The Glorious First Of June (Neville Burton: Worlds Apart Book 1)
Page 34
boucan – Strips of dried beef. The word is the base of the term “buccaneer”. Caribbean pirates-in-hiding would sustain themselves in the hills of Caribbean islands between forays by killing stray (or stolen) cattle and drying the meat for preservation.
bow – The front of a boat or ship. (The ‘pointy end’, to which the bowsprit is attached.) The center wooden beam up the very front of it, to which hull planks are attached, is the ‘stem’.
bower - A ships’ two biggest anchors (‘best-‘ and ‘small-‘), and their cables; carried at the bow.
bloody flux – A disease: dysentery. It is an intestinal disorder that might be caused by numerous infections, resulting in severe diarrhea with blood and mucus in the feces. The disease is accompanied by with fever and abdominal pain.
Blue Peter – A nickname for a signal flag, letter P (Square of blue with a white square inside it). It was flown in harbor to summon all ship’s crew aboard for departure.
braces - Those ropes of the ‘running rigging’ that were used to turn the yards from perpendicular to a ship’s keel to slanted – as needed for sailing closer to the wind. Square sails hang on the yards.
brail up – To raise the aft corners of a sail to cause it to stop drawing.
breastwork – (Not a navy thing): a land defense often being not much more than a berm of earth or rocks, possibly with sharpened stakes protruding from it, to give protection to soldiers behind.
broach - This disastrous event for a ship occurs when it turns sidewise to the waves in a storm, whether by human error or magnitude of weather. The next wave that strikes the ship on the side may capsize or flood it causing extreme damage and/or injury, and likely sinking.
burgoo – food; not a seaman’s favorite. Cheap and easy, so served often. Porridge or gruel of oatmeal.
cable – The anchor line. – OR - A measure of length = 200 yards.
capstan – A rotating machine with a vertical axle mounted through the deck. Above deck, men insert poles horizontally and walk in a circle to rotate it. Ropes (e.g. anchor cables) attached to it below decks are wound up on it to pull - to raise the anchor or sails to raise spars aloft.
careen – To set a boat on the beach at high tide. When the tide is out its bottom can be worked on.
catted / cathead – When something is tied to the cathead (e.g. – an anchor) it is ‘catted’. The catheads are beams that protrude sideways from the sides of the ship at the bow and used for jobs like raising the anchors without them hitting the hull.
Cat-o-nine-tails – ‘cat’: A whip with many knotted ends used to serve out punishment (ordered by number of lashes). In the navy, it was kept in a red baize bag.
collops – Bacon fried with eggs.
complete (verb) - “To complete” a ship is to finish everything necessary before going to sea; provisions, arms, men, etc., as: ‘HMS Swan was completing at Plymouth’.
commodore – The man in charge of a small group of ships (an admiral would command an entire fleet). He would almost always be a captain, and might be referred to by either word.
confused seas – A sea state in which wind-driven waves, often from distant storms, approach the ship from different directions simultaneously, usually making the motion very uncomfortable
cor – An English expression of annoyance or exasperation.
coxswain – ‘cox’n’: The man in charge of a small boat: its captain. He orders the men who row or sail it; a petty officer who commands the captain's gig or barge.
crinkum-crankum - Fancy-work.
cracking on - An expression meaning to raise all possible sail and make haste.
dead reckoning – A method of navigation in which a careful log of direction, speed and time are kept in order to calculate distance and location. It is made difficult by unknown currents and side-slip of the boat under different wind conditions.
demi-culverin – An old tern for a size of cannon: 9- pounder.
farthing – ¼ penny (essentially a ‘fourth-thing’) – see table on English money.
fathom – A measure normally used for depth, equal to six feet.
fiddle – A raised strip of wood around a surface (e.g. table or desk) that keeps objects from falling off when the ship heels (tilts). A fancy desk might have custom fiddles for items like inkwells.
filibusters – A 17th century term for French-biased pirates in the Caribbean.
forecastle - Usually pronounced ‘foc’s’l’. It is the foreward section of a ship where the crews quarters were. In most larger ships it was a raised area forward, the top of which is the foredeck.
fother – To cover a hole in the hull below the waterline by tying a sail or other canvas over it.
