kampong A malay village, consisting primarily of bamboo and wooden houses with thatched roofs.
kapok A large tropical tree, Ceiba casearia. Silky, cottonlike fiber produced from the soft seed covering found within the tree’s fruit, used as stuffing for mattresses, cushions, and the like.
kava An intoxicating drink made from the macerated (chewed, grated, or pounded) roots of the Polynesian shrub Piper methysticum.
kedge or kedge anchor A small anchor with an iron or wooden stock used in MOORing to keep a ship steady and clear from her BOWER anchor while she rides in a harbor or river, particularly at the turn of the tide, when she might ride over her principal anchor, entangle the stock or FLUKES with her slack CABLE, and loosen the anchor from the ground. Also used in WARPing, a way of moving a ship from one part of a harbor to another by dropping the kedge anchor and pulling on the HAWSER, thus “kedging off.”
kedgeree An Indian dish of rice boiled with split pulse (edible leguminous seeds such as peas, beans, or lentils), onions, eggs, butter, and condiments. Also, in Europe, a dish made of fish, boiled rice, eggs, and condiments.
keel The principal piece of timber in a ship, usually first laid on the blocks in building, to which the STEM, STERNPOST, and ribs are attached. “By comparing the carcass of a ship to the skeleton of a human body,” explains Falconer’s, “the keel appears as the backbone, and the timbers as the ribs. Accordingly, the keel supports and unites the whole fabric.” Also, a prominent ridge along the breastbone of birds of the class Carinatae, at first cartilaginous but afterward becoming ossified.
keelhaul To HAUL a person under the keel of a ship, either by lowering him on one side and pulling him across to the other side, or, in smaller vessels, lowering him at the BOWS and drawing him along under the keel to the STERN. Falconer’s describes it as “a punishment inflicted by the Dutch navy,” which suspends “the culprit by a rope from one YARDARM, with a weight of lead or iron upon his legs, to sink him to a competent depth, and having another rope fastened to him, leading under the ship’s bottom, and through a block at its opposite yardarm; he is then repeatedly and suddenly let fall into the sea, where, passing under the ship’s bottom, he is hoisted up, on the opposite side of the vessel, to the yardarm. As this extraordinary sentence is executed with a serenity of temper peculiar to the Dutch, the culprit is allowed sufficient intervals to recover the sense of pain.This punishment is supposed to have peculiar propriety in the depth of winter, whilst the flakes of ice are floating on the stream; and ... is continued till the culprit is almost suffocated for want of air, benumbed with the cold of the water, or stunned with the blows his head receives by striking the ship’s bottom.” The practice was largely abandoned in favor of punishment by the CAT-O’-NINE-TAILS at the beginning of the 18th century.
keelson (pronounced “kelson”) A BAULK forming a sort of inner keel, placed inside the floor-timbers and bolted through the keel, which lay below them. Sister-keelsons were placed on the BILGES on either side of the keelson.
Keith, Admiral George See ELPHINSTONE.
Keith, Lady Hester Maria or Queeney (1762-1857) The eldest daughter of the 12 children born to Henry Thrale, a prosperous brewer, and the famous Mrs. THRALE. SAMUEL JOHNSON took on a great affection for the Thrales and, for some 16 years, was a regular visitor to their house, Streatham Park (about five miles south of London), where he wrote rhymes about Queeney as a child. Queeney married George ELPHINSTONE, Baron Keith, at Ramsgate on January 10, 1808. As the wife of the wealthy and prestigious Keith, she became prominent in London society. In the Aubrey-Maturin novels, Queeney plays the role of adoptive older sister to Aubrey. She helps raise him after his mother dies and then serves as one of his chief benefactors via her husband’s powerful influence.
Kenites In the Bible, a nomadic tribe in the wilderness friendly to the Hebrews. Some scholars believe that they may have introduced the Israelites to the worship of Yahweh. The words Cain and Kenite share the same Hebrew root consonants, leading some to link the Kenites to the genealogy of Cain in the book of Genesis.
Kerguelen Islands A group of desolate sub-Antarctic islands discovered and claimed for France by Yves Joseph Kerguelen-Tremarec in 1772. Kerguelen Island, the largest in the archipelago, is also known as Desolation Island. Although it appears that this is where the Leopard repairs in the novel Desolation Island, Aubrey denies it in The Thirteen Gun Salute.
Kerr, Lord Mark (1776-1840) A naval officer who is best remembered for his pre- TRAFALGAR actions. While his FRIGATE H.M.S. Fisgard was refitting at GIBRALTAR in April 1805, he saw VILLENEUVE’S fleet of 11 warships leaving the Mediterranean and sailing out to the Atlantic. Taking quick action, he hired a BRIG and sent a LIEUTENANT to warn NELSON. Then he rushed Fisgard to sea and was able to warn CALDER’S SQUADRON as well as to get the information to Ireland and to London.
kerseymere also “karsimir” A twilled, fine woolen cloth of a peculiar texture, one third of the warp being always above, and two thirds below each shoot of the weft.
