keelhaul

en-verb

keelhaul (third-person singular simple present keelhauls, present participle keelhauling, simple past and past participle keelhauled)

keelhauls (present singular third-person)
keelhauling (participle present)
keelhauled (participle past)
keelhauled (past)

From Dutch kielhalen (“keelhaul”), from kiel (“keel”) + halen (“fetch; catch”).

March 11 [1667].—Hermans Jans, boatswain; disobedience of orders and stabbing his captain; sentenced to be degraded to common seaman, to be thrice keelhauled, to be well flogged, to have the knife stuck through his hand, and to forfeit, pro fisco, 6 months' wages.

1838, D[onald] Moodie, comp., transl. and ed., “Abstract of Criminal Convictions before the Court of Justice, Cape of Good Hope.—1662–1672.”, in The Record; or, A Series of Official Papers Relative to the Condition and Treatment of the Native Tribes of South Africa, Part 1 (1649–1720), Cape Town: Published by A. S. Robertson, →OCLC, page 312:

By degrees they became noisier and noisier, their conversation principally turning on that infernal naval lieutenant, as they were pleased to designate me, and what they intended to do with him. Some suggested “keelhauling” him; others, a dose of his favourite cat-o’nine tails; whilst many advised making a target of him for a little practice with that revolver which had previously so cowed them all.

1873 October 1, “Mutiny Aboard. An Unsought Adventure.”, in The British Flag and Christian Sentinel (New Series), number 46, London: Army Scripture Readers' and Soldiers' Friend Society, →OCLC, page 543, column 1:

To keelhaul is the cruelest and most dangerous of punishments and tortures ever devised for men aboard a ship. It involves trussing a man up with ropes, throwing him overboard, unable to swim, and hauling him under the boat's keel from one side to the other, or even from stem to stern. Most of those keelhauled under water are already dead when their punishment is over.

1973, Julius Epstein, Operation Keelhaul: The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present, Old Greenwich, Conn.: Devin-Adair Publishing Company, →OCLC:

The Captain. They're going to keelhaul him. They have him tied to the yardarm. The crew have mutinied.

2015, Téa Cooper, Forgotten Fragrance, North Sydney, N.S.W.: Escape Publishing, →ISBN:

(transitive, nautical) To punish by dragging under the keel of a ship with the intent of causing painful injuries.


dinghy

From Bengali ডিঙি (ḍiṅi), probably from Sanskrit द्रोण (droṇa, “wooden vessel”).

The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.

1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

(nautical) A small open boat, propelled by oars or paddles, carried as a tender, lifeboat, or pleasure craft on a ship.

(nautical) An inflatable rubber life raft.


biscuit

en-noun

biscuit (countable and uncountable, plural biscuits)

Tok Pisin: bisket

→ Bengali: বিস্কুট (biskuṭ)

→ Burmese: ဘီစကွတ် (bhica.kwat)

→ Cebuano: biskuwít, biskwit

→ Fiji Hindi: biskut

→ Gujarati: બિસ્કિટ (biskiṭ)

→ Hausa: bìskît

desc

ביסקוויט//בִּיסְקְוִיט

→ Hebrew: ביסקוויט／בִּיסְקְוִיט (bískvit)

→ Hiligaynon: biskwit

desctree

→ Hindi: बिस्कुट (biskuṭ)
→ Jarawa: biskuʈ (“biscuit”)

→ Indonesian: beskit, biskit

→ Japanese: ビスケット (bisuketto)

→ Korean: 비스켓 (biseuket)

→ Malay: biskut

→ Marshallese: petkōj

→ Punjabi: ਬਿਸਕੁਟ (biskuṭ)

→⇒ Scottish Gaelic: briosgaid

→ Spanish: bísquet, bísquete

→ Swahili: biskuti

→ Sylheti: ꠛꠤꠍꠇꠥꠐ (bisókuṭ)

→ Tagalog: biskuwit

→ Thai: บิสกิต (bís-gìt)

→ Urdu: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)
→ Ushojo: بسکٹ (biskiṭ)

→ Yoruba: bisikíìtì

→ Zulu: bhisikidi

PIE word
 *dwóh₁
From earlier bisket, from Middle English bisquyte, from Old French bescuit (French biscuit); doublet of biscotto.

He was a long, earnest man, and though born on an icy coast, seemed well adapted to endure hot latitudes, his flesh being hard as twice-baked biscuit.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “Knights and Squires”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 125:

(nautical) The "bread" formerly supplied to naval ships, which was made with very little water, kneaded into flat cakes, and slowly baked, and which often became infested with weevils.


mariner

From Middle English mariner, maryner, from Anglo-Norman mariner, marinier, from Old French marinier, maronnier, from marin and Medieval Latin marinellus and marinarius (“sailor”), from marīnus (“marine”), from mare (“sea”) + -īnus (“-ine: forming adjectives”). Eclipsed Middle English marinel, marynell (“mariner, sailor”) from Old French marinel from the same sources. Equivalent to marine + -er.

From the ground, Colombo’s port does not look like much. Those entering it are greeted by wire fences, walls dating back to colonial times and security posts. For mariners leaving the port after lonely nights on the high seas, the delights of the B52 Night Club and Stallion Pub lie a stumble away.

2013 June 8, “The new masters and commanders”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8839, page 52:

Synonym of sailor, particularly one on a maritime vessel.


MV

(nautical) Initialism of merchant vessel.


ahoy

→ Czech: ahoj

→ Danish: ohøj

→ Dutch: ahoi

→ German: ahoi

→ Slovak: ahoj

From a- + hoy (a nautical call used in hauling), from Middle English hoy (interjection), a greeting dating back to the fourteenth century. Compare Dutch hoi (“hi!, hello!”).

af

While he was thus occupied, a voice, still more uncouth than the former, bawled aloud, ‘Ho! the house, a-hoy!’

1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle:

I made a speaking trumpet of my hands and commenced to whoop “Ahoy!” and “Hello!” at the top of my lungs. […] The Colonel woke up, and, after asking what in brimstone was the matter, opened his mouth and roared “Hi!” and “Hello!” like the bull of Bashan.

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

(nautical) Used to hail a ship, a boat or a person, or to attract attention.


landlubber

Extension (with land) of earlier lubber. Compare also landloper.

[…] the making of sheathing and ship's pumps. This last rather unmarine field included more than a third of the patents before 1800, which may be one explanation for the predominance of landlubbers in early marine patenting.

1935, S. Colum Gilfillan, The Sociology of Invention, page 84:

(nautical, derogatory) Someone unfamiliar with the sea or seamanship, especially a novice seaman.

landkrabbe

someone unfamiliar with the sea or seamanship


catenary

From Late Latin catenaria, in turn from Latin catēna (“chain”). Attested since 1788.

/ˈkætəˌnɛɹi/

(nautical) The curve of an anchor cable from the seabed to the vessel; it should be horizontal at the anchor so as to bury the flukes.


rig

From Early Modern English rygge, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Norwegian rigge (“to bind up; wrap around; rig; equip”), Swedish dialectal rigga (“to rig a horse”), Faroese rigga (“to rig; to equip and fit; to make s.th. function”). Possibly from Proto-Germanic *rik- (“to bind”), from Proto-Indo-European *rign-, *reyg- (“to bind”); or related to Old English *wrīhan, wrīohan, wrēohan, wrēon (“to bind; wrap up; cover”). See also wry (“to cover; clothe; dress; hide”).

cog

(nautical) The rigging of a sailing ship or other such craft.


rig

en-verb

rig (third-person singular simple present rigs, present participle rigging, simple past and past participle rigged)

rigs (present singular third-person)
rigging (participle present)
rigged (participle past)
rigged (past)

(transitive) To fit out with a harness or other equipment.

(transitive, nautical) To equip and fit (a ship) with sails, shrouds, and yards.


tormentor

From Anglo-Norman tourmentour, from Old French tormenteor.

1813, Charles Stewart, enclosure in a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, dated 18 October, 1813, in William S. Dudley (editor), The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Washington D.C.: Naval Historical Center, Department of the Navy, 1992, Volume 2, p. 392,
Cabin furniture received onboard the U.S.F. Constellation at Washington […] 1 Cleaver and tormentors/Cook; [footnote:] A tormentor is a long iron meat fork used by sea cooks.


skipper

→ German: Skipper

From Middle English skippere, skyppere, scippere, borrowed from Middle Dutch scipper, schipper, from Old Dutch *skipāri, from Proto-Germanic *skipārijaz. Piecewise doublet of shipper, from ship + -er.

The skipper Mr. Cooke had hired at Far Harbor was a God-fearing man with a luke warm interest in his new billet and employer, and had only been prevailed upon to take charge of the yacht after the offer of an emolument equal to half a year's sea pay of an ensign in the navy.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter X, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:


bunting

en-noun

bunting (countable and uncountable, plural buntings)

2012 Summer Olympics torch relay
Bunting (decoration)
Bunting (textile)

Possibly from dialect bunting (“sifting flour”), from Middle English bonten (“to sift”), hence the material used for that purpose.
Possibly from Germanic bundt (“to bind or tie together”).

(nautical) A thin cloth of woven wool from which flags are made; it is light enough to spread in a gentle wind but resistant to fraying in a strong wind.


engineer

→ Burmese: အင်ဂျင်နီယာ (anggyangniya)

→ Hawaiian: ʻenekinia

→ Hindi: इंजीनियर (iñjīniyar)

→ Japanese: エンジニア (enjinia)

desc

အိန်ဂျေန်နဳယျာ

→ Mon: အိန်ဂျေန်နဳယျာ

→ Mon: အိန်ဂျေန်နဳယျာ

→ Persian:

Dari: اِنْجِنِیر (injinīr)

/ˌɛn(d)ʒɪˈnɪə/

/ˌɛnd͡ʒɪˈnɪ(ə)ɹ/

The noun is derived from:
* Middle English enginour (“one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence, etc.; machine designer”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman enginour, engigneour [and other forms], and Middle French and Old French engigneor, engigneour, engignier (“one who designs, constructs, or operates military works for attack or defence; architect; carpenter; craftsman; designer; planner; one who deceives or schemes”) (modern French ingénieur), from engin (“contraption, device; machine; invention; creativity, ingenuity; intelligence; deception, ruse, trickery”) + -eor, -or (suffix forming agent nouns); engin is derived from Latin ingenium (“innate or natural quality, nature; intelligence, natural capacity; ability, skill, talent; (Medieval Latin) engine; machine”), from in- (prefix meaning ‘in, inside, within’) + gignere (the present active infinitive of gignō (“to bear, beget, give birth to; to cause, produce, yield”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ǵenh₁- (“to beget, give birth to; to produce”)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns); and
* from engine + -er (occupational suffix); and
* from engine + -eer (suffix forming nouns denoting people associated with, concerned with, or engaged in specified activities), possibly modelled after Middle French ingénieur (a variant of Middle French, Old French engigneour; see above), and Italian ingegniere (“engineer”) (obsolete; modern Italian ingegnere).
The verb is derived from the noun.
cognates
* Medieval Latin, Late Latin ingeniārius (“engineer”)
* Medieval Latin ingeniator (“one constructing or using an engine”)
* Old Occitan engenhador, enginhador
* Portuguese engenhador (obsolete), engenheiro (“engineer”)
* Spanish engeñero (obsolete), ingeniero (“engineer”)

nb...

