THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 40 41 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 Bran - To lie to in arctic waters, usually in the lee of an ice floe, to watch for whales. Branch - The pilot's certificate issued by Trinity House to one qualified to navigate in particular places. Hence a Branch Pilot was one holding a branch. Branded Ticket - A discharge given to one who was discharged from the Navy, on which the reason for his discharge is written. The corner was then cut off, to distinguish it from a regular discharge. Branding - A sometime punishment of branding "Mutiny" on forehead of such a recalcitrant. Brandy - Ardent spirit distilled from wine or grapes. Brandy-pawnee - A slang term for brandy and water, in India. Bran-new - New and unused, as applied to sails that had not previously been bent on. Bransfield, Edward - (1783-1852) Royal Navy officer who surveyed the South Shetland Islands in 1820 and who then was the first to chart a part of the Antarctic mainland. Brash - A mass of ice fragments. Brasil, Brazil, or Hy Brazil - A legendary island in the Atlantic Ocean. Brass - 1. Bronze zinc alloy used as decorative metalwork. 2. Impudence. Brassbound apprentices, Brassbounders – Merchant ship apprentices, from the twin files of bright yellow buttons on their monkey jackets. Brassey, Thomas, Earl - (1836-1918) Naval expert who started Brassey's Naval Annual, in 1886. Brass hat – An officer has gold wire braided around their hat, which has come to refer to any elevated person. Brass monkeys - Abbreviation of ‘cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’, used to mean seriously cold. Iron cannon balls would contract in freezing temperatures and drop through the holes in their brass storage racks, known as monkeys. And you always thought . . . well, never mind what you thought. Brave - 1. Said of a strong wind. 2. Elizabethan expression for fine and well decorated. Bray - To waterproof a vessel with resin. Brayl - Obsolete spelling for what became a brail. Brazil - A wood used to in dyeing cloth, after which the country of Brazil was named, because good dyewood was found to be plentiful there. Brazil beds - Hammocks, introduced in 1590s. Brazzera - Fishing vessel used by Venetians and Dalmations in the Adriatic. Breach - 1. A whale's leap out of the water. 2. The breaking in of the sea, in a ship or a sea defence. 'Clear-breach' referred to waves rolling over without breaking. A 'Clean-breach' was when masts and all objects on deck were swept away. cf breech. Breaching – The action of a whale surfacing from great depth at such a speed that leapt from the water. Breachy - Brackish. Bread - Ship's biscuit, named ironically. Fresh bread was a rare treat, and called 'fresh bread'. Bread barge - Container used on the mess table, for bread or ship's biscuits. Bread fruit - Artocarpus incisa. A useful fruit grown for its nutritional value. Its importance will not be lost on those who have read of the voyage of Captain Bligh's HMS Bounty in 1787. Bread room - Store room for bread or ship's biscuits. Bread room Jack - The purser's assistant whose duties included the issue of the daily bread ration. Also Jack of the Dust, or similar such names. Breadth - The width of a ship, at whatever designated place. Breadth Extreme - The maximum width of the ship. Breadth line - An imaginary line drawn around the ship, touching the timbers at their greatest extent from the centreline of the ship. Breadth moulded - See Moulded Breadth. Breadth riders - Diagonal timbers fixed at about the widest parts of a ship, to strengthen the other timbers. Break - 1. An interruption of continuity, such as a change of deck level at the break of the poop, etc. 2. To remove an officer's commission or warrant, or a seaman's rating. Breakage - 1. Empty spaces in a stowed hold. 2. Damage to goods, in an insurance claim. Break beams - Beams installed to support any break in the deck, or similar. Break Bulk - Remove the first part of the cargo and the start of unloading. In some merchantmen this was a contractual event that triggered the first payment of wages to the crew. Breaker - 1. A rolling topped ocean wave, usually as it hits rocks, the shore, etc., and usually plural. The cry "Breakers ahead!" was the common call, from the lookout, to warn of approaching broken water, usually signifying rocks and usually terrifying all who heard it. 2. A small keg, originally called barrico, mostly known as the vessel used to carry rum to the grog barrel, or fresh water in a lifeboat. Breakfast - Was traditionally taken at 8am(or eight bells of the first watch) and it took thirty minutes. Break ground - The act of breaking the anchor out of the ground into which it was holding, when weighing. Breaking - The act of removing stores or cargo from the hold. Breaking liberty - Failing to return to the ship when due to. Breaking of a gale - Signs of a gale passing. Breaking plate distance - A measure of the strength of steel or iron plates used in ironclad ships, to withstand concentrated fire. Breaking the trumpet - Dutch expression for making the first fold in the leech when reefing. Breaking off - 1. When the wind direction just prevents a ship from holding her course. 2. The moment of changing duties from one to another. Breaking-up of the monsoon - Seamen’s' term for the violent storms that come with the seasonal wind changes in tropical areas. Break of the poop - The forward end of the high structure at the aft end of a ship. Break out - The order to open a storage container of any type. Break sheer - 1. Describes a ship that has run cross its anchor cable due to the effects of wind and tide, when only riding at a single anchor. 