Glossary of Nautical Terms

Cabin: an enclosed room on a deck or flat.
Cabin boy: attendant on passengers and crew. often a young man sometimes used for sexual activity
Cable: A large rope.
Cable length: A measure of length or distance. Equivalent to (UK) 1/10 nautical mile, approx. 600 feet; (USA) 120 fathoms, 720 feet (219 m); other countries use different values.
Caboose: a small ship's kitchen, or galley on deck.
Camels: Loaded vessels lashed tightly, one on each side of another vessel, and then emptied to provide additional buoyancy that reduces the draught of the ship in the middle.
Can: A type of navigational buoy often a vertical drum, but if not, always square in silhouette colored either green or black. In channel marking its use is opposite that of a "nun buoy".
Canal boat: A specialized watercraft designed for operation on a canal.
Canister: a type of antipersonnel cannon load in which lead balls or other loose metallic items were enclosed in a tin or iron shell. On firing, the shell would disintegrate, releasing the smaller metal objects with a shotgun-like effect.
Canoe stern: A design for the stern of a yacht which is pointed, like a bow, rather than squared off as a transom.
Cape Horn fever: The name of the fake illness a malingerer is pretending to suffer from.
Capital ship: A navy's most important warships, generally possessing the heaviest firepower and armor and traditionally much larger than other naval vessels, but not formally defined. During the Age of Sail, generally understood to be ships-of-the-line; during the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century, understood to be battleships and battlecruisers; and since the 1940s considered to include aircraft carriers. Since the second half of the 20th century, ballistic missile submarines sometimes have been considered capital ships.
Capsize: When a ship or boat lists too far and rolls over, exposing the keel. On large vessels, this often results in the sinking of the ship.
Capstan: A large winch with a vertical axis. A full-sized human-powered capstan is a waist-high cylindrical machine, operated by a number of hands who each insert a horizontal capstan bar in holes in the capstan and walk in a circle. Used to wind in anchors or other heavy objects; and sometimes to administer flogging over.
Captain: 1. The person lawfully in command of a vessel. "Captain" is an informal title of respect given to the commander of a naval vessel regardless of his or her formal rank; aboard a merchant ship, the ship's master is her "captain."; 2. A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.; 3. In the United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Corps, a commissioned officer of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half), equal in grade or rank to a United States Army, United States Marine Corps, or United States Air Force colonel.
Captain of the Port: 1. In the United Kingdom, a Royal Navy officer, usually a captain, responsible for the day-to-day operation of a naval dockyard.; 2. In the United States, a United States Coast Guard officer, usually a captain, responsible for enforcement of safety, security, and marine environmental protection regulations in a commercial port.
Captain's daughter: The cat o' nine tails, which in principle is only used on board on the captain's (or a court martial's) personal orders.
Caravel (also caravelle): A small, highly maneuverable sailing ship with lateen rig used by the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.
Cardinal: Referring to the four main points of the compass: north, south, east and west. See also "bearing".
Careening: Tilting a ship on its side, usually when beached, to clean or repair the hull below the water line. Also known as to "heave down".
Car float (also railroad car float or rail barge): An unpowered barge with railroad tracks mounted on its deck, used to move railroad cars across water obstacles.
Cargo ship: Any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another, including general cargo ships (designed to carry break bulk cargo), bulk carriers, container ships, multipurpose vessels, and tankers. Tankers, however, although technically cargo ships, are routinely thought of as constituting a completely separate category.
Carpenter: 1. In the Age of Sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars, and boats of a vessel, and whose responsibility was to sound the well to see if the vessel was making water.; 2. A senior rating responsible for all the woodwork aboard a vessel.
Carrack (also nau): A three- or four-masted sailing ship used by Western Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th through the early 17th century.
Carvel built: A method of constructing wooden hulls by fixing planks to a frame so that the planks butt up against each other. Cf. "clinker built".
Cat: 1. To prepare an anchor, after raising it by lifting it with a tackle to the cat head, prior to securing (fishing) it alongside for sea. (An anchor raised to the cat head is said to be catted.); 2. The cat o' nine tails (see below).; 3. A cat-rigged boat or catboat.
Catamaran: A vessel with two hulls.
Catboat: A cat-rigged vessel with a single mast mounted close to the bow, and only one sail, usually on a gaff.