(Late Middle English) engyner, (Middle English) engineour, enginer, engyneour, engyneor, engynour, yngynore

engineor, enginere, engineur, enginor, enginur

cog

The machinery [the steam engine] has proved, like the balloon, unmanageable, and flies away with the aeronaut. Steam, from the first, hissed and screamed to warn him; it was dreadful with its explosion, and crushed the engineer. The machinist has wrought and watched, engineers and firemen without number have been sacrificed in learning to tame and guide the monster.

1856, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Wealth”, in English Traits, Boston, Mass.: Phillips, Sampson, and Company, →OCLC, pages 170–171:

The engineer, the deck-hand on the great lakes, or on the Mississippi or St. Lawrence or Sacramento, or Hudson or Paumanok sound, claims him.

1892, Walt Whitman, “Song of the Answerer”, in Leaves of Grass […], Philadelphia, Pa.: David McKay, publisher, […], →OCLC, part 1, page 136:

One of the stokers was disabled, the others had given in, the second engineer and the donkey-man were firing-up. The third engineer was standing by the steam-valve. The engines were being tended by hand.

1902 January–March, Joseph Conrad, “Typhoon”, in George R. Halkett, editor, The Pall Mall Magazine, volume XXVI, London: Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, →OCLC, chapter IV, page 226, column 2:

A person trained to operate an engine; an engineman.

(chiefly historical) A person who operates a steam engine; specifically (nautical), a person employed to operate the steam engine in the engine room of a ship.

maskinist

person employed in the engine room of a ship to operate its steam engine


hull-up

(nautical) Of a ship: at a distance such that the hull is visible above the horizon.


hull-down

In the morning a homeward-bound ship passed us hull down,—the first we had seen for months; […]

1898 September, Joseph Conrad, “Youth: a Narrative”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXIV, number DCCCCXCV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publication Co., page 319, column 2:

Shortly they would be hull-down.

1960, J.E. Macdonnell, Escort Ship, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, published 1972, page 30:

(nautical) Of a ship: so far distant that only the masts and sails are visible above the horizon.


buoy

From Middle English boy, boye, from Middle Dutch boeye (“float, buoy”), from Old French boue (“piece of wood or cork that floats above an anchor to indicate where it is anchored”) (modern French bouée), ultimately from Frankish *baukn (“beacon”). Doublet of beacon.
Alternatively, and perhaps less likely (due to the unexplained shift in meaning), from Middle Dutch boeye (“shackle, fetter”), from Old French buie (“fetter, chain”), from Latin boia (“a (leather) collar, band, fetter”), from Ancient Greek βόεος (bóeos), βόειος (bóeios, “of ox-hide”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws (“cow”).

der

While comm buoys allow rapid transmission, there is a finite amount of bandwidth available. Given that trillions of people may be trying to pass a message through a given buoy at any one time, access to the network is parceled out on priority tiers.

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

(nautical) A float moored in water to mark a location, warn of danger, indicate a navigational channel or for other purposes


cast adrift

en-verb

cast adrift (third-person singular simple present casts adrift, present participle casting adrift, simple past and past participle cast adrift)

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

Captain Bligh and some loyal crewmen were cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific.

(transitive) To place a person in a ship's boat or raft and leave them


aye aye, sir

(idiomatic, nautical) The correct and seamanlike reply, onboard a Royal Navy (or US Navy) ship, on receipt of an order from someone of senior rank or authority. It means "I understand the command and hasten to comply with the order."

bien

nautical - I hear, understand and will comply


schooner

Attested ca. 1715, of uncertain origin. Said to be derived from dialectal scoon (“to skim over water”). Compare also shunt (“to cause to move (suddenly)”).

The night was considerably clearer than anybody on board her desired when the schooner Ventura headed for the land.

1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 6, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

Designed by Frank Payne's renowned Boston design office, and built in 1928 of longleaf yellow pine, this 82-footer has been a racing schooner — a staysail schooner — since the heyday of Class-A ocean racing in schooners during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

2004, Reese Palley, The Best of Nautical Quarterly: Volume 1: The Lure of Sail, page 181:

In addition to the square-rigged sailing ships, the schooners were the second largest group of large sailing vessels.

2005, Otmar Schäuffelen, Chapman: Great Sailing Ships of the World, page xxi:

Unfortunately, anyone looking for a schooner today has limited choices. In the used boat market there are always some wooden hulls available, and occasionally ones of steel or aluminum, but fiberglass-hulled schooners are harder to come by.

2007, Donald Launer, Lessons from My Good Old Boat, page 240:

(nautical) A sailing ship with two or more masts, all with fore-and-aft sails; if two masted, having a foremast and a mainmast.


all hands on deck

As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called all hands on deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I explained to them that the time had come for us to enter into some sort of an agreement among ourselves that would relieve us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two antagonistic parts--prisoners and captors.

1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Chapter V”, in The Land That Time Forgot:

(nautical) An order, on board ship, for all seamen of all watches to muster on deck immediately; normally shortened to "All hands"


warship

Any ship built or armed for naval combat.


ashore

non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger

I shall no more to sea, to sea, / Here shall I die ashore—[…]

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

(nautical) On the land as opposed to onboard.

The canoe sailed ashore.

Swum ashore, man, like a duck. I can swim like a duck, I'll be sworn.


amidships

en-adv

amidships (not generally comparable, comparative more amidships, superlative most amidships)

more amidships (comparative)
most amidships (superlative)

[The U-boat captain] waited until the crosshairs lay directly amidships.

Two more torpedoes were fired; one ran erratic; the second hit amidships.

The saloon, instead of being at the stern, according to the old method of construction, is placed more amidships.

The main cabin, most amidships, was 8 feet 3 inches broad …

(nautical) In the middle of a ship, either longitudinally or laterally.

(nautical) Usually in the line of the keel, but sometimes halfway between bow and stern; often contracted to “midships.” (FM 55-501).


offing

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

From off + ing. Attested since the 1620s. Early texts also spell the term offin and offen.

to see (a ship) in the offing

I came to an Anchor in seven fathomes water in the offing to Sea.

1610, Samuel Argall, quoted 1625, by Samuel Purchas, Purchas His Pilgrimes, p84

September 30, 1659. I, poor miserable Robinson Crusoe, being shipwreck'd during a dreadful Storm, in the offing, came on Shore on this dismal, unfortunate Island, which I call'd the Island of Despair, all the rest of the Ship's Company being drown'd, and my self almost dead.

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 81:

That's the Grampus's crew. I seed her reported in the offing this morning; a three years' voyage, and a full ship.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, chapter 3, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 15:

In the offing the sea and the sky were welded together without a joint […]

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:

(nautical) The area of the sea in which a ship can be seen in the distance from land, excluding the parts nearest the shore, and beyond the anchoring ground.

[…] till I ſaw the Land tun out a great Length into the Sea, at about the Diſtance of four or five Leagues before me, and the Sea being very calm I kept a large, offing to make this Point; […]

1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 35:

However, what with the help of this Ebb, and our Boats, we by Noon had got an Offing of 1 1/2 or 2 Miles, yet we could hardly flatter ourselves with hopes of getting Clear […]

1768–1771, James Cook, chapter 8, in Captain Cook's Journal, First Voyage, published 1893:

We beat off shore during the whole of the night, when the weather moderated, and at daybreak we found out that we had not gained much offing, in consequence of the current […]

1846, Frederick Marryat, The Privateersman, chapter 2:

(nautical) The distance that a ship at sea keeps away from land, often because of navigational dangers, fog and other hazards; a position at a distance from shore.


astern

astern (comparative more astern, superlative most astern)

more astern (comparative)
most astern (superlative)

From a- (“towards”) + stern (“rear part of a vessel”).

prefix

In the direction of the stern; backward (motion); to the rear.


castaway

Robinson Crusoe was a famous fictional castaway.


oarsman

A person who rows a boat, either alone or with others.


painter

"Shove that [fat, wicker luncheon-basket] under your feet," he observed to the Mole, as he passed it down into the boat. Then he untied the painter and took the sculls again.

1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows:

The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.

1944, Miles Burton, chapter 5, in The Three Corpse Trick:

(nautical) A rope that is attached to the bow of a dinghy, or other small boat, and used for tying up or towing.


trinket

From Middle English trenket (“a cordwainer's knife”), hence, possibly, a similarly sized toy knife worn as an ornament; probably from an Old French dialectal form of trenchier (“to cut”). Compare trench.

inh

Sayling alwayes with the sheates of mainesaile and trinket warily in our hands.

1589, Richard Hakluyt, The Principall Navigations, Voiages, and Discoveries of the English Nation, […], London: […] George Bishop and Ralph Newberie, deputies to Christopher Barker, […], →OCLC:

(nautical) A three-cornered sail formerly carried on a ship's foremast, probably on a lateen yard.


heads

(nautical) That part of older sailing ships forward of the forecastle and around the beak, used by the crew as their lavatory; still used as the word for toilets on a ship.


bagpipe

en-verb

bagpipe (third-person singular simple present bagpipes, present participle bagpiping, simple past and past participle bagpiped)

bagpipes (present singular third-person)
bagpiping (participle present)
bagpiped (participle past)
bagpiped (past)

(nautical) To lay (the mizzen) aback by bringing the sheet to the mizzen rigging.


rating

Some 400 Russian ratings are living in the western French port, awaiting delivery of their controversial new command-and-control ship, the Vladivostok.

2014, BBC News, Huge Russian warship fascinates French in Saint-Nazaire:

In the Royal Navy the ratings, in order, are: ordinary seaman, able seaman, leading seaman, petty officer and chief petty officer.

Fifty officers and seven hundred and fifty ratings from the two British ships were picked up by the Japanese, together with the survivors from the Pope

1950, Winston S. Churchill, “The Hinge of Fate”, in The Second World War, volume 4, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 149:

(nautical, British) An enlisted seaman not a commissioned officer or warrant officer.


crank

en-adj

crank (comparative cranker, superlative crankest)

cranker (comparative)
crankest (superlative)

From Dutch or Low German krank, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *krank, from Proto-Germanic *krangaz, *krankaz (“bent; weak”). Cognate with Scots crank, krank, German krank (“sick”).

This ship is so crank and walty
I fear our grave she will be!

1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Phantom Ship:

The stowage was clumsily done, and the vessel consequently crank.

