NAUTICAL LANGUAGE. l6l 



windward " or "to leeward -' as the case may be, that is to 

 say, to the direction from which or to which the wind blows. 

 But the starboard and port watches, composed of certain divi- 

 sions of the crew, alternately on deck, do not change name to 

 suit the wind. The master's post on the starboard of the 

 poop or quarter-deck when at anchor immediately becomes 

 the windward side when under sail, changing with every new 

 tack. A sailor, coming aft to take his trick at the wheel, 

 always comes to the poop or quarter-deck by the leeward side 

 when under sail. Otherwise, he would come by the port side. 

 So, the green and red lights are always known as the starboard 

 and port lights, while the sheets trimming the sails to their 

 proper angle are called 7vindivard or leeivard as it may happen. 

 But if the ship were at anchor, even these sheets would be 

 described as starboard or port. 



In all ages the. prow of a vessel has been likened in shape 

 and name to the head of an animal or some feature of that 

 part of the body. The old Romans applied the word rost?'um 

 to the stem of a vessel just as we use our word beak, the 

 French bee, the Germans Sehnabel, and the Spanish rostra. 

 Italian sprone and Spanish espolon, cock's spur, are used in 

 the same way. The commoner term among English and 

 French sailors, however, is head, French eap, from Latin 

 caput; whence our synonymous verbs to head and to cape. 

 The French sailor says, "0/> est le cap? " just as the English 

 says, " How does she head ? " Sailors colloquially speak of 

 the vessel's stem or prow as " her nose," from its projection, 

 or as "the eyes of her," partly from the eye-like position 

 and shape of the hawse-holes ; they describe a wind dead 

 ahead as " right in her teeth " ; a timber at the foremost end 

 of the keel at the stem is known as the "apron" or "stomach- 

 piece," which the Frenchman calls gorgere, or neck-cloth, 

 from gorge, throat ; Spaniards call the bulging sides of the 

 ;^'essel at the bow los cachetes, and the French les joices, the 

 cheeks. 



We find these terms transferred to the vessel itself. From 



