THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 62 63 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 Cloveboards - Boards split radially from a tree, used in the best clinker-built ships. Clove hitch - A bend formed by two half hitches around an object to be secured. Cloud Raker - The rarely used topmost square sail on some clippers. Clout - A rag or cloth. Also a blow: "I fetched him a clout i' the ear." Clove hitch – A method of fastening any part of a rope onto a post or similar object, by taking two turns in a rope, passing the lower over the upper and slipping both over the object to be secured. Clowes, Sir William Laird - (1856-1905) British naval writer, best known for The Royal Navy, its History from the Earliest Times, which is still the only complete history on this subject, although now largely out-dated. CLR - Centre of Lateral Resistance CTC Club – 1. (v) To drift downstream with the current, with the anchor down. 2. A spar set at the foot of a triangular sail. Clubbing – The action of a vessel drifting with the current with the anchor down to control itself. Also called dredging. cf kedging. Clubhauling - A last resort method of tacking, used when embayed on a lee shore in bad weather, when the ship could not tack successfully. The ship would be close-hauled on the port tack, would fail to stay, when the starboard anchor would be let go, with a spring to the quarter; the spring would bring the quarter to the wind, the cable slipped, the spring cut and the ship would be brought up close-hauled on the starboard tack. As simple as that! It does not work for fore-and-aft-rigged ships, as they do not gather sternway the same way. Clue - See Clew. Clue-garnets - See Clew-garnets. Clue-line - See Clew-line. Clue Sabran, M de la - (c.1703-59) French admiral. Clue to earring, from - Thorough going, outand-out, applied to a seaman. Clump block - A large wooden block with a wide swallow and with a length equal to twice the circumference of the rope used, used for heavy everyday work on board ship. Clump cat-heads - Short beams projecting at the bows to which the anchor is suspended when the cable has been unshackled for mooring to a buoy. Clumsy cleat – An American term for the thwartships plank at the bow of a whaleboat, which had a notch to take the whaleman’s left knee to steady him. Coach - 1. Originally, the forward part of the cabin, under the poop deck, but later referred to the area just forward of the great cabin. On larger ships the lower coach was known as the great coach or steerage and the upper coach was known as the roundhouse or upper coach. On a flag-ship the coach was occupied by the flag-captain, otherwise the master would usually occupy it. Coach house - The coach, by any other name would smell as sweet. Coach horses - The navy name for the men who rowed the admiral's barge or the captain's galley. It later came to be applied to the liverymen who row state barges. Coach roof - The old name for a cabin top, usually in yachts. Coach whipping, coachwipping - A traditional type of sennit work commonly done by boatswains and their mates, forming a square herring-bone pattern. Usually used to decorate a rope or stanchion, to make the ship smart and tiddley. Coak - 1. A sunken mortise or projections on a shaped timber, made to fit into recesses shaped into the adjacent timber, used in made masts and spars to make a stronger lateral joint and to stop the pieces sliding and drawing apart. 2. The cylindrical metal bush bearing in a sheave, originally wooden but later brass, fixed through the middle of a block, by means of two riveted end plates to take the pin, to keep the block from wearing and splitting. Also called coak dowels. Coaked - Coaking - The use of coaks in spars or timbers to join them together more strongly. Coal-whipping - A manual method of unloading coal. Coaming - The raised framework around a hatch or doorway that prevents water from running in off the deck. Coaming stopper - A cable stopper used to control the cable when veering, from the hatchway. Also hatchway stopper. Coaming rash - A graze caused by hitting a shin on the raised coaming around a hatch. Also hatch rash. Coarse metal and Fine metal– Grades of gunmetal; there was a 3:2 price difference between the two grades, so quality versus quantity choices had frequently to be made when ordering new ordnance to be manufactured. Coast – (v) To sail along the coastline. Coastguard, Her Majesty’s – Formed 1820 (1822?) by the joining up of the Water Guard, the Revenue Cutters and the Custom’s Riding Officers. Originally to stop smugglers. Coasting – Originally meant travelling by ship from port to port, without ever losing sight of the coast. Blue water seamen considered such travel as gentle, easy and safe, and indicative of someone not really trying and so worthy of contempt. It came ashore to mean doing something in a relaxed manner. Coasting vessel – A vessel that coasts. Coat - A canvas jacket, painted with tar, shrouding the end of a mast or bowsprit where it penetrated the deck, to prevent water getting in around it. Coaxing - One of various methods of doing just that little bit more to bring the ship round, or to get that bit more out of her. Coax pieces - Internal shapings or hardwood pins used to hold timber joints together. Cobb, Cob -Spanish Dollar piece Cobbing – A gunroom beating, a punishment used in the Royal Navy, in which the offender was tied down and struck on the buttocks with a cobbing board or a hammock clew, usually given for offences against the offender’s shipmates. Cobbing board – A flat piece of wood used in cobbing. Coble - Boat? Cocha - A 14-15c ship between a cog and a carrack. Cock – The medieval name for a small boat. Cockbill – Said of a vessel’s yards and booms rigged awry at various angles, usually as a mark of respect or mourning. Cock-billed - Cocked, tilted towards the vertical, or otherwise out of true, to show mourning. This comes down from the tradition of "Sackcloth and Ashes". Cock-billing - The act of setting yards etc., cockbilled. Cockboat - Small fishing boat, like a dinghy. Cocked hat – 1. A three-cornered hat when worn athwartships by Admirals and Fore and Aft by other officers. 