Spanish, sailing, and period words found in The Count of Souls, set in 1592.

Titles and People

Boatswain

The ship's officer in charge of the crew, rigging, and deck work (said "BO-sun").

Carpenter

The ship's carpenter, the man who repairs the hull. Diego is called by this name.

Don / Doña

Spanish titles of respect for a gentleman and a lady of rank, used before the first name (Doña Isabel).

Master

The captain of a merchant ship; also a polite address for a skilled tradesman.

Pilot

A seaman who knows local waters and guides a ship through them. A pilot's boy is his apprentice.

Church

Fray

Spanish for "Brother"; the title for a friar, as in Fray Tomás.

Friar

A member of a religious order who works among ordinary people rather than living shut away in a monastery.

Sancte Dominice, ora pro nobis

"Saint Dominic, pray for us", a Dominican prayer.

Law, Money and Government

Manifest / lading

A ship's official list of its cargo and people. The lading is the cargo itself, as the book records it.

Places

Bar

A sandbank across a river mouth or harbor entrance, where ships can run aground.

Cartagena

A fortified Spanish port on the coast of modern Colombia, the Santa Aurelia's destination.

Cay

A small, low island of sand and coral (said "key").

Isla Seca

"Dry Island", the sailors' name for the bare cay where the survivors were stranded.

Santo Domingo

The Spanish capital of the Caribbean, on the island of Hispaniola, founded in 1496.

Wrack

Seaweed and rubbish washed up along the beach.

Ships

Bitts / cleat / bollard / ringbolt

Posts, fittings, and iron rings for tying off ropes, on the ship or the quay.

Bulwark

The solid wall along the edge of the deck.

Coaming / grating

The raised rim around a deck opening (hatch), and an open wooden lattice cover that lets in light and air.

Comber

A long, rolling ocean wave.

Cordage

Ropes in general.

Galleon

A large three-masted Spanish ship that carried passengers, cargo and guns between Spain and her colonies. The Santa Aurelia is a galleon.

Half-deck

The raised deck toward the stern where the helmsman stood.

Larboard / starboard

The left and right sides of a ship facing forward. Larboard is the old word for port.

Lateen

A triangular sail set on a long slanting yard, used on the rear mast of a galleon.

Lay

The twist of a rope's strands.

Longboat / skiff

A ship's large rowing boat, and a small open rowing boat.

Patache

A small, fast vessel used to scout for or escort larger ships.

Quarter / quarterdeck

The rear corner of a ship's side, and the raised deck at the stern where the master stands.

Seam / pitch / oakum

The gap between planks; the black tar that seals it; and the tarred rope fiber hammered into it with a caulking iron.

Shrouds / ratlines / stay

The ropes bracing the mast from the sides; the rope rungs between them for climbing; and a rope bracing the mast fore or aft.

Stove

Broken in. A stove ship has a hole in her hull; a stove cask has been smashed.

Whipstaff

The upright lever a helmsman used to move the rudder; the ship's wheel had not yet been invented.

Yard / spar

The cross pole a sail hangs from, and any such pole on a ship.

Sailing Words and Orders

Lashed / flaked / stopper / chocked

Tied down; laid out in loose loops so it runs free; a short rope that holds the anchor cable fast; and wedged with blocks of wood.

Reckoning

A navigator's working-out of where the ship is from speed, course, and time.

Reef / reef points / shorten sail

To make a sail smaller by tying up part of it with short cords (reef points), for strong winds.

Weather / lee

The side toward the wind, and the side sheltered from it. To windward means toward the wind; to leeward, away from it.

Daily Life and Objects

Awl

A pointed tool for piercing leather or cloth.

Biscuit

Hard, dry ship's bread that kept for months, often full of weevils (wormed). The heel is a hard leftover end piece.

Bodice / shift / mantle

The fitted top of a woman's dress; the plain linen undergarment beneath; and a loose cloak worn over it.

Cask / staves / hoops / bung / head

A wooden barrel; the curved boards it is built from; the bands holding them; the plug in its hole; and its flat end.

Pallet

A thin bed of stuffed cloth laid on the floor.

Tallow / tallow dip

Hard animal fat, and a cheap, smoky candle made from it.

Spanish, sailing, and period words found in The Petition, set in 1592.

Titles and People

Biscayan

A man from Biscay in northern Spain, a Basque region famous for its sailors.

Boatswain

The ship's officer in charge of the crew, rigging, and deck work (said "BO-sun").

Carpenter

The ship's carpenter, the man who repairs the hull. Diego is called by this name.

Corsair

A pirate or privateer. In the book these are French raiders preying on Spanish ships.

Don / Doña

Spanish titles of respect for a gentleman and a lady of rank, used before the first name (Doña Isabel).

Hidalgo

A Spanish gentleman of minor nobility, born to rank rather than wealth.

Licenciado

A man with a university degree, used as a title for lawyers and physicians.

