Sailors -- Yo ho

job said:

... strong as a mainsail rope.

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I can point out that 'rope' on a ship is what you call it when it's all coiled up and not attached to anything. If it's being used for rigging, it's 'line'.

I'm no expert, but I think you need to familiarize yourself with nautical terms:

http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/gloss.htm

A google search will show other references.
Maybe some sailors aboard this thread can point you in the right direction.
Good luck.

job said:

Hi All --

I'm still depending on the kindness of sailors here ... Is this stuff going to make folks slap their foreheads?

This is 1810, England.


In the voice of a sailer --

. .. her dress slipping off her shoulders, her eyes glowing like lamps and the pull from her strong as a mainsail rope. Most lines were tarred to protect them from the elements..sun,salt, etc. Black hair?

"You have nice hair. It's the color of ropes on a ship, when they're dried out in the sun. You watch for it because the ropes lengthen up and you have to send the boys about tightening them to trim the sails. A good color. It means fair weather."


"Reef knot. That's the first one you learn on a ship." first knot and most important is a bowline



"This one's called a sheet bend. It's another one you use it for tying lines together



a double carrick bend. That was a complicated knot that took a long time




Said about a sailor --


He had thin scars across the palm of his hand. He'd got those reefing sail in a high wind when the lines cut into his flesh and the ship bucked and he had to hold on. One hand for the ship, one hand for yourself.



On a large merchant ship --


"Get the door, Tom," Sebastian ordered. The cabin boy scurried ahead, his bare feet slapping the planking. bare feet slapping the cabin sole.


Loud thumps in the passageway said Tom was back. "Is she dead?" The boy slammed the door to the wall and swung in, slopping water from the bucket.


He brought a pair of lanterns across the cabin, holding the two bails in one hand.



When he lifted a lantern up to the hook over the chart table



He rolled out of the bunk, thumped the floor boards and stood up fast.

She scrambled back, digging her heels into the covers, pulling the blanket with her. And came up flat against the boards of the wall.


"You have crates stacked all over." Three wood boxes were lashed to the wall. "I don't call myself an expert, but I'm almost certain these belong in that big, damp pit you've got down below. The hold, you seafaring sorts call it." (wall. that can't be right.) Bulkhead



Under the clank and rattle of Flighty and rain hitting the deck, he heard wheels on the wharf.



Her hair blew back in his face when the hatchway door opened and the outside cold rolled over them. companionway instead of hatchway



On a lugger --


Lots of men aboard. She could feel their footsteps on the deck boards. The underside of the rails needed scraping down and painting. It was blue sky past that, bright enough it hurt her eyes. Good weather for sailing.



"I said to cast off."
"We will, Mr. Ashton. We will. But we're not going anywhere on the slack of the tide." Hetch spat, showing his opinion of landsmen.



get the girl belowdeck with the others."



They caught her before she made it over the railing. Two of them slammed her to the planking, hard.



Down below, in the cargo deck, they twisted her arms behind her and pushed her into a locker built into the side of the ship and kicked it closed. They dogged down the door behind her and left her alone in the dark.



When he climbed out of the companionway, into the sunlight, he tripped over Hetch.



She scrambled along the black corridor up to the upper deck.



He found Jess near the wheel, sitting on the railing, her feet tucked in securely to keep her balance.



and finally -- what does it mean to ... 'stay one degree windward of something'.

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if the captian sees something, a reef, shallow water, a storm brewing, and his bearing is 270 degrees north, he might say 'bring her up to 275 north, helmsman, in order to avoid trouble. Windward simply means sailing into the wind. Pretty hard for the old square riggers to do. They mostly sailed on a beam reach or down wind. Hope what little bit I gave you helps. Anymore questions, just let me know.

One more thing. If you can get to a book store, pick up Royce's Sailing Illustrated. Should have everything you will ever want to know about old ships and old sailors.

I have just the book for you The Mariner's Dictionary Gershom Bradford MCMLII
PM me and we can arrange a book swap. It has all the sea words you could ever hope to use but I have to warn you its falling apart.

Job

Ok, here we go. Quote: Rope vs line-expect variables. USN seamen refer to rope as wire rope and line as fiber rope. (Hemp) It becomes more complex with the sailing faternity defining rope as raw material...WHICH BECOMES LINE WHEN CUT FOR SPECIFIC USE IN BOAT OPERATION. This includes anchor line, standing and running rigging. End quote. So, the way I see it is, it's rope if it's stored below, waiting to be used. It's line, if used for a specific purpose. Any purpose. Be safe and use the word line. Sounds more nautical anyway.

I can't find anything on the interior walls. I'd reccommend using interior planking. Or crates lashed to the ribs of the ship. Ribs secure the planking.

Rail or railing is fine. They're both the same thing.

Windward. If the square riggers, well any sailing ship, sails 100% to windward, the sails will back fill and the ship will be put in 'irons'. In other words, all forward motion will stop, with the likelyhood of actually sailing backwards in a strong blow. So, your quote of one degree windward of insolent, might not apply. Maybe use 'slow match', hot tar bucket, etc. to show a little emotion.

