by Dean King
goffering-iron An iron tool used for crimping, or goffering, lace, frills, and the like.
going large See LARGE.
golden calf The idol set up by Aaron and the similar images set up by Jeroboam in the Bible. In proverbs, a reference to the worship of wealth.
golden-eye A sea duck of the genus Clangula.
Goliath, H.M.S. The 74-gun ship in which Captain Thomas Foley spearheaded the British attack on the French at the Battle of the NILE on August 1, 1798. Leading four other ships, Foley managed to negotiate the shoals and penetrate between the shore batteries and the French fleet. Built in 1781, the Goliath was cut down to a 58-gun fourth RATE in 1812 and broken up in 1815.
Golovnin, Vasily Mikhailovich (1776-1831) A Russian vice-admiral who circumnavigated the globe from 1817 to 1819 and wrote books about the voyages. Earlier, he served as a volunteer in the British Navy.
Goodwin Sands A treacherous underwater bank of shifting sands in the entrance to the English Channel from the North Sea, about six miles off the east coast of Kent, that forms protection for the anchorage called the DOWNS off Deal, Kent.
gooseberry The edible berry or fruit of any of the thorny shrubs of the saxifrage family. Also, a currant.
goose-wing On a SQUARE-RIGGED ship, having the BUNTLINES and LEE-CLEW of a COURSE HAULed up and the WEATHER-CLEW down for SCUDding under, when the wind is too strong to set the entire sail.
Gordon Riots Anti-Catholic riots in London causing a breakdown of law and order in London for several days in June 1780 in which troops were called out and 285 rioters were killed, 173 wounded, and 139 arrested. The riots occurred after Lord George Gordon (1751-1793), a member of Parliament and leader of the Protestant Association, led a procession of about 50,000 people to present a petition to Parliament asking to repeal the clauses in the 1778 Catholic Relief Act that had removed restrictions on the activities of Catholic priests. After the riots, Gordon—a graduate of Eton who had served as a Lieutenant in the Navy—was tried for high treason but acquitted. Later he became a Jew and took the name Israel Abraham George Gordon. In 1787 he was convicted of libel and sentenced to Newgate, where he often entertained, until his death.
Gorée Island and town on the coast of West Africa (just south of the Cape Verde Peninsula in present-day Senegal). First occupied by the Dutch, it was captured by the French for the Senegal Company in 1677 and became an important slave-trading center. Taken by the British in the War of the French Revolution, it was restored to France by the Peace of AMIENS and retaken by the British in 1804. It was returned to France in 1817.
gores Sloping angles at one or both ends of a sail to widen it or increase its depth. Also, angular pieces of plank used to fill up a vessel’s planking where needed.
goshawk A large short-winged hawk, Accipiter gentilis, and other species.
go snacks To have a share in something, to divide profits.
Gosport Municipal borough, Hampshire, on a peninsula between SPITHEAD and the west side of the entrance to Portsmouth harbor, directly opposite PORTSMOUTH. Gosport was the location of a number of facilities used by the Navy, including the ORDNANCE station at PRIDDY’S HARD, the Victualing Board’s brewery and cooperage at Weevil Yard (from the 1830s, called the Royal Clarence Victualing Yard), and HASLAR Hospital.
gout A usually hereditary disease characterized by excruciatingly painful paroxysms of the joints, especially of the large toe. The pain is caused by deposits of uric acid within the joints.
gowk A fool, a half-witted person.
grains of paradise or Guinea grains The pungent seeds of Amomum melegueta of western Africa, used as a spice and to calm the stomach.
grallatores Long-legged wading birds, such as the CRANE or HERON.
gralloch The viscera of a dead deer. To gralloch is to disembowel a deer.
grampus The popular name of various CETACEANS having a high dorsal fin and a blunt rounded head and noted for their spouting and blowing. Frequently applied to the killer whale but also to an unaggressive cetacean resembling it in size and appearance but with fewer and smaller teeth, sometimes called cow-fish. The name has also been applied to the pilot whale.
