THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 114 115 THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF PETER TURNER ©2024 THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF PETER TURNER ©2024 If any reader can provide information, please send to galf@abandos.com If any reader can provide information, please send to galf@abandos.com bowl filled with low freezing point liquid, upon which the compass card floats. This was steadier in bad sea conditions. List - 1. The tilt of a vessel to either side. 2. Scraps of the seamed edge of fabric, used to make hard-wearing but soft slippers. 3. The Navy, or Captains' List, the list of all RN Captains which recorded their seniority. List Slippers - See List. List, The - The Navy List. Lithsmen - Seamen/officers (?) of Cnut and Edward the Confessor. Little one bell – The signal of one stroke on the bell, for the night watch to muster and be checked. Littoral - Lit up - Drunk. Lively - Seamen's slang for doing something quickly and with enthusiasm. Liverpool hook – A hook with an inward turned bill to prevent slipping, used at the end of a cargo runner. Liverpool pantiles – Ship’s biscuits, from their hardness. Living high off the hog - Eating well off salt pork, as a relief from salt horse (beef). Living Six on Four - Six men living on the rations of four men. Lizards – 1. Short strops, seized to hanks at intervals down the luff of a sail and used to guide the downhaul. 2. An iron thimble spliced into the main bowlines and pointed over one end so that a tackle could be attached to it. 3. A rope with a thimble at one end, attached to a boat boom to which a boat could be made fast. Llevantades - NNE-EWE gales in spring and autumn in E Spain. Lloyds Coffee House - The centre of maritime finances...Started in 1692 Lloyds Presentation Sword - Given to Royal Navy captains who were judged, by Lloyds, to have done them a good service, usually by capturing or destroying enemy ships that had caused mischief to commerce, resulting in losses to Lloyds. Lloyd's Register (LR) - CTC Load – 1. (v) To stow a cargo on a vessel. 2. A wagon load of timber. Typically one load = one oak tree. A single third rate ship of the line would take approximately 3400 loads. 3400 loads = approximately 64 acres of woodland. Loaded and run out - Ready, originally of cannon, but, with the seaman’s' habit of arcane language, it came to be applied to anything. e.g. If someone’s jaw was 'l and r o' it meant they were ready for a chat, usually a long and unstoppable one. Load draught - The distance from the water-line to the keel taken by a particular load. Load lines – The marks made in a ship’s side at the waterline to show when she is fully loaded. A ‘recent’ innovation. Loafing stations - A shore establishment. Lobby (to hanging magazine) - (tge) Lobbyman - Pilot Lobcock - Landsman. Lob-Dominion - Seamen’s' food. Loblolly - The thin gruel served in the Sick Berth. Loblolly Boy - Ship's Surgeon's young (usually) assistant or mate. From the sound of boiling porridge and thick gruel often served to make sick men better, and often failing to. Lobscouse - A sailor’s dish comprising minced salt beef, stewed vegetables, crushed ship's biscuit and whatever else is available, layered and cooked. 'Scouse' derives from this name. Lobsters – A regular soldier’s name for the Royal Marines, because of their scarlet uniforms. Lobtailing – A sperm whale at play by slapping its tail on the surface of the water. Local mean time – Mean time kept at any place. Lock – An enclosed basin interconnecting areas of lower and higher water level, through which vessels can pass to get from one to the other. Locker - A cupboard or small, lockable, storage compartment, used for food, cleaning equipment, clothing, etc. Lock gates – Water-gates located at the upper and lower ends of a lock, the sequential operation of which enables the lock to fill or empty as required. Locking bars - Flat iron bars used to secure the tarpaulin covers to hatchway coamings in heavy weather. Locking of yardarms - SMS Locking pintle - A flanged pintle used to prevent the rudder from becoming unshipped accidentally. Lock string - On gun. Locust - Hardwood. CTC Lodging knee - A heavy right-angled timber bracket fixed horizontally between a vessel's beams and sides to give it strength. Loft - To lay out a full scale working drawing of the lines of a vessel's hull. See Mould Loft. Lofting - Lofty - A high tide. Log - 1. Device used to measure speed of ship. Normally Common Log. Originally an actual log was used as the float. 2. Or log book – The official record of events on board ship and of her movements. Log – The book into which the permanent record of the details of a vessel’s course and events were written up from the log board at noon each day. Also log book, or day book. Log board – Two hinged boards that were folded together, painted black and ruled, onto which the details of the courses, log distances, winds and other occurrences were temporarily chalked, before being written up into the log board. On smaller vessels the same job was done by the traverse board. Logbook – The book into which the permanent record of the details of a vessel’s course and events were written up from the log board at noon each day. Also log, or day book. Log Chip - Actually Log-Ship. Logged - The recording of a reprimand to an officer that was usually disregarded when that officer moved on to another ship. Loggerheads - Hollow spheres of iron on a shaft