cabin: An enclosed structure with at least one room on a deck or flat, especially one used as living quarters.
cabin boy: An attendant to passengers and crew, often a young man.
cabin cruiser: A type of powered pleasure craft that provides accommodation for its crew and passengers inside the structure of the craft. A cabin cruiser usually is 7.6 to 13.7 metres (25 to 45 ft) in length, with a powered pleasure craft larger than that considered a motor yacht.
cable: 1. An especially large or thick rope.; 2. A cable length.
cable length: Sometimes simply called a cable.
A measure of length or distance equivalent to 1⁄10 nautical mile (608 feet; 185 metres) in the United Kingdom and 100 fathoms (600 feet; 183 metres) in the United States; other countries use different equivalents.
caboose: A small ship's kitchen or galley on deck.
cabotage: The transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country along coastal routes by a vessel registered in another country. Originally applied only to shipping, the term now also is applied to analogous transport via aviation, railways, or road transport.
cage mast: See lattice mast.
camels: 1. Loaded vessels lashed tightly, one on each side of another vessel, and then emptied to provide additional buoyancy that reduces the draft of the ship in the middle.; 2. Floating platforms brought alongside for use by yard workers or crew.
can: A type of navigational buoy, often a vertical drum, but otherwise always square in silhouette, colored red in IALA region A (Europe, Africa, Greenland, and most of Asia and Oceania) or green in IALA region B (the Americas, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines). In channel marking its use is opposite that of a nun buoy.
canal boat: A specialized watercraft designed for operation on a canal. During the Age of Sail, canal boats typically lacked sails and masts and relied on towboats and mules to move from place to place.^[34]
canal schooner: Also sailing canal boat or sailing canal schooner.
A specialized type of canal boat developed in North America in the early 19th century and used on the Great Lakes and in Lake Champlain. Unlike conventional canal boats of the era, which lacked a means of propulsion, canal schooners had a schooner rig which allowed them to sail from place to place, but could lower their masts and raise their centreboards, allowing mules to tow them through canals. The design allowed their operators to save money by reducing their reliance on towing and paying fewer towing charges.^[34]
canaller: A ship designed to transit the locks of the Welland Canal.
canister shot: Also langrage or simply canister.
A type of antipersonnel cannon load in which lead balls or other loose metallic items were enclosed in a tin or iron shell. On firing, the shell would disintegrate, releasing the smaller metal objects with a shotgun-like effect.
canoe stern: A design for the stern of a yacht such that it is pointed like a bow, rather than squared off as a transom.
canvas: A collective term for all of the sails on a vessel; the total area of all sails aboard her may be expressed as the area of her canvas. Care needs to be taken in understanding what may appear to be an area of canvas for a sail; a stated number may be the length of canvas that is needed off the roll, and it was made several different standard widths.
cap: A fitting or band used to connect the head of one mast to the lower portion of the mast above.^[33]
Cape Horn fever: A feigned illness from which a malingerer is pretending to suffer.
Cape Horn roller: Also graybeard.
A type of large ocean wave commonly encountered in the stormy seas of the Southern Ocean south of South America's Cape Horn, often exceeding 60 feet (18.3 m) in height. The geography of the Southern Ocean, uninterrupted by continents, creates an endless fetch that is favorable for the propagation of such waves.
cap-stay: A backstay leading from a mast cap to the ship's side.^[33]
capital ship: One of a set of ships considered a navy's most important warships, generally possessing the heaviest firepower and armor and traditionally much larger than other naval vessels, but not formally defined. During the Age of Sail, capital ships were generally understood to be ships of the line; during the second half of the 19th century and the 20th century, they were typically battleships and battlecruisers; and since the mid-20th century, the term may also include aircraft carriers and ballistic missile submarines.
capsize: (of a vessel) To list so severely that the vessel rolls over, exposing the keel. On large vessels, this often results in the sinking of the ship. Compare turtling.
capstan: A large winch with a vertical axis used to wind in anchors or to hoist other heavy objects, and sometimes to administer flogging over. A full-sized human-powered capstan is a waist-high cylindrical machine, operated by a number of hands who each insert a horizontal capstan bar in holes in the capstan and walk in a circle.
captain: 1. The person lawfully in command of a vessel. "Captain" is an informal title of respect given to the commander of a naval vessel regardless of his or her formal rank; aboard a merchant ship, the ship's captain is called her master.; 2. A naval officer with a rank between commander and commodore.; 3. In the US Navy, US Coast Guard, US Public Health Service, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a commissioned officer of a grade superior to a commander and junior to a rear admiral (lower half), equal in grade or rank to a US Army, US Marine Corps, or US Air Force, or US Space Force colonel.
