Nautical Glossaries or Dictionaries?

[Krunch]

I've been using rowboats, canoes and powerboats for decades, but I just started becoming interested in boatbuilding recently, and I've been reading Chapelle, Vaitses, Steward, Rossel and whoever else I can find, but one issue keeps confounding me:

The terminology is insane! And it often seems like there's no way to figure out what a word means other than by trying to piece it together from the context.

Can anyone refer me to any good online or book nautical glossaries or dictionaries that identify, clearly, all these names for boat parts, etc.?

Here are just a few that have mystified me lately:

• garboard (from what I can gather, this would be the plank just outboard of the keel...?)

• deadwood (no idea, and I've seen the word in Chapelle's "Boatbuilding" probably dozens of times but the context doesn't help and I'm clueless)

• bilge (to me, the bilge is the enclosed area under the deck where motor oil and seawater from the stuffing box collect but it's also apparently a term to describe something external to the hull in the vicinity of the chine...?)
I'm not even going to begin to describe my bewilderment at sailing terms... :eek: Thanks for any clues! http://www.familyfriendsfirearms.com/forum/fffmain/smilies/beerchug.gif

Jeff

[Ian McColgin]

If you google up "John's nautical links" or "the Mother of all Maratime links" you'll find an amazing collection. Scroll down the table of contents to find a variety of nautical dictionaries.

The "deadwood" is the solid wood filling in the wedge at the stern between the bottom of the keel and the horn timber, which is the big bit of framing that the planks come together at at the stern and below the transom (if any).

[Pernicious Atavist]

Since my old computer crashed, I no longer have my 'favorite places' available, but I did find a web site that had the terminology. Google 'nautical terminology' and see what happens for you.

[Thorne]

This inexpensive book will explain much of that terminology for you, plus has great photos and diagrams of small boat rigging...

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/d6/d7/1c03810ae7a08c849bc99110.L.jpg

http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Boat-Time-Life-Library-Boating/dp/0809421445

[mmd]

Try noodling about in the dictionaries contained herein:

http://www.termisti.refer.org/nauterm/dicten.htm#en

[Terrence Gilhuly]

It's probably worth owning a copy of "Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea"
If nothing else it's a great time waster when there's work to be done.
I would imagine that there were enough printed that used bookstores are a viable option.

[Krunch]

Great replies, as always. Thank you all.
Jeff