THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 144 145 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 or repair a ship’s rigging. Rigging - The ropes and wires of a vessel, including standing and running rigging. Right – (v) To return a vessel to its proper upright position following careening, or some similar laying over. Right ascension – An east-west coordinate equivalent of terrestrial longitudes. Right ascension of the meridian – Time based on the rotation of the Earth relative to the stars. Also sidereal time. Right-handed – The direction of lay of hawserlaid and shroud-laid ropes, where the strands lay from upper right to lower left. Righting – 1. Said of a vessel recovering from a heavy roll. 2. (v) Bringing a vessel upright after she has capsized. Right knot – Another name for a reef knot. Right the helm – A helm order given when the conner wanted the helm brought back to amidships after it has been put to port or starboard. Also ‘midships’, or ‘helm amidships’. Rig in – The order given to withdraw a boom from its extreme location. Rigol - A curved moulding fastened above a port hole or scuttle, or similar opening, to prevent water entering the opening by running down from above. Also called eyebrow, port flange and spurnwater. Rig out – The order given to extend a boom into position. Rim - The circular outer edge of the top. Sometimes called the brim. Rime - A rung of a ladder. Ring-bolt – A type of bolt with an eye and ring in its head, used for hooking tackles. Ring eight bells - To die. Ring-rope – A short rope attached to a ring-bolt, used to secure the anchor cable or some other rope under strain. Ring tail – A studding sail set aft of the gaff mizzen sail, with its lower end attached to a ringtail boom extending from the mizzen boom. Rinse out, or 'bull', a cask, to Rip (vb) - To pull old caulking out of seams before re-caulking. Ripping Down – The dockyard term for the dismantling of a ship. The Navy Board term was ‘Taking to Pieces’, which is what it was, as every removed part was examined and reused wherever possible, or stored for use on another vessel. Ripping iron - A long-handled forked tool used for ripping old planks and sheathing from a vessel's bottom. Rippling sea - See Poppling sea. Rise – (v) To appear above the horizon. Rise and shine - Call when making the pipe 'Call the hands'. Rising – The fore-and-aft timber running along the inside of a boat, to take the ends of the thwarts. Rising floor - The upward sweep to fore and aft of a vessel's floor timbers. Rising line - See Dead rise. Rising square - A shipwright's square, used in measuring the upward sweep of a vessel's side or lines. Rising wood - Pieces of timber worked into the underside of the floor timbers and into the keel, to hold the keel firmly in place. River, The – When referring to the Home Fleet: The Thames. Rivet - An iron or steel pin formed with a head at one end, and onto the other end of which a head is formed by hammering when the rivet is in place. Rivets are known by the shape of their heads, such as conical, countersunk, pan or snap head. R.N. - Royal Navy. R.N.L.I. - Royal National Life-boat Institution. R.N.R. - Royal Navy Reserve. Roach - The cutaway, or raised line, forming the foot of a square sail. Roader – A vessel moored in a roadstead. Roadstead – An area of open sea near land, with good holding ground, where vessels may moor in safety but unprotected from the weather or sea. Sometimes called ‘open roadstead’. Roat of the shore - The sound of waves hitting the shore. Rob – The distillation of fruit juice. Particularly used as a prevention and cure of scurvy. Robands - Short lengths of small line that pass through eyelets at the head of a sail to attach it to its yard or jackstay. Also called rope bands, rovings, or robbens. Robbens - Short lengths of small line that pass through eyelets at the head of a sail to attach it to its yard or jackstay. Also called robands, rope bands, or rovings. Rockered - Said of a keel that increases in depth towards the after end, usually for improved stability in fast sailers. Rocking the quadrant, or sextant – The rocking back and forth of a quadrant or sextant to achieve a more accurate measurement of altitude. Also swinging the arm or arc. Rogue’s yarn – A white or coloured yarn laid into each strand of any rope issued by one of HM Dockyards or those of the East India Company, or similar, to identify the owner of the rope and so to prevent their being proffed. Also marker yarn. Roll – The swinging of a vessel from side to side in a heavy sea or swell. Rollers - Cylindrical timbers used to move heavy objects, by temporarily placing them underneath the object and then rolling it along. 