There are a number of fine glossaries of
general sea terms on-line. Detailed on-line links can be found here.
Below are some of the more unusual and fascinating terms that Kydd would have used
himself on occasion...
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Bilboes The actual irons on the orlop deck into which malefactors are clapped. They consist of a long bar on to which iron shackles are slid. These confine the victim in much the same way as the stocks ashore. From mediaeval Bilbao, the method of confining candidates for the Inquisition as mentioned in Hamlet.
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Devil bolt The frame timbers of a vessel were incredibly massive, and the side planking could only be secured to them with thick, long copper bolts. A corrupt practice at some dockyards was to cut away the innards of every other bolt, leaving each end in place. Tons of valuable copper could be filched in this way at great risk to the vessel.
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Dog's body Dried peas (“trundlers”) boiled in a cloth. Prepared with onions and pepper by skilled mess-cooks, this was a welcome dish.
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Drabtail trull Watermen would bring out women on spec to a man-o’-war newly arrived in port - if they were taken aboard they would be paid, if not - not! A great fleet in port would give opportunity to even the most ill-favoured female.
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Fiddler's Green The mythical Elysium waiting for sailors when they have topped their booms and gone to their rest. Populated by countless willing ladies, equipped with rum casks that never empty, and always a fair wind and flying fish weather.
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Fleet the messenger The anchor cable was never put around the capstan, it was much too thick. An endless loop of thinner rope, the messenger, was seized to it by “nippers”. Just before the anchor was about to be tripped from the seabed, the time of most tension, the cable was clamped and the connecting eye of the messenger was passed beyond the capstan whelps.
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Foremast Jack A term for one who is neither an officer nor a petty officer, just a common sailor. They spent their leisure hours on the fo’c’sle, before the foremast.
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Full and bye When a square rigged ship is comfortably close hauled, close to the wind but not clawing to windward.
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Fusty luggs Where a trug is a sorry looking woman who can't help it, a soss brangle is a slattern, then this is your worst kind of gin-sodden trull.
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Handsomely With a care, slowly and carefully. Opposite of ‘Amain’.
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Irish horse The salt beef ration.
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Jack Weatherface A kindly term for one whose face is lined and crinkled by years of sea service.
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Johnny Hawbuck A officer who wears lace at sea, a dandy.
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Loblolly boys Not a boy, but a generally broken-down seaman who is fit for no other work than to attend the sick and feed them gruel (loblolly).
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Mantrap A particularly sharp and knowing officer who is feared by the men, especially if in charge of a press-gang.
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Monkey Brass ring to test the size of cannon balls - if it was very cold it could freeze the balls off a brass monkey. Also, a wooden tub with two ears for the grog issue.
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Noggin Half a pint - of rum.
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Purser’s glim A lamp - an iron saucer with rush wick burning fat oil. (Cheap and nasty trick by a calculating purser to fulfil his obligation to provide lights below decks).
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Ship Calling anything other than ‘a three masted vessel square rigged on all three masts’ a ship marks you out as a landlubber. All the others are either a brig, barque, poleacre, bean-cod, pink, xebec, felucca etc.
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Taking a
caulk On a dark night, the watch
on deck cannot be seen from aft. If a sailor takes the chance to snatch a
nap on deck, he is betrayed by the caulking between deck planking leaving
parallel lines of tar on his shirt. -
Top your boom Some sails, mainly the fore and aft ones, need a long spar to spread their foot, a boom. When the boom is topped the vessel is ready to start. Also, to die - when a person starts on the long voyage with no return.
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Turned before the mast A petty officer was in a powerful and privileged position in the world of the lower deck. The worst punishment for him would be to be disrated and made a common seaman and placed back under his fellow petty officers.
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Waister A man-o’-war’s seamen were in parts-of-ship for evolutions, the most skilled were stationed high in the fighting tops, the least were the waisters in the waist (centre) of the ship and spent all their time hauling on heavy ropes and scrubbing decks.