Vessel Glossary

Termonology

Orientation

• Aft - at, in, toward, or close to the rear of the ship

• Amidship - the middle of a ship

• Ballast - Heavy material that is placed in the hold of the ship to enhance stability

• Bow - the front of the ship

• Broadside - A general term for the vantage on another ship of absolute perpendicular to the direction that it is going. Very vunrable, easiest to attack with larger arms.

• Heel (also list) - When a ship leans to one side, or the measurement of it's tilt

• Lee - the side away from the direction from which the wind blows

• Port - the left side of the ship when you are facing her prow

• Starboard - the right side of the ship when you are facing her prow

• Stern - the rear part of a ship

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Masts and Sails

• Boom - A horizontal pole along the bottom edge of a mast to which the mast is fastened.

• Bonaventure mizzen - a fourth mast found on large galleons

• Bowsprit - The slanted spar at a ship's prow jutting out in front of the ship. It is usually used as a lead connection for a small navigational sail

• Cordage - the ropes on a ship used to control it's sails

• Driver - a large sail suspended from the mizzen gaff

• Foremast - a ship's mast located nearest to the bow

• Gaff - a spar attached to the mast and used to extend the upper edge of a fore-and-aft sail

• Jib - a triangular sail streching from the fore-topmast head to the job boom and in small craft, to the bowsprit or the bow

• Jury rig (also jury rigging or jury mast) - a temporary or makeshift mast errected on a sea vessel with whatever materials and tools were on hand, including spare parts of smaller masts. In combat the mainmast was often the most damaged. Without the mainmast, a ship was powerless so it was imperative to build a jury rig for the ship. Sometimes the mizzenmast could be moved and used as a jury rig

• Lateen sail - a triangular sail set on a long sloping yard

• Lug sail - a quadrilateral sail that lacks a boom, has the front larger than the head and is bent to a yard hanging obliquetly on the mast

• Main mast - the largest mas located in the middle of the ship

• Main sheet - the rope that controls the angle at which the mainsail is trimmed and set

• Mast - the upright wooden post or spar that carries a sail or sails

• Mizzenmast - the largest and, perhaps, most important mast. It is the third mast or the mast aft of a mainmast on a ship having three or more masts.

• Parrel - a sliding loop of rope or chain by which a running yard or gaff is connected to, whicle still being able to move vertically along the mast

• Rigging - the system of ropes, chains and tackle used to support and contol the masts, sails and yards of a sailing vessel

• Sheet - a line running from the bottom aft corner of a sail, by which it can be ajusted to the wind

• Shrouds - one of a set of ropes or wire cables streched from the masthead to the sides of a vessel to support the mast

• Sky sail - a small square of sail above the royal in a square rigged vessel

• Spanker - the after sail of a ship or bark, being a fore-and-aft sail attached to a boom and gaff

• Topgallant - of, relating to, or being the mast above the topmast, its sails or its rigging

• Tack -
  1. The lower forward of a fore-and-aft sail
  1. The position of a vessel relative to the trim of it's sails
  1. The act of repositioning a sail in order to change which side the wind catches it.

• Tackle - a system of ropes and blocks for raising and lowering weights of rigging, and pulleys for applying tension

• Topsail - a square sail set above the lowest sail on the mast of a square-rigged ship or a triangular or square sail set above the gaff of a lower sail on a fore-and-aft rigged ship

• Trysail - a small, fore-and-aft sail hoisted abaft the foremast and mainmast in a storm to keep a ship's bow to the wind

• Yard - a long tapering spar slung to a mast to support and spread the head of a square sail, lungsail or lateen

• Yardarm - the main arm across the mast which holds up the sail; or either end of a yard of squarvulnerableThe yardarm is a vunrable target in combat, and also a favorite place to hang prisoners or enemies

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Areas

• Bilge - The lowest part inside the ship, within the hull itself which is the first place to show signs of leakage. The bilge is often dank and musty, and considered the most filthy, dead space of a ship.

• Crow's Nest - a small platform, sometimes enclosed, near the top of a mast, where a lookout could have a better view when watching for sails or for land.

• Fo'cs'le (forecastle) - the section of the upper deck of a ship located at the bow forward of the foremast or A superstructure at the bow of a merchant ship where the crew is housed

• Gangway - passage along either side of a ship's upper deck; an interjection used to clear a passage through a crowded area.