2. Swell in shoal water that does not break. Roller sheave – A pulley fixed inside a block. Rolling chock, rolling cleat - A shaped wooden piece attached to the middle of an upper yard to steady it against the mast. Also parrel cleat. Rolling cleat - See Rolling chock. Rolling hitch - A hitch designed to allow for the rolling or pitching movement of the object it secures. Rolling tackle – A tackle rigged onto the weather side of the topgallant masts in heavy weather, to restrain the yard from chafing the mast. Romb – One of the non-cardinal points of the compass. More usually rhumb, or rumb, or wind. Ron finish – A method of pointing a rope end which incorporates a diamond knot over the heart. Room and space - The term for the distance between two adjoining frames. This was at least a space the breadth of two frames. Also called timber and room. Rooming – A safe distance of water to leeward. Roove - Small copper washers over which the ends of nails used in clinker-built vessels are flattened to make them secure. Rooving iron - A hollow punch tool, used to hold a roove over a nail end for fastening. Rope – Any cordage more than one inch diameter. Usually made of manila or hemp, which is stronger, sometimes tarred and twisted into strands that are then laid into a rope. Wire ropes were introduced for standing rigging late in the nineteenth century. The size of a rope or cable used to refer to the circumference. Rope bands - Short lengths of small line that pass through eyelets at the head of a sail to attach it to its yard or jackstay. Also called robands, rovings, or robbens. Ropes - Prior to 19c, made of hemp, coir, leather and manila. Rope’s end – A short length of rope, or the end of a long rope. Ropes, To know the – As it would only be an experienced seaman that could know the functions and operations of all the standing and running rigging, this phrase was said of such a one. Rope yarn – Yarn made from twenty-five, twenty or eighteen hemp threads, of various thicknesses. A twenty-five thread yarn is finer than an eighteen thread yarn of the same thickness. Rope yarn knot – A knot formed by separating the strands of a rope and tying them together with the ends served; used to repair standing rigging. Roping needle – A strong curved needle used to sew bolt ropes around sails or awnings. Roping palm – A heavy duty hand protector comprising a leather strip with a metal cup sewn into the palm, used as a thimble for the sailmaker’s roping needle to be forced through canvas. Rorty - Bellicose, usually through having partaken of an excess of drink. Rosebur - Roove by another name. Rose knot - A knob knot made by forming a diamond knot and the tucking the ends in through the centre. Rose lashing - A method of lashing blocks or stays to a mast or spar, where the eyes are lashed with racking turns with the lashings passed alternately over and under the turns, forming a spiral ‘rose’. Roster - Duty list, and also a list of those waiting for promotion. A dry roster was an empty list. Rough log – Another name for the deck log, from which the mate prepared the smooth log for the master’s signature. Rough tree - An unfinished mast or spar. Rough tree rail - The timber fixed to the top of a vessel's frame members, forming the upper bulwark. Roughers - A bit of rough sea. Round – (v) To sail round a headland or seamark, keeping a steady distance from it. Round house - A deckhouse aft of the main mast. Originally, the poop. Round in – (v) To haul on the fall of a tackle to close he distance between its blocks. Rounding – Serving around the cable at the hawse or athwart the stem, made from old rope yarns and used to prevent chafing. Roundly - Quickly and smartly. Round ribbed - Said of a vessel with a curved Tumble home. Rounds – 1. The formal tour of inspection, given the full title of whomsoever was doing it, such as the Captain's Rounds. 2. The wooden rungs of a Jacob's ladder or a jack ladder. Round seam – A seam between two joined pieces of canvas, in which the edges do not overlap. Round seizing - A general-purpose seizing formed by taking an inner and outer layer of turns around both ropes, bringing the end down through the initial turn and adding two cross turns. Round spliced - A join made by unlaying two ropes and marrying them. Round the buoy - Seamen's slang for having a second helping at meals. Round to – Bring a vessel’s head to the wind. Round top - The name commonly given to the tops, despite their not being round, from the fact that the tops on early ships were, in fact, round, and the name stuck. The British seaman is very conservative. Round turn – A single turn of a rope around a bollard or timber head. Round up – (v) 1. To close the distance between two blocks when the load is off a tackle. 2. To take up the slack of any rope passing through a vertical tackle. Round wind – A wind that changes direction by 180° during daylight. Rouse – (v) To pull together without a mechanical aid, such as a capstan or windlass. Rouse about block – A large snatch block with a slotted or hinged part of the shell, by which a rope could be laid directly onto the sheave. Rovings - Short lengths of small line that pass through eyelets at the head of a sail to attach it to its yard or jackstay. Also called robands, rope bands, or robbens. Row – (v) To propel a boat by facing astern and pulling on oars. Row boat, or rowing boat - Any boat propelled by oars. Rowl – A small crane used to unload cargo. Rowlock – The aperture in a boat’s wash strake through which an oar would operate. Royal Humane Society - Forerunner of the RNLI Royal mast - The mast above the topgallant mast, usually the top one. Rubber – A flat steel tool used to flatten down seams after the sewing has been finished. 2. The protective wooden moulding fixed along the outside of a boat’s gunwale to prevent chafing against a dockside or ship’s side. Also rubbing piece. Rubbing band - ? Rubbing paunch - A smooth wooden guard fixed over the front of mast hoops, to protect the yards from damage during raising or lowering. Rubbing piece – See rubber. Rudder - The hinged steering device at the stern of a vessel. Rudder brace, or band - One of the horizontal brackets on the fore edge of the rudder, holding either a pintle or a gudgeon.
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