Glossaries › Nautical and sailing terms glossary
Nautical and sailing terms glossary page 7
Nautical and sailing terms explained in plain English. 1,057 words and meanings, most familiar first.
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| gantline noun | A line rigged to a mast; -- used in hoisting rigging; a girtline. |
| garboard noun | The board on a boat which attaches to the keel running fore and aft along the bottom. |
| ghoster noun | A very lightweight headsail. |
| gooseneck noun | The swivel connection on a sailboat located near the bottom of the mast that the boom attaches to. When a sailboat performs a tack or a jibe the gooseneck swings the boom from one side of the boat to the other. |
| groundswell noun | A broad undulation of the open ocean, often as the result of a distant disturbance. |
| grouser noun | A temporary pile driven into the bottom of a river to hold a boat in position; a spud. |
| gunkhole noun | A small cove, especially a small fishing community. |
| gunship noun | A ship equipped with heavy artillery. |
| halyard noun | A rope used to raise or lower a sail, flag, spar or yard. |
| harborage noun | A place for refuge for a vessel. |
| harbormaster noun | An official responsible for the enforcement of regulations in a port. |
| hardtack noun | A large, hard biscuit made from unleavened flour and water; formerly used as a long-term staple food aboard ships. |
| harpings noun | The front part of the wales of a vessel, around the bow and fastened to the stem; used to provide protection from the seas. |
| hawsehole noun | The hole through which a ship's anchor rope is passed. |
| hawser noun | A cable or heavy rope used to tow or moor a ship. |
| headrail noun | A railing, on a sailing ship, behind the figurehead. |
| headsail noun | Any sail (of a sailing vessel) set forward of the foremost mast. |
| headwind noun | A wind that blows directly against the course of a vehicle, like an aircraft, train, or ship. |
| heeling noun | An inclination to one side; a tilt. |
| heelpost noun | The post supporting the outer end of a propeller shaft. |
| hogged adjective | Broken or strained so as to have an upward curve between the ends. |
| hospitalman noun | A seaman who is also a hospital corpsman. |
| howker noun | A type of two-masted Dutch sailing vessel, weighing between 60 and 200 tons burthen. |
| hulled adjective | Having a hull. |
| hydrography noun | The scientific measurement and description of the physical features and conditions of navigable waters and the shoreline. |
| inhaul noun | A rope used to haul in the clew of a sail, or a jib boom |
| jackstay noun | A stay (rope, bar or batten), running along a ship's yard, to which is attached the head of a square sail. |
| jettage noun | Certain charges levied upon incoming vessels at a port. |
| jibhead noun | A piece of iron at the head of a jib (triangular staysail). |
| keckle verb | To wind rope or chains around (a cable etc.) to protect its surface from friction, abrasion, or ice. |
| kedge noun | A small anchor used for warping a vessel. |
| keelboat noun | Any sailboat having a keel (as opposed to a centerboard or daggerboard). |
| keelhaul verb | To punish by dragging under the keel of a ship. |
| keelhauling noun | The act by which a person is keelhauled. |
| keelson noun | A longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness. |
| kentledge noun | Weights (often scrap or pig iron) used as permanent ballast on ships. |
| kevel noun | A strong cleat to which large ropes are belayed. |
| kevil noun | A sturdy belaying-pin for the heavier cables of a ship. |
| knotter noun | A vessel capable of reaching a specified speed in knots. |
| landlubbing adjective | Unfamiliar with the sea or seamanship. |
| lazaret noun | A place at the front of the tweendecks of a merchant ship where provisions are stored. |
| leadsman noun | A sailor who takes soundings with a lead, measuring the depth of water. |
| leeboard noun | A board, or frame of planks, lowered over the side of a sailboat to lessen its leeway. |
| lightship noun | A vessel riding at anchor and displaying a light for the guidance of sailors, in a position where a fixed lighthouse structure would be impracticable. |
| lobscouse noun | A dish of meat stewed with vegetables and ship biscuit. |
| longboat noun | The largest and thus the most capable of boats carried on a ship. |
| loof noun | The after part of the bow of a ship where the sides begin to curve. |
| loxodrome noun | A line on a surface (such as the Earth) that cuts all meridians at a constant angle (but not a right angle) – on Earth, the path followed by a ship or aircraft that maintains a constant course by the compass. |
