A U-shaped fitting closed with a pin across the open ends, the pin sometimes being threaded at one end and sometimes held in place with a cotter pin, and used to secure sails to lines or fittings, lines to fittings, fittings to fittings, anchors to chain, ...

When a ship's head or stern pitches suddenly and violently into the trough of the sea.

An expression used to the crew to indicate that the boat is about to tack.

Sailor's name for a block of sandstone used for scrubbing the wooden decks of a ship; seamen had to get down on their knees to use them. Large holystones were known as "Bibles", while smaller blocks to reach awkward places were known as "Prayer Books" ...

Dispute Settlement Understanding

Old seafaring term meaning something very difficult or awkward. see Devil

To haul on a rope, to haul up tight, to hoist the last possible inch or so.

Cargo loaded into a container by the shipper under shipper's supervision. When the cargo is exported, it is unloaded at the foreign pier destination.

Rum diluted with water. In the 1700s the daily ration of rum in the British Navy was diluted with water with the idea of reducing drunkenness. The term groggy was derived from the effects of drinking too much grog.

Forward. The opposite of abaft.

The use of a sound barrier separating the sound from the receiver.

A form of steam engine where a piston moves back and forth inside a cylinder, transmitting its motion to a driving shaft by a connecting rod and crank.

Air cylinder

A publication predicting the time and height of high tide and low tide.

(1) The transverse measurement of a boat at its widest point. Also called breadth. (2) One of the transverse members of a ship's frames on which the decks are laid.

Heavy, linked chain secured to an anchor for mooring or anchoring.

Chocks which hold and anchor in place either in a locker or on deck.

The north end of the earth's axis and also called North Geographic Pole. The direction indicated by 000

Shipment of goods to a foreign country.

A pressure below that of the existing atmospheric pressure taken as a zero reference.