landfall

en-noun

landfall (countable and uncountable, plural landfalls)

We made landfall at the most god-forsaken, barren, desolate, and hellish location possible to image; and we were grateful, anything to get off that ship!

Lighthouses are usually the first aids seen when making landfall.

Arrival at the shore by ship, or sighting of the shore from a ship.

(obsolete) The first land discovered after a sea voyage.

kitenga whenua

First land discovered after a sea voyage


corsair

Borrowed from French corsaire, from Medieval Latin cursārius (“pirate”), from Latin cursus (“course, a running; plunder, hostile inroad”). Doublet of courser and hussar.

der

A French privateer, especially from the port of Saint-Malo.


logbook

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-logbook.wav

1670s, log + book, originally a record of a ship’s speed and progress, from a wooden float (chip log, or simply log) used to measure speed.

корабен дневник

nautical: book in which details from journey are recorded

(nautical) A book in which measurements from the ship's log are recorded, along with other salient details of the voyage.


scuttlebutt

en-noun

scuttlebutt (countable and uncountable, plural scuttlebutts)

The noun is derived from scuttle (“to cut a hole through (something)”) + butt (“wooden cask”). Sense 2 (“gossip, idle chatter; rumour”) refers to the fact that sailors would gather around the scuttlebutt to drink and exchange gossip; compare furphy and water cooler.
The verb is derived from the noun.

compound

[S]o they continue to fire as directed, until they are either sent down to the cock-pit themselves, or have a momentary respite from their exertions, when, choaked with smoke and gunpowder, they go aft to the scuttle-butt, to remove their parching thirst.

1830, [Frederick Marryat], chapter VIII, in The King’s Own. […], volume I, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, pages 93–94:

In this way, with an occasional break by relieving the wheel, heaving the log, and going to the scuttle-butt for a drink of water, the longest watch was passed away; […]

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXXII, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 407:

The scuttle-butt is a goodly, round, painted cask, standing on end, and with its upper head removed, showing a narrow circular shelf within, where rest a number of tin cups for the accommodation of drinkers. Central, within the scuttle-butt itself, stands an iron pump, which, connecting with the immense water-tanks in the hold, furnishes an unfailing supply of the much-admired Pale Ale, first brewed in the brooks of the Garden of Eden, and stamped with the brand of our old father Adam, who never knew what wine was.

1850, Herman Melville, “A Man-of-War Fountain, and Other Things”, in White-Jacket; or, The World in a Man-of-War, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers; London: Richard Bentley, published 1855, →OCLC, page 332:

It was the middle-watch: a fair moonlight; the seamen were standing in a cordon, extending from one of the fresh-water butts in the waist, to the scuttle-butt near the taffrail. In this manner, they passed the buckets to fill the scuttle-butt.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Hark!”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 217:

[T]he scuttle-butts are on the starboard side of the galley. You will find a bottle on one of them that will serve as a dipper. Drink moderately, for your life's sake, and get a pannikin from the galley and bring it aft, filled.

1880, W[illiam] Clark Russell, “The Survivors of the ‘Waldershare’”, in A Sailor’s Sweetheart. […], volume II, London: Sampson Low, Searle & Rivington, […], →OCLC, pages 273–274:

When the eight new tankers of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey start on their coastwise service, their crews will be assured of the proper preservation of their perishable foods. Carrier refrigerating systems will provide for the 1220 ft.³ refrigerator, chill room of 890 ft.³, and the scuttle butt with storage capacity of 40 gal. of drinking water.

1936 October, “Eight Tankers Equipped with Modern Facilities for Food Preservation”, in Refrigerating Engineering: Economic Application of Air Conditioning and Refrigeration, volume 32, number 4, New York, N.Y.: American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, →OCLC, page 285, column 1:

Leaning over the scuttlebutt one afternoon, Bond suddenly realized he'd been gulping water for maybe a minute. […] The rest of the afternoon, all that night, and all the next day, his thirst was unquenchable. […] During the night he woke many times, his throat parched and burning, to crawl out of his sack and rush to the scuttlebutt for water.

1986, John Wheatcroft, Slow Exposures, Cranbury, N.J., London: Cornwall Books, →ISBN, page 114:

During the midwatch a radioman striker (that is, a seaman trying to advance to radioman third class) was taking a drink of water from the third-deck scuttlebutt.

1991, Paul Stillwell, “The Tranquil Twenties: August 1921 – May 1929”, in Battleship Arizona: An Illustrated History, Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 79, column 1:

We all grabbed towels that belonged to whoever lived there, and we wet them down in the scuttlebutt and wrapped them around our faces to filter out as much smoke as possible.

2007, Joseph A[dam] Springer, Inferno: The Epic Life and Death Struggle of the USS Franklin in World War II, St. Paul, Minn.: Zenith Press, →ISBN, page 218:

(countable, nautical) Originally (now chiefly historical), a cask with a hole cut into its top, used to provide drinking water on board a ship; now (by extension, informal), a drinking fountain on a modern ship.

бъчва с вода за пиене

"That's the scuttlebutt," Bronson said defiantly. "You got some pet coolie down there you want to put in Chien's place." / "Who told you that?" / "It's just scuttlebutt." / "Scuttlebutt travels on words." Holman's voice was shaking. "You tell me one man you heard say that, or I'll beat your fat face in!"

1962 September, Richard McKenna, chapter 9, in The Sand Pebbles […], New York, N.Y., Evanston, Ill.: Harper & Row, →OCLC, page 137:

His resolve not to worry about unfounded scuttlebutt lasted about two minutes.

2003, Len Custer, Called to Serve: A Historical Novel of the Korean War, New York, N.Y.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 211:

They were bound this day for the city of Chicago, and the World's Columbian Exposition recently opened there. Since their orders had come through, the "scuttlebutt" among the excited and curious crew had been of little besides the fabled "White City," […]

2006, Thomas Pynchon, “The Light over the Ranges”, in Against the Day, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 3:

(uncountable, originally US, nautical slang) Gossip, idle chatter; also, rumour.


stopper

(nautical) A short rope for making something fast.


limber

For the obsolete limmer, from Old Norse limar (“branches”), plural of lim.

(nautical, in the plural) Gutters or conduits on each side of the keelson to allow water to pass to the pump well.


hurdy-gurdy

Probably onomatopoeic in imitation of the sound produced by the stringed instrument. Compare obsolete hirdy-girdy (“an uproar; noise”). Attested from the 1740s.

A pair of oars, a small mast and sail, pen boards to contain the fish, a bailer, a water jar, a bait knife, a compass, a small wooden winch called a hurdy gurdy, a fish gaff, and the tubs, trawls, floats, and anchors used to set gear was all that was required to equip it.

2009, Keith McLaren, A Race for Real Sailors, page 20:


cutlass

From Middle French coutelas, from Old French coutel (“knife”) + -as (augmentative suffix).

She could feel Tern’s stare fixed right between her shoulder blades, and knew he was aching to plunge his cutlass there.

2015 September 1, Sarah J. Maas, Queen of Shadows, →ISBN:

In vain the captain threatened to throw him overboard; suspended a cutlass over his naked wrists; Queequeg was the son of a King, and Queequeg budged not.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter XII, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

(nautical) A short sword with a curved blade, and a convex edge; once used by sailors when boarding an enemy ship.


skag

en-noun

skag (countable and uncountable, plural skags)


seaplane

(aircraft, nautical) Any aircraft capable of taking off from, and alighting on the surface of water.


turnbuckle

(nautical) A link threaded on both ends of a short bar which is used to pull objects together. (FM 55-501)


pollywog

(sailing slang) A sailor who has not yet crossed the equator.


skiff

→ Russian: скиф (skif)

From Middle English skif, from Middle French esquif, from Old Italian schifo (“small boat”), from Lombardic skif (“boat”), from Proto-Germanic *skipą (“boat, ship”). Doublet of ship.

Old Applegate, in the stern, just set and looked at me, and Lord James, amidship, waved both arms and kept hollering for help. I took a couple of everlasting big strokes and managed to grab hold of the skiff's rail, close to the stern.

1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

A small flat-bottomed open boat with a pointed bow and square stern.

I went alone into a Shepherd's boat,
A skiff that to a willow-tree was tied
Within a rocky cave, its usual home […]

1799, William Wordsworth, The Two-Part Prelude, Book I:

Any of various types of boats small enough for sailing or rowing by one person.


skiff

en-verb

skiff (third-person singular simple present skiffs, present participle skiffing, simple past and past participle skiffed)

skiffs (present singular third-person)
skiffing (participle present)
skiffed (participle past)
skiffed (past)

(nautical, transitive) To navigate in a skiff.


casco

Borrowed from Spanish casco. Doublet of cask and casque.

(nautical) A flat-bottomed, square-ended boat once used in the Philippines as a lighter to ferry goods between ship and shore


northing

(nautical) A distance traveled northward.


lighterman

1622, Ben Jonson, The Masque of Augurs, The First Antimasque, in The Works of Ben Jonson, London: D. Midwinter et al., 1756, Volume 6, p. 122,
A poor lighterman, sir, one that hath had the honour sometimes to lay in the king’s beer there […]

One Dobson, a lighterman, undertook, for a wager of five guineas, to swim on his back from Westminster bridge to Putney bridge in an hour and three quarters, without turning himself in the water; which he performed 19 minutes within the time.

1766 July, The Annual Register, page 115:

At that the Pool became a scene of mad confusion, fighting, and collision, and for some time a multitude of boats and barges jammed in the northern arch of the Tower Bridge, and the sailors and lightermen had to fight savagely against the people who swarmed upon them from the riverfront.

1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter 17:

[ Alex Smith ] was a lighterman on the Thames at the time Bligh was signing on the Bounty men, but he hated the business and was only waiting for a suitable opportunity to go to sea again.

1934, Charles Nordhoff, James Norman Hall, chapter 2, in Pitcairn’s Island:

(nautical) One employed on, owning, or managing a lighter.


whaleboat

Before we had gone fifty yards we perceived that all hopes of getting further up the stream in the whale-boat were at an end, for not two hundred yards above where we had stopped were a succession of shallows and mudbanks, with not six inches of water over them.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

A long narrow rowing boat, formerly used in whaling, which is pointed at both ends so that it can move either forwards or backwards equally well.


easting

en-noun

easting (countable and uncountable, plural eastings)

It was very tiring and slow work, yet I did visibly gain ground; and as we drew near the Cape of the Woods, though I saw I must infallibly miss that point, I had still made some hundred yards of easting.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

(nautical) A distance traveled eastward.


mainsail

(nautical) The largest (or only) sail on a sailing vessel.


pintle

From Middle English pyntel, from Old English pintel (“penis”), from Proto-Germanic *pint- (“protrusion”), from Proto-Indo-European *bend- (“peg, tip, protruding point, edge”), equivalent to pin + -le. Cognate with Middle Low German pint (“male member, penis”), West Flemish pint (“tip”), Norwegian dialectal pintol (“penis”). More at pin, pen.

cog

The train had a searchlight mounted on a pintle on a flat car.