Grand Banks or Newfoundland Bank Southeast of NEWFOUNDLAND, a large shallows and cod-breeding ground that once seemed inexhaustible and attracted fishing vessels from all over the world and especially from Maine and Massachusetts.
grape short for grape-shot Small cast-iron balls bound together by a canvas bag or other means to form a deadly charge for cannon that scattered like shotgun pellets when fired.
grapnel or grappling hook An iron-clawed instrument attached to a line and used to seize and hold an enemy’s ship for boarding or to recover objects on the bottom of the sea; also used as an anchor for small vessels.
grass-comber A sailor’s pejorative for a farm laborer.
grass-plat A plot of turf-covered ground, sometimes with ornamental flower beds.
grating The open woodwork cover for the HATCHWAY.
gratis pro Deo Free for the sake of God (Latin).
gravamen A grievance or a formal complaint or accusation.
Gravesend A port in the Thames estuary on the northern coast of Kent, England.
Great Belt The largest and the middle of the three entrances—the Sound, the Great Belt, and the Little Belt—to the Baltic through Denmark.
greatcoat A heavy overcoat.
great gun A firearm that must be mounted; a piece of ORDNANCE, a cannon. See illustration.
A Blomefield gun, showing the gun tackle with its blocks, and the breech tackle, with one end loose. Adapted from Serres’s Liber Nauticus.
Parts (A) cascabel, (B) thimble, (C) flintlock and touchhole, (D) first reinforce ring, (E) trunnion, (F) second reinforce ring, (G) eyebolt, (H) block, (I) breech tackle, (J) carriage, (K) truck, (L) quoins.
Great Mogul or Grand Mogul or Mogul The title of the ruler of the Mogul Empire, a Muslim dynasty that ruled most of India from 1526 to 1857.
grebe A diving bird of the family Podicipedidae with a short body, pointed bill, flattened and lobed feet set far back, and almost no tail.
green-fly An aphis, or plant-louse, green in color.
greenheart A tropical South American tree and its timber, used in shipbuilding.
Greenwich A town on the south bank of the Thames adjoining London on the east, site of a Royal Palace and famed for the Royal Observatory, an astronomical observatory founded in 1675, through which passes the longitudinal meridian of 0°. Known as well for its hospital for Naval pensioners founded in 1694. Also, mean time for the meridian of Greenwich, used as a basis for calculating time throughout the world.
gregale A squally northeast wind in the Mediterranean, affecting particularly Malta and Sicily.
grego or griego A coarse jacket with a hood worn in the LEVANT. Also slang for a rough GREATCOAT.
Gregory’s Patent Liquid Probably a proprietary remedy with unknown properties, but not associated with the prominent James Gregory, a leading physician of late-18th-century Edinburgh.
gremial Of or pertaining to the bosom or lap. Of a friend, intimate.
grenadier Originally, a soldier who threw grenades, round iron cases filled with powder. Though grenades went out of general use in the 18th century, the name “grenadiers” was retained for a company of the tallest and finest men in the regiment.
Gretna Green A village in the county of Dumfries, Scotland, three-quarters of a mile from the English border on the River Sark. Following the ban on FLEET marriages, English couples seeking a secret or quick marriage went to Gretna Green, where the local blacksmith often performed marriages under the relatively easy conditions of Scottish law, requiring the couples only to declare before witnesses their desire to marry. Many races between runaway couples and thwarted parents were decided on the level road leading to the little bridge over the Sark.
grey powder A rarely used panacea consisting of a mixture of elemental MERCURY and chalk.
griego See GREGO.
grig A word having a variety of meanings, among them a wildly lively person, full of frolic and jest.
gripe A vessel is said to gripe when she tends to come up into the wind when sailing CLOSE-HAULED. Also, the LASHing used to secure a boat in its place on the deck of a ship. The piece of timber terminating the KEEL at the forward extremity, also called the “FOREFOOT.”
groat The Scottish fourpenny piece, first struck in 1358. Its value was already only threepence English in 1373 and continued to fall. A very small sum.
grobian A clownish and slovenly person.
grog A mixture of rum and water served to a ship’s crew twice daily. With the conquest of Jamaica in 1687, brandy was replaced by rum as the spirit offered in the Royal Navy, and, in 1740, in an effort to control alcoholic consumption, Admiral Vernon (whose nickname was “Old Grogram” for the cloak of grogram he wore) ordered that the ration—one pint for men and a half pint for boys—be diluted by the addition of water (for men, a half pint of rum with one quart of water) and served at noon and six P.M. The men called the mixture “grog.” “Half-and-half grog” was equal parts of rum and water; “seven-water grog,” was the sailor’s derisive name for very weak grog. A sailor who drank too much grog was “groggy.”
