THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 44 45 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 made in Bridport. Bub - A drink. To Bub and Grub meant to drink and eat. Bubble - Slang term for a spirit level, as used in astronomical instruments. Bubble, South Sea - Delusive financial and commercial adventure, which 'burst' in 1599. Bubbly - Grog, and later, any rum. When the rum was diluted three and one with water in the rum tub, the mixture foamed. Not to be confused with the inferior French fizzy wine. Bubbly bosun - The messdeck member assigned to collect the grog issue, in a rum fanny. Buccaneer - 1. One who dries and smokes flesh on a boucan. 2. One of the piratical rovers who infested the Spanish coasts of America. Bucantaur - State barge of the Doge of Venice. Also a large 17c ship. Buchan Boilers - Heavy breakers onto the rocks on the extreme east coast of Scotland. Buck - To wash a sail. Bucker - A porpoise. Bucket - 1. A canvas, leather or wood container principally used to fetch water to wash the decks, serving the purposes of pails. 2. A small globe of canvas-covered hoops, used as a recall signal for the boats of whalers. Bucket-rope - A rope attached to the handle of a bucket for bringing up water from alongside. Buckhorn - Dried, salted white fish. Buckle - 1. The action of a mast under compression. 2. The action of sea ice piling up under an advancing ship's bow. Buckler - 1. A large wooden shield or shutter backing up the jackass, or hawse-hole plug, used to close the hawse hole whilst it was in use, so shaped to let through the hawser, to prevent water ingress. cf Blind buckler. 2. A small fighting shield. Bucko - General name for a lively young sailor, from the corruption of 'buckra', the negro name for white man. 'Bucko mates' was the nickname for hard mates in the American navies. Buckra - A black West Indian's or African's name for a white man. Buck-weel - A bow-net used to catch fish. Bude - An old term for the biscuit weevil. Budge-barrel - A small copper and wooden cask with one head forming a leather hose or bag, in which powder was safely carried, protected from sparks. Budgerow - A passage-boat of the Ganges and the Hooghly rivers. Buff - Elizabethan name for Buffalo. Buffer - Chief boatswain's mate, the buffer or gobetween, to smooth contact for complaints, etc., between crew and officers. Buffet a billow - To work against wind and tide. Buffs – Leather or glass spheres filled with air used instead of bowls to keep a drift net afloat. Buff up - Clean and polish something. Bug - A ship regarded as large but not efficient. Bugalilo, Buglo - A large Persian trading boat. Bug anchor - Fourth bow anchor. Bugazeens - Calicoes. Bugger - Originally, one who commits buggery, but it came to be used as an expletive, or a derogatory name for someone generally considered unpleasant. Buggery - Sodomy. Buggins Turn - Let someone else do it. Build - The form or construction of a ship. 'Build a chapel' - To turn a ship suddenly, by negligent steerage. Builder's Certificate - A document containing the ship's denomination, tonnage, trim, etc. and details of who built it and where, required by the admiralty courts. Builder's Old Measure - The formula, adopted in 1773, for calculating the deadweight of a ship. The formula was: (Length - 3/5 breadth × (breadth × ½ breadth)) / 94 Builder's Tonnage - The name, used up to 1836, for the deadweight of a ship. Building - The action of constructing a ship, as distinct from designing it. Building Slips - Inclined slipways onto which new keels were laid down and on which ships were then constructed. Built - Used as a suffix to denote the style of construction of a ship, such as carvel-built, clinker-built, frigate-built, English-built, etc. Built-block – A block made of several pieces of wood, usually elm. The same as made-block. Built-masts - Made masts. Built-up guns - Early cannon made from bundles of metal rods, before accurate casting was mastered. Succeeded by solid cast guns which were eventually themselves replaced by modern built-up guns assembled from many components. Bulb plate - An iron or steel plate with one edge worked into a bulb, for extra strength. Bulch - To bilge a ship. Bulge - Bilge. Hence 'bulgeways' were bilgeways. Bulk - 1. The cargo of a ship, usually stowed without cases or packages. 2. The hold of a ship. 3. The gangway of a ship. Bulker - One whose job it was to measure goods on board and determine the freight chargeable. Bulk fleeting – The practice of trawlers staying at sea in company, for months on end, for mutual protection during times of hostility, sending their catches ashore on board cutters. Bulkhead - 1. 'The Bulkhead' was the main partition between the forecastle and the head. 2. Upright partitions forming ship's cabins or simply separating one area of 'tween decks from another. 3. Any wall on board. A drunken sailor would partake in ‘bulkhead bouncing’ as he made his merry way along, if capable. Modern use includes watertight compartments. Bulkhead stringer - A plate stringer with gussets connected to a bulkhead by angle-bars, for stiffening. Bull - 1. An old male whale. 