THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 56 57 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 where the chain cable is stowed when the anchor is weighed and secured. Chain messenger - A chain version of messenger, in which a square linked chain passed round the base of the capstan, engaged on sprockets designed to fit the chain, or vice versa, and forward round two rollers that adjusted to keep the chain messenger taut. It then worked as a normal messenger, by the hawser being nippered to it for heaving. Chain plates - Strips of iron or bronze bolted between the channels and the ship's side, carrying the deadeyes of the standing rigging. These used always to be chain, hence the name, which stuck. Chain pump – A heavy pump installed in large sailing ships, comprising a continuous chain enclosed in a wooden tube fitted with valves and worked by a number of crew at a roller or winch to shift a large quantity of water quickly from the bilges. Doubled the speed of pumping out, but with little over half the number of hands. Chain riveting - Riveting where the rivets are in adjacent pairs. Usually called double riveting. Chains - Strengthened small platform areas on the outside the sides of a vessel, onto which the shrouds are rigged. The shrouds are rigged over the channels, to spread them, and then the deadeyes are fixed to the iron chain-plates. The chains were often a popular alternative venue for evolutions normally carried out by seamen in the heads, when bad weather made the latter uncomfortable. The leadsman would usually stand on the chains when heaving his lead to take soundings. Chain-shot - A missile designed to destroy enemy rigging and to clear crews from the enemy deck, comprising two cannon balls joined by a chain, or an iron bar (then strictly called bar-shot), that would spin at high speed when fired from cannon. Chain Sling CTC - Chain sling - Yards that did not lower, such as lower yards, were suspended from the mast in such a way as to permit them to swing to either side, for control. Originally they were suspended on ropes, called slings, but later the slings were made of chain as it was more durable. Later still, forged steel slings were used, but that is for a later entry. Chain Slings - Chain stoppers - Deck mounted devices through which chain cables were gripped to prevent the cable slipping through and the anchor dropping. See Blake's slip and devil's claw. Chain-strop ERR - Chain - Length of ?? Chains - Chain-wales - See Channels. Chain Tye - CTC Chalder - Gudgeon Challenger, HMS - Famous late 19c screw steam corvette used for surveying works. Challenges - Made by Watchmen of the Gangway*, usually commencing with "Boat Ahoy"*. To this the usual replies were "Admiralty"*; "Aye aye"*; "Flag"*; "Guard Boat"*; "No no"*; "Passing"*; "Staff"*; "Standard"*; "Ship Name"*; as appropriate. Usual secondary challenge was "Coming Here?" Chamber - Small gun for firing salutes Chamberlye -Urine used for washing clothes in. Chambers - An area of sea between headlands, but strictly outside the three mile limit. Chambers, George - (1803-40) Famous marine painter. Father of a son of the same name (183190), whose paintings were often indistinguishable from his father's. Chamlet - In Elizabethan times, a kind of mohair or camelhair cloth. Champlain, Samuel de - (1567-1635) French explorer who first served under Henry IV of France, known best for his work in Canada, particularly in the creation and support of Quebec. Chancellor, Richard - (d 1556) British navigator, whose discovery of the White Sea, when seeking the north east passage to India, led to the formation of the Muscovy Company. Change of the Moon – The tidal prediction term meaning the New Moon, from it being the time when the Moon’s age becomes zero again. Channel - Navigable part of a river. Channel bar - Rolled iron bar with a U section. Channel buoy – A buoy marking a channel. Channel Fever - Seamen’s' name for the excitement, at the prospect of a run ashore, on a ship approaching her home port through the English Channel, after a long time away. Channel Fleet Channels - The broad thick planks projecting out from the hull and used to spread the base of the shrouds, thus giving wider and better support to the masts. Also Chain-wales. See Chains. "Channel Weather" Chanted orders - Orders chanted to encourage the crewmen, such as 'Let go and haulo-o-oh!' Chanty – The incorrect name for sea songs, used by many supposedly educated writers, who assume sea songs must derive from the root ‘chant’. See shanty. Chap Boats – Chinese lighters. Chapelled - Said of a ship that turns completely around in light winds, or, when close hauled, goes about and then comes back on the same tack, without bracing her head-yards. Also sometimes called building a chapel. Chapel, Chappell, To – To back sails. Chapelling – Putting a vessel’s head through the wind without bracing her yards. Chapels - The grooves in a made mast, by which the components fit together neatly. Chaplain+70 Chapman, Frederick Hendrick af - (1721-1808) Swedish innovative naval architect, the son of a Yorkshire émigré who was a captain in the Swedish Navy. Chapman junior's work had a great impact on world ship design, especially his published works. Chapp – The entrance to a channel. Also chops. Characteristic - The distinguishing features of a navigational light, such as its colour and the frequency of the exposure of the light. The five groups of light are alternating, fixed, flashing, fixed and flashing, or occulting, and the number of groups in each cycle, in red, white or green light. Chargeable - In Elizabethan times, responsible, expensive, troublesome. Charged - In Elizabethan times, said