1833, Edgar Allan Poe, MS. Found in a Bottle:

(nautical, of a ship) Liable to capsize because of poorly stowed cargo or insufficient ballast.


admiral's barge

en-noun

admiral's barge (plural admiral's barges)

A motorboat used by flag officers for harbour transport.


bare poles

(nautical, idiomatic) The condition of a sailing boat when all of its sails have been taken in.


dumb barge

(nautical) A barge without mast, sails, or mechanical propulsion, whether propelled by oars and poles, by the tide, or in tow of a tug.


backstaff

backstaff (plural backstaffs or backstaves)

(nautical) An early navigational instrument for measuring the altitude of the sun and hence calculating latitude.


barquentine

→ Polish: barkentyna

(nautical) A sailing vessel similar to a barque, but fore-and-aft (schooner) rigged on the mainmast


barbette

→ Irish: bairbéad

The belted cruiser Pamiat Azova or Remembrance of Azoff, is 377 feet long. She is an improved Dmitri Dontskoi, and carries her two 8-inch guns in sponsoned barbettes on either broadside

1899, John Scott-Keltie, editor, Statesman's Year-Book 1899:

(nautical) The inside fixed trunk of a warship's gun-mounting, on which the turret revolves. It contains the hoists for shells and cordite from the shell-room and magazine.


bear in with

en-verb

bear in with (third-person singular simple present bears in with, present participle bearing in with, simple past bore in with, past participle born in with or borne in with)

bears in with (present singular third-person)
bearing in with (participle present)
bore in with (past)
born in with (participle past)
borne in with (participle past)

(nautical) To approach nearer to (a ship).


bear off from

bear off from (third-person singular simple present bears off from, present participle bearing off from, simple past bore off from, past participle borne off from)

bears off from (present singular third-person)
bearing off from (participle present)
bore off from (past)
borne off from (participle past)

(nautical) To stand further off from (a ship)


beat to quarters

beat to quarters (third-person singular simple present beats to quarters, present participle beating to quarters, simple past beat to quarters, past participle beaten to quarters)

beats to quarters (present singular third-person)
beating to quarters (participle present)
beat to quarters (past)
beaten to quarters (participle past)

(intransitive, nautical) To summon the crew of a sailing man-of-war to their stations for action against an enemy. In the Royal Navy the drums were beaten to the rhythm of Heart of Oak.


beam-ends

The ship is lying over half upon her beam-ends; lee scuppers under water, and forecastle all in a smother of foam.

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:

It began to be chill; the tide was rapidly fleeting seaward, the schooner settling more and more on her beam-ends.

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

(nautical) The ends of the transverse beams of a ship.


batten down

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

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

(nautical) To close or make watertight, referring to hatches and cargo.


bald-headed

en-adj

bald-headed (comparative more bald-headed, superlative most bald-headed)

more bald-headed (comparative)
most bald-headed (superlative)

(nautical) (of a square-rigged ship) not having the royals set.

(nautical) (of a fore-and-aft rigged ship) having the topmasts struck down.


becalm

en-verb

becalm (third-person singular simple present becalms, present participle becalming, simple past and past participle becalmed)

becalms (present singular third-person)
becalming (participle present)
becalmed (participle past)
becalmed (past)

1555, Richard Eden (translator), The decades of the newe worlde or west India conteynyng the nauigations and conquestes of the Spanyardes by Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, London: Edward Sutton, “The seconde v[o]yage to Guinea,” p. 351,
[…] there we were becalmed the .xx. day of Nouember from .vi. of the clocke in the mornynge vntyll foure of the clocke at after none.

In the following two days, they made fast progress, strong easterly winds driving them down the Channel to where it opened out into the Atlantic; there, they were briefly becalmed.

2011, Thomas Penn, Winter King, Penguin, published 2012, page 214:

(transitive, nautical) To deprive (a ship) of wind, so that it cannot move (usually in passive).


backstay

(nautical) A part of the rigging of a sailing ship extending from the top of the mast (masthead) to the back of the ship; they support the strain on all upper masts and provide additional support to the shrouds when the wind is abaft the beam.


back water

back water (third-person singular simple present backs water, present participle backing water, simple past and past participle backed water)

backs water (present singular third-person)
backing water (participle present)
backed water (participle past)
backed water (past)

(nautical) To reverse the action of the oars, paddles, or propeller, so as to force the boat or ship backward.


bear down

bear down (third-person singular simple present bears down, present participle bearing down, simple past bore down, past participle borne down)

bears down (present singular third-person)
bearing down (participle present)
bore down (past)
borne down (participle past)

(nautical) To steer away from the wind; to approach from windward.


beachcomber

The society of beach-combers always repays the small pains you need be at to enjoy it. They are easy of approach and affable in conversation.

1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 46”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

(nautical) A seaman who is not prepared to work but hangs around port areas living off the charity of others.

batteur de grève

seaman who hangs around port areas living off the charity of others


becket

Compare Dutch bek (“beak”) beak, and English beak.

(nautical) A short piece of rope spliced to form a circle

silmukka

nautical: short piece of rope spliced to form a circle

(nautical) A loop of rope with a knot at one end to catch in an eye at the other end. Used to secure oars etc. at their place.

silmukka

nautical: loop of rope with a knot at one end

(nautical) The clevis of a pulley block.

At the same time, mind, I must have a bit of a frolic occasionally, for that's all the pleasure I has, when I gets a little chink in my becket; and ye know, too, that I don t care much for that stuff, for a dollar goes with me as fur as a gold ounce does with you, when ye put on your grand airs, and shower it about like a nabob.

1855, Henry Augustus Wise, Tales for the Marines, page 121:


bathyscaphe

/ˈbæθɪˌskæf/

The fact that the bathyscaphes are self-propelled makes it possible to use them to study the ocean microstructure in the horizontal, although the experiment should include temporal changes, which can be achieved either by using associated buoy stations or using a second suspended bathyscaphe.

1972, Oceanology, volume 12, numbers 4–6, American Geophysical Union, page 931:

It's ironic that when Piccard built his first bathyscaphe in the 1940s people assumed the revolutionary design had evolved from his famous stratospheric balloon. In fact, the reverse was true. In fact, Piccard's prototype bathyscaphe FNRS-2 (named for the Belgian national research foundation), which underwent sea trials in the Atlantic off Senegal in 1948, did possess all the attributes of a clumsy underwater balloon.

2001, Robert D. Ballard, Malcolm McConnell, Adventures in Ocean Exploration: From the Discovery of the Titanic to the Search for Noah's Flood, page 216:

After World War II, engineers built specialized submarines called bathyscaphes to survive the intense pressures of the deep ocean. A pioneer in bathyscaphes was the Swiss-born Belgian physicist Auguste Piccard (1884–1962), who had set the world altitude record in a balloon in 1932. Having turned his attention to the sea, Piccard and his son, Jacques Piccard (1922– ), built a bathyscaphe called the Trieste after World War II.

2005, Eric G. Swedin, Science in the Contemporary World: An Encyclopedia, page 297:

A self-propelled deep-sea diving submersible for exploring the ocean depths, consisting of a crew cabin similar to a bathysphere suspended below a float filled with a buoyant liquid such as petrol.


Beaufort scale

Created by Irish hydrographer and British navy officer Francis Beaufort in 1806.

(nautical) An empirical measure for the intensity of the wind based mainly on the state of the sea or wave conditions.

ビューフォート風力階級

ビューフォートふうりょくかいきゅう


athwart

From Late Middle English athwert, athirt, from a- (prefix meaning ‘in the direction of, toward’) + thwert (“crosswise; (cooking) across the grain”, adverb). Thwert is derived from thwert (“crosswise, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate, stubborn”, adjective), borrowed from Old Norse þvert (“across, athwart”), originally the neuter form of þverr (“across, transverse”), from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz (“cross; adverse”) (altered or influenced by Proto-Germanic *þweraną (“to stir; to swirl; to turn”)), from Proto-Germanic *þerh-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). The English word is analysable as a- (prefix meaning ‘in the direction of, toward’) + thwart (“placed or situated across something else”).
cognates
* Scots athort (“athwart”)

prefix

The damaged mainmast fell athwart the deck, destroying the ship’s boat.

[H]e [a boat] come right athwart the steamer's bows and she cut him in two.

1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “The Same Respected Friend in More Aspects than One”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, book the third (A Long Lane), page 19:

(nautical) Across the line of a ship's course, or across its deck.

poikittain

across the line of a ship’s course, or across its deck


bear up

en-verb

bear up (third-person singular simple present bears up, present participle bearing up, simple past bore up, past participle borne up)

bears up (present singular third-person)
bearing up (participle present)
bore up (past)
borne up (participle past)


ballast

en-noun

ballast (usually uncountable, plural ballasts)

From Middle English bar (“bare”) + last (“load”).

(nautical) Heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship (or in the gondola of a balloon), to provide stability.

balast

heavy material placed in the hold of a vessel


wog

(nautical, slang) A pollywog, or sailor who has never crossed the Equator.


scupper

Uncertain. Perhaps from Middle English scope (“scoop”) or Dutch schop (“shovel”) + -er; or from Dutch scheppen (“to draw off”).

(nautical) A drainage hole on the deck of a ship.


EPIRB

emergency position indicating radio beacon#English

(communication, nautical) Abbreviation of emergency position indicating radio beacon.


victualler

From Middle English vitailler, from Old French vitaillier; equivalent to victual + -er.


wharf

From Middle English wharf, from Old English hwearf (“heap, embankment, wharf”); related to Old English hweorfan (“to turn”), Old Saxon hwerf (whence German Werft), Dutch werf, Old High German hwarb (“a turn”), hwerban (“to turn”), Old Norse hvarf (“circle”), and Ancient Greek καρπός (karpós, “wrist”).

inh

Commerce pushes its wharves into the sea.

1834–1874, George Bancroft, History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, volume (please specify |volume=I to X), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company [et al.], →OCLC:

Out upon the wharfs they came, / Knight and burgher, lord and dame, / And round the prow they read her name, / The Lady of Shalott.

1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Lady of Shalott”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, part IV, page 86:

A man-made landing place for ships on a shore or river bank.


tanker

The channel at Chan-chiang is being dredged to a depth of 50 feet enabling tankers of 70,000 tons to call.

1976 March, JeNelle Matheson, Construction Equipment A Market Assessment for the People's Republic of China, U.S. Department of Commerce, →OCLC, page 8:

(nautical) A tankship, a vessel used to transport large quantities of liquid.


NOIBN

(shipping) Initialism of not otherwise indexed by name.


cartel

→ Spanish: cártel

In the business sense, borrowed from German Kartell, first used by Eugen Richter in 1871 in the Reichstag. In the political sense, which was the vehicle for this metaphor, the English sense, like the German sense, was borrowed from French cartel in the sixteenth century, from Italian cartello, diminutive of carta (“card, page”), from Latin charta.