2. Navigators would try to mark three bearings on a chart, which inevitably resulted in slight errors that ended up with a triangular space in which the ship was (hopefully) located. It was called a ‘cocked hat’ from its similarity to the officers’ hats and, if someone was knocked into a cocked hat it meant they would not know quite where they were. Cocked Hat Pitcher Cockie - Cockroach. Also Bombay runner. Cockling sea - Short sharp waves breaking against each other. See Short sea. Cock-pit, Cockpit - The space under the lower deck, where wounded were attended to during action. Often the midshipmen’s' accommodation at other times. Cockroaches - A particular problem on whalers, growing up to 1½" long and voracious. Cockscomb – A decorative cover to a rope or rail, made by half-hitching consecutively a series of lines to it. Cockswain, cox'n, coxswain - The senior seaman on board, from cog (a type of vessel) and swain (husband). The helmsman and senior rating of a ship’s boat. From a ship’s boats originally being called cockboats. Cod - Pod. Cod banger – 1. The name used by other fishermen for those vessels line-fishing for cod. 2. The name used by those same other fishermen for the crews of those vessels line-fishing for cod, who kept their catch alive in a saltwater well until they docked, when they would kill the fish by banging them on the head. Cod end – The tapered end of a trawl net, where the catch is held. Cod end knot – The knot at the cod-end that is untied to release the catch. Cod knocker – A short heavy club used to kill the live cod from the well of a fishing boat, when the catch is landed. Also called a priest. Cod line – A small line made of three or six hemp threads to a strand and three strands to the whole line, originally used for fishing. Cod's head & mackerel tail - The descriptive way of referring to a ship's underwater shape being fuller forward than aft. Codswallop – Originally a seamen’s term for a load of rubbish. Coehoorn – Dutch military engineer and inventor, Menno van Coehoorn, 1641-1704. See cohorn. Coffee Rooms Coffee Royal - Coffee drink with a tot of rum in it. Coffer/carcass - Semi-submersible timed explosive that would be floated by wind and tide up to enemy target ship. Early 19c. Of dubious efficacy. Napoleon described their effectiveness as "Breaking the windows of the good citizens of Boulogne with English guineas" and called their use "Unmanly and assassin-like". Coffin ships - Ships with defects or that were overloaded, and therefore unseaworthy. Coffle - of slaves BDD Cog - Early N European sailing ship. Cohorn – A small 18th century mortar, named after its inventor. See Coehoorn. Coil - A length of rope of about 120 fathoms, wound concentrically and accoil. Coiling – The method by which a rope is stored, coiled round in a left- or right-handed direction to suit its lay. Coin(Quoin) - Coir hawser – Rope made from coconut fibres that was about a third as strong as hemp, but was capable of floating and was used to attach to a heavier cable to be hauled in for towing or mooring. Cokkebote - 15c ship's boat of twelve oars. Cokkeswain - 15c spelling. Cold Defender - Woollen comforter. Collar - 1 The heavy eye worked into the top end of a shroud, for looping over the mast head. 2 A rope formed into an eye with a dead-eye inside. Collar beam(hgv) Collar knot – A granny knot comprising two identical half knots made in the middle of two ropes to make temporary shrouds for a jury rig. Collier - Coal ship. Collier's purchase - A deck-tackle comprising a rope clapped onto the cable near the hawse, with the end taken to the jeer-capstan. Colling and Pinkney's Patent Self-Reefing and Furling Topsails - A system of reefing by means of a roller arrangement on the fore side of the yard. Superseded by simpler methods due to its complications. See also Howe's close-reefing topsail. Collins, Captain Greenville - Authorized to survey the whole of the British Isles in 1681, the results appearing in 1688 as Great Britain's Coasting Pilot. Collision – The unintentional, usually, and violent coming together of two or more vessels. Collision mat – A temporary patch used to repair an accidental hole below a ship’s waterline, comprising a heavy canvas mat. Colonel - Seamen's slang for someone who provides hospitality ashore. Colours - 1. The ship's identification flags. 2. The name of the ceremony to start the working day, from 1820ish, comprising hoisting of the white ensign in silent respect. 3. A ship's colours were flown above enemy colours on prizes. 4. A term now used of address of the Royal Marine Colour Sergeant. Colt - A short length of rope knotted at the end, used by Royal Navy officers to punish minor felonies. Colted
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