A Sea of Words

by Dean King

  joiner A craftsman who constructs things by joining pieces of wood and does finer work than a carpenter, such as the furniture and fittings of a ship.

  jolly A Navy nickname for a Royal MARINE.

  jolly boat A ship’s boat, smaller than a CUTTER, with a BLUFF BOW and a wide STERN, used chiefly for small work and usually HOISTED at the STERN of the vessel. See illustration, page 72.

  Jonah The name of a Hebrew prophet, the subject of the Book of Jonah. A person who brings bad luck.

  Jones, John Paul (1747-1792) The “Paul Jones” taunt of the British by the Americans refers to John Paul Jones, the American naval hero of the Revolutionary War. Jones’s raids on British warships earned him the French Merite Militaire, making him the only officer in the American armed services to be so decorated. Born in Scotland as John Paul, he apprenticed in ships sailing to America and adopted it as his new home, where he changed his name to John Paul Jones. He was loathed in Britain for attacking the ships of his native country and considered a pirate.

  Jones, Tom The boisterous hero of Henry Fielding’s novel The History of Tom Jones (1749).

  judas A small lattice or aperture in a door found in some old houses and in prison cells, through which a person can look without being noticed from the other side. A peep-hole.

  Judas-coloured Of the hair or beard, red, from the medieval belief that Judas Iscariot had red hair and a red beard.

  judas-hole See JUDAS.

  judicial combat A duel.

  judy A woman or girl, from the female character in Punch and Judy shows.

  jug To stew or boil in a jug or jar, especially a hare or rabbit.

  jumped-up Something of new and sudden self-importance, implying conceit or arrogance.

  junk An old or inferior CABLE or rope or old cable or rope material cut up into short lengths and used for making such things as FENDERS, REEF-POINTS, GASKETS, and OAKUM. Also, junk or jonk, a flat-bottomed native sailing vessel in China and the EAST INDIES having a square PROW, prominent STEM, and a full STERN, carrying LUG-SAILS frequently made of cane or bamboo mats, and using wooden anchors.

  Juno, H.M.S. The 32-gun FRIGATE, built on the Thames in 1780 and named for the goddess Juno, the wife of Jupiter, is probably best known for its amazing escape in the winter of 1794 when, her Captain, Samuel Hood, unaware that the British had left TOULON, sailed her into the French Republican-held port. The French did their best to conceal their identity and even caused the ship to run hard aground. However, the crew soon caught on to the deception and managed to maneuver into clear water. Although guns from the surrounding ships and the forts battled her, the Juno managed to gain the open sea and escape without a man lost.

  Jupiter, H.M.S. Named after the Roman supreme god of heaven and earth, this 50-gun fourth-rate ship was launched in 1778 and saw action at the Cape of Good Hope (see CAPE OF STORMS) in 1795. She was wrecked in 1808 at Vigo Bay on the Atlantic coast of Spain.

  jury-mast A temporary MAST put up in place of one that has been broken or carried away. Thus, jury FOREMAST, jury MAINMAST, etc.

  K

  kampong A malay village, consisting primarily of bamboo and wooden houses with thatched roofs.

  kapok A large tropical tree, Ceiba casearia. Silky, cottonlike fiber produced from the soft seed covering found within the tree’s fruit, used as stuffing for mattresses, cushions, and the like.

  kava An intoxicating drink made from the macerated (chewed, grated, or pounded) roots of the Polynesian shrub Piper methysticum.

  kedge or kedge anchor A small anchor with an iron or wooden stock used in MOORing to keep a ship steady and clear from her BOWER anchor while she rides in a harbor or river, particularly at the turn of the tide, when she might ride over her principal anchor, entangle the stock or FLUKES with her slack CABLE, and loosen the anchor from the ground. Also used in WARPing, a way of moving a ship from one part of a harbor to another by dropping the kedge anchor and pulling on the HAWSER, thus “kedging off.”

  kedgeree An Indian dish of rice boiled with split pulse (edible leguminous seeds such as peas, beans, or lentils), onions, eggs, butter, and condiments. Also, in Europe, a dish made of fish, boiled rice, eggs, and condiments.

