THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 68 69 THIS DOCUMENT IS THE PROPERTY OF PETER TURNER 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 dock, for repairs or refitting. Culverin - Larger than a cannon, firing iron balls. Culverin Weighed 4000lbs, 18 pound ball, 460 yds 'point blank', 2650 yds at 10 degrees. The longest muzzle-loading gun in use in Elizabethan times, having a smooth bore and firing round shot of about 17 pounds weight. Cumshaw - Seamen's slang for something for nothing, or a back-hander, or unofficial commission, or something obtained without payment, such as tips to Customs, etc., from Pidgin Chinese for Thank you! Cun – (v) To direct a ship by ordering the helmsman. Also con. Cunning - See conning. Also, in Elizabethan times this was used to describe someone skilful or clever. Cunningham's Self-Reefing Topsail - A patented system of reefing by means of rolling the yard. Superseded by simpler methods due to its complications. See also Howe's close-reefing topsail. Curl cloud - See mare's tail. Currents – Non-tidal horizontal movements of water. Sometimes called non-tidal currents. Current sailing – Traverse sailing, also using the tidal or other current. Curtailed - Dog Watch joke. Curtalls - And Demi # - Brass Cannon Curved sail - Sails are naturally curved and it is now understood that they act as aerofoils and not, necessarily, as wind-bags. Cushee Piece – 17th century mortar. Customs, Portage and Pontage - ? Customers - Customs house officials. Customs Commission - Inc 1643. Ran the Navy under the Parliament of the Civil War. Cut – (v) Loosen the gaskets holding a furled sail, in preparation to setting it. Cut a feather, cut a fine feather – An early expression for the action of a vessel forming a foaming crest, looking not unlike a feather, at her bow wave. Also see ‘bone’. Cut and run - To cut the light yarns by which a sail had been stopped after furling, so that the sail fell and started to draw instantly, in the direction to which the wind was blowing. This became seamen's slang for sudden departure. Often mistakenly taken to mean the cutting of the anchor cable, which rarely happened because of the high costs and risks involved with losing an anchor. Cutch - The mixture of shredded oak bark, tallow, tar, and red or yellow ochre, mixed with boiling water and used to bark the sails of some fishing and other vessels, as a preservative, giving them their brown appearance. Cutch Tan – A concoction usually of linseed oil & red ochre, etc. 'Cut-down' - Noun Cut his painter - A seaman's painter was his link with life, as a boats painter was its link with land, so a seaman whose painter had been cut was no more. Cutlass - The short, curved, heavy sabre-like sword introduced late 18c, used by seamen in hand-to-hand combat. Cut of his jib - Seamen's slang for the characteristic look of a person, or his actions or style, usually used when approved of. Cut splice – A splice made into standing rigging where pendants or ropes are to be attached. Cuts very little ice - Makes little impression, from the difficulty of a wooden ship to force its way through pack ice. Cutter – 1. A small single-masted English ship with sloop rig, clinker (later carvel) built, with a light hull, a large gaff mainsail, with a square main course, a deeply roached topsail, a topgallantsail and a spritsail. 2. A ship's boat with light oars and a lugsail and with a flat transom. Cutter-built - Said of a fine lined craft Cutter-stay fashion - A method of setting up lower rigging by knotting each lanyard at one end and then reeving it through the upper and lower dead-eyes, as commonly done in cutters. Cutting-down line - The curved line formed by the upper sides of the floor timbers amidships, curving up towards the stem and stern, above the dead-wood, showing the curve on the keelson. Cutting In/Out Cutting stage – A platform rigged outboard of an American whaleship from which the crew cut up a whale’s carcass alongside. Cutting tackle – The American name for a cant purchase. Cuttle Cut-seizing - A method of joining two single shrouds by forming a loop of crossing ends and seizing them together. Cutwater - The vertical timber member forming the foremost hull component, leading from the keel to the beakhead. See knee of the head. Cyclones – Tropical revolving storms originating in the Indian Ocean area or in the Arabian Sea. D-block, Dee-block – A ‘D’ shaped wooden block with a �ixed central hole bolted onto the channels, to reeve the lift. D-shackle – A shackle made with two parallel sides. D.B.S. - Distressed British Sailor. A term applied to those who are invalided home