THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ THE READERS’ DICTIONARY OF SAILING SHIP TERMINOLOGY ___________________________________________________________________________ 84 85 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 Forward jackline - SMS Forward Officers - Fother – (v) To close up a leak by using a spare sail or piece of canvas drawn over the hole. Fothering, forthering - Foul - Said of anything that is unfavourable, such as a foul wind that blows from an unsuitable direction, a foul coast that has hidden dangers, foul cables that are entangled, a foul bottom that is encrusted with marine growth, etc. Foul berth, wind - SMS Foul anchor – An anchor that has either got caught up in some way on the sea bottom or has got its own cable tangled around it. Foul berth - An anchorgae where there is not enough room to swing with the tide. Foul bill - Said of a ship whose bill of health cannot be authenticated, usually when the port of departure is infected. Foul bottom - Foul ground - Sea floor littered with wrecks or other obstructions that could foul an anchor. Foul hawse – The situation of two hawsers severely crossed and twisted, caused by the effects of wind and tide moving the anchored vessel about its cables. Foul weather - Unfavourable weather. Foul wind - A wind blowing from the direction that the ships intends to travel. Founder – Of a vessel, to fill with water and sink. Fourcant - Rope comprising four strands. Four s’s – The four points taught to sailors that should be checked before sailing: steering gear, side-lights, side ports and stowaways. In later years RN sailors used it as: shag, shit, shower and shave. A good start to the day on a run ashore. Fox - Twisted rope yarns used to make gaskets. Fouling hawse - SMS Foul winds - BDD Foundering - Fourcant – A rope composed of four strands. Four fingers - The usual measure of spirit served in a straight glass, four fingers high off the bottom of the glass. Four Point Bearing - Four-poster - A four masted ship. Fowler - Small breech-loading anti-personnel gun. Fox – Three or more yarns twisted together and smoothed down, used to make gaskets or bands, or similar, for seizing, or weaving a mat, etc. Fox, John - of Woodbridge in 16c. - ? Fox-hauling - SMS Foy – The British term for a meeting between two whaleships when crews would meet socially. The American equivalent word was gam. Frame - One of the structural ribs of the ship. One piece of the curved timbers forming transverse members of the ship's structure, branching from the keel. Those at right angles to the keel are square-timbers and those at oblique angles are cant-timbers. At the bow the foremost are knuckle-timbers, and at the stern they are fashion-pieces. Also rib, timber. See futtocks, floor timber, top timber. Franklin lifebuoy - SMS Frap – To pass a hawser or chain under a vessel’s hull and make it tight across the deck, to hold the hull from opening up too much in an emergency. Also undergird. Frap a sail, to - ERR Frap - See Undergrid. Frapped - Tied down tightly, by drawing ropes and shrouds together. Frapping - Turns of rope between the components of a lashing, to tighten the lashing. Frapping the hull - SMS Frappings of the Breech - Frazil-ice – Ice in the process of forming on the sea. Free – Said of a ship sailing with the wind abaft the beam. Free and easy – Originally an old sailing term meaning all the sheets (sail control ropes or running rigging) could be eased and the ship could run free before the wind. Freeboard - The distance between the water-line and the upper deck. Freebooters - BDD Freeing Ports - Openings in bulwarks designed to let out the sea washing the decks. Free Mart Fair - At Portsmouth Free Ships, Free Goods - The cry of Neutrals. Free traders - Smugglers. Freight or Freight Money - Earned by a Captain, and his Admiral, on a % basis for carrying freight, usually of a particularly valuable kind such as bullion, on a Royal Navy ship. Freighting Specie - French anchor - SMS French bowline – A bowline knot with two turns made before the end is passed up through, round the standing part and back down through the turns. Usually used on slippery ropes. French bunt - SMS French flaking the cable - SMS Frenchified – Seamen’s term for suffering from the ‘clap’. French lug – A lug sail with the lower edge attached to a boom that stays on the same side of the mast when tacking, despite the yard dipping around it. Also balanced lug. French-reef - A form of reefing arrangement resulting in a jack-line fore and aft of the sail, instead of individual reefing lines. Also jack-linereef. SMS French sennit – A flat plait formed of more than three strands, by laying strands regularly over and under adjacent strands, laid tightly parallel to the preceding strand. French shroud knot – A method of joining two shrouds, each of three or four strands, by unlaying them, laying the ends in a crown over the join and tucking the ends in. Fresh - Of a breeze, Beaufort 5; of a gale, Beaufort 8. Freshen ballast – To turn over the shingle or stones ballast in the hold, to clean it – or at least to stir it around a bit. Freshening - Wind increasing in strength. Freshen ones hawse - Have a nip of