of a tall or high ship, such as one having tall castles fore and aft. Charles XIII - (1748-1818) The king of Sweden and Norway who served as an admiral in the Russo-Swedish war of 1788, with great distinction. Charley Noble - A portable chimney from a stove or coal fire, originally used as the name of the galley fire chimney. Charlies - Seamen’s' name for on-shore policemen. Charlotte Dundas - The world's first commercial steam propelled vessel, designed by William Symington and built for Lord Dundas, after whose daughter she was named, and used on the Forth and Clyde canal following her maiden voyage there in 1802. Charnock, John - (1756-1807) British naval architect and naval biographer, who’s worked considerably influenced contemporary ship design. He died in the King's Bench prison, where he had been incarcerated because of debt. Chart - A sea map, showing the coastline and any navigational aids, the characteristics of lights and the depths of water. Every chart has a compass rose showing the direction and annual rate of change of variation. Dutch and French charts were historically better than English, but still unreliable. Chart datum - The level from which the depths below it and the tides above it are given on charts. Now normally the mean low water at ordinary spring tide. Charter - The contract for the employment of a merchant ship. In a time charter the owner provides the crew and all requirements for working the ship. In a bare pole, or bare hull, charter the charterer provides it all. Charter-Party - Contract between shipowner and freighter Chartmaking - The art, supported by the science of surveying, of representing the threedimensional surface of the world's seas and coastlines in a two-dimensional plane. Homer is attributed with first recognising the need for charts, between 950 and 750 BC, although the earliest known map is a clay one dated as 7th or 6th century BC, with Babylon at its centre. Chase (The) - 1. The quarry or vessel being chased. 2. The name given to each of the guns mounted in the bows or stern, hence called the bow- and stern-chase, and used to fire directly ahead or astern. Also sometimes chase guns or chasers, cf. 3. Sometimes referred to the bow of a ship. Chase (To) - To pursue a vessel with the intention of capturing her, or interrogating her crew. Chase guns, chasers - Chase guns or chasers were guns temporarily moved to fire through gunports temporarily cut in the bows or stern, to fire from gun deck level and not from the upper deck, as were the bow- or stern-chase guns. Chasse-Marée - French two/three mast flush deck ship used as a tidal coaster, privateer or small warship, mostly in 18 & 19c. The foremast was nearly vertical and stepped far forward and with small sail area and they usually had a lateen mizen. The French term means 'tide chaser'. Chateau-Renault, François Louis de Rousselet, Marquis de - (1637-1716) French admiral, who transferred to the navy in 1661, after three years army service, which was not uncommon in those times. He was made a marshal of France in 1703. Chatham or Chats - One of the principal naval ports of England, one of three royal dockyards, located on the River Medway in Kent. Although a dock since medieval times, it was first used as a naval dockyard under Henry VIII, when he first established a permanent navy. Chatham Chest - A contributory fund established by Sir Francis Drake, Sir John Hawkins and Lord Howard of Effingham in 1590, to benefit wounded seamen and the families of seamen, who paid sixpence a month from their pay. Despite stringent security measures, the chest was often plundered by administrators. It was combined with the funds of Greenwich Royal Hospital in 1814. Chatham Church – Ships put in ordinary and kept at Chatham were said to be ‘keeping Chatham Church’. Chats - The informal name used by seamen for the naval dockyard at Chatham. Chatterton, Edward Keble - (1878-1944) British naval officer and historian, whose works may be of interest to readers of this dictionary. Chauffer - Open grate for lighthouse fire. Chazelles, Jean Mathieu de - (1657-1710) French hydrographer, famed for his excellent works in the second volume of Le Neptune François. Chearly, cheerily, cheerly - Heartily. An old maritime expression, used such as 'row chearly lads!'. Chebec - Larger tartane type of vessel. Usually a corsair. Rig was usually changed between square and lateen rig to suit weather conditions. Check – (v) 1. To ease off a rope and then secure it again. 2. To slow down the speed with which a rope is running, by making a turn or two around the bitts. 3. To stop a vessel’s headway. Check(in) - 1. To check a cable was to slow the rate of veering. 2. To check-in a yard was to brace it in a little. 3. To check a rope was to start to ease it off. 4. To check a vessel was to stop it by letting go the anchor or by making fast to a wharf. Checking – (v) To gradually ease the pressure on a rope under strain. Checking around, of wind - A wind that had shifted about was said to have checked around. Checking line - A light line rigged to haul the upper eye of a yard up to the crosstrees, worked from the top. Check-ropes, checks – Temporary moorings used to stop a ship as it left the dockside, to prevent it going too far out into the stream. Check stopper- A cable stopper comprising a short length of chain or spun-yarn attached to a deck ring-bolt and taken around a moving rope or wire and back through the bolt, used to used to check the speed at which the cable was paid out by being made of just strong enough to slow it but light enough to break under strain. Check the ship for leaks - An expression of the
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