Captain of the Port: 1. In the United Kingdom, a Royal Navy officer, usually a captain, responsible for the day-to-day operation of a naval dockyard.; 2. In the United States, a US Coast Guard officer, usually a captain, responsible for enforcement of safety, security, and marine environmental protection regulations in a commercial port.
captain's daughter: Another name for the cat o' nine tails, which in principle is only used on board on the captain's (or a court martial's) personal orders.
car carrier: A cargo ship specially designed or fitted to carry large numbers of automobiles. Modern pure car carriers have a fully enclosed, box-like superstructure that extends along the entire length and across the entire breadth of the ship, enclosing the automobiles. The similar pure car/truck carrier can also accommodate trucks.
car float: Also railroad car float or rail barge.
An unpowered barge with railroad tracks mounted on its deck, used to move railroad cars across water obstacles.
caravel: Also caravelle.
A small, highly maneuverable sailing ship with a lateen rig, used by the Portuguese in the 15th and 16th centuries to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean.
cardinal: Referring to the four main points of the compass: north, south, east, and west. See also bearing.
careening: Also heaving down.
Tilting a ship on its side, usually when beached, to clean or repair the hull below the waterline.
cargo liner: Also passenger-cargo ship or passenger-cargoman.
A type of merchant ship that became common just after the middle of the 19th century, configured primarily for the transportation of general cargo but also for the transportation of at least some passengers. Almost completely replaced by more specialized cargo ships during the second half of the 20th century.
cargo ship: Any ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another, including general cargo ships (designed to carry break bulk cargo), bulk carriers, container ships, multipurpose vessels, and tankers. Tankers, however, although technically cargo ships, are routinely thought of as constituting a completely separate category.
cargoman: A cargo ship.
carpenter: 1. In the Age of Sail, a warrant officer responsible for the hull, masts, spars, and boats of a vessel, and also for sounding the well to see if the vessel was making water.; 2. A senior rating responsible for all of the woodwork aboard a vessel.
carpenter's walk: On a tall ship, a is a narrow unlit passageway or bulkhead often with a low (four-foot) ceiling that is fitted around the hull at its waterline. The carpenter's walk allowed the ship's carpenter to tour the entire waterline area of a ship to inspect it for water leaks.^[35]^[36] Because of its dark and seldom-visited nature and location far below decks, it was also sometimes used by mutinous sailors as a secluded place to plan a rebellion against the ship's officers.^[37]
carrack: Also nau.
A three- or four-masted oceangoing sailing ship used by Western Europeans in the Atlantic Ocean from the 15th through the early 17th centuries.
carrier: An aircraft carrier.
carronade: A short, smoothbore, cast-iron naval cannon, used from the 1770s to the 1850s as a powerful, short-range, anti-ship and anti-crew weapon.
carry away: To suddenly break a spar, rope or other part of a ship's equipment. May be caused, for example, by overloading, stress of weather, collision or battle damage.^[3]^[30]^[38]
carry on: Resume work or assigned duties.^[39]
cartel: A ship employed on humanitarian voyages, in particular to carry communications or prisoners between belligerents during wartime. A cartel flies distinctive flags, including a flag of truce, traditionally is unarmed except for a lone signaling gun, and under international law is not subject to seizure or capture during her outbound and return voyages as long as she engages in no warlike acts.
carvel-built: A comparison of the clinker and carvel styles of boat construction
A method of constructing a wooden hull in which planks are butted edge-to-edge on a robust frame, so giving a smooth hull surface; traditionally the planks are not attached to each other, only to the frame, and have only a caulking sealant between them to make them watertight.^[27] Contrast clinker-built.
casing: A light metal structure, usually incorporating a deck, built over the upper surface of a submarine's pressure hull to create a flat surface on which crew members can walk. A feature of submarines built prior to the mid-20th century, but not of more modern submarines.
cat: 1. To prepare an anchor after raising it by lifting it with a tackle to the cathead, prior to securing (fishing) it alongside for sea. An anchor raised to the cathead is said to be catted.; 2. The cat o' nine tails.; 3. A cat-rigged boat or catboat.
cat o' nine tails: Also the cat.