| magnetohydrodynamics noun | The study of the interaction of water with magnetic fields and its application |
| mainmast noun | The tallest mast of a sailing ship that has more than one mast; particularly a full-rigged ship. |
| mainsheet noun | The rope connected to and controlling the mainsail. |
| maintop noun | A platform at the top of a square-rigged vessel's mainmast; used for observation and for the attachment of rigging. |
| makefast noun | Something to which a vessel can be made fast or tied, such as a cleat, post or bollard. |
| manrope noun | Each of the ropes used in ascending the side of a sailing ship. |
| marl verb | To cover, as part of a rope, with marline, marking a peculiar hitch at each turn to prevent unwinding. |
| marline verb | To wind marline around. |
| mateship noun | The post of mate on a ship; a posting as mate. |
| messmate noun | An associate with whom one shares a mess (eating place) on a ship |
| middy noun | A midshipman |
| midwatch noun | A watch kept from midnight until four o'clock in the morning. |
| minesweeping noun | The detection and safe disposal of mines. |
| moonsail noun | A moonraker (sail). |
| mousing noun | A turn or lashing of spun yarn or small stuff, or a metallic clasp or fastening, uniting the point and shank of a hook to prevent its unhooking or straightening out. |
| northing noun | A distance traveled northward. |
| oarlock noun | A usually U-shaped device attached to the gunwale of a rowboat to hold the oars in place while rowing. |
| octant noun | An instrument for measuring angles, particularly of elevation. |
| orlop noun | The platform over the hold of a ship that makes up the fourth or lowest deck, hence in full called orlop deck, especially of a warship. |
| outhaul noun | A rope that is used to extend a sail along a spar |
| oysterman noun | A boat used to dredge for oysters |
| paravane noun | A device, stabilized with vanes, towed alongside a vessel such that the cable attaching it cuts the moorings of submerged mines. |
| parcelling noun | One of the long, narrow slips of canvas daubed with tar and wound about a rope like a bandage, before it is served; used also in mousing on the stays, etc. |
| parrel noun | A sliding loop of rope or metal, around the mast of a ship, to which a yard or gaff is fitted. |
| patamar noun | A sailing vessel resembling a grab, formerly used in the coasting trade of Bombay and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). |
| paulin noun | A tarpaulin. |
| pigstick noun | A staff that carries a flag or pennant above the mast of a sailboat. |
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| pilothouse noun | A wheelhouse. |
| pinnace noun | A light boat, traditionally propelled by sails, but sometimes a rowboat. Pinnaces are usually messenger boats, carrying messages among the larger ships of a fleet. |
| pratique noun | Permission to use a port given to a ship after compliance with quarantine or on conviction that she is free of contagious disease. |
| preventer noun | An arrangement, made with ropes and blocks, that prevents the boom of a sailing boat from performing a jibe. |
| quarterdeck noun | The aft part of the upper deck of a ship; normally reserved for officers |
| razee noun | An armed ship with its upper deck cut away, and thus reduced to the next inferior rate, such as a seventy-four cut down to a frigate. |
| reefable adjective | Of a sail: capable of being reefed. |
| reem verb | To open (the seams of a vessel's planking) for the purpose of calking them. |
| reeved adjective | Of a rope, passed through a hole, ring or pulley. |
| rerig verb | To rig again; to outfit a ship with new rigging. |
| roadstead noun | A partly sheltered anchorage; a stretch of water near the shore where vessels may ride at anchor, but with less protection than a harbour. |
| roband noun | A ropeband. |
| rowlock noun | A usually U-shaped pivot attached to the gunwale (outrigger in a sport boat) of a boat that supports and guides an oar, and provides a fulcrum for rowing; an oarlock (mostly US). |
| rudderpost noun | The shank of a rudder, having the blade at one end and the attachments for operating it at the other. |
| sailable adjective | Navigable |
| saltie noun | An ocean-going ship that enters the Great Lakes via the St. Lawrence Seaway. |
| salvagee noun | A free rope on a sailing ship (one that does not have a single dedicated purpose). |
| scantlings noun | The dimensions of the timbers of a ship |
| seacock noun | A valve in the hull of a vessel used to let in water, either to clean the bilges, flood a ballast tank, or scuttle the vessel |
| seamanship noun | Skill in, and knowledge of, the work of navigating, maintaining, and operating a vessel at sea. |