Catharpin: A short rope or iron clamp used to brace in the shrouds toward the masts so as to give a freer sweep to the yards.
Cat o' nine tails: A short nine-tailed whip kept by the bosun's mate to flog sailors (and soldiers in the Army). When not in use, the cat was kept in a baize bag, hence the term "cat out of the bag". "Not enough room to swing a cat" also derives from this.
Cathead: A beam extending out from the hull used to support an anchor when raised in order to secure or 'fish' it.
Cats paws: Light variable winds on calm waters producing scattered areas of small waves.
Centreboard: A board or plate lowered through the hull of a dinghy on the centreline to resist leeway.
Centerline or centreline: An imaginary line down the center of a vessel lengthwise. Any structure or anything mounted or carried on a vessel that straddles this line and is equidistant from either side of the vessel is on the centerline (or centreline).
Chafing: Wear on line or sail caused by constant rubbing against another surface.
Chafing gear: Material applied to a line or spar to prevent or reduce chafing. See Baggywrinkle.
Chains: Small platforms built into the sides of a ship to assist in depth sounding.
Chain-shot: Cannon balls linked with chain used to damage rigging and masts.
Chain locker: A space in the forward part of the ship, typically beneath the bow in front of the foremost collision bulkhead, that contains the anchor chain when the anchor is secured for sea.
Chain-wale or channel: A broad, thick plank that projects horizontally from each of a ship's sides abreast a mast, distinguished as the fore, main, or mizzen channel accordingly, serving to extend the base for the shrouds, which supports the mast.
Charley Noble: The metal stovepipe chimney from a cook shack on the deck of a ship or from a stove in a galley .
Charthouse: A compartment, especially in the Royal Navy, from which the ship was navigated.
Chase gun, chase piece, or chaser: A cannon pointing forward or aft, often of longer range than other guns. Those on the bow (bow chaser) were used to fire upon a ship ahead, while those on the rear (stern chaser) were used to ward off pursuing vessels. Unlike guns pointing to the side, chasers could be brought to bear in a chase without slowing.
Cheeks: 1. Wooden blocks at the side of a spar.; 2. The sides of a block or gun-carriage.
Chine: 1. An angle in the hull.; 2. A line formed where the sides of a boat meet the bottom. Soft chine is when the two sides join at a shallow angle, and hard chine is when they join at a steep angle.
Chock: Hole or ring attached to the hull to guide a line via that point
Chock-a-block: Rigging blocks that are so tight against one another that they cannot be further tightened.
Chronometer: A timekeeper accurate enough to be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation.
Cigarette boat: see 'Go-fast boat'.
Civil Red Ensign: The British Naval Ensign or Flag of the British Merchant Navy, a red flag with the Union Flag in the upper left corner. Colloquially called the "red duster".
Class: 1. A group of naval ships of the same or similar design.; 2. A standard of construction for merchant vessels, including standards for specific types or specialized capabilities of some types of merchant vessels. A ship meeting the standard is in class, one not meeting them is out of class.
Clean bill of health: A certificate issued by a port indicating that the ship carries no infectious diseases. Also called a pratique.
Clean slate: At the helm, the watch keeper would record details of speed, distances, headings, etc. on a slate. At the beginning of a new watch the slate would be wiped clean.
Cleat: A stationary device used to secure a rope aboard a vessel.
Clench: A method of fixing together two pieces of wood, usually overlapping planks, by driving a nail through both planks as well as a washer-like rove. The nail is then burred or riveted over to complete the fastening.
Clew: The lower corners of square sails or the corner of a triangular sail at the end of the boom.
Clew-lines: Used to truss up the clews, the lower corners of square sails.
Clinker built: A method of constructing hulls that involves overlapping planks, and/or plates, much like Viking longships, resulting in speed and flexibility in small boat hulls. Cf. "carvel built".
Clipper: A very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts, a square rig, a long, low hull, and a sharply raked stem.
Close aboard: Near a ship.
Close-hauled: Of a vessel beating as close to the wind direction as possible.
Club hauling: The ship drops one of its anchors at high speed to turn abruptly. This was sometimes used as a means to get a good firing angle on a pursuing vessel. See Kedge.
Coal hulk: A hulk used to store coal.
