BELAY – disregard, stop or make fast

BELAYING PIN – wooden bar on ship’s rail to which ropes can be fastened

BICORNE – two-cornered hat

BOSUN – also boatswain, officer responsible for sails, rigging and tackle

BOSUN’S MATE – seaman who helps the bosun execute orders, often with the aid of a rope on your back

BOW – foremost part of the ship’s hull

BOW STREET RUNNERS – London law enforcers

BULKHEAD – upright partition in a ship

CANTING CREW – thieves bound together by their own language

CITY TAVERN – social hub of Philadelphia

COTILLION – lively French dance, requiring all eight dancers to take part at same time, leaving much room for mistakes

CROSS-TREES – junction of mast with yardarm, lookout point

DOXY, DOXIES (pl.) – unflattering description of a woman

FLAMBEAU – a flaming torch

FLASH MORT – rich, showy girl

FLIES – highest point above stage where scenery can be suspended

FLING ONE’S HAT AFTER SOMEONE – make a futile pursuit

FORT FREDERICA – abandoned fort on St Simon’s Island, Georgia

GROG – watered-down spirits (or spirited-up water, depending on your point of view)

GUNNER – officer responsible for ship’s heavy guns

HALYARD – rope used to hoist a sail

HEADS – very unprivate privy on board ship below figurehead

HOLD – lowest space in a ship, below all decks

HOLYSTONE – sandstone used to scour deck

LARBOARD – left-hand side if you are facing the bow

LINK BOYS – boys and men who are hired to light your way to and from evening entertainments

MASTER – on a ship, the officer responsible for navigation and piloting

MASTHEAD – lookout point on top of mast

MESS – the group of people you eat with on board

MESS KID – rope-handled bowl used to distribute food

MINUET – slow, very elegant dance with little steps

MIZZEN – mast at back of ship

MUDLARKING – scavenging on the banks of the Thames, a smelly but occasionally rewarding business

PHILADELPHIA – a major city port in America

PRESS GANG – enforced recruiting agency for the navy not known for their subtlety

PUMP ROOM – place in Bath for taking the waters and showing your finery

PURSER – officer responsible for victuals

QUARTERDECK – deck above main deck at back of boat (are you following this?)

REEF – a tuck in a sail or (more ominously) rocks below water

SAVANNAH – open plains

SHROUDS – ropes supporting the mast from the side, rope ladders

SKILLYGALEE – oatmeal gruel cooked in fatty water (is your mouth watering? I thought not)

SKYLARKING – playing in the rigging (you have to be mad to like it)

SLOOP – cutter-rigged (one-mast) coasting vessel (don’t worry about it – it’s a kind of boat, that’s all you really need to know)

STARBOARD – right-hand side if you are facing the bow

STERN – back end of the boat

STEVEDORE – man who loads and unloads ships

SWABBING – more or less the same as the landlubber’s scrubbing

TOP GALLANTS – a square sail set above the topsail, the highest one of all (and not a bunch of swell gents as you might think)

TOP MEN – elite crew who rig the highest sails

UPPER ROOMS – new Assembly Rooms in Bath, place to see and be seen

WEEVILS – small beetles that infest food

YARDARM – horizontal spar (or pole to you and me) holding sails

YOUNG BLOOD – rich young gentleman, sporting type