Master

The captain of a merchant ship; also a polite address for a skilled tradesman.

Notary (escribano)

An official scribe who writes up legal papers and witnesses them so they hold in court.

Pilot

A seaman who knows local waters and guides a ship through them. A pilot's boy is his apprentice.

Surety

A person who promises to pay if a borrower cannot; to stand surety is to guarantee a debt.

Church

Breviary

The small book of daily prayers a priest or friar carries.

Commended to the sea

The burial prayer said when a body is given to the sea. The body is sewn into sailcloth with a round shot (an iron cannonball) at the feet so it sinks.

Dominicans

The Order of Preachers, the friars' order. Their house in Santo Domingo feeds the poor.

Fray

Spanish for "Brother"; the title for a friar, as in Fray Tomás.

Friar

A member of a religious order who works among ordinary people rather than living shut away in a monastery.

Padre nuestro

"Our Father", the Lord's Prayer in Spanish.

Law, Money and Government

Alcaide

The commander of a fortress. In Santo Domingo he also had a say over ships in the harbor.

Audiencia

The royal high court and governing council of a Spanish colony. Petitions to the king's justice went to it.

Inkhorn

A small hollow horn used to carry ink.

Manifest / lading

A ship's official list of its cargo and people. The lading is the cargo itself, as the book records it.

Mark

A cross made in place of a signature by someone who cannot write or hold a pen.

Peso de oro

"Gold peso", the main unit of money in the Spanish Caribbean.

Por ruego de la otorgante

"At the request of the woman making this document"; the legal words written when someone signs for her.

Real (plural reales)

A small Spanish silver coin.

Royal officials

The Crown's treasury and customs officers, who control what comes in and out of the port.

Sanding the page

Sprinkling fine sand on wet ink to dry it, before blotting paper was common.

Settlement of the voyage

The paying-off of a voyage's costs. In the story it is used as cover to sign away Isabel's estate.

The mills

The sugar mills on the island's plantations. Their owners owed debts to Isabel's late husband.

Places

Atarazana

Santo Domingo's royal dockyard and waterfront district.

Bar

A sandbank across a river mouth or harbor entrance, where ships can run aground.

Calle de las Damas / Calle de la Mar

"Street of the Ladies" and "Street of the Sea", two streets in Santo Domingo.

Cay

A small, low island of sand and coral (said "key").

Cooperage

A barrel maker's workshop.

Cut

A narrow, deep gap through a reef that a ship can pass.

Isla Seca

"Dry Island", the sailors' name for the bare cay where the survivors were stranded.

Mole

A stone pier or breakwater built out into the harbor.

Ozama

The river at Santo Domingo. Its mouth forms the city's harbor.

Punta Palenque

A headland on the coast west of Santo Domingo.

Quay

A stone landing place where ships load and unload (said "key").

Shelf

The flat ledge of coral rock beside the cay, uncovered at low tide.

Shingle

A beach of loose pebbles and broken shell.

Torre del Homenaje

"Tower of Homage", the great stone keep of the fortress above the Ozama.

Wrack

Seaweed and rubbish washed up along the beach.

Ships

Barca

A small one-masted coasting vessel with a deck, worked by sail and long oars. Salgado's ship.

Bitts / cleat / bollard / ringbolt

Posts, fittings, and iron rings for tying off ropes, on the ship or the quay.

Block

A pulley.

Bonnet

An extra strip of canvas laced to the bottom of a sail for more speed.

Bulwark

The solid wall along the edge of the deck.

Cable

The heavy anchor rope. A cable's length is a distance of about 200 yards.

Caravel

A small, light, quick Spanish sailing ship.

Coaming / grating

The raised rim around a deck opening (hatch), and an open wooden lattice cover that lets in light and air.

Cordage

Ropes in general.

Course / topsail

The lowest large sail on a mast, and the sail above it.

Fid / splice

A tapered wooden spike for opening rope, and a join made by weaving two rope ends together.

Hawse

The hole in the bow that the anchor cable runs through.

Horn lantern

A lantern with thin, see-through panes of scraped animal horn instead of glass. The bail is its hanging handle.

Larboard / starboard

The left and right sides of a ship facing forward. Larboard is the old word for port.

Lay

The twist of a rope's strands.

Lighter

A flat boat that ferries cargo between ships and the shore.

Longboat / skiff

A ship's large rowing boat, and a small open rowing boat.

Loom

The heavy inboard shaft and handle end of a long oar or sweep, gripped by the rower inside the vessel's rail.

Painter / falls

A rope at a small boat's bow for tying it, and the ropes and pulleys used to lower it.

Pallet

A thin bed of stuffed cloth laid on the floor.

Patache

A small, fast vessel used to scout for or escort larger ships.

Quarter / quarterdeck

The rear corner of a ship's side, and the raised deck at the stern where the master stands.

