The Pirate Queen (68 page)

dight,
dressed, dressed up, or decorated.

disbock,
to flow out of or into.

draft,
chart.

drake,
a short gun of the culverin type.

drumbler,
a small fast vessel used as a transport or a fighting ship.

ducat,
a Spanish coin worth about 5 shillings and 10 pence in Elizabethan times.

Easterland,
the territory of the Hanse merchants on the Baltic.

elchie,
ambassador.

ell,
45 inches, the standard width of cloth.

equinoctial,
of the equator.

factor,
an agent for a merchant or monarch in a foreign country.

factory,
trading station for the factor.

falchion,
a broad curved sword (as used by the Turks and Barbary pirates).

falconet,
a gun about 6
¹
/2 feet long firing a 1
¹
/2 pound shot.

fat,
cask.

fencible,
easy to defend.

figu,
plantain banana.

fine,
end.

firkin,
a small cask containing between eight to nine gallons.

fish,
to mend a mast or spar by binding it to a splint.

flead,
fleane, flayed, or skinned.

flux,
dysentery.

fly-boat,
fast sailing vessel usually traveling between ships in a squadron with provisions and messages.

foist,
a small light galley with 18-20 oars aside and two masts.

foot,
foot soldiers, infantry.

freeboard,
the minimum height of the ship’s side above the waterline.

frumenty or furmenty,
a dish of wheat boiled in milk and seasoned to taste.

furicane,
hurricane.

furniture,
equipment.

gable,
cable.

galleass,
a large long sailing vessel with a flush deck, auxiliary oars, and broadside guns.

galleon,
a sailing warship of fine lines, with high upperworks aft and a galley bow with heavy battery of chasers (16th century).

galley,
1. a type of warship propelled by oars; 2. the kitchen aboard ship.

galliard,
a kissing dance.

galliot,
a small galley.

gallizabra,
a type of Spanish sailing warship that was small, fast and equipped with oars.

general,
1. commander of any expedition, either maritime or military; 2. a flagship.

glass,
gloss.

goose-wing,
“one of the clews or lower corners of a ship’s mainsail or foresail when the middle part is furled or tied up to the yard” (
SOED
).

grave,
v. to clean a ship’s bottom by burning off the accretions and paying it over with tar while aground on a beach or placed in a dock (
SOED
).

groat,
an English four penny piece.

grommet,
an Elizabethan apprentice seaman.

guards,
stripes (blue and green).

Guinea,
Coast of, the west coast of Africa from Sierra Leone to Benin where the Portuguese had initially set up slaving forts.

gunwale,
a heavy timber forming the top of the ship’s side.

halberd,
a kind of spear approximately six feet long with a head that could be used either for cutting or thrusting.

handy,
easily maneuverable.

hardly,
with difficulty.

harquebus,
see arquebus.

harping iron,
harpoon.

hawser,
a large rope or tackle.

hold,
fort.

horse,
cavalry.

hound,
projection at the mast-head.

hoy,
a flat bottomed sailing vessel.

ingenio,
sugar mill.

intend to,
to attend to.

jealousy,
suspicion, mistrust.

jennet,
a small Spanish horse.

jut,
a push or knock.

kemb,
comb.

kern,
v. to make into grains, to granulate.

kintal,
see
quintal
.

larboard,
now known as the port side.

large (of the wind),
on the quarter.

lateen,
1. a fore-and-aft rig where triangular sails are bent to yards which are set so that the foot is made fast on deck and the middle hoisted to the masthead; 2. a triangular sail rigged ship.

latitude,
a position lying on a line around the earth parallel to the equator.

league,
approximately three miles.

leese,
lose.

letters patent,
a document under the Great Seal of England appointing the person(s) to act on behalf of the Crown.

lewd,
unprincipled, vulgar, evil, foolish.

ligier,
resident ambassador or commercial representative.

list,
strip, edging.

longitude,
a position lying on a line around the earth from pole to pole.

lowbell,
a small bell used in fowling.

luff,
to bring the ship closer to the wind.

maguey,
American aloe.

main,
mainland.

main to,
v., to lower sails.

mammee,
a large tropical tree bearing huge yellow fruit when ripe.

mankind,
male stags.

mark,
thirteen shillings and eight pence in Elizabethan money.

mart,
market.

master,
1. the commanding officer of a merchant ship; 2. an officer responsible for the navigation and pilotage of a warship.

match,
a slow burning fuse for firing guns.

mean,
moderate or medium.

mess,
a group of seamen.

millio,
millet.

mizzen,
1. the foremost mast of a ship; 2. bonaventure—, the fourth and aftermost mast of a great ship of the 16th century.

morse,
walrus.

musket,
a breech-loading gun in a swivel mounting (16th century).

occupy,
1. to follow one’s occupation; 2. to have sexual intercourse.

open,
in view of.

overseen,
mistaken.

painful,
diligent.

pantofles,
overshoes like slippers.

part,
partisan.

partisan,
a kind of spear approximately nine feet long with a broad blade.

patache,
“a small boat used for communications between the vessels of a fleet” (
SOED
).

