Ship Definitions Manual

Ship Definitions Manual

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Definitions

a. Introduction
This reference manual is intended to provide students with the most common definitions utilized
in the ship building industry.

i. Definitions
Abaft – Behind or farther aft; astern or toward the stern.
Abaft – Aft of; toward the stern from a designated location.
Abeam – At right angles to the centerline and outside a ship.
Aboard – On or in a vessel. Close aboard means near a ship.
Accommodation ladder – A portable flight of steps down a ship’s side.
Adjustable-pitch propeller – A propeller in which the individual blades are fastened to the hub,
in such a way, that they can on occasion, be twisted, or removed and replaced.
Admiralty – Body of law that deals with maritime cases.
Adrift – Loose from moorings, or out of place.
Aft – In, near or toward the stern of a vessel.
Aft – Toward, at or near the stern.
Aground – Resting on or touching the ground or bottom.
Ahead – Forward of the bow.
Aloft – Above the ship’s uppermost solid structure overhead or high above.
Amidships (or midships) – In middle position of ship along the line of the keel.
Anchor – A heavy forging or casting so shaped as to grip the sea bottom, and by means of a
cable or rope, hold a ship or other floating structure in a desired position regardless of wind and
current.
Anchor ball – Black shape hoisted in forepart of a ship to show that ship is anchored in a
fairway.
Anchor buoy – A small buoy secured by a light line to anchor to indicate position of anchor on
bottom.
Anchor cable – Chain, wire, or line running between anchor and ship.
Anchor light – White light displayed by ship at anchor. Two such lights are displayed by a ship
over 150 feet in length.

Appendages – The portions of a vessel extending beyond the main hull outline, including such
items as rudders, shafting, struts, bussing, and bilge keels.
Armored rope – Wire rope with center hemp core and a flat wire wound around outside of each
strand; used chiefly in salvage or similar work.
Astern – Toward the stern, an object or vessel that is abaft another vessel or object.
Athwardship – Across the ship, at right angles to the fore and aft centerlines _2.
Athwart – Athwartships at right angles to the fore and aft or centerline of a ship.
Auxillary – And assisting machine or vessel, such as an air conditioning machine or a fuel ship.
Auxillary Machinery – All machinery other than that required for propulsion.
Awash – So low in the water that the water is constantly washing across the surface.
Aweigh – Position of an anchor just clear of the bottom.
Backstay – A stay supporting a mast from aft.
Backwash – Water thrown aft by turning of ship’s propeller.
Balanced rudder – Rudder in which part of the blade surface is forward of the axis to help
offset water pressure on after part.
Balanced Rudder – A steering foil in which the turning stock is located close to the foils center
of lateral pressure.
Ballast – Heavy weight in the hold of a vessel to maintain proper stability, trim or draft. A ship is
in ballast when it carries no NCRG, only ballast.
Ballast Tank – A watertight enclosure that may be used to carry water ballast.
Barbette – Heavily armored cylinder within which turret rotates; extends from upper part of a
turret down to the lowest armored deck.
Barge – Craft used to haul material, as a coal barge; a power boat used by flag officers, as
admiral’s barge.
Barnacle – Small marine animal that attaches itself to sides and bottoms of hulls and to piers.
Barometer – Instrument that registers atmospheric pressure; used in forecasting weather.
Baseline – A work product or collection of work products, in the form of hardware, software,
data and/or documentation that requires formal or informal configuration change control during
the work product's life cycle.

Batten – Long strip of steel or wood that wedges the edge of a tarpaulin against the hatch.
Batten down – To cover and fasten down; to close off a hatch or watertight door.
Battle lights – Dim red lights that furnish sufficient light for personnel during darken ship
period.
Beacon – Conspicuous mark or structure used to guide ships.
Beam – Width; breadth; greatest athwart ships width of a vessel.
Bearing – Direction of an object, expressed in ° either as relative or true bearing.
Beaufort scale – A table of scales indicating various velocities of winds.
Becket – Circular metal fitting on a block; a rope eye or grommet.
Bell book – Book in which are entered the various speed and direction orders sent to the engine
room.
Below – Short for below decks; below the main deck.
Bend – A general class of knots used to join two lines together.
Bend on – To secure one thing to another, as bend a flag onto a halyard.
Berth – Space assigned a vessel for anchoring or mooring.
Bight – Middle part of a line as distinguished from the end and the standing part; a single
complete turn of line bend in a river or coastline.
Bilge – Lower part of vessel where waste water and seepage collect.
Bilge – Intersection of bottom and side. Maybe rounded or angular as in a chimed form hull.
The lower parts of holds, tanks and machinery spaces where bilge water may accumulate.
Bilge and Ballast System – A system of piping generally located in the holds or lower
compartments of a ship and connected to pumps. This system is used for pumping overboard
accumulations of water in holds and compartments and also for filling or emptying ballast tanks.
Bilge Keel – Longitudinal fin fitted at the turn at the turn of the bilge to reduce rolling.
Bilge Water – Stagnant water collected in the lower parts of a vessel.
Bill of Materials (BOM) – There are typically two BOMs, one is commonly referred to as the
engineering bill of materials (EBOM) the other is the manufacturing bill of materials (MBOM).
The EBOM contains all the materials, reflected on the parts lists, including any raw material

required. The MBOM contains solvents, materials and consumables used in executing the
manufacturing process. The MBOM is manufacturer dependent. In more contemporary
applications, especially those using PDM and or MRP systems, the BOM is typically expressed
as a product structure. The product structure typically conveys additional information such as
the system/product hierarchy, part orientation, version control schemes, traceability
(serialization), effectivity management etc.
Binnacle – Large stand used to house a magnetic compass and its fittings.
Binnacle list – Sick list; list of men excused from duty; in old days it was posted on or near the
binnacle.
Binoculars – Telescopic instrument used for distant seeing.
Bitt – Strong iron post on ship’s deck for working or fastening lines; almost invariably in pairs.
Bitter end – The utmost end of a line.
Blackout – Darkened ship; a period of unconsciousness.
Bleeder – A small cock, valve, or plug to drain off small quantities of fluids from a container or
piping system.
Blinker – Lamp or set of lamps, triggered to a telegraph key; used for sending flashing light
message.
Blister – Armored bulge in a warship’s side as protection against torpedoes.
Block – An item of deck gear made of one or more grooved sheaves, a frame (casing or shell),
supporting hooks, eyes or straps; may have metal or wood.
Block Coefficient (CB) – The ratio of the underwater volume of a ship to the volume of a
rectangular block, the dimensions of which are the length, beam, and draft.
Boat boom – A boom to which boats secure. It is swung out from the side when the ship is
anchored or moored.
Boat chock – A strong deck fitting that supports one end of a boat that is resting on deck.
Boat fall – Rigging used to hoist or lower a ship’s boats.
Boat gripe – Lashing used at sea to secure against the strongback a boat hanging from the davits
and away form the ship’s side.
Boat painter – Rope attached to the stem ringbolt of a boat; used for securing it. Also, there is a
short piece of rope secured in the bow of a boat; used for towing or making fast, not to be
confused with the sea-painter, which is a much longer rope.

Boat skid – Heavy wood and metal frame on ship’s boat deck used to support a boat’s keel.
Boat sling – Rope or chain for hoisting or lowering larger-size boats with a single davit or crane.
Boat station – Allotted place of each person when boat is being lowered.
Boathook – A wooden staff with a metal hook and a prod at one end; used to fend off or hold on.
Boatplug – Metal or wood plug used to stop up boat’s drain hole.
Boats – Small open or decked over craft propelled by oars, sails or some type of engine. This
term also applies to larger vessels built to navigate rivers and inland waters; calling a ship a boat
is not good navy talk.
Boatswain – Warrant officer in charge of deck work. (Pronounced “bosun”)
Boatswain’s call – See boatswain’s pipe.
Boatswain’s chair – Line secured board on which a man sits as he works aloft or over the side.
Boatswain’s locker – The compartment where the deck gear is stowed.
Boatswain’s pipe – Small, shrill silver whistle used by boatswain’s mate to pass a call or pipe
the side. Never say “boatswain’s whistle”.
Body Plan – A drawing consisting of two half transverse elevations or end views of a ship, both
having a common vertical centerline, so that the right hand side represents the ship as seen from
ahead and the left hand side as seen from astern. On the body plan appear the forms of the
various cross sections, the curvature of the deck lines at the sides, and the projections, as straight
lines of the waterlines, the buttock lines, and the diagonal lines.
Bollard – Wooden or iron post on a pier or wharf to which mooring lines are secured.
Booby Hatch – An access way hatch in a weather deck, protected by a hood, from the sea and
weather, also called a companionway.
Boom – Projecting spar or pole that provides an outreach for extending the foot of sails, or for
mooring boats, handling cargo and so on. Rigged horizontally or nearly so.
Boom – A long, round spar hinged at its lower end, usually to a mast, and supported by a wire
rope or tackle from aloft to the upper end of the boom. Cargo, stores, etc., are lifted by tackle
leading from the upper end of the boom, also, the spar at the bottom of a fore and aft sail.
Boom Crutch – A term applied to a light structure built up from a deck to support the free end of
a boom when it is not in use, also called a boom rest.

Boom Table – A stout, small platform usually attached to a mast to support the hinged bearings
of booms and to provide proper working clearances when a number of booms are installed on or
around one mast, also called a mast table.
Boot topping paint – Special paint applied to boot topping area: both anticorrosive and
antifouling.
Boot toppings – Surface of the outside plating of ship or boat’s side between light and load lines.
Boottop, or Boottopping – The outer surface of the shell plating between light and load
waterlines.
Bossing or Boss – The curved swelling outboard portion of ships shell plating that surrounds and
supports the propeller shaft.
Bow – Forward section of a vessel.
Bow – The forward end of the ship.
Bow painter – See boat painter.
Bower anchor – Either or the two anchors usually carried at the ship’s bow. Most ships anchor
by using one of the bowers.
Bower Anchor – An anchor carried at the bow.
Bowline – One of the most used knots used to make a temporary eye in the end of a line.
Box girder – A large structural beam composed of four plates arranged in a rectangular
configuration in cross section.
Bracket – A plate used to connect rigidly two or more structural parts such as deck beam to
frame, or bulkhead stiffener to the deck or tank top.
Brake Horse Power – The power delivered by the prime mover before entering any reduction
gear.
Break – To unfurl a flag with a quick motion. In ship construction, an abrupt change in the fore
and aft contour of a ship’s main deck.
Break – The end of a partial superstructure such as poop, bridge, or forecastle where it drops to
the deck below.
Breaker – A small container for stowing drinking water carried by boats or rafts; a wave that
breaks into foam against the shore.
Breaking Flaps – Hinged plates, usually attached to a rudder that can be swung out so as to help
stop a ships forward motion.

Breakwater – Inclined bulwark-like structure on a weather deck to deflect seawater coming out
of the bow and moving aft.
Breast line – A mooring line running right angles from the ship’s fore and aft line.
Breast line – A mooring rope oriented at about a right angle to the length of the ship.
Breasthook – A triangular plate bracket joining port and starboard side stringers at the stern.
Bridge – Raised platform from which ship is steered, navigated, and conned; usually located in
forward part of the ship.
Bridge – A superstructure that at or near the ships mid-length.
Bridge Flying – The platform forming the top of the pilothouse.
Bridge house – A term applied to an erection fitted on the upper or superstructure deck of a ship.
The officers’ quarters, staterooms and accommodations are usually located in the bridge house
and the pilot house is located above it.
Bridge navigating – The conning station or command post of a ship.
Bridle – Span of rope or chain with both ends secured.
Brig – Prison on a ship or shore base.
Brightwork – Metal work that is kept polished rather than painted.
Broach – To be turned 90 degrees off course, usually owing to wave action from astern.
Broach to – Turning suddenly into the wind; to be thrown broadside in a surf.
Broad command pennant – Personal command pennant of an officer, not a flag officer,
commanding any of the following units: a division of battleships, aircraft carriers, or cruisers; a
force, flotilla, or squadron of ships or craft of any type; an aircraft wing.
Broad on the starboard beam or port beam – Bearing 090 ° or 270 ° relative to the bow of the
ship.
Broad on the starboard or pot bow – Bearing 045 ° or 315 ° relative to the bow of the ship.
Broad on the starboard or pot quarter – Bearing 135 ° or 225 ° relative to the bow of the ship.
Broadside – Simultaneous firing of all main battery guns on one side of a warship.
Broadside to – At right angles to the fore-and-aft line of a ship.

Broken Stowage – The spaces between and around cargo packages, including dunnage, and
spaces not usable because of structural interfaces.
Broken water – An area of small waves and eddies in otherwise calm water.
Brow – Large gangplank leading from a ship to a pier, wharf or float; usually equipped with
rollers on the bottom and hand rails on the side.
Brow – A watershed over an airport; also a small, inclined ramp to allow passage of people or
trucks over a hatch coaming or bulkhead doorsills, etc.
Buckler – Plating fitted into a port or a hawsepipe to prevent entry of water.
Buckler – A portable cover secured over the deck opening of the hawsepipes and the chain pipes
to restrict the flow of water through the openings.
Bulk Cargo – Cargo made up of commodities such as oil, coal, ore, grain, etc., and not shipped
in bags or containers.
Bulkhead – One of the vertical wall-like structures enclosing a compartment.
Bulkhead – A term applied to the vertical partition walls that divide the interior of a ship into
compartments and rooms. The various types of bulkheads are distinguished by their location,
use, kind of material, or method of fabrication, such as forepeak, longitudinal, transverse,
watertight, wire mesh, pilaster, etc. Bulkheads, which contribute to the strength of a vessel, are
called strength bulkheads, those that are essential to the watertight subdivision are watertight or
oiltight bulkheads, and gas-tight bulkheads serve to prevent the passage of gas or fumes.
Bulkhead collision or forepeak – The foremost main transverse watertight bulkhead. It extends
from the bottom shell to the freeboard deck and is designed to keep water out of the forward hold
incase of bow collision damage.
Bulkhead Deck – The uppermost deck up to, which the transverse watertight bulkheads are
carried.
Bulkhead, Afterpeak – A term applied to the first main transverse bulkhead forward of the
sternpost. This bulkhead forms the forward boundary of the afterpeak tank.
Bull nose – A closed chock at the head of the bow on the forecastle deck.
Bulwark – Raised plating or woodwork running along the side of a vessel above the weather
deck. Helps keep decks dry and prevents men and gear from being swept overboard.
Bulwark – Fore and aft vertical plating located immediately above the upper edge of the sheer
strake.
Bunk – Bed or berth, usually built in.

