Two Years Before the Mast (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

by Richard Henry Dana

  BULK HEAD. Temporary partitions of boards to separate different parts of a vessel.

  BULL. A sailor’s term for a small keg, holding a gallon or two.

  BULL’S EYE. A small piece of stout wood with a hole in the centre for a stay or rope to reeve through, without any sheave, and with a groove round it for the strap, which is usually of iron. Also, a piece of thick glass inserted in the deck to let light below.

  BULWARKS. The wood work round a vessel, above her deck, consisting of boards fastened to stanchions and timber-heads.

  BUM-BOATS. Boats which lie alongside a vessel in port with provisions and fruit to sell.

  BUMPKIN. Pieces of timber projecting from the vessel, to board the fore tack to; and from each quarter, for the main brace-blocks.

  BUNT. The middle of a sail.

  BUNTINE. (Pronounced buntin.) Thin woolen stuff of which a ship’s colors are made.

  BUNTLINES. Ropes used for hauling up the body of a sail.

  BUOY. A floating cask, or piece of wood, attached by a rope to an anchor, to show its position. Also, floated over a shoal, or other dangerous place as a beacon. To stream a buoy, is to drop it into the water before letting go the anchor. A buoy is said to watch, when it floats upon the surface of the water.

  BURTON. A tackle, rove in a particular manner. A single Spanish burton has three single blocks, or two single blocks and a hook in the bight of one of the running parts. A double Spanish burton has three double blocks.

  BUTT. The end of a plank where it unites with the end of another. Scuttle-butt. A cask with a hole cut in its bilge, and kept on deck to hold water for daily use.

  BUTTOCK. That part of the convexity of a vessel abaft, under the stern, contained between the counter above and the after part of the bilge below, and between the quarter on the side and the stern-post. (See PLATE III.)

  BY. by the head. Said of a vessel when her head is lower in the water than her stern. If her stern is lower, she is by the stem. by the lee (See LEE. See RUN.)

  CABIN. The after part of a vessel, in which the officers live.

  CABLE. A large, strong rope, made fast to the anchor, by which the vessel is secured. It is usually 120 fathoms in length.

  CABLE-TIER. (See TIER.)

  CABOOSE. A house on deck, where the cooking is done. Commonly called the Galley.

  CALK. (See CAULK.)

  CAMBERED. When the floor of a vessel is higher at the middle than towards the stem and stern.

  CAMEL. A machine used for lifting vessels over a shoal or bar.

  CAMFERING. Taking off an angle or edge of a timber.

  CAN-HOOKS. Slings with flat hooks at each end, used for hoisting barrels or light casks, the hooks being placed round the chimes, and the purchase hooked to the centre of the slings. Small ones are usually wholly of iron.

  CANT-PIECES. Pieces of timber fastened to the angles of fishes and side-trees to supply any part that may prove rotten.

  CANT-TIMBERS. Timbers at the two ends of a vessel, raised obliquely from the keel. Lower Half cants [reads “cints”]. Those parts of frames situated forward and abaft the square frames, or the floor timbers which cross the keel.

  CANVASS. The cloth of which sails are made. No. I is the coarsest and strongest.

  CAP. A thick, strong block of wood with two holes through it, one square and the other bround, used to confine together the head of one mast and the lower part of the mast next above it. (See PLATE I.)

  CAPSIZE. To overturn.

  CAPSTAN. A machine placed perpendicularly in the deck and used for a strong purchase in heaving or hoisting. Men-of-war weigh their anchors by capstans. Merchant vessels use a windlass. (See BAR.)

  CAREEN. To heave a vessel down upon her side by purchases upon the masts. To lie over, when sailing on the wind.

  CARLINGS. Short and small pieces of timber running between the beams.

  CARRICK-BEND. A kind of knot. Carrick-bitts are the windless bitts.

  CARRY-AWAY. To break a spar or part a rope.

  CAST. To pay a vessel’s head off, in getting under way, on the tack she is to sail upon.

  CAT. The tackle used to hoist the anchor up to the cat-head. Cat-block. The block of this tackle.

  CAT-HARPIN. An iron leg used to confine the upper part of the rigging to the mast.

  CAT-HEAD. Large timbers projecting from the vessel’s side, to which the anchor is raised and secured.

  CAT’S-PAW. A kind of hitch made in a rope. A light current of air seen on the surface of the water during a calm.

  CAULK. To fill the seams of a vessel with oakum.

  CAVIL. (See KEVEL.)

