backstay
A line that runs from the top of a mast to the stern of the ship.
ballast
Weights of any form placed at the lowest level of a ship's centerline or keep to act as a counterbalance against the weight on the upper desks, provide stability, and most importantly, keep the ship from capsizing.
Barbarossa
Also known as Redbeard, his real name was Uruj and he was a Barbary corsair. Son of a Turkish renegade and a Christian mother, he was born in the Island of Lesbon in the Ægean Sea, a stronghold of the Mediterranean pirates. In 1504 Barbarossa made his headquarters at Tunis, and in return he paid the Sultan one-fifth of all the booty he took. One of his first and boldest exploits was the capture of two richly laden galleys belonging to Pope Julius II., on their way from Genoa to Civita Vecchia. Next year he captured a Spanish ship with 500 soldiers on board. In 1512 he was invited by the Moors to assist them in an attempt to retake the town and port of Bujeya from the Spaniards. After eight days of fighting, Barbarossa lost an arm, and the siege was abandoned, but he took away with him a large Genoese ship. In 1516 Barbarossa changed his headquarters to Jijil, and took command of an army of 6,000 men and sixteen galliots, with which he attacked and captured the Spanish fortress of Algiers, of which he became Sultan. Barbarossa was by now vastly rich and powerful, his fleets bringing in prizes from Genoa, Naples, Venice, and Spain. Eventually Charles V. of Spain sent an army of 10,000 troops to North Africa, defeated the corsairs, and Barbarossa was slain in battle.
Bart Roberts, Captain
A Welsh pirate whose record is second only to that of Sir Henry Morgan, he was supposed a “tall black man”. He was remarkable in that he only drank tea, kept strict discipline on his ships, allowed no women on his ships, forbid gambling, and observed the Sabbath. He looked like a Hollywood pirate, wearing a rich damask waistcoat and breeches, a red feather in his cap, a gold chain round his neck with a large diamond cross dangling from it, a sword in his hand, and two pairs of pistols hanging at the end of a silk sling flung over his shoulders. He was on board the Princess as master bound for the coast of Guinea when the Welsh pirate Howel Davis took his ship. Roberts decided to join the pirates, and was elected captain when Davis died. He started his career by taking revenge on those who killed his former captain, then sailed to Brazil and took the most heavily laden of 42 treasure ships in the Bay of Bahia. His career involved taking hundreds of ships, moving from place to place to stay ahead of pirate hunters. But in 1722, the Swallow under Captain Chaloner Ogle caught up with him at Parrot Island, and Roberts was killed by cannon fire on February 10, 1722. One good thing can be said for Roberts: he never forced a man to become a pirate against his wish.
barque
A type of ship with a shallow draft and three masts, with one or more of the masts being fore- and aft-rigged. This makes a barque very fast and maneuverable, though not suitable for sailing in the open ocean.
beam
The widest part of a ship, usually in the middle between the bow and stern.
beam reach
Sailing with the wind off the beam of the boat, that is to say the wind is coming across the beam of the boat, at a 90 degree angle to the bow.
becalmed
A state in which a sailing ship cannot move because there is no wind.
belaying pin
A large wooden peg used to tie down rigging lines. It also made a handy club for a pirate.
below
This refers to any part of a ship under the main deck and can include the crew quarters or cargo hold.
bilge
The deepest part in a ship, inside the hull. The bilge tended leak first and as a result was quite damp.
bilge rat
A rat that lived in the bilge of a ship. It was at times the only source of food on a pirate ship.
binnacle
A wooden container for a compass, used by pirates because of their belief that a compass had magical properties.