2005, James Meek, The People’s Act of Love, Canongate, published 2006, page 31:

(nautical) A pin or bolt, usually vertical, which acts as a pivot for a hinge or a rudder.


engine room

(nautical) A compartment on a ship in which the engine machinery is located.


mackinaw skiff

A cargo boat, with a large flat bottom and sharp ends, formerly used on the Great Lakes and the Missouri River (to a lesser extent, elsewhere).


mackinaw

en-noun

mackinaw (countable and uncountable, plural mackinaws)

Respelling of Mackinac, a strait between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, an island in the strait, and an important trading-post on the island; ultimately from Ojibwe mishinii-makinaang (“at the place of many snapping turtles”).

uder

A flat-bottomed cargo boat; mackinaw boat.


longboat

But our Patron, warn’d by this Disaster, resolved to take more Care of himself for the future; and having lying by him the Long-Boat of our English Ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a fishing any more without a Compass and some Provision […]

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC:

We cast Anchor within a League of this Creek, and our Captain sent a dozen of his Men well armed in the Long Boat, with Vessels for Water, if any could be found.

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), pages 153–154:

So far we had had reason to rejoice in the escape of our longboat, which had received no damage from any of the huge seas which had come on board.

1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], chapter VIII, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 83:

The longboat, with seven of the crew, was picked up eighteen days after by H. M. gunboat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible privations has become quite as well known as the far more horrible Medusa case.

1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, New York, N.Y.: Stone & Kimball, 1896, →OCLC:

(nautical) The largest and thus the most capable of boats carried on a ship.


logline

First attested in 1613 as logge-line. A compound of log + line.

Besides the ingenious Pilot knowing the elevation of the Pole in some places of his voyage that he hath passed, by keeping a true, not a dead reckoning of his course in pricking his Card aright, and observing the way with the logge-line, with other currants, will give a very artificiall conjecture of the elevation of the pole in that place where he is, though he sec neither Sunne nor Starres.

1613, Mark Ridley, A Short Treatise of Magneticall Bodies and Motions:

Bring the ship to rights, that is, againe under saile as she was, some use a Log line, and a minute glasse to know what way shee makes, but that is so uncertaine, it is not worth the labour to trie it.

1627, John Smith, A sea grammar with the plaine exposition of Smiths Accidence for young sea-men, enlarged:

The 120th part of that Mile is 41⅔ feet, and so much is the space betweene the Knots upon the Log-line: So many Knots as the ship runs in half a minute, so many Miles she sayleth in an hour; or so many Leagues, and so many Miles she runneth in a Watch or four hours, called A Watch, because one half of the Ships Company watcheth by turns, and changes every four hours.

1659, John Collins, Navigation by the Mariners Plain Scale New Plain'd:

(nautical) The line fastened to the log, and marked for finding the speed of a vessel.


nao

I got vivid descriptions of the sea battle at Chaul from the Mamluk sailors and the Ottoman gunners so that I could clearly visualise the Mamluk galleys and the Ottoman guns battling the Portuguese naos at the entrance of the Kundalika river.

2007, Eusebio L. Rodrigues, Love and Samsāra:

(nautical, historical, rare) A Spanish or Portuguese carrack.


hydroplane

(nautical) A specific type of motorboat used exclusively for racing.

(aircraft, nautical) A seaplane; any aircraft capable of taking off from, and alighting on the surface of water.

(nautical) A hydrofoil (“hydrodynamic surface”)

(nautical) The wing of a submarine, used to help control depth


loof

Inherited from Middle English lof (“a contrivance for altering a ship's course, paddle, oar”), from Middle Dutch loef (“an oar or paddle used in steering”), ultimately of the same origin as Etymology 1. Compare luff.

der

(nautical, obsolete) A contrivance (apparently a paddle or an oar) used for altering the course of a ship.

(nautical) The after part of the bow of a ship where the sides begin to curve.


hank

From Middle English hank, of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin; akin to Old Norse hǫnk (compare haki (“something bent”)), related to Proto-Germanic *hakô (“hook”). Akin to Old English hangian (“to hang”). First known use: 14th century.

(nautical) A ring or shackle that secures a staysail to its stay and allows the sail to glide smoothly up and down.

бухта

nautical: ring or shackle to secure staysail


nock

From Middle English nokke, attested since the 14th century, probably from a Scandinavian/North Germanic language (compare Swedish nock (“notch”), but compare Dutch nok, from Middle Dutch nocke (“tip, point”). Both could be related to nook (“corner, recess”).

(nautical) The upper fore corner of a boom sail or trysail.


flotilla

From Spanish flotilla, diminutive of flota (“fleet”), from French flotte.

Toward the horizon a flotilla of fishing-boats showed immutable, pink-lacquered by the evening sun.

1919, Ronald Firbank, Valmouth, Duckworth, hardback edition, page 102

Driven from their home system by the geth nearly three centuries ago, most quarians now live aboard the Migrant Fleet, a flotilla of fifty thousand vessels ranging in size from passenger shuttles to mobile space stations.
Home to 17 million quarians, the flotilla understandably has scarce resources. Because of this, each quarian must go on a rite of passage known as the Pilgrimage when they come of age. They leave the fleet and only return once they have found something of value they can bring back to their people.

2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians Codex entry:

(nautical) A small fleet of warships (usually of the same class), or a fleet of small ships.


stirrup

From Middle English stirop, stirope, from Old English stiġrāp (“stirrup”), a compound of stiġe ("ascent, descent, a going up or down"; related to stīġan (“to climb”)) and rāp (“rope”), equivalent to sty + rope.
Cognate with Dutch stegereep, stegelreep (“stirrup”), Old Saxon stigerēp (“stirrup”), Middle High German stereip, stegreif ("stirrup"; > German Stegreif (“improvisation”)), Icelandic stigreip (“stirrup”).

gloss

"ascent, descent, a going up or down"; related to <i class="Latn mention" lang="ang">stīġan</i> (“to climb”)

"stirrup"; > German <i class="Latn mention" lang="de">Stegreif</i> (“improvisation”)

For quotations using this term, see Citations:stirrup.

(nautical) A rope secured to a yard, with a thimble in its lower end for supporting a footrope.


knorr

the largest knorr in Halogaland was loaded at Sandnes this spring and Thorolf was said to be sole owner of all the cargo on board.

1997, ‘Egil's Saga’, translated by Bernard Scudder, The Sagas of Icelanders, Penguin, published 2001, page 29:

Alternative form of knarr (“large merchant ship used in mediaeval Scandinavia”)


birthing

(nautical) Alternative spelling of berthing


small stuff

(nautical) thin string, as opposed to the thick, heavy ropes that are more often used in sailing. It is commonly used in a whipping knot to bind the ends of ropes to prevent fraying.


RSN

Republic of Singapore Navy
w:Republic of Singapore Navy

(Singapore, military, nautical) Initialism of Republic of Singapore Navy.


DH

(military, nautical) Initialism of heavy destroyer, a variant of the destroyer type of warship.


gridiron

en-noun

gridiron (countable and uncountable, plural gridirons)

From resembling the shape of a gridiron (a square rectilinear grid).

(nautical) An openwork frame on which vessels are placed for examination, cleaning, and repairs.


bends

(nautical) The thickest and strongest planks in a wooden ship's side, wales.


unnavigable

en-adj

unnavigable (comparative more unnavigable, superlative most unnavigable)

more unnavigable (comparative)
most unnavigable (superlative)

A road journey of 70 miles past unnavigable rapids leads to Juba, from which it is seven days' steaming down river through to Kosti, on the Sudan Railways.

1950 May, Timothy H. Cobb, “The Tanganyika Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:

Not navigable. Difficult or impossible to navigate.


cairn

From Scots cairn, from Scottish Gaelic càrn, from Old Irish carn, from Proto-Celtic *karnos, from Proto-Indo-European *ḱerh₂- (“horn”).
Compare Welsh carn, Cornish carn. Doublet of carn and horn.

After fifteen minutes of this we were glad to reach a high saddle on which former travellers had piled little cairns of commemoration and thankfulness.

1926, T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, New York: Anchor, published 1991, page 180:

A pile of stones heaped up as a landmark, to guide travelers on land or at sea, or to arrest attention, as in surveying, or in leaving traces of an exploring party, etc.


foul wind

We lost several hours having to tack into a foul wind just off the coast.

(nautical) A wind blowing against the direction of travel.


fair wind

(nautical) A favourable wind, i.e. one blowing in the desired direction of travel for the vessel.


keepnet

Once she'd hooked them, she'd free them and put them in a keep net.

1973, Elizabeth Mavor, A Green Equinox, Virago, published 2023, page 116:

(nautical) A net strung on wire hoops and sealed at one end, suspended in water by anglers to keep alive the fish they have caught.


keelson

Late Middle English kelswayn, from Low German kielswîn, kielswīn, from kiel (“keel of a ship”) (from Old Norse kjǫlr) + swin (“swine”), used as the name of a timber (however, compare sill).
Compare with Dutch kolzwijn, kolsem, Low German, kielswîn, German Kielschwein, Danish kølsvin, kölsvin, all with the same meaning.

With regard to materials, all the frames should be of oak and so should the stem piece, stern post, upper portion of dead woods, knight heads, apron, beams, shelf clamp, bilge strakes, and keelson; the keel will generally be found to be either English or American elm.

1884, Dixon Kemp, A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (Fourth Edition), page 13:

(nautical) A longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness.


ramed

(nautical) Having the frames, stem, and sternpost adjusted; — said of a ship on the stocks.


pooped

pooped (comparative more pooped, superlative most pooped)

more pooped (comparative)
most pooped (superlative)

(nautical) Fitted or furnished with a poop.

Then - a shock of water, a wild rush of boiling foam, and I was clinging for my life to the shroud, ay, swept straight out from it like a flag in a gale. We were pooped. The wave passed. It seemed to me that I was under water for minutes - really it was seconds.

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

(nautical) Having had a wave come over the stern from abaft.


alow

From Middle English alowe, equivalent to a- + low.

I think you said something concerning the manner in which yonder ship has anchored, and of the condition they keep things alow and aloft?