Bunker – Storage space for fuel.
Bunker – A place to store fuel. As a verb: to take on fuel.
Buoy – Floating marker anchored by a line to the bottom, which by shape and color conveys
navigational information; may be lighted or unlighted. Pronounced “boo-ee”.
Burdened vessel – The vessel, which by the rules of the road, must keep out of the way of
another vessel.
Burgee – Swallow-tailed flag.
Buttock – The intersection of the molded surface of the hull with any vertical longitudinal plane
not on the center line.
By the head – Ship’s appearance with a greater draft forward than aft.
By the stern – Opposite of by the head.
Cabin – Captain’s living quarters:.
Cable – (See anchor cable)
Cable jack – Crowbar-like tool used on forecastle for working the anchor cable.
Cable markings – A series of turns of wire or stripes of paint on certain links of each anchor
chain. They show the scope or amount of chain that has run out. In the US Navy the markings
are as follows: 20 fathoms-first studded link on each side of the shackle has turn of wire
around its stud, and is painted white. 35 fathoms-second studded link has 2 turns of wire
around its stud, and the 2 links on either side of the shackles are painted white. 50 fathoms-the
third studded link has 3 turns of wire around its stud, and the 3 links on either side of the shackle
are painted white. Thereafter for every 15 fathoms another turn of wire is added and another
shackle on each side painted white.
Cable-laid rope – Three or four plain-laid, three-stranded ropes twisted in the opposite direction
to the twists in each rope; used for ropes much exposed to water.
Caisson – Movable gate of a drydock cofferdam. (Pronounced “kay-sun”)
Calking, caulking – Burring or driving up the edges of steel plates along riveted seams to make
them water-tight; forcing a quantity of sealing material into seams of a deck or ships side to
make them watertight. (Pronounced “kawking”)
Camber – The arch in a ship’s deck that makes the centerline sections higher than the
extremities.
Camber – The rise or crown of a deck, arthwartship; also called round of beam.

Camel – Large fender float used for keeping vessel off wharf, pier, or quay; usually consists of
one or more logs.
Can buoy – Cylindrical, flat-=topped metal buoy.
Cap rail – The uppermost (usually flat) part of railing.
Capstan – A warping head with a vertical axis used for handling mooring and other lines. It may
have at its base a wildcat for handling anchor chain.
Capstan or capstan head – That part of vertical shaft windlass around which a working line is
passed.
Cardinal point – On of the four principal points of the compass-north, east, south and west.
Cargo Battens – Strips of wood fitted inside the frames to keep cargo away from hull structure;
also called sparring.
Cargo net – Heavy, square, rope net used for slinging cargo.
Cargo Port – Opening on a ships side for loading and unloading cargo.
Cargo whip – Rope or chain used with a boom and which is used for handling cargo. One end
has a heavy hook; the other end is rove through a block and taken to the winch. (Also called
cargo hoist, cargo rope)
Carry away – To break loose, tear loose, or wash overboard.
Carry on – An order to resume work or duties.
Casing, Engine – Bulkheads enclosing large openings through the decks above the engine and
boiler rooms. This provides space for the engine uptakes and access to these rooms, and permits
installing or removing large propulsion units such as turbines.
Cast – Act of heaving the lead into the sea to determine depth of water; to throw the ship’s bow
in one direction or another when getting underway.
Cast loose – To let go a line or lines.
Cast off – To throw off; to let go; to unfurl.
Cat’s paw – A quickly formed twist in the bight of a line by which two eyes are formed.
Catamaran – A boat with twin side-by side hulls.
Catapult – Shipboard mechanism for launching jet aircraft or drones.

Cathodic Protection – Protection of a ships hull against corrosion by superimposing on the hull
an impressed current provided by a remote power source through a small number of inert anodes,
also accomplished by fitting aluminum, magnesium, or zinc anodes in tanks or the underwater
portion of a ship, which waste away by galvanic action.
Catwalk – Elevated walkways between bridges; commonly found on tankers. Also called fore
and aft bridge, and monkey bridge.
Caulk – See calk.
Center Line – The middle of the ship, extending from stem to stern at any level.
Centerline – Imaginary line running from ship’s bow to stern.
Chafe – Wearing away the surface of a line, spar or chock by rubbing.
Chafing gear – Guard of canvas or rope around spars, hawsers, chocks or rigging to prevent
chafing.
Chafing Plate – Bent plate for minimizing chafing of ropes, as at hatches.
Chain cable – See anchor cable.
Chain grab – Same as wildcat.
Chain locker – Compartment in which chain cable is stowed.
Chain Locker – A compartment used for the stowage of anchor chain.
Chain of command – Succession of commanding officers through which command is exercised

from superior to subordinate. Also called command channel.
Chain pipe – Heavy steel pipe that leads the chain cable through the deck to the chain locker.
Chain Pipe – Pipe for passage of chain from windlass to chain locker.
Chain stopper – Short length of chain fitted with a pelican hook and secured to an eyebolt on
the forecastle; used for quickly letting go the anchor or for securing the anchor in stowed
position.
Chain Stopper – A device used to secure the chain cable when riding at anchor, thereby
relieving the load on the windlass, and also for securing the anchor in the housed position in the
hawsepipe.
Chains – Platform or general area on either side of forward part of a ship where leadsman stands
as he takes soundings.

Change Control – An element of configuration management, consisting of the evaluation,
coordination, approval, or disapproval, and implementation of changes to characteristics of the
product of a defined task.
Charley noble, Charlie noble – Galley smoke pipe.
Chart – Nautical map used as an aid to navigation.
Charthouse or chartroom – Compartment on or near the bridge for handling and stowage of
navigational equipment.
Check – To slack off slowly; to stop a vessel’s way gradually by a line fastened to some fixed
object or to an anchor on the bottom; to ease off a rope a little, especially with a view to reducing
the tension; to stop or regulate the motion, as of a cable when it is running out too fast.
Chine – Abrupt change in the transverse shape where a vessels side and bottom come together.
Chipping hammer – Small hammer with a sharp peen and face set at right angles to each other;
used for chipping and scaling metal surfaces. Also called scaling hammer or boiler pick.
Chock – Steel deck member, either oval or u-shaped, through which mooring lines are passed.
Usually paired off with bitts.
Chock – A heavy smooth surfaced fitting usually located near the edge of the weather deck
through which wire ropes or fiber hawsers may be led, usually at piers.
Chock, boat – A cradle or support for a lifeboat.
Chockablock – Completely full; full to the top.
Chronometer – An especially accurate timepiece, set to greenwich time; used for navigation.
Clamp down – Going over a deck with damp swabs; a lesser form of swabbing down.
Clap on – To clap on a rope means to catch hold in order to haul on it; to clap on a stopper or
tacke means to put on a stopper or tackle; to clap on canvas means to put on more sail.
Class – A description of a set of objects that share the same attributes and other characteristics.
Class Diagram – A state view of the systems representing a set of classes and their relationships.
Classification Society – An organization that formulates rules for the construction of ships,
monitors their construction and carries out inspections on ships in service to assure their
continued seaworthiness. (ex. Lloyds, ABS, DNV).
Clear hawse – To disentangle anchor cables when they are twisted around one another.

Cleat – A small deck fitting of metal with horns; used for securing lines; also called belaying
cleat, short piece of wood nailed to brow or gangplank to give surer footing.
Cleat – A fitting having two arms or horns around which ropes may be made fast.
Clinometer – Bridge and engine room instrument that indicates amount of a ship’s roll or degree
of list.
Close aboard – Nearby.
Clove hitch – A knot much used for fastening a line to a spar or stanchion.
Coaming – Raised framework around deck or bulkhead openings and cockpits of open boats to
prevent entry of water.
Coaming, Hatch – The vertical plating bounding a hatch for the purpose of stiffening the edges
of the opening and resisting entry of water below.
Cockpit – Well or sunken space in a boat for the use of boat crew or passengers.
Cofferdam – Empty space between two bulkheads separating two adjacent compartments. Its
purpose is to isolate one compartment from another, preventing liquid contents of one from
entering the other in the event one bulkhead loses its tightness.
Cofferdam – Narrow void space between two bulkheads or floor that prevents leakage between
the adjoining compartments.
Collision bulkhead – Watertight athwartships bulkhead a few feet abaft the stem; used to isolate
the damage due to a head on collision.
Collision mat – A mat used to temporarily close a hole in the ship’s hull below the waterline.
Colors – National ensign; distinguishing flag flown by a vessel to indicate her nationality. Also,
the ceremonies performed at a naval activity when colors are hoisted at eight o’clock and hauled
down at sunset.
Commission – To activate a ship or aircraft; a written order giving and officer his rank and
authority; the rank and authority itself.
Commission pennants – Long, thin 7-star pennant flown by a ship to indicate that the ship is
commissioned in the US Navy.
Companionway – Set of steps or ladders leading from one deck level to another.
Companionway – An access hatchway in a deck, with a ladder leading below, generally for the
crews use.

Compartment – Space enclosed by bulkheads, deck and overhead, corresponds to a room in a
building.
Compartmentation – The subdividing of the hull by transverse watertight bulkheads so that the
ship may remain afloat under certain conditions of flooding.
Compass – Instrument to indicate geographic directions.
Compass rose – Diagram of a compass card on a chart, assists navigator in laying out courses
and directions on chart.
Complement – Numbers, ranks and rating of officers and men as are determined by the chief of
naval personnel to be necessary to fight the ship most effectively, or to perform such other duties
as may be required.
Component – A discrete, operating element of a system that is supplied by a discipline specific

organization. A component corresponds to the level of system partitioning below a subsystem,
where most of the commonly occurring systems building blocks are found.
Computer Model – A model representing the behavior of a system (or parts thereof) that is
implemented in digital of analog computers (or both).
Computer System Configuration Item – A configuration item for computer software.
Computer-Aided Engineering (CAE) – Software based tools for supporting the analysis,
design, testing and documentation of systems components.
Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAM) – Software control of manufacturing processes,

including automation of fabrication, assembly, testing, and documentation.
Condenser – Device for converting exhaust steam from engines into water for re-use in the
boilers.
Conning tower – Heavily armored structure just forward of and slightly below the bridge, for
conning the ship in battle. Found on larger warships.
Cordage – General term for rope and line of all kinds.
Counter – Part of the ship’s side at the stern.
Country – The general area occupied by living quarters, such as officers’ country, wardroom
country, GPO country.
Coupling – Metal fitting at the ends of a length of fire hose.
Course – Direction steered by a ship.

Cow’s-tail – Frayed end of a rope.
Cowl – Bell or hood-shaped opening of a ventilator; it increases the amount of air forced into or
drawn out of the ventilator.
Cowling – Removable covering on aircraft, as over a cockpit or around an engine.
Coxswain – Enlisted man in charge of a boat; usually acts as helmsman. Pronounced “koksun”.
CPO – Abbreviation for chief petty officer.
Cradle – A stowage rest for a ship’s boat.
Crossing the line – Crossing the earth’s equator.
Crosstree – Superstructure member at top of a low mast or between two such masts; runs
athwartships.
Crows nest – Lookout’s stand high on a mast or crosstrees.
Customer – The party (individual, project, or organization) responsible for acquiring the product
Cutwater – Forward edge of the stem at and below the waterline.
Davit – Shipboard crane that can be swung out over the side; used for hoisting and lowering
boats and weights. Often found in pairs. Pronounced “day-vit”.
Davit – A crane arm for handling lifeboats, anchors, stores, etc.
Davy Jones’ locker – The bottom of the sea.
Dead ahead – Directly ahead of the ship’s bow; bearing 000 ° relative.
Dead in the water – Said of an underway ship that is making neither headway nor sternway.
Dead reckoning – Navigator’s estimate of ship’s position from the course steered and the
distance run.
Deadlight (ventilating deadlight) – And arrangement of baffles to permit air while preventing
the passage of light. Usually seen on navy ships as a circular device that fits into ports.
Deadrise – Arthwartship rise of the bottom of the hull.
Deadweight – The carrying capacity of a ship at any draft and water density. Includes weight of
cargo, dunnage, fuel, lubricating oil, fresh water in tanks, stores, passengers and baggage, crew
and their effects.
Deadweight tonnage – Difference between a ship’s light and loaded displacement.

Deck – On a ship corresponds to the floor of a building on land.
Deck – A platform in a ship corresponding to a floor in a building. It is the plating, planking, or

covering of any tier of beams either in the hull or superstructure of a ship.
Deck gang – Men of the ship’s deck gunnery department; all the deckhands.
Deck Height – The vertical distance between the molded lines of two adjacent decks.
Deck House – An enclosed erection on or above the weather deck that does not extend from side
to side of the ship.
Deck Machinery – A term applied to steering gears, capstans, windlasses, winches, and
miscellaneous machinery located on the decks of a ship.
Deck seamanship – Branch of seamanship embracing the practical side from the simplest
rudiments of marlinespike seamanship up to navigation; includes small-boat handling ground
tackle, steering, heaving the lead, signaling, etc.
Deck treads – Thin abrasive mats held to the deck by an adhesive compound; furnish a better
foothold , especially on wet decks.
Deck, Freeboard – Deck to which freeboard is measured; the uppermost continuous deck
having permanent means of closing all weather openings.
Deck, Platform – A lower deck, usually in the cargo space, which does not contribute to the
longitudinal strength of the ship.
Deck, Weather – Uppermost continuous deck with no overhead protection.
Deckhand – Seaman of the deck department.
Deckhouse – Structure built on an upper or weather deck; it does not extend over the full breadth
of the ship. Deckhouses are typical of smaller vessels.
Deep – The distance in fathoms between two successive marks on a lead line, as “by the deep
four”.
Deep six – A term meaning to dispose of by throwing over the side.
Deep Tanks – Tanks extending from the bottom or innerbottom up to higher than the lowest
deck. They are often fitted with hatches so that they may also be used for dry cargo in lieu of fuel
oil, ballast water, or liquid cargo.
Deeps – In a lead line, the fathoms which are not marked on the line.

Defect – A flaw in a system of system component that has the potential to cause that system or
component to fail to perform its required function.
Degaussing gear – Electrical gear which sets up neutralizing magnetic fields to protect the ship
from magnetic action mines. Pronounced “de-gow’sing”.
Deliverable – An item, agreed to be delivered, to a customer as specified in an agreement. This

item can be a system, a document, a hardware item, a software item, a service, or any type of
work product.
Deploy – Tactical term used for dispersal of troops; also disposition of ships into battle
formation.
Depth charge – Explosive charge used against submarines.
Derelict – Abandoned vessel at sea, still afloat.
Devils Claw – A turnbuckle device having two heavy claws designed to fit over a link in the
anchor chain for the purpose of securing the anchor chain.
Diesel – A type of oil-burning, internal combustion engine used on most ships and boats of the
navy.
Dinghy – Small, handy boat, 16 to 20 feet in length, propelled either by oars or sail.
Displacement, Light – The weight of the ship complete including hull, machinery, outfit,
equipment, and liquids in machinery.
Displacement, Loaded – The displacement of a ship when floating at its greatest allowable
draft. It is equal to the amount of water displaced and is the sum of the light displacement and
deadweight.
Displacement, Total – The weight of water that would be displaced by the volume of the hull
measured on the outer surface of the shell plating below the waterline.
Displacements – Weight of water displaced by a ship.
Distance line – A light line spanning ships engaged in underway refueling or replenishment.
Marked off in 20-foot lengths, it helps station keeping.
Ditty bag, ditty box – Small container used by sailors for stowage of personal articles or toilet
articles.
Dock – Artificial basin for ships, fitted with gates to keep in or shut out water; water area
between piers.
Dock trials – Four to six hour trial of main engines while ship is moored alongside a pier.