spirit. Freshen – To shift the nip of a rope or cable by slackening it a little. Freshen the nip – To ease a rope along a bit so that a fresh portion is nipped, to prevent friction chafing on one place all the time. Following wind - Wind coming from astern. Folt - To lap up a wet sail loosely to let the air in, as opposed to folding it. Foo-foo, poo-poo - Seamen's slang for something effeminate or not well understood. For example, talcum powder was called foo-foo powder, and some technical object could be called a foo-foo pump, etc. Food - Types of food commonly eaten by seamen: Burgoo - Dog's Body - Dough-Boy(American) - Dunderfunk - Lob-Dominion - Lobscouse - Scouse - Skillagalee - Soft Tack - Soft Tommy. All are listed in their alphabetical position. Foot - The lower edge of a sail or the lower end of a mast. Foothold cleat - (hgv) Footing of topmast - (ecr) Foot loose – 1. An unsecured bottom of a sail, which would flap freely. 2. Said of a vessel so disengaged from the dockside to permit her to get under way whenever she chooses Foot-rope - 1 A rope, taughtly fastened about four feet under yards and jib-booms, for crewmen to stand on when working on the sails. 2 The rope sewn into the lower edge of a sail. Footwaling, foot-waling - Ceiling. In a ship, this means the floor of the hold. For, Towards - Superstition demands that one sails "For"or "Towards" a destination, not "To", otherwise the sea will repay the arrogance of confidence badly. Forbes, Robert B - SMS Force of Attraction - Fore - In the forward part of a vessel. Fore and aft - Arranged in a front to back or back and forth direction in relation to a vessel's long axis. Fore & aft carlings - (hgv) Fore and aft line - The imaginary line drawn between stem and stern, along the keel. Fore-and-aft rig - A modern term for a Petty Officer's uniform, from the fact that his trouser creases are at the front and back of his legs. Fore-and-Aft Sails - Those arranged between masts as distinct from those square sails on yards. Fore brace bitts - Fore bitters – Songs sung around the fore-bitts when a watch is off duty in the forecastle. Fore bowline - The rope leading from the leech of the foresail to the deck. Fore bridle - Tackle used to control the trawl beam. Fore cabin - The part of a ship's passenger accommodation second in importance to the saloon. Fore capstan - Forecastle - The forward end of the upper deck, between the beak-head and the foremast. Used as seamen's quarters in merchant vessels. Forecastle Man - Fore cat-harpins - The cat-harpins of the foremast shrouds. Fore-chains - Fore course – The foresail. The principle sail on the lower foremast. Fore drift rail hance - (tge) Forefoot - Timber at the leading edge of the keel, joining it into the lower end of the stem. Fore-ganger – The first eighteen feet of hemp line attached to a whale harpoon and joined to the whale-line. Fore halyard - The rope used to hoist the foresail. Fore-hold - The part of a vessel's main hold forward of the main hatchway. Fore hood - The foremost plank in a strake. Fore-hooks - Breast-hooks. Foreign mud - Opium, as called by the Chinese. Fore jeer capstan - The forward capstan. Fore-line beck – A box located amidships in a whaleship, in which the whale-line was coiled. Forelock – Before threaded bolts were available the forelock was a small curved wedge driven through a hole in the end of a shackle pin or bolt to hold it firmly in place and to stop it drawing out. Foremast - The forward mast in a ship with more than one mast. Fore-mast - Also used to refer to 'before the mast', etc. Foremast Jack - Foremastmen - Foremast partners - (tge) Forenoon Watch - 8am - noon Fore-peak - Foremost compartment under the deck, in the angle of the bow, for storing ropes and gear. Fore rake - Those parts of a vessel's bows that rake forward of the keel. Fore-reach – To move forward while sailing close to the wind or when going about. Fore sheet - The rope which holds and controls the clew of the foresail. Foreshore – The part of the shore between the low and high tide levels. Fore side fish - Fore piece of made mast. CTC Foresight – A short metal upright fitted to the gun top to reduce the tendency towards elevation. A dispart sight. Fore-staff – An ancient wooden instrument used to measure altitudes of heavenly bodies, comprising a cross, or transversary, sliding on a staff that had graduated degrees marked on it. Also arbalest, cross-staff or Jacob’s staff. Forestage - The projecting forecastle of a carrack. Forestay carried away - SMS Fore stay collar - (ecr) Fore-tack - Foretop - Foretopman – A seaman whose station is in the foretop, or the fore topmast. Fore-topmast-burton - See fish-tackle-burton. Foretopmast Head - The lookout usually sat here. Fore-truck - Forge ahead – To move quickly ahead through the action of the wind on the sails. Forge over – To sail hard to get over a shoal. Fork in the Beam - Signal in mids mess for mids to go to their hammocks when oldsters required or recommended, usually a time of serious drinking or ribaldry, or both. Formers - *59 Forrard - Dialect for forward. Forward - Referring to the part of a ship that is towards the bow.
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