Coal trimmer, or Trimmer: person responsible for ensuring that a coal-fired vessel remains in 'trim' (evenly balanced) as coal is consumed on a voyage.
Coaming: The raised edge of a hatch, cockpit or skylight to help keep out water.
Coaster (or coastal trading vessel): A shallow-hulled ship used for trade between locations on the same island or continent.
Cockpit: The seating area (not to be confused with Deck). The area towards the stern of a small decked vessel that houses the rudder controls.
Cog: A type of sailing ship with a single mast and square-rigged single sail first developed in the 10th century and widely used, particularly in the Baltic Sea region, in seagoing trade from the 12th through the 14th century.
Collier: A bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially such a ship in naval use to supply coal to coal-fired warships.
Commission: To formally place (a naval vessel) into active service, after which the vessel is said to be in commission. Sometimes used less formally to mean placing a commercial ship into service.
Commodore: 1. Commodore (rank), a military rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain, but below a rear admiral. Often equivalent to the rank of "flotilla admiral" or sometimes "counter admiral" in non-English-speaking navies.; 2. Convoy Commodore, a civilian put in charge of the good order of the merchant ships in British convoys during World War II, but with no authority over naval ships escorting the convoy.; 3. Commodore (yacht club), an officer of a yacht club.; 4. Commodore (Sea Scouts), a position in the Boy Scouts of America's Sea Scout program.
Companionway: A raised and windowed hatchway in the ship's deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins.
Complement: The number of persons in a ship's crew, including officers.
Communication tube, speaking tube, or voice tube: An air-filled tube, usually armored, allowing speech between the conning tower with the below-decks control spaces in a warship.
Compass: Navigational instrument showing the direction of the vessel in relation to the Earth's geographical poles or magnetic poles. Commonly consists of a magnet aligned with the Earth's magnetic field, but other technologies have also been developed, such as the gyrocompass.
Comprise: To include or contain: As applied to a naval task force, the listing of all assigned units for a single transient purpose (mission). “The Task Force comprises Ship A, Ship B, and Ship C.” ‘Comprise’ means exhaustive inclusion -- there aren't any other parts to the task force, and each ship has a permanent squadron existence, independent of the task force.
Conn: (Also written con, conne, conde, cunde, or cun) to direct a ship or submarine from a position of command.
Conning officer: The officer on a naval vessel who instructs the helmsman on the course to steer.
Conning tower: 1. The armoured control tower of an iron or steel warship built between the mid-19th and mid-20th century from which the ship was navigated in battle.; 2. A tower-like structure on the dorsal (topside) surface of a submarine, serving in submarines built before the mid-20th century as a connecting structure between the bridge and pressure hull and housing instruments and controls from which the periscopes were used to direct the submarine and launch torpedo attacks. Since the mid-20th century, it has been replaced by the sail (United States usage) or fin (European and British Commonwealth usage), a structure similar in appearance which no longer plays a function in directing the submarine.
Constant bearing, decreasing range (CBDR): When two boats are approaching each other from any angle and this angle remains the same over time (constant bearing) they are on a collision course. Because of the implication of disaster (ships might collide) it has come to mean a problem or an obstacle which is heading your way. Often used in the sense of a warning, as in "watch out for this problem you might not see coming."
Consort: Unpowered Great Lakes vessels, usually a fully loaded schooner, barge, or steamer barge, towed by a larger steamer that would often tow more than one barge. The consort system was used in the Great Lakes from the 1860s to around 1920.
Container ship: A cargo ship that carries all of her cargo in truck-size intermodal containers.
Convoy: A group of ships traveling together for mutual support and protection.
Corinthian: An amateur yachter.
Corrector: A device to correct the ship's compass, for example counteracting errors due to the magnetic effects of a steel hull.
Corsair: 1. A French privateer, especially from the port of St-Malo.; 2. Any privateer or pirate.; 3. A ship used by privateers or pirates, especially of French nationality.; 4. Corsair, a class of 16-foot (4.9-meter) three-handed sailing dinghy.
Corvette: 1. A flush-decked sailing warship of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries having a single tier of guns, ranked next below a frigate. Called in the United States Navy a sloop-of-war.; 2. A lightly armed and armored warship of the 20th and 21st centuries, smaller than a frigate, capable of trans-oceanic duty.