A short, multi-tailed whip or flail kept by the bosun's mate to flog sailors (and soldiers in the army) who had committed infractions while at sea. When not in use, the cat was often kept in a baize bag, a possible origin for the term "cat out of the bag".^[40] "Not enough room to swing a cat" also derives from this.
catamaran: Any vessel with two hulls. Compare trimaran.
catboat: A cat-rigged vessel with a single mast mounted close to the bow and only one sail, usually on a gaff.
catenary: Also catenary curve.
The curve of a deployed anchor chain.^[41]
catharpin: A short rope or iron clamp used to brace in the shrouds toward the masts so as to give a freer sweep to the yards.
cathead: A beam extending out from the hull used to support an anchor when raised in order to secure or "fish" it.
cat's paws: Light, variable winds on calm waters producing scattered areas of small waves.
caulk: To create a watertight seal between structures. In traditional carvel construction, this involved hammering oakum (recycled rope fibres) or caulking cotton into the slightly tapered fine gaps between the hull or deck planks and, in older methods, covering with tar. The expansion of the fibres in water tightens up the hull, making it less prone to racking movement, as well as making the joint watertight.^[26]
celestial navigation: Navigation by the position of celestial objects, including the stars, Sun, and Moon, using tools aboard ship such as a sextant, chronometer, and compass, as well as published tables of the expected positions of celestial objects on specific dates. Celestial navigation was the primary method of navigation until the development of electronic global positioning systems such as LORAN and GPS.
ceiling: Planking attached to the inside of the frames or floors of a wooden hull. It serves to separate the cargo from the hull planking itself, but also has a structural role, contributing to the strength of the hull.. The ceiling has different names in different places; e.g. limber boards, spirketting, quickwork, etc. The lower part of the ceiling is, confusingly to a landsman, what you are standing on at the bottom of the hold of a wooden ship.^[27]^[42]^: glossary
center of effort American English
centre of effort British English: Also center of pressure (American spelling) or centre of pressure (British spelling).
The point of origin of net aerodynamic force upon a sail, roughly located in the geometric center of the sail, though the actual position of the center of effort will vary with sail plan, sail trim, or airfoil profile, boat trim, and point of sail.
center of lateral resistance American English
centre of lateral resistance British English: The point of origin of net hydrodynamic resistance on the submerged structure of a boat, especially a sailboat. This is the pivot point the boat turns about when unbalanced external forces are applied, similar to the center of gravity. On a perfectly balanced sailboat, the center of effort will align vertically with the center of lateral resistance. If this is not the case, the boat will be unbalanced and will exhibit either lee helm or weather helm and will be difficult to control.
centerboard American English
centreboard British English: Diagram of the position of a centerboard on a boat

Also centerplate (American spelling), centreplate (British spelling).
A wooden board or metal plate which can be pivoted through a fore-and-aft slot along the centerline in the hull of a sailing vessel, functioning as a retractable keel to help the boat resist leeway by moving its center of lateral resistance. Very common in dinghies, but also found in some larger boats. A daggerboard serves the same purpose but slides vertically rather than pivoting.
centerline American English
centreline British English: An imaginary line down the center of a vessel lengthwise. Any structure or anything mounted or carried on a vessel that straddles this line and is equidistant from either side of the vessel is said to be "on the centerline".
chafing: Wear on a line or sail caused by constant rubbing against another surface.
chafing gear: Material applied to a line or spar to prevent or reduce chafing. See baggywrinkle and puddening.^[33]
chain locker: A space in the forward part of a ship, typically beneath the bow in front of the foremost collision bulkhead, that contains the anchor chain when the anchor is secured for sea.
chain-shot: Cannonballs linked with short lengths of chain, designed to be especially damaging to rigging and masts.
chain plates: Iron bars bolted to a ship's side to which the deadeyes or rigging screws of the lower figging and the back-stays are bolted.^[33]
chain-wale: Also channel.
