[MISC]: nautical terminology

Nautical Terminology

ACTION STATIONS
Prepare for action

AFLAME
Term for uncontrolled fire on board a ship.

AFT
Rear.

AFTCASTLE
Rear Castle; the structure rear of any main mast and in any event in the
rear half of a decked ship or other vessel, above the water line and
usually resembling a small chamber or cottage-like structure. Often
provided with a roof that is itself a deck.

ALL AHEAD
Maintain heading, increase speed. This command also means that ALL sail
or other propulsion is to be used to accelerate. Sometimes used in a
colloquial way in expressions such as "All Ahead slow" or "All Ahead on
my mark" by drag racing type Captains who want to try and get a
particular type of acceleration from a fine ship and finely honed crew
who can nicely regulate sail or drive use. example: "All ahead! Stand by
to repel boarders!"

ALL REST
Stop. This necessitates cessation of ALL rowing or other propulsion and
the furling of ALL sails followed probably by dropping the anchor(s) or
casting the appropriate spells.

ALL STRIKES
Everyone on board, ship's weapon crew or individual, lets loose
everything they have, either at a nominated target or at will selecting
their own target. Organised chaos.

ALTER COURSE PORT
Turn left

ALTER COURSE STARBOARD
Turn right

AMIDSHIPS
The middle of the vessel, below the top of the gunwhales and usually
considered to be above or at the waterline. Different ships might have
different exact meanings. Amidships can also be a term used for attack
from above in which case it means the centre area of a vessel seen from
above.

ANCHOR(S) AWEIGH!
Pull the anchor(s) up and get ready to move.

ASTERN
To the rear or happening at the rear. 

BATTERIES
On large vessels a battery is a grouping of multiples of a single type
of weapon, such as twin ballistae or three magic missile wands in a
turret. On smaller vessels batteries are almost always single weapons
that fire multiple missiles or shots at once.

BEAR [direction]
Begin turning to nominated direction. example: "Bear port! Prepare for all rest!"

BOW
Front.

BRIG
A room solely devoted to restraining and imprisoning prisoners or rebellious crewmembers.

BY THE BOOK
According to the accepted Law of the Sea (or Space) or more usually
according to the standard training or manual instructions. In the latter
case it is used as an explanation for unauthorised action by crew and is
the sole possible defence to acting without lawful authority, only when
the safety, security or welfare of the ship or crew is at stake.
Captains are sometimes said to go by the book if they are very strict.
More often Captains themselves will answer barracksroom lawyer
objections with the oft heard "Mister, on this ship I AM THE BOOK!"

BONE IN ITS TEETH
Bow-wave.

BY THE NUMBERS
Parading or manoeuvring the ship's complement in strict numerical
seniority senior to junior in a phalanx or other pre-arranged battle
order. For example a ship with many ballistae installed would have some
sort of "by the numbers" drill in which each ballista squad falls out
and lines up next to their immaculate (ha ha) weapon in perfect
formation (ho ho). By the numbers can also mean that the senior staff
such as the executive officers and other senior people leave or arrive
first. Thus the least senior crewman is the last to get shore leave
etc.etc. There is one exception to this in civilised navies on the World
of Mystery: evacuation of a delisting or wrecked vessel. REVERSE order
is then what is meant by "by the numbers"; this means there is every
chance that the Captain will go down with his or her ship.

CASTLE
A structure on a decked ship or other vessel, above the water line and
usually resembling a small chamber or cottage-like structure. Often
provided with a roof that is itself a deck. Think of ship Castles as
chambers above the decks and enclosed much as a room or small building
would be on land. On some exotic types of ship and other vessel the
resemblance to an actual castle is rather literal.

CAST OFF
Remove all ropes or other restraints holding the ship to a dock or wharf.

CEASE FIRE
Stop firing weapons and make the weapons safe ie deactivate or unstring
them. It is an order implying no further weapon action will take place
in the near future.

CLEAR ALL MOORINGS
Cast off, anchors aweigh and start moving. example: "Clear all moorings and all ahead slow."

CREW STRIKES
Direct all weaponsfire at enemy crew in preference to any other target. 

DECK
An open corridor or surface. Abovedecks is open to the atmosphere,
belowdecks is beneath the top decks of the vessel, ie under any covering
deck or roof.

DROP ANCHOR
Drop the anchor.

FIRE IN THE HOLD
General term for ugliness belowdecks. Includes actual fire, being holed
below the waterline, being boarded through a hole, or nasty damage to a
section of the ship belowdecks.

FISH
Submarine vehicle such as a SHARK SHIP, or a physical missile /
projectile / torpedo able to be fired by a submarine.

FISH IN THE WATER
Missiles incoming from enemy submarine (or spaceship).

FO'CASTLE or FO'CSLE or FOR'ARDCASTLE etc. ["FOLK-SULL"]
Forward Castle; the structure forward of any main mast and in any event
in the front half of a decked ship or other vessel, above the water line
and usually resembling a small chamber or cottage-like structure. Often
provided with a roof that is itself a deck.