1859, James Fenimore Cooper, The Red Rover: A Tale:

Ay, Ay, Ay, all is up; and I must up too / Early in the morning, aloft from alow.

1924, Herman Melville, chapter 26, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:

(nautical) Towards the lower part of a vessel; towards the lower rigging or the decks.


circumnavigate

en-verb

circumnavigate (third-person singular simple present circumnavigates, present participle circumnavigating, simple past and past participle circumnavigated)

circumnavigates (present singular third-person)
circumnavigating (participle present)
circumnavigated (participle past)
circumnavigated (past)

Borrowed from Latin circumnāvigātus, perfect passive participle of circumnāvigō (“sail round something, circumnavigate”), from circum (“about, around”) + nāvigō (“sail, navigate”), from nāvis (“ship”) + agō (“do”). By surface analysis, circum- + navigate.

Patrick Childress, who solo circumnavigated on a Catalina 27 in 1982, stresses the value of eggs, which will keep at least six weeks if previously unrefrigerated and oiled with vegetable shortening.

1992, Richard Henderson, Singlehanded Sailing, →ISBN, page 225:

Jack and Lura Francis, both fairly tall, circumnavigated on a Westsail 32.

1997, Diana Jessie, The Cruising Woman's Advisor, →ISBN, page 30:

Chay Blyth was the first when he circumnavigated in British Steel in 292 days in 1970 in a voyage that some predicted would end in certain death.

2004 March 10, Edward Gorman, “Van den Heede rewarded for perseverance”, in Times of London:

(intransitive, sailing) To sail around the world.


bullseye

→ German: Bullauge (calque)

→ Esperanto: bovokulo (calque)

From bull's + eye. May have come from the practice of English archers shooting an arrow through the eye socket of a bull's skull as a test of skill. The connection to philately comes from the shape of the key plate or vignette.

(nautical, obsolete) Thick glass set into the side of a ship to let in light.

idi-begi

thick glass set into the side of a ship to let in light


BU

(nautical) Initialism of broken up: referring to the scrapping of a decommissioned ship.


entanglement

en-noun

entanglement (countable and uncountable, plural entanglements)

pletka

that which entangles; intricacy; perplexity

That which entangles; an involvement, a complication; an intricacy; a perplexity.

(nautical) An obstruction of cables and spars across a river or harbour entrance.


caravel

From Middle French caravelle, from Old French caruelle, carvelle (“caravel”), from Old Galician-Portuguese caravela (“caravel”), a diminutive of caravo, carabo (“type of small vessel”), from Late Latin carabus (“small wicker boat decked with hide”), from Ancient Greek κᾱ́ρᾰβος (kā́rabos, “type of light ship; kind of beetle, probably a longhorn beetle; kind of crustacean, probably a crayfish”).

refn

From the collection of the Musée national de la Marine in Paris, France.

der

When Gullion di'd (who knows not Gullion?) / And his drie soule arriu'd at Acheron, / He faire besought the feryman of hell, / That he might drink to dead Pantagruel. / […] Yet still he drinkes, nor can the Botemans cries, / Nor crabbed oares, nor prayers make him rise. / So long he drinkes, till the black Carauell / Stands still fast grauel'd on the mud of hell.

1597, Joseph Hall, “Sat[ire] VI”, in Virgidemiarum, Sixe Bookes. […], London: Printed by Thomas Creede, for Robert Dexter, →OCLC; republished as Virgidemiarum: Satires, … In Six Books, London: William Pickering, […], 1825, →OCLC, book III, page 41, lines 1–4 and 11–14:

We also barter'd all the Goods that were in the firſt Spaniſh Caravel, taken at our firſt ſetting out for other Commodities, and left all the Priſoners. A Caravel ſays Oforius lib. 2 is a Veſſel that has no round Top, nor any Timber acroſs the Top of the Maſt, but the Yard is made faſt a little below the Top. The Sails are triangular, and their lower Points are but little above the Deck.

1711, Francis Cauche, “A Voyage to Madagascar, the Adjacent Islands, and Coast of Africk”, in [J. Stevens], editor, A New Collection of Voyages and Travels, into Several Parts of the World, […], volume II, London: Printed for J. Knapton, Andrew Bell, D. Midwinter, Will. Taylor, A. Collins, and J. Baker, →OCLC, page 3:

On the Ninth of May, in the Year one Thouſand, five Hundred, and Two, [Christopher] Columbus and his Brother departed, from Spain, on their laſt Voyage of Diſcovery, with four Caravelles, and one hundred, and ſeventy Men.

1776, [John Campbell], John Kent, “Memoirs of Christopher Columbus”, in Biographia Nautica; Or, Memoirs of Those Illustrious Seamen, to whose Intrepidity and Conduct the English are Indebted, […] In Four Volumes, volume I, London: Printed for J. Wallis and C. Stonehouse, […], →OCLC, page 433:

At preſent theſe trees are not very numerous, as the Turks make uſe of them to build the Grand Signior's caravelles, and cut down without ever planting.

1788, [Claude-Étienne] Savary, “Letter XIII. To M. L. M.”, in Letters on Greece; being a Sequel to Letters on Egypt, […] Translated from the French …, London: Printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson, […], →OCLC, page 98:

[T]he governor of Hiſpaniola was afraid that if the admiral returned to Spain, Their Catholic Majeſties would reſtore him to his government, and ſo he ſhould be forced to quit it; for which reaſon he would not provide, as he might have done, for the admiral's voyage to Hiſpaniola; and therefore had ſent that little caraval to ſpy and obſerve the condition the admiral was in, and to know whether he could contrive with ſafety to have him deſtroyed, […]

1812, John Pinkerton, “Of Another Mutiny among Those that Remained with the Admiral, which was Quelled by the Coming of a Vessel from Hispaniola”, in A General Collection of the Best and Most Interesting Voyages and Travels in All Parts of the World; […], volume XII, London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, […]; and Cadell and Davies, […], →OCLC, page 150:

Probably the most famous of all the forms of craft used at this period was the caravel, so well adapted for voyages of discovery, that nearly every one of the great navigators employed ships of this character, and in them performed feats of seamanship which are absolutely astounding. […] Narrow at the poop, wide at the prow, having a double tower at the stern and a single one at its bows, the caravel carried four vertical masts, and one inclined one.

1874 December 19, “Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance. By Paul Lacroix (Bibliophile Jacob.) Illustrated. (Chapman & Hall.) [book review]”, in The Athenæum: Journal of English and Foreign Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music and the Drama, number 2460, London: Printed by Edward J. Francis, […] published […] by John Francis. …, →OCLC, page 835, column 3:

Fishermen and other mariners who used caravels along the Atlantic coast of Portugal and the Cantabrian coast of Spain probably strengthened the hull to withstand the open ocean, perhaps using small whaling vessels as their model. As the Portuguese explored the coastline of Africa, they used small caravels with a two-masted lateen rig for many tasks, especially after they rounded Cape Bojador. The lateen caravel could beat its way home while keeping within reassuring sight of the coast.

1992, William D. Phillips, Jr., Carla Rahn Phillips, “Tools of Expansion”, in The Worlds of Christopher Columbus, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 71:

Thus the brand-new caravel which took [Alvise] Cadamosto to Senegambia in 1455 was a vessel of some fifty-four tons capacity.

2001, Peter Edward Russell, Prince Henry ‘the Navigator’: A Life (Yale Nota Bene), New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 229:

[T]he voyages of exploration made use of a new vessel, the caravel. Caravels were much smaller than the largest European ships and the Chinese junks Zheng He had used to explore the Indian Ocean early in the fifteenth century.

2008, Richard W. Bulliet, Pamela Kyle Crossley, Daniel R. Headrick, Steven W. Hirsch, Lyman L. Johnson, with David Northrup, “The Maritime Revolution, to 1550”, in The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History, 4th edition, volume 1 (To 1550), Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company, →ISBN, part 4 (Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact, 1200–1550), page 468, column 2:

(nautical, historical) A light, usually lateen-rigged sailing ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish for about 300 years from the 15th century, first for trade and later for voyages of exploration.

karveel

light, usually lateen-rigged sailing vessel


sprit

From Middle English sprete, from Old English sprēot (“pole, pike, spear”), from Proto-Germanic *spreut, related to Proto-West Germanic *sprutō (“shoot, sprout”). Cognate with West Frisian spriet (“sprit, spoke”), Dutch spriet (“a sprit, blade, spar, shoot, sprig”), Middle High German spriez (“sprout, twig”).

cog

... and in the luminous space the tanned sails of the barges drifting up with the tide seemed to stand still in red clusters of canvas sharply peaked, with gleams of varnished sprits.

1899, Joseph Conrad, chapter 1, in Heart of Darkness:

(nautical) A spar between mast and upper outer corner of a spritsail on sailing boats.


coxswain

From Middle English cokswain; equivalent to cock (“a boat”) + swain (“boy, servant”); hence “the master of a boat”.

compound

In a ship's boat, the helmsman given charge of the boat's crew.

загребни

a crew member in a rowing team who gives the rhythm


gaff rig

(nautical) aAsailing rig that has a fore-and-aft sail supported by a spar called a gaff.


half board

en-noun

half board (countable and uncountable, plural half boards)

(countable, nautical) A manoeuvre by which a sailing-ship gains distance to windward by luffing up into the wind.


fust

Possibly from Portuguese fusta (“fust”), from Latin fusta (“beam (of wood)”), from fūstis (“knobbed stick, cudgel, club”); compare Middle French fuste.

The great hoste abode still till noone or one of the clocke, and then arose, not all, but about 80 or 100 ships, as gallies, galliasses, and fusts: and passed one after another before the towne and haven of Rhodes three miles off, and came to shore in a place nigh to land, called Perambolin, sixe miles from the towne.

1589–1600, Richard Hakluyt, “How Part of the Navie and Armie of the Great Turke Came before the Citie of Rhodes”, in The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques & Discoveries of the English Nation (Hakluyt Society; Works, Extra Series), volume V, Glasgow: MacLehose, published 1904, →OCLC; reprinted Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014, →ISBN, page 16:

The reſt of our ſhips hearing us ſhoot in that manner, entered into their boats, and made towards them, rowing hard to the thre Indian fuſts, wherein were at the leaſt 100 men, and ſhot amongſt them with their pieces, […] and we handled them in ſuch ſort, that of 200 men there got not above thirty of them to land; the reſt of their fuſts lay far off and beheld the fight.