| seaworthiness noun | The property of a watercraft that makes it fit to go to sea. |
| shantyman noun | The sailor who sings the main line of a sea shanty (the other sailors singing the responses or choruses) |
| sheepshank noun | A type of knot which is useful for shortening a rope or taking up slack without cutting it. |
| sheers noun | Sheerlegs. |
| shikara noun | A type of small wooden boat |
| shipmate noun | A fellow sailor serving on the same ship as another. |
| shipowner noun | Someone who owns a ship. |
| skysail noun | The sail set next above the royal. |
| slatch noun | The loose part of a rope; slack. |
| slipway noun | A sloping surface, leading down to the shore or to a river, on which ships are built, repaired or stored and from which they are launched. |
| snotter noun | A rope going over a yardarm, used to bend a tripping line to, in sending down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war; also, the short line supporting the heel of the sprit in a small boat. |
| sonobuoy noun | A buoy that sends a radio signal when it detects the sound of underwater objects (such as submarines). |
| soogee verb | To clean with soogee. |
| southing noun | A distance traveled southward. |
| spiling noun | The edge-curve of a plank or of a strake in a vessel's hull. |
| spinnaker noun | A sail supplemental to the mainsail, especially a triangular one, used on yachts for running before the wind. |
| spitkit noun | A small submarine chaser. |
| sponson noun | A projection from the side of an aircraft, watercraft, or land vehicle. |
| sprit noun | A spar between mast and upper outer corner of a spritsail on sailing boats. |
| spritsail noun | A form of three- or four-sided fore-and-aft sail and its rig, supporting the leech of the sail by means of a sprit. |
| stabber noun | A small marlinespike. |
| staysail noun | A fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit or to another mast. |
| steerageway noun | The minimum speed of a ship, below which it does not answer the helm and cannot be steered. |
| steersman noun | One who steers a ship or other vessel; the helmsman. |
| steeve noun | The angle that a bowsprit makes with the horizon, or with the line of the vessel's keel. |
| stemson noun | A piece of curved timber bolted to the stem, keelson, and apron in a ship's frame near the bow. |
| sternpost noun | A timber or steel bar extending from the keel to the main deck at the stern of a vessel. |
| sternson noun | The end of a ship's keelson, to which the sternpost is bolted. |
| sternwards adverb | Towards the stern |
| sternway noun | A backwards motion of a vessel. |
| stokehold noun | A chamber where a ship's furnaces are stoked. |
| storeship noun | A vessel used to carry naval stores for a fleet, garrison, etc. |
| stunsail noun | Studding sail |
| tafferel noun | The flat upper part of a ship's stern above the transom, often decorated with carvings. |
| taffrail noun | The curved wooden top of the stern of a sailing man-of-war or East Indiaman, usually carved or decorated. |
| tailer noun | A worker on a yacht, responsible for furling and setting the sails. |
| timberhead noun | The top end of a timber, rising above the gunwale, and serving for belaying ropes, etc. |
| topsail noun | A sail or either of the two sails rigged just above the course sail and supported by the topmast on a square-rigged sailing ship. |
| trierarch noun | The captain of a trireme. |
| trysail noun | A small, strong triangular sail sometimes set in place of the mainsail in heavy weather. |
| turnbuckle noun | A link threaded on both ends of a short bar which is used to pull objects together. (FM 55-501) |
| turtled adjective | Capsized; turned upside-down in the water. |
| turtling noun | Turning turtle. |
| twinship noun | Either of a pair of ships of exactly the same design |
| umiak noun | A large, open boat made of skins stretched over a wooden frame that is propelled by paddles; used by the Eskimos for transportation. |
| unlay verb | To untwist. |
| unreeve verb | To withdraw or take out, as for example a rope from a block. |
| unrig verb | To remove the rigging from (a vessel, etc.). |
| unrigged adjective | Not rigged; not having the rigging up. |
| unship verb | To unload cargo from a ship or other vessel |
| unstayed adjective | Without stays. |
| upperworks noun | Superstructure |
| waister noun | A seaman stationed in the waist of a warship. |
| waterlog verb | To make (a boat) heavy and in danger of sinking by flooding it with water. |
| weatherly adjective | Able to sail close to the wind with little leeway. |
Meanings from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0). Sources