Counter: The part of the stern above the waterline that extends beyond the rudder stock culminating in a small transom. A long counter increases the waterline length when the boat is heeled, so increasing hull speed.
Counterflood: To deliberately flood compartments on the opposite side from already flooded ones. Usually done to reduce a list.
Courses: the lowest square sail on each mast — The mainsail, foresail, and the mizzen on a four masted ship (the after most mast usually sets a gaff driver or spanker instead of a square sail).
Cowl: 1. A ship's ventilator with a bell-shaped top which can be swivelled to catch the wind and force it below.; 2. A vertical projection of a ship's funnel which directs the smoke away from the bridge.
Coxswain or cockswain (/ˈkɒksən/): The helmsman or crew member in command of a boat.
As the crow flies: A direct line between two points (which might cross land) which is the way crows travel rather than ships which must go around land.
Crance/Crans/Cranze iron: A fitting, mounted at the end of a bowsprit to which stays are attached.
Crazy Ivan: United States Navy slang for a maneuver in which a submerged Soviet or Russian submarine suddenly turns 180 degrees or through 360 degrees to detect submarines following it.
Cringle: A rope loop, usually at the corners of a sail, for fixing the sail to a spar. They are often reinforced with a metal eye.
Cro'jack or crossjack: a square yard used to spread the foot of a topsail where no course is set, e.g. on the foremast of a topsail schooner or above the driver on the mizzen mast of a ship rigged vessel.
Crosstrees: two horizontal struts at the upper ends of the topmasts of sailboats, used to anchor the shrouds from the topgallant mast.
Crow's nest: Specifically a masthead constructed with sides and sometimes a roof to shelter the lookouts from the weather, generally by whaling vessels, this has become a generic term for what is properly called masthead. See masthead.
Cruise ship: A passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way. Transportation is not the prime purpose, as cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port. A cruise ship contrasts with a passenger liner, which is a passenger ship that provides a scheduled service between published ports primarily as a mode of transportation. Large, prestigious passenger ships used for either purpose sometimes are called ocean liners.
Cruiser: 1. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, a classification for a wide variety of gun- and sometimes torpedo-armed warships, usually but not always armored, intended for independent scouting, raiding, or commerce protection; some were designed also to provide direct support to a battlefleet. Cruisers carried out functions performed previously by the cruising ships (sailing frigates and sloops) of the Age of Sail.; 2. From the early 20th century to the mid-20th century, a type of armored warship with varying armament and of various sizes, but always smaller than a battleship and larger than a destroyer, capable of both direct support of a battle fleet and independent operations, armed with guns and sometimes torpedoes.; 3. After the mid-20th century, various types of warships of intermediate size armed with guided missiles and sometimes guns, intended for air defense of aircraft carriers and associated task forces or for anti-ship missile attack against such forces; virtually indistinguishable from large destroyers since the late 20th century.
Crutches: Metal Y shaped pins to hold oars whilst rowing.
Cuddy: A small cabin in a boat.
Cunningham: A line invented by Briggs Cunningham, used to control the shape of a sail.
Cunt splice or cut splice: A join between two lines, similar to an eye-splice, where each rope end is joined to the other a short distance along, making an opening which closes under tension.
Cuntline: The "valley" between the strands of a rope or cable. Before serving a section of laid rope e.g. to protect it from chafing, it may be "wormed" by laying yarns in the cuntlines, giving that section an even cylindrical shape.
Cut and run: When wanting to make a quick escape, a ship might cut lashings to sails or cables for anchors, causing damage to the rigging, or losing an anchor, but shortening the time needed to make ready by bypassing the proper procedures.
Cut of his jib: The "cut" of a sail refers to its shape. Since this would vary between ships, it could be used both to identify a familiar vessel at a distance, and to judge the possible sailing qualities of an unknown one. Also used figuratively of people.
Cutter: 1. A small single-masted boat, fore-and-aft rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit. The mast is set farther back than on a sloop.; 2. A small boat serving a larger vessel, used to ferry passengers or light stores between larger vessels and the shore.; 3. In the 20th and 21st centuries, a small- or medium-sized vessel whose occupants exercise official authority, such as harbor pilots' cutters, United States Coast Guard Cutters, and UK Border Agency cutters.

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