The Sea Captain's Wife

baize: a coarse, usually green woolen material resembling felt.

beam ends: when Traveller was lying on her side, her masts parallel to the surface of the sea, she was lying on her beam ends.

belay: to stop and secure a running line around a cleat or belaying pin.

belaying pin: a metal bar fitting in a rail that serves as a cleat.

bend a sail: to join a sail to the yard.

binnacle: a built-in housing for a ship’s compass.

blackbird: a kidnapped black or Polynesian slave.

blackbirder: the captains who abduct black or Polynesian slaves.

blocks: wooden pulleys.

box the compass: recite the points of the compass in the right order.

brace the yards: trim the sails by tightening the braces.

braces: lines (ropes) used to pivot the yardarms.

broach: to come broadside, or sideways, to the wind and seas.

brougham: a four-wheeled carriage.

bulkhead: an upright partition.

bulwarks: the part of the sides of the ship that rises above the deck to create a wall-like structure.

bum boat: a small boat carrying or selling provisions to a ship.

bunt: the middle part of a sail.

buntlines: lines used to haul the foot (bottom) of a sail up to the yard for furling.

butts: large casks (e.g., “water butts”).

Cape of Good Hope: a mountainous promontory south of Cape Town, South Africa.

capstan: a revolving cylinder with a vertical axis, used to wind an anchor cable.

chafing gear: any of various mop- or brush-like appurtenances used to keep the lines from wearing. The material to make this gear was made on board the ship from “junk” (old fabric), which the sailors separated into strands, knotted together and spun into yarn.

clew: the lower corner of a sail.

clew lines: ropes used to haul the corners of the sail up to the yard for furling.

clew up: to haul the corners of the sail up to the yard for furling.

corozo: any of various tropical palm trees yielding palm oil.

corozo nut: a seed of one species of palm; when hardened, the seed forms vegetable ivory, used to make, for example, Carrie’s buttons.

crazy quilt: a patchwork quilt whose patches are made of various materials, shapes, sizes and colours, often with a random pattern.

crinoline: a generic term for stiff, full petticoats, taken from early 1850s petticoats stiffened with horsehair. By the time of Azuba’s voyage, the term was applied to all hoop-shaped skirt supports (whalebone, cane or steel).

deadeye: a round hardwood block, attached both to a ship’s railing and spliced into shrouds and backstays. Used to exert tension.

deadlights: heavy shutters that could be closed during storms.

deal lumber: fir or pine timber, especially when sawn into boards of a standard size.

dogwatch: two short watches, 4-6 p.m. and 6-8 p.m., used to shift the watch hours so that each group of sailors took the night watch on every other day.

Fenians: a militant nineteenth-century organization founded among the Irish in the United States, dedicated to the over-throw of the British government in Ireland. Raids were made from the U.S. into Canada.

fiddles: a wooden barrier around the edge of tables and counters to help prevent objects from sliding off in heavy weather.

fo’c’sle: forecastle. The crew’s quarters in the bow of the ship. Also a short raised deck at the bow.

gaff: a spar to which the head of a fore-and-aft sail is bent.

galiot: a light, single-masted, flatbottom Dutch merchant vessel of shallow draft.

gam: to meet socially, exchange gossip, chat (a whaling term).

gamming chair: a chair for conveying women from a dory onto a ship.

gaskets: bundles of small rope to wrap around sail and yard after sail is furled.

gig: a light ship’s boat.

greybeards: enormous waves.

guano: the excrement of seabirds, used as fertilizer.

halyard: a permanent line used to hoist or lower a sail or a yard.

hardtack: a ship’s biscuit.

hawser: a thick rope or cable for mooring or towing a ship.

heave to (hove to): to adjust a ship’s sails so as to greatly reduce forward motion. A ship’s captain might order this done in rough weather, or to speak another ship.

holystone: large squares of soft sandstone used to scour the deck. This whitened and softened the wood. The stones were also called “prayer books” or “bibles.”