1745, “[A Brief Description of a Voyage Performed by Certain Hollanders to and from the East-Indies, with Their Adventures and Success.] The Manner, Custom, Householding, Child-bearing, Sporting and Cleanliness of the Women in Bantam”, in A Collection of Voyages and Travels, Consisting of Authentic Writers in Our Own Tongue, which have Not before Been Collected in English, or have Only been Abridged in Other Collections. …, volume II, London: Printed for and sold by Thomas Osborne of Gray's-Inn, →OCLC, page 414, column 1:

Sur stands on the coast of Syria, on the sea, twenty-five miles from Acre both by sea and land. Four or five large and long rocks lie in the sea before the city, some of them appearing a little above the water, the rest concealed below it. These rocks form the port of Sur, which admits ships of sixty or eighty tons, but none of a larger size; and all flat-bottomed fusts.

1827, Gilbert de Lannoy [i.e., Guillebert de Lannoy], “The Report Made by Sir Gilbert de Lannoy, upon Surveys of Several Cities, Ports, and Rivers, Taken by Him in Egypt and Syria, in the Year of Grace of Our Lord One Thousand Four Hundred and Twenty-two. By Order of the Most High, Most Puissant, and Most Excellent Prince, King Henry of England, Heir and Regent of France; whom God Pardon”, in Archaeologia; or, Miscellaneous Tracts Relating to Antiquity. Published by the Society of Antiquaries of London, volume XXI, London: Printed by J[ohn] B[owyer] Nichols, 25, Parliament Street; sold at the Society [of Antiquaries of London]'s apartments in in Somerset-Place; and by Messrs. Nornaville and Fell, Nicol, Sotheby, Wilson, Cadell, Egerton, and Taylor, →OCLC, pages 427–428:

During the first three decades of the seventeenth century, Portuguese trade from Goa to Portugal and to Gurajat rapidly declined. Pieter van den Broecke, a VOC [Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie – Dutch East India Company] official in Gujarat, reported that whereas there used to come every year from 200 to 300 Portuguese fusts (or fustas, small galleys) to Cambay and Surat, only from 50 to 60 came in 1621, and the goods they carried were also of small value. [Francisco] Pelsaert, too, lamented the declining trade of Cambay by saying that in 1626 only forty merchant fusts arrived with goods of little value and that this was the cause of the decline of Cambay and indeed of all Gujarat.

2016, Ghulam A. Nadri, “The Indigo Trade: Local and Global Demand”, in The Political Economy of Indigo in India, 1580–1930: A Global Perspective (European Expansion and Indigenous Response; 22), Leiden, Boston, Mass.: Brill, →ISBN, →ISSN, page 99:

(nautical, historical) A type of small galley.


skulk

From Middle English skulke, skulken, of North Germanic origin; compare Danish skulke (“shirk”), Swedish skolka (“play truant”).

“I shall do my duty, Mr. Jackson,” replied Newton, “and fear no consequences.”
“Indeed! you saw how I settled a skulk just now;—beware of his fate!”

1832, Frederick Marryat, chapter 16, in Newton Forster; or, The Merchant Service, volume 1, London: James Cochrane, page 238:

Toward evening there was something to be done on deck, and the carpenter who belonged to the watch was missing. “Where’s that skulk, Chips?” shouted Jermin down the forecastle scuttle.

1847, Herman Melville, chapter 4, in Omoo, New York: Harper, page 32:

If you should ever need help, my son, let this be your rule—‘never ask it from the man who deserted his country in her hour of need.’ The soldier’s child will find no mercy from a skulk, depend on it.

1872, Sallie F. Chapin, chapter 7, in Fitz-Hugh St. Clair, the South Carolina Rebel Boy, Philadelphia: Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, page 75:

An exempt, a skulk, or one upon whom rested the faintest suspicion of evading duty or shrinking in the critical hour of impending battle, was the special object of his wrath.

1906, Henry E. Shepherd, Life of Robert Edward Lee, New York: Neale, Part 3, p. 62:

(obsolete, chiefly nautical, military) One who avoids an obligation or responsibility.


shipbuilding

(uncountable, nautical) The construction of ships.


on deck

In every sense of the expression he is ‘on deck’; but my Jim, for the most part, skulked down below as though he had been a stowaway.

1899 September – 1900 July, Joseph Conrad, chapter 19, in Lord Jim: A Tale, Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, published 1900, →OCLC, page 213:

(nautical) On the deck of a ship, especially of a captain or officer; in charge.


becalmed

en-adj

becalmed (comparative more becalmed, superlative most becalmed)

more becalmed (comparative)
most becalmed (superlative)

[…] when we got aſterne we grew becalm'd, land-lockt in a fort, and were ſported all the way […]

1638, Thomas Herbert, Some years travels into divers parts of Asia and Afrique:

Although the breeze had now utterly failed, we had made a great deal of way during the night, and were now lying becalmed about half a mile to the southeast of the low eastern coast.

1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC:

(nautical, of a sailing ship) Unable to move due to lack of wind.


amain

en-verb

amain (third-person singular simple present amains, present participle amaining, simple past and past participle amained)

amains (present singular third-person)
amaining (participle present)
amained (participle past)
amained (past)

Borrowed from Spanish amainar (“to reef a sail (take in part of a sail to adapt its size to the force of the wind); to abate, die down, subside; to ease off, let up; of a person: to calm down, control one’s anger”); further etymology uncertain, probably from a regional Italian (Naples) word (compare Italian ammainare (“to lower or reef (a flag, sail, etc.)”)), from Vulgar Latin *invagīnare (“to sheathe (a sword); to put away, stow”), from Latin in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + vāgīna (“scabbard, sheath; covering, holder; vagina”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wag- (“cover; sheath”)).

der

LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-amain.wav

(nautical) To lower (the sail of a ship, particularly the topsail).

(intransitive, nautical) To lower the topsail in token of surrender; to yield.


paquebot

Borrowed from French paquebot (“mailboat”). First used in Great Britain in 1894, the term was adopted for general use by the Universal Postal Union in 1897.

(postal history) a postal marking or cancellation stamped on mail posted at sea or in a harbour for processing by the postal authorities at the next port of call. Mail so marked in one country will often carry the stamps of another country.


idler

(nautical, dated) Any member of a ship's crew who is not required to keep the night-watch.


chumbucket

(nautical, slang) A bucket filled with fishing bait at sea.


catwalk

→ Norwegian Bokmål: catwalk

→ Norwegian Nynorsk: catwalk

(nautical) An elevated enclosed passage providing access fore and aft from the bridge of a merchant vessel.

løbebro

nautical: elevated enclosed passage providing access fore and aft from the bridge


come to

en-verb

come to (third-person singular simple present comes to, present participle coming to, simple past came to, past participle come to)

comes to (present singular third-person)
coming to (participle present)
came to (past)
come to (participle past)

The flood had made, the wind was nearly calm, and being bound down the river, the only thing for it was to come to and wait for the turn of the tide.

1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I:

(intransitive, idiomatic, nautical) To stop a sailing vessel, especially by turning into the wind. See also come about.


stade

From Old English staed. Cognate with German Gestade (“shore”).

(nautical, obsolete) A station for ships, as an anchorage or wharf.


headsman

From Middle English heddysman, equivalent to head + -s- + -man. Cognate with Scots hedisman, heidisman (“head man; chief; commander”). Compare also Danish høvedsmand (“captain”), Swedish hövitsman (“captain”), Icelandic höfuðsmaður (“captain”), German Hauptmann (“captain”).

(nautical) One in command of a whaling vessel.


pedalo

Borrowed from French pédalo, a registered trademark. By surface analysis, pedal + -o.

It is the prelapsarian Polynesia of free love, noble savagery, Kon Tiki rafting and Easter Island statuary, not the Levi’s-wearing, Toyota-driving, pédalo-pushing, efflorescent-cocktails-in-a-split-coconut-serving pseudo-paradise that awaits latter-day travellers.

2001, Stephen Brown, Marketing – the Retro Revolution, London: SAGE Publications, →ISBN, page 139:

On the other hand: I’m sorry the sculpture hurt your feelings. But it’s just art. It can’t harm you. You don’t have to like it – not at all – but it’s going to be gone in a month or so, and you can still use the pedalos while it’s there.

2018 August 16, Marina Hyde, “Sorry to break it to you, far-righters: James Bond is not on your team”, in The Guardian:

(UK, nautical) A small boat propelled by pedals that directly turn external paddles, used for recreation.


tight ship

to run a tight ship

You're new here, so let me lay it down for you. I run a pretty tight ship around here. That's why the students call me "the hammer".

1999, Strangers with Candy (television production), spoken by Chuck Noblet (Stephen Colbert):

I know your agent’s third cousin really wanted to hear their name, but the Oscar show producers run a tight ship, yes-sir-Bob.

2015 February 23, “Oscars 2015: 10 things we learned”, in The Guardian (London):

(idiomatic) A well-organized and highly disciplined organization.


messmate

Messmates, ahoy! Come here! Come here!

1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, H.M.S. Pinafore; […], San Francisco: Bacon & Company, […], →OCLC:

The cap’n was displeased at that, but my messmates were all of a mind and landed.

(nautical) An associate with whom one shares a mess (eating place) on a ship.

сътрапезник

an associate with whom one shares a mess


midshipman

(nautical) An officer of the lowest rank in several navies; especially, a trainee officer.


motorsailer

(nautical) A vessel (usually a pleasure craft) that has been designed for both sailing and motor operation.


peniche

Peniche (fluid dynamics)
Péniche (barge)

(fluid dynamics) Material inserted between a half-model, often of an airplane, and the wall of a wind tunnel.


water taxi

(nautical) A small boat that can transport small groups of passengers for a fee

taxibåd

boat that will transport small groups of passengers for a fee


outrigger canoe

en-noun

outrigger canoe (plural outrigger canoes)

A seagoing canoe having one or more lateral support floats to provide stability.


jetboat

A boat propelled by a strong jet of water ejected from the back of the craft.


drafted

A johnboat is a shallow drafted boat favored by fishermen.

(nautical) of a certain depth required to float (said of a vessel); used comparatively with shallow, deep, etc.


outrigger

Modification of earlier outligger after rig (“to fit out”); equivalent to out- + ligger.

(nautical) Any of various projecting beams or spars that provide support for a sailing ship's mast.

tukipuu

(nautical) beam that provides support for a mast

(nautical) A long thin timber, pontoon, or other float attached parallel to a canoe or boat by projecting struts as a means of preventing tipping or capsizing.

(nautical) An iron bracket or brace for an oarlock projecting from the side of a rowing boat.


pratique

pratique (countable and uncountable, plural pratiques)

Originated 1600–10. Borrowed from Middle French practique, pratique, from Medieval Latin prāctica. Doublet of practice.

