Glossary
| Bittacle (Binnacle). | See pp. 214 and 253. |
| Bitts. | Posts on a deck to which cables, etc., could be fastened. |
| Bolt-ropes. | Ropes round the edge of a sail to prevent tearing. |
| Bonnets. | See p. 158. |
| Boxhauling. | See p. 252. |
| Brails. | Small ropes used for the purpose of shortening a ship’s canvas. |
| Careen. | To lay a ship over on to her side for the purpose of cleaning, caulking, etc. |
| Catheads. | Short projecting beams serving as a bracket to suspend the anchor clear of the bows. |
| Drabler. | Canvas laced on the bonnet of a sail to give it more drop. |
| Driver. | A large squaresail set occasionally upon the mizzen-yard or gaff. |
| Dunnage. | Loose wood or other material packed in the hold with the cargo to prevent it from shifting. |
| Fothering. | See p. 262. |
| Gaff. | A spar used for extending the upper edge of a fore-and-aft rectangular sail. |
| Gripe, to. | To come up into the wind in spite of the helm. |
| Gripe of a ship. | 1. The sharpness of her stern under the water. 2. A projection added to the keel. |
| Gripes. | Lashings securing a boat in its place. |
| Ground-tackle. | Ropes and tackle used in connection with anchors and mooring apparatus generally. |
| Hawse-pipes. | The metal linings to the hawse-holes or holes in a ship’s bows through which the cable passes. |
| Hog, to. | To scrub a ship with flat scrubbing brooms called hogs. |
| Manger. | A small apartment made in the ship’s bows to catch the water flowing through the hawse-holes. |
| Mizzen. | The aftermost mast of a vessel with two or more masts. Sometimes called a jigger. In medieval four-masters the aftermost mast was called the bonaventure mizzen, and the one immediately forward of this the main mizzen. |
| Moonrakers. | Sails above the sky-sails. |
| Parral. | A band for keeping the end of a yard to the mast. |
| Pinch, to. | To sail close-hauled. |
| Quant, to. | To propel a craft along shallow water-ways by means of a long pole. |
| Rhumb-line. | The line (cutting all the meridians at the same angle) which is followed by a ship sailing on one course. |
| Scarfing. | See p. 282. |
| Scuppers. | Gutters or channels along the outer edge of a deck by which water runs off. |
| Snatch-blocks. | Iron-bound blocks with an opening in which the bight of a rope may be laid without threading the end of the rope through. |
| Stringer. | A strip of timber running round a ship internally in line with the deck. |
| Swatch-way. | A narrow sound or channel of water among sand-banks. |
| Tabernacle. | The socket or hinged post for a mast that can be lowered at will to pass under bridges, etc. |
| Trestle-trees. | See p. 207. |
| Tumble-home. | The incline inwards of a ship’s sides above the level of its extreme breadth. |
| Ware. | To veer. |
Footnotes
1 “Phœnicia,” by George Rawlinson. London, 1889.
2 I have availed myself of Mr. H. G. Dakyns’ excellent translation of “The Works of Xenophon,” Vol. III, Part I. London, 1897.
3 Given in “Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology,” by J. W. Mackail. London, 1911.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid.
6 “A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities.” London, 1902.
7 See Fig. 24 of “Sailing Ships and their Story.”
8 Given on page 212 of Mackail, ut supra.
9 Taken from Plate LII in “Peintures Antiques de Vases Grecs de la Collection de Sir John Coghill, Bart.,” par James Millingen. Rome, 1817.
10 “Journal of Hellenic Studies,” Vol. XII, p. 203.
11 “Journal of Hellenic Studies,” Vol. XI, p. 193.
12 “Rhodes in Ancient Times,” by Cecil Torr. Cambridge, 1885.
13 “Six Dialogues of Lucian,” translated into English by S. T. Irwin. London, 1894.
14 “The Remains of Ancient Rome,” by J. H. Middleton. London, 1892.
15 “Cæsar’s Conquest of Gaul,” by T. Rice Holmes. Oxford, 1911.
16 “Sailing Ships and their Story.”
17 See article in “The Yachting Monthly,” Vol. XII, p. 81, “The Shipwrights of Rome.”
18 “Northern Mists: Arctic Exploration in Early Times,” by Fridtjof Nansen, 2 vols. London, 1911.
19 That is to say they were still existing about A.D. 1180.
20 That is to say 148 feet: grass-lying means straight.
21 See “The Saga Library,” edited by William Morris and Eirikr Magnusson. London, 1905. I am indebted to this edition for the extracts which I here make from the Sagas, and also for some valuable matter given in the notes to that edition.
22 “The Story of the British Navy.” London, 1911.
23 Grieves.
24 Haste.
25 Arrange.
26 “You’re standing too close beside your mate so that he cannot haul.”
27 Shout.
28 Go aloft.
29 Taylia = “tally aft the sheet”—“haul aft,” etc.
30 Stow.
31 “No nearer”—“don’t come any nearer to the wind.”
32 “Thou failest”—“you’re slacking.”
33 “Wartake” may mean “war-tackle,” but what exactly that signifies no one to-day has been able to suggest.
34 i.e. lay the cloth.
35 “Pery” means “squall.”
36 “Thow canst no whery” = “you mustn’t complain”—“you know nothing about these matters.”
37 Malmsey.
38 Boiled nor roast.
39 “My head will be cleft in three”—“my head is splitting.”
40 “Gere” means “tools.” Lightly constructed cabins were knocked together on these Viking-like ships by the ship’s carpenter to accommodate passengers.
41 Lie.
42 Evidently some of the passengers had to sleep in the hold, whence the stench of the bilge-water and the accumulation of filth made their life very trying.
43 “Dawn of Navigation,” in “Proceedings of the United States Naval Institute,” Vol. XXXII. Annapolis, 1906.
44 Far from having been expressly built for exploration, the Santa Maria had been constructed for the well-known trading voyages to Flanders. The Pinta and Nina had been built for the Mediterranean trade.
45 Sir Clements Markham states that the bonnet was usually cut one-third the size of the mizzen, or one-quarter of the mainsail, being secured to the leach by eyelet holes.
46 The italics are mine.
47 i.e. “lie at hull”—the Elizabethan word for “heave to.”
48 i.e. lie to a drift-sail or sea-anchor.
49 i.e. an azimuth compass.
50 This is thought to have been some instrument showing how the line of the course cuts the several meridians, those meridians being drawn upon their proper inclination.
51 The derivation of the word Flame-borough or Flamborough at once suggests a burning beacon.
52 “Greenwich Royal Hospital,” by Edward Fraser.