Dog – Small, bent metal fitting used to secure watertight doors, hatch covers, scuttles, etc.
Dogwatch – On of the two-hour watches from 1600 to 2000.
Doldrums – Areas on both sides of the equator where light and variable breezes blow.
Dolphin – Cluster of piles for mooring.
Dory – Small, flat-bottomed pulling boat, used chiefly by fishermen.
Double up – To increase the number of ship-to-pier turns of a mooring line.
Double-bottoms – Watertight sub-divisions of ship, next to the keel and between outer and inner
bottoms.
Doubling – Rounding a point of land for example, doubling cape horn.
Dowse – To take in or lower a sail; to put out a light ; to cover with water.
Draft – Depth of water from the surface to the ship’s keel; a detail of men.
Draft marks – Numeral figures on either side of the stem and sternpost, used to indicate the
amount of the ship’s draft.
Dressing ship – To display the national ensign at all mastheads and the flagstaff; full dressing
further requires a rainbow of flags bow to stern over the mastheads.
Drift lead – Sounding lead and line dropped over side of a ship to detect dragging the vessel.
Drogue – Floating anchor, usually made of spars and canvas;.
Ducts – Large sheet metal pipes that lead air from blowers to enclosed spaces.
Dunnage – Loose material placed in holds for cargo to rest on, or jammed between the cargo to
rest on, or jammed between the cargo to wedge it.
Dynamic Stability – The ability of a body to remain upright when subjected to various external
disturbing influences.
Ease her – A command to reduce the amount of rudder or helm.
Ease off – To ease a line; slacken it when taut.
Ebb tide – Tide falling or flowing out.
Echo sounder – Fathometer; device for measuring depth of water by sending out vibrations
which bounce back from the bottom. It measures time taken for the echo to return, and from that
distance is calculated.

Eddy – A small whirlpool.
Effective Length – A length sometimes used for speed power calculations and the coefficients
therefore. It is determined from the sectional area curve by excluding any abrupt tailing off at the
after end of the curve such as often occurs with single screw, cruiser-stern ships. In multiscrew
normal vessels, it is usually the waterline length, but in single-screw ships with either cruiser or
fantail sterns, it is usually the length from the forward perpendicular to about the middle of the
propeller aperture.
Elevator – Movable section of the tail of a plane, usually hinged to the stabilized and used to
head the plane up or down in flight. A lift for passengers and freight and aircraft.
Embark – To go on board a ship preparatory to sailing.
End on – Head to head or stem to stem.
Engine Casing – A vertical airshaft rising from over the engine room. It makes room for the
exhaust system, ventilation ducts, piping, wiring, and access ladder.
Engine order telegraph – Signaling gear for transmitting speed and direction orders from
bridge to engine room.
Engineering Change – Al alteration in the configuration of a configuration item or other

designated item after formal establishment of its configuration identification.
Ensign – Colors, national flag. Also junior commissioned officer in the navy. Pronounced “en
‘sin”.
Enterprise – A business or organization in its entirety.
Entrance – That portion of a ship’s underwater body forward of the parallel middle body or the
point at which the slope of the sectional area curve is zero.
Escape hatch – In general any hatch, usually small, that permit men to escape from a
compartment when ordinary mean of egress are blocked.
Even keel – Floating level; no list.
Even Keel – A ship is said to be in even keel when the keel is horizontal.
Expansion Trunk or Tank – A trunk extending above a space used for the stowage of liquid
cargo. The surface of the cargo liquid is kept sufficiently high in the trunk to permit expansion
without risk of excessive stress on the hull or of overflowing, and allow contraction of the liquid
without increase of free surface.
Eyebolt – A metal bolt ending in and eye.

Eyebrow – Curved metal are mounted above porthole, used to shed water.
Eyes – Foremost part of weatherdeck in the bow of the ship.
Fabricate – A process to hull material in the shops prior to assembly or erection. In hull work,
fabrication consist of shearing, shaping, scarfing, rabbeting, and beveling.
Fair – To smooth or fair up a ships lines; eliminating irregularities; also to assemble the parts of
a ship so that they will be fair, that is, without kinks, bumps, or waves.
Fair tide – Tidal current running in same direction as the ship.
Fair wind – A favoring wind.
Fairlead – An eye, block, or fitting furnishing a clear lead for a line. Pronounced “leed”.
Fairlead or Fairleader – A fitting used to preserve or to change the direction of a rope so that it
will be delivered on a straight lead to a sheave or drum.
Fairwater – A term applied to plating fitted around the ends of shaft tubes and strut barrels, and
shaped to streamline the parts, thus eliminating abrupt changes in waterflow, also applied to any
casting or plating fitted to the hull for the purpose of preserving smooth flow of water.
Fairway – In inland waters, an open channel or midchannel.
Fake – A single turn of line when line is coiled down.
Fake down – Coiling down a line so that each fake of rope overlaps the one underneath and
makes the line clear for running.
Fall – Entire length of rope in a tackle; the end secured to the block is called the standing part;
the opposite part, the hauling part. Also, the line used to lower and hoist a boat.
Falling glass – Lowering atmosphere pressure as registered by the barometer; normally a sign of
approaching bad weather.
False keel – Thin covering secured to lower side of main keel of ships; affords more protection.
Fantail – Main deck section in the after part of a flush-deck ship.
Fantail – The overhanging stern section of ships with round or elliptical after endings to
uppermost decks and which extend well abaft the after perpendicular. Also called counter. At
times a synonym for stern.
Fast – Snugly secured; said of a line when it is fastened securely.
Fathom – A six foot unit of length.

Fathom – A measure of length equal to 6 linear feet, used for depths of water and lengths of
anchor chains.
Fathometer – See echo sounder.
Feather – Turning the blade of an oar horizontally at the finish of a stroke to reduce resistance of
air or water; changing the pitch of a variable pitch propeller on an airplane to vary amount of bite
into the air.
Fend off – To push away; pushing away from a pier or another ship when coming alongside, to
prevent damage or chafing.
Fender – Canvas, wood, rope gear or old rubber tire used over the side to protect a ship from
chafing when alongside a pier or another ship.
Fender – The term applied to devices built into or hung over the sides of a vessel to prevent the
shell plating from rubbing or chafing against other ships or piers; a permanent hardwood or steel
structure which runs fore and aft on the outside above the waterline and is firmly secured to the
hull; wood spars, bundles of rope, automobile tires, woven cane, or covered cork hung over the
sides by lines when permanent fenders are not fitted.
Fiber rope – General term for cordage made of vegetable fibers such as hemp, manila, flax,
cotton or sisal.
Fid – A wooden marlinspike.
Fidley – The top of engine and boiler room casings on the weather deck. A partially raised deck
over the engine and boiler room casings, usually around the smokestack.
Figure-eight knot – Knot forming a large knob; easily tied.
Fire control – Shipboard system of directing and controlling gunfire or torpedo fire.
Fire control tower – May be either a separate structure or a part of the conning tower containing
fire control equipment; typical of major warships.
Fire main – System of pipes which furnish water to fireplugs.
First lieutenant – Officer in charge of cleanliness and general upkeep of a ship or shore station.
This is a duty not a rank.
Fix – Determination of a ship’s position by using one or more navigational methods.
Flag bag – Container for stowage of signal flags and pennants; rigged with different slots to take
the flags’ snaps and rings.
Flag officer – An officer of the rank of commodore or above; so called because he is entitled to
fly his personal flag which, by stars, indicates his rank.

Flagstaff – Small vertical spar at the stern on which the ensign is hoisted.
Flank speed – A certain prescribed speed increase over standard speed; faster than full speed,
but less than emergency full speed.
Flare – Outward and upward curving sweep of a ship’s bow; outward curve of the side from
waterline to deck level. Also, a blaze to illuminate or attract attention.
Flash burn – Burn received from the heat of explosion of a projectile or bomb or inflammable
liquid.
Flash plate – Protective metal plate over which the anchor cable rides. It is part of the forecastle
deck.
Flat-top – Slang for aircraft carrier.
Fleet – Organization of ships and aircraft under one commander; normally includes all types of
ships and aircraft necessary for major operations. Also, to draw the blocks of a tackle apart.
Flight deck – Deck on an aircraft carrier on which planes take off and land.
Floating drydock – Movable dock floating in water; ships of all sizes are floated into it and
repaired.
Flood tide – Tide rising or flowing toward land.
Flotsam – Floating wreckage or goods thrown overboard. See jetsam.
Fluke – Flat end of an anchor which bites into the ground.
Flush deck – Continuous upper deck extending from side to side and from bow to stern.
Flying bridge – A bridge extending out from the control tower.
Fore and aft – Running in the direction of the keel.
Forecastle – Upper deck in the forward part of the ship. Pronounced “foke-sul”; abbreviated
fo’c’sle.
Forecastle deck – Partial deck over the main deck at the bow.
Foremast – On a two-masted ship, the first mast abaft the bow.
Forestay – A stay supporting a mast from forward.
Forward – Toward the bow; opposite of aft.

Foul – Jammed; not clear for running.
Foul anchor – Anchor with its cable twisted around it.
Founder – To sink.
Frame – Ribs of a vessel.
Freeboard – Height of a ship’s from waterline to main deck.
Full speed – A prescribed speed that is greater than standard speed, but less than flank speed.
Funnel – Ship’s smokestack; stack.
Furl – Gathering up and securing a sail or awning; opposite of spread.
Gaff – Small spar abaft the mainmast from which the national ensign is flown when the ship is
underway.
Gale – A wind between a strong breeze and a storm; wind force 28 to 55 knots.
Galley – The ship’s kitchen.
Galley – A cook room or kitchen on a ship.
Gangplank – See brow.
Gangway – Opening in the bulwarks or the rail of the ship to give entrance; an order to stand
aside and get out of the way.
Gangway – A passage, side shell opening, or ladderway used for boarding or leaving a ship.
Gantline – A rope and a block on top of a mast, stack, etc., used to hoist up rigging, staging,
boatswain’s chairs, etc.
Garble – An unintentional mix-up of a message’s contents.
Gather way – To gain headway.
Gear – General term for lines, ropes, blocks, fenders, etc; personnel effects.
General quarters – Battle stations for all hands.
Gig – One of the ship’s boats designated for commanding officer’s use.
Gimbals – A pair of rings , one within the other, with axes at right angles to each other; supports
the compass and keeps it horizontal despite the ship’s motion.

Gipsey, gipsy – Cathead; drum on a horizontal shaft windlass or winch for working lines.
Glass – Barometer or quartermaster’s spyglass.
Glasses – Binoculars.
Go adrift – To break loose.
Grab-rope – A rope secured above a boat boom or gangplank; used to steady oneself.
Granny knot – A knot somewhat similar to square knot; does not hold under pressure.
Graphical User Interface (GUI) – Human-computer interface involving graphics and object
(icon) manipulation.
Grapnel – Small anchor with several arms; used for dragging for lost objects or for anchoring
skills or dories.
Gratings – Wooden or iron openwork covers for hatches, sunken decks, etc.
Graving Dock – A structure for taking a ship out of water, consisting of an excavation in the
shoreline to a depth at least equal to the draft of ships to be handled, closed at the water end by a
movable gate, and provided with large-capacity pumps for removing water; blocks support the
ship when the water is pumped out.
Grimm Propeller – A variation of the counter-rotating propeller in which the trailing unit
derives its energy from the spiraling water coming off the forward propeller and imparts it to
extended blade tips of opposite pitch.
Gripes – Metal fastenings for securing a boat in its cradle; canvas bands fitted with thimbles in
their ends and passed form the davit heads over and under the boat for securing for sea.
Grommet – Ring of rope formed by a single strand laid three times around a metal ring set in
canvas, cloth, or plastic.
Ground – To run ashore; to strike the bottom through ignorance, violence, or accident.
Ground tackle – Term referring to all anchor gear.
Gudgeon – Support for a rudder; consists of metal braces bolted to the sternpost and having eyes
to take the pintles, or pivot pins, on which the rudder swings.
Gudgeon – Bosses or lugs on sternpost drilled for the pins (pintles) on which the rudder hinges.
Gun mount – A gun structure with 1 to 4 guns; may be open or enclosed in a steel shield.
Enclosed mounts are not as heavily armored as turrets and carry no gun larger than 5-inch.
Gunwale – Upper edge or rail of a ship or boat’s side. Pronounced ”gunnel”.

Guy – A line used to steady and support a spar in a horizontal or inclined position.
Gyrocompass – Compass used to determine true directions by means of gyroscopes.
Gyrocompass repeaters – Compass cards electrically connected to gyrocompass and repeating

the same readings.
Gyropilot – Automatic steering device connected to the repeater of a gyrocompass; designed to

hold a ship on its course without a helmsman. Also called automatic steerer, iron mike, iron
quartermaster.
Hack chronometer – Spare or comparison chronometer, not quite as accurate as standard

chronometer.
Hail – To address a nearby boat or ship also a ship or man is said to hail from such and such a
home port or home town.
Half Beam – A dimension defining half the vessels width at the widest point.
Half hitch – Usually seen as two half hitches; a knot used much for the same purposes as a clove
hitch.
Half mast – Position of the ensign when hoisted halfway; usually done for a day or more at a
time in respect to a deceased person.
Half Siding – Half the width of the flat area of the keel.
Half-breadth Plan – A part of the lines drawing in which are shown the shapes of the
waterplanes, also called waterlines plan.
Halfdeck – Partial deck below main deck and above the lowest complete deck.
Halyard or halliard – Line used for hoisting flags or sails.
Hand lead – A lead weighing from 7 to 14 pounds secured to a line and used for measuring the
depth of water or for measuring the depth of water or for obtaining a sample of the bottom
pronounced “led”.
Hand rope – See grab rope.
Handy billy – Small, portable, power driven water pump.
Hangfire – Gun charge that does not fire immediately upon pulling the trigger, but some time
later.
Hardware in the loop Simulation – A type of dynamic simulation that includes one or more
actual system components operating in conjunction with simulated components.

Hatch – An opening in the ship’s deck, for communication or for handling stores and cargo.
Hatch (Hatchway) – An opening in a deck through which cargo and stores are loaded or
unloaded.
Haul – To pull.
Hauling part – That part of the fall of a tackle to which power is applied.
Hawsepipe – Tube through which an anchor chain is led overboard from the windlass wildcat on
deck through the ship’s side. Bolsters from rounded endings at the deck and shell to avoid sharp
edges. Stockless anchors are usually stowed in the hawsepipes.
Hawsepipes and hawseholes – The steel castings in the bow through which anchor cables run
are hawsepipes; the openings are hawseholes.
Hawser – Heavy line, 5 inches or more in circumference, used for heavy work such as towing or
mooring.
Head – Compartment of a ship having toilet facilities.
Head – Toilet; believed to be derived from “ship’s head”, when a small platform outside the
bulwarks near the bow was the only semblance of a sanitary facility.
Headreach – In a crash stop, the forward transfer of distance after start of the stopping
maneuver.
Headroom – Clearance between decks.
Headway – Forward motion of a ship.
Heave – To throw or toss; to pull on a line.
Heave ‘round – To revolve the drum of a winch or windlass so as to pull in a line or anchor
cable.
Heave away – An order to start heaving on a capstan or windlass, or to pull on a line.
Heave in – An order to haul in a line or anchor cable.
Heave short – An order to heave in on anchor chain until the ship is riding nearly over her
anchor.
Heave the lead – To employ the lead line.
Heave to – To bring the ship’s head into the wind or sea and hold her there by the use of engines
and rudder.

