by C. H. Layman
Brace – a rope attached to the outer end of a yard whereby the sails are angled to the wind.
Brails – ropes which gather in the sails, usually for a short time.
Breaker – a small barrel or cask. Sometimes spelt barricoe.
Bulkhead – a vertical partition in a ship.
Cable – 1. any heavy rope, particularly the ship’s anchor rope.
2. as a measure of distance, 200 yards.
Cant – to turn or swivel something.
Careen – to beach a ship and heave her down on one side to clean the bottom.
Cathead – a short strong beam projecting horizontally over the ship’s bows and approximately athwartships. It serves to hoist and let go an anchor without fouling the ship’s side with the anchor flukes.
Chain-plates – metal plates secured to the ship’s side to take the strain of the shrouds that hold the masts in place.
Claw off – to attempt to beat to windward to avoid a lee-shore.
Close-hauled – sailing as close to the wind as possible.
Commodore – until recently a temporary rank, senior to captain and below admiral, created for a special mission or service.
Courses – the lowest sails in a square-rigged ship.
Crowd – to carry as much sail as possible, or perhaps too much.
Cutter – see Appendix A.
Deep-sea line – see lead.
East Indiaman – a ship built for one of the East India Companies.
Embayed – driven into a bay and unable to escape the lee-shore by weathering either headland.
Fathom – the seaman’s old unit of measurement for depths and lengths of rope, equal to six feet or 1.8 metres. Now replaced by metres.
Forecastle, foc’sle – the foremost part of the upper deck of a ship.
Groyne – the old seafaring name for La Coruña in northwest Spain.
Gunnel or gunwale – the upper edge of a ship’s side.
Hand (verb) – to furl a sail.
Headsails – sails forward of the foremast, e.g. jibs and staysails.
Jeers, jeerblocks – the assemblage of tackles by which the yards of a ship are hoisted into position.
Larboard – the old term for the left-hand side of a ship when facing forward. Now port.
Lead, leadline – a long line weighted with lead and tallow and plumbed to determine the depth of water and nature of the bottom. A deep-sea line is a heavier line for deeper water.
League – a nautical measurement of distance, being three nautical miles.
Lee, lee-shore, leeward – the downwind side; a ship being blown on to a lee-shore is obviously in a hazardous position.
Lie-to – to maintain minimum steerage way to ride out a gale, usually with the wind forward of the beam to minimise heavy seas breaking aboard.
Long-boat – see Appendix A.
Lordships, Their Lordships – the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, responsible to King and Parliament for the Navy.
Master – an officer with responsibility for the navigation of the ship, subordinate to the Lieutenant.
Masts – Fore, Main and Mizzen – the three masts of a square rigger.
Middle watch – midnight to 0400.
Orlop – the highest deck that runs the whole length of the ship.
People – ordinary name for the ship’s company; that is, everyone on the ship’s list except the officers.
Pink – a small square-rigged ship, often used for victualling supplies.
Point (of the compass) – 11¼ degrees of arc.
Pressed man – a man taken by the press-gang to man a naval ship, as opposed to a volunteer. Volunteers were paid more than pressed men.
Privateer – a privately-owned vessel with guns, operating against the enemy to take prizes, with or without official licence.
Puncheon – a wooden cask.
Put about – to tack or wear to put the wind on the other side.
Quarterdeck – the after part of the upper deck of a ship.
Rate – a system of classifying warships by the number of guns. E.g. Centurion with 60 guns was a 4th rate, Wager with 28 guns a 6th rate.
Reef – to reduce the sail area by tying down part of the sail with reef-points.
Scuttle – to stave in a boat or cask.
Sheet – a rope for trimming a sail to the wind.
Shrouds – rigging that takes the athwartship strain on the masts.
Sloop – now a boat with fore-and-aft mainsail and foresail, but in the eighteenth century the term was used somewhat indiscriminately for a smaller naval vessel with auxiliary duties.
Snow – a two-masted square-rigged ship.
South Sea or South Seas – Pacific Ocean.
Starboard – the right-hand side of a ship when facing forward.
Stave, stave in (pp. stove) – to break the planking of a boat or cask.
Stays – rigging that takes the fore-and-aft strain on the masts.
Steerage – in the Wager, the space below decks forward of the wardroom.
Studdingsail, stunsail – a fair-weather sail extending outside the square sails.
Sway – to hoist the yards to their proper place.
Tack (noun) – the rope used to hold the lower corner of a sail.
Tack (verb) – the operation of bringing the wind through the bows from one side to the other.
Tangle – kelp or other coarse seaweed.
Topgallants – the top set of sails in a square-rigged ship.
Topping-lift – the rope by which the end of a boom is hoisted or supported.
Topsails – the middle set of sails on the masts of a square-rigged ship.
Variation – the amount by which magnetic north differs from true north.
Wardroom – officers’ mess.
Wear (pp. wore) – to turn away from the wind to put the wind through the stern and on to the other tack.
Yard – a spar that crosses a mast from which sails can be set.
Yawl – see Appendix A.
Acknowledgements
Diego Carabias Amor and Major Chris Holt have been in effect co-authors of this book of many authors, and outstanding collaborators they have been. Many kind people in uncountable ways have greatly helped and encouraged me. They include William Allen, Amanda Barker-Mill, Paul Blunt, Lord Byron, David Carson, Angus Cheape, Professor Sondra Miley Cooney, Shirley Critchley, Susan Danforth, Señora Maria Lluïsa Farre, Guillermo Harris, Rear Admiral Richard Hill, Commander David Joel, Professor Robert Markley, Sir William Molesworth-St. Aubyn, Commander Graham Neilson, Colin and Juliet Paul, Professor Sarah Palmer, David Pole-Evans, Anthony Phillips, Lieutenant-Commander Lawrie Phillips, Anthony Terry, Andrew Torbet and Professor Glyn Williams.
The publishing team at Uniform Press have been superb, particularly Lucy Duckworth and Felicity Price-Smith.
This Spanish chart of 1744 illustrates the navigational problems that all seamen encountered in the South Seas at that date. The wreck of the Wager is marked, but some 70 nautical miles from its proper position.
Front cover image:
The Wreck of HMS Wager, by Charles Brooking (1723-1759)
Back cover image:
The same ship (or an East Indiaman of similar characteristics) in tranquil times before being bought by the Admiralty. Also by Charles Brooking.
HMS Wager Rounding the Horn by Geoff Hunt.
Still in company and more or less undamaged, Wager is making heavy weather of it - but worse is to come.
Front Matter
Title Page
Publisher Information
Dedication
Editor’s Note
Foreword
Dramatis Personae
The Wager Disaster
Part 1
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Part 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7<
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Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Part 3
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Part 4
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Part 5
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Part 6
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Back Matter
Appendix A
Appendix B
Appendix C
Appendix D
Bibliography and Sources
Image Credits
Glossary
Acknowledgements