(historical, nautical) A ship used to negotiate with an enemy in time of war, and to exchange prisoners.


lee

From Middle English lee, from Old English hlēo, hlēow (“shelter, protection”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlaiw, from Proto-Germanic *hlaiwaz (compare German Lee (“lee”), Swedish lä, Danish læ, Norwegian le, Old Norse hlé, Dutch lij), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (compare Welsh clyd (“warm, cozy”), Latin calēre (“to warm up”), Lithuanian šiltas (“warm, pleasant”), Sanskrit शरद् (śarad, “autumn”)).

(nautical) A protected cove or harbor, out of the wind.

завет

(nautical) The side of the ship away from the wind.


lee

lee side, lee shore, lee helm

(nautical, geology) Facing away from the flow of a fluid, usually air.


matey

Ahoy mateys, scrub the deck!

c. 1906, Herbert Strang (pseudonym), In Clive′s Command, 2006, Echo Library, page 35,
“Well, we are and we en′t, eh, mateys? The Waterman′s Rest en′t exactly the kind of place to spend shore leave; it en′t a patch on Wapping or Rotherhithe. […] ”

“Well, Mateys,” he said, “heave to. Rum for all.”
The pirates grabbed their bottles, and as they drank they began to sing and laugh and shout at each other.

1979, Larona Homer, “Blackbeard the Pirate”, in Blackbeard the Pirate and Other Stories of the Pine Barrens, page 91:

Soon the talking skull came into view and gave us a warning,
“Avast there, it be to late to alter course mateys and there be plundering pirates lurking in every cove waiting to board.[…]”

2003, Paul Abbaszadeh, One Love: A True Love Story, page 318:

“Ahoy, mateys!” The chorus came from all sides, and he fought the urge to snicker.
She nudged him with her elbow, and he looked down to find her eyes twinkling.
“Hope you brushed up on your pirate lingo. The desk is over there. I gotta go use the little wench′s room.”
He watched her go with a grin and nearly laughed again when he saw the signs on the bathroom doors. Wenches and Mateys. Good God.

2010, Molly Burkhart, My Gigolo, unnumbered page:

(nautical, slang) A fellow sailor; often used affectedly, especially when portraying a pirate.

He got the dockyard 'mateys' to install a primitive form of steam heating which he had seen in Navy ships […]

1979, Alfred Draper, Operation Fish: The Race to Save Europe's Wealth, 1939-1945, page 48:

Mediterranean peoples are thought to be excitable, but the Maltese stood up to the blitz with great aplomb, especially the dghaisa men who plowed back and forth across the harbours regardless of the raids, the mateys who made the devastated dockyard work, and all who served in units of the armed forces.

2011, Gordon W. Stead, A Leaf upon the Sea, page 63:


off and on

(nautical) On different tacks, now toward, and now away from, the land.


crotch

en-verb

crotch (third-person singular simple present crotches, present participle crotching, simple past and past participle crotched)

crotches (present singular third-person)
crotching (participle present)
crotched (participle past)
crotched (past)

Of disputed origin; two possibilities seem likely:
* From Middle English croche, variant of crucche (“crutch”); compare crook.
* From Middle English croche, variant of crouche (“cross, crozier”).

[…] when she begins to go astern, let go the anchor, brail up the spanker, crotch the boom, haul taut the guys, light-to the cable, as fast as she will take it, until a sufficient scope is out, when stopper.

1864, William N. Brady, The Kedge-anchor, Or Young Sailor's Assistant, page 192:

I always crotched the boom while reefing, and made an easy job of it, the boat, in the meantime, taking perfect care of herself on any point of sailing, under jib and jigger.

1907, H.R. Stiles, “Notes on Rigging”, in Thomas Fleming Day, editor, The Rudder, volume 18, page 611:

The big coiled throat and peak halyards were made ready to run, and the mainsheet was put to the winch ready for crotching the boom.

(transitive, sailing) To secure (the boom) to the boom crotch (a forked pole).


taut

en-adj

taut (comparative tauter, superlative tautest)

tauter (comparative)
tautest (superlative)

The adjective is derived from Middle English taught [and other forms], Early Middle English tohte, towehte (“strained, stretched; distended; tight; firm”), probably from tough, touth, touʒth, toʒt (“powerful, strong; fierce, violent; not tender, tough; hardy, resilient; steadfast, stout; difficult to do or endure”) and possibly influenced by togen, towen, past participle of ten (“to extend, stretch out; to drag, haul, pull, tow, tug”) (modern English tee (“(obsolete) to draw, lead; to draw away; to go, proceed”)), or directly from its etymon Old English tēon (“to drag, draw, pull”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to draw, pull”)) The word may be related to thight (“(dialectal) compact, dense; close-fitting, tight”) and tight; and is cognate with Scots tacht, taght (“taut”).
The verb is probably derived from the adjective.

nb...

toft, toght, tohte, toth, tought, touht, tout, touȝt, touʒt, towght, towht, towt, towte, toȝt, toʒte

der

[O]ur friend was a hearty toper in the days of his Whiggery, but no sooner turned one of the tautest of Tories, than he took to the tea-pot. It seems a thing against nature.

1832 September, John Wilson, W[illia]m Maginn, J[ohn] G[ibson] Lockhart, James Hogg [et al.], Noctes Ambrosianæ […], volume V, number LXII, New York, N.Y.: Redfield […], published 1854, →OCLC, page 76:

[T]he astonished boy looked round him, and wondered if this could really be the trim, taut ship he had read of. The deck was so encumbered with foul-smelling casks, coils of rope, and masses of rubbish, that there was no room to move; and Jack felt at a loss where to fly to be out of the way of the busy, swearing crew.

1863, Anne Bowman, “The Adventures of Clever Jack”, in Edmund Routledge, editor, Routledge’s Every Boy’s Annual. An Original Miscellany of Entertaining Literature, London, New York, N.Y.: Routledge, Warne, & Routledge, […], →OCLC, chapter I (Jack Determines to be His Own Master), page 109:

In the tautest schooner that ever swam / He rides at anchor at Anisquam.

1872, John Greenleaf Whittier, “The Sisters”, in The Pennsylvania Pilgrim, and Other Poems, Boston, Mass.: James R[ipley] Osgood and Company, late Ticknor & Fields, and Fields, Osgood, & Co., →OCLC, page 103:

You've secured the neatest, trimmest, tautest little craft that ever man could wish to be commander of.

1878, Arthur Hamilton, chapter XXI, in Lawrence Loftewalde. A Tale. … In Three Volumes, volume III, London: Samuel Tinsley & Co., […], →OCLC, page 271:

George Szell took up the reins of the Cleveland Orchestra in 1946, and made it one of the world's tautest, most disciplined ensembles, ideal in the classical and early romantic repertory.

2004, Allan Kozinn, “Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra; Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta, and Hungarian Sketches: Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, Conducting […]”, in Classical Music: A Critic’s Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings (The New York Times Essential Library), New York, N.Y.: Times Books; Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, page 259:

(nautical, of a sailor, a ship, etc.) Neat and well-disciplined; (by extension) efficient and in order.

акуратен

neat and well-disciplined; efficient and in order


becue

en-verb

becue (third-person singular simple present becues, present participle becuing, simple past and past participle becued)

becues (present singular third-person)
becuing (participle present)
becued (participle past)
becued (past)

(nautical) To make fast a rope to an anchor, used when anchored over a rocky bottom, so as to allow the anchor to be hoisted from its flukes to escape an entrapment on the bottom.


bell buoy

A buoy on which is mounted a bell with four clappers, hung inside an iron cage, which is rung by the motion of the waves


belaying pin

(nautical) Any of the short lengths of wood, iron or brass set up in convenient places on a ship to secure running rigging.


bell rope

(nautical) A short length of rope, spliced to the eye of the clapper of a ship's bell and by which it is struck.


bent on a splice

* A splice is used to join two ropes to make one.
* Possibly a pun. See bent on and bend.

(idiomatic, nautical) About to be married.


between decks

(nautical) The space between any two decks of a ship

(nautical) Steerage on a passenger ship in which people who cannot afford a cabin travel


answer the helm

answer the helm (third-person singular simple present answers the helm, present participle answering the helm, simple past and past participle answered the helm)

answers the helm (present singular third-person)
answering the helm (participle present)
answered the helm (participle past)
answered the helm (past)

(nautical, intransitive, said of a ship) To respond to a movement of the helm by changing direction; only happens if the ship has steerageway.


steerageway

en-noun

steerageway (countable and uncountable, plural steerageways)

/ˈstɪə.ɹɪd͡ʒˌweɪ/

The latter made one tremendous spurt, then gave up in despair and hauled in his oars. French Pete let go the main-sheet, lost steerageway as he rounded up alongside the motionless skiff, and dragged Joe out.

1902, Jack London, “chapter XII”, in The Cruise of the Dazzler:

(nautical) The minimum speed of a ship, below which it does not answer the helm and cannot be steered.


buntline

(nautical) Any, except the outermost, of the ropes extending down to the deck with which a square sail is rolled up to the yard.


lively

From Middle English lyvely, lifly, from Old English līflīċ (“living, lively, long-lived, necessary to life, vital”), equivalent to life + -ly. Cognate with Scots lively, lifely (“of or pertaining to life, vital, living, life-like”). Doublet of lifely and lifelike.

inh

Speak the word, my livelies, and I'll pilot her in.


snort

From Middle English snorten, from earlier fnorten, from Old English *fnorettan, related to Middle English snoren, fnoren, from Old English fnora. See snore and sneeze for more on the change from fn- to sn-.


snort

en-verb

snort (third-person singular simple present snorts, present participle snorting, simple past and past participle snorted)

snorts (present singular third-person)
snorting (participle present)
snorted (participle past)
snorted (past)

(intransitive, nautical, of submarines) To sail at periscope depth through the use of a snort or snorkel.


hull

hull (third-person singular simple present hulls, present participle hulling, simple past and past participle hulled)

hulls (present singular third-person)
hulling (participle present)
hulled (participle past)
hulled (past)

From Middle English holle, hoole (“hull, hold of a ship, ship”), of uncertain origin. Possibly a variant and special use of Etymology 1 above, conformed to hull. Alternatively, a variant of Middle English hole, hoole, holle (“hiding place, lair, den, shelter, compartment”, literally “hole, hollow”), related to Middle Dutch and Dutch hol (“hole, ship's cargo hold”). More at hole.

We goe not, but we are carried: as things that flote, now gliding gently, now hulling violently, according as the water is, either stormy or calme.

1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 1, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:

[…] Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together:

1613 (date written), William Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]:

In this virtuous voyage of life hull not about like the ark, without the use of rudder, mast, or sail, and bound for no port.

1716, Thomas Browne, edited by Samuel Johnson, Christian Morals, 2nd edition, London: J. Payne, published 1756, Part I, p. 8:

(obsolete, intransitive, nautical) To drift; to be carried by the impetus of wind or water on the ship's hull alone, with sails furled.


bells

(nautical) Ship's bells; the strokes on a ship's bell, every half-hour, to mark the passage of time.


holystone

Uncertain, but equivalent to holy + stone. As an amulet, probably from holey (“having a hole”). As a scouring stone, variously derived from holey, from the amulet, from its association with Sunday cleaning, from its users' adoption of a kneeling position similar to prayer, and (least likely) from their original provision by raiding graveyards for tombstones.

