THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 28 29 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 the Gulf Stream near Bermuda, preceded by heavy clouds, thunder and lightning. Bermudians – Three-masted schooners built in Bermuda. Bernouilli's Principle - The modern understanding of how a ship can sail to windward, by the negative pressure generated by air flow on the leeward, forward aspect of the sail, thus sucking the ship forwards. Berry, Sir Edward - (1768-1831) English rear admiral, one of Nelson's 'band of brothers'. Bersis - An early sea cannon. Berth - 1. A mooring against a dockside. 2. Convenient sea room when ships were swinging at anchor, as in 'give a wide berth' which meant to moor far enough apart. 3. Place where a ship is at anchor. 4. Place on board ship where a mess put their chests, etc., and hence where they sleep, mess and reside. 5. Sleeping place in a ship. 6. A job or position on board ship. Berth deck - The 'tween decks. Berther - The person responsible for allocating places for hammocks to hang in. Berthing - The action of applying the planks to the ship's sides. Berthings - The upright planking of the ship's sides, especially outside the sheer strakes. Berton - A ship-rigged round ship of the Mediterranean. Berwick Smacks - Old seaworthy packets. Beset - Immovably surrounded by ice. Best bower anchor - The starboard and of the two principal anchors used every day. In fact the port bower, or small bower, was the same size. See Anchor for details. Bete – (v) Mend nets. Betester – A person who does bete-ing. Bethel- Seamen’s' church or nonconformist chapel. Better end - Bitter end Bet-ups – Fishing nets that have been mended. Between decks - The space between any two decks of a vessel, often called the 'tween decks. Between the devil and the deep blue sea – The devil was the outermost deck seam, up against the ship’s side (next to the sea). If a seaman slipped on deck he could fall into the junction between the deck and the side and so be between the devil and the deep blue sea. The expression evolved into that for a precarious choice between two evils. See devil. Between, or betwixt, wind & water - The point on a ship's side which is just above the waterline. Bevel (vb) - To hew a timber with the correct curve, as determined by the mould being laid along the working edge. Bevelling - An alteration of an edge, away from square. Also applied to the forming of a timber to a mould. Bevelling board - A piece of board on which bevellings were described. Beverage – A drink made of sugar-cane juice and water, in the West Indies. Beverage wine – Watered-down wine. Bewpers - High quality woollen material used to make sails and flags in 17c. Sometimes called bewpars. Bezan or Bizan rig - Small yacht rig, usually ketch rigged. Bezan - Single-mast short gaff boom rig Bezant - Small gold coin. Bibbs - A bracket under the trestle-tree of a mast. Also called cheeks. Bible - 1. A hand axe. 2. Holystone used to scrub the decks. So called through its resemblance in size and shape to a bible, in the religious sense. Bible-leaves - A horse-piece of whale blubber, sliced repeatedly nearly through, to facilitate the trying out or boiling out of the whale oil. Bible-Press – A hand rolloing board for preparing cartridge cases and similar. Bidding - Solemn litany between Captain and crew at the commissioning ceremony. Biddle, Nicholas - (1750-78) An American naval officer of great promise, who threw it all away by getting himself blown up with his ship Randolph whilst fighting the British ship HMS Yarmouth near Barbados. Bicker - A flat bowl or basin used for carrying liquids. Sometimes beaker. Bid hook - A small boat-hook. Biel brief - A Danish, Swedish or German bottomry contract. Bight - 1. A turn or loop of rope. 2. The central part of a rope. 3. An area of sea between two promontories. Big topsail – A type of square topsail rigged on yachts with a square yard above a gaff mainsail. Big wigs - A disrespectful term for high officers. Bilander - Two masted merchantman hoy used for Dutch coastal and canal traffic. Bilbo - An old term for a flexible cutlass, from Bilbao where the best were made. Bilbo Baggins - Fictional hero of 'The Hobbit', by J R R Tolkein. He has no connections with the sea. Bilboes - Heavy iron fetters used to restrain a felon under arrest, to the floor, just abaft the mainmast. Bilge, bulge - 1. That part of a ship's floor either side of the keel, where it starts to slope upwards, upon which a ship sits if grounded. Hence: 2. The cavity between the ship's sides and the keel, where water collects, and from which it is pumped out periodically. 3. The largest circumference of a cask. Bilge blocks – Short heavy timbers used to support the bilges of a vessel in dry dock. Bilge boards - Timber coverings over the bilges, used to stop bilge water getting out of and rubbish getting into the bilges. Bilge coads - Sliding planks used when launching a ship. Bilged, bulged - Said of a ship that has been holed in her bilge. Bilge fever - Sickness caused by breathing vapours from a foul hold. Bilge free – 1 Some cargo had to be stowed away from the bilge to avoid water damage. See also 'Bungs up and bilge free'. 