Shanghaied Glossary of Sailing Terms

Shanghaied is full of sailing terms that bring the ship to life. Browse the glossary below, or download a printable PDF to keep on hand while you read or listen.

Aback – wind filling the "back" side of a sail

Abaft or aft – toward the stern

Abeam – directly off the side of a ship

Aft deck – deck at the stern, aft of the aft mast

Aft mast – mast closest to the stern

Aloft – up in the rigging, on masts and yardarms

Astern – behind a ship

Atalanta – Greek goddess of the hunt, raised by a bear, known to be very fast

Baggy wrinkle – chafing gear made of old rope, looks like a bushy tail attached to rigging

Batten – n: thin wood slat that fits in a sleeve sewn in a sail, to stiffen the sail's shape

v: to tie down securely

Beam – middle and widest dimension of a boat or ship

Bells – system for keeping time on a ship in four-hour segments, ringing every half hour

Below – below the decks, inside the ship

Belaying pin – iron or wooden peg fitted into railing to tie lines to

Bilge – inside a ship where the hull meets the keel, the very bottom, where water collects

Binnacle – structure that supports the steering wheel and compass

Block and tackle – pulley; a rope between two pulleys is a tackle

Bone in her teeth – white wave at the bow of a ship sailing fast

Boom – spar at the bottom of a fore-and-aft rigged (not square-rigged) sail

Bosun – (short for boatswain) in charge of rigging and calling crew to duty

Bow – front end of a boat or ship (opposite of stern)

Bowsprit – beam that protrudes over the water from the bow of a ship

Brace – line used to control the horizontal movement of yardarms

Broach – when a ship turns sideways to wind and waves and rolls over far to one side

Bulwark – waist high wall and railing that surrounds a deck

Bulkhead – below deck partition or wall

Buntlines – lines used to haul up the body of a square sail to its yardarm

Careen – to intentionally beach a ship at high tide for the purpose of cleaning and scraping

its bottom during low tide and float her again at high tide

Cat-o'-nine-tails – short whip with nine sharp strands that extend a few feet beyond its

handle (stored in a leather bag between uses, thus the term "cat's out of the bag"

when someone was in trouble and going to be beaten)

Cathead – beam protruding from the side of the bow that suspends the anchor over the water

Chainplates – massive metal hardware on the hull that shrouds attach to

Cleat – piece of hardware around which ropes/lines are tied

Clew – lower corner of a square sail, aft corner of a fore-and-aft rigged sail

Clipper – three or four masted ship, square-rigged

Coming about – tacking upwind, the bow passing through the wind direction

Companionway – doorway or hatch and steps between above and below decks

Compass rose – circle showing the compass as a star pattern of four points (north, east, south

and west) or eight points (adding NE, SE, SW, NW) or sixteen points (i.e. SSW) or

thirty two points (i.e. north by east)

Cooper – maker of barrels

Course – lowest and biggest of the square sails; also the direction a ship sails

Crosstrees – wood structure that joins upper and lower masts and spreads shrouds for support

Davits – pair of curved posts with pulleys that can pivot and hang over a ship's side to raise

and lower a dinghy, skiff or longboat

Davy Jones – fiend who presides over the evil spirits at the bottom of the sea

Deadeye – block of wood through which lines are led to connect rigging

Dirty weather – stormy

Displacement – weight of a ship

Doldrums – areas of little wind on either side of the equator

Downwind – direction toward which the wind blows (opposite of upwind)

Draft – water depth required to float a vessel

Earing – short lines in the middle of a sail to tie reefed sail cloth to the boom, yardarm or itself

Eight bells – 12:00, 4:00 or 8:00 at the change of the watch

Fathom – six feet

First mate – or mate, or chief mate, second-in-command

Five bells – 2:30, 6:30 or 10:30 in a watch schedule

Flemish horse – short and separate footrope at the ends of the yardarms

Fo'csle – short for forecastle, the crew's cabin at the bow of a ship

Foot – bottom edge of a sail

Footrope – rope beneath a yardarm for sailors to stand on while furling, reefing or setting

squaresails

Fore and aft rigged – sail attached vertically at its forward edge to a stay or mast