Groin or Groyne See CORUNNA.
grommet A ring of rope used to secure the upper edge of a sail to its STAY.
groom A manservant.
grosso modo Overall, roughly (Italian).
groundling A frequenter of the “ground” or pit of a theater, hence, an uncritical or unrefined person.
ground-tier The lowest tier of goods or casks of provisions stowed in a vessel’s hold.
grouts Dregs, grounds.
guacharo A nocturnal bird of South America and Trinidad, valued for its oil, which is used for lighting and in cooking; the oil-bird.
guaiacum Guiac, wood from Guaiacum officinale, a tree native to tropical America. Its bark was powdered for use in the treatment of syphilis and, occasionally, joint pains.
guanaco A South American wild llama that produces a reddish brown wool.
Guards By 1815, the Household troops of the English Army, which trace their origins to the personal bodyguards of medieval kings, consisting of the Foot Guards, the Horse Guards, the Grenadier Guards, and the Life Guards. Also applied, by extension, to the regiment of mounted infantry known as the DRAGOON Guards (as distinguished from Cavalry).
guard-ship A vessel of war, usually the PORT ADMIRAL’S FLAGSHIP, that protects a harbor, superintends its marine affairs, and keeps seamen until they can join their ships.
gubbins Anything of little value; a gadget.
gudgeon A metal socket in which the PINTLE of a RUDDER turns freely in either direction.
Guernsey frock or Guernsey A thick, tight-fitting vest or shirt, generally knitted of blue wool, worn by seamen.
Guerriere, H.M.S. A fifth-rate 38-gun FRIGATE, captured from the French by H.M.S. Blanche in 1806 off the Faroes. As a British frigate, she was commanded by Captain Dacres and captured by the U.S.S. CONSTITUTION on August 19, 1812, in the western Atlantic and burned.
guerrillero A guerrilla (Spanish).
Guildhall Dating back to at least 1128 (though rebuilt), the hall of the Corporation of the City of London located on Gresham Street. The center of the civic government, it has often been the scene of state banquets and other formal occasions.
guillemot A small sea bird of the genus Cepphus.
guinea An English gold coin first struck in 1663 with the nominal value of 20 SHILLINGS but from 1717 until its recent disappearance circulating as legal tender at the rate of 21 shillings. In 1663 the Royal Mint was authorized to coin gold pieces for the use of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading with Africa. The 20-shilling pieces received the popular name of guineas because they were for use in the Guinea trade and made of gold from Guinea. The name was extended to later coins of the same value.
Guinea Coast Named for an ancient kingdom, the term came into European use after 1500. It refers to the region on the west coast of Africa, between 15 degrees north and 15 degrees south latitude. Upper Guinea lies between present-day Gambia and Cameroon and Lower Guinea extends to southern Angola. Early European traders gave a number of separate names to sections of the Upper Guinea coast, for example, Slave Coast, Gold Coast, Ivory Coast, and Grain Coast.
guinea-fowl A pheasantlike bird of the genus Numida, especially the domesticated species, Numida meleagris, which has slate-colored plumage with small white spots.
gule Gluttony.
Gulf Stream A great oceanic current of warm water that emerges from the Gulf of Mexico, flows parallel to the North American coast to NEWFOUNDLAND, and then flows across the Atlantic to northern Europe.
