Banyan days – the days when no meat was eaten, so-called after a strictly vegetarian Hindu merchant sect who preferred to eat their meals under a banyan tree.
Bargemen – sailors slang for biscuit ‘weevils’, so-called because they were found in the container for the mess’s biscuit, known as a bread-barge.
Becket – a loop of rope with a knot at one end and an eye at the other.
Bumboat – a boat bringing fruit, vegetables etc for sale to ships.
Britanniaware – a non-rusting alloy of antimony, bismuth, copper and tin, which polishes up to a deep silvery lustre.
Chest at Greenwich – a naval charity which provided pensions for disabled seamen, originally the ‘Chatham Chest’.
Commissioned officers – those who were attached to the ship while she was ‘in commission’ (ie on sea service), or fighting officers. See also warrant officers.
Fiddle – a type of rail used to prevent dishes sliding from the table.
Frumenty – a dish made by simmering whole wheat grains, sometimes sweetened with honey or raisins.
Godown – Far Eastern name for a warehouse.
Head– the toilets on a ship – in the sailing navy days, these were at the very front of the ship, exposed to the open air.
Imprest account – rather like an overdraft, a type of account used by the Victualling Board to control pursers’ and victualling contractors’ expenditure.
Lanthorn – a closed lantern containing a candle.
Lemon pepper – a condiment made by grinding dried lemon peel.
Machine – as used at the time, this meant any form of device or implement.
Mess-kids – wooden containers for collecting messes’ food.
Ordinary – ships ‘mothballed’ in reserve, ie those not in commission.
Orlop – the lowest deck in a ship.
Outports – the British naval ports outside London (eg Portsmouth, Plymouth).
Over-plus – food over and above what the men wanted to eat.
the People – naval term meaning the crew.
Purser (sometimes pronounced ‘pusser’) – the man who had charge of the food on board Royal Navy ships.
Rakes and peels – the rakes, in this context, would be for raking out the ashes, a peel is a long-handled flat paddle for moving bread in and out of the oven.
Roundhouse – a small cabin at the rear of a ship, often used as a toilet for officers.
Scuttlebutt – a cask for drinking water, kept on deck.
Sheathed or coppered – two methods of protecting a ship’s hull from destructive worms and accretions of seaweed. Sheathing is an outer covering of wood, coppering is a cover of copper plates over the hull. Seaweed built up more slowly on a coppered hull, so the ship would sail faster when coppered.
Slops – ready-made clothes for seamen, bought in bulk; they tended to be made large and the men usually made their own adjustments. The word slops is derived from the Old English ‘oferslop’, meaning a loose outer garment.
Species of provisions – types of food items, for instance salt beef is one species, salt pork is another, biscuit is a third.
Starting the water – a method of quickly lightening ship (and thus allowing more speed) by spilling the fresh water in the hold and then pumping it out.
Steelyard – a weighing device consisting of a lever, from one end of which the item to be weighed is suspended, and on the other, longer end, a weight can be slid along.
Supernumeraries – people carried on board ship who were not part of her regular crew. An admiral was a supernumerary, as were his personal suite of servants and advisors, and so were naval personnel being given passage to their own ships.
Table money – an amount, additional to the salary of a highly placed official or officer who had to entertain as part of his job, or who frequently had to eat away from home.
Tops – the fighting platforms situated high on the masts.
Tracklements – a generic term for pickles, chutneys and other wet condiments used to give savour to food.
Victuals, victualling (pronounced ‘vittles’, ‘vittling’) – food and drinks, the supply of these.
Warrant officers – those non-fighting officers who were attached to the ship on a permanent basis, even when she was laid up in ‘ordinary’. (But many of them did fight when necessary.)