THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 60 61 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 Clap ... on - An expression for the temporary adding on of a new component. Such as 'clap a purchase on to a guy' when extra power is needed, or, 'clap a seizing on the main stay' when something had to be attached, or 'clap on sails' to take advantage of a fair wind, etc. Clapleighton - Privilege of the Master of a merchant ship to carry some private cargo. BDD Clashers - Whaler crewmen who carried blubber. Clasp hoop - An open iron hoop fitting around a mast or spar, whose lugged open ends can be fastened together. Also truss hoop. Class or classification - The ancient method of assessing the seaworthiness of ships, used throughout the world. The old classification of A1 is now only used for inshore craft. Claw Off - To beat to windward of a lee shore or other hazard. Claw ring - A modern expression for a fitting on a boom where roller reefing is fitted, to take the main sheet. Cleading – The wooden casing to the buoyancy tanks. Clean - The term applied to a hull having fine lines, with a clean entrance, a clear run and a clean run aft, thus allowing an undisturbed passage through the water, with no cavitation or drag. Clean bill - Refers to the ship's bill of health, when all the crew are in good health. Clean full - The same as 'full and by', in which the ship is sailing as close to the wind as possible with the sails filled and drawing well. Clean lines - Said of a vessel with a fine entrance and smooth lines in her underwater design. Clean slate – 1. Details of the course steered by a ship, during a watch and before being entered in the log, were entered on a log-slate. At the end of the watch the information was transferred from the log-slate to the deck-log and the slate was wiped clean for the next watch to use. 2. On land, it has come to also mean clearing a debt, or just a fresh start, in everyday language. Clear - 1. A ship is cleared to sail when her papers are in order with the custom house at the port of departure. 2. A ship was steered to clear a headland, etc. 3. In preparing for battle a ship was cleared for action, involving removal of all unnecessary clutter from fighting areas, including cabin partitions, furniture, etc., and otherwise checking and preparing nets, fire-hoses and adding secondary rigging, in case of damage by shot. 4. Clear weather referred to it being fair. 5. A coast is clear when it is free of danger. 6. Hawser cables are clear when they are un-tangled and ready for use. "Clear a Foul Hawse" - When at anchor with two bow anchors, the action of wind and tide moving the ship can cause the hawsers to cross, or become foul. The action of clearing them was vital if the ship was likely to need to weigh anchor in a hurry, as the flukes of one anchor would tangle with the hawser of the other. Clearing a foul hawse required the slackening and then releasing of one hawse and its laborious unwinding by hand - a difficult task best avoided by preventing it happening in the first place. Clearance - The document issued by the custom house after they have found all the ship's papers in order, giving permission for the ship to go foreign, or leave port. Clear anchor - The antithesis of a fouled anchor, in which the anchor has not been fouled by its cable. It is important that a ship at anchor is handled properly as wind and tides changed, if a clear anchor was to be kept. Clear away Cleared for Quarters - The same as cleared for action, but spoken in the usual North American language. Clear for action – To get a ship ready for action by clearing away anything removable, securing everything else, rigging protective nets, etc. Clear for running – Description of a rope that has been carefully coiled with the end underneath, so that it is able to run out smoothly and without tangling. Clear hawse – 1. A ship lying at two anchors, with each hawse leading directly to its anchor, without crossing the other hawse, was said to have a clear hawse. cf Cross in the hawse, fouled hawse and open hawse. 2. The evolution of disentangling a foul hawse, caused by the effects of wind and tide. Also open hawse. Clear hawse slip – A slip used to temporarily secure the ends of a foul hawse whilst it is being cleared. Clearing line – In pilotage, a transit line chosen to mark the edge of a danger area. Clear lower deck! - An order for all hands to stop work and muster on the upper deck to hear an announcement, with the few exceptions of those who can't leave their assigned task unattended. Clear ones yardarm - Make sure the blame for something that has gone wrong would not attach to oneself. Cleat - 1. A device of wood or metal with two arms, fixed at various places around the ship, to which falls or other ropes can be made fast by taking it in turns around the arms. 2. Wooden wedges on the yards to prevent sail earrings from slipping off. Cleat block - Cleats – Seamen’s’ expression for big ears. Clench - To bend over and flatten down a nail or bolt. Also clinch. Clenching – Hammering a bolt head over a washer to mushroom it out. The bolt head was held against another hammer and the bolt shaft would also swell up and shorten, which strengthened the metal and made a tighter fit. Clerk of the Cheque - Officer of control in a dockyard or royal port. Clermont - The first steam powered vessel built in the USA, designed by Robert Fulton, whose maiden voyage on the East Hudson River was in 1807. Clevely, John - (1745-86) English marine artist and naval draughtsman, who accompanied midshipman Horatio Nelson on the polar expedition of 1773, and whose sketches are a useful record of their experiences. He became a frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy and was appointed painter to the Prince of Wales, later George IV. He died when he fell over a cliff at Dover, as one would. Clew, clue - 1. The lower aftermost corner of a fore-and-aft sail, or the two lower corners of a square sail, onto which the sheet is fastened. 