Foredeck – deck at the bow, forward of the foremast

Foremast – forward mast, mast closest to the bow

Forward – toward the bow of a ship

Four bells – 2:00, 6:00 or 10:00 at the change of the watch

Fresh weather – windy, stormy weather (opposite of light weather)

Gaff rigged – fore-and-aft rigged sail with four edges and four corners, uppermost corner

supported by a spar

Gig – (or wherry) fast boat for rowing or sailing ashore (stored on a ship's deck)

Gimballed – balanced on rings and pivots to stay level while a ship pitches, tips and heels

Glass – telescope

Gooseneck – connection that secures a boom to a mast

Grog – drink of rum and water

Gudgeons – hinge-like hardware at the aft edge of the keel to which the rudder is attached

Gunnel – (short for gunwale) the edge of a boat or ship (including railing and bulwark)

Hailing port – where a ship is from, written below her name on the transom

Halyard – line used to raise sails or yardarms

Hard tack – very basic dried biscuit

Hawser – thick line or cable between a ship and an anchor or dock

Head to wind – steering straight into the wind

Heave to – turning the course upwind with the sails aback to stop the ship

Heeling – a ship's tipping or leaning to leeward when her sails are full

Helm – n: binnacle and steering wheel

v: to steer a boat or ship

Helmsman – person steering a boat or ship

Hike out – leaning over the edge of a small sailboat opposite the sail to balance weight against

the force in the sail and reduce heeling

Hold – space below decks for cargo

The Horn – Cape Horn, the southern tip of South America

Jack tar – nickname or slang for an experienced sailor (also "salty dog")

Jib – a staysail between the foremast and the bowsprit or foredeck

Jibe (or gybe) – to tack downwind, the stern passing through the wind direction

Knighthead – vertical timbers securing either side of the bowsprit

Larboard – dated term for the port side of a boat or ship

Lead line – weight on the end of a long string to measure depth

League – approximately 2.5 nautical miles

Lee shore – shore to leeward (downwind) of a ship or boat (therefore a danger)

Leeward – side of a ship opposite the windward side, the lower side when heeling

Lines – ropes; or the look of a vessel ("nice lines" = pretty and likely fast)

Listing – tipping to either side when in calm water and wind, not level

LOA – length overall (including bowsprit)

LOD – length on deck (excluding bowsprit)

Longboat – rowing/sailing boat lowered from ship for exploring and going ashore

LWL – length at the waterline

Luff – n: forward or leading edge of a fore-and-aft rigged sail

v: when a sail flaps in the wind (like a flag)

Make way – to keep moving through the water (enough to maintain steerage)

Make fast – to tie in place

Mainmast – middle and/or tallest mast

Marlinspike seamanship – craftsmanship with rope and twine (i.e. parceling, serving, whipping)

Man of war – navy ship equipped with cannons

Mast – vertical wooden spar to support rigging, yardarms and sails

Masthead – top of a mast

Mizzen – aft mast

Nautical mile – 1.15 statute miles, equal to one degree of latitude (app'x. 6000')

Noon sight – use of a sextant when the sun passes highest overhead to approximate longitude

Off her lines – ship listing or deeper in bow or stern

Oil skins – raincoats and rain pants made of oiled canvas

On her lines – ship sitting level in the water, not listing nor deeper in bow or stern

One bell – 12:30, 4:30 or 8:30 in the watch schedule

Overhead – ceiling

Painter – bow line of a small boat

Parceling – wrapping canvas strips tightly around and/or through a rope

Pintles – pins at the forward edge of a rudder, fit into the gudgeons for a hinge-like connection

Points of a compass – 32 divisions of the compass' circle recited by name (090 = east)

i.e. northeast, east by north, south-southwest, etc...)

