THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 30 31 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 short length. Bitter end – The inboard length of an anchor cable was secured to strong timbers called riding bitts and lashed fast to the bottom of the cable locker. If the cable was run out all the way it was said to be at the bitter end, which has come to mean anything at its limit. Bitt head – The upper end of a heavy timber set vertically through the deck and used to make a cable fast. Bitting cable – The evolution of passing a turn of cable round a bitt. Bitt-men - Older, experienced but less active seamen who did not go aloft. So named as they expertly handled the ropes. Also stoppermen or mast party. Bitt-pin - A large iron pin inserted into a hole in the bitt, around which the hawser or rope was tied off, for a quick release. Also Norman. Bitts – Heavy timber uprights used for securing anchor cables or other heavy ropes. Bitt stopper – Approximately a fathom of rope about half the size of the cable, lashed round the turns of an anchor cable securing it to the bitts, to keep it taut and prevent slipping. Bitt the cable – When weighing anchor, the order given once the anchor is fished to remove the stoppers and attach the anchor cable to the bitts to prevent it running out accidentally. Bize – A wind off the coast of southern France. Blackamoor - A very black negro. Black Bag - A small bag sewn out of an old piece of sailcloth, painted black, in which a sailor kept his most treasured belongings. If offered to a 'lady' it was said to represent a proposal of marriage. Replaced in 1870 by the Ditty Box or Ditty Bag. Blackball - To exclude a seaman from peer society, due to a misdemeanour. Blackbird - A slave. Blackbirder - A slave ship. Blackbirding – Catching slaves. Also ‘black bird catching’. Black Book of the Admiralty - A list of the laws and customs of the sea, including the English version of the laws of Oleron that dated from the thirteenth century to Tudor times. Black Day - Modern name for 31 July 1970, when the last tot was issued; so called because of the tradition being lamented, not for the rum, of course. Black Dick - Nickname for Admiral Lord Howe. Black down - To tar and black the rigging, using a mixture of coal tar, vegetable tar and sea water boiled up and laid on hot, as a preservative. Black Fish – Common seamen’s term for whales and other cetaceans. Black Indies - North east ports of England, particularly Newcastle, Shields and Sunderland. Blacking the rigging - Applying black stuff, or blacking down, for preservation. Black Ivory - Slaves. Black Jack - 1. A flag traditionally flown by pirate ships. 2. Sailors' name for bubonic plague. 3. Leather beer mug or leather jerkin. Black List - Forbidden private record of misdemeanours, kept by some captains for their own use against crew members. Black Powder - A coarse, unstable, early form of gunpowder. See serpentine and corned powder. Black Pudding – The horse whip used at the Naval Academy, Gosport. Blacks, as seamen - There was no discrimination at all, but they were neither common nor rare. Black Ship - A ship built in India, from the colour of the builders, not their light-coloured teak timbers. Black silk handkerchief - Became popular with sailors, worn as a protection of the coat from greased pigtail, and as a sweat band when in action, to keep the eyes clear of sooty sweat. Blacksmith's shop - All the gear of the patent reefing systems on the yard. Black south-easter – A wind off the Cape of Good Hope. Black squall - West Indian sudden squall of wind, usually accompanied by lightning. Black's the white of my eye - Seamen’s' denial of a charge. Black strakes - Wide strakes just above the wales, made of blackwood, or painted with a mixture of tar and lamp-black to preserve them and to show them up in contrast to lighter parts of the side. Black Strap - A drink usually concocted from rum + molasses + a dash of vinegar. But also an unpopular Spanish red wine, from which, being posted to the Mediterranean was known as 'being Black Strapped'. Black stuff - Slang term for an antifouling compound made of coal or vegetable tar and seawater boiled together, laid hot onto hulls and rigging. Black vomit - Yellow fever or Yellow Jack. Blackwallers - Large flat-decked merchant sailing ships of mid-19th century, originally designed and built at Blackwall on the Thames. Also, the name applied to some later merchantmen painted black. Blackwall hitch - A tackle hook guy in which the bight of the rope is held by it being jammed against the standing part. Blackwall ratline - A ratline seized to the foremost shroud, to confine the running rigging. Black Whale – The Right Whale. Blackwood, Sir Henry - (1779-1832) The best known of Nelson's captain's after Hardy. Became vice admiral in 1819 and finished his active service as c-in-c at the Nore. Blade - 1. The part of an anchor that receives the palm. 2. The flattened end of an oar that enters the water and applies force to it. Also called the ‘wash of an oar’. Blaeu, William Janszoon - (c1608) Dutch map publisher. Blake – Yellow, in English north-eastern dialect. Hence, if someone looks sickly they may be said to ‘blake’. Blake, Robert - (1599-1657) British admiral and colonel. Introduced the Articles of War and the Fighting Instructions to the British Navy. Blake slip - Cable stopper. Blane, Dr Sir Gilbert - (1749-1834) Influential naval physician, made physician of the fleet in the West Indies, in 1779, by Lord Rodney. Was Commissioner for Sick and Wounded from 1795 to 1802. Fellow of the Royal Society. Advocate of the benefits of lemon juice as an antiscorbutic. Author of Observations on the Diseases Incident to Seamen in 1785 and Select Dissertations in 1822, both of which proved very helpful in treating seamen’s' maladies. Blank - The level line mark of a cannon, usually 800 yards. Also point-blank. Blanket – 1. (v) To sail to windward of another vessel, when both are tacking, and rob the wind from the other vessel. 