THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 4 5 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 I started compiling this dictionary in about 1980, from ignorance. From a fairly early age I had held an interest in history. This may have stemmed from an ability to draw, that generated praise in my less-thanteens when I drew a reasonably recognisable Stonehenge as a school exercise. Or it may be that I had an exceptionally good history teacher, though the fact that I cannot remember him or her would suggest that this was not the case. My interest in history developed more fully after I had left school, but it was not the history of monarchs and battles. I was intrigued by how people lived – social history on a small scale, one might say. How the everyday life of the average Anglo-Saxon went on, and how they earnt a living. What they were interested in and how they related to one and other. What struck me was how similar they were to us. In truth, how much cleverer the average person was than they are today. They had rudimentary comunication methods, so many of the everyday problems they encountered had to be resolved by themselves. Many of the methods and devices that make our lives so easy these days were actually invented by them – all we have done is improve them. Some of them! However, another interest that I had was reading. I confess, it was usually cheap historical novels, but it was a way of reading how people made a living that was not found in the history textbooks. Then I found naval history. I think it was whilst reading an Alexander Kent novel, featuring the adventures of Captain Bolitho, that I started wondering how the crew lived on sailing ships in Napoleonic times. I was unfamiliar with some of the terminology used to describe sailing, and started to look things up. Soon after this embryo interest in naval history I discovered the Aubrey/Maturin series of books by Patrick O’Brian and if I had been hooked by Bolitho I was totally landed by Aubrey and Maturin. But the terminology used by P O’B was extreme (by my standards), so I started keeping a note of all the new terms and their de�initions as I found them – for future reference. This is now the future. At the last count, the book you are reading has approximately 11,500 de�initions and comprises over 157,000 words. It is still a Work-In-Progress, and will probably remain so, never getting �inished. But, having ‘sat on it’ for all this time, and with tempus fugitting, I felt the need to share it with you. I hope you �ind it useful, with the odd �lash of fun – but no pictures, sorry. Finally, as it is a Work In Progress, please sing out if you spot anything missing, or that you do not like. ka.editor@1805club.org May 2024 © Peter Turner 2024 Issue One First digitally published 2024 Introduction
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