2. The lanyards and nettles used to sling a hammock from hooks on the deck beams. Also clue. Clew cringle - An iron ring or eyelet with two or more holes, stitched into the clew of a sail, through which ropes pass or are attached. Also clue cringle. Clew down - To use clew lines as downhauls by keeping sheets taut when lowering yards. Clewed up – 1. Hammocks hang from clews, so to be clewed up with someone is to serve on the same ship. 2. It also sometimes was used to refer to a group of seamen joining together for a run ashore, or similar adventure. 3. Seamen's slang to describe someone who is very knowledgeable at their work. Clew garnet - The clew line, or tackle, attached to the clews of a course, from which they run to the centre of the yard and are used to pull the clews up and inwards to 'goose-wing' a sail, by which it is drawn up and trussed to the yard. Clew garnets are the name given to these items on the courses, whilst on other sails they are just called clew lines. Yet another mystery of the sea. Clew-iron - Three or four rings formed into a single iron cringle at the clew of a sail, onto which the running rigging is attached. See Spectacles, spectacle clew, spectacle iron. Clew line, clue line - The tackle of any sail, except the courses, by which it is drawn up and trussed to the yard. On the courses they are called clew garnets. Clew line block - A block through which a clew line is rove. Clew to earring – Said when the clew of a sail has been hauled up to the earring. Clew up – To haul the clews of a sail up to its yard by the clewlines. Clifford's lowering gear- A mid 19c form of davit rigging that enabled a boat to be lowered by one man, comprising two three sheave friction blocks with leads to a roller that when turned released the ropes by unwinding. Clift - Split wood. Clinch - 1. To fasten a rope to an object by a half hitch with the end stopped back on itself by a seizing. The stopped part was the end, so to run a rope out to its clinch was to run it out as far as possible. 2. To bring two things together tightly and fix them with a clinch, or clench, nail, by turning over the ends of nails fastening through the planking, or similar. 3. The old term for the attachment of a hemp anchor cable to a vessel. Clinker-built - A method of ship or boat building with the outer timbers or running planks laid foreand-aft and overlapped horizontally, i.e. with the bottom edge of one plank overlapping the top edge of the plank below. Eventually usually limited to small boat building. cf Carvel method. Clinker-joint - Joint in which the two members overlap. Clinker pieces – Strengthening pieces at the corners of a gaff sail. Clinker plating - Plating with overlapping strakes. Clip - The throat of a gaff or boom. Clip hooks - Two similar shaped hooks attached to a thimble, used for small tackles. Or a ring or thimble made with two hooks facing in opposite directions. Clipper - High speed merchant sailing ships first developed early 19c on the American east coast. Usually three-masted full-rigged ships, sometimes four-masted, with an increased sail area often with staysails and moonsails above the royals and using studding sails whenever possible. The largest clipper, Great Republic had a cargo capacity of 5400tons, was 100m long and carried 1253m² of sail when fully rigged, and the fastest clipper, Lightning, was capable of travelling at 18 knots. The record time for a run from New York to Hong Kong was 81 days, set by the clipper Oriental. Clippers were only beaten when steam came to rule, although a few clippers survived as training ships and museums. Clipper Bow - The name for a bow shape that has delicate concave curves forward above the waterline. Clipper built - Said of a vessel with a concave bow, fine lines and raked masts. Clock-calm - As calm as an old case clock. Cloggie - Any Dutchman. Close aboard – Said of something near the ship. Close butt - Said of a ship's planks that have been so well formed and fastened as to not need caulking. Closed heart - A type of block. Closed-up - When a signal flag cannot be hoisted higher on its halyard, it is closed-up. Close-hauled - The state of a vessel sailing as close to the wind as possible, with her sails full and not shivering. A square-rigged ship could get as close as about six points off the wind, while a fore-and-aft-rigged ship could get to four points off the wind. Modern sailing boats with the narrow high Bermuda rig can get even closer to the wind. Close-jammed – Extremely close-hauled, so that even a little more so would take the vessel aback. Close-lined - Said of a vessel with its internal planking so close to the sides that there is no air space. Close-quarters - The name of strong wooden barriers with loopholes, rigged on the decks of merchant ships, behind which the crew could fire on and defend themselves against privateers. It came to mean fighting close to an enemy ship. Close-reefed - The state of a square-rigged ship when all the topsail reefs have been taken in. Close the land – Approach the land. Close to the wind - Sailing close to the wind is to sail as nearly as possible towards the compass point from which the wind is blowing. Clothe - To provide the running rigging and sails of a vessel. Clothed - Can mean the lowest sails meet the deck. Also, 'well clothed' means a well fitted set of sails. Clothing - The name for the set of rigging holding bowsprit in position. cf apparel for the masts. Cloths - The term for a single strip or width of canvas, from which sails are made. Usually 24 inches wide.
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