Fitzgerald collected words and phrases from local sailors and fishermen which were published in the East Anglian. The full text is available here. This is a short selection:
- BOTTOM’S OUT. The bottom of the sea when beyond the reach of the lead.
- BOWLS . Small barrels that serve as buoys to the warp which sustains the fleet of nets. These bowls are painted of different colours, to distinguish the different lengths of each fleet.
- BRABBLE. Of water; as over a shoal, when currents cross, & c.
- CANT. To turn or slew round, as an anchored vessel with the tide.
- CORE OR COAR. To untwist a rope or line from its kinks.
- DAB. ” Flat as a dab,” the sea calm-flat
- DAN OR DEN. A small buoy, with some ensign atop, to mark where the fishing lines have been shot; and the dan is said to ” watch well ” if it holds erect against wind and tide.
- DRAWS’L. Draw-sail, a large square canvas, which, its ends being made fast to the trawl boat, is flung overboard in order to draw the boat to windward by action of the tide.
- FEATHER-WHITE. ” The sea was all a feather-white ” with foam.
- FOLT. To lap up a wet sail loosely, so as air may get in; not the same as fold, I hear; perhaps a looser form of it.
- FREE-EN. ” If the wind free-en a bit,” -sc. , slant favourably. Not a very happy word.
- LAW. The wind turning so as to blow the lugger back on her nets is said to blow ” against the law.”
- MAIN. The main; land as well as sea. ” She got off the shoal and then struck on the main .” Thus the word was formerly and generally used: when did the poets give it to the sea only?
- SCANDALIZE. To lower the peak of a schooner’s main sail! At any rate, when the sail is so left, she is said to have “her mainsail scandalized.” How could my friends have thought of this word, for this purpose? And yet, there is something in the shape of the word.
- SHIES. The palisades fixed on the beach to withstand the encroachments of the sea about Felixstow.
- SPOOM. To scud before the wind. Common in old writers: thus used by Dryden (who owes much of his vigour to his use of the vulgar): – ” When virtue spooms before a favouring gale, My heaving wishes help to fill the sail .” This word we could well afford to keep in general use, though we scarce want its derivative.
- SPOON-DRIFT. Foam (spuma is, of course, the original of both words). ” The sea was all a feather- white with spoon-drift.” SPOTTY. Partial; the wind; sometimes also ” dollopy,” a word better applied to more substantial stuff, ” a good dollop of money,” & c.
- SQUARE-FLOOD. SQUARE-EBB: when an anchored vessel has canted round so that her yards are at right angles to the flow or ebb of the sea.
- SPRING A LUFF. As when the wind freshens or turns upon you. – ” When there’s a Lull, Keep her full; ” When there’s a Puff, Spring a Luff.”
- VEER AND HAUL. To vary. ” The wind fare to veer an’ -haul all day long.” Why will your Lowestoft men say ” Veer-and-‘aul,” and so often misplace their h like cockneys? WAKE UP. A vessel beginning to stir herself with a fresh air, after drowsy going. She then begins ” to talk” also; and, still more lively, proceeds to ” pick up her crumbs.”
- WEASEL. A small buoy fastened at such a depth to a ves sel’s anchor as only to show above the low water of a spring tide. ” So as, if you happened to break your anchor-cheen (chain) a-ridin’, and you’ve to nip off in a hurry, you know where to find your anchor again, ever so long after.” [ Salwager, with a wink. ]
- UP. The sea beginning to ” make, and shew his Ivory.”
- WHOLE WATER. Deep water, as opposed to ” broken water,” which is shallow.