(nautical) A piece of soft sandstone used for scouring the wooden decks of ships, usually with sand and seawater.

пемза

block of soft sandstone used for scrubbing


gooseneck

(nautical) The swivel connection on a sailboat located near the bottom of the mast that the boom attaches to. When a sailboat performs a tack or a jibe the gooseneck swings the boom from one side of the boat to the other.

puominivel

swivel connection on a sailboat for the boom to attach to the mast


baffle

baffle (third-person singular simple present baffles, present participle baffling, simple past and past participle baffled)

baffles (present singular third-person)
baffling (participle present)
baffled (participle past)
baffled (past)
baffle (infinitive)

The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly:
* from French bafouer, baffoüer (“to abuse, revile; to confuse, baffle; to deceive; to flout; to scorn”), imitative of someone making a disdainful sound by expelling air quickly through pouted lips (compare Occitan baf (interjection expressing disdain)); or
* from French befer, beffer, beffler (“(obsolete) to deceive; to mock, ridicule”) (compare Old French befe, beffe, buffe (“deception; mockery”); beferie (“deceit; quibbling”)), possibly from bafouer: see above.
The noun is derived from the verb.
cognates
* Italian beffare (“(verb) to deride, mock”), beffa (“(noun) banter; mockery”)
* Occitan bafar (“(verb) to deride, mock”), bafa (“(noun) banter; mockery”)
* Old Spanish bafa (modern Spanish befa (“(noun) banter; mockery”))
* Spanish befar (“(verb) to deride, mock”)

cog

"She [the ship] behaves nobly," observed the captain, stepping aft to the binnacle, and looking at the compass; "if the wind does not baffle us, we shall weather."

1833, [Frederick Marryat], chapter XV, in Peter Simple. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], published 1834, →OCLC, page 232:

(archaic) To defeat, frustrate, or thwart (someone or their efforts, plans, etc.); to confound, to foil.

(specifically, nautical) Of weather or wind: to hinder or prevent (a ship or its crew) from advancing.


ordinary seaman

en-noun

ordinary seaman (plural ordinary seamen)

(nautical) The lowest grade of seaman in the merchant marine; the grade below able-bodied seaman.


GM

GM (countable and uncountable, plural GMs)

The report notes that the minimum GM curves in the stability booklet were generated based on the minimum GM required to meet intact stability criteria in 46 CFR 170.170. However, for vessels required to meet both damage and intact stability requirements, such as El Faro, the higher of intact or damage stability minimum GM must be reflected in the minimum GM curves.

2017 December 12, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.12.10 Postaccident Analysis of Stability, Structures, and Sinking”, in Marine Accident Report: Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro, Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas, October 1, 2015, archived from the original on 2022-05-15, page 152:

Metacentric height
metacentric height#English

(usually uncountable, nautical, engineering, physics) Metacentric height, a measure of a ship's static stability in roll.


USS

(nautical, military) Initialism of United States Ship.


thwart

Lake Maria State Park
Middle English Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary

The adjective is derived from Early Middle English thwert, thwerte, thuart, thurt, thurte, thwart, thwarte, twart, twarte, twhart, twhert, twort, þuert, þwerrt, þwert, þwerte, ðwert (“crosswise, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate”), borrowed from Old Norse þvert (“across, athwart”), originally the neuter form of þverr (“across, transverse”), from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz (“cross; adverse”) (altered or influenced by Proto-Germanic *þweraną (“to stir; to swirl; to turn”)), from Proto-Germanic *þerh-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”).
The English adjective is cognate with Danish tvær (“sullen, sulky”), Gothic 𐌸𐍅𐌰𐌹𐍂𐍃 (þwairs, “angry”), Middle Dutch dwers, dwars (modern Dutch dwars (“crosswise, transverse; slantwise, askew; stubbornly disobedient”)), Norwegian tvert, tvært, Old Frisian þweres, dwers (Saterland Frisian twars, West Frisian dwers, dwerz (“across, to the other side of; beyond”)), Middle Low German dwers, dwars (Low German dwars (“contrary; cross-grained”)), Old English þweorh (“transverse; perverse; angry, cross”), Old High German twer (Middle High German twer, quer, modern German quer (“crosswise; cross”)), Swedish tvär (“across, transverse; of a curve: sharp; immediate, sudden; grumpy, stubborn”). It is related to queer; also Proto-West Germanic *þwerh,
The adverb is derived from Middle English thwert, ywerte (“crosswise; across the grain”); the Middle English Dictionary suggests the adverb was derived from the adjective, while the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the adverb is attested earlier than the adjective.
The verb is derived from Middle English thwerten, thwert, thwarten, þwerten (“to lie across; to oppose, to thwart”), and further from the adverb and perhaps also the adjective.
Noun sense 1 (“a seat across a boat on which a rower may sit”) may be derived from the adverb or adjective, from the position of the seat across the length of the boat, while noun sense 3 (“(rare) an act of thwarting”) is derived from the verb. Compare Middle English thwert (“in in thwert: crosswise”), from the adjective.

cog

The fisherman sat on the aft thwart to row.

When taking his seat in a boat, the learner should first observe that the thwart is firmly fixed, and that the mat upon it is securely tied to that part of it which is farthest from his rowlock.

[1876–1879?], “Our Holiday. Rowing.—I.”, in The Popular Educator: A Complete Encyclopædia of Elementary, Advanced, and Technical Education, new and revised edition, volume IV, London, New York, N.Y.: Cassell, Petter, and Galpin, […], →OCLC, page 32, column 2:

(nautical) A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.

A well-made dugout canoe rarely needs a thwart.

A conſiderable number of thwarts were laid from gunwale to gunwale, to which they were ſecurely laſhed on each ſide, as a ſtrengthening to the boat [a canoe].

1773, “Of the Canoes and Navigation of the Inhabitants of New Zealand; […]”, in John Hawkesworth, editor, An Account of the Voyages Undertaken by the Order of His Present Majesty for Making Discoveries in the Southern Hemisphere, […] In Three Volumes, volume III, Printed for W[illiam] Strahan and T[homas] Cadell […], →OCLC, book II, page 58:

My barge was sixty feet in length, and not more than twelve in the widest part; by taking away one thwart beam near the stern, laying a floor two feet below the gunwale, and raising an arched roof about seven feet above the floor, a commodious room was formed, fourteen feet long, and ten wide, with a closet behind it; […]

1800, Michael Symes, chapter VII, in An Account of an Embassy to the Kingdom of Ava, by the Governor-General of India, in the Year 1795, London: Printed by W[illiam] Bulmer and Co., […]; and sold by Messrs. G[eorge] and W[illiam] Nicol, […]; and J[ohn] Wright, […], →OCLC, page 223:

I looked down into the Old Town [a canoe]; there was no yoke, only a straight ash thwart.

2015, Cliff Jacobson, “Outfitting and Customizing Your Canoe”, in Canoeing Wild Rivers: The 30th Anniversary Guide to Expedition Canoeing in North America, 5th edition, Guildford, Conn., Helena, Mont.: Falcon Guides, Rowman & Littlefield, →ISBN, page 66:

(nautical) A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (“breadth”) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail.


rummage

en-verb

rummage (third-person singular simple present rummages, present participle rummaging, simple past and past participle rummaged)

rummages (present singular third-person)
rummaging (participle present)
rummaged (participle past)
rummaged (past)

From Middle English ronage, from Old French arrumage (compare French arrimage), from arrumer (“to arrange the cargo in the hold”) (compare French arrimer and Spanish arrumar).

gurnjescu

to search something which contains many items

тършувам

to search something thoroughly and with disregard

(transitive, nautical) To arrange (cargo, goods, etc.) in the hold of a ship; to move or rearrange such goods.

After the long voyage, the customs officers rummaged the ship.

(transitive, nautical) To search a vessel for smuggled goods.


rummage

en-noun

rummage (countable and uncountable, plural rummages)

(nautical) A place or room for the stowage of cargo in a ship.

(nautical) The act of stowing cargo; the pulling and moving about of packages incident to close stowage.


yardarm

Sun's under the yardarm, sis!

2006, Megan Kelso, “1: The Squirrel Mother”, in The Squirrel Mother: Stories, →ISBN, page 13:

(nautical) The outer end of a yard, often equipped with blocks for reeving signal halyards.


optimist

From French optimiste, from Latin optimus (“best”).

a person who expects a favourable outcome


yachtsman

1840, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Irish Sketch Book published together with The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh and Notes of a Journey from Cornhill to Grand Cairo, New York: Caxton, Chapter 10, p. 379,
[…] and so ended, not without a sigh on my part, one of the merriest six-hour rides that five yachtsmen, one cockney, five women and a child, the carman, and a countryman with an alpeen, ever took in their lives.

We knew him already by sight as the owner of a little five-ton cutter, which he sailed alone apparently, a fellow yachtsman in the unpretending band of fanatics who cruise at the mouth of the Thames. But the first time he addressed the waiter sharply as ‘steward’ we knew him at once for a sailor as well as a yachtsman.

1913, Joseph Conrad, Chance, London: Methuen, published 1914, Part 1, Chapter One, p. 3:

[…] needless to say, the thing that all the cautious and experienced yachtsmen had warned him against happened. The black squall out of nowhere, the sudden, senseless frenzy of wind and rain and waves…

1963, Aldous Huxley, chapter 1, in Island, New York: Bantam, page 6:


keel over

en-verb

keel over (third-person singular simple present keels over, present participle keeling over, simple past and past participle keeled over)

keels over (present singular third-person)
keeling over (participle present)
keeled over (participle past)
keeled over (past)

Aelius Donatus
Augustus
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Livia
Octavia the Younger
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
Virgil

The original nautical meaning (sense 1) refers to a vessel rolling to the extent that its keel (“a large beam along the underside of the vessel’s hull from bow to stern”) is visible.

What a tiny little schooner! But is it not bold to spread both sails? And see, now that we have come round to the wind, how the skiff keels over.

1844 May, Peter von Geist, “A Piscatorial Eclogue”, in The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, volume XXIII, number 5, New York, N.Y.: Published by John Allen, Nassau-Street, →OCLC, page 462:

[H]is bandaged cry was, to beach him on the whale's topmost back. Nothing loath, his bowsman hauled him up and up, through a blinding foam that blent two whitenesses together; till of a sudden the boat struck as against a sunken ledge, and keeling over, spilled out the standing mate.

1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Town-Ho’s Story. (As Told at the Golden Inn.)”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 289:

The tributaries made their appearance from the house, advancing in a singular manner. They were all clothed in immense pieces of tappa looped about their persons. First one crawled on all fours for a few yards; then he keeled over, head over heels; then he brought up on his haunches, resting for a moment; after which he resumed the same procedure until he came within a few paces of "Old Snuffy."

