G

The arm attached to the rock-shaft across the front of a beam engine, and to the pin of which…

A spar which projects abaft a mast, and to which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is bent. That…

A fore-and-aft sail set over a gaff, the foot of the former being spread by the spar.

(See Weather Gage, Lee Gage.)

To get to windward of another ship in sailing.

A ship sailing eastward meets the sun in his daily course, and in the circumnavigation of the…

The milky way; the luminous band, composed of millions of stars, stretching across the sky.

When the word is used without any qualification it signifies a violent wind.

(See Dutch Galiot.)

A Spanish ship of olden time, some of them of three decks and many guns.

Ornamental projections on the quarters of a vessel.

Same as Stern Ladder.

A flat-built vessel having one deck and being propelled by sails and oars. The place where the…

An imaginary ship bringing secret news to the ship's cook concerning the affairs of the ship,…

A galley having one mast and one sail, and propelled by 16 to 20 oars.

An armed rowing galley of large size peculiar to India.

A framework above the main deck on which spare spars and boats are secured. This frame is…

(See Gallows.)

The frame which supports the beam of a beam engine.

(See Gallows.)

(See Gallows.) SCHOONER YACHT UNDER WAY, SHOWING BALLOON JIB TOPSAIL SET. 1. Balloon Jib…

Iron having its surface covered with zinc. The iron is heated and treated to a bath of melted…

The rope or chain lashing which secures the heel of the bowsprit (obsolete.)

The iron band which secures the heel of the bowsprit.

A set of standing rigging is known as a gang of rigging.

A plank with cleats nailed across and used as a rough gangway from the vessel to the shore.…

A small cask in size between a breaker and a barrel. It is used for bringing water on board in…

(See Gang Board.)

The opening through the bulwarks for people to pass in and out of a vessel.

The steps from the gangway extending down along the side nearly to the vessel's water-line.…

A line reeving through a temporary single block hooked aloft. Also known as girtline.

The first line of planking next to the keel, being rabbetted to the latter.

That strake of the bottom which is wrought next the keel and rabbets therein.

A net in which provisions are kept, being triced up clear of the deck for safe keeping in…

A purchase rigged on the mainstay and used in getting in and hoisting out cargo. (See Clew…

A fishing boat of the Gulf of Persia.

(See Bracelets.)

Relates to the pad which is placed between the rings of the mushroom, and serves on account of…

That part of the plug where the gas check finds its place.

Material placed between flanges to make the joint tight.

Ropes employed to secure the square-sails to a yard, or the head-sails to the bowsprit and…

A valve used in a line of pipe. It has two faces and seats slightly wedge-shaped, the plane of…

A vessel is said to gather on another when she is overtaking her.

Said of a vessel when she commences to move through the water after leaving her anchorage, or…

A repeating machine-gun, named after its inventor, Dr. Gatling, of this country, and is also…

(See Gob Line.)

An instrument for registering pressures.

(See Gage.)

(See Cock.)

An apparatus consisting of a small glass tube, the ends of which are held water-tight in metal…

A vessel resembling a Chinese Junk, belonging to Anam.

The name applied collectively to the ropes, blocks, tackles, etc., of any particular spar,…

A contribution made by all parties concerned in a sea venture toward a loss which has been…

An assorted cargo such as is legalized for general transportation--gunpowder and explosives,…

A term applied to boilers consisting of coils of pipe in which steam is generated.

Referring to the earth; the motion or position of a heavenly body as viewed from the…

To divide; land surveying; the division of the earth's surface.

Also known as nautical and sea mile; the mean length of a minute of latitude; 6,082.66 feet.

The extremities of the earth's axis.

A branch of mathematics which investigates the measurement of surfaces, solids, angles and…

The science of conducting a ship by chart and compass from one port to another without…

A tapering piece of metal with a projection at each end to prevent the strap of a stub end…

The captain's particular boat.

The oarsmen belonging to the gig.

