Pirate Dictionary

Pirate Dictionary

Rafael Estrada

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. (H. L. Menchen)

A

•ABACK. Stop the course of a boat by means of the sails, making them work in opposite directions so as to counteract their effects.

•ABAFT. Apply to the thing located further aft than another or others.

•ABRACE. touch, rub, fray.

•ABUT. Join two timbers at the top.

•ACCOMODATION LADDER. The one formed on board with two ropes and sticks or pieces of rope (arrows) crossed from one to the other of those, to serve as steps.

•ACEM, COIA. Pirate of the 16th century who operated in the seas of Japan.

•ACIMUT. The arc of the horizon counted from one of the cardinal points North or South to either side, up to the vertical of a star.

•ACROSTOLIUM. Ram or cutwater of ancient ships. // Adornment on the prow of ancient ships.

•ACTUARY. Said of a certain light boat, rowing and sailing, used by the ancient Romans.

•ADJUDICATION REQUIRED. A distribution that was made for those interested in a ship, in satisfaction of the intended credits.

•ADJUSTMENT. Execute the death penalty on an inmate.

•ADMIRAL. The one who holds the supreme position of the Navy, commands the flagship of a squad and draws up the battle plans.

•ADRIFT. Indicates that an ungoverned boat is being blown away by the wind or current.

•ADZE. Woodworking tool with a strong chisel-like blade and a slightly curved handle in the center, used for grinding wood and removing shellfish and seaweed from the hull.

•AFFLUENT. Stream or secondary river that empties or empties into another main one.

•AFTER END. Upper end of the crabs and the beaks. // Punishment imposed by a legitimate authority on the person who has committed a crime or misdemeanor.

•ALAVESA. Short spear used formerly.

•ALBUHERA. Lagoon formed by sea water on low beaches.

•ALGAE. Any of the cell plants, halophytes, mostly aquatic, of a gelatinous, membranous or leathery consistency, provided with chlorophyll, with reproductive organs and stems with the shape of ribbons, filaments or branches, supported by a common base.

•ALLOY. Silver and copper league, with which money was made. // Copper coin that was used in ancient times.

•ALMADY. A raft, a set of joining timbers. Timber-floating.

•ALMIRTY. High court or council of the Navy.

•ALONGSIDE. Action and effect of docking a boat. // Corresponding maneuver. // (To the Dutch) The violent one for bad maneuvering. // (To the Russian) The one in which, due to a bad maneuver, the bow of the small boat is in the direction of the stern of the ship on whose side it has docked.

•ALONGSIDE. Position a ship in such a way that its side is almost in contact with that of another ship, or with a battery, dock, etc.

•ALTERNATE. The current diverted from another main.

•ALVEUS. Beds of rivers and streams.

•ALVILDA. Hailing from southern Sweden, this woman was one of the first pirate captains. In order to avoid a marriage of convenience with the Danish prince Alf, she went to sea with an all-female crew.

•AMPHORA. Tall and narrow pitcher, with a long neck, with two handles and a pointed end, widely used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, which fit firmly in the holds of ships and served to transport liquids. // Ancient measure of capacity, equivalent, among the Romans, to 26.2 liters.

•AMPLE. Length or length of a thing.

•AMPUTATION. Cut and separate a limb or portion of it entirely from the body. It was the most convenient surgical operation, since complicated operations tended to produce infections much more deadly than the wounds themselves. The sailors jokingly called legs and wings to the severed limbs, as if the surgeon carved a chicken.

•ANCHOR. Anchor. // Ground or run aground.

•ANCHOR. Remain subject the ship by means of the anchor. // Drop the anchors to hold the boat.

•ANCHOR. Strong wrought iron instrument, in the form of a harpoon or double hook, composed of a bar, called a cane, which has arms ending in a nail, arranged to cling to the bottom of the sea and prevent the boat from drifting with the wind and currents.

•ANCHOR A GOOSE FOOT. Add three anchors to the ship in the shape of a triangle, one to starboard, another port and another towards the part from which the wind is coming.

•ANCHOR COVER. Cover.

•ANCHOR COVER. Lining, generally made of rope, which is attached to the anchors and grapnels.

•ANCHOR FLUTE. Triangular end or point at which the anchor arms end; it is the part that holds the bottom. The piece of iron at the end of the tiller is also called this.

•ANCHOR RING. Ring located at the end of the anchor shank to be able to tie it to the rope or chain.