1853 September, “A Cruise after and among the Cannibals”, in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, volume VII, number XL, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, 329 & 331 Pearl Street, Franklin Square, →OCLC, page 473, column 1:

At home, the water had deepened; it tumbled like rapids across the yard; it encroached upon the house; it shoved one-foot stones aside and carved grooves through the gravel driveway; the chain link fence was keeling over under the pressure surging through it.

1978 October 5, Bill Simmons, “‘… A day of fear’”, in Arkansas Democrat, page 6D; reprinted in “Attachment I (to Main Report): Supplement to Arkansas Democrat: 13 September 1978 Flood”, in Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement for Water Resource Development: Fourche Bayou Basin, Vicinity Little Rock, Arkansas, volume I (Main Report), Little Rock, Ark.: U.S. Army Engineer District, Little Rock, 1979 October, →OCLC:

(intransitive, nautical, also figuratively) Of a vessel: to roll so far on its side that it cannot recover; to capsize or turn turtle.

omvallen

of a vessel: to roll so far on its side that it cannot recover — see also capsize


knockdown

en-noun

knockdown (countable and uncountable, plural knockdowns)

(nautical) The condition of a sailboat being pushed abruptly to horizontal, with the mast parallel to the water surface.


glory hole

(nautical) In the merchant and Royal Navy:

In the merchant and Royal Navy:
A generally untidy place.

The stewards' mess on a passenger liner.

The stokehold on a coal-burning tramp steamer.


outward

en-adv

outward (comparative more outward, superlative most outward)

more outward (comparative)
most outward (superlative)

From Middle English outward, from Old English ūtweard, equivalent to out + -ward.


waft

From Middle English waften, of uncertain origin. Possibly from unattested Old English *wafettan, from wafian (“to wave”) + -ettan, or perhaps borrowed from Middle Dutch wachten (“to guard, provide for”).
See also German wabern (“to waft”), Faroese veiftra (“to wave”) and Icelandic váfa (“to fluctuate, waver, doubt”).

der

(nautical) A flag used to indicate wind direction or, with a knot tied in the center, as a signal; a waif, a wheft.


yeoman

From Middle English yoman, yeman, from Old English *ġēamann, from Proto-West Germanic *gauwjamann (compare Old Frisian gāman (“villager”), Middle Dutch goymann (“arbiter”)), compound of Proto-West Germanic *gawi (“shire, district”) (compare Old English -ġē, -ġēa (“district, region”) (in ælġē, Sūþriġēa), West Frisian gea, goa, Dutch gouw, German Gau) + *mann (“man”).

m+

(nautical) In a vessel of war, the person in charge of the storeroom.

文書軍士

nautical: person in charge of the storeroom


waterlog

en-verb

waterlog (third-person singular simple present waterlogs, present participle waterlogging, simple past and past participle waterlogged)

waterlogs (present singular third-person)
waterlogging (participle present)
waterlogged (participle past)
waterlogged (past)

(transitive, nautical) To make (a boat) heavy and in danger of sinking by flooding it with water.


waterlogged

en-adj

waterlogged (comparative more waterlogged, superlative most waterlogged)

more waterlogged (comparative)
most waterlogged (superlative)

(nautical) in danger of sinking because of excess water onboard


blink

en-noun

blink (countable and uncountable, plural blinks)

From Middle English blynken, blenken, from Old English blincan (suggested by causative verb blenċan (“to deceive”); > English blench), from Proto-Germanic *blinkaną, a variant of *blīkaną (“to gleam, shine”).
Cognate with Dutch blinken (“to glitter, shine”), German blinken (“to flash, blink”), Danish blinke (“to flash, twinkle, wink, blink”), Swedish blinka (“to flash, blink, twinkle, wink, blink”). Related to blank, blick, blike, bleak.

cog

(nautical) The dazzling whiteness about the horizon caused by the reflection of light from fields of ice at sea; iceblink


bireme

(historical, nautical) An ancient galley having two banks of oars, one above the other.


bilge pump

(nautical) A small pump fitted in ships and boats to pump the bilges clear of water.


bill of lading

But all the while Captain Amos Brown was telling whackers that would have done credit to Baron Munchausen, he was really thinking of how he was to save those whose passage to a port not named in any bills of lading looked almost certain.

1908, Morley Roberts, “The Captain of the Ullswater”, in The Blue Peter:

(shipping) A document issued by a carrier (e.g. master of a ship or the ship owner's agent) to a shipper listing a ship's cargo, acknowledging receipt of said cargo, and specifying terms for its delivery.


bitts

From Middle English, probably of Low German or North Germanic origin, and the English form a corruption or contraction, from Old Norse biti, probably ultimately from a variant of Proto-Germanic *bitiz. Compare Swedish beting and Danish beding.

(nautical, plural only) A frame composed of two strong oak timbers (bitt-heads) fixed vertically in the fore part of a ship, bolted to the deck beams to which are secured the cables when the ship rides to anchor


bitter end

The figurative usage is influenced by bitter (“unpleasant, arduous”).

pay out a rope to the bitter end (pay out all of the rope)

(nautical) That part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor.

étalingure

that part of an anchor cable which is abaft the bitts and thus remains inboard when a ship is riding at anchor

(nautical) The final six fathoms (11 m) of anchor chain before the point of attachment in the chain locker of modern US naval vessels.


binnacle

Corruption of earlier bittacle, from French habitacle. Or from obsolete Spanish or Portuguese bitácula, both from Late Latin habitāculum (“little dwelling place”). Compare modern Spanish bitácora.

der

The lamp, or candle, which lights the binnacle, is placed in the cabin, of course the expence of one light is saved, and all the inconveniences of blowing out in a squally night, and likewise the trouble of trimming the lamp, are avoided.

1811, The Tradesman, volume 7, page 420:

(nautical) The wooden housing for a ship's compass, with its corrector magnets and illuminating arrangements. The log and other equipment for measuring the ship's speed are also stowed there.

bitàcola

(nautical) the wooden housing for a ship's compass


run afoul of

en-verb

run afoul of (third-person singular simple present runs afoul of, present participle running afoul of, simple past ran afoul of, past participle run afoul of)

runs afoul of (present singular third-person)
running afoul of (participle present)
ran afoul of (past)
run afoul of (participle past)

(nautical) To become entangled in; to run aground on.


weigh anchor

weigh anchor (third-person singular simple present weighs anchor, present participle weighing anchor, simple past and past participle weighed anchor)

weighs anchor (present singular third-person)
weighing anchor (participle present)
weighed anchor (participle past)
weighed anchor (past)

1986, Ben Elton et al., Blackadder II, 3: "Potato"
- Aah-ahhh! You have a woman’s hand, milord! I’ll wager these dainty pinkies never weighed anchor in a storm.
- Well, you’re right there.

(nautical) To raise the anchor of a ship or boat prior to getting under way.


under way

(nautical, of a vessel) Moving through the water; not anchored, moored, aground, or beached.


tuck

From Middle English tuken, touken (“to torment, to stretch (cloth)”), from Old English tūcian (“to torment, vex”) and Middle Dutch tucken (“to tuck”), both from Proto-Germanic *teuh-, *teug- (“to draw, pull”) (compare also *tukkōną), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”). Akin to Old High German zucchen (“to snatch, tug”), zuchôn (“to jerk”), German Low German tuken (“to tug, pluck, grab and pull towards”), Old English tēon (“to draw, pull, train”). Doublet of touch.

cog

(nautical) The afterpart of a ship, immediately under the stern or counter, where the ends of the bottom planks are collected and terminate by the tuck-rail.


coaming

From earlier coming, apparently from comb (“crest”) + -ing; however, exact origin uncertain.

(nautical) On a boat, the vertical side of above-deck structures, such as the coach roof, hatch, and cockpit.

luikhoofd

on a boat, the vertical side of the hatch


whipping

en-noun

whipping (countable and uncountable, plural whippings)

Never cut a line or leave the end of a line dangling loose without a whipping to prevent it from unlaying. A line without a whipping will unlay of its own accord. A frayed line is a painful sight to a good seaman. Whenever a line or hawser has to be cut, whippings should be put on first. Put one whipping on each side of the cut. To prevent fraying, a temporary or plain whipping can be put on with any type of cordage, even with rope yarn.

1999, Marine Crewman's Handbook: Field Manual 55-501, US Dept of the Army:

(nautical) The lashing of the end of a rope.


Windex

From a brand of mast-top wind indicator for sailing boats, derived from wind.

(sailing) An arrow-shaped indicator of wind direction installed in mast-top.


counter

From Old French contre, Anglo-Norman cuntre, both from Latin contra.

[ˈkʰaʊ̯.ɾ̃ɚ]

(nautical) The overhanging stern of a vessel above the waterline, below and somewhat forward of the stern proper.


there she blows

"There she blows! there! there! there! she blows! she blows!"
"Where-away?"
"On the lee-beam, about two miles off! a school of them!"

1851, Herman Melville, chapter 47, in Moby Dick:

(nautical) The traditional hail of the lookout in a whaler (whaling ship) when sighting the spouting water thrown up by a whale surfacing.


Blue Riband

The Norddeutscher Lloyd steamship Kronprinz Wilhelm left New York on May 3 [1904], at 3.10 p.m. and reached Plymouth Sound on May 9 at 8 a.m. This was then a very fast crossing of the Atlantic, but it was not the record. The same ship had held the "Blue Riband" in 1902, but had been slightly bested by the Kaiser Wilhelm II, a larger vessel of the same line, in 1903, and that stood as the record until the Cunard Line secured the honours in 1909 with the Mauretania and held them for an unbroken period of 20 years.

1944 July and August, Charles E. Lee, “The "City of Truro"”, in Railway Magazine, pages 201–202:

(nautical) A trophy for the fastest sea crossing of the Atlantic by a liner.


bluejacket

It never entered his mind that here was a matter which from its extreme questionableness, it was his duty as a loyal blue-jacket to report in the proper quarter.

1924, Herman Melville, chapter 13, in Billy Budd, London: Constable & Co.:

‘[…] I’m not sure’, she continued, ‘that I won’t throw myself overboard, for the mere pleasure of being rescued by a blue-jacket […]’

1928, Virginia Woolf, chapter 4, in Orlando: A Biography, London: The Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished as Orlando: A Biography (eBook no. 0200331h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg Australia, July 2015:

The Navy and the Indian tribes up and down the Coast took part in the races, the Navy rowing their heavy ship's boats round from Esquimalt Harbour, manned by blue-jackets, while smart little pinnaces “pip-pipped” along commanded by young midshipmen.

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

(nautical) A seaman of a British warship

[…] drift like tear-starting smoke across these exciting pages written by a bluejacket of the U.S. Navy.

