R

A groove cut in a piece of timber into which another timber is fitted.

A joint made by a groove, or channel, in a piece of timber cut for the purpose of receiving…

A rippling commotion of the water caused by a meeting of two tides, or from the tide flowing…

A sudden increase of speed of a marine engine due to the propeller being lifted wholly or…

Under this caption comes club-topsail, spinnaker, and all the balloon sails.

A long, narrow, and very light boat with outriggers for the oars to work in, used in racing,…

To seize two ropes together with turns of spun yarn, etc., so that they cannot move.

A length of wood containing a number of sheaves, and used as fairleaders.

A point from which rays of light or heat proceed; a point from which shooting stars diverge.

Half the diameter of a circle; distance from the centre to the circumference; the imaginary…

A bar secured at one end so as to turn around on a pin, and guiding a movable body in an arc.

The distance from the origin to the point. An imaginary line joining the centre of the sun and…

A base; a root; 10 is the radix of the common system of logarithms.

A sail in the shape of an equilateral triangle ?? which is sometimes set over the highest…

A floating shape manufactured out of spars, planks, barrels. etc.

A sort of bolt having its point jagged or barbed to make it hold the more securely.

The top edge of the bulwarks, called bulwark-rail.

(See Railways.)

Iron jack stays bolted under standing gaffs and used on steam vessels where booms are not…

(See Dressing Ship.)

As a vessel approaches an object its increasing elevation to the eye of the observer is called…

Heave and raise the dead is an old order given to the men at the windlass brakes, signifying…

The inclination of a vessel's masts from the perpendicular. A term sometimes applied to the…

To fire into a vessel in the direction of her length--in her fore-and-aft line

The overhanging of the stem or stern beyond a perpendicular with the keel, or any part or…

Raking a vessel is firing a shot so that it will plough through her in a fore-and-aft…

A vessel is said to be rakish when she presents, a saucy appearance--generally when her masts…

(See Marine Rams.)

A small rope used to determine the centre line of a vessel; also in mast-making to obtain a…

A small rope or line sometimes used for the purpose of forming the sheer or hang of the decks,…

A shot fired when the gun has an angle approaching 45 deg., which would give the utmost range.…

The distance from the muzzle of the gun to the point struck by the projectile.

When in sailing one vessel runs up close abeam of another she is said to range alongside.

The light carried on the after-part of steam vessels, elevated above the deck, and forming…

A length of cable overhauled so that when the anchor is let go it will fall to the bottom…

(See Relative Rank.)

Not quite close-hauled.

(See Guns.)

A method of drawing the great circle so as to find the course from one place to the other, and…

The act of marking by a mould on a piece of timber; or any marks made by a tool called a…

The class to which a vessel belongs--in the navy according to her tonnage and armament, and in…

(See Classification.)

The daily variation of a timepiece; to determine the running of a chronometer in respect to a…

No chronometer will run for any length of time without variation, consequently its deviation…

(See Uniform.)

The daily allowance of food served out on Government vessels to seamen and marines. Officers…

(See Horizon.)

A small tarred line used to rattle rigging. It is generally 18 threads.

Short lengths of ratline stuff seized and clove-hitched 14 inches apart across the shrouds,…

To seize and clove-hitch the ratlines across the rigging.

(See Canvas.)

A ship of war after being cut down so as to reduce her to the next inferior rate.

A vessel cut down or reduced by a deck.

(See Head Reach.)

(See Fore Reach and Head Reach.)

To learn by observation; to discover by signs or characters.

To observe the angular measure of an object as shown on the are of an instrument of reflection.

Observing the numerals indicated by the log hands, and which figures represent the number of…

Noting the hour, minute and second shown by a chronometer or other timepiece at a given…

An order to the crew to be prepared for tacking ship.

A line officer one rank lower than a vice-admiral and one rank higher than a commodore.

The confined space between two cylinders of a compound or triple expansion engine into which…

A man-o'-war, unfit for sea duty, stationed at a navy yard for recruiting seamen.

A process employed in compass adjusting. One observer is stationed on shore with a compass set…

The ship's latitude and longitude, by determined observations of the heavenly bodies, and by…

(See Hydraulic-recoil Carriage.)

To make one piece of work answer fair with the moulding or shape of the adjoining piece; and,…

A system of co-ordinates in which the axes are at right angles to each other.

A mixture of white lead and red lead used for various purposes. Some shipmasters fill up the…

This projectile is obsolete, and was once used for incendiary purposes.

(See Charge.)

Changing the form of an expression without changing its value; to change hours, minutes and…

The amount a bar of metal of one inch area of cross-section will be reduced in size at the…

To contract a sail is to reef it. Square sails are taken in upon the head, but fore-and-aft…

A band of canvas sewed across the sail in order to support the strain placed upon it by the…

Galvanized iron rings (called thimbles) spliced in the bolt rope on the leaches of square…

On a square sail a reef earing is a small line used to secure the reef cringle to the…

(See Flat Knot.)