  keel The principal piece of timber in a ship, usually first laid on the blocks in building, to which the STEM, STERNPOST, and ribs are attached. “By comparing the carcass of a ship to the skeleton of a human body,” explains Falconer’s, “the keel appears as the backbone, and the timbers as the ribs. Accordingly, the keel supports and unites the whole fabric.” Also, a prominent ridge along the breastbone of birds of the class Carinatae, at first cartilaginous but afterward becoming ossified.

  keelhaul To HAUL a person under the keel of a ship, either by lowering him on one side and pulling him across to the other side, or, in smaller vessels, lowering him at the BOWS and drawing him along under the keel to the STERN. Falconer’s describes it as “a punishment inflicted by the Dutch navy,” which suspends “the culprit by a rope from one YARDARM, with a weight of lead or iron upon his legs, to sink him to a competent depth, and having another rope fastened to him, leading under the ship’s bottom, and through a block at its opposite yardarm; he is then repeatedly and suddenly let fall into the sea, where, passing under the ship’s bottom, he is hoisted up, on the opposite side of the vessel, to the yardarm. As this extraordinary sentence is executed with a serenity of temper peculiar to the Dutch, the culprit is allowed sufficient intervals to recover the sense of pain.This punishment is supposed to have peculiar propriety in the depth of winter, whilst the flakes of ice are floating on the stream; and ... is continued till the culprit is almost suffocated for want of air, benumbed with the cold of the water, or stunned with the blows his head receives by striking the ship’s bottom.” The practice was largely abandoned in favor of punishment by the CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS at the beginning of the 18th century.

  keelson (pronounced “kelson”) A BAULK forming a sort of inner keel, placed inside the floor-timbers and bolted through the keel, which lay below them. Sister-keelsons were placed on the BILGES on either side of the keelson.

  Keith, Admiral George See ELPHINSTONE.

  Keith, Lady Hester Maria or Queeney (1762-1857) The eldest daughter of the 12 children born to Henry Thrale, a prosperous brewer, and the famous Mrs. THRALE. SAMUEL JOHNSON took on a great affection for the Thrales and, for some 16 years, was a regular visitor to their house, Streatham Park (about five miles south of London), where he wrote rhymes about Queeney as a child. Queeney married George ELPHINSTONE, Baron Keith, at Ramsgate on January 10, 1808. As the wife of the wealthy and prestigious Keith, she became prominent in London society. In the Aubrey-Maturin novels, Queeney plays the role of adoptive older sister to Aubrey. She helps raise him after his mother dies and then serves as one of his chief benefactors via her husband’s powerful influence.

  Kenites In the Bible, a nomadic tribe in the wilderness friendly to the Hebrews. Some scholars believe that they may have introduced the Israelites to the worship of Yahweh. The words Cain and Kenite share the same Hebrew root consonants, leading some to link the Kenites to the genealogy of Cain in the book of Genesis.

  Kerguelen Islands A group of desolate sub-Antarctic islands discovered and claimed for France by Yves Joseph Kerguelen-Tremarec in 1772. Kerguelen Island, the largest in the archipelago, is also known as Desolation Island. Although it appears that this is where the Leopard repairs in the novel Desolation Island, Aubrey denies it in The Thirteen Gun Salute.

  Kerr, Lord Mark (1776-1840) A naval officer who is best remembered for his pre- TRAFALGAR actions. While his FRIGATE H.M.S. Fisgard was refitting at GIBRALTAR in April 1805, he saw VILLENEUVE’S fleet of 11 warships leaving the Mediterranean and sailing out to the Atlantic. Taking quick action, he hired a BRIG and sent a LIEUTENANT to warn NELSON. Then he rushed Fisgard to sea and was able to warn CALDER’S SQUADRON as well as to get the information to Ireland and to London.

  kerseymere also “karsimir” A twilled, fine woolen cl
oth of a peculiar texture, one third of the warp being always above, and two thirds below each shoot of the weft.

  ketch A strongly built two-masted vessel, originally used primarily for coastal trading and adapted by the English, French, and Dutch navies during the Napoleonic wars to tend the fleets. Also, with the forward section largely open, the KETCH was perfect for the mounting of a large MORTAR and thus was much used by the English as a BOMB-vessel, or bomb-ketch. See illustration, page 58.