A broad, thick plank that projects horizontally from each of a ship's sides abreast a mast (distinguished as the fore, main, or mizzen channel accordingly), serving to extend the base for the shrouds, which support the mast.^[33]
chains: Small platforms built into the sides of a ship to spread the shrouds to a more advantageous angle. Also used as a platform for manual depth sounding.
chalupa: 1. A small boat that functions as a shallop, water taxi, or gondola.; 2. In Portuguese, a small boat used for cabotage, propelled by either oars or sails. Those equipped with sails have a single mast.; 3. A type of whaling boat used by the Basques in the mid-16th century in what is now Newfoundland and Labrador.
change tack: Also switch tack.
To change course or heading.
channel fever: 1. The impatient excitement in a ship's crew as the end of a voyage becomes imminent. Characteristics include crew members working harder to get the ship sailing faster, off-watch personnel being on deck to keep track of progress, and everyone being packed and in their shore-going clothes (ready to be paid off) the moment the vessel arrives in port.^[43]; 2. (obsolete usage) A crew member avoiding duties with a feigned illness, usually after leaving port.
Charlie/Charley Noble: The metal stovepipe chimney from a cook shack on the deck of a ship or from a stove in a galley.
charrua: A large sailing ship used as a troopship
chartered ship: Also charter ship.
A term used by the British East India Company from the 17th to the 19th centuries for a merchant ship it chartered to make a single, often one-way, voyage between England (later the United Kingdom) and ports east of the Cape of Good Hope, a trade over which the company held a strict monopoly. A charter ship during its single voyage was employed in much the same way as what the company called an extra ship, though the company usually hired charter ships on special terms and for much shorter periods.^[44]
charthouse: A compartment from which the ship was navigated, especially in the Royal Navy.
chartplotter: An electronic instrument that places the position of the ship (from a GPS receiver) onto a digital nautical chart displayed on a monitor, thereby replacing all manual navigation functions. Chartplotters also display information collected from all shipboard electronic instruments and often directly control autopilots.
chase gun: Also chase piece or chaser.
A cannon pointing forward or aft, often of longer range than other guns. Those on the bow (bow chasers) were used to fire upon a ship ahead, while those on the rear (stern chasers) were used to ward off pursuing vessels. Unlike guns pointing to the side, chasers could be brought to bear in a chase without slowing down the vessel.
chasse-marée: A decked commercial sailing vessel engaged in the transportation of fresh fish directly from fishing grounds to ports in Brittany between the 18th century and around the third quarter of the 19th century. Three-masted luggers replaced the vessels originally serving in this role; the luggers then were replaced successively by dundees, brigs, and schooners.
cheeks: 1. Wooden blocks at the side of a spar.; 2. Flat plates of iron or wood bolted to the masthead to form angle supports for the cross-trees.^[33]; 3. The sides of a block or gun-carriage.
chief engineer: The senior engineering officer (abbreviated ChEng).
chine: 1. An angle in the hull.; 2. A line formed where the sides of a boat meet the bottom.^[2] Soft chine is when the two sides join at a shallow angle, and hard chine is when they join at a steep angle.
chock: A hole or ring attached to the hull to guide a line via that point; an opening in a ship's bulwark, normally oval in shape, designed to allow mooring lines to be fastened to cleats or bits mounted to the ship's deck. See also Panama chock and Dutchman's chock.
chock-a-block: Rigging blocks that are so tight against one another that they cannot be further tightened.^[2]
chop: Waves, usually created by the wind, which are smaller and shorter-lived than swell.
chronometer: A timekeeping device accurate enough to be used aboard a ship to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation. The invention of the marine chronometer in the 18th century was a major technical achievement for maritime navigation.
cigarette boat: See go-fast boat.
citadel: A fortified safe room on a vessel to take shelter in the event of pirate attack. Previously, a fortified room to protect ammunition and machinery from damage.
civil Red Ensign: The British Naval Ensign or flag of the British Merchant Navy, a red flag with the Union Flag in the upper left corner. Colloquially called the "red duster".
class: 1. Strictly, a group of government ships, especially naval ships, of the same or similar design.; 2. Informally, a group of private or commercial ships of the same or similar design.; 3. A standard of construction for merchant vessels, including standards for specific types or specialized capabilities of some types of merchant vessels (see, for example, ice class). A ship meeting the standard is in class, while one not meeting it is out of class.
