Period Glossary

The words of ships, money, ranks and pirate life in the early 18th century.

• Vessels: sloop, brig, brigantine, snow, schooner (just coming into use), pinnace, periagua, longboat, jolly boat, man-of-war, guarda costa, prize.
• Ship work: careening, heaving down, graving, slipping the cable, weighing anchor, beating to windward, lying to, making sail, reefing, sounding the well, the roadstead.
• Ranks and roles: captain, quartermaster, sailing master, boatswain (bosun), bosun’s mate, gunner, carpenter, cooper, surgeon, navigator, foremast hand, powder monkey.
• Money and goods: pieces of eight, reales, pistoles, doubloons, guineas, shares, plunder, “the account,” logwood, indigo, sugar, cocoa, bale goods.
• Arms: cutlass, hanger, boarding axe, musketoon, blunderbuss, brace of pistols, swivel gun, grapeshot, chain shot, langrage, grenadoes, stinkpots.
• Pirate life: articles, “going on the account,” the sweet trade, brethren, a round robin, the black flag, marooning, the King’s pardon, “taking the paper,” Execution Dock.
• Drink and food: rumbullion, punch, bumbo, flip, small beer, salmagundi, salt pork, ship’s biscuit, turtle.

More from the wiki

• Characters & Historical Figures – Pirate captains, Crown officials and the people of Nassau’s waterfront.
• Places & Sea Lanes – Nassau and New Providence, the Bahamas, and the wider Caribbean.
• Factions & Politics – The balance of power, Nassau’s pressures, and the history of 1716–18.
• Ships, Stores & Crew – Vessels, cargo, provisions and shipboard roles.
• Nassau City Ledger – Buildings, civic projects, resources and threats.
• World Threads – Historical pressures, expeditions and trade ventures.
• The Windward Passage – A naval briefing on the passage between Cuba and Hispaniola.
• Charts – The New Providence harbour chart and the Bahamas & Florida Straits chart.
• Benjamin Hornigold – The founding captain of the Nassau pirate haven who became its hunter.
• Edward Teach (Blackbeard) – The most notorious captain of the age, from Hornigold’s sloop to Ocracoke.
• Charles Vane – The hard-liner who refused the pardon and fired his way out of Nassau.
• Calico Jack, Anne Bonny & Mary Read – Rackham’s short command and the two women tried for piracy in Jamaica in 1720.
• Woodes Rogers – Circumnavigator, privateer and the governor sent to end the pirate republic.
• The King’s Pardon of 1717 – The proclamation that split Nassau’s captains between a clean slate and the gallows.
• The 1715 Treasure Fleet – The hurricane that wrecked Spain’s silver fleet and filled Nassau with pirates.
• Ship Types of the Pirate Era – Periaguas, sloops, brigantines, snows and frigates: what pirates sailed and why.
• Pirate Articles & Life at Sea – Elected captains, written articles, shares of plunder and daily life aboard.
• Nassau’s Trade & Economy – How plunder became provisions: fences, smugglers, salt, wrecking and coin.

Play Free Nassau