A Sea of Words

by Dean King

  ticket-porter A member of a body of porters who were licensed, or ticketed, by the City of London to unpack, load, and transport goods being shipped through the port of London or public markets of the city. Originally called street-porters.

  tide-rip A rough patch of sea caused by opposing currents or by a rapid current passing over an uneven bottom.

  tie A rope by which a YARD is suspended and the BLOCK on the yard through which the tie passes. A knot of hair; a pigtail. Also, short for TIE-WIG.

  tier A coil. A row or layer. Also, a large rack for stowing CABLES, HAWSERS for the KEDGE, anchor gear, RUNNERS, and TACKLES.

  tierce A former measure of victuals in casks, equaling 280 pounds of salt beef or 260 pounds of pork until the early 19th century, when casks were made larger and the sizes were raised to 336 pounds and 300 pounds, respectively. As a measure of liquid capacity, equal to a third of a pipe (usually 42 gallons, but varying for different substances). A cask or vessel holding this quantity, usually of wine. Also, in fencing, the third of the eight parries in swordplay or the corresponding thrust.

  tierer A sailor who stows the CABLE in the TIER.

  tie-wig A wig with the hair gathered in back and tied with a ribbon.

  tiger-shark A large gray or brown man-eating shark common in warm seas around the world.

  tilbury A light, open two-wheeled carriage, fashionable in the early 19th century.

  till A small box, compartment, or drawer in a cabinet or chest of drawers used for storing valuables. A money-box in a store or bank.

  tiller A horizontal wooden bar attached to the head of the RUDDER and working as a lever in moving the rudder during steering.

  tiller-rope A rope leading from the TILLER-head to the wheel and used to steer a ship.

  time-bargain A contract for the purchase or sale of goods or stock at a stated price on a certain day. A stock-market transaction in which the profit or loss is determined by the difference between the prices of the stock on the day the deal is made and on the day it is executed.

  timenoguy (pronounced “timonoggy”) A rope fastened at one end to the fore-SHROUDs and at the other end to the anchor-stock on the bow to prevent the fore-SHEET from entangling any projection. More generally, a taut rope running between different parts of a vessel to prevent the sheet or TACK of a COURSE from fouling.

  timoneer A helmsman or steersman.

  tinamou Any of various South or Central American game birds of the family Tinamidae that resemble the partridge or quail.

  tincture A solution, usually in alcohol, of a medicinal substance, such as tincture of OPIUM (called LAUDANUM).

  tinker A usually itinerant mender of pots, kettles, and other metal household utensils. The low reputation of tinkers is manifested in such expressions as “to swear like a tinker,” “a tinker’s curse,” and “as drunk/quarrelsome as a tinker.”

  tint A taste, a touch, a trace.

  tip the go-by to To leave behind. Also, to give the slip to, elude; to dupe.

  tippet A long narrow slip of cloth attached to a hood, head-dress, or sleeve or worn loose, as a scarf. A cape or short cloak, usually of fur or wool, often with hanging ends; a long black stole worn by Anglican clergymen.

  Tippoo (or Tipu) Sahib (1749-1799) Sultan of Mysore. After his father, Hyder Ali, usurped the throne of Mysore, a region of southern India, in 1761, Tippoo and his father clung to the area, fighting the British and their allies in the Mysore wars. Known as the Tiger of the Mysore, Tippoo, whose men often dressed in tiger-striped garments, was a fierce and clever warrior but vain and cruel. In 1798, when Napoleon invaded Egypt, he reneged on a humiliating peace treaty he had signed six years earlier and went to war against his neighbors. Tippoo was killed by the British when they stormed the city of Seringapatam, his power center, in 1799.

  tipstaff An officer who carries a staff, as a sheriff’s officer, bailiff, or constable.