A rope made fast in the reef cringle on the leach, and to which the reef tackle is hooked.

The short cordage on the reef bands used to tie up the sail in reefing. Reef points are often…

The tackle which holds the middle of the leach of a squaresail up to the yard in reefing. On a…

A familiar term by which a midshipman is designated.

(See Running Bowsprit.)

An iron used by caulkers to widen the seams of a wooden vessel before driving in the oakum.

A term used by caulkers for opening the seams of the planks, that the oakum may be more…

The large irons used by caulkers in opening the seams.

To reeve a rope is to pass the end of it through a block, dead-eye, bull's eye, or any…

The reflux of the tide has reference to its running out--a state of ebbing.

To reshape to its original form.

The instrument used in reforming.

Astronomically considered, refraction is the change of direction assumed by rays of light…

Races between sailing yachts and rowing boats.

A marine document issued to a vessel by the customs officials, permitting such vessel to…

A book issued by the Navy Department giving the names of the commissioned and warrant officers…

A Spanish treasure vessel.

An officer, petty officer, seaman, etc., belonging to the permanent military forces maintained…

A valve fitted to a circulating pump to permit a part of the water to return to the injection…

That part of a gun between the trunnions, and only applies to old-fashioned ordnance.

The relative rank between officers of the navy and army is as follows: Admiral with General;…

An automatic valve attached to a cylinder, pump or line of pipe, which opens when the pressure…

Tackles which are hooked to the tiller in a gale of wind, and by which the vessel may be…

A rope renders when it passes freely through any aperture, such as through a block.

The place appointed where several ships are to join company; also a name sometimes applied to…

Large open splits or shakes in timbers; particularly in plank, occasioned by its being exposed…

An astronomical instrument for reducing the error of imperfect graduation by repetition of the…

(See Naval Reserve.)

When a compass is adjusted the deviation is compensated as much as possible by the employment…

The refuse left in the gun after the charge has been exploded.

To pledge or sell sufficient of the ship's cargo to pay the bill for repairs upon the vessel…

This is also known as the age of the tide, and has reference to the interval between the…

The motion of the planets among the stars is eastward, but when they arrive in the quarter of…

The tubes placed in the wheel-house of a steamer which run to the engine-room and convey to…

Laws passed by a nation in order to derive an income from the duties for the support of the…

The apparatus for changing at will the distribution of steam to the engine to make it run…

The course of a heavenly body round a centre; the interval of time occupied by a heavenly body…

Also known as hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones. Currents of air within the limits of the…

A vertical circle intersecting the horizon; the track of a ship which sails constantly toward…

Which cuts all the meridians which it crosses at the same angle, forming a spiral which…

The courses of the ship, or the line shown on a chart which connects the place of departure…

The same with diagonal lines.

The longitudinal pieces of fir, about five inches square, nailed to the timbers of the square…

A name applied to the timbers of a vessel.

A vessel rides when she is at anchor. To ride the seas is to bow them. To ride out a gale is…

Casks which form the top tier in the vessel's hold. (See Part II.)

Interior timbers placed occasionally opposite to the principal ones, to which they are bolted,…

The rope rove through the holes in the upper end of the awning stanchions to secure the sides…

The bitts to which the anchor cables are secured.

Same as boat booms.

To ride down a halliard is to have the men go aloft and, grasping the rope, swing their feet…

An expression signifying that the man is to be punished by being kept at work and made as…

(See Anchor Light.)

A piece of ordnance having the inside of the barrel furrowed with spiral channels, which give…

To rig a vessel is to send the shrouds and stays over the masthead and set them up, send up…

A term applied collectively to all the ropes of a vessel. (See Fore Rigging. Main Rigging,…

(See Running Bowsprit.)

A room in which rigging is cut and made.

Watch tackle purchases used for setting up rigging.

A mat seized to standing rigging to take chafe.

An iron instrument on the principle of a carpenter's clamp, and used for pressing the two…

To put the helm amidships is to right it. When the deck of a vessel returns to a horizontal…

The distance of a heavenly body from the first point of Aires, considered in time eastward on…

The angle at the pole included between the meridian of the observer and the meridian passing…

Rope that is laid up with the sun; i. e., twisted from right to left.

Sailing on one of the four cardinal points (N. S. E. W.)

(See Screw Propeller.)

Calculations performed according to exact principle; precise; accurate; allowing no abatement.

The edge of the top.

The round iron at the upper end of an anchor shank.

A bolt having a ring through its eye.

The rope by which the end of the cable is lifted from the hawsehole to the anchor ring in…

A jib-headed sail, the foot of which sets on an additional boom rigged out on the end of the…

A tool used by caulkers for getting oakum out of a seam, or by sheathers in tearing the old…

The coming into view of a heavenly body over the horizon line; the mounting of a body in the…

A term derived from the shape of a ship's bottom in general, which gradually narrows or…

The floors forward and abaft, which on account of the rising of the body, are the most…

An elliptical line, drawn on the plan of elevation, to determine the sweep of the floor-heads…

One who robs vessels in port by sneaking alongside in a small boat and carrying off anything…

The curve on the foot of a square-sail. The roach of a fore-and-aft sail can be on any one or…

Same as Roadstead.

