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Errata.
Pag. 4. l. 19. for a bisket reade basket. p. 5. l. 18. for gang reade a
choyce gang. p. 7. l. 4. for midships men, r. midships, p. 12: l. 7. for
the blot, r. blocke, p. 15. l. 5. for clow, r. clew, p. 17. l. 12. for ketch
r. reatch,
odde r. o -e, p. 26. l. 10. for nor r. Nor, ibid. l. 15. for sucets r. such,
p. 28. l. 22. make them sure with your sheepsfeet, p. 30. l. 8. r.
stoppers for stops. p. 31. l. 19. for dispect r. dispeart, p. 32. l. 10. for
gunuer r. gunners.
1. In the expanded, rearranged version of this work, called the Sea Grammar (see the
Introduction to the Sea Grammar, below), pp. 1–7 are reproduced as chap. 8 (34–37).
4. With this paragraph the debt of the Oxford English Dictionary to Smith's Accidence
and Sea Grammar begins to be manifest. Here, for example, we have the first recorded
evidence of "mid-ships men" as the mariners who manned the midship. The rights of the
"mid-ships men" of Smith's account to the contents of the first ship lawfully (or legitimately)
captured, as well as to the "first prize," are explained more fully in Nathaniel
Butler's "A Dialogicall Discourse Concerninge Marine Affaires ...," in W. G. Perrin,
ed., Boteler's Dialogues (Navy Records Soc., LXV [London, 1929]), 39.
7. "The Rove is that little iron plate unto which the clinch nails are clinched"
(Mainwaring, "Seaman's Dictionary," 214).
8. The leather was used to nail over the scuppers to keep the sea from coming in
while allowing water on the decks to run out, as explained in the Sea Grammar, 9.
9. The Barber Surgeons Company was one of the minor London Livery Companies.
In Smith's day it was rapidly developing its concern with surgery (as ancestor of the
Royal College of Surgeons) while laying aside its involvement in the barber's trade.
2. All are forms of punishment; cf. the Sea Grammar, 35, and see the OED, svv.
"cobkey" and "morion."
3. The boatswain was broadly in charge of all hands. Here he is specifically charged
with summoning the "boys" (young would-be sailors) to the bittacle and rehearsing
them in naming the points of the compass in proper order.
5. A Dutch word that alternated with English "youngster" in the early 17th century
as a name for junior seamen.
8. The "States" refers to the States General, the governing body of the Netherlands
at the time. This is the end of chap. 8 in the Sea Grammar, 37. The next paragraph is rewritten
in part in the Sea Grammar, 38.
1. This transitional paragraph is tucked away at the end of chap. 3 of the Sea
Grammar, 17, with some alteration.
4. Presumably gun ports or air ports, which are square or oblong, as distinct from
modern portholes, which are round.
6. According to Kermit Goell's edition of A Sea Grammar (London, 1970), 17, "to
binde an end with a Capsterne and all things fitting for the Sea" is an expression meaning
"to conclude." After referring to the captain's cabin the forecastle, etc., Smith feels he
has said all that he has to say about the timbers and the carpentry of a ship, or at least
all that he remembers, leaving aside the special workmanship of "smiths" who do
"carving, joyning, and painting," which he does not discuss. In the next sentence,
"presidents" was a common variant spelling of "precedents." Also note that scriveners
in the 17th century were not only copyists but also notaries.
7. From here to the middle of p. 12 we have merely a list of parts of a ship. These
are explained in chap. 2 of the Sea Grammar, 2–14 and nn.
1. Smith's spelling shows strong Spanish influence. According to the OED, this is
the earliest citation of the word in this sense. Curiously, the "Hamacke" (hammock)
seems to be missing in the Sea Grammar.
3. The "davit" was a portable piece of notched timber used with a block to haul
up the fluke of the anchor and fasten it to the bow. The "blocke at the Davids ende" was
known as the fish block. The davit was put out between the "cat" and the "loufe."