2. A strip of blubber flensed or peeled off a whale’s carcass. Also called a blanket piece. Blanket piece – A strip of blubber peeled off a whale’s carcass. Blanketting - More particularly the action of some sails preventing useful wind onto other sails, if the ship is not well trimmed. Blare - 1. To bellow. 2. A paste of hair and tar used to caulk a ship's decks or a boat. Blashy - Wet and dirty weather. Blast - 1. A sudden gust of wind. 2. An explosion. Blasted whale - An inflated whale, floating alongside the whaler until it could be tried out, or processed. Blast-engine - A machine for pumping fresh air into a hold and stale air out. Blaze - To 'blaze away' was a common term for firing the guns briskly and continuously. Blazer – 1. In 1845, HMS Blazer's gig crew were required, by their captain, to wear particularly smart blue and white striped jerseys, before blue jackets became standard uniform issue. Where RN leads, Henley still follows. 2 A mortar or bomb vessel, from its phenomenal blast when firing. Bleed - 1. To draw or let blood surgically. 2. To drain a water logged buoy. 3. To remove grog whilst it was in transit from the grog-tub to the mess where it was due, by means of taking a sip from the 'monkey', or wooden grog kid. Hence 'bleeding the monkey'. 4. To drain a buoy. Bleus - Those French seamen and officers who were not aristocrats. cf Rouges. Bligh, William - (1754-1817) British vice admiral. A skilled navigator who first proved himself on Captain Cook's last circumnavigation in 1775-79. Famous as the captain against whom the crew of HMS Bounty mutinied in 1789, and who navigated a 3,600 miles voyage in an open boat as a result. Went on to show courage at the battles of Camperdown and Copenhagen and appointed as governor of New South Wales, where he fell out with those operating the rum traffic and was sent home in 1808. Blinder – A hidden, uncharted reef. Blindmen - Dutch name for lee helmsmen, who followed the movements of the weather helmsman, watching only him, as only the weather helmsman could see the compass, sails, etc. Blind buckler - A large wooden plug used as a cover for the hawse hole, without a hole for the cable, used when at sea to prevent ingress of water. Cf buckler Blinder – A hidden uncharted reef. Blind harbour - One in which the entrance is not readily visible from sea. Blind rock - One lying just submerged and not visible. Blind Shell – A shell that has failed to explode. Blind stakes - A weir or fish kettle just submerged and not visible. Blink - A bright reflection of ice in the sky, seen from afar. Blirt - A gust of wind and rain. Blizzard – A snow squall. Blocco – A concoction of hair and paper used to pay a vessel’s bottom. Block – 1. An enclosed pulley, usually with one, two, three or more sheaves, used for purchase, particularly when working sails. The many types of blocks include the following: bee, brace, bullseye, buntline, cheek, cleat, clewgarnet, clewline, closed heart, continental lift, D-block, deadeye, double sheet, euphroe, fiddle, gin, ironbound, jeer, lead-cleat, leechline, leg and fall, lift, long tackle, monkey, ninepin, open heart, quarter, rack, ramshead, sheet, shoe, shoulder, sister, snatch, spritsail sheet, strop, thimble, tie, topsail sheet and lift, truck, etc. 2. The large piece of timber from which the figurehead is carved. Blockade - To cruise off an enemy's port, stopping ship movements and thus, usually, trade. Block and block - A tackle in which two blocks have been drawn together, thereby seizing it up and making the purchase useless until released and redrawn. Also 'chock-a-block'. Blockmaker, Blockmill - Manufactory of blocks. Blocks - Solid oak timbers laid across the groundways, on which a ship is built or repaired. Usually called fixed blocks. Blockship - A ship used to block a harbour entrance, a strategy commonly used in modern times by French fishermen when they feel aggrieved about the EC Common Fisheries Policy, but a tradition of historical longevity. Sometimes, an unrigged ship used as floating battery. Block span – A length of wire used to keep the lower blocks of a boat’s falls from getting tangled when the boat has been released. Blood and guts - Seamen's slang for the Union Jack. Blood boat - Name for the small ship's cutter used to bring off fresh meat. Blooding and Sweating – The common pirates’ punishment of captured captains who were reluctant to cooperate with their captors. It comprised the offender having to run the gauntlet of all crew members, who were armed with spiked or nailed strops that drew blood at every stroke. The victim would then be covered with a blanket and fastened inside an empty sugar cask infested with of cockroaches, where the heat, blood and sugar would encourage the vermin to feed. Bloodletting - Popular (with ships' surgeons) cure-all. Blood money – Money paid to an innkeeper, or similar, for the illicit procurement of seamen for a ship. Bloodsuckers - An unfriendly name for those friendless crewmembers who avoided their share of the labours.
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