Balinger - Small seagoing sailing vessel without a forecastle used mainly for trade or as a kind of warship.

Bark or Barge or Barque - General name given to small sailing ships. After the 17th century, a square rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast "fore-and-aft" rigged).

Barbary Coast - Coast of North Africa from Atlantic Ocean to the western coast of Egypt. (Area inhabited by the Berbers).

Bloody Flux – Dysentery.

Booty - Something that is seized by violence.

Bow - The front of the ship.

Buccaneer - Pirates who sailed the Caribbean and the Eastern coast of North America in 17th Century. The name is derived from their practice of raiding Hispaniola and taking cattle from the Spanish plantations; they dried the meat on grills, known in French as boucan (hence the name buccaneer), and sold it to vessels that put in for provisions.

Careening - Turning a ship on its side so that it can be cleaned - making the ship faster in the water - or repaired. During careening all weapons are brought ashore and the ship and pirates are vulnerable.

Cartouche - A box for cartridges.

Case-Shot - A collection of small projectiles put in cases to fire from a cannon; canister-shot.

Cat-of-nine-tails - A type of whip often used by captains to punish and enforce their authority.

Cog - Small ship of war.

Corsair - A fast ship used for piracy.

The Declaration of Paris - Abolished privateering in 1856. All countries signed except the USA, Spain, Mexico and Venezuela.

Doubloon - A type of Spanish gold coin.

Fathom - Six feet.

Fire in the Hole - The warning issued before the gunner set his match to the powder hole on a cannon to fire it.

Forecastle - A superstructure at, or immediately aft of the bow.

Freebooter - Another name for a pirate or buccaneer.

Frigate - A "rated" ship that carried all its guns on a single upper deck.

Gabion - A cylinder of wickerwork filled with earth, used as a military defense.

Galleon - A large sailing vessel of the 15th-17th centuries, used as a fighting or merchant ship. with three or more masts. Used as a warship or merchant ship.

Goal – Jail.

Hail-Shot - Small shot that scatters like hail when fired from a cannon.

Hardtack - Dried bread made from flour and water baked into a moisture-free rock to prevent spoilage. Hardtack had to be broken into small pieces or soaked in water before eaten.

Jolly Rodger - The pirate flag. Usually black and using a skull or skeleton. (Each ship's was different).

Lateen Sail - A triangular sail set on a long sloping yard.

League - A measure of distance about 3 miles.

Langrange - Case-shot loaded with pieces of iron of irregular shape, used to damage the rigging and sails of the enemy.

Letters Of Marque - License, warrant or commission granted by a belligerent state to a private citizen to arm a private warship to capture and confiscate ships of another country.

Log (ship's) - Daily record of a vessel--ship's diary.

Log Line - A knotted length of line with a piece of wood at the end used to measure a vessel's speed. Thrown into the water to determine how many "knots" ran out in a set period of time.

Lugsail - A quadrilateral sail bent upon a yard that crosses the mast obliquely.

Mizzen - After mast in a vessel with three or more.

Moidore - A type of Portuguese gold coin.

Parrel - A sliding ring, wood or metal that confines a yard or the jaws of a gaff to the mast.

Partridge-Shot - A kind of charge for cannon consisting of a number of missiles fired together, similar to langrange or case-shot.

Piece of Eight - A type of Spanish coin.

Pillage - To strip ruthlessly of money or goods by open violence, to take as booty.

Pink - A vessel with a sharp, narrow stern and an overhanging stern.

Pinnace - A light sailing ship used in attendance on a larger ship.

Pirate - A person who robs or commits illegal violence at sea not in possession of Letters of Marque or reprisal.

Port - When facing the bow (forward), the left side of the ship. Also called Larboard.

Privateer - An armed ship that is privately owned and manned, commissioned by a government to fight or harass enemy ships.

Provost - Responsible for discipline on board.

Quarter - Mercy given to those defeated.

Rutters - Detailed instructions, before maps, listing all that was known about a place or route.

Salmagundi - A favorite dish on a pirate ship. The name is derived from French salemine - highly seasoned or salted. "Included might be any or all of the following: turtle meat, fish, pork, chicken, corned beef, ham, duck, and pigeon. The meats would be roasted, chopped into pieces and marinated in spiced wine, then mixed with cabbage, anchovies, pickled herring, mangoes, hard-boiled eggs, palm hearts, onions, olives, grapes, and any other pickled vegetables available. The entire concoction would them be highly seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper, and mustard seed and soaked with oil and vinegar

Schooner - A two-masted vessel, fore-and-aft rigged on both masts.

Ship-of-the-line - A ship powerful enough to take its place in the line of battle. A third rate or larger which carried guns on two or more decks.

Sloop - Sailing vessel with perpendicular fore and aft rigging.

Spanish Main - Refers to the South American coast - today's Panama, Colombia, and part of Western Venezuela. In the early 16th century the Spanish called the land Terra Firma (the Mainland) and when translated into English it was known as the Spanish Mainland - shortened by the English to Spanish Main.

Starboard - When facing the bow (forward), the right side of the ship.

Swan-Shot -- Big hale-shot for large fowl like the swan.

Sweats, the - Smallpox or malaria.

Vice-Admiralty Courts - In the British colonies, they held trials and made decisions regarding maritime issues.

Weigh - To raise the anchor when preparing for departure.

Yard - A long spar, supported at its center to which the head of a square sail, lateen sail, or lugsail is bent.