1939, Fred J. Buenzle, Arthur Grove Day, Bluejacket: An Autobiography, page 12:

(nautical) An enlisted man in the US Navy.


boatswain's chair

boatswain's chair (plural boatswain's chairs)

(nautical) A short board or other seating, secured in a bridle of ropes, used to hoist a man aloft or over the ship’s side for painting and similar work.

puosuntuoli

rope and board for painting side of ship


boatswain's pipe

boatswain's pipe (plural boatswain's pipes)

(nautical) A whistle, previously used by boatswain's mates to pipe orders throughout a ship; now used for the ceremonial piping onboard of visiting dignitaries.

Bootsmannpfeife

a whistle, previously used by boatswain's mates to pipe orders throughout a ship


bobstay

Audio (US)

(nautical) A strong rope or chain rigging running from the end of the bowsprit to the ship's stem or cutwater.


bower anchor

(nautical) each of the two main anchors of a ship, carried permanently attached to their cables on each side of the bow, always ready to be let go in case of an emergency.


boot-topping

(nautical) The process of cleaning the upper part of a ship's underwater hull and daubing it with a protecting layer of antifouling substance.

(nautical) Any substance used for boot-topping, especially a mixture of tallow, sulphur or lime and rosin, which was commonly used to paint the bottoms of wooden ships, as a deterrent against weeds and barnacles, and to reduce friction.

(nautical) The paint of the part of the hull that is designed to be underwater.


stretcher

The jointed stretcher is used in place of the sectional bottom board, with two sideboards, one each side of stretcher. The boat set up this way only weights 20 pounds, and makes a very convenient boat for trout-fishing, duck-hunting, or exploring in ponds or streams where the paddle will do as well as the oars.

1884, J. W. Collins, Bulletin of the United States National Museum: Great International Fisheries Exhibition, page 703:

Directly the oar has been disengaged from the water, all pressure on the stretcher ceases, and the strain of the recovery of the body is eased by a slight pull with the feet on the straps of the stretcher.

1900, Alfred Edward Thomas Watson, The Young Sportsman, page 479:

Betwean each beam of the boat is also fastened a piece of timber called a stretcher or footspur, against which they place their feet when rowing, to enable them to have a more complete command of their oar.

1909, Samuel McSkimin, The History and Antiquities of the County of the Town of Carrickfergus, from the Earliest Records Till 1839, page 362:

Each rower's feet are set in shoes which are secured in the boat in a stretcher (or foot board) set into a fixed position to suit the length of the rower's legs.

2003, J. Alswang, The South African Dictionary of Sport, page 203:

[…] these seem to indicate a thwart, foot-timber (stretcher), thole-pin combination for rowing.

2014, Sean Mcgrail, Ancient Boats in North-West Europe, page 80:

(nautical) A board against which a rower places his feet.

jalkatuki

nautical: board against which a rower places his feet


boarding party

boarding party (plural boarding parties)

Enemy boarding parties on starboard decks Eight through Ten.

2001 November 15, Bungie, Halo: Combat Evolved, v1.0, Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox, level/area: The Pillar of Autumn:

(nautical) The group of sailors who were selected to board an enemy ship and, when in control, to make such repairs to rigging and sail that the ship could be taken to port as a prize


booby-hatch

(nautical) A small hatchway in the deck of a ship.


manhandle

en-verb

manhandle (third-person singular simple present manhandles, present participle manhandling, simple past and past participle manhandled)

manhandles (present singular third-person)
manhandling (participle present)
manhandled (participle past)
manhandled (past)

From Middle English manne-handlen, man handelen, equivalent to man (“male person”) + handle.

I see him—Tom—on horse-block standing,
Trumpet at mouth, thrown up all amain,
An elephant's bugle, vociferous demanding
Of topmen aloft in the hurricane of rain,
"Letting that sail there your faces flog?
Manhandle it, men, and you'll get the good grog!"

(transitive, nautical) To move something heavy by force of men, without aid of levers, pulleys, machine, or tackles.


blue peter

The flag, serving as a signal of recall for departure, was used by the British Navy from 1777, and the name “blue peter” had become common by the end of the 18th century. An all-blue flag had earlier seen use for the same purpose by the Dutch East India Company. While “blue” obviously refers to the dominant colour of the flag, the origin of the second part of the term, “peter”, is unknown. Often said to be a corruption of “blue repeater”, there is actually no signal flag that goes by that designation. The use of the flag to spell the letter “P” dates from 1857 and so cannot have played a role in the origin of the term.
The whist play, introduced by Lord Henry Bentinck, was named by him after the flag.

We lay out in the stream for another whole day, with the Blue Peter flying, to show that we were ready for sea, and to summon any passengers who might yet remain on shore.

1851, W.H.G. Kingston, Peter the Whaler:

If we clung as devotedly as some philosophers pretend we do to the abstract idea of life, or were half as frightened as they make out we are, for the subversive accident that ends it all, the trumpets might sound by the hour and no one would follow them into battle - the blue-peter might fly at the truck, but who would climb into a sea-going ship?

1881, Robert Louis Stevenson, Virginibus Puerisque:

(nautical) A blue signal flag with a white rectangle in the centre, signifying "P". When flown alone, indicates that a ship is ready to sail, requiring all crew members and passengers to return on board.


bowsprit

First attested in late 13th century. Probably borrowed from Middle Low German bochspret, from boch (“bow of a ship”) + spret (“pole”) (related to Old English spreot and English sprout).

(nautical) A spar projecting over the prow of a sailing vessel to provide the means of adding sail surface.


bowline

(nautical) A rope fastened near the middle of the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails.

(nautical) A knot tied so as to produce an eye or loop in the end of a rope that will not slip or jam.


boatswain

From Middle English botswain, botswein, bote-swayn, from late Old English bātsweġen, from bāt (“boat”) + sweġen (“swain”), the latter element a borrowing from Old Norse sveinn (“boy”); equivalent to boat + swain (“boy, servant”).

The officer (or warrant officer) in charge of sails, rigging, anchors, cables etc. and all work on deck of a sailing ship.


cruiser

(nautical, in the days of sail) A frigate or other vessel, detached from the fleet, to cruise independently in search of the enemy or its merchant ships.

(nautical) A class of fast warships of medium tonnage, having a long cruising range but less armour and firepower than a battleship.

(science fiction, by extension) A starship of comparable role

(nautical) A miniature aircraft carrier carrying VTOL aircraft.

(nautical) A passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are considered an essential part of the experience.

(nautical) Any of several yachts designed for cruising.


boarder

Sensors show inbound Covenant boarding craft. Stand by to repel boarders.

The captain shouted at the crew to grab arms and repel boarders.

(nautical) A sailor attacking an enemy ship by boarding her, or one repelling such attempts by an enemy.


hulk

From Middle English hulk, hulke, holke (“hut; shed for hogs; type of ship; husk, pod, shell; large, clumsy person; a giant”) (probably reinforced by
From Middle Dutch hulk, huelc, and Middle Low German hulk, holk, hollek (“freighter, cargo ship, barge”)), from Old English hulc (“light ship; heavy, clumsy ship; cabin, hovel, hut”), from Proto-West Germanic *huluk, *hulik, from Proto-Germanic *hulukaz, *hulikaz (“something hollowed or dug out, cavity”), equivalent to hole/hollow + -ock. Cognate with Old High German holcho (“cargo or transport ship, barge”) (whence Middle High German holche, modern German Holk), Old Norse hólkr (“metal tube, ring”), dialectal Norwegian holk, hylke (“wooden barrel”), Middle English holken (“to dig out, gouge”).
Relation to Medieval Latin hulcus (“ship”) is uncertain, as Old English may have borrowed from Latin or vice versa, but the form holcas rather points to borrowing from Ancient Greek ὁλκάς (holkás, “ship being towed; cargo ship, ship used for trading, holcad”) (compare
Ancient Greek ἕλκω (hélkō, “to drag”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *selk- (“to draw, pull”)). See more at the Old English entry hulc.
The verb is derived from the noun.

cog

Light boates ſaile ſwift, though greater hulkes draw deepe.

c. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, The Famous Historie of Troylus and Cresseid. […] (First Quarto), London: […] G[eorge] Eld for R[ichard] Bonian and H[enry] Walley, […], published 1609, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:

Their ſhips thus ſet on ſhore (to fruſtrate their deſire) / Thoſe Daniſh Hulkes became the food of Engliſh fire.

1612, Michael Drayton, “The Twelfth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Mathew Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, published 1613, →OCLC, page 197:

(archaic) A large ship used for transportation; (more generally) a large ship that is difficult to manoeuvre.

bakbeest

They could see the lighthouse shining on Quarantine Island, and the green lights on the old coal hulks.

1918 June, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, chapter 3, page 8:

A sister ship, originally the Patriotic, and later renamed Lady Leinster and finally the Lady Connaught, was badly damaged by a mine between Liverpool and Belfast; the British & Irish Steam Packet Company next brought [sic] the hulk back from the Belfast Steamship Company and converted her into a livestock carrier.

1946 March and April, “Notes and News: Anglo-Irish Steamship Fleets”, in Railway Magazine, page 118:

(by extension) A non-functional but floating ship, usually stripped of equipment and rigging, and often put to other uses such as accommodation or storage.


hulk

en-verb

hulk (third-person singular simple present hulks, present participle hulking, simple past and past participle hulked)

hulks (present singular third-person)
hulking (participle present)
hulked (participle past)
hulked (past)

In Fremantle very few vessels appear to have been reduced to hulks, and only one figure head Samuel Plimsoll, [Fig. 62] survives from a sailing ship hulked in 1904. [...] The Sarah Burnyeat was hulked in Albany in 1886, [...]

2003, Gordon de L. Marshall, Ships' Figure Heads in Australia, Tangee Publishing, →ISBN, page 52:

No further additions were made to this group, and by 1729 the Rank was extinct (the last to be struck was the Ludlow, which had been hulked in 1719).

2017, Rif Winfield, Stephen S Roberts, French Warships in the Age of Sail 1626–1786, Seaforth Publsihing, →ISBN, page 203:

To reduce (a ship) to a non-functional hulk.

To temporarily house (goods, people, etc.) in such a hulk.


bollard

From Middle English bollard, probably from Middle English bole (“tree trunk”), from Old Norse bolr (“stump, trunk”), equivalent to bole + -ard (pejorative or diminutive suffix).

af

Coordinate term: (smaller) cleat

Today he had for bollard the unfinished monument half-erected to some all but forgotten anarchist.

He sat on a bollard, looking out across the water, a man more small and shabby than expected.

