Sailor's Word-book, A - C

Originally published in 1867, this encyclopedic digest collects centuries of maritime vocabulary into one indispensable volume. Admiral William Henry Smyth, drawing on decades of naval service and scholarly research, compiled definitions for thousands of terms that governed life at sea: the names of ropes and sails, the language of tides and currents, the peculiar phrases that marked a man as true crew. Here you'll discover that a 'capped' anchor is one with its ring deliberately destroyed to prevent enemy's use, that 'grog' derives from Admiral Vernon's orders to dilute sailors' rum, and that 'groaning' describes the particular sound of a ship in heavy weather. For historians of language, this book reveals how thoroughly the sea shaped English vocabulary. For writers and dreamers, it opens a portal to a vanished world where every wave had its word and sailors spoke a language the shore could never fully understand.