Port – looking forward from the stern to the bow, the left side of a ship (also a harbor)

Quarter – aft corner of a ship forward of the stern and aft of the beam

Quarterdeck – ship's upper deck at the stern

Rail – see gunnel, also the railing at the gunnel

Ratlines – horizontal ropes lashed between the shrouds, used as a rope ladder

Rhumb line – shortest distance from a ship to its destination

Rigging – all lines, ropes, masts and spars that hoist, trim and hold masts and sails aloft

Rode – rope and/or chain or cable that connects a ship to its anchor

Round up – to turn the ship so it heads into the wind

Royal – square-rigged sail, high up, above the upper topgallant and below the skysail

Running rigging – lines and ropes that can be pulled to hoist and trim (pull in or let out) sails

"Sail ho" – shout that a sailing vessel has been sighted in the distance

Scrimshaw – illustration carved/scored and inked into a whale tooth

Scupper – hole in the gunnel and bulwark to let water drain off the deck

Second mate – officer third in command

Sea legs – being steady in stride and stance despite a ship's motion

Serving – binding twine around a rope to keep it from chafing

Set and strike – hoist a sail and take it back down

Seven bells – 3:30, 7:30, or 11:30 in a watch schedule

Sheet – line used to pull a fore-and-aft-rigged sail in or let it out to trim the sail

Shipway – slope on which a ship is built, down which it slides into the water when launched

Shot of chain – ninety feet

Shrouds – ropes and cables side to side that keep the masts standing

Six bells – 3:00, 7:00 or 11:00 in a watch schedule

Skiff – small rowing or sailing boat

Skysail – highest of the square-rigged sails (except sometimes topped by a moonsail)

Slew – to turn or slide uncontrollably in a direction

Sole – floor or deck

Son of a gun – if a woman visited a crewman aboard a navy ship, they might find privacy

between the cannons on the gundeck. Infers a natural born sailor was conceived there.

Spanker – lowest sail on the mizzen mast, fore-and-aft-rigged, usually gaff-rigged

Spar – general term for masts, yardarms (yards), booms, gaffs, sprits, etc...made of wood

Sprit – short for bowsprit

Square-rigged – sail with four sides and four corners attached horizontally to a yard arm

Standing rigging – stays and shrouds, not regularly trimmed, that keep the masts standing

Starboard – looking from the stern to the bow, the right-hand side of a boat or ship

Stays – ropes or cables fore and aft that keep the mast standing

Stays'l or staysail – fore and aft rigged sail with its luff attached to a stay

Stern – back end of a ship (opposite of bow)

Stoning – scrubbing the decks clean by sliding a pumice like stone back and forth on them

Stuns'l or studding sails – extra sails hoisted to extend beyond the ends of the yardarms

to Sweat a line – one end of a line is anchored in place, the other end is attached to what is

being pulled, pulling the middle of the line at a 90 degree angle to its length, as this

pull is released, any slack is taken up at the anchor point (called sweating because

as the strands squeeze tighter, water drips from them like sweat)

Tacking – changing course so the wind that was blowing over one side now blows over the

other side

Taffrail – upper part of the railing at the stern of a ship

Taffrail log – instrument towed astern that spins a meter to measure distance travelled

Tarring – painting a tar-like preservative on standing rigging

Tholepin – short vertical piece of wood, in pairs, along the edge of a rowboat to hold an oar

placed between them

Three bells – 1:30, 5:30 or 9:30 in a watch schedule

Topgallant – square-rigged sail above the topsails and below the royal

Topsails – upper and lower, square-rigged sail above the courses

Trade winds – continual east to west winds, located north and south of the doldrums

Transom – surface that is the stern of a boat or ship

Turks head – decorative knot wrapped around a tubular shape

Two bells – 1:00, 5:00 or 9:00 in a watch schedule

Upwind – toward the direction from which the wind blows

Watch schedule – middle watch: midnight to 4am;

morning watch: 4am to 8am;

forenoon watch: 8am to noon;

afternoon watch: noon to 4pm;

1st dog watch: 4pm to 6pm (off watch eats supper)

2nd dog watch: 6pm to 8pm (off watch eats supper)

first watch: 8pm to midnight

Weather gauge – area upwind or to windward of another ship

"Way-on" – motion through water (headway = moving forward, sternway = moving aft,

underway = not anchored or docked, can mean adrift

Weigh anchor – to raise the anchor to get underway

"Well down" – describes something beyond the horizon such that only the top is visible

"Where away" – asks where on the horizon an object is sighted relative to our ship's anatomy

(i.e. astern = behind us, abeam = off our side, ahead = directly in front of us,

off the port or starboard bow, off the port or starboard quarter...)

Windward – side of the ship that the wind is blowing over, the higher side when heeling

Yankee – big jib (to catch more wind when winds are light)

Yard, short for yardarm – horizontal beam on a mast from which a square sail hangs