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| RACE | A strong, rippling tide. |
| RACK | To seize two ropes together, with cross-turns. Also, a fair-leader for running rigging. |
| RACK-BLOCK | A course of blocks made from one piece of wood, for fair-leaders. |
| RAKE | The inclination of a mast from the perpendicular. |
| RAMLINE | A line used in mast-making to get a straight middle line on a spar. |
| RANGE OF CABLE | A quantity of cable, more or less, placed in order for letting go the anchor or paying out. |
| RATLINES | (Pronounced rat-lins.) Lines running across the shrouds, horizontally, like the rounds of a ladder, and used to step upon in going aloft. |
| RATTLE DOWN RIGGING | To put ratlines upon rigging. It is still called rattling down, though they are now rattled up; beginning at the lowest. |
| RAZEE | A vessel of war which has had one deck cut down. |
| REEF | To reduce a sail by taking in upon its head, if a square sail, and its foot, if a fore-and-aft sail. |
| REEF-BAND | A band of stout canvass sewed on the sail across, with points
in it, and earings at each end for reefing.
A reef is all of the sail that is comprehended between the head of the sail and the first reef-band, or between two reef-bands. |
| REEF-TACKLE | A tackle used to haul the middle of each leech up toward the yard, so that the sail may be easily reefed. |
| REEVE | To pass the end of a rope through a block, or any aperture. |
| RELIEVING TACKLE | A tackle hooked to the tiller in a gale of wind, to steer by in case anything should happen to the wheel or tiller-ropes. |
| RENDER | To pass a rope through a place. A rope is said to render or not, according as it goes freely through any place. |
| RIB-BANDS | Long, narrow, flexible pieces of timber nailed to the outside of the ribs, so as to encompass the vessel lengthwise. |
| RIBS | A figurative term for a vessel's timbers. |
| RIDE AT ANCHOR | To lie at anchor. Also, to bend or bear down by main strength and weight; as, to ride down the main tack. |
| RIDERS | Interior timbers placed occasionally opposite the principal ones, to which they are bolted, reaching from the keelson to the beams of the lower deck. Also, casks forming the second tier in a vessel's hold. |
| RIGGING | The general term for all the ropes of a vessel. (See RUNNING, STANDING.) Also, the common term for the shrouds with their ratlines; as, the main rigging, mizzen rigging, &c. |
| RIGHT | To right the helm, is to put it amidships. |
| RIM | The edge of a top. |
| RING | The iron ring at the upper end of an anchor, to which the cable is bent. |
| RING-BOLT | An eye-bolt with a ring through the eye. (See EYE-BOLT.) |
| RING-TAIL | A small sail, shaped like a jib, set abaft the spanker in light winds. |
| ROACH | A curve in the foot of a square sail, by which the clews are brought below the middle of the foot. The roach of a fore-and-aft sail is in its forward leech. |
| ROAD or ROADSTEAD | An anchorage at some distance from the shore. |
| ROBANDS | (See ROPE-BANDS.) |
| ROLLING TACKLE | Tackles used to steady the yards in a heavy sea. |
| ROMBOWLINE | Condemned canvass, rope, &c. |
| ROPE-BANDS or ROBANDS | Small pieces of two or three yarn spunyarn or marline, used to confine the head of the sail to the yard or gaff. |
| ROPE-YARN | A thread of hemp, or other stuff, of which a rope is made. |
| ROUGH-TREE | An unfinished spar. |
| ROUND IN | To haul in on a rope, especially a weather-brace. |
| ROUND UP | To haul up on a tackle. |
| ROUNDING | A service of rope, hove round a spar or larger rope. |
| ROWLOCKS or ROLLOCKS | Places cut in the gunwale of a boat for the oar to rest in while pulling. |
| ROYAL | A light sail next above a topgallant sail. |
| ROYAL YARD | The yard from which the royal is set. The fourth from the deck. |
| RUBBER | A small instrument used to rub or flatten down the seams of a sail in sail-making. |
| RUDDER | The machine by which a vessel or boat is steered. |
| RUN | The after part of a vessel's bottom, which rises and narrows
in approaching the stern-post.
By the run. To let go by the run, is to let go altogether, instead of slacking off. |
| RUNG-HEADS | The upper ends of the floor-timbers. |
| RUNNER | A rope used to increase the power of a tackle. It is rove through a single block which you wish to bring down, and a tackle is hooked to each end, or to one end, the other being made fast. |
| RUNNING RIGGING | The ropes that reeve through blocks, and are pulled and hauled, such as braces, halyards, &c.; in opposition to the standing rigging, the ends of which are securely seized, such as stays, shrouds, &. |
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