Heaving – Vertical transnational motion of a vessel.
Heaving line – A small line with a weight on one end; weighted end is thrown to another ship or
to a pier so that a larger line may be passed.
Heaving Line – A light rope that, when tossed ashore, allows shore personnel to pull a mooring
line from the ship to a mooring bit.
Heel – To list over.
Heel – The inclination of a ship to one side, also the corner angle, bulb angle, or channel,
commonly used to in reference to the molded line.
Helm – The helm proper is the tiller, but the term is often used to mean the rudder and the gear
for turning it.
Helmsman – The man at the wheel; the man who steers the ship.
High line – Line running between ships that are replenishing.
Historical Cost Database – A repository used to collect and make available cost data from prior
bids, projects etc. That is used to gauge the likely cost of new bids of similar scope and
complexity and assess organizational productivity.
Hitch – General class of knots by which a line is fastened to another object, either directly or
around it. Also, a term of enlistment (slang).
Hoist – Display of signal flags on halyard. Also, to raise a piece of cargo or gear.
Hoisting pad – Metal piece bolted to boat’s keel; has and eye to which hoisting rod is bolted.
Hoisting rod – Vertical metal rod bolted to hoisting pad; hoisting shackle is bolted to its upper
end.
Hold – Space below decks for storage of ballast, cargo, etc.
Holiday – An imperfection or vacant space in an orderly arrangement; spots in painting left

unfinished.
Holiday routine – Routine followed aboard ship on authorized holidays and sundays.
Horns – Horizontal arms of a cleat or chock; projecting timbers of a stage to which rigging lines
are secured.
Horse latitudes – Latitudes on outer margins of trade winds (around 30 ° north and south) where
prevailing winds are light and variable.

House – To stow or secure in a safe place; to run an anchor’s shank up into the hawsepipe.
Housing anchor – Anchor having on stock; houses itself in hawsepipe when hove in.
Housing chain stopper – Chain stopper fitted with a screw turnbuckle, used for securing anchor
in hawsepipe.
Hove taut – Pulled tight.
Hug – To keep close. A vessel might hug the shore.
Hull – Framework of a vessel, together with all her decks, deckhouses, inside plating, or
planking, but exclusive of masts, rigging, guns, and all superstructure items.
Hull down – Said of a distant vessel when only her stack tops and mast are visible above the
horizon.
Idler – Member of ship’s company who does not stand night watches.
Implementation – The process of translating a system element functional design into hardware
and/or software components that will satisfy the stated requirements.
Inboard – Toward the ship’s centerline.
Inboard – Inside the ship; toward the centerline.
Inboard Profile – A drawing that shows the interior arrangements, at least in part, of a ship. It is
what you would see if a giant saw where to cut the vessel along the centerline from end to end
and then remove the nearside.
Inclining Experiment – A procedure for determining the vessels metacentric height.
Inland rules – Rules enacted by congress to govern the navigation of certain inland wters of us
part of the rules of the road.
Inner Bottom – Top of the double bottom; consists of watertight plating.
Innerbottom – Plating forming the top of the double bottom; also called tank top.
Inshore – Toward land.
Inspection – Within the context of production, conformity evaluation by observation and

judgment accompanied as appropriate by measurement, testing or gauging.
Integrated Logistical Support (ILS) – A disciplined approach to the management and technical
activities necessary to integrate support considerations into system design: develop support
requirements related to readiness objectives, acquire the required support, and provide it during
the operational phase.

Integrated Product and Process Development – A systematic approach to product
development that achieves a timely collaboration of relevant stakeholders throughout the product
life cycle to better satisfy customer needs.
Integrated Product Team (IPT) – A group of people with complementary skills and expertise
who are committed to delivering specified work products in timely collaboration. Integrated
team members provide skills and advocacy appropriate to all phases of the work products’ life
cycle and are collectively responsible for delivering the work products as specified. An
integrated team should include empowered representatives from organizations, disciplines, and
functions that have a stake in the success of the work products.
Integrated Project Plan – A plan which integrates all the activities on a project to describe how
the project will be implemented using the project defined process. For larger projects, the
integrated project plan typically provides references additional lower level plans to address the
planning for the total scope of the project.
Integration – The merger or combining of two or more components or configuration items into
a higher level element, and ensuring that the logical and physical interfaces are satisfied an the
integrated system satisfies its intended purpose.
Integration Testing – A progressive set of tests accompanying the assembly of components into
a complete subsystem or system.
Intercardinal points – The four points midway between the cardinal points of the compass:
northeast, southeast, southwest, northwest.
Interface – A specifically defined physical or functional junction between two or more system
elements.
Interface Control Document (ICD) – A document that details the physical interface between
two elements, including the number and types of connectors, electrical parameters, mechanical
properties, and environmental constraints.
Interface Requirement – A requirement that defines the conditions of interaction between

items.
Notes:
1. Interface requirements include both logical and physical interfaces. They include,
as necessary, physical measurements, definitions of sequences of energy or
information transfer, and all other significant interactions between items.
2. There are interfaces between a system and things external to the system, and
between elements within a system. The latter include, but are not limited to,
interfaces between the end products and their operators or maintainers, the
interfaces between items that make up an end product, and interfaces between an
end product and enabling products of the associated processes.

3. For example, communications interfaces involve the movement and transfer of
data and information within the system, and between the system and its
environment. Proper evaluation of communications requirements involves
definition of both the structural components of communications (e.g., bandwidth,
data rate, distribution, etc. and content requirements (what data/information is
being communicated, why it is being moved among the system components, and
the criticality of this information to system functionality).
Interface Specification – A specification, derived from the interface requirements, that details
the required mechanical properties and /or logical connection between system elements,
including, the exact format and structure of the data and/or electrical signal communicated across
the interface.
Interior communications (IC) – Telephone or communication systems inside a ship.
International rules – The rules established by agreement among maritime nations and
governing the navigation of the high seas. Part of rules of the road.
Irish pennant – Unseamanlike, dangling loose end of a line or piece of bunting.
Island – Superstructure on an aircraft carrier; contains conning tower, navigation bridge, etc.
Item – In this standard, the entities that are implemented at the lowest level of the design
hierarchy will be collectively referred to as ‘items’. An item may be a hardware component, a
software unit, data (including training materials), or a manual procedure. Use of the term ‘item’
in this context should not be confused with the term ‘configuration item’ (which see).
Jack – Flag similar to the union of the national ensign; flown at the jackstaff when in port; plug
for connecting an electrical appliance to a power or phone line.
Jack-o’-the-dust – Enlisted man serving as assistant to the ship’s cooks.
Jackstaff – Small vertical spar at the bow of a ship from which the jack is flown.
Jacob’s ladder – Light ladder made of rope or chain with metal or wooden rungs: used over the
side and aloft.
Jettison – To throw goods overboard.
Jetty – A landing; small pier.
Jew’s harp – Anchor shackle; ring to which the anchor cable bending shackle is secured; found
at upper end of the anchor shank.
Jigger – Light handy tackle for general work about the deck.
Jury rig – Makeshift rig of mast and sail or of other gear, as jury anchor, jury rudder; any
makeshift device.

Kapok – Water-resistant fiber stuff packed into life jackets to make them buoyant.
Kedge – Anchor used for kedging; that is moving a ship a short distance at a time by taking one
of the anchors out in a boat, letting it go, and then hauling the ship up to it. If this is done merely
to change the heading of the ship, it is called warping. See warp.
Keel – Backbone of a ship, running from stem to sternpost at the bottom.
Keel – The principal fore and aft component of a ships framing, located along the centerline of
the bottom and connected to the stem and stern frames. Floors or bottom transverses are attached
to the keel.
Keel Blocks – Heavy blocks or concrete blocks on which the ship rests during construction or
dry docking.
Keel Draft – Vertical distance between the waterline and the bottom of the keel.
Keel, Flat Plate – The horizontal, centerline, bottom shell strake constituting the lower flange of
the keel.
Keelhaul – To reprimand severely.
Keelson – Timber or steel fabrications bolted on top of a keel to strengthen it.
Kenter shackle – A patent shackle used in connecting shots of anchor chain; similar to
detachable links.
Key Performance Parameters – A critical subset of the performance parameters representing

those capabilities and characteristics so significant that failure to meet the threshold value of
performance can be cause for the concept or system selected to be reevaluated or the project to
be reassessed or terminated. Each KPP has a threshold and objective value.
King post – Short mast supporting a boom.
Knife edge – Smooth, polished edge of the coaming against which the rubber gaskets of
watertight doors and scuttles press when closed; furnishes better watertight integrity.
Knock off – To cease what is being done; to stop work.
Knot – One nautical mile per hour (never say “knots per hour”, this would be the same as saying
“miles per hour per hour”) also, a knob, tie, or fastening formed with rope.
Lacing – Line used to secure canvas by passing through eyelets or grommets in the canvas.
Ladder – In a ship, corresponds to stairs in a building.
Landfall – First sighting of land at the end of a sea voyage.

Landlubber – Seaman’s term for one who has never been to sea.
Landmark – Any conspicuous object on shore, used for piloting.
Lanyard – A line made fast to an article for securing it; for example, a knife, lanyard, bucket
lanyard.
Lash – To tie or secure by turns of line.
Lay – A preliminary order, such as “lay aloft”, “lay below”, etc. Also, the direction of the twist
of strands of a rope.
Lead line – Line secured to the lead used for soundings.
Leading or sounding lead – Weight used for soundings; that is, for measuring the depth of the
water.
Leadsman – Seaman detailed to heave the sounding lead.
Lee – Direction away from the wind.
Lee helmsman – Assistant or relief helmsman.
Leeward – In a lee direction. Pronounced “lu’ard”.
Leeway – Drift of a vessel to leeward.
Left-handed rope – Twisted from right to left. Strands and cables are usually left-handed.
Let go by the run – Allowing a line to run free.
Lie to – Said of a vessel when underway with no way on.
Life buoy or life ring – A ring or u shaped buoy of cork or metal to support a person in the
water.
Life Cycle Cost – The total cost of the development, acquisition, operation, and logistical
support of a system over a defined life span.
Life jacket or life preserver – A belt or jacket of buoyant or inflatable material; worn to keep a
person afloat.
Lifeline – Line secured along the deck to lay hold of in heavy weather; line thrown on board a
wreck by a rescue crew; knotted line secured to the span of lifeboat davits for the use of the crew
when hoisting and lowering.

Lifelines – Lines or metal pipes stretched fore and aft along the weather decks to furnish
shipboard personnel safety against falling or being washed overboard.
Liferaft – Float constructed either with a metallic tube covered with cork and canvas, or made of
balsa wood or other suitable material.
Lighter – Small vessel used for working (loading and unloading cargo) ships anchored in harbor.
Lightship – Small ship equipped with a distinctive light and anchored near an obstruction to
navigation or in shallow water to warn shipping.
Line – Seagoing term for rope or cable; the equator.
Line officer – An officer who is eligible for command at sea.
Line-throwing gun – Small caliber gun which projects a weighted-at-one-end line a long
distance; surpasses a heaving line in gaining distance.
List – Inclination or heeling over of a ship to one side.
Lock – Compartment in a canal for lowering or lifting vessels to different levels.
Locker – Small metal or wooden stowage space; either a chest or closet.
Log – Instrument for measuring a ship’s speed through the water. Also, a short term for logbook.
Logbook – A book containing the official record of a ship’s activities and of other pertinent or
required data.
Logistical Support – An external system that provides services and supplies to the operational
system: may consist of a chain of stations extending from the factory to the operational sites.
Lookout – Seaman assigned duties involving watching and reporting to the OOD any objects of
interest; the lookouts are “the eyes of the ship”.
Loran – (long range navigation): a navigational system that fixes the position of a ship by
measuring the difference in the time of reception of two synchronized radio signals.
Lubber’s line – Line marked on inner surface of compass bowl to indicate direction of ship’s
bow.
Lucky bag – Locker for stowage of personal gear found adrift.
Magazine – Compartment used for stowage of ammunition and explosives.
Main battery – The largest caliber guns carried by a warship.
Main deck – Highest complete deck extending from stem to stern and from side to side.

Mainmast – Second mast from bow of a ship that has two or more masts. If a ship has but one
mast, that mast is considered the mainmast.
Maintainability – A characteristic of a system element that is expressed as the probability that

an item will be retained in or restored to a specified condition within a given period of time.
Manhole – Round or oval hole cut in deck, bulkhead, or tank top to provide access.
Man-of-war – Fighting ship; warship.
Manrope – Side rope to a ladder used as a handrail; rope hanging down on the side of a ship to
assist in ascending the ship’s side.
Maritime – Pertaining to the sea.
Mark – Call used in comparing watches, compass readings, or bearings; fathoms in a lead line
that are marked. Also, a model or type of a piece of equipment, as mark xi v torpedo.
Marlinspike – Pointed iron instrument used in splicing line or wire.
Marry – Placing two lines together, as in hoisting a boat; to sew together temporarily the ends of
two lines for rendering through a block.
Mast – Upright spar supporting signal yard and antennas in a naval ship. Also the term applied
to the hearing of cases of offense against discipline, or for requests or commendations.
Maximum Section Coefficient (Cx) – The ratio of the area of the maximum vertical transverse
section of the underwater body of a ship to the product of the waterline beam and the draft at that
section.
Meal flag – Echo flag, which is hoisted from port yardarm of a navy ship at anchor when crew is
at mess.
Meet her – An order to shift the rudder in order to check the swing of a ship during change of
course.
Mess – To eat; group of men eating together.
Mess cook – Enlisted man who performs duties in mess hall.
Messenger – Light line used for hauling over a heavier rope or cable; for example, the
messenger is sent over from the ship to the pier by the heaving line and then used to pull the
heavy mooring lines across. Also, an enlisted man who runs errands for the ood.
Midshipsman – A student officer.
Milestone – A scheduled event at which progress toward a defined goal is measured.

Mind your rudder – Warning to helmsman to watch his course carefully.
Misfire – Powder charge that fails to fire when the trigger has been pulled.
Mode – An operating condition of a function, sub function, or physical element of the system.
Model – A simplified representation of abstraction of reality used to mimic the appearance or

behavior of a system or a part of a system.
Modular Design – Organization of a system into a coherent set of tightly bound and weakly
interacting functional elements.
Molded Displacement – The imaginary weight of water that would be displaced by the volume
within the shell plating below the waterline.
Molded Lines – Line defining the geometry of a hull as a surface without thickness; structural
members are related to molded lines according to standard practice (unless otherwise shown in
drawings); for example, the inside surface of flush shell plating is on the molded line, also the
underside of deck plating.
Monkey fist – A knot, with or without a weight enclosed, worked in the end of a heaving line to
form a heavy ball to facilitate throwing the line.
Monohull – A single hull, in contradistinction to a catamaran or trimaran.
Moon Pool – A large opening through the deck and bottom of a drill ship at about amidships to
accommodate the major drilling operations.
Mooring – Securing a ship to a pier, buoy, or another ship; or anchoring with two anchors.
Mooring – Securing a ship at a pier or elsewhere by several lines or cables so as to limit its
movement.
Mooring buoy – A large, well anchored buoy to which one or more ships moor.
Mooring line – One of the lines used for mooring a ship to a pier, wharf, or another ship.
Mooring Ring – A round oval casting inserted in the bulwark plating through which the mooring
lines, or hawsers, are passed.
Mooring Winch – A mechanical device for controlling lines or cables used to secure the ship to
the wharf.
Morse code – Code of dots and dashes used in radio and visual signaling.
Motor launch – Large, sturdily built powerboat used for liberty parties and heavy workloads.