2. To figuratively break a ship's back by marring the gradual sweep lengthways. Break up - to dismantle a ship at the end of her useful life. Breakwater - 1. An artificial defence against the force of the sea, protecting ships lying behind it. 2. A low bulkhead across the forecastle, used to channel water into the scuppers and to prevent it washing over the decks. Bream - 1. Freshwater and sea fishes. 2. To clear a ship's bottom of shells, weeds, barnacles, etc., by singeing it with burning faggots, etc. Breaming – Burning of a ship’s bottom fouling and reapplying tar. Breast - 1. To run abeam of an object. 2. To cut through a sea. 3. To heave at something, such as a capstan bar, etc. 4. The opposite end of block to that through which the fall runs. Breast anchor – An anchor laid at right angles to the fore-and-aft line of a vessel, either at the head or the stern. Breast backstay - A rope backstay rigged from the weather or windward side of an upper mast, through an outrigger to the channels. Breast band – A rope or canvas band passed around the chest of the leadsman, to help him avoid falling overboard. Breast beam - A beam at the fore-part of the quarterdeck and at the after-part of the forecastle. Breast board - Loaded carriage onto which yarns were fixed at the foot of the ropewalk. Breast-fast - A large mooring rope arranged at right-angles to a vessel’s fore-and-aft line used to secure a ship's broadside to a quay or another ship. Also breast rope. The ship was usually similarly secured with a head-fast and a stern-fast. Breast gaskets - The longest gaskets, in the slings, or in the middle of a yard. Sometimes called bunt gaskets. Breast hook - Large compass timber fixed within and athwart the bow of a ship. Breasting-off spars – Long timbers used to breast off a vessel from a quayside. Breast knee - Timber fixed in the forward part of the ship to unite both sides of the bow. Breast off – To keep a vessel away from a harbour wall, usually in order to enable lighters to get all round her. Breast plate - A horizontal plate used to join the side plates at the stem. Breast rail - The upper rail of the balcony. Breast rope - 1. The rope securing yard-parrels. 2. The rope securing the leadsman when sounding, from the channels. 3. A mooring rope arranged at right-angles to a vessel’s fore-and-aft line. Also breast-fast. Breastwork - The balustrade at the forward edges of the quarterdeck and the poop and at both ends of the forecastle. Breather - A tropical storm. Breath of wind - An expression used for conditions all but dead calm. Bred-up - It took several voyages before a merchant seaman knew how to supplement his earnings with clandestine trading. When he had learnt how, he was said to be 'bred-up'. Breech - 1. The part of a cannon behind the bore. 2. The outside angle formed by the knee timber. 3. To secure a cannon by breeching. 4. That part of a block that lies opposite the swallow. Breech block - Removable steel block used to seal the muzzle of a gun. Also breech plug. Breech bolt - Bolt in the ship's side, onto which the breech rope is secured. Breeches buoy - A life-buoy with suspended canvas support resembling breeches. Breeches mat - 'Y' shaped protective mat at the collar of the mainstay, resembling breeches with legs upward. Breechings - Ropes used to secure the carriages of cannons and to raise masts. Also Double Breeching. Breeching bolt - Used to secure breechings. Breech loader - Cannon loaded from the rear. Breech loop - Loop on the breech rope. Breech of a block - That part of a block opposite the swallow, where the rope enters. Breech of a cannon - The massive after-end of a cannon. Breech plug - Breech block. Breech rope - Stout rope attached to the cascabel of a gun, securing it to the ship's side. Breech screw - Iron screwed cylinder used to press the vent piece into its place when the gun is loaded. Breech sight - The notch in the base ring of a cannon, used to aim it. Breed – (v) To make a fishing net. Breeze - A gentle or light wind, originally from the north or north-east. See Beaufort Scale. Breeze, to kick up - To cause a disturbance, or a row. Breeze up, to - Of the wind, to freshen. Breezing up – Freshening. Breezo - A toast given at a mess table, from the French brisée générale. Brenner - A sharp gust of wind. Brewing – Of a storm, seen to be developing. Brick - A French brig. Brick-Aviso - French Advice Boat. Brick de Guerre - French brig-of-war. Brick Dust - Powdered brick, used to burnish brass and bright metalwork. Brickfielder – A hot, dry and dusty Australian wind. Bricklayer's Clerk - Term used to describe seamen or, more often, lubbers who claimed to be at sea through having fallen on hard times or to have 'known better times' and whose slightly better education impressed some of those less fortunate. Bridge - 1. A gangway or pier or jetty. 2. A raised platform from side-to-side of a ship, on which officers stand. 3. A narrow gangway between two hatchways. 4. A narrow ridge across the bottom of a channel, creating a shoal. Very dangerous if not spotted. Bridge islet - A piece of land that becomes cut off at high tide, such as Linisfarne. Bridle - 1. A rope or chain attached at both ends. 2. A mooring cable resembling a horse's bridle. 3. Yoke for yards. See fore, main and dandy bridle. Bridle cable – A cable leading from a vessel to a rope or chain that is fastened at both ends, to hold
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