• Hold - a large area for storing cargo in the lower part of the ship

• Poop deck - the highest deck at the stern of a large ship, usually above the captains quarters

• Quarterdeck - the after part of the upper deck of a ship

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Structure

• Ballast - heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship to enhance stability./li]

• Beam (also arm) - A piece of timber perpendicular to the sides of a ship which supports the deck. Also used to identify objects in relation to objects perpendicular to the ship that are visible from the port or starboard side.

• Bulkhead -A partition or dividing wall within the hull of a ship.

• Deadlights - strong shutters or plates fastened over a ship's cabin window in stormy weather. Thick windows set in a ship's side or deck.

• Futtock - the curved strips of wood that make up the underside of a ship

• Ganplank - a board or ramp used as a removable footway between a ship and a pier

• Gunwale - the elevated side edges of a boat which strengthen its structure and act as a railing around the gun deck. In warships the gunwale has openings where heavy arms or guns are positioned.

• Hawsehole - a hole in the ship's deck through which the anchor cable passes

• Helm - the steering wheel of a ship which controls the rudder

• Hull - the body of the ship

• Keel - the underside of a ship which becomes covered in barnicles after sailing the seas

• Prow - the forwardmost area of the ship

• Rudder - a flat peice of wood at the stern of the ship that dips into the water and is used for steering. The rudder is contolled at the helm

• Scuppers - openings along the edges of a ship's deck that allow water on deck to drain back to the sea rather than collecting in the bilge.

• Scuttle - a small opening or hatch with a movable lid in the deck of hull of a ship

• Sternpost - an upright beam at the stern bearing the rudder

• Transom - any of several tranverse beams afficed to the sternpost of a wooden ship and forming part of the stern

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Vessel Types

• Barkadeer - a small pier or jetty vessel

• Barque - a sailing ship with three to five masts, all of them square rigged except the aftermast, which is fore-and -aft rigged.

• Brigantine (also brig) - a two masted sailing ship, square-rigged on both

• Clipper - a fast moving ship

• Cog - a small warship

• Galleon - a large, three-masted sailing ship with a square rig and usually two or more decks, used as a merchant ship or a warship

• Gally - a low, flat vessel propelled partly, or wholly by oars

• Jolly boat - a light boat carried at the stern of a larger sailing ship

• Lugger - a two masted sailing ship with a lug sail rig

• Longboat - the largest boat carried by a ship which is used to move large loads such as anchors, chains, or ropes.

• Main-of-war - a vessel designed and outfitted for battle

• Pink - a small sailing vessel with a sharply narrowed stern

• Pinnance - a light boat propelled by sails or oars, used as a tender for merchant and war vessels, a boat for communication between ship and shore

• Schooner - a fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel having a least two masts, with a foremast that is usually smaller than the other masts

• Sloop - a single masted, fore-and-aft rigged ship with a short standing bowsprit or noe at all and a single headsail set from the forestay.

• Snow - a square-rigged vessel differing from a birg only in that she has a trysail mast close abaft the mainmast on which a large trisail is hoisted

• Tender - a vesssel attendant on other vessels, especially one that ferries supplies betwen ship and shore; a small boat carried by a ship

• Wherry - a light, swift rowboat built for one person, usually used in inland waters or harbors

• Yawl - a ships small boat crewed by rowers; or a two masted fore-and-aft rigged ship similar to the ketch but having a smaller jigger or mizzenmast projecting out behind the rudder

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Tools

• Bittacle/ Binnacle - A box on the deck of a ship holding the ship’s compass.

• Cable - a heavy rope or chain for mooring or anchoring a ship

• Capstan - an apparatus used for hoisting weights, consisting of a vertical spool-shaped cylinder that is roated manually and around which a cable is wound

• Holystone - a peice of soft sandstone used for scouring the wooden decks of a ship

• Jacob's ladder - a rope ladder with wooden rungs used to access the ship from the side

• Killick - a small anchor, especially one made of a stone in a wooden frame

• Lanyard - a short rope or gasket used for fastening something or securing rigging

• Line - a rope in use as part of the ship's rigging or as a towing line. When a rope is coiled up on deck, not yet being used for anything, it is simply called a rope

• Nipper - a short length of rope used to bind an anchor cable

• Spyglass - telescope

Most of this was taken from A Pirate Glossary