Motor whaleboat – A 26-foot powerboat pointed at both ends.
Mousing – Small stuff seized across a hook to prevent unhooking.
Mushroom Anchor – A stockless anchor resembling in shape to an inverted mushroom.
Muster – To assemble the crew; roll call.
Nautical mile – 6080.2 feet or about a sixth longer than a land mile.
Naval Architect – An engineer with specific competence in designing floating craft.
Naval stores – Oil, paint, turpentine, pitch and other such items traditionally used for ships.
Navigating Bridge – The control center of a ship.
Neap tide – Tide which twice a lunar month rises and falls the least from the average level; that
is the tide with the least amount of change from high to low, occurring every 28 days.
Need – A user related capability shortfall (such as those documented in a need statement, field
deficiency report or engineering change order or an opportunity to satisfy a new market or
capability requirement because of a new technology application or breakthrough, or reduce costs.
Needs may also relate to providing a desired service (e.g., system disposal).
Negative Stability – The condition of a floating body that will not return to its initial position if
slightly deflected, but will continue to move away from that position and possible capsize.
Nest – Two or more vessels moored along side one another; boat stowage in which one boat
nests inside another.
Net – A group of inter-communicating radio landline stations; a barrier of steel mesh used to
protect harbors and anchorages from torpedoes, submarines or floating mines.
Netting or snaking – Small stuff criss crossed and strung around the forecastles and fantails of
many ships. Extending up about two feet from the deck, it furnishes a life-saving device to
exposed personnel.
Nonconformance – Non-compliance with a relevant, mandatory (normative) requirement. For

example, a part that is found to be outside specified dimensions would be considered to be
nonconformant.
Not under command – Said of ship when disabled and uncontrollable.
Nothing to the right (left) – Order to the helmsman not to let the ship go to the right (left) of the
designated course.
Nun buoy – Cone-shaped buoy used to mark channels; it is anchored on the right side, entering
from seaward, and is painted red.

Oakum – A calking material made of old tarred, hemp rope fiber.
Oarlock – Device to hold oars when pulling a boat; also called rowlock.
Occult light – Light that is on as much as or more than it is off; differs from flashing light,
which is off more than it is on.
Officer of the deck – The officer on watch in charge of the ship.
Officer of the watch – See watch officer.
Off-the-shelf Product – Product that is already developed and available; usable either “as is” or
with modification.
Oil king – Petty officer in charge of fuel oil storage.
Oil skins – Waterproof clothing.
Oiler – A tanker, a vessel especially designed to carry fuel oil.
Oiling – Taking fuel oil on board.
Old man – Scaman’s term for the captain of a ship or other naval activity.
On the bow – Bearing of an object somewhere within 45 ° to either side of the bow.
On the quarter – Bearing of an object somewhere astern of the ship, 45 ° to either side of the
stern.
OOD – Officer of the desk.
Operational Simulation – A general category of simulation dealing with the operational aspects
of system behavior.
Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) – Field tests of a system, subsystem, or component
under realistic operational conditions for determining its effectiveness and suitability for
operational use. Also see sea trials.
Operator – An individual or organization that operates the system.
Order – Directive telling what to do, but leaving the method to the discretion of the person
ordered. See command.
Orlop – Partial deck below the lower deck; also the lowest deck in a ship having four or more
decks.
Out of trim – To carry a list or to be down by the head or stern.

Outboard – Toward the side of the vessel or outside the vessel entirely.
Overhang – Protection of ship’s bow or stern beyond the stern or sternpost.
Overhaul – To separate the blocks of a tackle; to overtake a vessel; to clear or repair anything
for use.
Overhead – On a ship, equivalent to the ceiling of a building ashore; ships have overheads
rather than ceilings.
Pad eye – Metal eye permanently secured to deck or bulkhead.
Painter – A line in the bow of a boat for towing or making fast.
Palm and needle – Sailor’s thimble made of leather and a large needle; used for sewing heavy
canvas or leather.
Paravanes – Torpedo-shaped devices towed on either side of ship’s bow to deflect and cut
moored mines adrift.
Parbuckle – Device for raising or lowering a heavy object along an inclined or vertical surface.
A bight of rope is thrown around a secure fastening at the level to which the object is to be raised
or lowered. The two ends of the rope are then passed under the object, brought all the way over
it, and led back toward the bight. The two ends are then hauled or slackened together to raise or
lower the object, the object itself acting as a movable pulley.
Parceling – Wrapping a rope spirally with long strips of canvas, following the lay of the rope
and overlapping like the shingles on a roof to shed moisture.
Part – To break, as of a rope or line.
Part – The lowest element of a physical or system architecture, specification tree, or system
breakdown structure that cannot be partitioned (e.g., nut, bolt, bracket, semiconductor).
Pass a line – To carry or send a line to or around an object, or to reeve through and make fast.
Pass the word – To repeat an order or information to all hands.
Passageway – Corridor or hallway on a ship.
Patent log – Device for measuring ship’s speed through the water. See taferail log.
Pay – To fill the scams of a wooden vessel with pitch or other substance.
Pay off – To turn the bow away from the wind.
Pay out – To increase the scope of anchor cable; to ease off or slack a line.

Peacoat – Short, heavy blue coat worn by enlisted men below the grade of CPO.
Peak – Topmost end of the gaff; from this point the ensign is flown while the ship is underway.
Peak tank – Tank in the bow or stern of a ship; usually for water ballast.
Peer Review – A review of work products under development, to identify defects for removal.
Peer reviews are usually informal, performed by peers of the individual(s) who generated the
work products.
Pelican hook – Hinged hook held in place by a ring; when the ring is knocked off, the hook
swings open.
Pelorus – Navigational instrument used in taking bearings; consists of two sight vanes mounted
on a hoop revolving about a dumb compass or a gyro repeater.
Pendant – Length of rope with a block or thimble at the end.
Pennant – Three sided flag or four sided flag that tapers off toward the end.
Performance – The degree to which a system or component can, within a given set of
constraints, accomplish it designated functions, such as speed, accuracy, etc.
Performance Parameters – The measures of effectiveness and other key metrics used to guide
and control progressive development.
Performance Requirement – A requirement that defines how well the system is required to
perform a function, along with the conditions under which the function is performed.
Period of Roll – The time occupied in performing one complete oscillation or roll of a ship as
from port to starboard and back to port.
Periscope – Optical instrument used to observe at a level above eye level.
Permeability – The degrees to which a damaged compartment can accept water.
Perpendiculars – Imaginary vertical lines drawn at the ends of the ship.
Physical Interface – The electrical, environmental, human, and physical requirements and
requirements constraints that exist at a common boundary between two or more system elements,
configuration items, or systems.
Physical Model – A direct representation of some or most of the physical characteristics of the
actual system or element under study.
Pier – A harbor structure projecting out into the water with sufficient depth alongside to
accommodate vessels.

Pigstick – A small spar that projects above top of mainmast; commission pennants are usually
mounted on this.
Pile – Pointed spar driven into the bottom and projecting above the surface of water; when
driven at the corners of a pier or wharf, they are termed fender piles.
Pilot – An expert who comes aboard ships in harbors or dangerous waters to advise the captains
as to how the ship should be conned; also a man at the controls of an aircraft.
Pintles – Pivot pins on which a rudder turns.
Pipe down – An order to keep silent; also used to dismiss the crew from an evolution.
Pipe the side – Ceremony at the gangway in which sideboys are drawn up and the boatswain’s
pipe is blown when a high ranking officer or distinguished visitor comes aboard.
Pitch – The heaving and plunging motion of a vessel at sea.
Pitch Angle – Degrees of twist of a propeller blade relative to a plane normal to the shaft.
Pitch Poling – The action of a boat capsizing end over end.
Pitching – The oscillatory (teeter-totter) motion of a vessel, with bow and stern moving
vertically in opposite directions.
Pivot point – Point in a ship about which she turns.
Plan of the day – Schedule of day’s routine and events ordered by executive officer; published
daily aboard ship or at a shore activity.
Planning Hull – A boat, which when running at speed, derives lift from the pressure of water at
the bottom.
Platform deck – Partial deck below the lowest complete deck; called first second etc., from the
top where there is more than one.
Plimsoll mark – A mark on the side of merchant ships to indicate allowed loading depths.
Pointer – Member of gun crew who controls vertical evaluation of a gun in aiming at a target;
that is, he positions the gun up and down see trainer.
Pollywag – Person who has never crossed the line (the equator).
Poop – A structure fitted at the after end of the upper deck.
Poop deck – Partial deck at the stern over the main deck.

Port – Left side of ship facing forward; a harbor; an opening in the ship’s side. The usual
opening in the ship’s side for light and air is also a port. The glass set in a brass frame that fits
against it is called a port light.
Port side – The left-hand side of a ship when looking forward. Opposite of starboard.
Port, Cargo – An opening in the side shell plating provided with a watertight cover or door and
used for loading and unloading.
Preliminary Design – The process of analyzing design alternatives and defining the architecture,
components, interfaces, and timing and sizing of estimates for a system or component.
Preliminary Design Review (PDR) – A review conducted to evaluate the progress, technical
adequacy, and risk resolution of the selected design approach for one or more configuration
items.
Preventer – Line used for additional safety and to prevent loss of gear under heavy strain or in
case of accident.
Pricker – Small marlinspike.
Privileged vessel – The vessel with the right of way. See burdened vessel.
Procedure – Step-by-step instruction to carry out an activity or a process.
Notes:
1. Procedures may or may not be documented.

2. When a procedure is documented, the term “written procedure” or “documented
procedure” is frequently used. The document that contains a procedure can be called a
“procedure document”.
Process – Set of interrelated or interacting activities, which transforms inputs into outputs.
Production Specifications – Product, process, and material specifications are documents that
describe the essential requirements for the production process.
Program – (1) a project; (2) a collection of related projects and the infrastructure that supports
them, including objectives, methods, activities, plans, and success measures. (see "project" for
contrast.).
Project – A managed set of interrelated resources that delivers one or more products to a
customer or end user. This set of resources has a definite beginning and end and typically
operates according to a plan. Such a plan is frequently documented and specifies the product to
be delivered or implemented, the resources and funds used, the work to be done, and a schedule
for doing the work.

Project Defined Process – A defined process used by personnel assigned to a project when
executing work on the project. It provides a basis for planning, performing, and improving the
project’s tasks and activities. A project may have more that one defined process (for example,
one for developing the product and another for testing the product).
Project Life Cycle – The period of time that begins when a project is conceived and ends when
the project completes. This life cycle is typically modeled in phases consisting of capture
business, develop/ acquire system, produce system, deploy system, operate system, support
system and dispose system. Depending on the specific project some or all of these life cycle
phases may be applicable.
Project Management – This term is interchangeable with program management, and includes
both the technical (engineering) and programmatic (e.g., cost, schedule), aspects of management.
Prolonged blast – Blast on the whistle of from 4 to 6 seconds’ duration.
Protective deck – Deck fitted with heaviest protective plating.
Prototype – A preliminary type, form, or instance of a product or product component that serves
as a model for later stages or for the final, complete version of the product. This model
(physical, electronic, digital, analytical, etc.
Can be used for the purpose of, but not limited to:
1. Assessing the feasibility of a new or unfamiliar technology

2. Assessing or mitigating technical risk
3. Validating requirements
4. Demonstrating critical features
5. Qualifying a product
6. Qualifying a process
7. Characterizing performance or product features
8. Elucidating physical principles.
Prototyping – A hardware and software development technique in which a preliminary version

of part or all of the hardware or software is developed and implemented as required to assess
technical feasibility, investigate timing, or other issues and to facilitate system user or operator
feedback in support of the development process.
Punt – Rectangular, flat bottomed boat usually used for painting and other work around
waterline of a ship.
Purchase – General term for any mechanical arrangement of tackle which increases the force
applied by a combination of pulleys.
Pyrotechnics – Chemicals, ammunition, or fireworks which produce smoke or lights of various

colors and types.

Quadrant – Metal fitting on rudder head to which steering ropes are attached.
Quadrantal correctors or spheres – Two iron balls secured at either side of the binnacle; help
compensate for ship’s magnetic effect on compass.
Qualification – The process of proving that a product or process meets all its requirements.
Qualitative – A means of discriminating between and prioritizing gradations of rank order or

severity (e.g., with respect to risk or failure impact assessments) using relative rather than
numerical terms; e.g., high, medium, and low.
Quality – The ability of a set of inherent characteristics of a product, product component, or

process to fulfill requirements of customers.
Quality Assurance – A planned and systematic means for assuring management that defined
standards, practices, procedures, and methods of the process are applied.
Quality Control – The operational techniques and activities that are used to fulfill requirements
for quality. (for contrast, see “quality assurance.”).
Quantitative – A means of discriminating between and prioritizing gradations of rank order or

severity (e.g., with respect to risk or failure impact assessments) using numerical terms; e.g.,
probability of occurrence expressed as a percentage, cost quantified in dollars, or schedule
measured in months.
Quarter – That part of ship’s side near the stern.
Quarter deck – That part of the main (or other) deck reserved for honors and ceremonies and as
the station of the OOD in port.
Quartering Seas – A series of waves approaching a vessel at 45 degrees of the bow or stern.
Quarters – Living space; assembly of the crew; all hands assembled at established stations for
muster, drills, or inspection.
Quarters – Living or sleeping rooms.
Quay – A wharf; a landing place for receiving and discharging cargo. Pronounced “key”.
Radar – (radio direction and ranging principle and method whereby objects are located by radio
waves; a radio wave is transmitted, reflected by an object, received and illuminated by an
oscilloscope or cathode ray screen.
Radar picket – Ship stationed at a distance from the main force for the purpose of picking up by
radar the approach of an enemy.
Radio direction finder – Apparatus for taking bearings on the source of radio transmissions.