  CEILING. The inside planking of a vessel.

  CHAFE. To rub the surface of a rope or spar. Chafing-gear is the stuff put upon the rigging and spars to prevent their chaf ing.

  CHAINS. (See PLATE I.) Strong links or plates of iron, the lower ends of which are bolted through the ship’s side to the timbers. Their upper ends are secured to the bottom of the dead-eyes in the channels. Also, used familiarly for the CHANNELS, which see. The chain cable of a vessel is called familiarly her chain. Rudder-chains lead from the outer and upper end of the rudder to the quarters. They are hung slack.

  CHAIN-PLATES. Plates of iron bolted to the side of a ship, to which the chains and dead-eyes of the lower rigging are connected.

  CHANNELS. Broad pieces of plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel. Used for spreading the lower rigging. (See CHAINS )

  CHAPELLING. Wearing a ship round, when taken aback, without bracing the head yards.

  CHECK. A term sometimes used for slacking off a little on a brace, and then belaying it.

  CHEEKS. The projections on each side of a mast, upon which the trestle-trees rest. The sides of the shell of a block.

  CHEERLY! Quickly, with a will.

  CHESS-TREES. Pieces of oak, fitted to the sides of a vessel, abaft the fore chains, with a sheave in them, to board the main tack to. Now out of use.

  CHIMES. The ends of the staves of a cask, where they come out beyond the head of the cask.

  CHINSE. To thrust oakum into seams with a small iron.

  CHOCK. A wedge used to secure anything with, or for anything to rest upon. The long boat rests upon two large chocks, when it is stowed. Chock-a-block. When the lower block of a tackle is run close up to the upper one, so that you can hoist no higher. This is also called hoisting up two-blocks.

  CISTERN. An apartment in the hold of a vessel, having a pipe leading through the side, with a cock, by which water may be let into her.

  CLAMPS. Thick planks on the inside of vessels, to support the ends of beams. Also, crooked plates of iron fore-locked upon the trunnions of cannon. Any plate of iron made to turn, open, and shut so as to confine a spar or boom, as, a studdingsail boom, or a boat’s mast.

  CLASP-HOOK. (See CLOVE-HOOK.)

  CLEAT. A piece of wood used in different parts of a vessel to belay ropes to.

  CLEW. The lower corner of square sails, and the after corner of a fore-and-aft sail. To clew up, is to haul up the clew of a sail.

  CLEW-GARNET. A rope that hauls up the clew of a foresail or mainsail in a square-rigged vessel.

  CLEWLINE. A rope that hauls up the clew of a square sail. The clew-garnet is the clewline of a course.

  CLINCH. A half-hitch, stopped to its own part.

  CLOSE-HAULED. Applied to a vessel which is sailing with her yards braced up so as to get as much possible to windward. The same as on a taut bowline, full and by, on the wind, &c.

  CLOVE-HITCH. Two half-hitches round a spar or other rope.

  CLOVE-HOOK. An iron clasp, in two parts, moving upon the same pivot, and overlapping one another. Used for bending chain sheets to the clews of sails.

  CLUB-HAUL. To bring a vessel’s head round on the other tack, by letting go the lee anchor and cutting or slipping the cable. CLUBBING. Drifting down a current with an anchor out.

  COAKING. Uniting pieces of spar by means of tabular projections, formed by cu
tting away the solid of one piece into a hollow, so as to make a projection in the other, in such a manner that they may correctly fit, the butts preventing the pieces from drawing asunder. Coaks are fitted into the beams and knees of vessels to prevent their drawing.

  COAL TAR. Tar made from bituminous coal.

  COAMINGS. Raised work round the hatches, to prevent water going down into the hold.

  COAT. Mast-Coat is a piece of canvass, tarred or painted, placed round a mast or bowsprit, where it enters the deck.

  COCK-BILL. To cock-bill a yard or anchor. (See A-COCK-BILL.)

  COCK-PIT. An apartment in a vessel of war, used by the surgeon during an action.

  CODLINE. An eighteen thread line.

  COXSWAIN. (Pronounced cox’n.) The person who steers a boat and has charge of her.

  COIL. To lay a rope up in a ring, with one turn or fake over another. A coil is a quantity of rope laid up in that manner.

  COLLAR. An eye in the end or bight of a shroud or stay, to go over the mast-head.

  COME. Come home, said of an anchor when it is broken from the ground and drags. To come up a rope or tackle, is to slack it off.

