staff about half the length.

Pink. An obsolete name for a small sailing ship.

Pinnace. See Boats.

Port (or larboard). The left side of a ship looking towards the bow.

Post-captain. An obsolete title for a captain of three years' standing.

Proa. A small Malay vessel.

Quarter. The upper part of a vessel's side from abaft the main mast to
the stern.

Quarter gallery. A gallery is a balcony built outside the body of a ship:
at the stern (stern gallery) or at the quarters (quarter gallery).

Reef. A portion of a sail that can be drawn close together.

Rosaries. Strings of beads used by Roman Catholics in praying. Each bead
told (or counted) represents a prayer.

Scuttle. To make a hole in the bottom of a ship in order to sink it.

Serons (of dollars). A seron or seroon is a kind of small trunk made in
Spanish America out of a piece of raw bullock's hide.

Service (of a cable). The part next the anchor secured by cordage wrapped
round it.

Ship of the line. See Line.

Shrouds. The stout ropes that are stretched from a masthead of a vessel
to the sides or to the rims of a top, serving as a means of ascent and as
a lateral strengthening stays to the masts.

Sling. A rope or chain by which a lower yard is suspended.

Sprit-sail. A quadrangular sail stretched from the mast by the help, not
of a gaff along its top, but of a sprit (or yard) extending from the mast
diagonally to the upper aftmost corner of the sail, as in the case of a
London barge.

Sprit-sail yard. Another name for the sprit.

Standing rigging. The parts of a vessel's rigging that are practically
permanent.

Starboard. The right side of a ship looking towards the bow.

Stern-chasers. See Chasers.

Streaks (or strakes). Lines of planking.

Supercargo. A person employed by the owners of a ship to go a voyage and
to oversee the cargo.

Tacks ("got our tacks on board," chapter 17). Ropes for hauling down and
fastening the corners of certain sails.

Taffrail. The upper part of the stern of a ship.

Tie-wig. See Wig.

Tradewind. See Winds.

Transom. A beam across the stern-post to strengthen the after part of the
ship.

Traverse. To turn guns to the right or left in aiming.

Wake. The track left by a ship.

Warp. To move a vessel into another position by hauling upon a hawser
attached usually to the heads of piles or posts of a wharf.

Wear (a ship). To bring a ship about by putting the helm up. The vessel
is first run off