  Tir nan Og In Irish mythology, a land of eternal youth, an Irish version of Elysium.

  titivate To make small improvements to one’s appearance; to smarten or spruce up; to put the finishing touches to.

  titmouse Any of numerous small birds of the family Paridae, common in the northern hemisphere and related to the nuthatch but with longer tails.

  tizzy A sixpenny piece.

  toby The highway as the resort of robbers; also, highway robbery. The high toby was highway robbery by a mounted thief; also, the highway itself. The low toby was robbery by FOOTPADS.

  toddy The sap of various species of palm, especially the wild date, the coconut, and the palmyra, used as a beverage in tropical countries. Also, the liquor produced by its fermentation.

  toddy palm Any palm that yields TODDY.

  tog To clothe, to dress, especially in fine clothing; usually used with “up” or “out.”

  toggle A short pin of wood used to connect two ropes so that they can be disconnected quickly. In naval ships, the toggle was particularly useful in the TOPSAIL SHEETS and JEERS to secure the YARDS aloft in case the ropes were shot away.

  Tokay A rich, naturally sweet wine with an aromatic flavor, made near Tokaj, Hungary.

  tola A West African tree (Gossweilerodendron balsamiferum)

  Toledo A city in Castile, Spain, long famous for its manufacture of finely tempered sword blades.

  Tom Cox’s traverse The act of an artful dodger, all talk and no work, as in a sailor who goes “up one hatchway and down another” or takes “three turns round the LONG-BOAT and a pull at the SCUTTLE.”

  tompion (commonly pronounced “tompkin”) A disk of wood fit into the bore of a muzzle-loading gun and rammed home as a wad between the charge and the missile. The bottom plate of GRAPE-shot, which serves as a wad to the charge. Also, a block of wood fitting into the muzzle of a gun to keep out rain, seawater, and debris.

  Tom Tiddler’s ground A children’s game in which one of the players is Tom Tiddler, whose territory is marked by a line drawn on the ground, and the other players cross the line, yelling “We’re on Tom Tiddler’s ground, picking up gold and silver,” and try to avoid being caught by Tom Tiddler and having to take his place. Also, a place where money or another form of compensation is acquired readily. A disputed territory, a no-man’s-land between two states.

  tongs A curling-iron.

  top A platform at the head of each of the lower MASTS of a ship, serving to extend the TOPMAST SHROUDS, which help support the topmast. In early fighting ships, the platform, called the topcastle, was fenced with a rail, stocked with missiles, and used by archers during battle. Later, sharpshooters were stationed there.

  top-block A large BLOCK suspended below the CAP of the lower MAST, used to HOIST or lower TOPMASTS.

  top-chain A chain used to support the YARDS prior to an action to keep them from falling in case the rope SLINGS by which they were hung were shot away.

  tope To drink, especially to drink liquor excessively and habitually; to drink large amounts.

  topgallant The mast above the TOPMAST, also sometimes the YARD and sail set on it. Topgallant ROYAL was the early name for the royal, the fourth sail above the deck.

  topgallant sail The sail above the TOPSAIL and TOPGALLANT, usually the third sail above the deck.

  top-hamper Weight and encumbrance aloft, originally referring to a ship’s upper MASTS, sails, and RIGGING. Later, also, the burden above the hull.

  topi-wallah From the Hindi topizvala, “one who wears a hat,” the Indian name for a European.

  top-lantern A large lantern used on the after-part of a TOP for signaling.

  topmast The second MAST above the deck, fixed to the top of a lower mast and surmounted by the TOPGALLANT mast.

  top-maul A large hammer used to knock out the TOPMAST FID when striking a topmast and to beat down the EYES of the RIGGING on the mast, when rigging the SHROUDS.

  topmen or yardmen A ship’s most agile and best LOWER DECK seamen stationed in one of the tops to work the upper sails. Also, the sharpshooters stationed in
the tops during action.

  top off To fill up.

  top one’s boom To start off.

  top-rope A rope used to set or lower the TOPMAST.

  topsail A sail set above the COURSE, second above the deck, at one time the uppermost sail in a SQUARE-RIGGED vessel. In a FORE-AND-AFT-RIG, a sail set above the MAINSAIL.

  topside The upper deck of a ship. In shipbuilding, the upper part of a ship’s sides.

  torero In Spanish bullfighting, a matador or a member of his team.

  tormina Acute wringing and spasmodic pain in the intestines.

  torpedo fish The electric ray, a round-bodied, short-tailed fish of the family Torpedinidae, which has a pair of organs that produce a strong electric discharge. Also called cramp-fish, cramp-ray, numbfish.

  torrid zone The region lying between the TROPIC OF CANCER and the TROPIC OF CAPRICORN.