class leader: Synonym for lead ship.
classification society: Also classification organisation (American spelling) or classification organization (British spelling)
See ship classification society.
clean bill of health: A certificate issued by a port indicating that a ship carries no infectious diseases. Also called a pratique.
clean slate: At the helm, the watchkeeper would record details of speed, distances, headings, etc. on a slate. At the beginning of a new watch the slate would be wiped clean.
clear: 1. To perform customs and immigration legalities prior to leaving port.; 2. More loosely, to leave port.
cleat: A stationary device used to secure a rope aboard a vessel.^[2]
clench: A method of fixing together two pieces of wood, usually overlapping planks, by driving a nail through both planks as well as a washer-like rove. The nail is then burred or riveted over to complete the fastening.
clew: One of the lower corners of a square sail, or, on a triangular sail, the corner at the end of the boom.^[2]
clewlines
clew-lines: Lines used to truss up the clews, the lower corners of square sails. Used to reduce and stow a barge's topsail.^[2]
clinker-built: A comparison of the clinker and carvel styles of boat construction
A method of constructing hulls that involves overlapping planks and/or plates, much like Viking longships, resulting in speed and flexibility in small boat hulls. Contrast carvel-built.
clipper: 1. A sailing vessel designed primarily for speed. While the square-rigged clipper ships of the middle of the 19th century are well known, others, such as Baltimore Clippers and opium clippers could be rigged differently, often as schooners, and a small number of 19th-century clippers were built as barques.; 2. A tuna clipper.
close aboard: Very near (the ship).
close-hauled: (of a vessel) Beating as close to the wind direction as possible.
clove hitch: A bend used to attach a rope to a post or bollard. Also used to finish tying off the foresail.^[2]
club hauling: A maneuver by which a ship drops one of its anchors at high speed in order to turn abruptly. This was sometimes used as a means of obtaining a good firing angle on a pursuing vessel. See kedge.
Clyde puffer: A type of small, coal-fired, single-masted Scottish steamboat built between 1856 and 1939, primarily on the Forth and Clyde Canal. They operated as cargo ships on the canal and in other waters of Scotland, including the Hebrides. The name "puffer" arose because earlier vessels had a simple steam engine with no condenser, causing them to exhaust steam from their funnels in a series of "puffs."
CO
C.O.: An abbreviation for commanding officer.
coal hulk: A hulk used to store coal.
coal trimmer: Also simply trimmer.
A person responsible for ensuring that a coal-fired vessel remains in "trim" (evenly balanced) as coal is consumed on a voyage.
coaling: Loading coal for use as fuel aboard a steamship. A time-consuming, laborious, and dirty process often undertaken by the entire crew, coaling was a necessity from the early days of steam in the 19th century until the early 20th century, when oil supplanted coal as the fuel of choice for steamships.
coaming: The raised edge of a hatch, cockpit, or skylight, designed to help keep out water that pools on the surface above.
coaster: Also skoot.
A coastal trading vessel; a shallow-hulled ship used for trade between locations on the same island or continent.
coble: A type of open traditional fishing boat with a flat bottom and high bow which developed on the northeast coast of England.
cockbill: To angle a square-rigged yard away from the horizontal so that it is out of the way for loading or unloading, or so that the ship may lie alongside another ship without the yards touching.
cockpit: A seating area (not to be confused with the deck) towards the stern of a small-decked vessel that houses the rudder controls.
cofferdam: An insulating space between two watertight bulkheads or decks within a ship.
cog: A type of sailing ship, with a single mast and a single square-rigged sail first developed in the 10th century and widely used, particularly in the Baltic Sea region, in seagoing trade from the 12th through the 14th centuries. It had a distinctive hull design: the flat bottom was carvel-built and the sides were clinker-built.^[45]^{: 225–227}
coign: A wedge used to assist in the aiming of a cannon; an older form of "quoin".
collier: A bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially such a ship in naval use to supply coal to coal-fired warships.
combat loading: A way of loading a vessel that gives military forces embarked aboard her immediate access to weapons, ammunition, and supplies needed when conducting an amphibious landing. In combat loading, cargo is stowed in such a way that unloading of equipment will match up with the personnel that are landing and in the order they land, so that they have immediate access to the gear they need for combat as soon as they land. Combat loading gives primary consideration to the ease and sequence with which troops, equipment, and supplies can be made ready for combat, sacrificing the more efficient use of cargo space that ship operators seek when loading a ship for the routine transportation of personnel and cargo.
