Ship Terminology

[wonwinglo]

Sacrificial Anode-Interesting subject this Richard and goes way back to the days when cars had side trims faced with copper or zinc,the sacrificial part of the zinc allied to the positive earth of the car was important,otherwise rust would spread very quickly due to the conductivity of the power source through the car bodywork,for anyone who had one of the old Hillman/Singer vehicles they will know what I mean,they were very prone to rust.

The automotive industry changed to negative earth,not that it made a lot of difference as the thickness of the metal defeated the object of the exercise.

It got so bad on these old cars that people used to fill the sills with engine oil and stick a bung in,I had one so filled,when you went around a corner you could feel the weight of the oil throwing to one side ! the problem here was that people used old spent engine oil which has so many impurities in to make it corrosive,which was rather counter productive.

Anyway a tale from motoring days of old when there were only an handful of cars on the road.

[Guest]

T

Tabernacle: The socket into which the end of a hinged mast is located when it is lowered.

Table: A platform in a transverse direction either side of a mast where cargo derrick heels are located.

Tackle: A collection of wires, ropes and blocks used to operate a ships derrick.

Taffrail: A mainly decorative handrail placed over bulwarks of, usually, highly varnished teak.

Tailshaft: The aft most section of propulsion shaft to which is attached the propeller.

Tank Top: The plating that forms the top of the double bottom tanks and is effectively the floor of the machinery spaces.

Tare: Is the weight of the packing and container of goods deducted for the net weight to give the actual weight of the goods.

Telegraph: Communication means between the bridge and the machinery spaces to enable the manoeuvring of the propulsion machinery.

Telemotor System: The system between the bridge and the steering gear, which provides the signal to the prime mover of the rudder. Traditionally a chain system but nowadays would more likely be hydraulic or electrical.

Tender: 1) A smaller vessel supplying services to a much larger vessel. 2) A ship in an unstable condition with a small metacentric height which has a tendency to roll excessively due to a lack of righting moment.

TEU: Twenty Foot Equivalent Units, a measurement of Container ship capacity.

Thole: Vertical pegs of wood or metal inserted into the gunwhale of a rowing boat to replace a crutch or rowlock.

Three Island Ship: A vessel with a Poop, a bridge and a foc’s’le.

Thrusters: Propellers mounted in a transverse tunnel to generate a turning moment on the hull for use in manoeuvring in enclosed waters. Some vessels such as large cruise ships have bow and stern thrusters and can actually move sideways.

Tiller: A casting, forging, or fabricated structure located on the rudder stock to enable the stock to be turned.

TPC: Tonnes per Centimeter is a measurement of the quantity if cargo required to be loaded or unloaded to change a vessels draught by one centimeter.

Topping Wire: The wire used to control the height of a boom.

Tractor Tug: A tug whose propulsion is located forward of the centerline of the vessel and as such is usually in the form of a Voith Schneider or an Azimuth unit.

Tramp Ship: A vessel that does not operate on a regular liner run and does not have consistent cargoes. Unfairly thought of as dirty and unkempt vessels they are invariably in an equal condition to any other type of cargo ship.

Transom Stern: A stern structure that terminates with a flat transverse bulkhead.

Transverse: In a direction perpendicular to longitudinal attitudes.

Travelling Block: A block in a system of running rigging thatmoves with the running lines.

Tread: A dimension of the length of the keel.

Triatic Stay: A horizontal stay between the caps of two masts or a mast and for instance a funnel. Used for attaching blocks for signal halyards.

Trim: Is the inclination of the keel in a longitudinal direction. When this is level the vessel is said to be on an even keel. If the bow is lower the vessel is referred to as trimmed by the head.

Trundle Head: The circular head of the capstan into which the sockets are situated for locating the capstan bars.

Tumblehome: The inward curvature of shell plating at the top of the hull.

Turn of the Bilge: The curved area of the hull which connects the flat bottom to the vertical sides around the midship section.

Turnbuckle: A device for tensioning wires usually found in standing rigging. It consists of a central threaded section with a right hand thread on one end and a left hand thread on the other end, which locate into the end caps, attached to the rigging. When the center section is rotated it either draws the two ends together or allows them to move apart. Also known as a Bottlescrew.

Tweendecker: A popular construction of general cargo ships with one or more intermediate longitudinal decks. The idea being that different cargos can be carried in the different deck levels and they can even be fitted with internal hatches to separate the decks.

[Guest]

U

Ullage: The space above a liquid in a tank or compartment. When determining tank levels by dipping the tank through the sounding pipe if it is a particularly viscous liquid such as fuel and you do not want to contaminate the sounding pipe then you may measure the ullage, the distance from the level of the liquid to the top of the tank.

