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| DAGGER | A piece of timber crossing all the puppets of the bilge-ways
to keep them together.
Dagger-knees. Knees placed obliquely, to avoid a port. |
| DAVITS | Pieces of timber or iron, with sheaves or blocks at their ends, projecting over a vessel's sides or stern, to hoist boats up to. Also, a spar with a roller or sheave at its end, used for fishing the anchor, called a fish-davit. |
| DEAD-EYE | A circular block of wood, with three holes through it, for the lanyards of rigging to reeve through, without sheaves, and with a groove round it for an iron strap. |
| DEAD-FLAT | One of the bends, amidships. |
| DEAD-LIGHTS | Ports placed in the cabin windows in bad weather. |
| DEAD RECKONING | A reckoning kept by observing a vessel's courses and distances by the log, to ascertain her position. |
| DEAD-RISING or RISING-LINE | Those parts of a vessel's floor, throughout her whole length, where the floor-timber is terminated upon the lower futtock. |
| DEAD-WATER | The eddy under a vessel's counter. |
| DEAD-WOOD | Blocks of timber, laid upon each end of the keel, where the vessel narrows. |
| DECK | The planked floor of a vessel, resting upon her beams. |
| DECK-STOPPER | A stopper used for securing the cable forward of the windlass or capstan, while it is overhauled. (See STOPPER.) |
| DEEP-SEA-LEAD | The lead used in sounding at great depths. (Pronounced dipsey.) |
| DEPARTURE | The easting or westing made by a vessel. The bearing of an object on the coast from which a vessel commences her dead reckoning. |
| DERRICK | A single spar, supported by stays and guys, to which a purchase is attached, used to unload vessels, and for hoisting. |
| DOG | A short iron bar, with a fang or teeth at one end, and a ring at the other. Used for a purchase, the fang being placed against a beam or knee, and the block of a tackle hooked to the ring. |
| DOG-VANE | A small vane, made of feathers or buntin, to show the direction of the wind. |
| DOG-WATCHES | Half watches of two hours each, from 4 to 6, and from 6 to 8, P.M. (See WATCH.) |
| DOLPHIN | A rope or strap round a mast to support the puddening, where the lower yards rest in the slings. Also, a spar or buoy with a large ring in it, secured to an anchor, to which vessels may bend their cables. |
| DOLPHIN-STRIKER. | The martingale. |
| DOUSE | To lower suddenly. |
| DOWELLING | A method of coaking, by letting pieces into the solid, or uniting two pieces together by tenoning. |
| DOWNHAUL | A rope used to haul down jibs, staysails, and studdingsails. |
| DRABLER | A piece of canvass laced to the bonnet of a sail, to give it more drop. |
| DRAG | A machine with a bag net, used for dragging on the bottom for anything lost. |
| DRAUGHT | The depth of water which a vessel requires to float her. |
| DRAW | A sail draws when it is filled by the wind.
To draw a jib, is to shift it over the stay to leeward, when it is aback. |
| DRIFTS | Those pieces in the sheer-draught where the rails are cut off. |
| DRIVE | To scud before a gale, or to drift in a current. |
| DRIVER | A spanker. |
| DROP | The depth of a sail, from head to foot, amidships. |
| DRUM-HEAD | The top of the capstan. |
| DUB | To reduce the end of a timber. |
| DUCK | A kind of cloth, lighter and finer than canvass; used for small sails. |
| DUNNAGE | Loose wood or other matters, placed on the bottom of the hold, above the ballast, to stow cargo upon. |
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