D

Capital letters representing the words dead reckoning.

A piece of timber that faces on to the poppets of the bilgeways, and crosses them diagonally,…

Knees to supply the place of hanging knees. Their side arms are brought up aslant or nearly to…

Strictly speaking the term "Dago" refers to the children of Spanish parents, born in the State…

A mail boat of the East Indies.

Same as a yawl.

A kind of pudding made by men-o'-war's men.

These are of two classes, namely, vertical and horizontal. In the former, the offshore…

A term applied to handcuffs.

Nights during which the moon does not shine.

When a fleet is cruising to and fro before an embargoed port it is said to be darning the…

A spray board sometimes placed in the bows of a steam launch to prevent the tops of waves…

A small, cylindrical vessel, open at the top. It is fitted with a piston, to the spindle of…

A small block at the end of the after-gaff, used for reeving the ensign halliards.

An old-fashioned navigating instrument for measuring altitudes.

A corruption of the word davit.

(See Davit Guy.)

A light wire rope secured in the outer eye on the side of each davit, and set taut on the rail…

(See Davit Guy.)

(See Davit Guy.)

Lengths of timber or iron having blocks shackled to, or sheaves in the upper ends, and which…

A title applied to a mythical sea devil, otherwise called Jimmy Squarefoot.

Infernal regions at the bottom of the sea where Davy Jones holds court.

The length of time occupied by a complete revolution of the earth on its axis. Some certain…

When two bodies fail to come into perfect contact, so that a small opening between them is…

Calculating the ship's position by dead reckoning.

(See Calm.)

The corresponding position of crank when the piston is at the end of its stroke.

A solid circular block without sheaves, but containing three holes through the flat, and a…

The broadest part of the ship--the midship bend.

When a merchant agrees to supply a full cargo but is unable to do so, the unfilled space…

Round thick glass windows in the side of the vessel. These panes are generally framed in…

The flat plate at the mouth of a furnace.

Finding the true track which the ship has made and the distance thereon by correcting the…

The rise of a ship's floor from a level.

A rope that does not reeve through any block or pass over any sheave.

The eddy of the wake under the vessel's counter.

A head wind. Wind dead ahead.

To impede a vessel's progress through the water. Dragging a sail or athwart-rigged spar after…

A name given to that timber or frame which has the greatest breadth and capacity in the ship,…

The eddy water which the ship draws after her at her seat or line of flotation in the water,…

That part of the basis of a ship's body forward and aft which is formed by solid pieces of…

The removal of the cap.

The platform laid upon the deck beams. The upper, main or spar deck extends the entire length…

Thick shapes of glass let into a hole cut in the deck for giving light below.

That portion of the vessel's cargo which is carried on the upper deck.

(See Horse.)

Shapes of heavy glass let in the deck to give light to the various parts of the vessel below.

The hole in the deck through which the cable leads.

A hand-pump used for washing down decks.

(See Stopper.)

A heavy double purchase used about decks for heavy work.

The angular distance of a heavenly body from the equinoctial, either north or south.

A vessel is so called when she has a poop and topgallant forecastle.

Meaning the same as blue water.

The lead attached to the deep-sea lead line and weighting from forty to eighty pounds. It is…

This line is 100 fathoms in length, and is marked as follows: At 10 fathoms with a tucked…

A seaman of the long voyage.

A degree is the 360th part of the circumference of a circle. Sixty minutes make one degree.

The valve in a pump which prevents the fluid from returning to the pump cylinder after being…

When a vessel is detained in port in loading or unloading beyond a limit specified in her…

The easting or westing made by a vessel. Parallel sailing is all departure. Also, to take…

The pole below the observer's horizon.

(See Dip of the Horizon.)

The height between the floor and the lower deck. This is one of the principal dimensions given…

An instrument used for sounding purposes, which registers the depth it descends to.

A vessel abandoned at sea.

A spar supported by guys, with a block at its upper end forming part of a tackle by which…

When a man is discharged from the service, or transferred from one vessel or station to…

The art of designing as distinguished from making a block model by the eye and building a boat…

In signing a charter party it is customary for a clause to be inserted to the effect that the…

A swift vessel employed in carrying despatches between men-o'-war situated at a distance from…

When an officer is relieved permanently from a certain duty he is said to be detached.

(See Explosives.)