‘full and by’ – A sailing condition when the ship ss as close to the wind as she can get and the sails are drawing to the fullest. On a square-rigger this would require “bowlines”, which are sheets (ropes) from the forward bottom corner of the sail to a point forward (i.e. toward the bow).
glass – A word used consistently for three very different things: a telescope, the ship’s timing device, which was an hour-glass, and the barometer. As to timing, the [hour-] glass was reset to local time, if needed, at noon every day when sunsights were taken and the new navy day began. It was then turned every hour, at which time the log was heaved and, if in soundings – the lead line was employed. A ‘half glass’ is half an hour.
gratings – Rectangular wooden frames with criss-crossed wood strips that are used as hatch covers. (They must be covered with tarps if weather-proofing is needed.) Tipped up on end they were used as a place to tie a man for punishment: being lashed with a ‘cat-o-nine-tails’.
grig – An enthusiastic jokester.
groat – A coin of old Scottish money. It was originally 4 pence, but even in 1690 almost worthless.
gunwale – the top edge of a boat’s side. In ships the hull might extend up above the top deck in the waist and effectively act as a solid railing.
HMS - “His Majesty’s Ship”. Note that Swan (Volume 2) is not referred to thus, because the acronym was not officially used in the British Navy before 1789.
head - (see “beakhead”) The toilet on a ship.
heave / hove – To pull or push, as on a line. – OR - a ship can ‘heave to’, meaning adjust sails and rudder in a manner that causes to ship to stop forward motion and lie quietly in rough water. Hove is past tense, as ‘the ship is hove to.’ Also, come into view, as ‘the man hove into view’.
holystone – A lump of soft sandstone used to scrub decks to ensure the hard oak is smooth with no splinters. The deck is then sluiced with seawater, resulting in an almost whitewashed appearance.
idler – A sailor who always works the “day watch”. He would normally not stand night watch –e.g. Cook, carpenter, the boatswain and purser, sail maker and cooper and their mates.
Jonas – A person who brings bad luck aboard a superstitious ship.
Jesuit’s bark – A medicine used to fight malaria (or ague): a powder containing quinine made from the bark of the Cinchona tree that was pressed into large pills and dissolved in water. It was named for the Jesuits who “discovered it” from the natives and eventually produced in large quantity in Peru.
hounds – Protrusions high on a mast onto which blocks are hung for the halyards used to raise the yards.
langridge – cannon ammunition consisting of a tin can filled with angular pieces of iron to cut down men and damage rigging
larboard – The left side of a ship, opposite of ‘starboard’; (now replaced by the term ‘port’).
lay aft – A command meaning: “Go to the back of the ship,” or “Go find the captain on the quarterdeck or in his cabin” or “Go find the officer of the watch,” or similar.
league – 3 statute miles (as opposed to the much shorter distance of a cable, about 200 yards).
lead – (or lead-line): A short lead cylinder into the bottom of which a lump of tallow was set. It is affixed to the end of a
line knotted at fathoms and tossed over the side (heaved) to measure depth. The tallow picks up evidence of the bottom – shell, sand, pebbles, etc. as an aid to knowing where the ship is. Two different lengths of line were used: one of about 25 fathoms for shallow areas (in soundings) and one of about 100 fathoms for deeper.
Lombardsman - A pawn shop owner, the name tracing to the Lombard goldsmith-brokers in London.
lugger – A smaller ship equipped with lug sails. Lug sails are set on booms that are not symmetrical to the mast and may be turned and tightened in a manner that allows these built-for-speed boats to outrun and out-point any square-rigger. Not surprisingly, they were popular with pirates.
martingale – A permanent rope or cable attached near the waterline at the bow and at the tip of the bowsprit to prevent the bowsprit from breaking by opposing the upward forces of the forestays.
minion – An old term for a size of cannon that throws a 4-pound ball somewhat over 200 yards.
mizzen – The aftmost (rearmost) mast in a sailing ship, and its sails (e.g. Mizzen course)
money system, English – see appendix
monkey – A triangular metal device used to hold a stack of cannon balls (see ‘shot garland’).
neaped – An embarrassing situation for the captain (and dangerous if the enemy arrived) when his ship is stuck on land on a high tide that is unexpectedly lower than normal –The ship must wait for the next high tide to be freed.
ordinary – In addition to its normal meaning, a ship ‘in ordinary’ is out of service; “mothballed”. Also, a rating (rank) of seaman which is below ‘able seaman’ but above ‘landsman’ or ‘waister’
ostler – one who takes / cares for horses for those staying at an inn (or rich person’s house)
pease porridge – Food; a dish of boiled, mashed peas.
pederero – An old term for a swivel gun - a cannon small enough to be mounted on a swivel, often on a rail, that usually fired packs of small shot to mow down men.
pinnace – 8-oared ship’s boat, often able to fit a mast and sail
pipe – wine cask, also called a butt, equal to ½ tun (which was 240 gal, though it might vary)
poop – The upper aft deck of a ship under / beneath the mizzen sails.