An anchorage more or less exposed.

Small pieces of Manilla or spun yarn used to secure the luff of a fore-and-aft sail to the…

An arm or lever attached to a shaft that vibrates only, receiving or transmitting motion from…

One that vibrates only, not making complete revolutions.

An old style of flat-bottom boat from which rockets were fired during a naval engagement with…

A pirate's flag.

(See Gaff.)

The rocking motion of a ship from side to side. (See Angle of Safety.)

That motion by which a ship vibrates from side to side. Rolling is therefore a sort of…

A kind of a three-part heaving-line bend. (See engraving.)

A rope used for steadying light yards, on the same principle as a rolling tackle.

Tackles used during a heavy sea for the purpose of steadying the yards.

(See Rowlocks.)

Old pieces of rope and junk in general.

The distance from the moulding edge of one timber to the moulding edge of the next timber,…

(See Right and Left-Handed Rope, Hawser-Laid Rope.)

An untwisted strand of rope used for rough seizings, etc.

The end part of a rope.

To inflict punishment by whipping a person with a rope's end.

Same as rose-lashing.

A lashing which is made by passing the parts alternately over and under, and finishing by…

A certain place in a navy yard in which wornout vessels are moored.

The original log, generally written in pencil.

The deck journal kept by the watch officers, the contents of which are copied daily into the…

A spar in the rough.

In men-of-war the broad plank running fore-and-aft covering the heads of the top timbers, thus…

To overhaul a tackle so as to allow the lower block to come down.

A house arranged for the convenience of the ship's company, situated near the bows.

To haul in a rope quickly. To round in a weather brace.

Three right-handed yarns used for heavy service, such as the eyes of rigging, heavy seizings,…

A flat-built vessel. (See Part II.)

A vessel having very little run and flat bottom.

A communication, or protest, signed by a number, and the signatures arranged in a circle,…

Put on the eyes of rigging, etc. (See engravings.)

To change the course so that from sailing free the vessel is brought by the wind.

A platform of circular shape at the lowermast heads.

To pass a rope entirely around anything.

To haul away on a tackle so as to bring the two blocks together.

Service placed on a rope or spar to take the chafe.

To pull and haul by main force without the aid of tackles. To rouse up an anchor is to lift it…

(See Ship's Routine.)

A series of established rules whereby the business on board ship may be carried out…

A pirate vessel; a pirate or freebooter.

Authority given a naval commander to cruise wherever he may desire.

Squares cut in the wash-boards of boats for the oars to rest in. Thole pins are often referred…

A square sail next above a topgallant sail. A ship carries fore, main and mizzen royals.

If it is a fidded royal mast it is a separate spar rising above the topgallant mast, but…

(See Royal Mast.)

The yard next above the topgallant yard. The royal is bent to the royal yard.

An instrument used by sailmakers to flatten the seams of a sail.

An instrument for steering a vessel, consisting of a flat frame of wood or iron hung upon the…

An iron band placed around the head of a wooden rudder.

The metal hinges on which the rudder turns, otherwise called gudgeons.

The casing built around the head of a rudder, sometimes called the well.

The chains by which the rudder is secured to the quarters of a vessel, and to save the rudder…

A piece of timber or anything employed to stop the motion and noise of the rudder when at…

An iron crutch bolted to the back of the rudder for attaching the rudder chains.

The name applied collectively to the pintles and gudgeons.

The continuation of the rudder chains leading to each quarter.

The hole in the counter in line with the stern post that the rudder head passes through, the…

Additional timbers secured to the forward and after sides of the main piece from the lower…

The main piece of the rudder.

Purchases hooked to the rudder chains and by which the ship is steered in the event of the…

(See Woodlock.)

Large pieces of fir, to fay or fill up the excavation on the side of the rudder in the rudder…

A low roll of the drum used in the ceremony of saluting officers of high rank when boarding or…

The laws regulating the government of vessels when under way so that collisions may be avoided…

To scud before a gale. That part of the ship which narrows in approaching the stern…

The narrowing of the ship abaft, as of the floor towards the stern-post, where it becomes no…

To sail along the coast.

To sail north or south until the desired parallel is reached, then heading either east or west…

To collide with a vessel head on.

To send a line out from the vessel. (See Warp.)

The upper ends of the floor timbers.

A rope rove through a single block that you wish to bring down, one end of the rope secured as…

A bowline made over the standing part of its own rope so that it will form a sliding noose.…

A bowsprit fitted so as to run in and out-now in general use on cutters, sloops, yawls and…

(See Lay Days.)

All the movable ropes of a vessel, such as braces, sheets, tacks, clewlines, buntlines,…

Taking bearings of various points on the shore line as the ship runs along the coast. The…