A sailor's name for anything he does not know the name of; also the name applied to a…

A pair of rings one of which swings within the other, their respective axles being at right…

To gimblet an anchor is to turn it around when it is hanging from the cathead or from the…

A block made entirely of metal.

Carvings and other fancy work about a vessel. Also applies to unsubstantial fittings on board…

To perform a task cautiously.

A form of brace used for supporting the top of the combustion chamber of a fire tube boiler.

A frapping for holding anything together.

The situation of a vessel when her cables are so taut, owing to either the wind or tide, that…

(See Gantline.)

To pursue.

An order to a boat's crew to begin pulling. Lay out on your oars means to pull with more force.

An order for all the oarsmen to pull in unison.

The ring in a stuffing box by which the packing is compressed and held in place.

A general name for the mercurial barometer and telescope.

A general name for the barometer, telescope and sand glass.

A valve, the chamber of which is globular, the valve proper being a disc whose plane is…

The lazarette is sometimes referred to as the glory hole.

A piece of canvas having an eyelet hole worked in it and sewed into the middle of a square…

A vessel goes about when she tacks.

A seaman's best suit of clothes.

Another name for the martingale back-rope.

A great circle chart, constructed by one Godfrey, making simple the operation of laying down…

A vessel goes free when she has a fair wind.

A vessel goes large when the wind is abaft the beam.

The moon's cycle is a period of 19 solar years, and after that the new and full moon occurs…

A rowing barge used on the canals of Venice.

Keeping the sails a little more full than in full-and-by.

A king of hook made of iron and fastened to the inner end of a boom having no jaws, also to…

When the clew of a course or topsail is hauled up and lashed to its yard the sail is said to…

Angles cut slopewise at one or both ends of cloths in sailmaking, so as to widen or increase…

Pieces of canvas cut on the bias and added to the sail.

Mechanism for controlling automatically the speed of an engine.

A coasting vessel of India.

The scale on the arc of an instrument of reflection.

The ordinary parallel ruler having one of its edges divided into degrees, and the other edge…

A weaving of fish line around a ring or the strop of a block. In the latter case it takes the…

The name given to a four-oar boat once the property of Peter the Great. It is preserved at St.…

A capsized reef or flat knot. A knot apt to be made by a novice in seamanship. (See engraving.)

A slippery hitch. SCHOONER YACHT UNDER WAY, SHOWING ALL PLAIN (WORKING) SAIL SET. 1.…

Small shot done up in a strong canvas bag and bound together by a cord network on the outside…

A small anchor having four arms. (See engraving) (See Grappling Irons.)

Four hooks radiating from a common shank; to the ring in the upper part of the latter a rope…

Iron bars on which the fuel is supported while being burned in a furnace.

Lattice-work platforms used to cover hatches; to take the place of bottom boards in a boat;…

To grave a vessel's bottom is to burn off the accumulation of marine growth.

(See Dry Dock.)

A carriage that will recoil up an inclined plane on firing and return to battery by its own…

The arc of a great circle is the true course between two places, and the length of the track…

Used by navigators for laying out great circle tracks. It is constructed on the Central or…

The act of sailing upon an arc of the great circle.

Lines trending east and west traced on charts, always concave to the equator, and which,…

The largest vessel ever built until the Celtic was constructed; designed by the great English…

A violent gale.

(See Grave.)

When a large body of water is shipped at one time it is called a green sea, taking the name…

The date for the meridian of Greenwich, either civil or astronomical.

The civil time for Greenwich represented on board ship by the chronometer regulated to the…

A name for a seaman's great coat.

(See Hand Grenade.)

(See Ocean Greyhounds.)

A small vessel of two masts belonging to Normandy.

A framing of heavy beams for the ship to rest on when the tide is out, so that her bottom may…

An anchor is said to grip when it holds.