A voluntary departure without necessity from the regular and usual course of the specific…

The deflection of the compass needle from the magnetic meridian owing to the attraction of the…

A card showing the 32 points of the compass, and having marked opposite each the error on that…

(See Uniform.) Division. A number of vessels of war detached from the main fleet. A division…

A strong iron hook used as a stopper for the cable.

The white fleecy cloud which often settles over Table Mountain at the Cape of Good Hope; it is…

A flat-bottom trading craft of India, of about 100 tons.

An Arab vessel of 150 to 250 tons.

A line cutting the body-plan diagonally from the timbers to the middle line. It is square…

A narrow plank, made to a line formed on the half-breadth plan, by taking the intersections of…

A manner of building boats in which the planking runs diagonally, the inside planks running in…

The figure of a compass printed on charts.

The distance through the centre of any object, from one circumference to another.

An ornamental knot made with the strands of a rope and used on man-ropes, etc. Diamond knots…

The arc of a meridian included between two parallels.

The arc of the equator included between two meridians.

The smallest boat carried by a vessel, and is used for all kinds of rough and dirty work.

A small fishing boat of Ireland.

When a heavenly body disappears below the horizon it is said to dip. Also after a heavenly…

Owing to the elevation of the eye of the observer above the surface of the earth the visible…

The angle formed with the horizontal by the dipping needle.

An instrument for measuring the true dip of the horizon.

The seven stars in the constellation of the Great Bear, and by means of which the location of…

One which has to be shifted to leeward of the mast each time the vessel is tacked.

An instrument which shows the direction in a verti a plane of the magnetic force of the earth.…

The act of lowering the national ensign (which is flown at the stern) and hoisting it again as…

Also disk. The face of the sun, moon, or planet.

A circular plate or wheel attached to the end of a shaft, and carrying crank-pin near its…

A flat, circular valve, one side of which covers a grated or annular opening. The valve moves…

Circulating water as it leaves the condenser, having absorbed heat from the exhaust steam.

When a vessel is unrigged--stripped of her spars and upper masts.

The state of a vessel when her masts have been carried away--gone over the side.

To remove a gun from its carriage.

A fast steaming vessel used in the navy for carrying dispatches to and from the commanding…

The weight of water displaced by the bottom and the sides of a vessel below the water line.…

The distance between any two points on the surface of a sphere is measured by an arc of a…

The distance of the stars is a subject which has naturally engaged the close attention of…

Distance Signals are sometimes used when it is impossible to distinguish the Code flags. The…

Colors hoisted upside down: guns fired, and fireworks set off promiscuously are all signals of…

A small bag used for the same purpose as a ditty box.

A small box with a hinge lid used by men-o'-war's men to keep sewing gear and such like in.

Relating to the day; performed in a day, as the diurnal revolution of the sun.

That part of a circle which is described by a heavenly body from its rising to its setting.

An instrument used in navigation for dividing lines, measuring distances on a chart, sweeping…

A fire by divisions.

A place where ships are loaded and unloaded; the water space between two wharves. (See Dry…

The act of placing a vessel in a dry dock. Also used in connection with making a vessel fast…

The title given to the cook on merchant vessels.

The documenting of vessels has reference to Registers. Enrollments, and Licenses which…

A short iron bar with a ring in one end and a shar? fang in the other; the latter being driven…

An iron implement used by shipwrights, having a fang at one or sometimes at each end, to be…

A shore particularly used in launching.

A piece of timber placed at the forward end of the launching ways to hold the ship until ready…

A kind of weather-cock generally made of bunting, for showing the direction of the wind.

(See Watch.)

A mess of dried peas boiled in a bag.

The small bight made in the leech-rope of a sail when it is reefed or made up.

Certain parts of the sea where calms prevail. They exist between the trade winds.

A post on a wharf (not a spile head) to which hawsers are made fast; a spar driven in the sand…

The lower spear-shaped ending of a martingale. Sometimes the dolphin striker and martingale…

(See Steam Dome.)

Coastwise and inland sailing.

Terms applied to the various auxiliaries. (See Auxiliaries.)

A flat-bottom, high-sided rowing boat used by fishermen; a flat-floor cargo boat used in the…

A trading vessel of Persia.

Twofold altitudes of a heavenly body employed in the solution of the same problem.

A block containing two sheaves.

An ornamental knot worked with the strands of a rope and used on man-ropes, etc. (See…

Two stars apparently so close together that to the naked eye they appear to touch.

(See Topgallant Sail.)