from a foreign port. Dab toe - A seaman, from the habit of washing decks in bare feet. Dagger - A timber used to support the shores in a bilgeway, that hold a vessel's hull upright. Dagger knees - Knees that are �ixed at an angle to a vessel's timbers, instead of perpendicularly. Dagger piece - Any timber �ixed at an angle, in a vessel's frame. Dagger plank - A timber or plank used to join the shores that support a vessel under construction. Dahn-buoy - Used for gun practice, as a target. Daily rate – The amount by which a chronometer gains or loses each day. Also called the rate of going. Dalmatian Coast – The geographic term given to long islands lying parallel to shore. Where the grain of land lies parallel to a shore of submergence. Damlooper - Dutch ferry boat used on canals and rivers in 17 and 18c. Dammar Resin - Mixed with oil and blacking to treat hull prior to coppering CTC Dampier, William - Mariner said by some to have been a pirate. The �irst to account for ocean currents being caused by the Trade Winds, in his A Collection of Voyages, �irst published in 1699. Dan, den - A small buoy with an ensign, used to mark where �ishing lines have been shot Dan, Dan buoy – A buoy �itted with a tall upright pole from which a �lag was �lown, to show where �ishing lines or nets or lobster pots had been laid. Dancing Dandy - A sloop rig with a small mizzen, halfway between a cutter and ketch rig. Dandy bridle - Tackle used to keep the after part of a trawl beam in place. Dandyfunk, Dandy Funk – A sailor’s dish of molasses mixed with crumbled ship’s biscuits and whatever else is available. Dandy's sail - Dandy score – A fairlead with rollers �itted onto the port side of a �ishing trawler, through which the beam trawl dandy bridle was led aboard. Dandy wink - A small windlass used to work the dandy bridle. Dangerous quadrant - The most dangerous storm area in which a ship can �ind herself. Dangerous semi-circle - Area on the side of the path of a tropicak revolving strom. Danish seine – A long-haul �ishing net with long narrow wings and a long bag, used to catch seabed dwelling �ish. Darbies - Handcuffs Darkness, Sea of - Early European seamen’s' name for the North Atlantic. Dart – The action of throwing a harpoon into a whale. Darting gun - NT1405US Dashee - Customary bonuses to slave factors and suppliers. Davis, John - One of the greatest of English Elizabethan sailors. Davis's quadrant - See Backstaff. Davit – A small crane or derrick used to hoist an anchor up to the bows, or in a longboat, to weigh an anchor, or used in pairs to lower and raise a ship’s boats. Davit - Originally for stowing anchors, not boats. Davit - CTC Davy Jones - Strictly 'Duffy' Jones, or ghost of Jonah. 'Duffy' is an old English word for ghost, corrupted by misuse and came to mean the grave of the sea. A legendary Welshman said to be storekeeper of the underwater world, who would take possession of all drowning seamen. The name may have derived from Duffy Jonah, 'duffy' being a negro name for a ghost. Davy Jones's locker - The domain of Davy Jones, where all drowned seamen ended up. Daw, to - To bring someone back to consciousness. Dawn – The �irst appearance of daylight in the eastern sky before sunrise. Also �irst light, or daybreak. Dawson, Nancy - Air played by �iddler or �ifer to announce rum issue. Day – The time that elapses between successive passes of a heavenly body across the same meridian. Day book – The book into which the permanent record of the details of a vessel’s course and events were written up from the log board at noon each day. Also log book, or just log. Daybreak – The �irst appearance of daylight in the eastern sky before sunrise. Also �irst light, or dawn. Day Diving Boat - Diving boat built 1774 by Day, an Englishman, who carried out diving experiments in Plymouth harbour, unfortunately sinking with crew and inventor all lost. Thought to be the �irst total loss in the history of submersibles. Day's workings - A midshipman's navigation lesson calculations. Day’s work – The daily reckoning of a vessel’s progress according to dead reckoning. DD - Discharged Dead, as abbreviated in the muster book when a seaman had died on board. Dead door - A wooden shutter used to seal off an open window in a ship. Dead-eye – A solid wooden block with three holes through which a lanyard is rove and used as a purchase for the standing rigging. Two dead-eyes are linked by a lanyard, with the upper one fastened to the shrouds and the lower to the chain in a ship’s side. Deaden away - SMS Dead �lat - The point marking the midship D Deadlights and Duffs
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