7. Cf. the following list of ropes from Mainwaring, "Seaman's Dictionary," 212–
213: "an entering rope, a top rope, a boat rope, a buoy rope, a guest rope, a keel rope,
a bucket rope, a rudder rope, a preventer rope, ... and a breast rope." Neither here nor
in Butler's "Dialogicall Discourse," in Perrin, ed., Dialogues, is there any hint that
"breast ropes" were out of use c. 1625, and Smith contradicts himself by referring to
them in the Sea Grammar, 20. Breast ropes are lines to a pier at right angles to the keel by
means of which a vessel is "breasted" in bodily to the pier. The last four words, "the
water line is," seem to be the beginning of another section, which was abruptly abandoned
(cf. the Sea Grammar, 45).
8. The lists from here to the bottom of p. 15 are expanded and in part explained in
the Sea Grammar, chap. 5, 18–25.
9. In the Sea Grammar, 24, "knave-lines" are described in detail. Immediately
following "knavlings," "gassits" should be "gaskets."
2. Smith is wandering from his subject here. Note, below, that "an okum" is so
unusual that the editor is inclined to suggest that it should read "and okum." Certainly,
there should be a full stop after "okum." "Guie" is a variant of "guy" (rope).
3. A suite, or suit, of sails is the same as a "shift" — the "whole of the sails required
for a ship" (OED).
4. Part of this paragraph appears (amplified) in the Sea Grammar, 43–45. A few
variant spellings may help the reader: "rode" for "road"; "offen" for "offing"; "crike"
for "creek"; "osie" for "oozy," i.e., muddy; "furland" for "foreland," i.e., a promontory.
6. A "flake" (from Dutch vlaag) of wind is the same as a "flaw" of wind, a gust (see
ibid., 46). "Monthsoune" is a variant of "monsoon."
7. The measurements are corrected in the Errata as follows: "p. 18[.] l.3. for odde
r. o -e." Probably the correction was intended to be, "r[ead] odde for o d." In the Sea
Grammar, 44, the text reads: "he that doth heave this [sounding] lead ... doth sing
fadome by the marke 5.0. and a shaftment lesse, 4.0." The picture is of a sailor taking
soundings for a pilot who is attempting to disembogue into the open sea. The sailor calls,
"by the mark, three fathoms odd and a shaftment [handbreadth, six inches]; four odd,
bear away [it's safe to sail out]!"
1. The almost unbroken passage that runs from here to the top of p. 27 has seemed
so significant that Lt. Comdr. D. W. Waters of the Royal Navy saw fit to modernize and
quote it with pertinent remarks in his The Art of Navigation in England in Elizabethan and
Early Stuart Times (New Haven, Conn., 1958), 469–471. In the Sea Grammar the passage
is virtually reprinted as chap. 13, 59–63.
3. Note that the pagination is faulty, with folios 20–23 omitted. Nevertheless, the
sequence is correct from here to the end of the book.
5. The Errata has, confusingly: "p. 26. l. 10. for nor r. Nor." The text makes sense,
however, if "Nor" is changed to "Now."
6. The word "passerado," used only by Smith or in references to him, is defined in
the Sea Grammar, 42, as a "rope wherewith wee hale downe the sheats, blockes [sheats'
blockes] of the maine or fore saile," etc. From here to the middle of p. 30, the text is considerably
expanded in the Sea Grammar, chap. 9, 37–45.
8. "Slakes" was a typographical error for "fakes," meaning coils of rope. In a coiled
rope, a fake is one circle or individual coil.
6. Explained in the Sea Grammar, 40 and n; see also Mainwaring, "Seaman's
Dictionary," 255; and Butler, "Dialogicall Discourse," in Perrin, ed., Dialogues, 172.
1. The text from here to the bottom of p. 35 has been considerably amplified to
form chap. 14, 64–71, of the Sea Gramma.
8. The rest of this paragraph was omitted in the Sea Grammar. John Bates was an
instrument maker.
9. The Sea Grammar, 70, has a revised and amplified version of this table. It does
not include, however, the column headed "The Circumfrence of the shot in inches," with
the peculiar measurement for cannon shot of "24 5/4."
5. The Sea Grammar, 83 [73], has as a heading, "Instruments fitting for a Sea-man,"
and it seems evident that a similar heading is needed here. "A Card" in Sir Henry Mainwaring's
"Seaman's Dictionary" is "a geographical description of coasts, with the true
distances, heights and courses, or winds laid down in it; not describing any inland, which
belongs to maps" (p. 117). Thus, "Good Sea Cards" should be part of this list of seaman's
instruments rather than a heading to it.
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