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Nautical Nomenclature
Ship parts:
beam: width of the boat
bow: front end
bulkhead: wall
bunk: bed
cabin: bedroom
cowl vent: chimney to catch the wind and funnel air into the boat,
shaped like an empty cowlneck sweater. They can be turned to catch wind or
avoid rain.
galley: kitchen
hatch: a specific sort of door. Generally speaking hatches are on
horizontal surfaces (decks) whereas "doors" are vertical. Some doors
(cabin doors) look like house doors are called doors. Other "doors" are
watertight doors and have spinning handles (dogs) that seal them tightly.
Hatches are also constructed to be watertight and are "dogged down" to
seal them.
head: bathroom, and sometimes specifically the toilet
locker: a storage area. A hanging locker is a clothes closet with
hangers.
overhead: the ceiling
porthole:
the round windows characteristic of boats. Their small size, shape and
stout construction prevents their being smashed by waves. In this day and
age, wheelhouse windows are rarely round as the person steering needs to
see in a wide arc, but the Whalen's large rectangular wheelhouse
windows are protected by being higher up on the vessel than you ever want
to have waves hit. The Whalen's wheelhouse windows are effectively
three stories high.
spuds: essentially pilings that pierce the vessel, usually barges.
They pin a vessel in place while allowing it to float up and down with the
tide. (New York Water Taxi docks are spud barges.) The spud fits in a
spudwell (a sleeve) that prevents the water from entering the main body of
the vessel. In comparison, an anchor allows the vessel to swing in an arc.
We are being spudded since many neighborhoods lack piers, or have piers
without cleats and bollards (things to tie ships to).
stern: back end of the boat.
wheelhouse/pilothouse: the driver's seat; where the boat is steered
zincs: or "sacrificial anodes" are attached to the hull and other
important metal pieces (rudder, shaft) to protect the metal from corrosion
that results from electrical action in the water. The zinc is a weaker
metal than the steel or bronze of the boat you are trying to protect,
hence it is consumed by the electrical, corrosive energies first and is "sacrified"
as a way to save your necessary metal stuff. The Whalen will need
about 32 twenty-five pound zincs.
Spatial orientation:
aft: in the back (the galley is aft) or behind something
(aft of that porthole)
abeam: off the boat and opposite the middle of the boat (the rock was
abeam us when we saw it.) Compare to midships.
astern: behind the boat
forward: in front (life rafts are forward) or in front of something
(forward of that porthole)
heel: when a boat leans over on its side (as sailboats do most of
the time). Boats all rotate in space, unlike houses; and there is an
extensive vocabulary (heel, trim, pitch, roll, yaw, heave) to describe
their movements along different axis, but we won't tackle that all now.
midships: in the middle of the boat (your cabin is amidships). Compare
to abeam.
port: left (as in left or right side; or port and starboard on
boats).
starboard: right (as in left or right side; or port and
starboard on boats).
Ship Lifestyle:
paperwork: dreaded; one of the things
you went to sea to avoid, "that's for office people."
grub/provisions: food/groceries.
weather: often means bad weather, as in "we had some weather."
painting: a never-ending activity.
watch: your work shift. You stand watch, you don't work your
watch. On NYC tugs, captain's watches are from 6am-noon, and 6pm to
midnight. The mate gets the tougher midnight-6am and noon-6pm slots,
though they refer to it with the 24 hour clock system not a.m. and
p.m. as landlubbers do.
logbook: where all activities of the boat are recorded daily.
Weather, nature of the work, course (the ship's direction), visitors
and exceptional events are all recorded. On large vessels (tugs,
tankers, other ships) a separate log is often kept for the engine
room. When there is an accident, the first thing the Coast Guard
wants to see is the log book. (Compare to airplanes' "black box"
recorders except that aboard a vessel, the officers control what's
written.)