that were heated in a fire and used to melt solid pitch in a bucket, and avoid ignition. Seamen considered it fun to settle a dispute by attempting to beat each other with loggerheads whilst dodging their opponent's swing. It could hurt. Ashore, to be ‘at loggerheads’ has come to be slang for any quarrelling. Also were used to fire guns by giving a hot touch to the priming. (Maybe only in the US Navy). Log-Glass - 14, 28 or 30 second timer used with the Common Log. Log-Line - Main Line of Common Log, marked in knots. Log pump - (tge) Log-reel - Onto which the Log-Line was wound. Log-ship, logship - A contrivance by which a ship's speed is measured, comprising a lead weighted wooden quadrant used as float of Common Log. Loguy – A heavy and slow fishing vessel. London Papers - For advertising recall etc -- Gazetteer, Daily Advertiser, Public Advertiser, Evening Advertiser, Whitehall Evening Post, and General Evening Post. Longboat - ERR Longboat - Originally the main ship's boat until replaced by the Launch in mid 18c. Long-boomer – Yawl-rigged fishing vessels from Aldeburgh, Suffolk, so named because of their long retractable bowsprits. Long call - A Wardroom table call for something to be passed up from down the table. Long clothes - Worn by landsmen on land. Also Long Togs. Long flaking of cable - SMS Long-glass - Telescope. Long gasket - A longer gasket usually used at sea. A shorter harbour gasket was used in port, as it was neater. Longitude - In navigational terms, a great circle that passes through the poles. In other words, they run north to south, as distinct from latitudes that run east to west. The angular distance of a location east or west of a prime meridian, usually Greenwich. Longitude Act - 1714 Prizes of £20,000, £15,000 and £10,000 offered for practical sea-going methods of finding the longitude, of accuracies of half a degree, two-thirds and one respectively. Longitude by chronometer – A method of determining Greenwich time by carrying an accurate timekeeping device on board, set at Greenwich time, taking an altitude observation and solving the navigational triangle. The longitude was established by adding local mean time to Greenwich Mean Time. Longitude by lunar distance – A method of determining Greenwich time by measuring the angular distance of the Moon from a nearby predicted star and looking it up in an almanac to establish the longitude. The calculations necessary were called ‘clearing the distance’ and they were very laborious and the sights of Moon and stars had to be done during twilight, when they could be done simultaneously. Longitude by Time Keeper - Same as Longitude by Chronometer. Longitudinal stability - SMS Longitudinal stress - The strain on any longitudinal member of a vessel's structure that can cause distortion. Long jaw – The term for a rope laid with its strands forming an angle of less than 45° from the run of the rope. Long leg and thimble - to spritsail yard parrel, to allow its being easily lowered and raised. Long line – A fishing line worked from a boat or set at low tide, with from 20 to 4,000 hooks attached to the main line by light lines called snoods. Long Pennant - All ships used long pennants. Also known as Coach Whip. Long Pig - Southsea term for white man, usually thought to refer to his meat rather than his manners. Long pole head - (ecr) Longship – 1. Generic term for long narrow Viking ships of 9c onwards. 2. Originally, seamen’s term for a ship with poor rations, or poor quality victuals. It came to mean, not being offered hospitality. Longshore current – A current running parallel to the shore. Long shot – The expression for a chancy try at something, from the practice of trying a cannon shot at extreme range, without much hope of a hit. Longsplice - A method of lengthening a rope to be reeved through a block, as it increases the diameter by very little. The rope ends are unlayed and placed within each other, replacing each unlaid strand for one of the other rope, the opposig ends then being trimmed off. Long stay – Said of an anchor cable that extends away from the bows more than four times the depth of the water. Long tackle - SMS Long tackle block – A single-shelled block in which two sheaves turn on separate pins, a larger one above a smaller, thus permitting two ropes to be worked at the same time. Similar to a fiddle block. Long timber - A timber among the cant frames, forming a floor by stretching from the deadwood to the second futtock. Sometimes called the long top-timber. Long Togs - Long Tom - A paintbrush on a pole. Long top-timber - See Long timber. Longwaisted - Description of a vessel with a long waist, i.e. an open deck between the poop and the forecastle. Loo'ard - Leeward Loof – 1. An early spar that was replaced by the bowline and tack that did the same job of hauling the leach of a sail forward or down respectively. 2. The after part of the bow, where the planks start to curve in towards the stem. Loof hooks - SMS Look on – To haul part of a fishing net out of the sea to check whether or not the fish were in the net. Look-out – The crewmember assigned to keep a visual watch from high on the foremast, or sometimes in the bow, or both when conditions were bad. Look out for - Seamen's slang for being a substitute on duty. Lookouts - SMS Loom – 1. The handgrip part of an oar. 2. The sense of nearness of a coast, even when not in sight. 3. To seem unnaturally large or close in a
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