2 Full of booze but not quite drunk enough to get caught. Bilgekeel - Horizontal length of plate and anglebars fixed at right angles externally to the hull, at the turn of the bilge. These reduced roll and added strength to the hull. Sometimes called docking keels. Bilge piece, or bilge rail – Wooden hand grips fixed to the outside of a boat’s bilge, to be used by the crew to hold on if the boat has capsized. Bilge planks - Timber pieces used to reinforce the inside or outside of the bilges, to prevent damage. Bilge pump – The main pump of a sailing ship, comprising a wooden tube extending from the bilge to the deck, where it was operated by the pump brake and two attached pistons. Often simply called the pump. Cf chain pump. Bilge rail – See bilge piece. Bilge rat - An unloved shipmate, usually because of his personal habits. Bilge strake - The continuous horizontal row of plating at the turn of the bilge, extended the entire length of the vessel. Bilge water - Water in the bilge, usually stagnant, so also anything that tastes unpleasant in the extreme. Bilge trees - Bilge coads. Bilge Water – Water that has entered the ship from rainfall or penetration and collected in the bilges, awaiting pumping out, and has usually become dirty and smelly. Bilge water alarm – A clockwork bell located in the bilges that rings when the water level rises above a comfortable level. Bilgeway - A timber laid longitudinally beneath the bilges of a ship under construction, as part of the cradle built to support the hull. Bilious Fever - Yellow fever, or derangement of the bile. Bill - 1. The fluke or triangular plate on anchor arms. Also pea or peak. 2. An Elizabethan halberd or pike. (Cross ref with Halberd). 3. A point of land. Billabillian - Crooked dealing, particularly amongst those in authority. Bill block - Block on a ship's side, onto which the anchor bill rested. Billboard – A metal plate supporting the bill block attached to the cat-head to hold the anchor flukes when stowed. Billet-figure - The figurehead of a whaler. Also billet-head. Billet-head - 1. A block of wood at the bow of a whale-boat, round which the harpoon line runs. 2. A simple figurehead usually in the shape of the end of a violin. Sometimes called fiddlehead, or scrollhead. Billet wood - Small pieces of wood used for dunnage or as fuel. Billiboys - Goole? Bill of Exchange - A document used to transfer money from one country to another. Bill of Freedom - A pass for a neutral at time of war. Bill of Health - A certificate issued at the port of departure, signifying no contagious disease on the ship, if 'clean'. Required by port authorities before berthing was permitted at port of arrival. Bill of Lading - A list of the cargo. Bill of Sale - A document used to transfer ownership of a vessel. Bill of Sight - A custom house officer's warrant to examine goods. Bill of Store - A certificate issued by a custom house licensing a ship to carry stores for a voyage, custom-free. Billow – An elevated and airy expression describing a swelling wave of the sea. Bills - The ends of a compass or knee timber. ‘Billy Blue’ – Seamen’s nickname for Admiral Sir William Cornwallis. Billy-Boy, Billyboy, - An east coast small barge type trading boat. Also, Billy-boat. ‘Billy go tight’ - One of many nicknames for Admiral Sir William Cornwallis. Billy Pitt's men - See Lord Mayor's men. ‘Billy Ruffian' - HMS Bellerophon. Billy-tackle - Portable tackle for tightening braces, etc. Binding - A connecting timber. Binding strake - A length of uniform width deck plank running front to back of the ship, into which the ends of parallel planking terminate. Binge - To rinse out, or 'bull', a cask to prepare it for use. Bingid - A locker. Binn - A large locker. Binnacle - Housing for the compass and other navigational instruments, fixed in front of the ship's wheel. It usually had an internal light. Previously called the Bittacle. Binocle - Binocular. Bird's nest - A small round top placed at the masthead, most often on whalers, from which the widest field of view was achieved. Also crow's nest. Bireme - Early oared galley, with two tiers of oars. Birlins - Small Highland oared galleys from medieval times to 16-17c. Birth-marks - Marks above which a ship should not be loaded. Biscay shallop rig - Biscuit - Ship's Biscuit was the staple starch food and was hard baked bread that did not go off. It was usually broken up and soaked in soft foods, to stretch the meal and make it more edible. Weevils liked Ship's Biscuit and often infested them, resulting in the reflective habit of rapping the biscuit on the mess table before eating it, to make the weevil grubs fall out. Bisection Theorem - Ship handling theory, in which the angle of the sail bisects the angle between the wind and the ship's head. Bit – A silver coin formed in Spanish colonies from ‘cut-money’ (coins cut into pieces), which had a value of one eighth of a dollar, or 12½ cents, as it still does in the US today. Bite – (v) To dig into the holding-ground, or seabed, said of an anchor. Bitt, bitts - Large baulks or posts arranged in pairs, fastened into the deck, for belaying anchor cables, halliards, ropes, etc. See also Carrick bitts, Riding bitts, Topsail sheet bitts, Windlass bitts, etc. Bitt – (v) To turn a cable or rope round the bitts to fasten it or to slacking it off slowly. See also veering away. Bittacle - The binnacle. Originally its Latin name was habitaculum. Bitter - The turn of cable around the bitts. Hence, 'the bitter end', which referred to that part of the chain or rope inboard of the bitts, usually just a
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