The French Prize (50 page)

GRIPE
    special line used to secure a ship's boat to the deck. Also, the process of setting up gripes.

GUNNEL
    corruption of gunwale. The upper edge of a ship's side, where the bulwark and deck meet.

HALYARD
    line used to raise a sail. The halyard is attached to a yard in the case of a square sail, or to the sail itself in the case of a jib or staysail. The line on which flags are raised is also called a halyard.

HANDING
    stowing a sail by means of pulling the sail up in bunches by hand and securing it. The same as furling.

HANDSPIKE
    a wooden bar used as a lever to turn a windlass or to lever a cannon from side to side.

HANGING KNEE
    a heavy, right-angle bracket that reinforces the junction of a ship's frame and the deck beam above.

HAWSE
    the situation of a ship's anchor cables when she is moored by two anchors. Thus a ship riding correctly at anchor might be said to have a clear hawse. Also denotes the distance from the ship's bow to where the anchors are set.

HAWSER
    a large rope used for various purposes such as warping.

HEADSAIL
    any of the fore and aft sails set on stays forward of the foremast.

HEADSTAY
    a heavy rope, or stay, running from some point of the foremast down to the deck, bowsprit, or jibboom to support the foremast.

HEAVE TO
    to adjust the helm and sails of a ship in such a way that she will remain stopped in the water, making no headway or sternway.

HELM
    the machinery by which a ship is steered, including the wheel, tiller, and rudder.

IN IRONS
    when a ship is caught pointing directly into the wind and is unable to make way.

JACK
    colloquial term for a sailor.

JIBBOOM
    an extension to the bowsprit.

KEELSON
    a timber sitting on top of the keel on the inside of a ship and running the full length of the ship, a sort of inner keel.

KEVEL
    a large cleat, generally in a V shape, used for tying off large ropes.

LARBOARD
    archaic term for the port or left side of a ship when looking forward.

LEAGUE
    a distance of three miles.

LEECH
    the vertical edges of a square sail.

LEEWARD
    downwind.

LIGHTERING
    to take cargo or supplies on or off a vessel by means of placing it in another vessel, called a lighter, which moves between the ship and shore.

LINSTOCK
    a wooden staff on which is carried a smoldering match used for igniting a cannon's priming powder to fire the gun.

LOWERS
    shorthand term for lower masts, the lowest part of a ship's mast extending from the keelson up to the junction with the topmast.

MAINMAST
    the largest mast on any ship. On a three-masted, square-rigged vessel it is the mast in the center.

MAINSAIL    
the lowest and largest sail on a ship's mainmast.

MAINTOP    
a platform on the mainmast located at the junction of the main lower and main topmast. The same platform on the foremast is the foretop and on the mizzen the mizzentop.

MAIN-WALE
    plank on a ship's side that is thicker than the rest and serves as a sort of fender. A ship might have more than one wale, the main-wale being the most prominent.

MIZZENMAST
    the smallest, aftermost mast on a three-masted ship.

ORDINARY
    the intermediate rating a sailor might achieve, between boy and able-bodied.

PIN RAIL
    a shelflike structure mounted on the inside of a ship's bulwarks and pierced with holes into which belaying pins are set.

QUARTER
    the aft corners of the ship.

RAMMER
    a wooden pole with a wooden head used to push the gunpowder cartridge, ball, and wadding down a cannon's barrel.

RATLINE
    thin lines tied horizontally to the shrouds to form a rope ladder used by sailors to climb aloft.

RELIEVING TACKLE
    block and tackle hooked to the tiller in heavy weather to take pressure off the wheel and to steer the ship in case the wheel suffers damage.

ROLLING TACKLE
    block and tackle used to steady the yards when the ship is rolling in heavy seas.

SCANTLINGS
    the thickness of a given piece of timber, in particular those that make up a ship's sides.

SCUD
    to run before a gale with little or no sail set.

SCUTTLE
    any hole cut in a ship's deck, such as a hatchway.

SCUTTLEBUTT
    a cask with a hole cut in it, kept on deck and filled with water for general use. The equivalent of a modern watercooler, hence “scuttlebutt” meaning casual talk.

SHEER
    the curve fore and aft of the upper edge of a ship's side as seen from a broadside view.

SHROUD
    heavy, tarred ropes running from the head of a mast at an angle athwartships to keep the mast from falling over. Lower masts, topmasts, and topgallant masts each have their own sets of shrouds.

