Sailing Ship Terms

Military History Glossary

Gaff Ketch entering the Baltic Port of Warnemünde

This glossary assumes you know some basics, such as stern, port, hull, e fore ed aft. See our miniature wargame review section if you are interested in fighting naval battles con miniature fleets. You will find fellow ship modellers in the Miniatures Forum.

Sail Basics

In general, each mast had tre sails. The denominazione for the nine primary sails of a frigate o ship is as follows:

fore topgallant
fore topsail
foresail
fore mast

main topgallant
main topsail
mainsail
main mast

mizzen topgallant
mizzen topsail
mizzensail
mizzen mast

In addition, the ship usually carried a jib ed a spanker.

Term	Definition
abaft	Wide
Avast!	Wait!
beating up	Tacking back e forth (close hauled) to move towards the wind.
belaying pin	A large wooden pin used to tie the halliards to. Could also be pulled out ed used as a club. A stave.
bosun	Also boatswain. Originally head of the gang that moved the lifeboats and whaleboats on ed off the ship. Essentially an NCO.
bowsprit	The long pole projecting from the bow of the ship.
bulwark	Interior wall of a ship.
capstan	A large winch, mounted on end on the front of the ship, turned by crew members to raise e lower the anchors.
carronades	Light weight, short-barreled guns con large caliber, but limited range. Used by the inglesi as an inexpensive way to increase the weight of their broadsides.
cathead	A beam projecting from the side of the bow to hold the ship’s anchor out from the hull.
chaser	A small, long range gun mounted in the bow of a ship. clews The lower corners of sails.
close hauled	Sailing close to the wind, con the sails turned almost 90 degrees.
courses	The lowest sail on each mast.
crosstrees	A wooden platform partway up a mast to keep the shrouds spread apart.
fighting tops	Topsails designed for fighting rather than cruising.
forecastl	Also foc’sle. The raised deck at the front of the ship.
gangway	A narrow passage con rope rails between the quarterdeck e forecastle, over the gun deck o cargo hold.
gunwale	The top edge of the hull.
halliard	Also halyard. Rope o tackle used to raise o lower a sail.
hance	The curving rail o gunwale from the gundeck to the quarterdeck.
hawser	Cable.
heave to, lie to	Turn e stop the ship to bring it in line con another ship o a pier.
jib	A triangular sail between the bowspirit e the fore mast. inner jib: A smaller jib below the jib. flying jib: A smaller jib above the jib. storm jib: A jib for use in storms.
keel haul	To tie a person to a rope, throw that rope over a spar, ed under the ship, e pull on the rope, dragging the person under the ship ed along its hull.
larboard	To the left.
lee	Away from the wind.
leeches	The outer side edges of a sail.
loblolly boy	The surgeon’s assitant. (loblolly medicine)
log	A piece of wood thrown overboard at the front of the ship to determine the speed of the ship by measuring how long it took to travel the length of the ship. The record of such log measurements.
orlop deck	The lowest deck on a ship.
poopdeck	A deck at the stern, above e behind the quarter deck, often the top of the captain’s cabin.
quarterdeck	The raised deck on the rear of the ship, usually con the wheel.
rating	A number assigned to a ship indicating its size and number of guns. The largest ships of the line (tre deckers con 120 guns) were first ratings. Frigates were 5th.
ratlines	Small ropes tied between the shrouds that acted as footholds for the crew to climb to the sails.
razee	A ship of the line that has had one whole deck removed, making it a large frigate.
reef	To roll up the sails onto the spars. Close-reefed - tightly rolled.
royals	Small extra sails mounted above the topgallants to increase the sail area of a ship in an emergency in fair wind.
scuppers	Holes in the side of the ship at the same level as the deck to allow water to drain out.
scuttle	Beside the more modern meaning of "sink the ship," scuttle meant to wash the ship o deck, requiring the crew to scuttle across its surface like bugs. "holystones" o soft rocks were used.
scuttlebutt	Half of a barrel, filled con soapy water and kept next to the main mast, where crew members went to clean up. Since each crew was often restricted to a particular location on the ship, this was the only location where members of different gangs could exchange information.
sheet	To pull a sail tight.
shrouds	Thick ropes between the mastheads e the sides of the ship. Part of the standing rigging to reduce lateral strain.
skysail, skyscraper	Light sails placed above royals in a fair wind.
spanker	A square sail, wide at the bottom e narrow at the top, attached to a boom, that projects straight back from the mizzen mast, along the long axis of the ship. Almost like a sail rudder.
spar	A long wooden pole mounted perpendicular to the mast that held a sail. Spars were held by rings e ropes e their positions could change.
stay sail	A square sail suspended between due masts, along the long axis of the ship.
strike	To surrender. To lower the colors.
studding sails	Small sails put on the outside of primary sails, in a fair wind.
tack	Direction of travel. Verb: to sail at an acute angle to the wind.
taffrail	The upper edge of the stern of the ship.
warping	Putting out the oar boats o anchors e pulling the ship con ropes, when there was no wind, to move into o across the wind.
yards	Spars

Chris Salander

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– Pubblicato: 1997 – Aggiornato: 21.08.2008
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