peason,
peas.

peso,
a piece of eight, worth about four shillings and three pence in Elizabethan money.

pilled,
pillaged.

pilot,
navigator.

pine,
pineapple.

pinnace,
a small ship or boat, usually with oars as well as sails and fairly fast. It is able to navigate in the shallows.

pintado,
a cloth painted or printed in colors.

pipe,
(of wine or water for example), a very large cask, about half a ton.

plant,
v., to colonize.

plantano,
plantain.

policy,
crafty device, strategem, trick.

politically,
craftily, falsely.

pompion,
pumpkin.

posy,
a short inscription or motto.

purchase,
capture, plunder, or prize.

purveyance,
the sovereign’s right to obtain supplies for the royal household at a fixed price.

quintal,
a one hundred pound weight.

race-built ship,
a ship built low in the water designed for speed.

real of plate,
a Spanish coin, worth about six and a half pennies of Elizabethan money.

receipt,
capacity.

reckoning,
1. a calculation of a ship’s position; 2. dead-, an estimation of the ship’s position without the benefit of observations, by calculating course, speed, and drift from a known point of departure.

regiment,
rule or government.

road,
anchorage or port.

roan cloth,
a kind of linen made at Rouen.

rowbarge,
a small oared warship (16th century).

royal of plate,
see real of plate above.

rude,
untutored, barbarous.

rummage,
v., to stow cargo or clean a ship thoroughly.

St. Laurence,
island of, believed to be Madagascar.

seron,
“a bale or package of exotic products (such as almonds cocoa)
made up from an animal’s hide” (
SOED
).

shallop,
a small, sleek cruising warship in the 16th century.

shift,
v. to change clothes.

sith,
sithens, since.

sleeveless,
useless.

sodden,
boiled.

sort (of files),
a number of different kinds.

span,
approximately nine inches.

spend,
v., to lose (as a mast, etc).

spoiled,
despoiled, pillaged.

states,
men of importance.

stead,
help.

stirk,
a young bullock or heifer.

stock,
the crossbar of an anchor.

stone bow,
a kind of crossbow or catapult for shooting stones (
SOED
).

success,
fortune, either good or bad.

suckets,
fruits preserved in syrup or candied.

sumach,
a preparation used in tanning or dyeing leather.

swimmer (of a fish),
a dorsal fin.

tabard,
a surcoat bearing the arms of the wearer or his lord.

tables,
pictures, flat surfaces.

tack,
1. to shift tack or go about, to turn into the wind and so onto the opposite tack; 2. to beat to windward by successive tacks.

tally,
an accounting device, usually a notched stick or note recording a sum of money owed.

target,
shield.

tierce,
one third.

towardly,
promising.

trade,
trail, footprints, tread.

trajín,
the portage of Spanish treasure across the isthmus of Panama to Nombre de Díos, a trap for catching wild animals, a decoy, a snare.

troterro,
a messenger.

tuberones,
sharks.

turkey,
turquoise.

turnout,
to launch a ship.

twelve tide,
the twelve days of Christmas.

unstocked (of an anchor),
without a crossbar.

utter,
1. outer; 2. to offer for sale, to sell.

utterance,
sale.

vail,
v. to go down stream with the tide.

victual,
v., to provide good and drink for a ship or the navy; n. good and drink.

waft,
v. 1. to beckon; 2. to wave something as a signal; 3. to protect a convoy of merchant ships (16th century).

want,
mole.

warp,
1. to tow a ship with boats; 2. to move a ship by hauling on warps to make fast to shore.

watchet,
light or sky blue.

weatherly,
(of a ship) tending to drift little to leeward when close-hauled.

wood,
mad.

worm,
snake, serpent, dragon.

zabra,
a small vessel used off the coasts of Spain and Portugal (
SOED
).

Zeilan,
(Ceylon) Sri Lanka.

Zocotoro,
Socotra.

Select Bibliographical Essay and Suggest ed Reading

Abbreviations:

Manuscripts

The handwritten and printed manuscripts of the British Library, the Guildhall Library, The Caird Library at the National Maritime Museum, and the National Archives in London, as well as those at the Archivio de Indias in Seville, Spain, and Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., have formed the crux of my original research.

From the British Library, the most useful manuscripts were Titus B XIII and MS 48015 relating to Ireland. Harleian MSS 168, 398, 598, 1546, 1877 and 6990; Lansdowne MSS 14, 16, 26, 113 [Burghley papers] and 43 [regarding Spain]; Additional MS 33,271; 11405; 33592, 36316; 36317; Egerton 2541; Sloane MSS 1786, 2292, 3289; Titus F I and Titus 107/46; Caligula C, II relating to English affairs were essential reading. Cotton Ortho VIII; Stowe 303; and Tiberius D VIII relating to the adventurers and the Turkey/Levant Company were indispensable; Cotton Galba B, XI; Cotton Galba D; Additional MSS 12497; 12503; 12504; 28,702 and 28,357 regarding relations with Spain were particularly useful. Stowe 159 relating to Portugal made fascinating reading, too.