FULL AHEAD [number]
Maintain heading, increase speed to given number in Thyatian Knots
[Movement points]. example: "Full ahead! Stand by to repel boarders!"

FULL ASTERN
Back up as fast as possible. Not an option in many craft unless they are
galleys or equipped with magical propulsion, paddles or oars.

GALLEY
The kitchen or cooking area on the vessel.

GENERAL ORDERS
General orders are orders which form rules for a realm's military or for
a trading company's vessels or in the event there is but a single vessel
for that vessel. These rules are to be applied on all occasions and
can't be countermanded as such as they form the backbone of the
operation of the ship. They usually include the most general possible
provisions and some specific provisions.

HARD [direction] or HARD A' [direction]
Turn to nominated direction as quickly as possible.

HATCH
A lockable or sealable door on a ship. Hatches are sometimes set into
floors and ceilings as well as into walls like landlubber doors.

HEAD
The latrine or cubicle where a tiny bit of privacy can be had whilst one
relieves oneself. Submarines always have them; ships don't.

HEAVE TO
Stop the ship and drop the anchor.

HOIST SAIL
Raise the sail.

HOLD
A type of shipboard chamber, used for storing or "holding" cargo.

HOLD FIRE
Stop firing weapons.

HULL STRIKES
Fire at an enemy hull.

JACK TAR, JOLLY JACK
Professional seaman, mariner or sailor.

JONES
A length of hemp rope thrown out of a ship. The length has floats
marking length measurements and it will float as it is dragged to allow
a rough measurement of tide, wave speed and short distances.

KISS THE BACKSIDE
Gently collide with (ram) the aft of another vessel, hopefully doing
minimal damage to your own craft and creating an easy bridge for your
marines to run across onto the other vessel.

MAKE SECURE
Fix up, lash down or otherwise store any loose item nominated or if
given as a general order, make the whole ship secure by preventing
anything from rolling or swinging around. To make the wheel secure is to
use whatever loop, lash, spell, item or mechanism the ship has to lock
the wheel into a pre-set position, often to make the ship either
maintain current heading or go in a huge majestic circle. The wheel is
also made secure on many vessels when they heave to for an extended
period.

MESS
The eating area or dining room on the vessel.

OLD MAN / OLD LADY
The Captain if male / female.

ORDER
An Order is a command of the Captain, or other officer. All orders on a
ship howsoever delivered if it be legal and whomever by are considered
orders of the Captain him or herself.

ORDER OF BATTLE
Standing orders given previously by the Captain and entrained by the
Mates and crew for use in the event of an unexpected battle or attack.

ORDERS OF THE DAY
Orders given each day at dawn or at beginning of first daytime Watch and
in full effect until specifically countermanded or replaced or until
Standing Orders take effect due to the occurrence of a particular event
or incident. Orders of the Day are often intended to free the Captain
from having to personally watch the whole vessel [which is often
impossible in any event].

PARKING
Deliberately settling a submarine on the seabed or a spelljammer on a
planet. A very dangerous manoeuvre for most vehicles.

PAY THE DEVIL
Repaint the keel ("devil") and by implication the rest of the underside of a ship.

PORT
Left.

PREPARE TO REPEL BOARDERS
Ship is about to be grappled, rammed or assaulted; crew is to be ready
for it in a disciplined and controlled manner.

PROW
The actual pointed or ram end of a vessel at the front.

RING THE CHANGES
Signal the change of watch with the ship's bell, chime, gong or magic system.

ROOM
A type of chamber fit for habitation. examples: Stateroom, Chart Room,
Scrying Room, Captain's Room, Mess, Galley, etc. In some cultures the
terms chamber or lot are used instead.

ROOSTER TAIL
Foam wake.

SHOUT OUT THE DEVIL
Measure another very close vessel by noting speed and heading and
numbercrunching its estimated length bow to stern by guessing its keel
length. This is done by shouting out the devil, ie shouting out the
numbers "ONE! TWO! THREE!" and so on until the measuring is stopped, to
estimate the length of the vessel with dead reckoning.

SQUARE AWAY
Tie nominated item down or lock the item up on a pallet or belowdecks in
a chamber sealed with a hatch or in a storage area of cubic dimensions.
Usually used with respect to pallets and rope and tackle ie tying things
to a pallet which is itself lashed to a deck or in a hold.

STANDING ORDERS
Orders which take effect absent any specific command of an officer
especially the Captain. A junior officer commanding crew apparently at
variance to standing orders need not be obeyed. It is a brave crewman
who disobeys on most vessels.

STARBOARD
Right.

STEADY
Maintain heading and speed.

TAKE SOUNDING
Dip a long chain or knotted rope into the water and measure how deep the
water is under the boat by measuring out the chain needed to touch the
bottom and shout out (sound) the result.

WATCH
A shift of on board workers, either a general division of the whole crew
or a group of officers and crew tasked with particular objectives almost
always of a menial or routine nature.

WEIGH ANCHOR
Pull the anchor(s) up and get ready to move.


(c) 2002 Alfred O'Meagher