Unbalanced Rudder: A rudder arrangement where the rudder stock is at the forward edge of the rudder hence all the surface area of the rudder acts behind the point of rotation.

Under Deck Tonnage: The volume of the vessel between the main deck and the tank tops.

Under Foot: When an anchor hangs down vertically because it has not reached the seabed.

Union Purchase: A method of using two derricks together to enable loads to be swung onto the quayside. It incorporates a ships derrick and a shoreside derrick attached to the load at the same time.

Upper Deck: Uppermost continuous deck or Main Deck.

Uptakes: The exhaust pipes inside the funnel spaces and the casing below.

[Guest]

V

Vane Pump: A type of hydraulic pump commonly used nowadays as a steering gear prime mover. It consists of a stator connected to the ships structure and a rotor connected to the rudderstock. Between the two are radial vanes connected alternatively between the two so when hydraulic oil is pimped into the space between the vanes it rotates the rudder.

Veer and Haul: A process of allowing slack on a wire connected to a windlass or winch to enable the motor to speed up before taking up the slack and tensioning the rope.

Ventilator Cowl: The traditional method of ventilating machinery spaces. The cowls could either be directed by hand to obtain the maximum airflow or they could have a head on a bearing that rotated into the wind by the action of a vane fixed to the back.

Voith Schneider Propeller: A type of propeller rotating in a vertical axis which consists of a number or rotating vanes. The vanes adjust their angle of attack as they rotate so are used to generate a directional thrust. Incredibly manoeuvreable but not a very efficient method of propulsion so used a lot in vessels such as tugs.

[Guest]

W

Waist: Upper deck area between the Foc’s’le and the Poop.

Wake: Contrary to popular opinion the wake is the mass of water dragged by a ship through the water in which the propeller actually rotates. Consequently the speed of the propeller through the wake is actually less than the speed of the ship.

Wall Sided Vessel: A ship with a vertical hull in the area of the waterline.

Warping End: The drum on the end of the windlass or capstan around which the rope is wound when heaving on the rope.

Warps: Ropes used in docking to position the vessel or manoeuvre it without the requirement for engines.

Wash: Waves caused by the passage of the vessel.

Wash Bulkhead: Internal bulkhead fitted within a tank to prevent the movement of the liquid in the tank. Usually perforated to allow flow but at a reduced rate.

Water Jet Propulsion: An arrangement whereby the main engine drives a pump instead of a propeller and the pump is arranged to eject a jet of water through a nozzle extending outside the hull. The nozzle can also be directional so providing steering as well as propulsion.

Waterline: The line around the hull that corresponds to the surface of the water at a specific draught and trim.

Waterlogged: A vessel full of water but remaining afloat.

Waterplane Area: The area generated if the hull was sliced at the waterline.

Waterplane Area Coefficient: A ratio of the Waterplane Area to a rectangle of the same length and breadth as the area. A vessel such as a tanker would have a very high coefficient whereas a fast refrigerated vessel would have much finer form so a lower coefficient.

Watertight Doors: Doors fitted below the waterline designed to be closed either locally or remotely, which would maintain the watertight integrity of the bulkhead and therefore the compartment.

Watertight Subdivision or Compartment: The volume between watertight bulkheads. Vessels nowadays such as passenger ships are classed as a two-compartment ship whereby they are designed to remain afloat and upright with two, even adjacent, compartments flooded.

Wave Resistance: The resistance to the hull passing through the water as a consequence of moving the waves out of the way to allow passage. This can be considerable in an older hull form whereby the bow wave comes high out of the water. The energy required to lift this water up and move it to one side is considerable and is a waste. Modern bulbous bow forms have a much smaller bow wave.

Weather Deck: The uppermost continuous deck.

Web: A plate arranged to support a frame and provide additional rigidity of the hull.

Weigh Anchor: Raise the anchor and stow the cable.

Wheelhouse: The structure on the navigating bridge deck which contains the navigating equipment.

Whelps: Projections on the warping ends of windlasses and capatans to prevent heaving ropes from slipping.

Winch: An apparatus used for hauling in or paying out ropes under load used in the handling of cargo, boats, mooring etc.

Windlass: The equipment used to haul and lower the anchor.

Winter Draught: The depth of water a vessel’s hull may be immersed to in a winter zone at certain times of the year. Identified on the classification societies load markings usually by the painted letters WD.

[Guest]

X

X-Ray: Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength between ultraviolet and gamma radiation which can be used to check the quality of welds and internal structural defects.

[Guest]

Y

Yard: A mast spar, tapering towards the ends.