  Tory The name of a party in English politics. At the beginning of the 18th century, the name clearly defined a political viewpoint, but by the middle of the century this definition had disappeared, even though the names “Tory” and “Whig” persisted. By 1760, when GEORGE in came to the throne, politics turned on the King’s right and practice of choosing his own ministers. In this, there were no parties but only political factions composed of those currently in office, those currently out of office, and independents.

  In the declining years of George III’s reign, these factions had begun to coalesce into true political parties again, with members who slowly were beginning to share political beliefs. When this occurred, the party names began again to have some meaning. But the differences were not as clearly definable as they had been earlier or would become later, and there was often no clear-cut distinction between parties. When serious political issues arose, groups tended to split into factions. Less than half the members of Parliament could be identified as party members.

  A clear distinction between parties began to take shape over the French Revolutionary War. The younger William PITT and his supporters advocated intervention in the war, believing that the revolutionary dictatorship in Paris threatened every other state in Europe.

  During the period of the Aubrey-Maturin novels, Tories were generally those who upheld the rights and privileges of the established Church of England and the rights of the King to choose his own ministers, to veto legislation, to dissolve Parliament at his will, and to have an effective voice in government policy.

  Although he never labeled himself as such, William Pitt the younger and his followers were Tories. After his death in 1806, the Tories, or “the friends of Mr. Pitt,” as they were called, divided for lack of a generally accepted leader into six political subgroups, related in their views but separately led by Addington, Grenville, Canning, Perceval, Wellesley, and Castlereagh. See also WHIG.

  touchhole A vent in the BREECH of a firearm, through which the charge is ignited.

  Toulon France’s chief Mediterranean naval base and dockyard, which was involved in many skirmishes between the French and the British. In 1792, it was opened by French Royalists to forces under Admiral Samuel Hood, who commanded the British Mediterranean fleet, but Napoleon, then an artillery colonel, succeeded in driving them out in 1793. Re-established as a chief French naval base, Toulon was blockaded variously by JERVIS, NELSON, and COLLINGWOOD.

  tow A bundle of untwisted fibers.

  trabaccolo A one or two-masted medium-sized vessel used primarily for coastal trading and fishing in the Adriatic Sea from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It originated in Chioggia, near Venice.

  trace The straps used to attach the collar of a draft-animal to the crossbar of a carriage, coach, or other vehicle.

  trade winds or trades Winds that blow steadily in the same direction from about the 30th parallels on each side of the equator in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The trade winds are created as the hot air around the equator rises and cold air is drawn in from the north and south. Because the equator revolves faster than higher latitudes, and in an eastward direction, the air rushing in from the north and south effectively moves in a westward direction, northeast to southwest in the Northern Hemisphere and southeast to northwest in the Southern Hemisphere.

  Although the trades were frequently used by trading vessels in their long voyages, the origin of the term comes from a definition of trade meaning “track.” The trade winds are those that keep a fixed track.

  Trafalgar A cape on the southern coast of Spain, most famous for the great battle fought just to its northwest on October 21, 1805, between a British fleet (27 SHIPS OF THE LINE) commanded by Admiral Lord NELSON and a French and Spanish fleet (18 French and 15 Spanish ships of the line) under Admiral VILLENEUVE. The British victory followed Napoleon’s decision to attack Austria rather than to invade England and prevented the Franco-Spanish fleet from controlling the Mediterranean. The victory was made bittersweet by the death of Nelson, the Royal Navy’s greatest commander. Among the warrior’s many lucid and inspirational quotations is this from his instructions prior to the battle: “But, in case Signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no Captain can do very wrong if he places his Ship alongside that of an Enemy.” The British suffered 1,500 men killed or wounded and lost no ships. The Spanish and French suffered 14,000 killed or wounded and lost 18 vessels.

  trail one’s coat To try to pick a quarrel; to act provocatively (to drag one’s coattails so that another will step on them).

  train-tackle Used during action, a combination of pulleys hooked to an eye-bolt in the train (after-part) of a gun-carriage and to a ring-bolt in the deck to prevent the gun from running out of the port while it is being loaded.

  tramontana In Italy and its coastal area, any cold north wind coming down from the Alps; any cold wind sweeping down from the mountains.

  tranquillitas animi et indolentia corporis Peace of mind and indolence of body (Latin).

