NAUTICAL TERMS TERMS RELATING TO NAVIGATION AND SEAMANSHIP WATER CRAFT 1. There are many terms and phrases employed by the nautical profession that should be understood by the yacht owner, the power-boat owner, and the men engaged in the operation of these craft. While not absolutely necessary to the motor-boat operator, a correct understanding of these terms will add much to the pleasure of boating, and at the same time will place him on the level occupied by the bestinformed yachtsman. As a rule, the terms vessel, boat, and ship are used indiscriminately by the public, and for this reason each will be briefly defined. 2. Boat in a broad sense, means any water craft; generally, it indicates a small open vessel or water craft moved by oars or paddles, but often by a sail or some power mechanism. Usually, the term boat is used in combination with some word descriptive of the use or mode of propulsion, such as rowboat, sailboat, motor boat, pilot boat, fishing boat, and so on. 3. By a vessel is meant a craft designed to float on the water, usually one larger than an ordinary rowboat, in fact any water craft constructed with a deck. This term may therefore be applied to any craft afloat larger than a rowboat. According to definition given by the Revised Statutes of the COPYRIGHTED BY INTERNATIONAL TEXTBOOK COMPANY ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 270-2 United States, the term vessel indicates every description of water craft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable. of being used, as a means of transportation on the water. 4. The term ship, on the other hand, means a large seagoing vessel usually with three or more masts carrying sails. In general, it means a vessel of considerable size, and suitable for deep-water navigation. A ship whose motive power is steam is termed a steamship and sometimes steamer. A ship or any large vessel is not properly designated a boat, which term should be used only when referring to open craft of small size, except when a special modifying word precedes the term, as in power boat, torpedo boat, towboat, etc. TERMS INDICATING POSITION AND DIRECTION 5. To assist in the explanation of the principal terms. relating to position and direction a representation of the deck plan of a vessel is shown in Fig. 1. The fore end of a boat or ship is designated as bow. The after part as stern, and the middle part, with regard to either length or breadth, is known as the midship section of the vessel. The foremost part of the bow that cleaves the water is known as the stem. The fore-and-aft line of a vessel runs from bow to stern or vice versa; it is known also as the longitudinal midship line. This line coincides with the direction of the keel and divides the vessel in two equal parts known, respectively, as the port and starboard sides, port being to the left and starboard to the right of a person looking from the stern toward the bow. The forward starboard side b is the starboard bow; the opposite side a is the port bow. Anything located toward the bows is said to be foreward, and any object near the middle of the vessel's length is said to be amidships; anything located toward the stern is said to be aft. The starboard side aft d is the starboard quarter, and the corresponding or opposite side c is known as the port quarter. Athwarthship means across the length of a vessel, or a direction perpendicular to any point along the fore-and-aft, or midship line. Abeam and abreast designates a direction at right angles to the vessels fore-and-aft line; also opposite the center of the vessel. 6. Anything situated so that its direction is parallel to the midship line is said to lie fore and aft; if at right angles to this line it is said to have an athwartship direction. In speaking of the position of any part relatively to another part the terms before and abaft are used in the sense of forward of and aft of, respectively. The direction from either side of the vessel toward the midship line is known as inboard, the reverse direction as outboard. Overboard is into the water from over the vessel's sides. Viewed from the vessel, an object in front of it is said to be ahead; one behind it is astern; while one opposite the middle part of the vessel is abeam or abreast. Again, the vessel is said to be abeam or abreast to any object fixed or floating. External objects lying between ahead and abeam are said to be on the bow, port, or starboard, as the case may be, while objects sighted between abeam and astern are said to be on the quarter. Dead ahead is a direction exactly perpendicular to the vessel's athwartship line. When an object is sighted dead ahead its bearing or direction from the vessel coincides with the direction of the keel or the fore-and-aft line. Dead astern is the opposite of dead ahead. When a vessel moves forward she is said to be going ahead; when moving in the opposite direction she is backing or going astern. Aloft refers to any part of a ship situated above the hull, particularly the higher, or loftiest, part of the rigging. Going aloft means going up in the rigging of a ship. 7. Compass Directions.-The apparent boundary between the sky and the sea, or between the sky and the land, that appears to be encircling an observer having an uninterrupted view, is known as the horizon. To designate the direction from the observer to any particular point on the horizon, or any point situated between the observer and the horizon, compass directions are generally used. The principal compass directions are north, south, east, and west, as shown in Fig. 2, where o represents the position of an observer. North and south, east and west are diametrically opposite directions, as indicated by the arrowheads, and the W N E spaces between the principal, or cardinal points, as they are often called, are divided into eight equal parts, making the whole circumference of the horizon to be divided into thirty-two points. The circumference bounding the horizon is divided also into 360° so that any direction may be expressed either in points or in degrees. Thus, the direction of the point x from o is north 4 points east or north 45° east, whichever expression may suit the purpose best. S FIG. 2 8. Name of Compass Points.-Each of the thirty-two compass points has a name and the process of repeating these names, as they occur on a compass card, in regular sequence from north around by way of east or west and back to north, also naming the points diametrically opposite any given point, is commonly known as boxing the compass. The method of naming the compass points is readily understood by reference to Fig. 3. Commencing from the north point at the top of the card and going around to the right, or in the direction in which the hands of a watch move, the names of the points are as follows: NORTH, north-by-east, north-northeast, north-east-bynorth, northeast, northeast-by-east, east-northeast, east-by-north; EAST, east-by-south, east-southeast, southeast-by-cast, southeast, |