When a vessel sailing close-hauled shows a tendency to come up to the wind against a weather…

A piece of elm timber that completes the lower part of the knee of the head and makes a finish…

The iron fastenings for securing large boats to the deck; bands of canvas with thimbles in…

The name given to the spirit-ration once served out to the crew on board men-of-war. (Now…

A ring formed of cotton-wicking, or similar material, put under the head of a bolt to prevent…

A ring made of a single strand of rope by laying it three times round. (See engraving.)

(See Tonnage.)

A vessel is said to take the ground when she goes ashore

This instrument consists of a lead made fast to the regular chip log-line and cast overboard,…

An almost continuous swell along shore owing to the shallowness of the water.

A term collectively applied to all the anchors, cables, anchor-purchases, etc.

The lowest tier of cargo in a vessel's hold.

Large pieces of timber laid across a dry-dock on which the blocks are placed.

Running aground accidentally, or putting the vessel on the beach for the purpose of repairing…

Large pieces of timber, generally defective, which are laid upon piles driven in the ground,…

To enlarge; to come into sight more and more; gradual development of an object.

A metal piece over a disc or flap valve to prevent it from leaving the seat too far.

The marines attached to a vessel or navy yard.

A picket boat among men of war, or for enforcing quarantine rules.

A picket boat.

A sort of cage surrounding the carved work on a vessel's stern as a protection.

A timber bolted on the outside of the covering board or plank-shear on wooden steam vessels…

A man-o'-war which looks after the marine affairs in a harbor, and is distinguished by a guard…

A Spanish gun boat mostly employed against smugglers.

(See Part V.)

A receiving ship at a navy yard or station from which men are drafted and paid off.

The metal braces bolted on the stern-post of a vessel, and through the eye in which the pintle…

The braces on the stern post on which the rudder hangs.

A hawser run out from the vessel to an object and secured for the purpose of hauling the…

The name applied to the rope which is dropped into a boat coming alongside of a vessel, and to…

A bar or plate on which the cross-head travels.

A fast rowing vessel of olden times. It is claimed by some writers that it derived its name…

A name once applied to a negro slave ship.

A great ocean current flowing out from the Gulf of Mexico through the Straits of Florida, and…

An Atlantic current. The trade winds blow the warm waters of the tropics into the Caribbean…

A support for a piece of ordnance, offering facilities for elevating, depressing and training…

(See Explosives.)

A deck on which cannon are carried below the spar deck.

The morning or evening gun.

All the tackles and implements belonging to the gun and carriage.

An alloy of about 85 parts of copper, 10 parts of tin, and 5 parts of zinc.

A bronze made of ninety parts of pure copper alloyed with ten parts of pure tin.

A contrivance employed for determining the roll of the vessel.

Iron chains or wire rope to pass about the chase of the gun, and used for hoisting guns on and…

A small vessel carrying one or more guns.

A fast vessel, carrying a moderate battery, and designed to prey upon the enemy's commerce.

A warrant officer, under whose special charge are the battery, magazines, small arms, ordnance…

The chief gunner's mate, gunner's mates, quarter gunners, armorer, and armorer's mate.

A petty officer of the second class, whose station is in the magazine when in action. The…

The science of managing ordnance.

A training ship for officers undergoing ordnance instruction.

(See Powder.)

An after-room found on old line-of-battle ships in which the midshipmen and ensigns lived. It…

The stern ports of the gunroom.

Heavy ordnance--mortars and howitzers not included. Breech-loading Guns. Guns in which the…

The distance that a projectile is thrown by a gun.

A purchase made of a length of rope and two single blocks.

A cargo boat of the Moluccas.

A chain employed in land surveying. It is 66 feet or four poles in length.

A scale on which numbers are laid down opposite their logarithms, and used for performing the…

An astronomical instrument for finding the hour of the day.

A flat rule two feet in length, having marked on one side scales of equal parts, chords,…

(Pronounced gun-nel.) The rail of a boat.

That horizontal plank which covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore-drifts.

A plate sometimes used in the construction of a boiler. It stands edgeways between two flat or…

A steadying rope. (See Jib-boom Guys.)

(See Jibe.)