sea off the coast of Holland on October 11, 1797, in which Admiral Adam DUNCAN and a British fleet numbering 14 SHIPS OF THE LINE dealt a Dutch fleet of 11 ships of the line a crushing blow, taking nine ships of the line, two FRIGATES, and the Dutch commander-in-chief, Admiral Jon de Winter.
Action off Camperdown. The Dutch fleet under Admiral de Winter faced a British fleet commanded by Adam, now Lord Viscount, Duncan, off Camperdown on October 11, 1797. The flagship of Admiral de Winter, the last to surrender, is seen nearly in the center, feebly returning the fire of the Venerable. The Hercules, a 64-gun Dutch ship, her stern on fire, is drifting across their bows. On the left in the background is the Monarch with her prize the Jupiter. (Reproduced from The Naval Chronicle, vol. 4, courtesy of the Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Virginia).
camphire Same as CAMPHOR.
camphor-tree Cinnamomum camphora, a tree indigenous to the Near and Far East, whose extract had many therapeutic applications, especially as a painkiller.
Canary Islands Volcanic islands off the northwest coast of Africa, including Grand Canary and Tenerife, that belong to Spain.
can-buoy A navigational marker with a flat top, as opposed to a nun-buoy, which has a conical top, the underwater part being conical in both types.
Candlemas Day A church festival celebrated with a great display of candles on February 2 to commemorate the feast of the purification of the Virgin Mary and the presentation of Christ in the Temple.
can-hook A cask-length contrivance, consisting of a rope or chain with a flat hook at each end and TACKLE fastened to the middle, used for slinging a cask by the projecting ends of its STAVES.
canister shot also canister or case-shot A precursor of the explosive shell made up of many small iron balls packed in a cylindrical tin case and fired from a cannon.
cannonade A bombardment of artillery, or to attack with artillery.
canonical hours Stated times of the day appointed by the canons of the Church of England for prayer and devotion. Also, the hours within which marriage can legally be performed in a parish church in England.
Canopus The bright star in the southern constellation Argo, the ship, situated in its RUDDER.
cant To pitch as by the sudden lurching of a ship; to tilt or turn over. Also, to swing around.
cantharides See SPANISH FLY.
cant-purchase A PURCHASE used in whaling for hoisting in blubber. It consists of a BLOCK suspended from the main- MASTHEAD and another block made fast to a cut made in the whale between the neck and fins, known as a cant.
cant-timbers Frames at the BOW and STERN, which were placed radially, rather than perpendicular to the KEEL.
canty Cheerful, lively, gladsome.
cap A strong thick block of wood with two large holes through it, used to hold two MASTS together when one is erected at the head of the other in order to lengthen it.
caparison To put trappings on, to deck, harness.
Cape Gris Nez The closest part of the French coast to England, 15 miles southwest of Calais.
Capella A double star of the first magnitude in the northern constellation Auriga, also known as Charioteer.
Cape of Storms The original name given by the Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Diaz de Novaes in 1488 to the Cape of Good Hope, the promontory on the southwestern coast of South Africa.
Cape Peñas Cape on the northwest coast of Spain that projects into the Bay of Biscay, at the eastern base of which lies the seaport Gijon, where the Spanish Armada sought refuge following its defeat by the British in 1588.
Cape Prior Spanish cape, northeast of Corunna.
caper-bush A low, prickly shrub abundant on walls and rocky places in southern Europe, the flower bud of which is frequently pickled and served as a condiment.
Cape St. Vincent, Battle of Fought on February 14, 1797, by British Admiral Sir John JERVIS with 15 SHIPS OF THE LINE and Spanish Admiral Don Jose de Cordova with 27 ships of the line. It took place off Cape St. Vincent, a headland on the southwest coast of Portugal, and caught the Spanish fleet somewhat off guard as it was scurrying toward the harbor at CADIZ. Jervis managed to split the Spanish fleet, and NELSON, aboard the Captain, performed one of his legendary feats when he boarded the 112-gun San Josef via the 80-gun San Nicolas, which he captured first after the two ships, under heavy fire from H.M.S. Prince George, ran afoul of each other. Jervis could have pushed on for a potentially even greater victory but settled for the capture of four Spanish ships of the line. For their leadership in the victory, Jervis was made Earl St. Vincent and Nelson was knighted.
In Post Captain, Aubrey, who was on board the ORION at Cape St. Vincent, throws a ball at MELBURY LODGE in honor of the anniversary of the battle.
capitaine de vaisseau Post-captain (French).
caplin A small fish similar to a smelt, found on the coast of Newfoundland and used as bait for cod.
capot In the card game of PIQUET, the winning of all the tricks by one player.
cappabar also capabarre, capperbar, Cap-a-Bar, and Cape Bar A term in use in the early 19th century for the misappropriation of government supplies.
Capricorn The zodiacal constellation of the He-Goat, lying between Sagittarius and Aquarius and used in navigation. Capricorn is the tenth of the 12 signs of the zodiac. It begins at the most southerly point of the ecliptic, or winter solsti
tial, point, which the sun enters around December 21.
capstan A cylindrical revolving mechanism that works on the principle of the wheel and axle, arranged vertically, the power being supplied by the deck hands pushing moveable capstan-bars inserted into sockets around the top. As the capstan revolves, it winds up a CABLE around its BARREL. Used especially for weighing the anchor. A series of PAWLS, hinged in one direction, prevents any backward motion due to a heavy burden. See illustration, page 68.
Captain of the Fleet An officer who is temporarily appointed as adjutant-general of a naval force and carries out all orders issued by the COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF but whose special duty it is to keep up the discipline of the fleet.
Capuchin A friar belonging to an austere branch of the order of St. Francis that was dedicated to preaching and missionary work. So called from the sharp-pointed capuche, or hood, adopted first in 1525.
capybara A large, tailless, mostly aquatic rodent reaching more than four feet in length and indigenous to tropical South America.
caracara South American birds of an aberrant subfamily of the Falconidae, whose members have similarities to the vulture. The name caracara, originally from Brazil, derives from the caracara’s strange hoarse cry.
Caracciolo, Francesco (1752-1799) Neapolitan nobleman who served with distinction in the British Navy during the American Revolution and, in 1793, under Nelson at Toulon. When the French took Naples in 1798, Caracciolo returned and converted to French republicanism, only to be captured by the British when Naples was retaken a year later. On board Lord Nelson’s FLAGSHIP the FOUDROYANT, a Neapolitan COURT-MARTIAL condemned him to die. Influenced by his infatuation for Lady Hamilton, a close friend of Queen Mary Caroline of Naples, Nelson granted the queen’s wish for Caracciolo’s swift execution. Wrongly in the eyes of many, Nelson ordered him hanged from the YARDARM of the Minerva without the usual 24 hours for confession and prayer.
caravanserai On trade routes in the lands from western Asia to the Far East, an inn where camel caravans put up, consisting of a large quadrangular building with a spacious court in the middle.