comber: A long, curving wave breaking on the shore.
come about: 1. To tack.; 2. To change tack.; 3. To manoeuvre the bow of a sailing vessel across the wind so that the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.; 4. To position a vessel with respect to the wind after tacking.
come to: To stop a sailing vessel, especially by turning into the wind.
commanding officer: The officer in command of a warship. Also called "CO", "captain" (regardless of rank), "skipper", or "the old man".
commission: To formally place (a naval vessel) into active service, after which the vessel is said to be in commission. Sometimes used less formally to mean placing a commercial ship into service.
commissioning pennant: A pennant flown from the masthead of a warship. Also called a masthead pennant.
commodore: 1. (rank) Prior to 1997, the title used in the Royal Navy for an officer of the rank of captain who was given temporary command of a squadron. At the end of the deployment of the squadron, or in the presence of an admiral, he would revert to his de facto rank of captain.; 2. (rank) A military rank used in many navies that is superior to a navy captain but below a rear admiral. Often equivalent to the rank of "flotilla admiral" or sometimes "counter admiral" in non-English-speaking navies.; 3. (convoy commodore) A civilian put in charge of the good order of the merchant ships in British convoys during World War II, but with no authority over naval ships escorting the convoy.; 4. (commodore (yacht club)) An officer of a yacht club.; 5. (Commodore (Sea Scouts)) A position in the Boy Scouts of America's Sea Scouts program.
communication tube: Also speaking tube or voice tube.
An air-filled tube, usually armored, allowing speech between the conning tower and the below-decks control spaces on a warship.
companionway: A raised and windowed hatchway in a ship's deck, with a ladder leading below and the hooded entrance-hatch to the main cabins.
complement: 1. The number of persons in a ship's crew, including officers.; 2. A collective term for all of the persons in a ship's crew, including officers.
comprise: To include or contain. As applied to a naval task force, the listing of all assigned units for a single transient purpose or mission (e.g. "The task force comprises Ship A, Ship B, and Ship C"). "Comprise" means exhaustive inclusion – there are not any other parts to the task force, and each ship has a permanent squadron existence, independent of the task force.
concrete ship: A vessel constructed of steel and ferrocement (a type of reinforced concrete) rather than of more traditional materials, such as steel, iron, or wood.^[46]
confined waters: Waters where there is little space to maneuver.
conn: Also con, conne, conde, cunde, or cun.
To direct a ship or submarine from a position of command. While performing this duty, an officer is said to have the conn.
conning officer: An officer on a naval vessel responsible for instructing the helmsman on the course to steer. While performing this duty, the officer is said to have the conn.
conning tower: 1. An armored control tower of an iron or steel warship built between the mid-19th and mid-20th centuries from which the ship was navigated in battle.; 2. A tower-like structure on the dorsal (topside) surface of a submarine, serving in submarines built before the mid-20th century as a connecting structure between the bridge and pressure hull and housing instruments and controls from which the periscopes were used to direct the submarine and launch torpedo attacks. Since the mid-20th century, it has been replaced by the sail (United States usage) or fin (European and Commonwealth usage), a structure similar in appearance that no longer plays a role in directing the submarine.
consort: Unpowered Great Lakes vessels, usually a fully loaded schooner, barge, or steamer barge, towed by a larger steamer that would often tow more than one barge. The consort system was used in the Great Lakes from the 1860s to around 1920.
constant bearing, decreasing range (CBDR): When two boats are approaching each other from any angle and this angle remains the same over time (constant bearing) they are on a collision course. Because of the implication of collision, "constant bearing, decreasing range" has come to mean a problem or an obstacle which is incoming.^[47]
container ship: A cargo ship that carries all of her cargo in truck-size intermodal containers.
convoy: A group of ships traveling together for mutual support and protection.
corinthian: An amateur yachter.^[48]^[49]
corrector: A device used to correct the ship's compass, e.g. by counteracting errors due to the magnetic effects of a steel hull.
corsair: 1. A French privateer, especially one from the port of St-Malo.; 2. Any privateer or pirate.; 3. A ship used by privateers or pirates, especially of French nationality.; 4. (corsair (dinghy)) A class of 16-foot (4.9-metre) three-handed sailing dinghy.
corvette: Also corvetto.