It is here a cuſtome ſtrictly obſerued (as alſo elſevvhere vvithin the Streights belonging to the Chriſtians) not to ſuffer any to trafficke or come aſhore before they haue a Pratticke from the Signoirs of Health: vvhich vvill not be granted vntill forty dayes after their arriuall, […] Notvvithſtanding, they vpon requeſt vvill carry you to the Lazaretto (vvhich is in the nature of a Peſt-houſe) there to abide vntill the date be expired. But if any fall ſicke amongſt them in the meane ſeaſon, their Pratticke is accordingly prolonged. A great inconuenience to the Merchants, but at Venice intollerable: vvhere vvhen they haue Pratticke, they are enforced to vnlade at the Lazaretto.

1615, George Sandys, “The First Booke”, in The Relation of a Iourney Begun An: Dom: 1610. […], London: […] [Richard Field] for W. Barrett, →OCLC, pages 5–6:

(nautical) Permission to use a port given to a ship after compliance with quarantine or on conviction that she is free of contagious disease.


weather deck

(nautical) A ship's deck which has no overhead protection, which is open to the weather; a ship's uppermost deck.

overdæk

uncovered deck, deck open to weather, uppermost deck


turning circle

(nautical) The path followed by a vessel’s center of gravity when it makes a complete turn of 360° with a consistent rudder angle. (FM 55-501)


en flute

From French en flûte; the empty ports on the hull of the ship look like the holes in a flute.

(nautical, of a ship) With some or all of her cannons removed.


Union Jack

(nautical, British) The flag, consisting of the flags of England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland combined, flown on ships of the government of the United Kingdom.

(nautical, US) The flag, consisting of the blue star-studded field in the corner of the national ensign, flown at the jackstaff by ships at anchor.


oceangoing

(nautical, of a vessel) designed for use on ocean voyages


motorboat

/ˈməʊtəˌbəʊt/

(nautical) Any vessel driven by an engine (either inboard or outboard), but especially a small one.


tail block

(nautical) A block having a rope about it, and on an end hanging several feet from it.


strongback

(nautical) The fore-and-aft spar extending from stem to stern on a lifeboat and serving as a raised spreader for a boat cover. (FM 55-501)

(nautical) A strong bar placed across a hatch opening to hold hatch boards or hatch covers. (FM 55-501)


stiffship

(nautical) Too much weight concentrated in the lower holds of a vessel, resulting in excessive stability.


station bill

(nautical) A bill posted in the crew’s quarters and other conspicuous places, listing the station of the crew at maneuvers and emergency drills; sometimes called the muster roll.


cargo pallet

(nautical) A flat wooden tray used for hoisting cargo into and out of a ship's hold.


Carley float

(nautical) an early life raft consisting of a large oval ring of copper tubing covered with kapok and painted waterproof canvas.


cargo jack

(obsolete, nautical) a large screw jack used to stow a cargo (such as hides or cotton) by compressing them into a smaller volume


sternpost

(nautical) A timber or steel bar extending from the keel to the main deck at the stern of a vessel.


cargo net

(nautical) a large square net, made of rope, used to sling cargo into and out of a ship's hold


watercraft

watercraft (countable and uncountable, plural watercrafts or watercraft)

watercrafts (plural)
watercraft (plural)

(countable and uncountable) Any vessel with implements designed to move it in arbitrary direction through one or various bodies of water: a boat, ship, sea scooter, or similar vehicle.


cordage

cordage (countable and uncountable, plural cordages)

So Juan stood, bewildered on the deck: / The wind sung, cordage strained, and sailors swore […]

1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], →OCLC, canto II, stanza 13:

[…] as the old craft deep dived into the green seas, and sent the shivering frost all over her, and the winds howled, and the cordage rang […]

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “chapter 22”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

A lone river wind sighed in the cordage of the ship.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 151:

(nautical) A set of ropes and cords, especially that used for a ship's rigging.


careenage

careenage (countable and uncountable, plural careenages)

(nautical) A beach with a steep, sandy shoreline on which a ship may be careened.

(nautical) The expense of careening a ship.


carosse

(obsolete, nautical) The open space underneath the poop deck of a galley where the captain had his bed; it evolved into the cabin.


carous

(obsolete, nautical) A form of gallery or bridge, pivoted in the middle, fitted to ancient ships as a means of boarding an enemy vessel.


captain's servant

captain's servant (plural captain's servants)

"When one reads of a distinguished naval officer having been "a captain's servant," it does not mean that he blacked the captain's boots, mixed his grog, and emptied his slops, but that he entered the service under a captain's protection."

1905, John Masefield, Sea Life in Nelson's Time:

(nautical, historical) Before 1796, the rating of a boy entering the Royal Navy at about the age of twelve before becoming a midshipman.


catharping

/ˈkætˌhɑː(ɹ)pɪŋ/

(nautical) any of the short ropes under the tops at the lower end of the futtock shrouds of a square-rigged vessel used to secure other ropes in place


carvel-built

(nautical) Of a wooden vessel: having the planks of the hull laid flush and caulked to make a smooth finish.


stranded

(nautical, of a vessel) Run aground on a shore or reef.


carrick bend

(nautical) A strong bend knot commonly used to join two lines, ropes, and hawsers when required. A reliable safe knot if tied correctly, but unsafe if tied incorrectly, which is easily done. It is a basic knot which forms part of many other knots, hitches, bends, etc.


cathole

(nautical) Either of two circular holes cut in the stern of a sailing man of war on the level of the capstan, used for the passage of stern hawsers.


topside

We believe that the failure of Sun Ship to submit a bid for topside work had no effect on the price, quality, quantity or time of performance of any contract to be awarded for the combination of drydock and topside work covered in the firm′s bid for Lot III.

1978, US General Accounting Office, Decisions of the Comptroller General of the United States, number 58, page 793:

(nautical) The surface of a ship’s hull that is above the water line.


topside

(nautical) Abovedeck, such as on the weather deck or bridge.


centre of buoyancy

centre of buoyancy (plural centres of buoyancy)

(nautical) the point through which the resultant of all buoyant forces on an immersed hull are assumed to act; the centre of mass of the displaced water.


carling

Compare French carlingue, which may be from the English.

(nautical) A piece of squared timber fitted fore-and-aft between the deck beams of a wooden ship to provide support for the deck planking.


carvel

From Middle English carvel, carvelle, carvile, kervel (“small ship; caravel”), from Old French caruelle, carvelle, kirvelle, see further at caravel. The English word is cognate with Middle Dutch karveel.

(nautical, historical) Synonym of caravel (“a light, usually lateen-rigged sailing ship”)


carry away

en-verb

carry away (third-person singular simple present carries away, present participle carrying away, simple past and past participle carried away)

carries away (present singular third-person)
carrying away (participle present)
carried away (participle past)
carried away (past)

(transitive, nautical, of a mast or rigging) To break under sudden pressure of violent wind.


cathead

(nautical) A heavy piece of timber projecting from each side of the bow of a ship for holding anchors which were fitted with a stock in position for letting go or for securing after weighing.

serviola

nautical: heavy piece of timber for holding an anchor in position

(nautical) A decorative element at the end of said timber that often depicted a cat's head


fireboat

A harbor boat designed for pumping large volumes of harbor water onto dockside fires.

Löschboot

1. A harbor boat designed for pumping large volumes of harbor water onto dockside fires


carline

(nautical) Alternative form of carling (“deck planking”)


fire ship

(historical) A wooden ship set alight and then sent floating into an enemy flotilla, with the aim of spreading the fire among them.


towing bitt

(nautical) Any of the vertical posts on a vessel to which towing or mooring lines are secured.


tidal current

(nautical) The flow of water caused by the rise and fall of the tide.


cast off

cast off (third-person singular simple present casts off, present participle casting off, simple past cast off or casted off, past participle cast off)

casts off (present singular third-person)
casting off (participle present)
cast off (past)
casted off (past)
cast off (participle past)

(transitive, intransitive, nautical) To let go (a cable or rope securing a vessel to a buoy, wharf, etc.) so that the vessel may make way.


anchor buoy

(nautical) A small buoy, usually painted a distinctive color, attached to an anchor by a light line and used to indicate the location of the anchor on the bottom.


athwartships

From athwart (“across”) + ship + -s as an adverbial ending.

to place / fix / stow something athwartships; to pace the bridge athwartships

At all times except when whales were alongside, this bench was securely lashed athwartships against the rear of the Try-works.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 107, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 519:

(nautical) Across the vessel sideways, i.e. in a direction at right angles to the fore-and-aft line of the vessel.


barrier reef

A reef separated from the adjacent coast by a channel or lagoon.


breastband

(nautical) A band of canvas, attached to a ship's rigging, that provides support for the man heaving the lead in heavy weather.


arming

the nature of the sea bed indicated by the arming in the cavity at the base[…]

2011, H. G. Mowat, Captain Carteret and the Voyage of the Swallow:

(nautical) A piece of tallow or soap put in the cavity and over the bottom of a sounding lead to pick up samples of the bottom of the sea.

(nautical, chiefly in the plural) One of the red dress cloths formerly hung fore and aft outside of a ship's upper works on holidays, or used as a visual screen during times of action.


clinker-built

From clinker + built. Clinker is derived from clink (“to clench or fasten with nails or rivets”) + -er (suffix attached to verbs forming agent nouns indicating persons or things that do actions indicated by the verbs), and clink is a northern English variant of clench (“to secure (something) with bolts, nails, etc.; (specifically) to bend the point of a nail after it has been hammered through something so that the nail cannot be removed; to clinch”), from Middle English clinken, clenchen (“to fasten, specifically with nails or rivets; to enclose; to lock up; to clench (the fingers)”) [and other forms], from Old English clenċan (“to clinch, hold fast”), a variant of clenġan (“to adhere; to remain”), from Proto-Germanic *klangijaną (“to make cling or stick”), the causative of *klinganą (“to adhere to, cling to”), from Proto-Indo-European *gleh₁y- (“to glue, stick; to smear”).

ref

From the collection of the Viking Ship Museum in Oslo, Norway.

der

The British portion of the expedition were ordered to leave Kingston, in Canada West, as early in the year as possible, in a beautiful clinker-built boat for Toronto.

1850, John J[eremiah] Bigsby, “Excursion the Seventh. Part I. Lakes Ontario and Simcoe, etc.”, in The Shoe and Canoe or Pictures of Travel in the Canadas. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, page 36:

The herring fishery in Scotland (undoubtedly the greatest fishery of the kind) is carried on from the shore. The larger number of the boats in use for many years past are open clinker-built boats, costing, with their suite of nets, about 200l.