  COMPANION. A wooden covering over the staircase to a cabin. Companion-way, the staircase to the cabin. Companion-ladder. The ladder leading from the poop to the main deck.

  COMPASS. The instrument which tells the course of a vessel. Compass-timbers are such as are curved or arched.

  CONCLUDING-LINE. A small line leading through the centre of the steps of a rope or Jacob’s ladder.

  CONNING, or CUNNING. Directing the helmsman in steering a vessel.

  COUNTER. (See PLATE III.) That part of a vessel between the bottom of the stern and the wing-transom and buttock. Counter-timbers are short timbers put in to strengthen the counter. To counter-brace yards, is to brace the head-yards one way and the after-yards another.

  COURSES. The common term for the sails that hang from a ship’s lower yards. The foresail is called the fore course and the mainsail the main course.

  CRANES. Pieces of iron or timber at the vessel’s sides, used to stow boats or spars upon. A machine used at a wharf for hoisting.

  CRANK. The condition of a vessel when she is inclined to lean over a great deal and cannot bear much sail. This may be owing to her construction or to her stowage.

  CREEPER. An iron instrument, like a grapnell, with four claws, used for dragging the bottom of a harbor or river, to find anything lost.

  CRINGLE. A short piece of rope with each end spliced into the bolt-rope of a sail, confining an iron ring or thimble.

  CROSS-BARS. Round bars of iron, bent at each end, used as levers to turn the shank of an anchor.

  CROSS-CHOCKS. Pieces of timber fayed across the dead-wood amidships, to make good the deficiency at the heels of the lower futtocks.

  CROSS-JACK. (Pronounced croj-jack.) The cross-jack yard is the lower yard on the mizzen mast. (See PLATE I.)

  CROSS-PAWLS. Pieces of timber that keep a vessel together while in her frames.

  CROSS-PIECE. A piece of timber connecting two bitts.

  CROSS-SPALES. Pieces of timber placed across a vessel, and nailed to the frames, to keep the sides together until the knees are bolted.

  CROSS-TREES. (See PLATE I.) Pieces of oak supported by the cheeks and trestle-trees, at the mast-heads, to sustain the tops on the lower mast, and to spread the topgallant rigging at the topmast-head.

  CROW-FOOT. A number of small lines rove through the uvrou to suspend an awning by.

  CROWN of an anchor, is the place where the arms are joined to the shank. To crown a knot, is to pass the strands over and under each other above the knot.

  CRUTCH. A knee or piece of knee-timber, placed inside of a vessel, to secure the heels of the cant-timbers abaft. Also, the chock upon which the spanker-boom rests when the sail is not set.

  CUCKOLD’S NECK. A knot by which a rope is secured to a spar, the two parts of the rope crossing each other, and seized together.

  CUDDY. A cabin in the fore part of a boat.

  CUNTLINE. The space between the bilges of two casks, stowed side by side. Where one cask is set upon the cuntline between two others, they are stowed bilge and cuntline.

  CUT-WATER. The foremost part of a vessel’s prow, which projects forward of the bows.

  CUTTER. A small boat. Also, a kind of sloop.

  DAGGER. A piece of timber crossing all the puppets of the bilge-ways to keep them together. Dagger-knees. Knees placed obliquely, to avoid a port.

  DAVITS. Pieces of timber or iron, with sheaves or blocks at their ends, projecting over a vessel’s sides or stern, to hoist boats up to. Also, a spar with a roller or sheave at its end, used for fishing the anchor, called a fish-davit.

  DEAD-EYE. A circular block of wood, with three holes through it, for the lanyards of rigging to reeve through, without sheaves, and with a groove round it for an iron strap.

  DEAD-FLAT. One of the bends, amidships.

  DEAD-LIGHTS. Ports placed in the cabin windows in bad weather.

  DEAD RECKONING. A reckoning kept by observing a vessel’s courses and distances by the log, to ascertain her position. (See RECKONING. )

  DEAD-RISING, or RISING-LINE. Those parts of a vessel’s floor, throughout her whole length, where the floor-timber is terminated upon the lower futtock.

  DEAD-WATER. The eddy under a vessel’s counter.

  DEAD-WOOD. Blocks of timber, laid upon each end of the keel, where the vessel narrows.

  DECK. The planked floor of a vessel, resting upon her beams.

  DECK-STOPPER. A stopper used for securing the cable forward of the windlass or capstan, while it is overhauled. (See STOPPER.)