The Horn (Cape Horn): the southernmost point of South America, on a Chilean island south of Tierra del Fuego. Notorious for its storms.

japanned: furniture finished with a hard, usually black varnish, called japan, and brought from Japan.

jib: a triangular staysail from the outer end of the jibboom to the top of the foremast, or from the bowsprit to the masthead.

jibboom: a spar fixed to the bowsprit to extend its length.

junk: old cables or rope cut up to make chafing gear; also, a sailing vessel used in the China Seas.

lazarette: a space between decks used for storage.

lee: the side away from which the wind blows.

lee shore: a shore to leeward. Very dangerous for a sailing vessel, as the ship will be blown towards, or onto, a lee shore.

leghorn: fine braided straw; a hat of this.

lobscouse: “biscuit pounded fine, salt beef cut into small pieces, and a few potatoes, boiled up together” (from Two Years Before the Mast, Richard Henry Dana).

marlinspike: a sharp, pointed iron tool.

mizzen mast: the mast closest to the stern.

mollyhawk: a sailor’s term derived from the Dutch mollemuck, meaning “foolish gull.” Applied to a smaller species of albatross, or sometimes to jaegers or immature gulls. (from the endnotes to Quite a Curiosity: The Sea Letters of Grace F. Ladd, ed. Louise Nichols, Nimbus Publishing ).

mould loft: a large floor for making half-models of the hull of a vessel. The models were carved from blocks of laminated wood. Full-scale sections were laid on the loft floor, and full-sized moulds of the sections were put together here.

nainsook: a fine, soft cotton fabric, used especially for baby clothes (from the Hindi nainsukh).

oakum: a loose fibre obtained by picking old rope to pieces, used especially in caulking.

paling: a fence made with pointed pieces of wood.

patten: a shoe or clog with a raised sole set on an iron ring, for walking in mud, etc.

phrenology: the study of the shape and size of the cranium as an indication of character and mental faculties.

pilaster: a rectangular column, especially one projecting from a wall.

promenoir: a paved public walk.

quarterdeck: part of a ship’s upper deck nearest to the stern, reserved for officers of the ship and their families.

ratline: a rope tied between shrouds. Ratlines form a ladder that sailors climb to get up to the yards.

reef: to roll up a sail to reduce its surface area in a high wind.

reticule: a small handbag, usually with a drawstring closure.

running rigging: lines used to work the sails (halyards, braces and sheets).

sack coat: a loose, unlined, semi-fitted jacket with long sleeves.

sailor’s valentine: intricate designs made with shells, usually framed.

scuppers: holes in bulwarks through which water drains overboard.

sextant: an optical device used to measure a celestial body’s angle of elevation above the horizon. Used together with a chronometer to find a ship’s latitude and longitude.

shroud: a rope run from the mast down to the side of a ship to help support the mast.

sidewheeler: a steamboat with large paddlewheels mounted on its sides.

slatting: shaking of the sails by the wind if the sails are not properly set.

snake fence: a fence of roughly-split logs stacked in a zigzag pattern. Also called a “snake-rail fence.”

spanker sail: the fore-and-aft sail set on the mizzen mast. A spanker is gaff-rigged and looks like the sails on a schooner.

spars: a catch-all term used to describe masts, booms, gaffs and the like.

speak a vessel: to communicate with another vessel at sea.

spun-yarn winch: a simple wheel and spindle used to make chafing gear.

standing rigging: ropes or wires used to support the masts.

stay: a part of the standing rigging, which supports the mast. A rope run from the masthead behind or in front of the mast.

staysail: a triangular fore-and-aft sail set between the masts.

taffrail: the rail at the stern of a vessel.

tiffin: a midday snack or light meal.

trade winds: winds blowing continuously towards the equator and deflected westward.

treenails: long wooden pins used to fasten planks to structural members. Pronounced “trunnels.”

variables: an area of light, unsteady winds north and south of the trade winds, and between the trades and the westerlies; also known as “horse latitudes,” because if water ran out, horses were thrown overboard.

wear ship: to turn a sailing vessel’s stern, rather than bow, into the wind, in order to change tack.

weather: the side of the wind (as opposed to “lee”).

weevils: any insect that spoils stored grain.

westerlies: broad westerly wind belts in both the northern and southern hemispheres.

wind cake: a cake in which egg yolks are beaten in water until foamy, then egg whites are beaten until stiff and folded into the batter.

Yahgans: aboriginal inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego; as described by Charles Darwin: “. . . at night, five or six human beings, naked . . . sleep on the wet ground . . .”

yard: the spar perpendicular to a mast upon which a square sail is set.