Gull Stream A channel, leading northeast, through the GOODWIN SANDS from the anchorage off Deal in the DOWNS.
gum-cistus A shrub, Cistus ladanifer, that yields the aromatic resin ladanum, used in perfume and to settle the stomach.
gumma (pl. gummata) A gummy or rubbery tumor characteristic of advanced syphilis.
gummata Used by Maturin to indicate raised scar tissue.
gunboat A small vessel, usually of shallow DRAFT, fitted for carrying guns.
gunlayer One who aims or lays a gun.
gun-money or gunnage Money distributed among the captors of a ship, in proportion to the number of guns on the captured ship.
gunroom In large ships of war, a compartment at the after end of the MAIN or lower deck, originally occupied by the gunner and his mates but later used as a MESS for junior officers. On board a ship of the line, the Chaplain, junior Marine officer, Gunner, and, perhaps, the Pilot, had small cabins around the gunroom, while the junior Midshipmen and volunteers messed in the central area. In a FRIGATE the gunroom was located below the Captain’s cabin.
Gunter’s scale A marked-up flat rule used for solving surveying and navigation problems, named for the English mathematician Edmund Gunter (1581-1626). On one side are scales of equal parts, of chords, sines, tangents, etc., and on the other are scales of the logarithms of those parts.
gunwale The upper edge of a vessel’s side; in large vessels, the uppermost planking, which covers the timber-heads and reaches from the QUARTERDECK to the FORECASTLE on either side.
gurnard A fish of the genus Trigla with a large spiny head, mailed cheeks, and three free pectoral rays.
gut A general term for a narrow passage or strait between two bodies of water, as in the Gut of Gibraltar.
gutter Of a candle, to melt away through the channel formed by a burning wick.
guy A rope used to guide and steady something hoisted or lowered. Also, a rope, chain, or rod used to secure or steady anything liable to shift or be carried away, such as a MAST.
Guy Fawkes’s night November 5, the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot, a failed scheme to blow up the English king, JAMES I, and the Houses of Parliament in 1605 to gain revenge for anti-Roman Catholic laws. Guy Fawkes (1570-1606) was the principal agent. An English Protestant who became a Catholic at an early age, Fawkes served in the Spanish Army in the Netherlands from 1593 to 1604. Robert Catesby, the leader of the Gunpowder Plot, invited him to return to England to help resist James I’s new sanctions against Catholics following the end of the war with Spain. In preparation for a general Catholic uprising, Fawkes placed explosives in Parliament, but one of the other conspirators reported the plot. All the conspirators were seized and murdered or executed. The event was long used to justify the persecution of Catholics and the anniversary of Guy Fawkes’s arrest has been celebrated since that time.
Guy’s Hospital On St. Thomas’s Street in London, a private hospital founded in the early 18th century by Thomas Guy and ruled by the despotic Benjamin Harrison for 50 years beginning in 1793.
gybe or jibe When sailing downwind, to cause a FORE-AND-AFT sail to swing from one side of the vessel to the other. To alter
the course of a boat when there is a following wind so that her BOOM-sails gybe. When the wind crossed the stern of a square-rigger in this way and she ended up with wind on the previous LEE-side with her sails ABACK, she was said to have been “brought by the lee.”
gymnosophist One of a sect of ancient ascetic Hindu philosophers who wore little or no clothing, ate no meat, and devoted themselves to mystical contemplation. An ascetic or mystic.
gynandromorph One who has both male and female characteristics; an insect that appears to have both male and female markings on the body.
H
hack A horse for ordinary riding, as distinguished from crosscountry, military, or other special riding; a saddle-horse for the road. The word implies technically a half-bred horse with more bone and substance than a thoroughbred. Also, a person whose services may be hired for any kind of work required of him; a common drudge.
hackle The long shiny feathers on the neck of certain birds, such as the domestic cock, that rise when the bird is angry. “With the hackles up” means angry or ready to fight.
hackney-coach A four-wheeled coach with seats for six people, drawn by two horses and kept for hire.
hack-watch A watch used when taking observations so as not to disturb the standard chronometer.
haggis A traditional Scottish dish consisting of the heart, lungs, and liver (or sometimes the tripe and chitterlings) of a sheep or calf, minced with suet and oatmeal, seasoned with salt, pepper, onions, etc., and boiled like a large sausage in the stomach of the animal.
haglet A small species of seagull, the KTITIWAKE.
hake An edible fish resembling or related to the common Atlantic cod; also called forkbeard, forked hake.
hakim A Muslim or Indian doctor; a judge, ruler, or governor in a Muslim country or in India.
hale Of a sail, to draw up, HOIST, set. Of a rope, to draw or pull.