ketch A strongly built two-masted vessel, originally used primarily for coastal trading and adapted by the English, French, and Dutch navies during the Napoleonic wars to tend the fleets. Also, with the forward section largely open, the KETCH was perfect for the mounting of a large MORTAR and thus was much used by the English as a BOMB-vessel, or bomb-ketch. See illustration, page 58.
kevel or range A frame made of two pieces of timber nailed to a ship’s side with two arms, or horns, to which certain ropes—the TACKS and SHEETS, or great ropes, which extend the bottoms of the MAINSAIL and FORESAIL—are secured.
khat See QAT.
kickshaw A fancy food dish. The term was primarily used contemptuously by the British for, say, dainty French cooking, as opposed to a hearty English dish. Something dainty or elegant but unsubstantial, a trifle or gewgaw.
kid A small wooden tub used domestically, especially a sailor’s MESS-tub.
killick An anchor once used by small craft consisting of a stone tied to a rope. Sailors’ slang for anchor.
kingfisher A small European diving bird with a long cleft beak, bright plumage, and crested headfeathers, that feeds on fish and aquatic animals. Also, various birds of the same family.
The kingfisher, of the family Alcedinidae {from Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1771)
King Log A reference to the log that Jupiter, according to fable, made king over the frogs. Often used to signify inertness on the part of rulers.
King’s Bench In full, King’s Bench Prison. A jail for debtors and criminals confined by authority of the supreme court at Westminster and other such courts.
King’s hard bargain A worthless or incorrigible person.
King’s malady, the A reference to the bouts of insanity suffered by King GEORGE III, now thought to have been caused by porphyria, an inborn error of the metabolism of hemoglobin.
kip A common lodging-house or a bed in such a house. A bed in general.
kipper To cure by cleaning, rubbing repeatedly with salt and pepper or other spice, and drying in the open air or in smoke. A kippered fish, as salmon or herring.
kipping-ken A lodging-house.
kite or flying kite A general name for sails above the TOPGALLANT sails, STUDDING-SAILS, and JIB-TOPSAILS set only in a light wind blowing on the STERN to maximize speed. Also, a bird of prey, a member of the hawk family, with long wings and usually a forked tail. About 30 species of kites are widely distributed over the warmer regions of the Old and New Worlds and are most commonly found near water or wetlands.
kittiwake Any seagull of the genus Rissa, but refers primarily to the common species of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, which is a small gull with white plumage, black markings, and very long wings.
klipspringer A small African antelope, Oreotragus oreotragus.
knacker One who by profession buys old and useless horses and slaughters them for their hides and hoofs and for making dogfood. A “knacker’s yard” in seamen’s slang is a shipbreaker’s yard.
knee A piece of timber shaped in a right angle, often naturally so, that is used to secure parts of a ship together, especially to connect the BEAMS and the timbers. A HANGING KNEE lies beneath and supports the ends of the deck beams; a lodging knee fastens the forward side of a ship’s beam to the ship’s side; and a bosom knee the afterside of the beam to the ship’s side. In smaller vessels, knees support the THWARTS.
knighthead One of two large timbers in a vessel on each side of the upper STEM that support the BOWSPRIT, which is fixed between them. Formerly they were carved with a man’s head.
Knights of Malta Members of the military religious order of the Hospital of St. John of Jerusalem, also called the Knights of St. John, of Jerusalem, of Rhodes, or of MALTA. The order grew out of an 11th-century pilgrim’s hospital in the Holy Land, where it grew rich and powerful. The order took Rhodes in 1310. Emperor Charles V gave the Knights the island of Malta in 1530, which they defended against the Turks. After the battle of LEPANTO (1571), the Knights ruled the island and engaged in hospital work until Napoleon took the island in 1798. The British took it from the French in 1800.
knittel A small line made of yarn, used on board ship for various purposes.
knob Slang for “head.”
knocking-shop A brothel.
knot A piece of knotted string fastened to the LOG-LINE, one of a series fixed at such intervals (every 47 feet 3 inches) that the number of them that run out while a 28-second sand-glass is running indicates the ship’s speed in nautical miles per hour, or “knots.” Hence, each of the divisions so marked on the log-line, as a measure of the rate of motion of the ship (or of a current).
koala or koala bear An Australian arboreal marsupial mammal (Phascolarctos cinereus). Ashen-gray in color, small, clumsy, and somewhat similar in shape to a sloth, the koala feeds on eucalyptus leaves.
koekje Cookie, from the Dutch koek, “cake.”
Korah The third son of Esau by his wife Aholibamah. Born in Canaan, Korah became a chief of an Edomite tribe (Gen. 36:18).
Kraken A mythical sea monster of enormous size, sometimes represented as a giant octopus or squid, said to have been seen at times off the coasts of Norway and Sweden.
kree A MALAY dagger.
kris A MALAY dagger with a wavy blade.
Krishna The name of a Hindu deity or hero. The worship of or belief in Krishna.
Kyrie eleison In Latin, from Greek, “Lord, have mercy.” The words of a short petition used in various offices of the Eastern and Roman churches, especially at the start of the Mass; in the Anglican service, represented by the words “Lord, have mercy upon us” in the Response to the Commandments during Communion Service. These words set to music, especially as the first movement of a Mass.