(nautical) A strong vertical post of timber or iron, fixed to the ground and/or on the deck of a ship, to which the ship's mooring lines etc are secured.

bitte

as bitte used alone is a widely used slang word for penis


vice admiral

(nautical) A person holding a naval rank between rear admiral and full admiral.


tug

From Middle English tuggen, toggen, from Old English togian (“to draw, drag”), from Proto-West Germanic *togōn, from Proto-Germanic *tugōną (“to draw, tear”), from Proto-Indo-European *dewk- (“to pull”).
Cognate with Middle Low German togen (“to draw”), Middle High German zogen (“to pull, tear off”), Icelandic toga (“to pull, draw”). Related to tow.

cog

Shipping of every sort, from passenger liners to ferry steamers, tramps to tugs and trailing barges, feluccas to speedboats and yachts, from warships to caiques, chugs, hoots, glides or churns its way in all directions.

1950 July, J. C. Mertens, “By the "Taurus Express" to Baghdad”, in Railway Magazine, page 435:


punt

From Old English [Term?], from Latin pontō (“Gaulish flat-bottomed boat, pontoon”), from pons (“bridge”); readopted from Middle Low German punte (“ferry boat”) or Middle Dutch ponte (“ferry boat”) of the same origin.

der

(nautical) A pontoon; a narrow shallow boat propelled by a pole.


punt

en-verb

punt (third-person singular simple present punts, present participle punting, simple past and past participle punted)

punts (present singular third-person)
punting (participle present)
punted (participle past)
punted (past)

(nautical) To propel a punt or similar craft by means of a pole.


stool

en-noun

stool (countable and uncountable, plural stools)

From Middle English stool, stole, stol, from Old English stōl (“chair, seat, throne”), from Proto-West Germanic *stōl, from Proto-Germanic *stōlaz (“chair”) (compare West Frisian stoel, Dutch stoel, German Stuhl, Swedish/Norwegian/Danish stol, Finnish tuoli, Estonian tool), from Proto-Indo-European *stoh₂los (compare Lithuanian stálas, Russian стол (stol, “table”), Russian стул (stul, “chair”), Serbo-Croatian stol (“table”), Slovene stol (“chair”), Albanian kështallë (“crutch”), Ancient Greek στήλη (stḗlē, “block of stone used as a prop or buttress to a wall”)), from *steh₂- (“to stand”). More at stand.
The medical use derives from sense 2 (seat used for defecation).

cog

the fore backstay deadeyes and stool had to be lowered 2 feet

(nautical) A small channel on the side of a vessel, for the deadeyes of the backstays.


tackle

en-noun

tackle (countable and uncountable, plural tackles)

From Middle English takel (“gear, apparatus”), from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German takel (“ship's rigging”), perhaps related to Middle Dutch taken (“to grasp, seize”). Akin to Danish takkel (“tackle”), Swedish tackel (“tackle”). More at take.

der

(nautical, slang, uncountable) Clothing.


brace abox

en-verb

brace abox (third-person singular simple present braces abox, present participle bracing abox, simple past and past participle braced abox)

braces abox (present singular third-person)
bracing abox (participle present)
braced abox (participle past)
braced abox (past)

(nautical, dated) To bring the foreyards flat aback to stop the ship.


brace by

brace by (third-person singular simple present braces by, present participle bracing by, simple past and past participle braced by)

braces by (present singular third-person)
bracing by (participle present)
braced by (participle past)
braced by (past)

(nautical) to bring the yards in opposite directions on different masts when doing certain maneuvers


brace about

brace about (third-person singular simple present braces about, present participle bracing about, simple past and past participle braced about)

braces about (present singular third-person)
bracing about (participle present)
braced about (participle past)
braced about (past)

(nautical) to brace the ship's yards on the opposite tack when going about


brace aback

brace aback (third-person singular simple present braces aback, present participle bracing aback, simple past and past participle braced aback)

braces aback (present singular third-person)
bracing aback (participle present)
braced aback (participle past)
braced aback (past)

(nautical) to bring the wind onto the forward side of the sails to slow the ship


brace sharp

brace sharp (third-person singular simple present braces sharp, present participle bracing sharp, simple past and past participle braced sharp)

braces sharp (present singular third-person)
bracing sharp (participle present)
braced sharp (participle past)
braced sharp (past)

(nautical) to bring the yards around to make the smallest possible angle with the fore and aft line when sailing close-hauled


brace in

brace in (third-person singular simple present braces in, present participle bracing in, simple past and past participle braced in)

braces in (present singular third-person)
bracing in (participle present)
braced in (participle past)
braced in (past)

(nautical) to bring the yards more square to the fore and aft line


brace of shakes

en-noun

brace of shakes (plural braces of shakes)

(nautical) The time taken for a sail to shake or shiver twice as a ship comes into the wind.


breeches buoy

(nautical) A ring lifebuoy, fitted with canvas breeches, rigged between ship and shore, for rescuing seamen when a ship is in danger of breaking up; also used for transferring people from ship to ship at sea.


box the compass

en-verb

box the compass (third-person singular simple present boxes the compass, present participle boxing the compass, simple past and past participle boxed the compass)

boxes the compass (present singular third-person)
boxing the compass (participle present)
boxed the compass (participle past)
boxed the compass (past)

While in the school-ships the boys would be instructed in the elements of an ordinary education, in addition to being taught to row, heave the lead, box the compass, go aloft, reef, steer, and work the guns.

I say it is south, for the country is more deserted there." "And I say east," said my patient. "I am for west," remarked the plain-clothes man. […] "And I am for north," said I […] "Come," cried the Inspector, laughing, "it's a very pretty diversity of opinion. We have boxed the compass among us."

1892, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb:

(nautical) To know, and demonstrate by reciting, the 32 points and quarter points of the magnetic compass from North or East, both clockwise and anticlockwise.


larboard

en-noun

larboard (usually uncountable, plural larboards)

From Middle English ladde-bord, latebord, most likely referring to the side of the ship on which cargo was loaded. Changed to larboard in the 16th century by association with starboard. (Texts from the 1500s have spellings like lerbord, leereboord, larboord, corresponding to how they spell sterbord, steereboord, starboord.)

[…] harder beset
And more endangered than when Argo passed
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks,
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned
Charybdis, and by th’ other whirlpool steered.

1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 2:

The boat made a sharp half-turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt.

1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Descent into the Maelström:

Suddenly the foremost Martian lowered his tube, and discharged a canister of the black gas at the ironclad. It hit her larboard side, and glanced off in an inky jet, that rolled away to seaward, an unfolding torrent of black smoke, from which the ironclad drove clear.

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

"It means to turn to larboard."

The schooner ploughed on Northerly for a minute longer, before tacking again to lay herself half a mile in advance of the nearer corvette, now up on their larboard quarter.

The Java, placing herself under the same canvas as her opponent, stood directly for her; and at 2 h. 10 m. P. M., when within half a mile, the Constitution opened a fire from her larboard guns, and a second broadside was discharged before the Java returned the fire from a position close upon the larboard-bow of her antagonist.

2012, Paul Harris Nicolas, Historical Record of the Royal Marine Forces:

This time an almost defeated sigh was heard from both the larboard and starboard gun crews. Even though the larboard gun crew was up first, the starboard crew had seen what was eventually to be their next target as well.

2014, Barry D. Boothe, INFIDEL: Don’t Tread On Me:

(archaic, nautical) The left side of a ship, looking from the stern forward to the bow; port side.


break ground

en-verb

break ground (third-person singular simple present breaks ground, present participle breaking ground, simple past broke ground, past participle broken ground)

breaks ground (present singular third-person)
breaking ground (participle present)
broke ground (past)
broken ground (participle past)

(nautical, of an anchor) To lift off the sea bottom when being weighed.


close-hauled

(nautical) with the sails trimmed as close to the wind as possible with all sails full and not shivering


brigantine

Attested 1525, for a small rowing vessel, from earlier brigandyns, from Middle French brigandin, probably from Italian brigante (“skirmisher, pirate, brigand”), from Latin brigō (“to fight”).

der

The Galles and thoſe pilling Briggandines,
That yeerely ſaile to the Uenetian goulfe,
And houer in the ſtraightes for Chriſtians wracke,
Shall lie at anchor in the Iſle Aſant.

c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act III, scene iii:

(nautical) a two-masted vessel, square-rigged on the foremast, but fore-and-aft-rigged mainsail with a square-rig above it on the mainmast.

brigantina

square-rigged foremast with main mast rigged fore-and-aft, sailing vessel


whiff

The noun is possibly:
* partly a variant of Middle English wef, weffe (“bad smell, stench, stink; exhalation; vapour; tendency of something to go bad (?)”) [and other forms], possibly a variant of either:
** waf, waif, waife (“odour, scent”), possibly from waven (“to move to and fro, sway, wave; to stray, wander; to move in a weaving manner; (figuratively) to hesitate, vacillate”), from Old English wafian (“to wave”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”); or
** wef (“a blow, stroke”), from weven (“to travel, wander; to move to and fro, flutter, waver; to blow something away, waft; to cause something to move; to fall; to cut deeply; to sever; to give up, yield; to give deference to; to avoid; to afflict, trouble; to beckon, signal”); further etymology uncertain, perhaps from Old English wefan (“to weave”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *webʰ- (“to braid, weave”)), or from wǣfan (see bewǣfan, ymbwǣfan); and
* partly onomatopoeic.
Noun sense 6 (“name of a number of flatfish”) is possibly derived from sense 1 (“brief, gentle breeze; a light gust of air”), sense 4 (“small quantity of cloud, smoke, vapour, etc.”), and other such senses.
The verb and adjective are derived from the noun. Verb sense 2.6 (“to catch fish by dragging a handline near the surface of the water from a moving boat”) is possibly derived from sense 1.1 (“to carry or convey (something) by, or as by, a whiff or puff of air”), sense 2.2 (“to be carried, or move as if carried, by a puff of air”), and other such senses.
The interjection is derived from noun sense 7.4 (“a sound like that of air passing through a small opening; a short or soft whistle”).

дъх

short inhalation or exhalation of breath

(nautical) An outrigged boat for one person propelled by oar.


breakwater

/ˈbɹeɪkˌwɔːtə/

From break + water. Compare Dutch breekwater (“breakwater”).

(nautical) A low bulkhead across the forecastle deck of a ship which diverts water breaking over the bows into the scuppers.


ware

en-verb

ware (third-person singular simple present wares, present participle waring, simple past and past participle wared)

wares (present singular third-person)
waring (participle present)
wared (participle past)
wared (past)


bull rope

(nautical) a rope used for hoisting a topmast or topgallant mast in a square-rigged ship; it is rove from the cap of the lower mast, through a sheave in the foot of the topmast and then back through a block on the lower masthead, with the hauling part led to the deck


broadside

Broadside! What fools to face our guns!

2007 September 25, Bungie, Halo 3, spoken by Rtas 'Vadum (Robert Davi), Microsoft Game Studios, Xbox 360, level/area: The Ark:

(nautical) One side of a ship above the water line; all the guns on one side of a warship; their simultaneous firing.

бордов залп

the simultaneous firing of all the guns on one side of a warship


bulkhead

Coordinate term: deckhead

(nautical) A vertical partition dividing the hull into separate compartments; often made watertight to prevent excessive flooding if the ship's hull is breached.