1882, J. G. Bertram, “The National Herring Harvest”, in Companion to the Almanac; or, Year-book of General Information for 1882, London: […] [Harrison and Sons] for the Company of Stationers, and sold by J. Greenhill, […], →OCLC, part I, page 53:

Ten years ago all the bawleys were clinker-built—that is, with the streaks overlapping each other, as in boats; but the new bawleys are now all carvel-built, the planks being placed edge to edge, so as to give a smooth surface, as in yachts and large vessels.

1890 June 14 (indicated as 1891), G[eorge] A[lfred] Henty, “A Fishing Village”, in A Chapter of Adventures: Or, Through the Bombardment of Alexandria, London, Glasgow: Blackie & Son, →OCLC, page 21:

Q. Yes. When you refer to a clinker built boat, just describe that style of boat. That refers to one with a bow at each end and a sharp keel? / A. No, this boat that I had there in 1879 was a square stern boat, sharp bow of course. A clinker built is made by boards lapping over each other. It is like set-work you know.

1912 January 30, Arthur C. Clement (witness), “Deposition of Arthur C. Clement”, in The People of the State of Illinois on the Relation of Charles S[amuel] Deneen, Governor, and William H. Stead, Attorney General, Plaintiffs in Error, vs. The Economy Light and Power Company. […] Supreme Court of the United States. October Term, 1913. (No. 179; 23,036), volume I (Transcript of Record), [Washington, D.C.]: [Judd & Detweiler], →OCLC, page 261:

But best he loved to go up the firth in the boat which Leif had made him—a finished, clinker-built little model of a war galley, christened the Joy-maker—and catch the big sea fish.

1921, John Buchan, “Hightown under Sunfell”, in The Path of the King, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 10:

The Leopard in fact possessed no barge: nothing more than a little clinker-built jolly-boat, patched and pieced until scarcely an original plank was to be seen.

1979, Patrick O’Brian, chapter 1, in The Fortune of War, paperback edition, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2003, →ISBN, page 3:

Varnished clinker planking is common in Scandinavia. The original Folkboat was clinker-built.

2004, Hal Roth, “The Corpus Itself”, in How to Sail Around the World: Advice and Ideas for Voyaging under Sail, Camden, Me., New York, N.Y.: International Marine/McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, page 17:

As the taxi and I travelled around America I pictured myself […] in a traditional clapboard, clinker-built home with a view over Chesapeake Bay, Maryland.

2008, Stephen Fry, “Introduction”, in Stephen Fry in America, London: Harper, HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2009, →ISBN, page 9:

By this time, Wearie Willie had been replaced by Query, a clinker-built 16-footer that Patrick Senior had commissioned especially for his youngest son from Goddard's of Palm Beach.

2015, Rick Searle, “A King in a Glass Castle”, in The Man Who Saved Smithy: Fighter Pilot, Pioneer Aviator, Hero: The Life of Sir Gordon Taylor GC, MC, Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 11:

(nautical) Of a boat or ship: having the hull constructed using planks or plates laid so that each plank overlaps the edge of the plank or plate below it, and in the case of plates, behind it; the planks were traditionally secured by nails which had been clenched (or clinched), that is, after being hammered through the planks the points of the nails were bent to make them unremovable.

tinglat

having the hull constructed with overlapping hull planks or plates


upthrust

en-noun

upthrust (countable and uncountable, plural upthrusts)


caulk

caulk (countable and uncountable, plural caulks)

From Old Northern French cauquer, from Late Latin calicō (“I fill in with limestone, caulk”), from calx (“limestone, chalk”). Related to calx, cauk, chalk, and calculus.

der

[…] & we went for a long walk & fatigued ourselves so that I, for one, took a caulk in the afternoon.

1961, Oswald Frewen, Sailor's Soliloquy, page 242:


caulk

en-verb

caulk (third-person singular simple present caulks, present participle caulking, simple past and past participle caulked)

caulks (present singular third-person)
caulking (participle present)
caulked (participle past)
caulked (past)

[W]e might be disturbed during the night by an order being given to "go about," and by hearing in the quiet hours of the morning the familiar inquiry of "How's her head?" Mine often ached with the din of the men caulking all day long!

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 112:

(nautical) To drive oakum into the seams of a ship's wooden deck or hull to make it watertight.

There was the goggle-eyed daughter a blowing the Grampus [throwing a bucket of water upon a person] with the platter-faced planter, whenever he caulked upon deck; […]

1829, William Nugent Glascock, Sailors and Saints: Or Matrimonial Manœvres, page 179:

[…] and as sleep is about the only thing there is for a sailor at sea to get in the way of recreation, he prizes it accordingly and gets all he can. It is technically called "caulking," and a man will brag of having "caulked" the whole four hours of his watch on deck […]

1897, Herbert Elliott Hamblen, William Stone Booth, On Many Seas: The Life and Exploits of a Yankee Sailor, page 40:

(nautical, slang) To take a short sleep; to nap.


carrack

From French caraque (compare Spanish and Portuguese carraca, Italian caracca), from Latin carraca, from Latin carrus (“wagon”); or perhaps from Arabic قَرَاقِير (qarāqīr).

They [the English] are all on fire / To purchaſe from the Spaniard. If their Carracks / Come deeply laden, vvee ſhall tugge vvith them / For golden ſpoile.

c. 1597–1603 (date written), Thomas Heywood, The Fair Maid of the West. Or, A Girle Worth Gold. The First Part. […], London: […] [Miles Flesher] for Richard Royston, […], published 1631, →OCLC, Act I, page 1:

Faith, he tonight hath boarded a land carrack; if it prove lawful prize, he's made for ever.

c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

The name of the ship was Dawn Treader. She was only a little bit of a thing compared with one of our ships, or even with the cogs, dromonds, carracks and galleons which Narnia had owned when Lucy and Edmund had reigned there under Peter as the High King, for nearly all navigation had died out in the reigns of Caspian's ancestors.

1952, C. S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader:

Thereafter huge sailing carracks brought Indian pepper and cotton, Indonesian perfume and spice, Chinese silk and porcelain, to the royal trading house at Lisbon.

2018, David Birmingham, A Concise History of Portugal:

(historical) A large European sailing vessel of the 14th to 17th centuries similar to a caravel but square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast.


steamship

Steamship arrivals, however, are less predictable and the best arrangements of shipping companies and the railway operating department may be upset by weather and tide.

1962 April, J. N. Faulkner, “Summer Saturday at Waterloo”, in Modern Railways, page 264:

A ship or vessel propelled by steam power.


oarlock

But, as luck would have it, scarcely had he started to row his boat again when an oarlock broke, and so it took him the best part of an hour to make the trip.

(nautical) A usually U-shaped device attached to the gunwale of a rowboat to hold the oars in place while rowing.


kentledge

en-noun

kentledge (countable and uncountable, plural kentledges)

(nautical) Weights (often scrap or pig iron) used as permanent ballast on ships.


argosy

Alteration of Italian ragusea (“a large ship”), after the maritime city of Ragusa, now Dubrovnik.


steersman

And as for a tiller, the whale-boat never admits of any such effeminacy; and therefore as in gamming a complete boat’s crew must leave the ship, and hence as the boat steerer or harpooneer is of the number, that subordinate is the steersman upon the occasion, and the captain, having no place to sit in, is pulled off to his visit all standing like a pine tree.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 53, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

The Indian canoe races were the most exciting of all the Regatta. Ten paddles dipped as one paddle, ten men bent as one man, while the steersman kept time for them with grunting bows.

1942, Emily Carr, “Regatta”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC:

(nautical) One who steers a ship or other vessel; the helmsman.


channel fever

(dated, nautical) the excitement on board ship as she approaches her destination with the prospect of liberty ashore.


chart datum

(nautical) the level below which depths are indicated and above which heights of the tides are expressed; usually mean level of low water at a spring tide


chase gun

(nautical) A gun moved temporarily from its normal broadside position to fire through the chase ports in the bow or stern of a ship.


cheese down

en-verb

cheese down (third-person singular simple present cheeses down, present participle cheesing down, simple past and past participle cheesed down)

cheeses down (present singular third-person)
cheesing down (participle present)
cheesed down (participle past)
cheesed down (past)

(nautical) To coil the tail of a rope on deck so as to present a neat appearance.


chase port

(nautical) A hole cut in the bow of a ship through which a chase gun could fire directly ahead.


multichine

(nautical) (of a hull) having multiple chines


slaver

From slave (“enslave, traffic in slaves”) + -er.

af

The Gulnare was a fast sailer, built for a slaver originally[.]

1887, Mrs. Dominic D. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 14:

(nautical) A ship used to transport slaves.


chesstree

(nautical) Either of two pieces of oak fitted to the topsides of a square-rigged vessel on each side of the bow through which the bowlines were fed; often decoratively carved


DSC

en-noun

DSC (countable and uncountable, plural DSCs)

(nautical, radio telephony) Initialism of digital selective call, a feature that allows a VHF radio to call another VHF selectively (as opposed to a call that is repeated by all receivers that are on within the range of the caller).


poling boat

(nautical) Any small boat, such as a punt, propelled using a long pole.


clump block

(nautical) A thick, strong single block.


clear view screen

clear view screen (plural clear view screens)

(nautical) A circular disc of plate glass, set into the screen of a ship's bridge and spun at high speed by an electric motor in heavy rain or snow; it offers a clear view forward.


club haul

en-verb

club haul (third-person singular simple present club hauls, present participle club hauling, simple past and past participle club hauled)

club hauls (present singular third-person)
club hauling (participle present)
club hauled (participle past)
club hauled (past)

(nautical) To tack a square-rigged sailing ship in a narrow space by using a lee anchor to turn the ship.


lee shore

(nautical) A shore towards which the wind is blowing, and to which there is the danger of being driven.


choke the luff

choke the luff (third-person singular simple present chokes the luff, present participle choking the luff, simple past and past participle choked the luff)

chokes the luff (present singular third-person)
choking the luff (participle present)
choked the luff (participle past)
choked the luff (past)

(nautical) To temporarily stop the movement of a rope through a block by jamming the sheave with the hauling rope; a pull on the rope releases it.


coachwhipping

(nautical) a form of decorative square sennit work used for covering stanchions


claw ring

(nautical) A fitting on the boom of a yacht to take the main sheet when roller reefing is used.


coastal motor boat

en-noun

coastal motor boat (plural coastal motor boats)

(nautical) a small warship used in the Royal Navy during the First World War that carried torpedoes, mines or depth charges.


clove hitch

(nautical) a bend formed by two half hitches in the same direction, used to make a line fast to a spar or to a larger rope; it will not slip


claw off

en-verb

claw off (third-person singular simple present claws off, present participle clawing off, simple past and past participle clawed off)

claws off (present singular third-person)
clawing off (participle present)
clawed off (participle past)
clawed off (past)

(nautical, intransitive) To beat to windward to avoid being driven on to a lee shore.


close quarter

Originally closed quarter (“section or area”).