(See Topsail.)

A knot put on the end of a rope. (See engraving.)

A term applied to a man-o'-war having two gun decks.

Two balls connected by a short bar of metal.

When a double-deck ship is painted so as to show both rows of ports she is said to be…

To sail around or pass beyond a point of land.

Planking of ship's bottoms twice. It is sometimes done to new ships when the original planking…

To lower a sail; to put out a light; to cover with water.

A process of finding the latitude from two altitudes of the sun.

A small pin fast at one end in one of two adjacent pieces and snugly fitting in a hole in the…

A method of coaking by letting pieces into the solid, or uniting pieces together by tenons.

An order to put the helm to leeward so as to bring the vessel up to the wind.

Meaning the same as down anchor. The expression down killick is made use of at times by the…

A rope used for hauling down jibs, staysails and studding-sails.

A piece of canvas laced to the bonnet of a sail in the same manner, as the bonnet is laced to…

The flow of air through a furnace. Forced Draft. That created by supplying the furnace with…

A bag-net used for dragging the bottom for specimens or for lost articles. An instrument made…

A short link connecting the pins of two cranks attached to the adjacent ends of two shafts in…

To trail the anchor along the bottom by reason of the vessel having stern way on her. The…

Attachments to pipes or vessels, through which fluids can be led to waste.

Same as above.

The depth of water contained between the water's edge and the bottom of the keel, expressed in…

The drawing or design of the ship upon paper, describing the different parts, and from which…

The depth of water a ship displaces when she is afloat.

When a sail is distended by the wind it is said to draw; a vessel draws so many feet of water;…

The rope which runs along the leach of foresails, mainsails, and jibs, being spliced into the…

(See Fearnaught.)

A machine belonging to a mud-digger for scooping up in a great hod or tank the bottom of…

Displaying flags at the mastheads; also making a span of them from jib-boom end, over the…

The length of rope over and above that which is utilized. Also the set of a tide or current,…

(See Middle Point.)

A hand-lead resting on the bottom when the vessel is at anchor, the fore-and-aft trend of the…

A small steel bar used to drive out keys or wedges.

A hand-lead dropped over the side when at anchor to ascertain if the vessel is dragging by…

Those pieces in the sheer draught where the rails are cut off.

A modification of the Hotchkiss rapid-fire gun, the difference resting entirely in the breech…

A dummy shell of the same weight as the service shell.

To hit home a bolt, etc.: a ship drives when scudding before a gale, or drives to leeward when…

A term sometimes applied to the spanker. The name is derived from the large square sail which…

The foremost spur on the bilgeways, the heel of which is fayed to the foreside of the foremost…

A small craft used as a lighter in the West Indies.

The depth of a square-sail amidships from head to foot: applies to courses which do not hoist,…

To let go the anchor. To anchor the vessel.

The retrograde motion of a vessel: when a vessel goes back-wards through the water. (See Fall…

(See Fall Down.)

Working with an adze.

A small French sailing vessel trading between Channel ports and the Levant, from which latter…

(See Steam Drum.)

The same as Capstan Head: the top of the capstan where the bars are shipped.

The head of a capstan, formed of semi-circular pieces of elm, which, framed together, form the…

A state of decay in timber with white spungy veins, the most deceptive of any defect.

A name given to the ordinary thermometer. (See Wet Bulb.)

(See Compass.)

An artificial basin into which ships are floated, then the entrance to the basin closed by a…

A continuation inside of a boiler and above the water, of the main steam pipe.

A disease to which timber is subject, causing rapid decay.

To smooth or round a timber with an adze.

A term often applied to the cotton material of which a vessel's sails are made, but in reality…

The amount that a bar of metal one inch in area of cross section will have stretched at the…

A sailor's name for a favorite tobacco pipe.

A sea-pudding made from a paste of flour and water and boiled. Plum Duff is the above with the…

A boat hewn out of the trunk of a tree.

A piece of wood or other substance having the points of the compass painted thereon.

The line telescope of an octant or sextant. This tube has no glasses, and is employed simply…

A broad, flat-bottom trading boat used on the Arabian coast.

Loose wood and other material placed on the flooring for the cargo to rest on; also pieces of…

A Holland-built merchant vessel having a flat floor and rounded or pudding-shaped ribs, and…

(See Explosives.)

This term is somewhat of a misnomer, as the guns of these so-called dynamite vessels throw gun…