SLUSH
    fat skimmed off the surface of water after meat is boiled. It was used for various purposes such as lubricating the masts so the yards would travel up and down more easily. Cooks would often sell slush to the crew as a butter substitute, hence the term “slush fund.”

SLUSHING DOWN
    to rub slush on the masts to allow the yards to slide more easily. Not a pleasant job.

SNOW
    a type of two-masted, square-rigged vessel.

SOUNDINGS
    water shallow enough that the depth might be measured.

SPANKER
    a fore and aft trapezoidal sail, attached to a gaff on the upper edge and often to a boom on the lower, that is set behind the mizzenmast.

SPAR
    general term for all masts, booms, yards, any of the poles in a ship's rig.

SPRITSAIL
    a small square sail carried under a ship's bowsprit.

STAY
    1. A line running from a mast forward to prevent the mast from falling back. The foremast is supported by a forestay, the mainmast by a mainstay, etc. 2. To turn a ship's bow through the wind in order to change direction. The same as tacking.

STAY TACKLE
    a heavy block and tackle hanging under the mainstay used for lifting objects in and out of the hold.

STEP
    to put a mast in place. Also, the slot into which the base of a mast fits.

STRETCHER
    a pole lashed to the lower end of a set of shrouds.

STROP
    a piece of rope spliced around a block to hold it together and to attach it to something.

STUDDINGSAIL
    pronounced
stuns'l
. Light sails set on the edges of a ship's square sails ton increase sail area in light wind.

SWAB
    a wooden pole with sheepskin or the like wrapped around the end. It was dipped in water and run down a cannon's barrel to extinguish any sparks left over from firing.

SWORD MATS
    a type of mat woven from old rope and secured in certain places to prevent chafing.

TAFFRAIL
    a rail around a ship's stern.

T'GAN'SLS
    standard pronunciation of
topgallant sails.

TILLER
    a horizontally mounted bar, attached to the head of the rudder, by which a ship is steered. A tiller is either turned directly by the helmsman or is attached to the ship's wheel by means of ropes.

TOMPION
    a plug to stopper the mouth of a cannon, chiefly to keep water out.

TOP
    a platform at the junction of a lower mast and a topmast.

TOPGALLANT SAIL
    the sails above the topsail. Used in light to moderate wind. Pronounced
t'gan'sls.

TOP-HAMPER    
general term for all the masts, spars, sails, rigging, and other gear that comprise a ship's rig.

TOPMAST
    the second highest mast, mounted on top of a lower mast, in a mast made up of multiple parts.

TOPSAIL
    the second sail up from the deck of a square-rigged ship, just above the course. By the eighteenth century the topsails were the primary sails used to propel a ship.

'TWEEN DECKS
    corruption of “between decks”: the space between any two decks of a ship.

WARP
    to move a vessel by means of running a hawser to a fixed point and hauling the ship up to it. Also the line used in warping.

WARPING POST
    a piling some ways from a dock to which a vessel is warped.

WEAR
    to alter a ship's course by turning her stern through the wind.

WEATHER
    1. To windward of something. 2. To pass to windward of something.

WORM
    a corkscrew-type device set on a long pole and used to pull wadding or cartridges from a cannon's barrel.

YARD
    horizontal spars from which square sails are suspended.

YARDARM
    the outer ends of a yard.

 

About the Author

JAMES L. NELSON
has published sixteen works of historical fiction and nonfiction, and has won the prestigious ALA's W. Y. Boyd Literary Award for Excellence in Military Fiction, as well as the Naval Order's Samuel Eliot Morison Award. He has lectured around the country and has appeared on the Discovery Channel, the History channel, and C-SPAN's Book TV. He lives in Harpswell, Maine, with his wife and four children. You can sign up for email updates
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ALSO BY
JAMES L. NELSON

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The Only Life That Mattered

By Force of Arms

The Maddest Idea

The Continental Risque

Lords of the Ocean

All the Brave Fellows

The Guardship

The Blackbirder

The Pirate Round

Glory in the Name

Thieves of Mercy

Fin Gall

Dubh-linn

The Lord of Vík-ló

NONFICTION

George Washington's Great Gamble

George Washington's Secret Navy

Benedict Arnold's Navy

Reign of Iron

With Fire and Sword

 

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Contents

Title Page

Copyright Notice

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Diagram of the Armed Merchant Ship
Abigail

Map of the Caribbean

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3