Rail – Top pipe of the lifeline pipes that extend along various outboard sections of weather
decks; uppermost edge of a bulwark.
Rail – The rounded member at the upper edge of the bulwark, or the horizontal pipes or chains
forming a fence-like railing fitted instead of a bulwark.
Rail loading – A davit or crane supported boat while it is swung out and even with the deck.
Rake – Angle of a vessel’s masts and stacks from the vertical.
Raked Blades – Propeller blades that slope aft when viewed from the side.
Rakish – Having a rake to the masts; smart, speedy appearance.
Range – Distance in yards from ship to target; two or more objects in line to indicate direction.
Range of Stability – The angle of heel to which a vessel may go before capsizing.
Rank – Grade of official standing of commissioned and warrant officers.
Rat guard – A sheet metal disk constructed in conical form with a hole in the center.
Rate – Grade of official standing of enlisted men. A rate identifies a man by pay grade or level
of advancement; within a rating, a rate reflects levels of aptitude, training, experience,
knowledge, skill and responsibility. See rating.
Rating – Name given to an occupation which requires basically related aptitudes, training
experience, knowledge and skills. Thus the rating of yeoman comprises clerical and verbal
aptitudes, filing, typing, and stenographic skills, and knowledge of correspondence and reporting
forms, etc. Men in pay grades e-1, e-2 and e-3 are not considered as possessing ratings.
Ratline – Short lengeth of small stuff running horizontally across shrouds; used for a step.
Ready room – Compartment on aircraft carriers in which pilots assemble for flight orders.
Recognition – Process of determining friendly or enemy character of a ship, plane or other

object or person.
Reducer – Metal fitting between fire main outlet and hose coupling of smaller diameter.
Reef – Chain or ridge of rocks, coral or sand in shallow water.
Reefer – Refrigerator vessel for carrying chilled or frozen foodstuffs.
Reeve – To pass the end of a rope through any lead, such as a sheave or fairlead.
Regulatory – Required by law (international, federal, state or local).

Relative bearing – Bearing or direction of an object in ° in relation to the bow of the ship is
taken as 000 ° and an imaginary circle is drawn clockwise around the ship; objects are then
reported as being along a line of bearing through any degree division of this circle.
relative bearing 000° or 360° – Dead ahead.
relative bearing 101.25° – 1 point abaft starboard beam.
relative bearing 11.25° – 1 point on starboard bow.
relative bearing 112.50° – 2 points abaft starboard beam.
relative bearing 123.75° – 3 points abaft starboard beam.
relative bearing 135° – 4 points or broad on starboard quarter.
relative bearing 146.25° – 3 points on starboard quarter.
relative bearing 157.50° – 2 points on starboard quarter.
relative bearing 168.75° – 1 point on starboard quarter.
relative bearing 180° – Astern.
relative bearing 191.25° – 1 point on port quarter.
relative bearing 202.5° – 2 points on port quarter.
relative bearing 213.75° – 3 points on port quarter.
relative bearing 22.5° – 2 points on starboard bow.
relative bearing 225° – 4 points or broad on port quarter.
relative bearing 236.25° – 3 points abaft port beam.
relative bearing 247.5° – 2 points abaft port beam.
relative bearing 258.75° – 1 point abaft port beam.
relative bearing 270° – On port beam.
relative bearing 281.25° – 1 point forward of port beam.
relative bearing 292.5° – 2 points forward of port beam.
relative bearing 303.75° – 3 points forward of port beam.

relative bearing 315° – 4 points or broad on port bow.
relative bearing 326.25° – 3 points on port bow.
relative bearing 33.75° – 3 points on starboard bow.
relative bearing 337.5° – 2 points on port bow.
relative bearing 348.75° – 1 point on port bow.
relative bearing 45° – 4 points or broad on starboard bow.
relative bearing 56.25° – 3 points forward of starboard beam.
relative bearing 67.5° – 2 points forward of starboard beam.
relative bearing 78.75° – 1 point forward of starboard beam.
relative bearing 90° – On starboard beam.
Release – A particular version of a work product or set of related work products that is made
available for a specific purpose (for example, test release).
Relevant Stakeholder – A stakeholder that is identified for involvement in specified activities

and is included in an appropriate plan.
Relieving (the watch, the duty, etc. – To take over the duty and responsibilities, as when one
sentry relieves another. Those who relieve are reliefs.
Request mast – Mast held by captain or executive officer to hear special requests for leave,
liberty, etc.
Requirement – (1) a condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an

objective. (2) a condition or capability that must be met or possessed by a product or product
component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed documents.
(3) a documented representation of a condition or capability as in (1) or (2).
Review – Activity undertaken to determine the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the
subject matter to achieve established objectives.
Rig – General description of a ship’s upper works; to set up, fit out or put together.
Rig ship for visitors – Word passed as a warning to all hands to have ship and their persons in
neat order for expected visitors.
Rigging – General term for all ropes, chains, and gear used for supporting and operating masts,
yards, booms, gaffs, and sails rigging is of two kinds standing rigging, or lines that support but
ordinarily do not move; and running rigging or lines that move to operate equipment.

Riser – Vertical branch pipe; that is, a pipe going up and down between decks and having branch
connections or offshoots.
Risk – (1) the existence of uncertainty of reaching a goal with consequences of failing to reach
the goal. (2) the probability of suffering injury or loss.
Roll – The side to side motion of a ship at sea.
Roll – To impact cylindrical curvature to plate, also the transverse angular motion of the ship in
waves.
Rope – General term for cordage over one inch in diameter. If smaller, it is known as cord,
twine, line or string; if finer still, as thread or double yarn. It is constructed by twisting fibers or
metal wire. The size is designated by the diameter (for wire rope) or by the circumference (for
fiber rope). The length is given in fathoms or feet.
Ropeyarn Sunday – A time for repairing clothing and other personal gear.
Round line – Three stranded, right handed small stuff, used for fine seizing.
Rouse in – To haul in, especially by man power.
Rudder – A flat, vertical, mobile structure at the stern of a vessel; used to control vessel’s
heading.
Rudder – A device used to steer a ship. The most common type consist of a vertical metal fin,
hinged at the forward edge to the sternpost or rudderpost.
Rudder Stop – Rugged fitting on stern frame or a stout bracket on deck at each side of the
quadrant, to limit the swing of the rudder to either side. A rudder angle of 35 deg is the maximum
usually used at sea ( 45 deg on inland waterway vessels).
Rudderstock – A vertical shaft that connects the rudder to the steering engine.
Ruffles – Roll of the drum used in rendering honors.
Rules of the road – Regulations enacted to prevent collisions between water craft.
Runner – Line fastened at one end to a fixed object, such as an eyebolt, on deck and rove
through a single block. It has an eye on its other end to which a tackle is clapped on. The term is
also loosely applied to any line rove through a block.
Running bowline – Bowline made over the standing part of its own rope so that it forms a free
sliding noose.
Running lights – Lights required by law to be shown by ship or plane when underway between
sunset and sunrise.

Sail – The part of a modern submarine above the hull.
Salvage – To save a ship or cargo from danger; to recover a ship or cargo from disaster and
wreckage.
Samson post – In small craft, a single bitt amidships.
Sanity Check – An approximate calculations or estimation for comparison with a result obtained
from a more complete and complex process. The differences in value should be relatively small;
if not, the results of the original process are suspect and further analysis is required.
Scantling Draft – The maximum draft at which a vessel complies with the governing strength
requirements. Usually used when the scantling draft is less that the geometrical draft
corresponding to the freeboard calculated according to the load line convention.
Scantlings – The cross-sectional dimensions of a ships frames, girders, plating, etc.
Schilling Rudder – A proprietary steering system featuring a specially shaped rudder arranged
to turn at a wide angle.
Schneekluth Duct – A hull appendage fitted forward of a single screw propeller to minimize
variations in the wake entering the propeller.
Scope – Length of anchor cable out.
Scow – Large, open, flat bottomed boat for transporting sand, gravel, mud, etc.
Screw – The propeller; the rotating, bladed device that propels a vessel through the water.
Screw Propeller – The most common marine device for converting torsional energy into thrust.
Scull – To propel a boat by working an oar from side to side over the stern; to propel oneself in
the water by working hands and forearms in a figure eight motion.
Scullery – Compartment for washing and sterilizing eating utensils.
Scullery – Where the dishes, etc., are washed and dried.
Scuppers – Drains from decks to carry off accumulations of rainwater, condensation, or

seawater. Scuppers are located in the gutters or waterways, on open decks, and connect to pipes
usually leading overboard.
Scuttle – Small opening through hatch, deck, or bulkhead to provide access; similar hole in side
or bottom of ship; cover for such an opening; to sink a ship intentionally by boring holes in the
bottom or by opening seacocks.

Scuttle – A small circular or oval opening fitted in deck to provide access. When used for escape
and fitted with means whereby the covers can be opened quickly to permit exit, they are called
quick-acting scuttles. Sometimes used to refer to a air port.
Scuttlebutt – Container of drinking water, or a drinking fountain. Also, a rumor, usually of local
importance.
Scuttlebutt – A container for drinking water. A drinking fountain. Colloquially, rumors heard at
the drinking fountain.
Sea anchor – See drogue.
Sea bag – Large canvas bag for stowing a man’s gear and clothing.
Sea bees – Members of a navy construction battalion.
Sea chest – Sailor’s trunk; intake between ship’s side and sea valve or seacock.
Sea Chest – An enclosure, attached to the inside of the underwater shell and open to the sea,
fitted with a portable strainer plate. A sea valve and piping connected to the sea chest pass
seawater into the ship for cooling, fire, or sanitary purposes. Compressed air or steam
connections may be provided to remove ice or other obstructions.
Sea ladder – Rope, ladder, usually with wooden steps, for use over the side.
Sea lawyer – Enlisted man who likes to argue’ usually one who thinks he can twist the
requlations and standing orders around to favor his personal inclinations.
Sea marker – Dye for brightly coloring the water to facilitate search and rescue.
Sea painter – A long line running from well forward on the ship and secured by a toggle over
the inboard gunwale in th bow of a boat.
Seacock – Valve in a pipe connected to the sea; a vessel may be flooded by opening the
seacocks.
Seaworthy – Capable of putting to sea and meeting usual sea conditions.
Second deck – Complete deck below the main deck.
Section – A unit of a division.
Sectional Area Curve – A curved line showing, at any fore and aft location, the crossectional
area of the underwater hull form. The curve indicates how the displaced volume is distributed
along the length of the ship.
Secure – To make fast; to tie an order given on completion of a drill or exercise, meaning to
withdraw from drill stations and duties.

Secure for sea – Extra prescribed lashings on all movable objects.
Security – The safeguard and protection against access by unauthorized individuals or systems
to facilities, equipment, data and information and the assurance of available access by authorized
individuals or systems to the same.
Seize – To bind with small rope.
Seizing stuff – Small cordage for seizing.
Selection Criteria – A set of parameters chosen from the requirements that define the solution.
Each criterion is an essential attribute of the product related to one or more of its requirements.
Semaphore – Code indicated by the position of the arms; hand flags are used to increase
readability.
Sennet, sennit – Ornamental, braided, fancy ropework, formed by plaiting (inter-waeving) a

number of strands.
Sensitivity Analysis – A procedure for test the robustness of the results of a trade-off analysis by
examining the effect of carrying assigned values of the decision criteria on the result of the
analysis.
Service – Specifies the process requirements needed to deliver a total system solution, including
products and services, which satisfy a customer need. The products may include hardware,
software, data and procedures. The services may include the personnel and associated work
products to support deploying, operating, supporting (e.g., maintenance, training) and disposing
the system, as well as project management and/or related system integration services to assist in
contract acquisition and execution.
Service stripes – Diagonal stripes on the lower left sleeve of an enlisted man’s uniform denoting
periods of enlistments. Usually referred to as “hashmarks”.
Serving – Additional protection over parceiling, consisting of continuous round turns of small
stuff.
Serving mallet – Wooden mallet with a groove cut lengthwise in its head; used for serving large
rope.
Set – Direction of the leeway of a ship or of a tide or current.
Set taut – An order to take in the slack and take a strain on running gear before heaving it in.
Set the course – To give the helmsman the desired course to be steered.
Set the watch – The order to station the first watch.

Severity of consequence – A class of risk assessment where the impact of the risk occurring is
expressed in terms that describe the severity of the occurrence to the project.
Shackle – U-shaped piece of iron or steel with eyes in the ends through which a bolt passes to
close the u.
Shaft alley – Spaces within a ship surrounding the propeller shaft.
Shaft Bearings – Supports along the length of a propeller shaft.
Shaft Horsepower – The power delivered to the propeller shaft at the end next to the propulsion
machinery.
Shaft Tunnel, Shaft Alley – A watertight enclosure for the propeller shafting, large enough to
walk in, extending aft from the engine room to provide access and protection to the shafting in
way of the holds.
Shakedown cruise – Cruise of newly commissioned ship to test and adjust all machinery and
equipment and to train the crew as a working unit.
Shank – In a anchor, the straight section between the chain attachment and the flukes.
Shared Vision – A common understanding of guiding principles including mission, objectives,

expected behavior, values and final outcomes, which are developed and used by a group, such as
an organization, project, or team. Creating a shared vision requires that all people in the group
have an opportunity to speak and he heard about what really matters to them.
Sheave – Wheel of a block over which the rope reeves. Pronounced “shiv”.
Sheer – Longitudinal upward curve of a deck; amount by which the deck at the bow is higher
than the deck at the stern. Also, a sudden change of course.
Sheer – The longitudinal curve of a vessels decks in a vertical plane, the usual reference being to
the ships side; in the case of a deck having camber, its centerline sheer may also be given in
offsets. Owing to sheer, a vessels deck height above baseline is usually higher at the ends than
amidships.
Sheer off – To turn suddenly away.
Shell – Casing of a block.
Shell room – Compartment for stowage of projectiles.
Shellback – Man who has crossed the equator and been initiated.
Shift the rudder – An order to swing the rudder an equal distance in the opposite direction.
Ship – A general term for large oceangoing craft or vessels; to enlist or reenlist, as to ship over.

Ship’s company – All men and officers serving in, and attached to, a ship; all hands.
Shipshape – Neat, orderly.
Shore patrol – Naval personnel detailed to maintain discipline, to aid local police in handling
naval personnel on liberty or leave, and to assist naval personnel in difficulties ashore.
Shore up – To prop up.
Short blast – Whistle, horn, or siren blast of about on second’s duration.
Short stay – When anchor chain has been hauled in until amount of chain out is only slightly
greater than depth of water and ship is riding almost directly over the anchor.
Shot – Short length of chain, usually 15 fathoms.
Shove off – To leave, an order to a boat to leave a landing or a ship’s side.
Shroud – Side stay of hemp or wire running from masthead to rail to support the mast.
Sickbay – Ship’s hospital or dispensary.
Side lights – Red and green running lights carried on port and starboard sides respectively.
Sideboys – Non-rated men manning the side when visiting officers or distinguished visitors
come aboard.
Simulation – A general type of modeling that deals with the dynamic behavior of a system or its
components.
Single up – To reduce the number of mooring lines out to a pier preparatory to sailing; that is to
leave only one easily cast-off line in each place where mooring lines were doubled up for greater
security.
Sister hooks – Twin hooks on the same swivel or ring; closed, they form an eye.
Six Sigma – A set of tools for continuous improvement that helps analyze key processes and data
to reduce variation and imperfections. Six sigma tools are used in the fifth stage (continuous
improvement, or perfection) of the lean process.
Skeg – Continuation of the keel aft to protect the propeller.
Skids – Beams fitted over decks for stowage of heavy boats.
Skivvy – Slang for undershirt.

