THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 34 35 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 'Bosun'. The Warrant officer responsible for keeping the general maintenance of the ship, and the crew, in order, and who carries out punishments. His badge of office was his pipe or whistle worn on a chain round his neck and his cherriliccum. Boatswain Captain - The cheeky name given to a captain who knows all the various duties on board. Boatswain's cabin - What it says. Boatswain's Call - Traditional pipe or whistle used by the boatswain to make various whistled signals to crew. The pipe comprised a white metal tube mouthpiece, known as the 'gun', joined to a chamber, the 'buoy', with an orifice on top and a 'keel' under, which had a 'shackle' attached on to which a chain was fixed. Now only used ceremonially, when greeting naval dignitaries to a ship. Boatswain's calls - Calls made by the boatswain with the Boatswain's Call, or Pipe. Originally there were over 22 calls in the Royal Navy, but the main ones were as follows: 'Piping the side', a purely Naval salute accorded to Royal or Naval visitors of appropriate rank, and never to others. The only known exception to this was the honour accorded to Sir Winston Churchill. This salute was only for daytime visitors, except foreign naval visitors who were so saluted at any time; 'Hoist', first pipe call; 'Lower', second pipe call; these two calls often used to hoist an officer from one ship to another in heavy weather. Boatswain's cane - Made from rattan and used to encourage the men in their work, by striking them with it. Known as 'starting', hence his cane also known as his starter. Boatswain's chair - A board, Boatswain’s chair – A two-foot long board suspended on a bridle from each corner, forming a mobile seat used to sway a man aloft or over the side, for scraping, painting, etc., where there is no safe foothold. Boatswain's driver - Boatswain's mate. Boatswain's mate - A Petty officer assisting the boatswain, often used as ship's police, but, or consequently, not popular with the seamen. Boatswain's pipe - See Boatswain's Call. Boatswain’s plait – A plait made from three strands of rope, with two strands hitched alternately over a single strand foundation strand. Boatswain's pride - The forward inclination rake of a ship's masts. Boatswain's store - Store room for sails, rigging, etc. Boatswain's whistle - See Boatswain's Call. Boat the anchor - Bring the anchor onto a boat. Boat the oars - Stow the oars fore and aft at the thwarts, ready for use. Bobble - The action of directionless waves, as in cross currents. Bobstay - The rope or chain rigged from the end of the bowsprit to the stem, to hold it down against the upward pull of the foremast stays. Bobstay collar - Collar on the bowsprit onto which bobstays are attached. Bobstay hole - Hole in the bobstay piece at stem, through which bobstays pass. Bobstay piece - The part of the knee of the head timber attached below the figure block at the stem, with bobstay holes, to which the bobstay was attached. Bobstay plate – An iron plate at the lower end of the bobstay, where it attaches to the stem. Bobstay purchase – The tackle in the upper end of the bobstay and used for setting it up, comprising a double running block, a single fixed block attached to the selvagee strop and another double block through which the fall is rove. Bob-wig - Wig with a bobbed tail, i.e. with the ends turned up short. Bock - Largest type of 19c Weser barge, up to 80 tons load. See also achterhang and bullen. Bodkin - A dirk. Body hoops - Hoops securing the aris pieces of a made mast, so holding a made mast together. Body plan - Design drawings of a ship, showing sectional view(s) at right angles to the sheer plan. RHS looking at bows from aft and LHS looking at stern from forward. Bogey-Stove - US stove used by mess. Bog reefs - Maybe a corruption of bag reefs. Bogue - To fall off from the wind, used to describe poor handling craft. Boguing - Making bogus. Bogus - A liquor made of rum and molasses. Boier, boeier - A small Dutch shallow-draught ship, usually a single masted sloop. Boiler - A ship's cooking utensil, or copper. Boiling – “The whole boiling lot” was a disparaging remark applied to anything, but alluding to the fact that cooking on a ship was unsophisticated, in the extreme. Bojort - Baltic version of Dutch Boier. Bold Bow – A broad bluff bow. Boldering, or boldering weather – Cloudy, thundery weather. Bold shore – A steep or abrupt coast with deep water near inshore. Bollard - 1. A strong wooden post on ships or quaysides, sometimes iron on shore, onto which ropes can be secured, to fasten vessels alongside. On later, iron, ships these were often hollow, to double as ventilators. 2. On a whaleboat, the bollard was a sturdy timber at the front, round which the harpooner's line was turned. Bollard-timbers - Two large timbers bolted to each side of the stem, supporting the bowsprit. Also called knight-heads. Bolling away - Going with the wind free. Also bowling along. Bollocks – Two blocks at the centre of the topsail, through which the topsail ties are rove to increase lift. The term has come to apply to a similar arrangement of male body parts, in impolite society. Bolme - An old name for a boatman's pole. Bolster - 1. Small cushion of tarred canvas or timber, used to prevent chafing between ropes and hard surfaces. 2. Canvas covered soft-wood or smoothly rounded cushions of hardwood on top of the trestle-trees, for the eye of the rigging, saving the rigging from chafing on otherwise sharp edges. in the trestle-trees. 3. Shaped pieces of oak under the hawse-holes, to stop the cable chafing the cheeks. 