(nautical) any of several strong wooden barriers erected across the deck of a merchant sailing ship, having loopholes through which muskets could be fired to resist boarding attacks


clean slate

(nautical) A slate on which the courses steered by a ship (and distances run) were recorded, but have been wiped clean after being entered in the log at the end of a watch.


coach horse

(nautical, slang) A member of the crew who rowed the admiral's barge or a state barge


chubasco

/tʃuːˈbɑːskəʊ/

Borrowed from Spanish chubasco (“downpour”), from Portuguese chuva (“rain”), from Latin pluvia (“rain”).

bor+

(nautical) A violent squall with thunder and lightning, encountered during the rainy season along the Pacific coast of Central America and South America.


clap on

en-verb

clap on (third-person singular simple present claps on, present participle clapping on, simple past and past participle clapped on)

claps on (present singular third-person)
clapping on (participle present)
clapped on (participle past)
clapped on (past)

We spring out of our berths, clap on a monkey-jacket and south-wester, and tumble up the ladder.

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., “CHAPTER XXXV”, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC:

(nautical, transitive) To temporarily add something to an existing part, especially to add an additional sail to take advantage of a fair wind.


coak

en-noun

coak (countable and uncountable, plural coaks)

Uncertain. The 1933 Oxford English Dictionary suggests a possible relation to an Old French cognate of Italian cocca (“notch”), to English cock or to cauk, caulk ("drive oakum between planks"), "all referring to the fitting of a projection into a notch, indentation, or hollow".

(nautical) The brass bearing in the sheave of a block.


steamboat

steamboat (countable and uncountable, plural steamboats)

→ Dutch: stoomboot (calque)

→ Ottoman Turkish: استمبوط (istimbot)

By and by the steamboat intruded. Then for fifteen or twenty years, these men continued to run their keelboats down-stream, and the steamers did all of the upstream business, the keelboatmen selling their boats in New Orleans, and returning home as deck passengers in the steamers.

1870, Mark Twain, chapter 3, in Life on the Mississippi:

A boat or vessel propelled by steam power.

(uncountable, Singapore, Malaysia) Hot pot (Chinese dish).


steamboat

en-verb

steamboat (third-person singular simple present steamboats, present participle steamboating, simple past and past participle steamboated)

steamboats (present singular third-person)
steamboating (participle present)
steamboated (participle past)
steamboated (past)


niggerhead

en-noun

niggerhead (countable and uncountable, plural niggerheads)

From nigger + head, reflecting a supposed resemblance to a black person's head.

(nautical, dated, now offensive) A bollard made from an old cannon.


magnetic bearing

magnetic bearing (plural magnetic bearings)

(nautical, navigation) Directional bearing relative to the nearest magnetic pole, as shown by a compass.


magnetic variation

magnetic variation (countable and uncountable, plural magnetic variations)

(military, nautical, navigation) In navigation, at a given place and time, the horizontal angle between the true north and magnetic north measured east or west according to whether magnetic north lies east or west of true north.


clipper

Dutch: (nautical) klipper, klipperaak m or f

From Middle Dutch klepper and Middle English clippen, from Old English clyppan, from Proto-Germanic *klupjaną.

Something that moves swiftly; especially:

(nautical) Any of several forms of very fast sailing ships having a long, low hull and a sharply raked stem.


magnetic compass

magnetic compass (plural magnetic compasses)

(military, nautical) An instrument containing a freely suspended magnetic element which displays the direction of the horizontal component of the Earth’s magnetic field at the point of observation.


Mayflower

A historical ship that transported the Pilgrims to America in the year 1620.


batten

The noun is from Middle English bataunt, batent (“finished bar or board (as for panelling)”), from Old French batent (“a beating”), a noun use of the present participle form of batre (“to beat, hit, strike”), from Late Latin battere, the present active infinitive of battō (“to beat”), from Latin battuō (“(very rare) to beat, hit, strike”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *bʰedʰ-, *bʰedʰh₂- (“to pierce; to stab”) or *bʰat- (“to hit”), ultimately onomatopoeic.
The verb is derived from the noun.

der

The next morning, we took the battens from the hatches, and opened the ship.

1840, R[ichard] H[enry] D[ana], Jr., chapter XXIX, in Two Years before the Mast. […] (Harper’s Family Library; no. CVI), New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers […], →OCLC, page 326:

She was too sick to get out of bed, and he was not able to hoist her up without assistance; […] we were permitted to come in and hoist her ladyship up again to the battens.

1840, [Frederick] Marryat, “In which, Like Most People, who Tell Their Own Stories, I Begin with the Histories of Other People”, in Poor Jack. […], London: Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longmans, […], →OCLC, page 6:

In carvel construction, the planks which cover the sides of the vessel lie alongside one another without overlapping and the seams are calked. Where the construction is too light to admit calking, a narrow batten or ribband is run along the seams inside.

1972 September 1, “Basic Construction of Small Boats and Ships”, in Marine Crewman’s Handbook (Technical Manual; 55-501), Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, →OCLC, section II (The Construction of Small Boats), page 12-3:

(nautical) A long, narrow strip, originally of wood but now also of fibreglass, metal, etc., used for various purposes aboard a ship; especially one attached to a mast or spar for protection, one holding down the edge of a tarpaulin covering a hatch to prevent water from entering the hatch, one inserted in a pocket sewn on a sail to keep it flat, or one from which a hammock is suspended.

лати

long, narrow strip used for various purposes aboard a ship


batten

en-verb

batten (third-person singular simple present battens, present participle battening, simple past and past participle battened)

battens (present singular third-person)
battening (participle present)
battened (participle past)
battened (past)

Nail down the lid; caulk the seams; pay over the same with pitch; batten them down tight, and hang it with the snap-spring over the ship's stern. Were ever such things done before with a coffin?

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Life-buoy”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 580:

(chiefly nautical) Chiefly followed by down: to fasten or secure (a hatch, opening, etc.) using battens (noun sense 2.2).

kiinnittää latoilla

to fasten or secure (a hatch, etc.) using battens


peapod

A thick-shouldered boy in yellow oil pants and a duck-billed cap rowed by in a peapod, so close to the rockweed he would have seen her if he'd looked up.

1954, Elisabeth Ogilvie, The Dawning of the Day, Down East Books, published 2014, page 52:

(nautical) A small rowboat traditionally used for fishing and lobstering in Maine.


quilting

en-noun

quilting (countable and uncountable, plural quiltings)

(nautical, archaic) A coating of strands of rope for a water vessel.


scantlings

(nautical) The dimensions of the timbers of a ship


sonobuoy

(nautical, military) A buoy that sends a radio signal when it detects the sound of underwater objects (such as submarines).


nettles

(nautical) Small lengths of cord attached to a sail, used to secure the excess fabric after reefing; reef points


proa

From Malay perau, a variant of perahu. In some forms via Portuguese parão or Dutch prauw; in some forms assimilated to prow.

1894, Ivan Dexter, Talmud: A Strange Narrative of Central Australia, published in serial form in Port Adelaide News and Lefevre's Peninsula Advertiser (SA), Chapter XXII, http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks16/1600641.txt
I noticed that on the sea were numerous fantastically shaped canoes—or rather boats—like Malay proas, or the canoes used by many of the South Sea islanders.

Malay ‘prahu’ or proa were said to be more than a match for British vessels.

2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 231:

A sailing vessel found in the waters of Micronesia and Indonesia; it has a single, large outrigger and a triangular sail.


tabling

On the luffs and after leaches of jibs the tabling ought to be 3 inches, on the foot 1 inches

1867, James Grange, Hints to young shipmasters in drafting and cutting ships' rigging and sails:

(nautical) A broad hem on the edge of a sail.


codline

(nautical) a small line made of eighteen threads, once used for cod fishing, and subsequently in place of rope for delicate work onboard ship


cod-banger

(obsolete, nautical) A 19th century vessel used to fish for cod using codlines


collision mat

(nautical) A large square of canvas, treated with a sealing agent and attached to lines at each corner; hauled over a damaged part of the hull to limit the inflow of water


collision bulkhead

collision bulkhead (plural collision bulkheads)

(nautical) A strong, watertight transverse bulkhead in the fore part of a ship to prevent water flowing aft in the event of a collision


wardroom

There were only about a dozen officers in the great wardroom, six of them in the khaki gabardine working uniform of the U.S. Navy.

1957, Neville Shute, chapter 1, in On the Beach, New York: William Morrow & Co:

(nautical) The living quarters of a ship designated for the commissioned officers other than the captain.

The captain rarely referred to his wardroom for advice, and this resulted in their discontent.

[…] it having also reached the ears of the Ward-room that the work contained reflections somewhat derogatory to the dignity of the officers, the volume was seized by the master-at-arms, armed with a warrant from the Captain.

1850, Herman Melville, chapter 11, in White-Jacket, New York: Harper, published 1855, page 56:

(nautical) The commissioned officers of a ship, excluding the captain.


cocked hat

cocked hat (countable and uncountable, plural cocked hats)

(nautical) The triangular space formed by the intersection of the position lines on a chart determined by plotting three bearings; the approximate position of the ship


helmsman

(nautical) A member of a ship's crew who is responsible for steering.


forestay

From Middle English forstay, forstey, vorstey, equivalent to fore- + stay (“a stay, rope”).

(nautical) A stay that extends from the top of the foremast to the bow or bowsprit of a sailing ship


bottomry

bottomry (countable and uncountable, plural bottomries)

Section 10 states that, ‘The lender of money on bottomry and respondentia has an insurable interest in respect of the loan’. A lender on ‘bottomry’ is, as its name suggests, a person who advances money to a shipowner on the security of (the bottom [of]) the ship.

1996, Susan Hodges, Law Of Marine Insurance, page 19:

1999 [1880], John Bouvier, Daniel A. Gleason, Institutes of American Law, Volume 1, New Edition, page 309,
There is much resemblance between bottomry and insurance. In one, the lender takes the risks, and in the other, the insurer. […] If these contracts resemble each other, there are also many differences between them. In bottomry, the lender actually furnishes a certain sum of money; in insurance, the insurer furnishes nothing; on the contrary, he receives a premium, which is frequently paid to him at the time of the agreement, but which when it is not paid in cash is a claim which he may assign, or for which he may procure a guaranty.