Slack – The part of a line hanging loose; to ease off; state of the tide when there is no horizontal
motion. See stand.
Slamming – Heavy impact resulting from a vessels bottom near the bow making sudden contact
with the sea surface after having risen on a wave. Similar action results from rapid immersion of
the bow in vessels with large flare.
Slings – Fittings for hoisting a boat or other heavy lift by crane or boom; consist of a metal ring
with four pendants. Two of these pendants are for athwartships steadying lines, the other two
shackle to chain bridles permanently bolted to the keel of the boat.
Slip – To let go by unshackling, as an anchor cable; space between two pliers; waste motion of a
propeller.
Slip – The linear distance between the pitch (or advance) and the actual distance the screw
propeller moves straight ahead through the water.
Small craft – Generally, all vessels less than small-ship size.
Small stuff – Small cordage designated by the number of threads (nine thread, twelve thread,
etc. Or by special names, such as marline, ratline stuff, etc.
Smart – Snappy, seamanlike.
Smokestack – A chimney through which combustion products are led from propulsion and
Auxillary machinery to the open air, also called funnel.
Smoking lamp – A lamp aboard oldtime ships used by men to light their pipes; now used in the
phrase “the smoking lamp is lit (or out)” to indicate when men are allowed (or forbidden) to
smoke.
Snipes – Slang for members of the engineering department.
Snorkel – Tube through which a diesel submarine breathes while submerged.
Snub – To check suddenly.
Software-embedded System – A hybrid combination of hardware, software and people, in

which the principle action is performed by hardware, with software providing information
processing and control. Usually operates in real time.
Software-intensive System – A systems consisting largely of networks, computers and users, in

which software and computers perform virtually all the system functionality. Includes all
automated information systems, and usually operates intermittently.
Sonar – (sound navigation and ranging): device for locating objects under water by emitting
vibrations similar to bounce back from anything in their path.

Sound – To measure depth of water by means of a lead line. Also, to measure the depth of
liquids in oil tanks, voids, blisters, and other compartment or tanks.
Sounding Tube – A pipe leading to the bottom of a bilge, doublebottom, deep tank, drainwell,
hold, or other compartment, used to guide a sounding line, tape, or rod to determine the depth
and nature of any liquid with in.
Sound-powered phone – Shipboard telephone powered by voice alone.
Span – Line made fast at both ends with a purchase hooked to its bight; wire rope located
between davit heads and set up by a turn buckle. Also, to bridge or reach across.
Spanner – Tool for coupling hoses.
Spar – Steel or wood pole serving as a mast, boom, gaff, pile, etc.
Spar buoy – Long, thin, wooden spar used to mark channels.
Specialty engineering – Engineering disciplines, which are typically responsible for addressing
specific critical requirements of a system, such as reliability, safety, human factors, security, etc.
These disciplines generally support the integrated product teams to ensure these requirements are
satisfied.
Specific Practice – An activity that is considered important in achieving the associated specific
goal. The specific practices describe the activities expected to result in achievement of the
specific goals of a process area. Every specific practice is associated with a capability level.
Specific practices are expected model components.
Specification – A document intended primarily for use in acquisition, which clearly and
accurately describes the essential technical requirements for items, materials, or services
including the procedures by which it will be determined that the requirements have been met.
Spectacle Frame – A large casting extending outboard from the main hull and furnishing
support for the ends of the propeller shafts in a multiscrew ship. The shell plating (bossing)
encloses the shafts and is attached at its after end to the spectacle frame. Used in place of shaft
struts.
Speed cone – Cone-shaped, bright-yellow signal used when steaming in formation to indicate
engine speeds.
Speed light – White or red light mounted high on a navy ship; indicates changes in speed at
night.
Speed-length Ratio – The number found by dividing the ships speed in knots by the square root
of the length in feet. A dimensionally dependent measure of relative speed.
Spike – To join two lines by tucking the strands of each into the other.

Spitkit – Derisive term for small, unseaworthy vessel.
Splinter screen – Protective plating around gun mount.
Spray Strip – A narrow longitudinal appendage fitted to the forebody of a high-speed boat to
deflect waves and suppress spray.
Spring – Mooring line leading at an angle of about 45 ° off centerline of vessel; to turn a vessel
with a line.
Spring Line – A mooring rope oriented at a small angle to the ships centerline.
Springing – A vibration of the complete vessel induced by wave forces in conjunction with the
ships elastic properties. More pronounced in ships having a high length-to-depth ratio.
Spur shore – Wooden spar used to hold vessel clear of a pier.
Squall – Sudden gust of wind.
Square away – To get things settled down or in order.
Square Propeller – A screw propeller in which the pitch equals the diameter.
Squatting – The increase in trim by the stern assumed by a ship when underway over that
existing when at rest.
Squilgee – Drier for wooden decks made of flat piece of wood with a rubber blade and a long
wooden handle. Pronounced “squeegee”.
Stability – The tendency of a ship to remain upright or the ability to return to the normal upright
position when heeled by the action of waves, wind, etc.
Stack – Ship’s smoke pipe. See funnel.
Stadimeter – Instrument for measuring distance from an object.
Staff officer – Officer of staff corps, as medical, dental, supply, etc. Whose duties are primarily
within his specialty and not of a military character. Also, a line officer when assigned to the
staff, or group of assistants, of a high ranking officer.
Staffing – The process of defining human resource needs, acquiring the resources, and
transitioning the resources to the organizations and projects where they are needed.
Stage – Platform rigged over ship’s side for painting or repair work.
Stakeholder – A group or individual that is affected by or is in some way accountable for the
outcome of an undertaking.

Note:
Stakeholders may include (but are not limited to) customers, contractors, associate
contractors, partners, suppliers/subcontractors, users, maintainers, governments, regulatory
agencies, and communities.
Stakeholder Requirement – A requirement that represents what stakeholders of a system need

or expect of the system products.
Stanchion – Wood or metal upright used as a support.
Stanchion – Vertical column supporting decks, flats, girders, etc; also called a pillar. Rail
stanchions are vertical are vertical metal columns on which fence like rails are mounted.
Stand – Condition of tide when there is no vertical motion. See slack.
Stand by – Preparatory order meaning “get ready” or “prepare to”.
Standard – Mandatory requirements employed and enforced to prescribe a disciplined uniform

approach to development.
Standard Parts – Parts and subcomponents that conform to a set of commercial standards: their
use results in reduced costs and high degree of interchangeability.
Standard speed – Speed set as basic speed by officer in command of a unit.
Standing Rigging – Fixed rigging supporting the masts such as shrouds and stays. Does not
include running riggings such as boom topping lift, vangs, and cargo falls.
Starboard – Right side of the ship looking forward.
Starboard Side – The right-hand side of a ship when looking forward. Opposite to port.
Statement of Work (SOW) – A description of contracted work required to complete a project.
Station keeping – The art of keeping a ship in its proper position in a formation of ships.
Stay – Piece of rigging, either wire or fiber, used to support a mast.
Steady – Order to steersman to hold ship on course.
Steerage way – Slowest speed at which a ship can be steered.
Stem – Upright post or bar at most forward part of the bow of a ship or boat. It may be a
casting, forging, welding or made of wood.
Stern – After part of a ship.

Stern sheets – Space in a boat abaft the after thwart.
Sternway – Backward movement of a ship.
Stopper – Short length of rope or chain firmly secured at one end; used in securing or checking a
running line.
Stove – Broken in; crushed in.
Stow – To put gear in its proper place.
Strake – Continuous line of planks or plates running the length of a vessel.
Strand – Part of a line or rope made up of yarns.
Strategy – A plan of action for a achieving a specific goal or objective.
Stream Anchor – An anchor carried t the stern.
Strength Deck – The deck that is designed as the uppermost part of the main hull longitudinal
strength girder. The bottom shell plating forms the lower most part of this girder.
Striker – Enlisted man in training for a particular rating.
Stringer – A term applied to a fore and aft girder running along the side of a ship at the shell and
also to the outboard strake of plating on any deck, also side pieces of a ladder or staircase into
which the treads and risers are fastened.
Strip ship – To prepare ship for battle action by getting rid of any unnecessary gear.
Strongback – Spar lashed to a pair of boat davits; acts as a spreader for the davits and provides a
brace for more secure stowage of lifeboat at sea.
Strut – Outboard column-like support of v-arranged supports for the propeller shaft. Used
instead of bossings on some ships with more than one propeller. Also, any short structural
member.
Stuelcken Gear – Heavy lift cargo gear consisting of a pair of freestanding masts, with a boom
hinged between them on the centerline capable of use either abaft or forward of the masts.
Subdivision – The technology of locating watertight bulkheads along the length of a ship so as
to confine flooding in case of damage to the shell. May involve decks as well.
Subsystem – A grouping of items that perform a set of functions within a particular end product.
Sucpper – Opening in side of ship to carry off water from waterways.
Superstructure – All equipment and fittings, except armament, extending above hull.

Superstructure deck – Partial deck higher than main, forecastle, and poop deck, and not
extending to the ship’s sides.
Supplier – (1) the entity delivering product(s) or performing services being acquired; or (2) an
individual, partnership, company, corporation, association or other service, having an agreement
(contract) with an acquirer for the design, development, manufacture, maintenance, modification,
or supply of items under the terms of a contract.
Survey – Examination by authorized competent personnel to determine whether a piece of gear

equipment, stores, or supplies should be discarded or retained.
Swab – A rope or yarn MOP.
Swamp – To sink by filling with water.
Swash plates – Plates pierced with a number of holes, fixed in tanks to prevent liquids from
moving too violently when ship rolls or pitches.
Swing ship – Moving the ship through the compass on different headings and make up a
deviation table.
Swivel – Metal link with an eye at one end, fitted to revolve freely and thus keep turns out of a
chain.
System – An aggregation of end products and enabling products to achieve a given purpose.
System Architecture – Specifies the system elements, which make up the system, and their
inter-relationships and interfaces, to meet the system requirements. Elements can represent
multiple levels of the system hierarchy from a segment level to a lower level subsystem. The
system elements, in turn, are implemented via hardware components, software units, and/or user
procedures..
System Block Diagram – A diagram showing the units of a system structure and their physical
relationships.
System Capability – A system engineering metric, which defines the system’s ability to achieve
the mission objectives. Examples of capability measures for a communications system might be
maximum data transmission rate, connectivity capacity, and connect/disconnect speed.
System Design – The process of defining the architecture, components, interfaces, and other
characteristics of a system of component.
System Design Drawings – The product of the development process, which provides sufficient
details, or other pertinent information on the system components, elements, parts, interfaces, etc.,
to permit the fabrication, production, assembly, integration, and testing of the system under
development.

System Effectiveness – A measure of the ability of a system to satisfy its intended operational
effectiveness uses when called upon to do so. System effectiveness is a composite view of how
the system performs under anticipated environmental conditions.
System Effectiveness Model – A computer simulation designed to emulate overall system

performance to aid in evaluating various system attributes and alternatives.
System Product – The result of the total effort required in developing, producing, and
integrating a system, including any Auxillary equipment required for its operation.
System Readiness Test – A procedure whereby a system goes through a test sequence prior to
operational use. Often using automated test equipment under operator control, to determine the
state of system readiness.
System Specification (A Spec) – A document which states the technical and mission
requirements for a system as an entity, allocates requirements to functional areas or configuration
items, and defines the interfaces between or among the functional areas.
System Test – Test of a complete, integrated system to evaluate the system’s compliance with its
specified requirements.
System Upgrade – A planned set of engineering and production changes in an operational

system designed to significantly increase its capability or reduce its operating costs, and extend
its useful life.
Tachometer – Mechanical device indicating shaft revolutions.
Tackle – Arrangement of ropes and blocks to give mechanical advantage; a purchase, that is, a
rig of lines and pulleys to increase available hauling force. Pronounced “take-el”.
Tackline – Short length of line used to separate flags in a hoist.
Tactical Diameter – The transverse distance effected by a vessel after start of the hard-over
turning maneuver. Measured when the heading has changed 180 degrees from original course.
Taffrail – A rail at the stern of a ship.
Taffrail log – Device which indicates the speed of the ship through the water. It is trailed on a
line from the taffrail and consists of a rotator and a recording instrument.
Tailshaft – The aftermost section of the propulsion shafting, in the stern tube in single-screw
ships and in the struts of multiple screw ships, to which the propeller is fitted.
Take a turn – To pass a turn around a cleat, bitts, or bollard and hold on.
Tank, Settling – Fuel oil used for separating entrained water from the oil. The oil is allowed to
stand for a few hours until the water has settled to the bottom, when the latter is drained or
pumped off.

Tank, Trimming – A tank located near the ends of a ship. Seawater or fuel is carried in such
tanks as necessary to change trim.
Tank, Wing – Tanks located well outboard adjacent to the side shell plating, often consisting of
the continuation of the double bottom up the sides to a deck or flat.
Taps – Bugle call for out lights at night.
Tarpaulin – Heavy canvas used as protective covering.
Task force – Temporary grouping of units under one commander; formed for purpose of
carrying out a specific operation or mission.
Taut – With no slack. Also, strict as to discipline.
Technical Review – An event at which the progress of the technical effort is assessed relative to
its governing plans and technical requirements.
Telephone talker – Man who handles a sound-powered phone during drills.
Tend – To man; direction the cable leads when ship is anchored.
Tender – An Auxillary vessel that supplies and repairs ships or aircraft.
Test – A method of verifying requirements, involving the execution of system elements and
analyzing test results against expected results.
Test Criteria – Standards by which test results are judged.
Test Procedure – Detailed instructions for the set-up, execution, and evaluation of results for a
given test case.
Testability – The extent to which an objective and feasible test can be designed to determine
whether a requirement is met.
That’s high – An order to cease hoisting.
Thimble – Iron ring grooved on outside for rope grommet.
Thole pin – Pin carrying a rope grommet fitting into gunwale of a boat; for use as a rowlock.
Threat – In military systems, the sum for the potential strength, capabilities, and intentions of an
enemy which can limit or negate mission accomplishment or reduce force, system, or equipment
effectiveness.
Three-watch System – A method for managing a ships in which three groups of seafarers share
each others duties, each working eight hours per day.