4. Any shaped and rounded pieces of wood used to prevent chafing, eponymously identified. Bolt - 1. A metal pin used to join parts of a vessel, of various types appropriate to their jobs, including 'bay bolts' with barbs; 'drift' or 'drive bolts' used to drive out others; 'clench bolts' that have their ends clenched, or turned over; 'fend' or 'fender bolts' with thick heads to protect the ships' sides; 'forelock bolts' which have forelocks to prevent them drawing out; 'set bolts' that forced planks tightly together; 'ring bolts' onto which the breeches and tackle of guns, etc. could be fastened; 'scarp' and 'keel bolts' used temporarily and 'bringing-to bolts' with the usual screw and nut at one end but an eye at the other. 2. The standard length of a roll of canvas; 39 yards of usually 22 to 30 inches wide material. 3. 'To bolt' is to run off. Bolt boat - A boat that makes good in rough seas. Bolt rope - Rope sewn to the edge of a sail, to stop it ripping. At the top it is called the headrope, at the sides the leech-ropes and at the foot the foot-rope. The stay or weather rope of foreand-aft sails was called the luff. Boltrope needle - A large strong needle used to stitch the sail to the bolt ropes. Boltsprit - Bowsprit. Bolt strake - The strakes, or hull planks, through which the beam fastenings pass. Bolt toe - The gun-lock cock. Bomb – 1. A bomb vessel. 2. The missile thrown by a bomb vessel, usually a mortar. Bombard, Bombarde – 1. Type of early cannon that used stone balls. 2. Mortar vessel. Bombay - The principle seaport of western India. First came into prominence when passed from Portugal to the British on the marriage of Charles II and Princess Catherine of Braganza, in 1661, and his transferral of it to the East India Company in 1668. Bombay runner - Cockroach. Also Cockie. Bombay sweat - If a seaman was too drunk to leave his hammock to pump ship, this was the name of the resultant dampness. Bomb bed - The bed of a mortar. Bomb bed beams - Large beams supporting the bomb-bed in a bomb vessel. Bomb gun – A relatively modern device that fires an explosive harpoon into a whale. Bomb ketch - A small ketch rigged vessel carrying one or more mortars for bombarding. Bomb-lance - Early rifle-fired explosive weapon for killing whales. Bombora or Bombo - A weak cold punch. Bomb shell - A large hollow cast-iron ball thrown from mortars, which had a fused hole connecting to the internal charge and ears by which it was lifted by shell hooks into the mortar. The explosion on ignition became synonymous with a great shock, hence 'dropping a bomb-shell' entered civilian parlance. Bomb vessel - As a bomb ketch, but other rigged. Also mortar vessel. Bome spar - A large spar, from a corruption of 'boom spar'. Bomkin - Bumkin. Bonaventure - A lateen shaped mizen sail used before the 17c. Bonaventure mizen - Fourth after-mast used during Elizabethan era. Later known as the jigger mast. Bonding Pond – An enclosed tidal water where timber is stored. Bond man - A crewman kept bound for the good behaviour of another on leave. Not common practice, not popular and not often necessary under a good captain. Bond of bottomry - An authority to borrow money, by pledging the bottom of the ship. See bottomry. Bone – 1. To scrounge or pilfer, after a boatswain so named, in the Revolutionary War, whose flair for such things was legendary. 2. The foam crest at the bow wave of a moving ship, said to be ‘a bone in her teeth’ or in her ‘nose’. Also see ‘cut a feather’. Bone mine – Slang for a naval store yard, from its being a suitable place to practice boning. Bone orchard - Cemetery. Boneyard - Royal Naval Hospitals at Haslar and Stonehouse. Bonded Jacky - Negro-head tobacco or sweet cake. Bonding - The practice of locking items in warehouses, without their having been taxed, in readiness for onward shipping or exportation. Bonding pond - An enclosed tidal water basin in which timber was kept. Bongrace - Junk fenders. See bowgrace. Bonhomme Richard - The frigate made famous when used in privateering by John Paul Jones around Britain's coasts in 1779. Bonitas - Thynnus pelamys. Striped tunny fish. Bonnet - 1. A canvas cover strip to a vertical break in sail, or an additional piece of canvas laced to the foot of a sail, to increase the sails area and so catch more wind during fine weather. The expression fell out of use during the late nineteenth century, after when it was only used on fore-and-aft sails on small craft. 2. A covering used to prevent water entering the cable locker via the navel pipe. Bonnet-link - The arm attaching the central boss of a self-reefing yard to the bonnet of the sail. Bonny, Anne - An early 18c Irish female pirate of the West Indies. The secret wife of John Rackham. Booby - A dim-witted bird that could too easily be caught, making its sporting value low - hence ‘booby-prize’. Booby-hatch – A small sliding hatch cover that lifts off in one piece. ‘Booby’ comes from the Spanish word ‘bobo’, meaning silly, from the antics of the booby seabird, which has come to be used to refer to anyone silly. Book - 1. Official ship's document. 2. A term for the method of packing muslins, bastas, etc. Also see 'Brought to book', Muster and Log. Booking - A reprimand. Boom - 1. Long spar run out to extend foot of sail, or from which stunsails are rigged. 2. A floating barrier across a river or harbour. 3. 'To boom' is to sail with a boom. 4. 'Boom-off' is to push off. 5. To 'top one's boom' is to start off. Boomage - A levy covering harbour dues, anchorage and soundage. Boom boat - Ship's boat that is sufficiently large
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