Glossary
Vessels and Voyages
- Ballast
- Additional weight carried in a ship to provide stability, or to provide satisfactory trim fore and aft.
- Barque
- Sailing vessel with three, four, or five masts square rigged on all except the after mast which is fore-and-aft rigged.
- Brig
- Sailing vessel with two masts, square rigged on both fore and main.
- Bunker
- A compartment for storing coal below deck.
- Convoy
- Group of merchant vessels assembled for a passage and escorted by warships to protect them from enemy attack.
- Donkey engine
- Small winch used to reduce the number of men required weighing anchor, pump water and load or unload cargo.
- Dunnage
- inexpensive or waste material used to protect and load securing cargo during transportation.
- Forecastle [Fo’c’sle]
- The fore part of a vessel under the deck, where crew bunks were located.
- Merchant marine
- The ships and vessels belonging to a maritime nation and employed in commerce and trade.
- Poop
- The highest part of the vessel’s hull, forming a cabin over the quarter deck.
- Schooner
- Sailing vessel with two to six masts, fore-and-aft rig.
- Shifting Boards
- Boards placed in cargo holds to prevent cargo from shifting and endangering vessel stability.
- Ship
- Sailing vessel with three masts, all square-rigged.
- Stokehold
- The space in a ship’s furnace room where the fires were fed and cleaned. The stokehold was separate from the engine room.
- Tonnage
- The measurement of a ship that is not one of weight. It derived from cubic capacity. The principle ship tonnages were gross, net, deadweight and displacement. Gross tonnage referred to the total internal cubic capacity of the ship. Net tonnage was the gross tonnage minus the deductible spaces that did not produce revenue, for instance, spaces occupied by crew, propelling machinery and fuel. Deadweight was the tonnage which referring to the total carrying capacity of a ship in tons, including, cargo, fuel, fresh water and stores.
- Tramp
- A freight vessel that did not run in any regular line or to a schedule but took cargo wherever the shippers required. Tramp vessels were hired to carry cargo of any kind not requiring vessels of special design. They were chartered either for a particular trip or for a specific period of time.