2. A small keg. Bull Dance - A dance performed by men with men, when without women. Also called a stag dance. Bull Dog - The name given to the great gun in the ward-room cabin, and sometimes to all main-deck guns. Bull earring - One of many earrings, used for first and second reefs. Bullen - Bock. Buller - A roaring sound from waves. Bullet - Cannon or small firearm ball. Bullet-block - Simple block with no sharp corners. Bulletin - An official account of some public event. Bullet-mould - A mould for casting musket balls and bullets. Bullets - Leaden balls fired from small arms. Bulling - To get a last, illicit amount of grog out of an empty rum cask by pouring in water and letting it stand, not always successfully! Bullion - Gold or silver in the lump, or in coin, if the pure metal. Bullock - Marines' name for soldier. Bullock blocks - Blocks fitting below centre of lower yards to lead topsail chain sheets down to the deck. Bullock slings - Used to hoist live bullocks on board, or off again. Bullock's Liver - Ulcers caused by scurvy. Bull rope – 1. A hawser let through the bowsprit end block to a buoy, to keep the buoy clear of the stem. 2. A rope used to haul an item of cargo from the wings of the hold into apposition under the hatch, ready for hoisting. Bull's eye - 1. Glass boss illuminator in a gun port-lid, scuttle-hatch or deck. 2. Small solid block in the form of a ring with rope around the edge and a hole in the middle, through which another rope could pass. Also called trucks. 3. The centre of a target. Bull's eye cringle - A wooden ring used, rarely, to replace an iron thimble on the fore and main bowline bridles at the tack or leech of a sail. Bullwanger, bull-whanger – 1. An eyed length of rope fastened to the back of the lower yard to keep the earring from slipping under the yard. 2. Wire strop with a thimble, used to reef merchant ship sails on steel yardarms. Bully - 1. A swashbuckler, or blustering gallant. 2. In full, 'bully beef', the nickname of a tinned beef, actually Bouilli, first introduced 1813 and used in the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, and subsequently in the British army. Bullyrag - To bluster and abuse, often to cover for self-deficiencies. Bulwark - The raised side of a ship, above deck level. Bumbard - A large cask or vessel containing liquids. Bumbo – A drink made from rum, water, sugar and nutmeg. Bumboat - 1. Scavenger's boat used in the Thames. 2. A sort of sea costermonger or provision boat calling on ship's in harbour to trade with them. 'Bumboat men', or 'women' were the crew of bumboats. Bumboat Pan - Soft bread sold by bumboat men. Bum Freezer - Short naval jackets worn by crew men. Bumpkin - Bumkin, bumpkin - A short boom projecting from each bow of a ship to extend the lower edge of foresails to windward. The same name was used for a similar device over the stern of a boat, to extend the mizen. cf boomkin, although this name is more frequently given to the short boom extending from the mizen mast. Bumkin block - A block at the end of the bumkin. Bummaree, Bummery - Bottomry. Ship mortgage. Bump - To pull astern of another boat and insultingly bump the stem into her. Great fun when looking for a fight, and usually effective. Bump ashore - To run a boat stem-on up the beach and let the waves bump her further up. Bumper - 1. A glass or goblet filled to the brim. 2. A log of wood hung over the ship's side to protect it against the action of pack ice. Bumpkin - An iron or wooden bar projecting outboard from the ship's side, to which the lower and topsail brace blocks are sometimes hooked. Also Bumkin and boomkin. Bum Ship – Mortar vessel. Bunch of knitting - An entanglement of ropes. Bund - Embanked dam to prevent flooding. Bunder - Hindu name for a seaport or quay. Bunder-Boat - A boat used on the Bombay coast, to ply between ship's at anchor. Bundle Men - Usually referred to married men on their way to leave, taking their bundle of dirty washing, or dhobey, and gifts to their wives. 'Bundle-up!' - The call to the men below to hurry onto deck. Bundling - Arranging things in a sloppy way. Bung - A stopper. Bungle - To carry out a task badly. Bung-starter - A bat-shaped tool used to start out a bung. Hence also it was the term given to the captain of the hold, and to the master's assistant serving his apprenticeship for hold duties. Bung up & bilge free - The proper stowage of rum, varnish, sacramental wine casks, etc., in the Spirit Room, chocked with the bung uppermost and the bilges kept off the deck on beds so they would not move as the ship rolled. Also used to describe anyone lying asleep during a 'make and mend'. Bung-hole - A hole in a cask, sealed by means of a bung. Bungs - 1. Nickname for ship's cooper. 2. The nickname for the master's mate who superintended the serving of the grog. Bunk - A bed built into a ship’s cabin serving as a sleeping berth for officers. To 'bunk with' someone was to share a cabin or lodgings with them. Bunker - An angular side space of the hold covered and allocated for the storage of sand, holystones, etc. and ultimately coal. Bunker Hill - A famous battle on 17 June 1775 in the American War of Independence, of which the Marines are justifiably proud, for their predecessors' valour. Bunk up – To share ones bunk, and colloquially what can result. Bunt - 1. Those cloths of a square sail which are nearest to the mast when the sail is set. 2. The central portion of a furled square sail. 3. The middle part of a yard, or the slings. 4. To 'bunt a sail' was to haul up the middle part and secure it by the bunt-gasket. Bunters - Men on the yard who gather the bunt when furling sails. Bunt fair - Before the wind. Bunt gaskets - The gaskets in the middle of a
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