  kevel or range A frame made of two pieces of timber nailed to a ship’s side with two arms, or horns, to which certain ropes—the TACKS and SHEETS, or great ropes, which extend the bottoms of the MAINSAIL and FORESAIL—are secured.

  khat See QAT.

  kickshaw A fancy food dish. The term was primarily used contemptuously by the British for, say, dainty French cooking, as opposed to a hearty English dish. Something dainty or elegant but unsubstantial, a trifle or gewgaw.

  kid A small wooden tub used domestically, especially a sailor’s MESS-tub.

  killick An anchor once used by small craft consisting of a stone tied to a rope. Sailors’ slang for anchor.

  kingfisher A small European diving bird with a long cleft beak, bright plumage, and crested headfeathers, that feeds on fish and aquatic animals. Also, various birds of the same family.

  The kingfisher, of the family Alcedinidae {from Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1771)

  King Log A reference to the log that Jupiter, according to fable, made king over the frogs. Often used to signify inertness on the part of rulers.

  King’s Bench In full, King’s Bench Prison. A jail for debtors and criminals confined by authority of the supreme court at Westminster and other such courts.

  King’s hard bargain A worthless or incorrigible person.

  King’s malady, the A reference to the bouts of insanity suffered by King GEORGE III, now thought to have been caused by porphyria, an inborn error of the metabolism of hemoglobin.

  kip A common lodging-house or a bed in such a house. A bed in general.

  kipper To cure by cleaning, rubbing repeatedly with salt and pepper or other spice, and drying in the open air or in smoke. A kippered fish, as salmon or herring.

  kipping-ken A lodging-house.

  kite or flying kite A general name for sails above the TOPGALLANT sails, STUDDING-SAILS, and JIB-TOPSAILS set only in a light wind blowing on the STERN to maximize speed. Also, a bird of prey, a member of the hawk family, with long wings and usually a forked tail. About 30 species of kites are widely distributed over the warmer regions of the Old and New Worlds and are most commonly found near water or wetlands.

  kittiwake Any seagull of the genus Rissa, but refers primarily to the common species of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, which is a small gull with white plumage, black markings, and very long wings.

  klipspringer A small African antelope, Oreotragus oreotragus.

  knacker One who by profession buys old and useless horses and slaughters them for their hides and hoofs and for making dogfood. A “knacker’s yard” in seamen’s slang is a shipbreaker’s yard.

  knee A piece of timber shaped in a right angle, often naturally so, that is used to secure parts of a ship together, especially to connect the BEAMS and the timbers. A HANGING KNEE lies beneath and supports the ends of the deck beams; a lodging knee fastens the forward side of a ship’s beam to the ship’s side; and a bosom knee the afterside of the beam to the ship’s side. In smaller vessels, knees support the THWARTS.

  knighthead One of two large timbers in a vessel on each side of the upper STEM that support the BOWSPRIT, which is fixed between them. Formerly they were carved with a man’s head.

  Knights of Malta Members of the military religious order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, also called the Knights of St. John, of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, or of MALTA. The order grew out of an 11th-century pilgrim’s hospital in the Holy Land, where it grew rich and powerful. The order took Rhodes in 1310. Emperor Charles V gave the Knights the island of Malta in 1530, which they defended against the Turks. After the battle of LEPANTO (1571), the Knights ruled the island and engaged in hospital work until Napoleon took the island in 1798. The British took it from the French in 1800.

  knittel A small line made of yarn, used on board ship for various purposes.

  knob Slang for “head.”

  knocking-shop A brothel.

  knot A piece of knotted string fastened to the LOG-LINE, one of a series fixed at such intervals (every 47 feet 3 inches) that the number of them that run out while a 28-second sand-glass is running indicates the ship’s speed in nautical miles per hour, or “knots.” Hence, each of the divisions so marked on the log-line, as a measure of the rate of motion of the ship (or of a current).

  koala or koala bear An Australian arboreal marsupial mammal (Phascolarctos cinereus). Ashen-gray in color, small, clumsy, and somewhat similar in shape to a sloth, the koala feeds on eucalyptus leaves.

  koekje Cookie, from the Dutch koek, “cake.”