  DEEP-SEA-LEAD. (Pronounced dipsey,) The lead used in sounding at great depths.

  DEPARTURE. The easting or westing made by a vessel. The bearing of an object on the coast from which a vessel commences her dead reckoning [which see].

  DERRICK. A single spar, supported by stays and guys, to which a purchase is attached, used to unload vessels, and for hoisting.

  DOG. A short iron bar, with a fang or teeth at one end, and a ring at the other. Used for a purchase, the fang being placed against a beam or knee, and the block of a tackle hooked to the ring.

  DOG’S EAR.kiThe bend of a sail’s edge when reefed.

  DOG-VANE. A small vane, made of feathers or buntin, to show the direction of the wind.

  DOG-WATCHES. Half watches of two hours each, from 4 to 6, and from 6 to 8, P.M. (See WATCH.)

  DOLPHIN. A rope or strap round a mast to support the puddening, where the lower yards rest in the slings. Also, a spar or buoy with a large ring in it, secured to an anchor, to which vessels may bend their cables.

  DOLPHIN-STRIKER. The martingale. (See PLATE I.)

  DOUSE. To lower suddenly.

  DOWELLING. A method of coaking, by letting pieces into the solid, or uniting two pieces together by tenoning.

  DOWNHAUL. A rope used to haul down jibs, staysails, and studdingsails.

  DRABLER. A piece of canvass laced to the bonnet of a sail, to give it more drop.

  DRAC. A machine with a bag net, used for dragging on the bottom for anything lost.

  DRAUGHT. The depth of water which a vessel requires to float her.

  DRAW. A sail draws when it is filled by the wind. To draw a jib, is to shift it over the stay to leeward, when it is aback.

  DRIFTS. Those pieces in the sheer-draught where the rails are cut off.

  DRIVE. To scud before a gale, or to drift in a current.

  DRIVER. A spanker.

  DROP. The depth of a sail, from head to foot, amidships.

  DRUM-HEAD. The top of the capstan.

  DUB. To reduce the end of a timber.

  DUCK. A kind of cloth, lighter and finer than canvass; used for small sails.

  DUNNAGE. Loose wood or other matters, placed on the bottom of the hold, above the ballast, to stow cargo upon.

  EARING. A rope attached to the cringle of a sail, by which it
is bent or reefed.

  EIKING. A piece of wood fitted to make good a deficiency in length.

  ELBOW. Two crosses in a hawse.

  ESCUTCHEON. The part of a vessel’s stern where her name is written.

  EVEN-KEEL. The situation of a vessel when she is so trimmed that she sits evenly upon the water, neither end being down more than the other.

  EUVROU. A piece of wood, by which the legs of the crow-foot to an awning are extended. (See UVROU.)

  EYE. The circular part of a shroud or stay, where it goes over a mast. Eye-bolt. A long iron bar, having an eye at one end, driven through a vessel’s deck or side into a timber or beam, with the eye remaining out, to hook a tackle to. If there is a ring through eye, it is called a ring-bolt. An Eye-splice is a certain kind of splice made with the end of a rope. Eyelet-hole. A hole made in a sail for a cringle or roband to go through. The Eyes of a vessel. A familiar phrase for the forward part.

  FACE-PIECES. Pieces of wood wrought on the fore part of the knee of the head.

  FACING. Letting one piece of timber into another with a rabbet.

  FAG. A rope is fagged when the end is untwisted.

  FAIR-LEADER. A strip of board or plank, with holes in it, for running rigging to lead through. Also, a block or thimble used for the same purpose.

  FAKE. One of the circles or rings made in coiling a rope.

  FALL. That part of a tackle to which the power is applied in hoisting.

  FALSE-KEEL. Pieces of timber secured under the main keel of vessels.

  FANCY-LINE. A line rove through a block at the jaws of a gaff, used as a downhaul. Also, a line used for cross-hauling the lee topping-lift.

  FASHION-PIECES. The aftermost timbers, terminating the breadth and forming the shape of the stern.

  FAST. A rope by which a vessel is secured to a wharf. There are bow or head, breast, quarter, and stem fasts.

  FATHOM. Six feet.

  FEATHER. To feather an oar in rowing, is to turn the blade horizontally with the top aft as it comes out of the water.

  FEATHER-EDGED. Planks which have one side thicker than another.

  FENDERS. Pieces of rope or wood hung over the side of a vessel or boat, to protect it from chafing. The fenders of a neat boat are usually made of canvass and stuffed.