Dandy -- A cutter-rigged vessel with
lug-mizzen set on a jigger-mast.
Davits -- Iron cranes on vessels to which boats are
hoisted.
Deadeye -- A circular wooden block with three holes
in it without sheaves, through which a lanyard is rove
to set up standing rigging.
Dead wood -- Solid wood worked on top of the keel
forward and aft.
Depth of hold -- The height between the keelson and
the deck of a single decked vessel.
Displacement -- The quantity of water displaced by
a vessel, which in weight is always equal to her own
weight.
Dogvane -- A light vane made of bunting or feathers
to show the direction of the wind.
Dowse -- To lower a sail suddenly.
Downhaul -- A rope by which a sail is hauled
down.
Draught of water -- The depth of a vessel measured
from the under side of the keel to the load
waterline.
Earrings -- Ropes for fastening the corners
of the heads of sails to yards and for reefing.
Ease off -- To slacken a rope handsomely.
Eyelet holes -- Small holes worked in sails for
lacings or lashings to be rove through.
Eyes of the rigging -- Collars spliced in the ends
of shrouds to go over the masthead and also over the
deadeyes.
Fair leaders -- Holes in planks, etc., for
ropes to be rove through so that they lead fairly.
Fair wind -- A wind that permits a vessel to steer
her course without tacking.
Fall -- The hauling part of the rope of a
tackle.
False keel -- A timber bolted to the underside of
the keel proper.
Fathom -- A sea measure of six feet.
Fender -- A species of buffer made of wood, rope or
other material to hang chafing against a dock, or
another vessel.
Fid -- An iron or wooden bar to keep bowsprits and
topmasts in place; a conical wooden instrument used by
riggers and sailmakers.
Fish, To -- To strengthen a weak or repair a broken
spar by lashing another spar or batten to it.
Flare -- To project outwards; contrary to tumbling
home.
Flat aft -- When sheets are trimmed as close as
possible for effective windward work.
Floors -- The bottom timbers of a vessel.
Flowing sheet -- The sheet eased off to a fair
wind.
Flush decked -- Having neither poop nor
forecastle.
Foot -- The lower edge of a sail.
Forereach -- To sail faster through the water on a
wind than another vessel.
Freeboard -- That part of a ship's side above the
water.
Full and by -- To steer as close to the wind as
possible, while at the same time keeping the sails
full of wind.
Futtocks -- The timbers which join and butt above
the floors, called first, second and third
futtocks.
Gammon iron -- An iron hoop fitted to the
side of the stem, or on top of the stem, to receive
and hold the bowsprit.
Garboard -- The strake of plank next above the
keel, into which it is rabbeted and bolted.
Gripe, To -- A vessel gripes when she has a
tendency to come up in the wind and requires much
weather helm.
Gudgeons -- Metal straps with eyes secured to the
stern post, into which the pintles of the rudder are
fitted.
Gunwale -- The timber fitted over the timber heads
and fastened to the top strake.
Guys -- Ropes used to steady a spar or other
thing.
Gybe -- To let a fore-and-aft sail shift from one
side to the other when running before the wind. To let
a vessel go so much off the wind as to bring the wind
on the opposite quarter.
Half-mast high -- When a flag is hoisted
halfway up as a mark of respect to a person recently
dead.
Halyards -- Ropes for hoisting sails.
Handsomely -- Steadily; carefully.
Handy billy -- A watch tackle kept on deck for
getting a pull on sheets or halyards.
Hanks -- Rings or hooks for fastening the luffs of
sails to stays.
Hard down -- The order to put the tiller a-lee.
Hard up, the order to put the tiller a-weather.
Heave to -- To so trim a vessel's sails that she
does not move ahead.
Heel rope -- The rope by which a running bowsprit
is hauled out or a topmast lowered.
Hoist -- The length of the luff of a fore-and-aft
sail.
Horns -- The projections forming the jaws of gaffs
or booms.
Hounds -- The projections on a mast that support
the lower cap and rigging.
House -- To lower a topmast down within the
cap.
Inhaul -- The rope used to haul sails
inboard.
In irons -- The condition of a vessel head to wind
and with way lost, unable to pay off on one tack or
the other.
Irish pennants -- Loose ropes flying in the breeze
or dangling over the side.
Jackstay -- A rod of iron, a wooden
cleating, or a wire rope for sails or yards to travel
on; also a wire rope on the main boom to which the
foot of the sail is laced.
Jiggermast -- The mizzenmast of a yawl or
dandy.
Kentledge -- Pig iron used as ballast.
Lanyards -- Ropes rove through deadeyes by
which shrouds or stays are set up.
Leeboard -- An old-fashioned contrivance to check
leeway, still in use on some Dutch vessels and English
barges.
Load waterline -- The line of flotation when a
vessel is properly ballasted or laden.
Luff -- To come closer to the wind.
Make fast -- To belay a rope.
Masthead -- That part of the mast above the
hounds.
Mast hoops -- The hoops to which the luffs of fore
and aft sails are seized to secure the sails to the
masts.
Miss stays, To -- To fail in an attempt to
tack.
Mousing -- A yarn wound round a hook to prevent it
from becoming unhooked.
Near -- Very close to the wind.
Nip -- To nip a vessel is to sail her too close to
the wind.
On a wind -- Close hauled.
Outhaul -- A rope or tackle by which a sail is
hauled out on a spar.
Paddy's hurricane -- A dead calm.
Painter -- A rope spliced to a ring bolt in the bow
of a boat to make fast by.
Pay -- To pour hot pitch or marine glue into seams
after they are caulked.
Pintles -- The metal hooks by which rudders are
attached to the gudgeons.
Pole mast -- A mast without a topmast, but with a
long masthead above the hounds.
Put about -- To tack.
Raffee -- A square or triangular sail set
flying on the foretopmasts of schooners.
Rake -- To incline forward or aft from the
vertical, as raking mast, a raking sternpost, etc.
Reef band -- A strip of canvas sewn across a sail,
in which eyelet holes for the reef points are
worked.
Reef pendant -- A strong rope with a Matthew Walker
knot in one end. It is passed up through a hole in the
cleat on the boom, and then through the reef cringle
in the sail and down through the hole in the cleat on
the other side of the boom.
Reef points -- Short lengths of rope in sails to
tie up the part rolled up when reefing.
Reeve -- To pass a rope through a block or a hole
of any kind.
Roach -- The curved part of the foot of a sail.
Rockered keel -- A keel whose ends curve
upward.
Running bowsprit -- A bowsprit so fitted as to run
in or out and reef.
Serve -- To cover a rope with spunyarn.
Shake out a reef -- To untie the reef points and
set the sail.
Sheathing -- The copper or other metal nailed on
the bottom of a vessel.
Sheave -- The grooved wheel in a block or in the
sheave hole of a spar over which the rope passes.
Sheet -- The rope by which the clew of a sail is
secured.
Snotter -- An eye strop used to support the heel of
a sprit.
Spitfire jib -- The smallest storm jib.
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