•ANCHOR TRIGGER. A device used to detach the anchor from the anchor at the time of bottoming. // Piece where the key of the portable firearms is held, when mounting them, and that, moved at the right time, is used to shoot them.

•ANCHORAGE. Anchorage.

•ANCHORAGE. Place on purpose to anchor the boats.

•ANCHORAGE GROUND. Anchorage.

•ANCHORING. Action of anchoring the ship. // Anchorage. // Right charged for anchoring in a port.

•ANCHORING. Set of operations necessary to leave the ship at anchor.

•ANCORA. Anchor.

•ANGARY. The forced delay imposed on the departure of a ship for use in a public service, generally paid, that the government of a nation imposes on foreign ships.

•ANNIHILATE. Destroy or completely ruin.

•ANTIS. Pirate captain who took refuge with his men on a desert island in the Atlantic, after sending the king a request for forgiveness. The monarch's response was negative and the pirates, in a formidable arrangement of accounts, liquidated each other.

•APARTMENT FOR THE COMPASS. The chamber where the compass was in the galley.

•APOTHECA. A kind of chest of medicines with which less serious diseases could be remedied.

•APPRENTICE SAILOR. Beginner and inexperienced sailor who only served to pull small ropes or ropes.

•APRON. Esplanade that was available to provide the artillery of the ships with a horizontal seat on the decks of much curvature.

•ARCHED TIMBER. Each of the curved timbers pierced with a herringbone by its foot in the main yoke, which form the vault and are like many other columns on the façade or transom.

•ARCHIPELAGO. Part of the sea populated islands.

•ARM. Arm fortresses or ships with artillery.

•ARMED. Covered in artillery. // Artillery of a ship or of a war square.

•ARMFUL. A movement that is made with the arms, extending and collecting them as when a bucket of water is taken from a well or when rowing or swimming.

•ARMORER. The person in charge of guarding and keeping the weapons clean. // Wooden device to keep weapons in military posts and other points.

•ARRIVAL. Action of arriving or arriving at the ship to port. // Action and effect of heading, in the arrival phase, towards the destination point. // Embroidery that gives a ship, letting go with the wind.

•ARRIVING. Arrival.

•ARROW. Throwing weapon consisting of a thin and light shaft, about six decimeters long, with a sharp tip of iron or other material at one end, and sometimes some short feathers at the opposite to prevent it from heading when fired. By the bow.

•ARSENAL. Port, port facility where warships are built, assembled, repaired and supplied.

•ARTILLERY. Set of cannons located on warships.

•ARTILLERY CARRIAGE. Frame composed of two gualderas placed on wheels and in which the artillery piece is mounted.

•ASSAULT. Action and effect of assaulting.

•ASSEMBLE. Applied to a ship, send it. // To have a ship, or to be able to carry on its batteries, as many or how many guns. // In the case of a cape, promontory, etc., bend it or go to the other side.

•ASTROLABE. Instrument used to observe the height, place and movement of the stars.

•ATOLL. Ring-shaped coral reef that surrounds an inland lagoon. The largest atoll is Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific. Its reef is 283 km long. Long and encloses a 2,850 km2 lagoon.

•ATTACH. Action and effect of bowing or bowing.

•ATTACK. One boat coming against another or hitting the coast or a bass, either intentionally, well, blown by the wind or the waters.

•AUSTER. Wind blows from the south.

•AUSTRAL. Belonging to the south, and in general to the hemisphere of the same name and the Antarctic pole.

•AVALIZAR. Mark with beacons, some place in navigable waters.

•AVENTURER. Who is looking for adventure. // Intriguing, upstart. // Applicant without pay or uniform, who alternated on board with the midshipmen.

•AVERY, JOHN HENRY. They called him Long Ben and he was born in Plymouth in 1645 (?) 1665. After fomenting a mutiny in the port of Cádiz, he toured Guinea, the Indian Ocean and the coasts of India. In the Red Sea he boarded the Great Mughal ship, whose booty amounted to one hundred thousand piasters, also containing the Great Mughal's own daughter. The chronicles say that Avery went to Madagascar, where he took her as his wife. His flag bore both tibiae, with the skull in profile. He died in 1728.

•AWL. An instrument used by shoemakers and other artisans to pierce, sew and topstitch.

•AWNING. Quarter deck, space on the deck of the ships from the mainmast to the stern or to the poop.