1. A flush-decked sailing warship of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries having a single tier of guns, ranked next below a frigate. In the US Navy, it is referred to as a sloop-of-war.; 2. A lightly armed and armored warship of the 20th and 21st centuries, smaller than a frigate and capable of transoceanic duty.
cotchel: A partial load.^[50]
cottonclad: A steam-powered wooden warship protected from enemy fire by bales of cotton lining its sides, most commonly associated with some of the warships employed by the Confederate States of America during the American Civil War (1861–1865).
counter: The part of the stern above the waterline that extends beyond the rudder stock culminating in a small transom. A long counter increases the waterline length when the boat is heeled, so increasing hull speed. See also truncated counter.
counterflood: To deliberately flood compartments on the opposite side from already flooded ones. Usually done to reduce a list.
country ship: A term used by the British East India Company from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century for a merchant ship owned by local owners east of the Cape of Good Hope which traded within that area and gathered cargoes for shipment west of the Cape to England (later the United Kingdom) by the company's "chartered ships", "extra ships", and "regular ships". "Country ships" were strictly prohibited from trading west of the Cape, which would violate the company's strict monopoly on that trade.^[44] Country ships were also important in the opium trade from India into China until supplanted by the faster opium clipper.^[51]^: 51
course: 1. The direction in which a vessel is being steered, usually given in degrees.; 2. The lowest square sail on a square rigged mast, except where that mast is the mizzen – in which case the name cro'jack (cross-jack) or mizzen-sail is used.^[52]
cowl: 1. A ship's ventilator with a bell-shaped top that can be swiveled to catch the wind and force it below.; 2. A vertical projection of a ship's funnel that directs the smoke away from the bridge.
coxswain: Also cockswain.
The helmsman or crew member in command of a boat.
CPO country: The part of a naval vessel containing the residential quarters and wardroom for chief petty officers. CPO country is off-limits to more junior enlisted personnel unless they are there on official business.
crab: A winch used for raising the leeboard, with a barrel for pulling in the staysail sheets.^[2]
crabber: A fishing vessel rigged for crab fishing.
crane ship
crane vessel: A ship with a crane and specialized for lifting heavy loads.
cranse iron: Also crance, crans, or cranze iron.
The metal fitting mounted at the end of a bowsprit to which the forestay (or jibstay), bobstay, and bowsprit shrouds are attached. It is also where the tack of the outermost headsail is fastened.^[13]
crash boat
crash rescue boat: A term used in the United States to describe military high-speed offshore rescue boats, similar in size and performance to motor torpedo boats, used to rescue pilots and aircrews of crashed aircraft.
Crazy Ivan: US Navy slang for a maneuver in which a submerged Soviet or Russian submarine suddenly turns 180 degrees or through 360 degrees to detect submarines following it.
crew: 1. On warships and merchant ships, all of those members of a ship's company who are not officers.; 2. On leisure vessels with no formal chain of command, all of those persons who are not the skipper or passengers.
crew boat: A vessel specialized for the transportation of offshore support personnel and cargo to and from offshore installations such as oil platforms, drilling rigs, drill ships, dive ships, and wind farms. Also known as a fast support vessel or fast supply vessel.
crew management: The services rendered by specialised shipping companies to manage the human resources and manning of all types of vessels, including recruitment, deployment to vessel, scheduling, and training, as well as the ongoing management and administrative duties of seafarers, such as payroll, travel arrangements, insurance and health schemes, overall career development, and day-to-day welfare. Also known as crewing.
cringle: A loop of rope, usually at the corners of a sail, for fixing the sail to a spar. They are often reinforced with a metal eye.^[2]
cro'jack: Also crossjack.