  Transactions More fully, Proceedings and the Philosophical Transactions, the publication of the ROYAL SOCIETY of London.

  transiens per medium illorum ibat Crossing through their midst he went (Latin).

  transom A CROSS-BEAM in the frame of a ship, especially the heavier transverse beams bolted to the STERNPOST and supporting the ends of the decks and the overhanging STERN and QUARTER GALLERIES. The cross-timer that connects the CHEEKS of each of a ship’s gun-carriages.

  transpierce To pierce through from one side to another, to penetrate.

  transport A vessel used to transport soldiers, military stores, or convicts, particularly overseas.

  Transport Board See “The Navy Board,” p. 5.

  Traskite A follower of John Trask, who in the early 17th century advocated the Christian observance of certain Jewish ceremonies, such as the Sabbath on the seventh day. The Traskites were forerunners of the Seventh-Day Baptists.

  travail de Benedictin Precise and painstaking work (French).

  traveller A ring, THIMBLE, or strap that “travels” or slides along a support.

  traverse-board A navigational device consisting of a circular board marked with eight holes radiating outward along each point of the compass. Every half hour of the four-hour WATCH a peg was placed into the hole that corresponded to the ship’s course. The record was used to help track the ship’s course during each watch.

  treacle A sweet syrup, molasses; treacle-crowdy is sweet porridge. Venice treacle is a medicine made with nearly 60 ingredients, the principal one being OPIUM.

  treat To discuss terms; to bargain, negotiate.

  tree A pole, post, stake, BEAM, or SPAR in a ship.

  treenail (pronounced “trennel”) A cylindrical pin of seasoned oak used in fastening a ship’s side and bottom planks to her timbers (ribs) and considered superior to spike-nails and bolts, which could rust, loosen, and rot the surrounding wood. Pounded by mallets into holes created by augers, the treenails—whose size was one inch in diameter for every 100 feet of a ship’s length—were sawed off flush and secured with wedges to prevent their splitting. />
  trend To run in a certain direction or follow a certain course, as a mountain range or river. To turn in a new direction; to incline; to shift.

  trepan A circular saw used in surgery for cutting out small pieces of bone from the skull. To operate on with a trepan.

  trepanning-iron A TREPHINE.

  trephine An improved trepan, with a transverse handle and a steel pin in the center for support.

  trestle-table A table made of a movable board or boards laid upon trestles, or braced supports.

  trestletrees or trestles Framing that holds the weight of the TOPMAST. Two short, strong parallel timbers fixed FORE-AND-AFT on opposite sides of the lower MASTHEAD to support the TOPMAST, the lower CROSSTREES, and the TOP, or similarly fixed at the topmast-head to support the topmast crosstrees and TOPGALLANT MAST.

  triangles Used by the military for punishment, tripods to which offenders were lashed for flogging.

  triangulation The use of a series of triangles to survey and map out a territory or region.

  trice or trice up To haul something up with a line. In a trice (in a single pull) means in an instant.

  trick A period of time during which a helmsman stands duty at the wheel.

  tricorn The early uniform regulations for the Navy did not mention head gear, but in practice, most officers wore a black tricorn hat. This was a hat with a large, soft brim that was gathered up in three flaps to form three angles. Officers wore the hat with one of the three angles to the front, the edges bound with gold braid and a cockade in the left upturned flap. The regulations first mentioned hats in 1795. From this time only Admirals wore gold-laced hats, and the hats started to be cocked with just two angles. At first the hat was worn with the flaps toward each shoulder. Later, Admirals exercised their prerogative to wear the hat with the points to the shoulders, leaving Captains and other officers to wear them with the points fore and aft.

  Trieste A seaport and Imperial Free City (1719-1891) in the northeastern corner of the Adriatic Sea on the north side of the Istrian Peninsula and one of the two principal bases of the Austrian Navy. It remained part of the Austrian Empire—except for two periods during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, when it was held by the French—until the end of World War I.