•AWNING. Iron or wood frame that, covered with a generally canvas awning, serves to protect some parts of the ship from the elements. It is used in particular referring to the chamber of the gondolas and feluccas.

B

•BACH THE ANCHOR. Affirm an anchor cable to the cross of an anchor so that, both laid or anchored in the same direction, they offer safety to the ship in cases of bad weather or in anchorages with a lot of current.

•BACK AND FILL. Sailing is driven by the current, when the speed of the current is greater than that of the wind.

•BACK STAY. Cape that holds the head of one mast to the foot of another, stay.

•BACKSTAY. A rope or cable that acts as a shroud for a masthead and becomes firm on the gunwale or on the garrison table.

•BACKSTAY. Each of the two ropes or branches with which the ladder that is used in some cases to climb the ships is formed. // Thick, firm or ruffled rope, which is given in aid of the bunion shrouds.

•BACKWATER. Retention of the flow of a liquid.

•BADERNA. Braided rope, one to two meters of the lake, which is used to fasten the cable to the turnkey, anchor the tiller, and so on.

•BADGE. The flag hoisted on board of warships in order to indicate the rank or hierarchy of who commands them. // (Flagship) The one in which the insignia of the admiral who commands a squadron or naval division is housed.

•BAGUETTE. Thin rod, made of iron or wood, used to insert the bullet and the cue into the barrel of the firearms.

•BAIL. Expel water that penetrates a boat overboard.

•BAILIFF. Formerly, governor of a city or region, with civil and criminal jurisdiction. // The one who took care of the water supply on the ships.

•BAIT. Meat bait for fishing and also for hunting wolves.

•BAJELERO. Pattern of a vessel.

•BALAUSTRADE RAIL. A series of small columns adorned with moldings, placed under the railings.

•BALAUSTRADE. Strip that holds the balusters from above. // Railing.

•BALE OUT. Pouring water with buckets on the decks of a boat to clean them. Every morning the decks had to be flushed, something more like sanding than washing, as they were rubbed with a mixture of sand and seawater. After rinsing, the upper covers dried quickly, but the lower ones were always damp. // Bail out the water by means of buckets.

•BALING OUT. Flushing action.

•BALIZE. Fixed and floating signal that is placed at the entrance of ports and dangerous places, to serve as a guide or warning to sailors. // Beaconing.

•BALLAST. Weight formed by a layer of stones placed on iron ingots, which were on the bottom of the ship to increase its stability. Since all waste ended up falling there, the ballast was a source of insanity. Replacing ballast was the only way to clean it up, although fumigation was used on many ships.

•BALLASTING. Ballast, ballast the boat.

•BAND (THICK CLOUDS). Dark, elongated and bad-looking cloud that stands out close to the horizon.

•BAND. Iron clamp, or of any other resistant material, used to strengthen the things that require great resistance, such as certain cannons, or for the passage and support of a pole, mast, boom, etc.

•BANDIN. Each one of the seats that are put in galleys, galleys, boats and other vessels, around the bands or sides that form the stern.

•BANDIT. Fugitive from justice called by side.

•BANDOLEER. Belt that crosses, across the chest and back, from the left shoulder to the right hip, and that at the end has a steel hook to hang a firearm.

•BANISTER. Filibuster of the seventeenth century, who performed in the Antilles. One day, when his ship was at the height of Port Royal, a boy appeared among his crew. No one knew who he was, or where he came from; he was in such a state that to calm him down, Banister hangs him from a pole. Then he orders to disembark it. That boy will go back to sea as Captain Lewis.

• BANK. In the seas, rivers or lakes, elevation of the bottom.

•BANK (CLOUDS). Clouds set, bundle.

•BANK OF SAND. Sand bank

•BANK. One-piece canoe used in the Philippine islands.

•BANK. Shore of the sea or river. // Land close to rivers.

•BAR. Wooden or iron lever that, mounted on the head of the tiller, serves to do so. Also call the tiller. // Bank or low of sand that forms at the entrance of some estuaries, at the mouth of some rivers and in the narrowness of certain seas or lakes, and which makes navigation dangerous. // The iron one with shackles, in which the prisoners on board were secured.

•BARBAROSSA, ISHAK. Brother and lieutenant of Aruch, he died in 1518, when he went to Tremecen helping him.