Those pictures of Adm. Nelson are outstanding!

And please don't take my word as gospel. I've been sailing for about ten years now, and still learn something new every time I go out.

Whenever you're saying above or below decks, it's always plural.

And like greg said, use the word, line. It's safer that way. Most sailors refer to it that way, anyway. And he's correct about staying windward...or else

re Sailors -- Yo ho

Okay...I don't know much about boats except what I read, but here we go...

the pull from her strong as a mainsail rope.

A "mainsail rope" would probably be a "mainsheet" or "main sheet." A "sheet" is the rope that holds a sail taut against the wind (in the right place, at the right angle, etc.). Every sail has at least one of them (a square sail has at least two).

He had thin scars across the palm of his hand. He'd got those reefing sail in a high wind when the lines cut into his flesh and the ship bucked and he had to hold on.

Lines usually weren't that thin, back then. Ropes that thin and that strong had to wait for synthetic materials. It would have been more common for a sailor's palm to be calloused hard--all of it. Or so I've read.


He rolled out of the bunk, thumped the floor boards and stood up fast.

If this was a warship, he didn't have a bunk unless he was an officer. The ships were too small, the crew too big. I can't speak for a merchantman--they had smaller crews.
There are no floors on a ship. His feet would presumably have thumped the deck.

(wall. that can't be right.)
I can't swear to it, but I suspect you're right. More likely a bulkhead--especially where the cargo is tied in place.


Her hair blew back in his face when the hatchway door opened and the outside cold rolled over them.
"Hatchway door" is a bit redundant. A hatch is a watertight door; the hatchway is the passage (however short) behind it. So it would be the hatch that opened.
***
The "slack tide" passage is ok, as far as my limited knowledge goes. A sailor might prefer the "ebb" of the tide, but I can't swear to that.
***

get the girl belowdeck with the others."

I believe it would be "belowdecks."

They dogged down the door behind her and left her alone in the dark.

I'm not sure how they would secure the door, but I don't think they'd "dog it down." That usually described something you did to a hatch to make it watertight, and the hatch had to be made for the job.


and finally -- what does it mean to ... 'stay one degree windward of something'.

Hmm. Well, "windward" means "upwind," or "toward the wind." But with relation to an object, you'd be more likely to talk about distances. "Keep us half a mile to windward," for instance. Or else you'd be describing a bearing--maybe with an object as a landmark. "Steer ten degrees to windward of that rock," for example. (The opposite would be "leeward," pronounced "looward.")
(Oh, and there's a good chance the sailors would prefer "a point to windward" in 1810--degrees were something navigators used more than working hands.)
Hooboy! And I probably missed a lot--I'm a landlubber who reads a lot. I suggest you find somebody who knows the sea, that can sit beside you and go over the whole thing in real time...

It's been decades since I've been in the USN ... and I've been sorta like not trying to remember

Now I don't know how they used these terms long, long time ago ...
But I'll still try to mess you up ...

x.)

get the girl belowdeck with the others."

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I can sort of still remember hearing stuff like:
- "Get your ass on deck for muster. Now!"
- "Get your ass below deck. Now!"

Maybe "the deck" is the deck that is topside for most of the length of the ship, like is exposed to the air. Well, that's the deck that we'd scramble to when told to "get on deck." If I remember right.

x.)

Down below, in the cargo deck, they twisted her arms behind her and pushed her into a locker built into the side of the ship and kicked it closed. They dogged down the door behind her and left her alone in the dark.

Click to expand...

A hatch frame (not sure if it's called a "frame" ) has dogs around its edges around its opening (around six of them, or more). A dog is a metal fitting to help secure a "water type door" (WTD), hatch, scuttle. A piece of metal that swings on one end (sorta a joint/bolt at that end attaches it to the frame), and the other end (the loose swinging end) goes over part of the hatch (door? ) and the more it is moved/swung over the edge of the hatch (door? ) the harder it is because that area is thicker. (You confused yet? )

A dog is in each corner and then another in the middle of each long side. We would close the hatch, and then hand tighten the dogs, and then tighten them down with a dogging wrench. A dogging wrench is like a foot-long, light pipe, or shorter. We'd stick an end of the hollow dogging wrench over an end of a dog, and then use the extra leverage to be able to easily tighten the dog (which moves it over a thicker part of the hatch). That would force the hatch tighter against a rubber gasket (forgot which had the gasket).

It'll probably be easier if you searched for a picture ("hatch", "dogging wrench", etc.) ...

aside: too bad you didn't ask about a "gull fetcher."


Remember this is all modern USN memories (well, it was modern some 30 years ago). And my memories ain't so good no more.

-brer

P.S. Now I also remember the heavy wrenches that we used to tighten down the nuts on the bolts for other hatches. I thought perhaps we called them "dogging wrenches" too.
Me memory is real bad. But I remembered to always sleep with one nearby (in case of a fire ...).