25. The supercargo Colin Campbell, for example, mentioned in 1732 that the first Dutch supercargo Schultz was secretly investing in the bottomry market.

2005, Paul Arthur Van Dyke, The Canton Trade: Life And Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700-1845, footnote, page 225:

(nautical) An early form of maritime contract in which the owner of a ship could borrow money using the ship as collateral.


mainmast

O, the most piteous cry of the poor souls! sometimes to see ’em, and not to see ’em; now the ship boring the moon with her main-mast, and anon swallowed with yest and froth, as you’ld thrust a cork into a hogshead.

c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

Then turning to his first Minister, who waited behind him with a white Staff near as tall as the Main-mast of the Royal Soveraign, he observed how contemptible a thing was human Grandeur, which could be mimicked by such diminutive Insects as I […]

1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 58:

When we were in the latitude of Martinico, and near making the land, one morning we had a brisk gale of wind, and, carrying too much sail, the main-mast went over the side.

1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 11, in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano:

The try-works are planted between the foremast and mainmast, the most roomy part of the deck.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 96, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC:

[…] skating farther than their wont that day they reached that part of the river where the ships had anchored and been frozen in midstream. Among them was the ship of the Muscovite Embassy flying its double-headed black eagle from the main mast, which was hung with many-coloured icicles several yards in length.

1928, Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

(nautical) The tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship.

(nautical) The second-foremost mast of a non-sailing ship with more than one mast.


heeling

heeling (countable and uncountable, plural heelings)

One reason why a ship will not sail close-hauled on even keel with helm amidships, is that the masts are too far aft, and this may be proved by a “stiff ship” going “upon a wind” five or six knots an hour without perceptible heelings, […]

1871, The Nautical Magazine, volume 40, page 405:

(nautical) An inclination to one side; a tilt.


vang

Borrowed from Dutch vangen (“to catch”). Ultimately a doublet of etymology one.

Having the vang and the Cunningham in the right spot can be beneficial.

2013, Frank Bethwaite, Fast Handling Technique, page 141:

(nautical) A line extended down from the end of a gaff, used to regulate its position


vang

en-verb

vang (third-person singular simple present vangs, present participle vanging, simple past and past participle vanged)

vangs (present singular third-person)
vanging (participle present)
vanged (participle past)
vanged (past)

On a catamaran, the curved track has enough beam to allow the mainsheet to vang the boom throughout its entire arc.

The Patented Hoyt Jib Boom adds to offwind speed by vanging the jib and acting as a built in whisker pole.

1999 January, Cruising World, volume 25, number 1, page 80:

We needed to vang the main, pull it down to flatten it, and make it more efficient.

2018, Henry R. Danielson, Island People: Finding Our Way:

(sailing) To flatten the sail and regulate its position with such a line.


head-up display

en-noun

head-up display (plural head-up displays)

(nautical) A type of radar or electronic chart display where the top of the display always represents the direction the vessel is heading.


cockscomb

From Middle English cokkes comb; equivalent to cock + -s- + comb.

(nautical) A serrated cleat once fitted to the yards of a square-rigged ship and used when the sail was being reefed


fore-and-aft

(nautical, of the orientation of the sails of a ship) parallel with the keel, that is, going from bow to stern (as opposed to square-rigged).


windjammer

→ Dutch: windjammer

→ Russian: винджа́ммер (vindžámmer)

From wind + jammer? The nautical senses were originally used contemptuously by sailors on steam vessels.

(nautical) A sailing ship; especially a large, iron-hulled, square-rigged ship with three or more masts.

(nautical) A member of the crew of a ship of this kind.


composite built

(nautical, of a ship) Having wooden planks on a metal frame.


companion ladder

companion ladder (plural companion ladders)

Just as I got my head above the companion ladder, I felt an indescribably unpleasant sensation, suddenly, as it were, losing the power of breathing […] .

1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 87

The flat roof proved a great luxury, for we sat on our housetop at night, which we reached by a species of companion-ladder from below, and enjoyed our elevated position immensely.

1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 112:

(nautical) Either of two ladders leading from the raised quarterdeck of a sailing ship to the upper deck.


take the con

en-verb

take the con (third-person singular simple present takes the con, present participle taking the con, simple past took the con, past participle taken the con)

takes the con (present singular third-person)
taking the con (participle present)
took the con (past)
taken the con (participle past)

Coordinate term: take the helm

Mr. Renner, take the con!" Jolt meters swung before the acceleration alarms; Renner must have set up the course in advance and slapped the keys the instant he was given control.

1974, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, The Mote in God's Eye:

(nautical, literal) To take over navigational duties on the bridge of a ship.


conning tower

(nautical) The armoured control tower of an early iron warship from which the ship was navigated in battle.

I waited until half an hour after Benson had gone on duty, and then I went on deck, passing through the conning-tower where Benson sat, and looking at the compass. It showed that our course was north by west--that is, one point west of north, which was, for our assumed position, about right.

1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter IV, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:

(nautical) A connecting structure between the bridge and pressure hull of a submarine; in larger, modern submarines it contains the captain's cabin and is known as the sail.


sounder

(nautical) A device for making soundings at sea.

(nautical) A person who takes soundings.


cuntline

A waxed line is middled, and a loose loop laid around one strand, then both ends are brought out at the opposite cuntline.

Ashley Book Of Knots, knot number 3448 (page 547)


contline

(nautical) The spiral groove between the strands of a rope.

(nautical) The space between casks stowed side by side.


Continental Navy

(nautical, historical) The United States Navy between 1775 and 1794.


coppered

en-adj

coppered (comparative more coppered, superlative most coppered)

more coppered (comparative)
most coppered (superlative)

(nautical) (of the hull of a wooden ship) sheathed below the waterline with thin sheets of copper to prevent the attack of teredo shipworms and limit the buildup of weed


merchant ship

Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.

2021 February 9, “There are those outstanding final moments in real-life hostage drama Captain Phillips (2013), about the hijacking of a US merchant ship by Somali pirates, in which his traumatised mariner is moved to near-hysteria by his ordeal”, in BBC:


cargo vessel

(nautical) Any vessel designed to carry cargo.


coracle

Of Celtic origin; related to Welsh corwg, Irish curach (“boat”) and Cornish gorhel (“ship”), from Proto-Celtic *kurukos (“boat”).

(nautical) A small circular or oblong boat made of wickerwork and made watertight with hides or pitch, propelled and steered with a single paddle and light enough to be carried on a person's back.


bulk carrier

Otherwise, overseas coking coal will be moved to the UK by bulk ocean carrier, which are among the filthiest polluting objects on the face of the Earth we seek to protect.

2022 November 16, Nigel Harris, “Endless news... little context”, in RAIL, number 970, page 3:

(nautical) Any ocean-going cargo vessel (merchant ship) designed to carry unpackaged bulk cargo, such as grains, coal, ore, steel coils and cement, in its holds.


caracca

Christopher Columbus used to glance at caraccas waiting ashore when he was a young boy.

(nautical, historical) A 16th-century Portuguese armed merchant ship.


container ship

Coordinate term: TEU

(nautical) A cargo vessel designed to carry cargo prepacked into containers, especially shipping containers.


tafferel

From Dutch tafereel (“panel, picture”), diminutive of tafel (“table”), from Latin tabula (“table”).

(nautical) The flat upper part of a ship's stern above the transom, often decorated with carvings.

A true Chinese junk is a great curiosity; the model must have been taken originally from a bread-trough, being broad and square at both ends—when light, (I speak of a large one,) it is full thirty feet from the surface of the water to the tafferel, or the highest part of the poop.

1837, Edmund Roberts, chapter XVIII, in Embassy to the eastern courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat in the U. S. sloop-of-war Peacock, David Geisinger, Commander, during the years 1832-3-4, New York: Harper & Brothers, page 272:

Yet we should oftener look over the tafferel of our craft, like curious passengers, and not make the voyage like stupid sailors picking oakum.

1854, Henry David Thoreau, chapter XVIII, in Walden, New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co, published 1910, pages 422–3:


Costain gun

(nautical) A gun that fired a small rocket with a line attached, used to rig a breeches buoy.


cow hitch

(nautical) Any knot which is not a recognised maritime knot as used at sea.


corpsman

The corpsman prescribed Motrin to the sick marine for his symptoms.

(US, military, nautical) A hospital corpsman.


crance

(nautical) An iron band, at the end of a bowsprit, fitted with eyes to take the bowsprit shrouds and the bobstay


cross-jack yard

en-noun

cross-jack yard (plural cross-jack yards)

(nautical) The lower yard on the mizenmast of a square-rigged ship


cross sea

The swells of the waves, when they meet at right angles, form cross shapes.

(nautical) A (dangerous) sea with two wave systems traveling at oblique angles, due to the wind over it shifting direction or the waves of two storm systems meeting.


crossing the line

(nautical) A ceremony performed on board ship when members of the crew or passengers cross the equator for the first time.


cringle

"Lower till that rope-loop […] till the cringle was down on the boom. Then I'd tie her up the way you said, and then I'd hoist up the peak and throat halyards again."

1897, Rudyard Kipling, Captains Courageous:

(nautical) A short piece of rope, arranged as a grommet around a metal ring, used to attach tackle to a sail etc.


cringle

en-verb

cringle (third-person singular simple present cringles, present participle cringling, simple past and past participle cringled)

cringles (present singular third-person)
cringling (participle present)
cringled (participle past)
cringled (past)

(nautical, transitive) To fasten or attach with a cringle.


wherry

en-noun

wherry (countable and uncountable, plural wherries)

From Middle English whery (“small boat”), of obscure origin but cognate to French houari and Breton ouari, as well as Welsh chweri (“small boat”).

unk

obscure

Here I used to enjoy myself in playing about the bridge stairs, and often in the watermen's wherries, with other boys. On one of these occasions there was another boy with me in a wherry, and we went out into the current of the river: while we were there two more stout boys came to us in another wherry, and, abusing us for taking the boat, desired me to get into the other wherry-boat. Accordingly I went to get out of the wherry I was in; but just as I had got one of my feet into the other boat the boys shoved it off, so that I fell into the Thames; and, not being able to swim, I should unavoidably have been drowned, but for the assistance of some watermen who providentially came to my relief.

1789, Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano:

The river was astir early and late with barges, wherries, and craft of every description.

(countable, historical) A flat-bottomed vessel once employed by British merchants, notably in East Anglia, sometimes converted into pleasure boats.