•BARBAROSSA, JEIREDDÍN. Brother and lieutenant of Aruch. Ambitious in excess, it is said of him that he possessed a tactical sense in combat and diplomatic ability to interact with other rulers, as well as extreme cruelty with friends and enemies. After proclaiming himself the new King of Algiers in 1518, he declared himself a vassal of the powerful Sultan of Istanbul, who granted him his protection. Constantina and Bona managed to annex themselves, and in 1529 he took the rock of Algiers from the Spanish. But it was in 1533 when Jeideddin was appointed by Suleiman the Magnificent, Admiral-in-Chief of the Turkish Navy. It is the nightmare of Carlos V, looting the Spanish and Italian coast and all the great islands of the Mediterranean. He was almost sixty years old when he married an eighteen-year-old Christian whom he captured and who, according to a chronicler, could be the cause of his death. This took place three years later, in July 1546.

•BARBAROSSA, ORUÇ REIS. Berber corsair born on the island of Mytilene, ancient Lesbos. He was twenty years old when he enlisted in a Turkish ship that practiced Corsican in the Aegean. After falling prisoner of some rhodium pirates, he remained as a galley ship of a corsair ship for two years, managing to escape by cutting his heel with a knife, in order to loosen the shackle. After accepting command of a galleot to combat Christian piracy, he left Istanbul, embarked his brothers Jeireddin and Isaac in Mytilene and dedicated himself to privateering on his own account, sowing terror on all the coasts of the western Mediterranean, Spain, France and Italy. In 1512, two years after the king of Tunis granted him the rule of the island of Djerba, he lost his left arm in the failed assault on the small kingdom of Bejaia. In 1515 he seizes Yiyel and becomes king. A year later, after the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, Sheikh Selim Ben Tumí refused to pay tribute to the Spanish crown, so he called on Barbarroja to help him. Housed in the palace of the sheikh, he assassinated him and proclaimed himself King of Algiers, thus making it the main Muslim corsair port of the 16th century. The following year, after conquering Temes and Tremecen, Aruch Barbarossa reached the peak of his power. In 1518, a fleet under the command of the Marquis of Comares besieged Tremecen, and although Barbarroja managed to flee the fortress, he was hit by the Spanish, who returned to the city with the corsair's head.

•BARBECUE. Grill used for outdoor grilling meat or fish.

•BARCAROLLE. Song of sailors whose rhythm imitates the movement of the oars.

•BARGE. Launch to transport cargo from ships to land or vice versa.

•BARGE. Large vessel for the transport of goods or small and flat for loading and unloading of ships. Some do the coasting trade.

•BARGE. Small rowing or sailing boat, with a float, intended for use by marine chiefs and authorities.

•BARHOLE. Each of the open notches in the capstan hat, where the bars fit to make it turn.

•BARKER, ANDREW. An English corsair who looted and raided the Caribbean coast during the 1570s, in private expeditions financed by English ship-owners.

•BARNACLE. Small crustacean that tends to adhere to the hulls of wooden ships, reducing their speed.

•BARQUE. Three-masted vessel without cross yards in the mizzen.

• BARREL. Wooden vessel to transport food, water, wine, liquor, etc. The barrels and pipes were brought floating to the side of the ship, from where they were hoisted using the tiravira. As the empty barrels took up too much space, they were disassembled and the wood staves and iron rings were stored separately.

•BARRACKS CHIEF. Sailor specially designed to take care of the  luggage.

•BARREL'S COLLECTION. Set of barrels in which gouache and other kinds are carried.

•BARRICADE. Parapet that was formed on the sides of warships with the hammock and crew clothing as protection and defense against the enemy attack.

•BART, JEAN. French corsair born in Dunkirk in 1651, his range of action was the English Channel and the North Sea and his preferred prey were British ships. On one occasion when he was captured by the English, he managed to escape and flee to France traveling 135 miles in a rowboat.

•BARTHOLOMEW, THE PORTUGUESE. Ingenious and very daring buccaneer, he obtained huge loot that he lost in a few days. Despite the fact that he could not swim, he managed to escape from a prison ship, splashing on some jugs of wine as floats.

•BASIN. Territory whose waters all flow into the same river, lake or sea.

•BASKERVILLE, SIR THOMAS. English corsair who participated in the last trip that Drake made in 1595. He commanded the first ship of the expedition that was to take Panama, and that when rejected by the Spanish, frustrated the operation. On the death