Yaw: A vessel that fails to steer on a directed course.

Yawing: Another of the six degrees of freedom of movement of a vessel. It describes movement of a rotational nature about a vertical axis.

Yoke: A structural member that usually crosses a main support to impart the loading evenly on either side. Can also be fitted to a rudder when the rudder is operated in a push and pull steering gear arrangement.

[Guest]

Z



Zones: Divisions into which the ship is split up for the purposes of containing and fighting fires.

[Guest]

Do you have any idea how releived I am to have finally finished this project?

[Guest]

Mr. B-Barge, what a piece of work!

Although I usually stick to not quite finishing aircraft, I am straying for a change to a ship as my brother bought me one for Christmas, (I chose it-he paid for it-I thought it would be a nice project for the long winter nights).

It's the frigate President by Sergal, (any comments on this kit anyone?), and so far I've completed the hull but am now about to start on the planking, (scary to say the least as other than knowing where the first plank starts I haven't much of a clue-no change there then! If you, or anyone, has any advice re. planking it would be a help, ie. do you start at the pointy bit and work back or the blunty bit and work forward or in the middle? (I haven't learnt all the terminology yet!!!)

Thanks, Steve.

[Guest]

Bartley thanks for your comments, a lot of time went into this thread which I hope will be usefull to people who are in the process of sorting out the blunt end from the pointed end!!

As for planking, assuming you are talking about deck planking as opposed to hull planking, there are many differrent techniques and plenty of advice but at the end of the day you are going to have to sit down and work out your own plan of attack and most of it is common sense and logic.

First of all you need to decide what technique you are going to use for the caulking. A common one is to use black paper laid vertically between the planks then sanded back when the deck is finished. Another is using black plasticard and yet another is using black cotton. Finally a method I devised was to lay the planks with a gap which was then filled with a mixture of PVA glue and powder paint. This was then sanded back to the planks when the glue had dried.

Once you have made the decision of how you are going to do the caulking you have to decide on whether you are going to "Joggle" the plank ends or not. "Joggling" is the process of fitting the plank ends into the curved deck edge planks as found at the bow and stern. As I was simply repeating a plank pattern that I had on a pre-printed ply overlay I didn't joggle mine but I have to admit to being led a bit down the garden path by the overlay. Had I done more research at the time I may have decided that joggled planks would have been more authentic but I am reassured by the fact that Irish Steam Coasters were built very much to a budget and the cheapest techniques were used throughout construction.

Anyway your plan of attack is to then fit the edge planks around the deck you are covering and the planking that frames any deck fittings such as winches, derricks etc. This then leaves the area in the middle that has to have the longitudinal planks fitted to it. Always start in the centre and work away from the central plank towards either side. This will ensure that the planks are even port and stbd.

Have a look at my Ben Ain build thread here:

http://www.scale-models.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1711

to see how I did mine but at the end of the day make your own mind up as to how to tackle your own. The technique of using the PVA glue is not the easiest and I would not recommend it in the way I did the first deck (I was learning as I went along!) For subsequent decks I will be applying the caulking with a syringe along the plank edges to minimise the amount of rubbing down required afterwards.

[Guest]

Thanks for that BB, always nice to have some options and I'm not averse to putting my thinking cap on and figuring which is best for me but it's still a big help having experts advice because, for a start, I would never have thought of using black paper between the planks and I'm sure that the bit of contrast it would provide is just the sort of thing to make a model a bit special.

Cheers,

Steve.

[Guest]

You're very welcome Steve but please don't have me down as an expert, this is my first time doing such a job as planking so I'm learning as well.

Black paper does seem to be quite a common technique so I'm sure it can work well for you and the results with any of the options is a world apart from a printed ply overlay.

One thing I did and I would recommend that you do is some sample peices before committing to the model. I wanted to experiment with differrent woods, techniques, caulking etc so I made a few samples before I decided on my preferred option.

[Guest]

I am very impressed with your work, I know exactly how much time this sort of thing takes. As an Englishman living in Sweden and belonging to a Swedish model boat club I often get translation questions concerning nautical terms. I have been compiling a Swedish /English, English/Swedish dictionary. After 2 years I have completed the Swedish/English part. It has been extremly popular amongst the Swedish model ship builders becuase most information in books and on the webb is in English. Looking at your dictionary has given me even more words and phrases to translate. Hope this is Ok with you.

[Guest]

Skuta, please be my guest and rest assured they are not my words!! I only borrowed them from other people as well, however the definitions you are more than welcome to use.

I actually work with a Swedish Captain so if you ever need any more help feel free to ask.