  Korah The third son of Esau by his wife Aholibamah. Born in Canaan, Korah became a chief of an Edomite tribe (Gen. 36:18).

  Kraken A mythical sea monster of enormous size, sometimes represented as a giant octopus or squid, said to have been seen at times off the coasts of Norway and Sweden.

  kree A MALAY dagger.

  kris A MALAY dagger with a wavy blade.

  Krishna The name of a Hindu deity or hero. The worship of or belief in Krishna.

  Kyrie eleison In Latin, from Greek, “Lord, have mercy.” The words of a short petition used in various offices of the Eastern and Roman churches, especially at the start of the Mass; in the Anglican service, represented by the words “Lord, have mercy upon us” in the Response to the Commandments during Communion Service. These words set to music, especially as the first movement of a Mass.

  L

  La bêtise c’est de vouloir conclure The absurd thing is the desire to come to a conclusion (French).

  lachrymation The shedding of tears, weeping.

  Laconical helot In ancient Sparta a serf, originally from the town of Helos, ranking in social status between an ordinary slave and a free citizen.

  lacuna In a text, a hiatus, a blank or missing portion. In physical science, a gap, an empty space, a cavity.

  Lady-Day A day given to celebrating an event in the life of the Virgin Mary.

  Lady Jersey See JERSEY, FRANCES.

  lady’s bedstraw A genus (Galium) of plants containing many species, with slender ascending stems, whorled or cruciate leaves, and small, clustered flowers.

  Laënnec, René-Théophile-Hyacinthe (1781-1826) Parisian physician who made extensive studies in which he correlated clinical findings with postmortem observations. He invented the stethoscope in 1816, although he did not publish its usefulness for another three years.

  La Forte Launched at Rochefort in 1795, she was, at the time, the largest FRIGATE ever built originally as a frigate. She was taken in the Indian Ocean by H.M.S. Sybille in 1799.

  la garce The bitch (French).

  La Hogue or La Hougue A bay on the east side of the Cotentin Peninsula on the northwest coast of France. Following the Battle of Barfleur in May 1692 during the Nine Years’ War (1689-1697), the main French fleet sought refuge here. Entering the bay on June 3, Vice-Admiral Sir George Rooke attacked the anchored fleet, destroying 12 French battleships. The actions at Barfleur and La Hogue were the most spectacular English victories at sea in the period.

  lakh One hundred thousand. Also, many.

  lambdoid suture Line of union between the occipital bone, over the back of the skull, and the two parietal bones, which lie over the major upper portion of the skull.

  Lammas Loaf Mass, August 1, which was celebrated in the early English Church with a harvest festival, involving the consecration of bread made from the first harvest of corn; also, the time of year in which Lammas occurs.

  lamprey A fish elongated like an eel, with no scales, a mouth like a sucker, po
uchlike gills, seven spiracles or apertures on each side of the head, and a fistula or opening on the top of the head.

  Lancaster, Duchy of Refers to the estates throughout England owned by the Crown since the Middle Ages and which are private property, not part of the Crown Estate. Part of this land is in London. See SAVOY, LIBERTIES OF THE.

  lancet A medical tool, usually having two sharp edges and a point like a lance, used for such purposes as letting blood and opening abscesses.

  landsman or landman In the Royal Navy, the RATE of a sailor with no naval training who performed basic tasks on board ship, chiefly HAULing and HOISTing. A landsman was paid less than an ABLE SEAMAN or ORDINARY SEAMAN.

  langouste The edible spiny lobster of Europe, which lacks the large pincers of the American lobster.

  langrage also langrel, langrace, or langridge A type of CASE-SHOT with jagged pieces of irregularly shaped iron and a wide pattern, favored by PRIVATEERS and especially useful in damaging RIGGING and sails and killing men on deck.

  lanyard A short piece of rope made fast to anything to secure it or to use as a handle. Used to secure SHROUDS and STAYS and for firing flintlock guns.

  lap To enwrap or swathe; to clothe; to bind up or tie around.

  lapis lazuli or lapis A semiprecious stone that is a complex silicate containing a bright azure sulphur. Also, the color of this mineral.