Blackbeard
Also known as Edward Teach, Captain Teach, Thatch, and Drummond, he was a Bristol man who settled in Jamaica as a privateer, then took to piracy in 1716 in command of a sloop under the lead of Benjamin Hornigold. The two sailed together in 1717 from Providence in the Caribbean toward the American coast, plundering along the way. Near Virginia Blackbeard and Hornigold took a ship and renamed her the Queen Ann's Revenge, and Blackbeard went aboard as captain. He later met and sailed together with Major Stede Bonnet, but then took advantage of him. Blackbeard next sailed north along the American coast, arriving off Charleston, South Carolina. Here he lay off the bar for several days, seizing every vessel that attempted to enter or leave the port and taking prisoners. In need of medicine, Teach sent his lieutenant, Richards, on shore with a letter to the Governor demanding that he should instantly send off a medicine chest, or else Teach would murder all his prisoners, and threatening to send their heads to Government House; many of these prisoners being the chief persons of the colony. The colony complied but slowly, and Teach sent the prisoners back naked. Teach, who was unprincipled even for a pirate, now commanded three vessels, and he wanted to get rid of his crews and keep all the booty for himself and a few chosen friends. He thus contrived to wreck his own vessel and one of his sloops. Then with his friends and all the booty he sailed off, leaving the rest marooned on a small sandy island. With Blackbeard terrorizing the entire region, a young naval officer, Lieutenant Robert Maynard was given the sloop the Ranger to hunt him down. On November 17, 1718, the lieutenant sailed for Kicquetan in the James River, and on the 21 arrived at the mouth of Okerecock Inlet, where he discovered Blackbeard. But Blackbeard had been warned, and so Maynard lost no time in attacking the pirate's ship, which had run aground. The fight was furious, Teach boarding the sloop and a terrific hand-to-hand struggle taking place, the lieutenant and Teach fighting with swords and pistols. Teach was wounded in twenty-five places before he fell dead, while the lieutenant escaped with nothing worse than a cut over the fingers. Maynard now returned in triumph in his sloop to Bath Town, with the head of Blackbeard hung up to the bolt-spit end, and received a tremendous ovation from the inhabitants. Blackbeard’s reign of terror was not just due to his plundering but also because of his appearance. Tall and powerful with a fierce face, he had a long, black beard that he tied into braids inlaid with ribbons and put over his ears. He carried three pairs of pistols into battle, and stuck lit slow matches in his hair. He remains one of the best known and most feared pirates in history, despite his short reign.
blunderbuss
A firearm with a large bore which was easy to load and devastating at short range.
boarding axe
An axe used to cut away damaged rigging lines or for attack
boarding hook
Also known as a grappling hook, this is a multi-pronged hook with a rope attached. A pirate would throw it at a target, often the gunwale or rigging of another ship, so that the other ship could be brought in closer and boarded.
boatswain
Also called a bosun, this person is in charge of the ship's colours (flags), rigging, anchors, and cables.
booty
Valuable stolen goods. From the Middle Low German bute (buite), meaning exchange or distribution. Note that pirates did not bury their treasure (except in novels and movies) as they were too eager to spend it and would not have risked one person hiding it where they knew not.
bow
The front of a ship.
bowline
A knot used to attach a line to a sail. The line is inserted through the cringles, that is to say the eye or grommet, or a sail, then worked to form a kot similar to a slipknot.
bowsprit
A spar running out from a ship’s bow, where the forestays are fastened and usually where a smaller navigational sail was connected.
breech (of a gun)
The bottom of a gun.
brethren of the coast
Another name for brother of the coast, to wit: a pirate.
brig
A type of ship with two masts, a fore-and-aft mainsail and a square-rigged foremast. They were used as both merchant vessels and warships, as well as by pirates.
brig of war
A type of ship with two masts, a fore-and-aft mainsail and a square-rigged foremast. Similar to a brig or brigantine but larger and with greater cannon capacity, the brig of war was usually used as a warship.
brigantine
A type of ship with two masts, a fore-and-aft mainsail and a square-rigged foremast. Similar to a brig or brig of war but smaller, it was used as both a merchant vessel and warship, as well as by pirates.
briny deep
The ocean. A reference to the salty water and its depths, and a way of referring to the whole ocean, not just the surface.
broad reach
Sailing with the wind coming over the port or starboard quarter, behind the bow at about 135 degree angle.
broadside
Firing a volley of cannon shot at the side of an enemy ship.
brothers of the coast
A pirate named used by pirates to refer to themselves. This is the earliest name given to those who would later be called buccaneers and freebooters, and ultimately pirates. Also known as Brethren of the Coast. In about 1640, the Brothers formed a confraternity. To become a member involved taking a vow to follow a strict code called the Custom of the Coast. Known also by the word Articles, these were a set of agreements that pirates signed on to, often written in the legal language of letters of marque of the era. Standard phrases include “no prey, no pay” and standard provisions allowed for equal shares of booty to all pirates, the right to vote on who is captain, rules for electing ship’s captains and officers, the division of plunder, and the right to compensation for injury on the job. It also detailed unacceptable behavior and the punishments inflicted for doing so. The Brothers, in other words, managed to create an open, democratic society with rules to guide reward and punishment for its members, all well before the founding of the United States.
buccaneer
Another name for a pirate. From the French word boucanier, meaning “smokers of meat.” The term was originally applied to the English and French refugees settling Hispaniola in the Caribbean, illegally according to the Spanish law that claimed all the New World for Spain. These settlers, mostly herdsmen, supported themselves by selling hides and meat that they smoked over a wooden frame known as a boucan in the language of the Carib Indians. Eventually the Spanish authorities threw out the boucaniers from their settlements, and these people in turn became sea raiders against the Spanish, moving their home to the uninhabited island of Tortuga. There they also became known as pirates, Brothers of the Coast, and privateers, depending on who was accusing them of what.
bung
A stopper for a hole in a container, usually used for food or rum.
bung hole
A hole in a container, for food or rum usually, held closed by a bung.