Thrum mat – Mat used to prevent chafing.
Thrums – Short strands of rope yarn stuck through a mat to make a rough surface.
Thrust Deduction – A restraining force arising from negative pressure on the stern caused by
propeller action.
Thrust Recess – A small compartment at the after end of the main engine room and forward end
of shaft tunnel, designed to contain and give access to the thrust shaft and thrust bearing.
Thruster – A mechanical device for providing (usually) a transverse force in order to help turn a
ship.
Thwart – Crosspiece used as a seat for a boat.
Tide – The vertical sea caused by gravitational effect of sun and moon.
Tier – To stow cable in chain locker.
Tiller – Short piece of metal or wood fitted into the head of the rudder and used to turn a boat’s
rudder.
Toggle – Wooden or metal pin slipped into a becket; furnishes a rapid release.
Tompion – Plug placed in muzzle of gun to keep dampness and foreign objects out. Pronounced
“tompkin”.
Ton – A unit weight, usually a long ton 2240 pound, or a metric ton about 2205 pounds.
Tonnage, Gross – An approximate measure of a vessel’s total volume. Under vessel

measurement rules of various nations, the Panama canal and the Suez canal, a measure of
internal volume of spaces within a vessel in which 1-ton is equivalent to 2.83 cubic meters or
100 cu ft. Under the international convention of tonnage measurement of ships (ICTM) 1969, a
standardized numerical value that is a logarithmic function of spaces within a vessel. Gross
tonnage according to ICTM is gt =k1v in which v is the total molded volume of all enclosed
spaces of the ship in cubic meters and k1 is 0.2+0.02 log10v.
Tonnage, net – An approximation to a vessels money earning volume. Net tonnage according to
canal rules is derived from gross tonnage by deducting an allowance for the propelling
machinery space and certain other spaces. Net tonnage according to ITCM is a logarithmic
function of the volume of cargo space, the draft-to-depth ratio, the number of passengers to be
accommodated, and the gross tonnage.
Tonne – A metric ton.
Tool – A mechanism used to assist an individual, or set of individuals, perform a process or

method. A development tool is typically used to support managing the development process,

and/or specifying, designing, implementing verifying a system or element. Examples may
include tools for configuration management, risk management, measurement, cost estimating,
requirements management, simulation and analysis, mechanical, electrical, and software design,
specialty engineering, and verification tools. Tools also include the data repositories for baseline
control, measurement, process assets, and other repositories to support capture of data from
execution of the enterprise processes.
Top – Platform at top of mast; to top a boom is to lift up its end.
Topping lift – Line used for topping a boom and taking its weight.
Topside or topsides – Above decks.
Tow – To pull through the water; vessels so towed. The usual towing vessels in navy talk are
tugs, not tow boats.
Towing lights – Special white lights displayed by a towing vessel at night.
Towing spar – Spar towed by navy ships in a fog as an aid to the ship astern in column. The
following ship can see the spar where it cannot distinguish the ship ahead. Also called position
buoy.
Traceability – The ability to identify the relationship between various artifacts of the
development process, i.e., the lineage of requirements, the relationship between a design decision
and the affected requirements and design features, the assignment of requirements to design
features, the relationship of test procedures and results to the original source of requirements.
Track – Path of a vessel.
Tracking – Keeping a gun directed at a moving target.
Trade Space – Constraints on the allowable solutions to be considered for a trade study, which
represent a selected subset of the total possible solution space. The constraints may limit the
allowable range of values for selected trade attributes, or limit solutions to be of a specific type.
The rationale for the selection of the trade space should be included in the trade study
documentation.
Trade Study – An evaluation of alternatives based on criteria and systematic analysis, to select
the best alternative for attaining determined objectives.
Trade-off Analysis – A formal analysis methodology, which provides a systematic procedure for
evaluating alternative courses of action. A process used to aid in the selection of the best
alternative for meeting a given objective.
Trades – Generally steady winds of the tropics that blow toward the equator. NE in the northern
hemisphere and SE in the southern.
Train – Auxillary vessels also to move a gun horizontally onto a target.

Trainer – Gun crew member who controls horizontal movement of gun in aiming it at a target.
Transom – Athwartship piece bolted to sternpost; planking across stern of square-sterned-boat.
Trice up – To hitch up or hook up, such as trice up a shipboard bunk.
Trick – Period of time a helmsman is at the wheel, as “to take a trick at the wheel.”.
Trim – Angle to the horizontal at which a ship rides; that is, how level the ship sits in the water;
shipshape.
Trimming tanks – Tanks used for water ballast. By flooding or emptying these tanks the ship
may be trimmed, that is, balanced in water at various angles.
Truck – Flat, circular piece secured at top of mast or at top of flagstaff and jackstaff. Also,
uppermost part of a mast.
Trunk – Vertical shaft.
Tumblehome – Amount vessel’s sides slant in from the perpendicular.
Turbine – High speed rotor turned by steam or other hot gases.
Turn to – An order to begin work.
Turnbuckle – Metal appliance consisting of a thread and screw capable of being set taut or
slacked and used for setting up standing rigging.
Turret – Heavily armored housing containing a grouping of main battery guns. It extends
downward through decks and includes ammunition handling rooms and hoists. See gun mount.
Two-blocked – When two blocks of a tackle have been drawn as closely together as possible.
Unbend – To cast adrift or to untie.
Uncover – To remove headgear.
Underway – A ship is underway when not at anchor, made fast to the shore, or aground. She
need not be actually moving; she is underway as long as she lies free in the water.
Union – Inner upper corner of a flag. See jack.
Unit – An entity in itself made up of one or more parts. The unit itself is a member part. Thus, 2
destroyers (units) form a section; 2 sections form a division; 2 divisions form a squadron.
Unit – A generic term that denotes the element level of a system architecture design that is
implementable. See also: component.

Unit Testing – Software testing at the lower levels of integration to determine the correct
functioning of a program module.
Universal Chock – A deck edge fitting through which a mooring line may be fed and which
allows easy passage of the line in any direction.
Up anchor – The order to weigh anchor and get underway.
Up and down – Perpendicular (pertaining to the anchor cable).
Up behind – An order to cease pulling and furnish slack rapidly so that gear may be belayed.
Up end – To stand an object on one of its ends.
Upper deck – Partial deck amidships above main deck.
Uptake – Enclosed trunk connecting the boiler(s) to the stack.
Uptake – A casing connecting a boiler or gas turbine combustion product outlet with the base of
the inner casing of the smokestack.
User – An individual or organization that uses the operational system to perform a specific
function. The user may perform other roles, such as acquirer, developer, or maintainer.
Validation – The activity associated with demonstrating that the as-built product or service
performs its intended functions (i.e., complies with the documented needs and requirements of
the stakeholders) when operated in its intended environment.
Value – Value is created by producers, but it is defined by customers. That is why we must be
careful to interpret value in terms of specific products and capabilities offered at specific prices
to specific customers. Otherwise, we could end up delivering a great product or service that
meets the wrong needs, or that nobody wants. This is pure waste. We must also think in terms
of the ultimate customers as opposed to internal partners.
Veer – To let anchor cable, line, or chain run out by its own weight. Also, when the wind
changes direction clockwise or to the right, it is said to veer.
Verification – The evaluation of a product or service against its specified requirements and
characteristics by one or more of the following methods:
1. Analysis-review product performance by simulation or assessing product application

results against expected values or mathematical/logical deductive reasoning.
2. Inspection-technical review by peers, independent parties, or stakeholders
3. Demonstration-application of the product that demonstrates some or all of its intended
function in representative environments and/or scenarios.

4. Test-analysis of actual results vs. Expected results using data recorded during execution
under defined procedures, intended to show compliance to product requirements
(performance and quality).
Version – An identified instance of an item.
Note:
Modification to a version of a product, resulting in a new version, requires configuration

management action.
Very well – Reply of a senior (or officer) to a junior (or enlisted man) to indicate that
information given is understood, or that permission is granted.
Very’s pistol – Type of pistol used to fire pyrotechnic charges.
Virtual Reality Simulation – A simulation that generates a three-dimensional visual

environment that responds to the observer’s position and viewing direction in real time.
Void – Empty space inside the armor belt for protection and for control of list and trim.
Voth Schneider Wheel – A proprietary kind of cycloidal propeller.
Wake – The track left in the water behind a ship.
Wake – The body of water that tends to follow a ship. It is set in motion by friction with the hull.
Wale shores – Stout timbers of various lengths used to prevent a drydocked vessel from toppling
over. They are rigged between the vessel’s sides and the sides of the drydock.
Walk back – An order to keep the gear in hand but to walk back with it toward the belaying
point.
Wall knot – Knot made at the end of a rope by back-splicing the ends, thus forming a knot.
Used for finishing off seizing and, on the end of a rope, to prevent the rope from unreeving.
Wardroom – Officers’ mess and lounge aboard a ship.
Warp – To move a vessel by a line or laid-out anchor, as “warp the ship into the slip” see kedge.
watch – A period of duty usually of four hours duration. Watches call for a variety of navy skills
and are of many types: quarterdeck watch, messenger watch, damage control watch, evaporator
watch, signal watch, radio watch etc.
watch and watch – Alternating four hours of watch time with four hours of off-watch time.
Most off-watch periods are of 8 to 12 hours’ duration.

watch officer – An officer regularly assigned to duty in charge of a watch or of a portion thereof;
for example, the ood, or the engineering officer of the watch.
Watch, quarter, and station bill – A large chart showing every man’s location in the ship’s
organization and his station in the various shipboard drills.
Watchcap – Knitted wool cap worn by enlisted men below CPO in cool or cold weather; canvas
cover placed over a stack when not in use.
water breaker – Drinking water cask or container carried in boats.
waterline – Point to which ship sinks in water; line painted on hull showing point to which ship
sinks in water when properly trimmed.
Waterline – The line of the water’s edge when the ship is afloat; technically, the intersection of
any horizontal plane with the molded form.
Waterlines Plan – A part of the lines drawing on which are shown the shapes of the waterplanes.
Water-logged – Filled or soaked with water but still afloat.
Waterplane – The area encompassed by a fixed vertical location in the hull form.
Waterplane Coefficient (CWP) – The ratio of the area of a waterplane divided by the product
of the ship’s length and beam.
Watertight integrity – System of keeping ship afloat by maintaining water-tightness.
Waterway – Gutter at side of ship’s deck to carry water to scuppers.
Waterway – A narrow gutter along the edge of a deck for drainage.
Wave-making Resistance – Inhibition to forward motion through the water arising from the
energy required to generate waves created by the hull.
Weather – Exposed to wind and rain to the windward, as “to face the weather,” or “to weather a
storm.”.
Weather cloth – Canvas spread for protection from wind and weather.
Weather deck – Portion of main, forecastle, poop, and upper deck exposed to weather.
Weather eye – To keep a weather eye is to be alert.
Weathertight – Ability to shed casual water, such as rain, that has no pressure.
Weedless Propeller – A screw propeller with extremely skewed blades.

Weigh – To lift the anchor off the bottom.
Weighting Factors – A multiplying factor, which “weights” the relative importance of each
selection criterion based on the relative importance of that criterion.
Well – Space in the double bottom of a ship to which bilge water drains so that it may be
pumped overboard; also space between partial superstructures.
Well deck – A low weather deck.
Wetted Surface – The area of the immersed shell plating, plus that of the appendages.
Whaleboat – Sharp-ended lifeboat, pulled by oars and / or fitted with sails; when equipped with
an engine it is called a motor whaleboat.
Wharf – Harbor structure alongside which vessels moor. A wharf generally is built along the
water’s edge; a pier extends well out into the harbor.
Wheel – Often used informally to mean propeller. Also, steering wheel.
Wheelhouse – Pilothouse; the topside compartment where on most ships the ood, helmsman,
quartermaster of the watch, etc. Stand their watches.
Wheelhouse – Another name for the control center of the ship.
Where away – Answering call requesting location of object sighted by lookout.
Wherry – Small pulling boat 13 to 14 feet long.
Whip – In cargo handling, the wire leading to the hook by which the draft of cargo is being
hoisted.
Whipping – Keeping the ends of a rope from unlaying by wrapping with turns of twine and
tucking the ends.
White Box Testing – Tests based on the known characteristics of the component tested.
Wildcat – Sprocket wheel on windlass for taking the links of the chain cable.
Wildcat – A special type of cog-like windlass drum whose faces are formed to fit the links of the
anchor chain. The rotating wildcat causes the chain to be slacked off when lowering the anchor,
or hauled in when raising it.
Winch – Hoisting engine secured to the deck; used to haul lines by turns around a horizontally
driven drum or gypsey.
Winch – A machine usually steam or electric, used primarily for hoisting and lowering cargo but
also for other purposes.

Wind scoop – Metal scoop fitted into a port to direct air into the ship for ventilation.
Wind ship – To turn a ship end for end, usually with lines at a pier. Pronounced “wined”.
Windlass – Anchor engine used for heaving in the anchor.
Windlass – The machine used to hoist and lower anchors.
Windward – Into the wind; toward the direction from which wind is blowing; opposite of
leeward.
Wire rope – Rope made of wire strands, as distinguished from fiber rope.
With the sun – In a clockwise direction; the proper direction in which to coil a line; right-
handed.
Work a ship to – Handle ship by means of engines and other gear; for example, to work a ship
into a slip using engines, rudder, and lines to docks.
Work Breakdown Structure – This term is defined as:

1. A product-oriented family tree composed of hardware, software, services, data, and
facilities. The family tree results from systems engineering efforts during the acquisition
of a defense materiel item.
2. A WBS displays and defines the product, or products, to be developed and/or produced. It
relates the elements of work to be accomplished to each other and to the end product.
3. The WBS should be defined to lower levels commensurate with the complexity of the
program. However, the top three levels are as far as many programs or contracts need go
unless the items identified are high cost or high risk. Then, and only then, is it important
to take the work breakdown structure to a lower level of definition.
Work Product – Any artifact produced by a process. This may include files, documents, parts
of the product, services, processes, specifications, and invoices. Examples of processes as work
products include a manufacturing process, a training process, and a disposal process. A key
distinction between a work product and a product component is that a work product need not be
engineered.
Worming – Filling the lays of a wire rope preparatory to parceling and serving.
Yard – Spar attached at the middle to a mast and running athwartship; used as a support for
signal halyards, or signal lights; also a place used for shipbuilding and as a repair depot, as
Boston Naval Shipyard.
Yardarm – Either side of a yard.
Yardarm blinker – Signal lights mounted above the end of a yardarm and flashed on and off to
send messages.

Yarn – Twisted fibers used for rough seizings, which may be twisted into strands; also, a story,
as to “spin a yarn,” meaning to tell a story not necessarily true.
Yaw – Zigzagging motion of a vessel as it is carried off its heading by strong overtaking seas.
This motion swings the ship back and for the across the intended course.
Yawing – Weaving motion of a vessel to port and starboard off course. The above definitions
were adapted from defense manuals, CMMI, IEEE, ANSI, INCOSE and other system
engineering publications. All naval architecture terms where obtained from the sname
publication naval architecture for non-naval architects by Harry Benford.
Yoke – The piece fitting across the head of a boat’s rudder, to the end of which steering lines are
attached.
000° or 360° – Dead ahead.
11.25° – 1 point on starboard bow.
22.5° – 2 points on starboard bow.
33.75° – 3 points on starboard bow.
45° – 4 points or broad on starboard bow.
56.25° – 3 points forward of starboard beam.
67.5° – 2 points forward of starboard beam.
78.75° – 1 point forward of starboard beam.
90° – On starboard beam.
101.25° – 1 point abaft starboard beam.
112.50° – 2 points abaft starboard beam.
123.75° – 3 points abaft starboard beam.
135° – 4 points or broad on starboard quarter.
146.25° – 3 points on starboard quarter.
157.50° – 2 points on starboard quarter.
168.75° – 1 point on starboard quarter.
180° – Astern.

191.25° – 1 point on port quarter.
202.5° – 2 points on port quarter.
213.75° – 3 points on port quarter.
225° – 4 points or broad on port quarter.
236.25° – 3 points abaft port beam.
247.5° – 2 points abaft port beam.
258.75° – 1 point abaft port beam.
270° – On port beam.
281.25° – 1 point forward of port beam.
292.5° – 2 points forward of port beam.
303.75° – 3 points forward of port beam.
315° – 4 points or broad on port bow.
326.25° – 3 points on port bow.
337.5° – 2 points on port bow.
348.75° – 1 point on port bow.

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