The square sail set on the lower mizzen yard of a square-rigged ship. Many full-rigged ships would not set a sail in this position, as it would be interfered with by the spanker^[53]
cross the line: Cross the equator.
crosstrees: Two horizontal struts at the upper ends of the topmasts of sailboats, used to anchor the shrouds from the topgallant mast. Lateral spreaders for the topmast shrouds (standing back stays).^[2]
crow's nest: A masthead constructed with sides and sometimes a roof to shelter the lookouts from the weather, generally by whaling vessels. The term has also become generic for what is properly called a masthead.
cruise ship: A passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way. Transportation is not the prime purpose, as cruise ships operate mostly on routes that return passengers to their originating port. A cruise ship contrasts with a passenger liner, which is a passenger ship that provides a scheduled service between published ports primarily as a mode of transportation. Large, prestigious passenger ships used for either purpose are sometimes called ocean liners.
cruiser: 1. From the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, a classification for a wide variety of gun- and sometimes torpedo-armed warships, usually but not always armored, intended for independent scouting, raiding, or commerce protection; some were designed also to provide direct support to a battle fleet. Cruisers carried out functions performed previously by the cruising ships (sailing frigates and sloops-of-war) of the Age of Sail.; 2. From the early to the mid-20th century, a type of armored warship with varying armament and of various sizes, but always smaller than a battleship and larger than a destroyer, capable of both direct support of a battle fleet and of independent operations, armed with guns and sometimes torpedoes.; 3. After the mid-20th century, various types of warships of intermediate size armed with guided missiles and sometimes guns, intended for air defense of aircraft carriers and associated task forces or for anti-ship missile attacks against such forces; virtually indistinguishable from large destroyers since the late 20th century.; 4. A yacht with one or more cabins containing the facilities for living aboard, thus capable of making voyages.
crutches: Metal Y-shaped pins used to fix oars while rowing.
cuddy: A small cabin in a boat; a cabin, for the use of the captain, in the after part of a sailing ship under the poop deck.
Cunningham: A line invented by Briggs Cunningham, used to control the shape of a sail.^[54]
cunt splice: Also cut splice.
A join between two lines, similar to an eye-splice, where each rope end is joined to the other a short distance along, making an opening that closes under tension.
cuntline: The "valley" between the strands of a rope or cable. Before serving a section of laid rope, e.g. to protect it from chafing, it may be "wormed" by laying yarns in the cuntlines, giving that section an even cylindrical shape.
cut and run: When wanting to make a quick escape, a ship might cut lashings to sails or cables for anchors, causing damage to the rigging, or losing an anchor, but shortening the time needed to make ready by bypassing the proper procedures.
cut of his jib: The "cut" of a sail refers to its shape. Since this would often vary between ships, it could be used both to identify a familiar vessel at a distance, and to judge the possible sailing qualities of an unknown one. During the 16th and 17th centuries, the ships of different nations used visually distinctive types of jibs that could be determined at a distance, providing an easy way to determine friend from foe.^[55] Also used figuratively of people.^[56]
cutter: A typical cutter rigging: one mast bearing a fore-and-aft-rigged mainsail (A) and foresail (forestaysail) (B), a bowsprit (C), a jib (D), and a flying jib (E); 1. A sailing vessel defined by its rig. In European waters this is a single-masted fore and aft rig with two or more headsails In North American waters, the definition also considers whether or not the bowsprit is permanently fixed and also takes into account the position of the mast. A standing (permanently fixed) bowsprit and a forward mast position, but with two or more headsails would be classed as a sloop in the North American definition. A running bowsprit, a forestay (carrying a staysail) that is fixed to the stemhead, a jib that is set flying and a mast position that is more aft is a cutter.; 2. A type of ship's boat powered by sail or oars, though more optimised for sail than many types of ship's boat.; 3. A small- or medium-sized vessel used by governmental agencies or law enforcement in the exercise of official authority, such as harbor pilots' cutters, US Coast Guard cutters, and UK Border Agency cutters.; 4. A type of decked sailing vessel originating in the early 18th century designed for speed. Many were used as small warships. Originally cutter referred only to a type of hull, but it came to refer to the rig, which was single-masted with both fore-and-aft and square sails. A cutter rig had very large sail areas available for use in light winds.
cutting out: A surprise attack by small boats, often at night, against an anchored vessel in which the small-boat crews boarded and captured or destroyed the target vessel. Cutting out became a popular tactic in the latter part of the 18th century and saw extensive use during the Napoleonic Wars. Cutting out was still in use in the mid-19th century, in conflicts such as the Mexican-American War and American Civil War.
cutwater: The forward curve of the stem of a ship.

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