poldavy – A coarse cloth material used by the British for sails or sacks (or for other uses aboard).
priddy – To organize and clean or shine up, as in “priddy the decks”.
pusser – The spoken version of the warrant officer’s title “Purser”. This man is the ships’ accountant and normally responsible for purchasing supplies. (See also – “slops”).
quion – a wedge used to manually (and quickly) adjust the elevation of a cannon
reave – To lace a rope though pulleys for whatever its function.
rundlet –small wine cask of about 18 gal = 1/14 tun (which was 240 gal., though it might vary)
rutter – A name for the earliest guides to coastal navigation, created and kept by a ship’s master. They contained the trade secrets of where a ship could set in close to shore, where to fish, how to avoid adverse currents (to beat the competition home), etc.
saker – An old term for a size of cannon: that throws a 6-pound ball about two hundred yards.
Sham Abraham – An expression meaning those who are happy just to look busy.
sheet / sheet home – Lines (ropes) to the bottom corners of a sail to control it / Sail pulled fully tight & cleated (or belayed).
shilling – A coin of old English money = 12 pennies, or pence. (See English money table)
shot garland – a tube of canvass hung by each cannon to hold its ammunition (cannon balls)
simoom – A dust storm of huge proportion that blows far out into the Atlantic from the Sahara Desert of Africa. Also known in Israel and Saudi Arabia.
skylarking – The game of “follow me if you can” as played by the young boys aboard tall-rigged ships. They would fearlessly climb and swing from rope to rope & mast to mast.
slime draught – medical term possibly peculiar to the navy at the time: some undefined potion to help the patient with sleep or stool softening
slops – (i.e. “The pusser’s slops”): Normally the term referred to ready-made clothes that were sold by the pusser to the ship’s sailors, but could include other supplies such as soap or tobacco, but not alcohol. From the older English term sloppes, meaning trousers.
smoke it – An expression meaning to discover a ruse or to understand.
soundings – Depth measurements. A ship is “in soundings” if it is shallow enough that the depth can be measured (usually with the short lead line).
spar – Any of the wooden components of the rigging: masts & booms.
speak – To enable the captains of ships at sea to converse via speaking trumpets, each ship would let its sails loose to stop and “speak” the other. They did not say ‘speak to’, just ‘speak’.
spike (a gun) – To hammer something into the barrel or touch-hole to render the gun unserviceable.
splice – A place where rope is joined to itself to repair it, extend it, or make a loop.
splice the main brace – Although this expression literally means to repair the rope used to rotate the main yard, its true meaning is to reward the entire crew by serving out an extra tot of rum.
starter / to start – A short piece of rope with a knotted end (makeshift whip) or a riding crop used to jolt a man into action. On many ships, used very frequently by the petty officers.
stem – See ‘bow’. Front vertical beam of the hull (Leading to the modern expression ‘stem to stern’).
stern – The aft (back) end of a boat.
starboard – The right side of a ship (facing forward). The opposite of ‘larboard’ (now ‘port’).
stroke oar – A person, not a thing: the oarsman in a small boat who controls the pace of rowing; the little boat’s ‘captain’.
stuns’l – Spoken form of studdingsails. (See sail illustration.)
supernumerary – An unofficial extra; a passenger, like a lieutenant being carried to his ship.
taffrail – The stern rail of the stern-most deck (the poop deck or quarterdeck, depending on the ship’s construction).
tompion – (pronounced ‘tompkin’): a wooden plug for the muzzle of a housed cannon that kept out rain, seawater, etc.
top hamper – The standing rigging & spars above the primary masts: topmasts and above.
truck – The very top of a mast, often being a decoration such as a painted ball above a block (pulley) that could be used to raise signal flags.
van – The front group of a line of ships or convoy, followed by the ‘center’ and the ‘rear’.
waist – The center (top deck) of a ship; the area of deck between the quarterdeck and forecastle.
waisters – Men who normally work in the waist at unskilled jobs; mostly hauling on the lines – sheets, halyards, braces, etc. Usually landsmen; untrained workers.
weather gage – In fighting sailing ships, the advantageous position of being upwind, from which the one with the weather gage can fall down on his enemy in any direction he chooses.
yards (yardarms) – Horizontal spars of a square-rigger’s rigging. They are attached to the masts with hoops that permit them to be rotated and raised or lowered for positioning the sails. The sails hang on the yards and are reefed or furled onto them.
zounds – An expression of exasperation (apparently often used by the real Captain Wright in 1690’s).
class="sharethis-inline-share-buttons">share