Scupper

A drain hole cut through the base of a ship's bulwark at the deck line to let seawater run back over the side.

Seam / pitch / oakum

The gap between planks; the black tar that seals it; and the tarred rope fiber hammered into it with a caulking iron.

Sheet / halyard

The rope that sets a sail's angle, and the rope that hoists a sail.

Shrouds / ratlines / stay

The ropes bracing the mast from the sides; the rope rungs between them for climbing; and a rope bracing the mast fore or aft.

Stem post / cutwater

The upright front timber of the ship, and its leading edge that cuts the waves.

Stern sheets

The seats at the back of a small boat.

Stove

Broken in. A stove ship has a hole in her hull; a stove cask has been smashed.

Sweeps

Long oars used to row a sailing ship when there is no wind. They rest in crutches (forked supports), pass through oar ports, and are pulled from the thwarts (cross-benches). The loom is the handle end; the blade dips in the water.

Tholes / gunwale

The pegs that hold a small boat's oars, and the top edge of the boat's side.

Waist

The middle part of the deck.

Wale / strakes

The thick band of planking along the ship's side, and the long lines of planks that make the hull.

Weeps

Of a hull: it leaks slowly.

Yard / spar

The cross pole a sail hangs from, and any such pole on a ship.

Sailing Words and Orders

Back her

Row backward to slow or stop the ship.

Bend (a sail)

To tie a sail onto its yard.

Brailed / furl

Of a sail: gathered up, or rolled tight and tied.

By the mark / by the deep

The leadsman's calls: the depth falls on a marked spot on the line, or between marks.

Coasting

Trading by sailing from port to port along a shore.

Degree / the line

A step of north-south position on the chart; the line is the course a navigator means to hold.

Ebb / flood

The falling tide going out, and the rising tide coming in. The tide serves when it is right for sailing; it runs foul when it is against you.

Give way

Start rowing.

Glass

A half-hour sandglass. Sailors counted time in glasses.

Hard up

An order to push the tiller all the way, turning the ship away from the wind.

Lashed / flaked / stopper / chocked

Tied down; laid out in loose loops so it runs free; a short rope that holds the anchor cable fast; and wedged with blocks of wood.

Lead / sounding

A lead weight on a marked line, dropped to measure depth. Tallow ("arming") in its hollow base brings up sand or mud from the bottom. The leadsman stands in the chains, a platform on the ship's side.

League

About three to three and a half miles.

Point

One of the 32 directions on a ship's compass. East by north is one point north of east. To fall off a point or bring her up a point is to turn slightly away from or toward the wind.

Put about / go about

To turn the ship's bow through the wind onto the other side.

Quadrant / pinnules

A brass instrument for measuring the height of the sun or a star to find how far north or south you are; the pinnules are its sighting holes.

Raise (land)

To come close enough to see land rise over the horizon.

Reckoning

A navigator's working-out of where the ship is from speed, course, and time.

Reef / reef points / shorten sail

To make a sail smaller by tying up part of it with short cords (reef points), for strong winds.

Set of the water

The direction the current runs.

Slatted

Of a sail: flapped loose and noisy because there was no wind.

Stepped

Of a mast: set firmly in its socket.

The Wagon

The Big Dipper, used at night to tell direction and the hour.

Ton

A measure of how much cargo a ship can carry, not how much it weighs.

Weather / lee

The side toward the wind, and the side sheltered from it. To windward means toward the wind; to leeward, away from it.

Where away?

A sailor's call asking which direction something was sighted.

Daily Life and Objects

Awl

A pointed tool for piercing leather or cloth.

Biscuit

Hard, dry ship's bread that kept for months, often full of weevils (wormed). The heel is a hard leftover end piece.

Bodice / shift / mantle

The fitted top of a woman's dress; the plain linen undergarment beneath; and a loose cloak worn over it.

Bowshot

The distance an arrow flies, a few hundred yards.

Brain-stone

Brain coral, a round coral with a grooved surface.

Breeches

Men's trousers fastened below the knee.

Cask / staves / hoops / bung / head

A wooden barrel; the curved boards it is built from; the bands holding them; the plug in its hole; and its flat end.

Dinner

The main meal, eaten at midday.

Fishwives

Women who sold fish.

Hand's breadth

About four inches.

Lye

A strong alkali used to make soap and wash linen.

Mourning

Heavy black outer garments worn by a widow or bereaved relative as the customary public sign of grief after a death.

Press (linen)

A cupboard where clean linen was pressed flat and stored.

Quintal

A Spanish hundredweight, about 100 pounds.

Rammer

A heavy wooden rod or tamp used to pack earth, sand, or stones tightly into a hole around a post.

Sargasso weed

Floating brown seaweed of the Atlantic.

Scuttled butt

A water barrel with a hole cut in the top for dipping.

Sniffed

Tested by smell. Water casks were tapped for sound and smelled at the bunghole before a voyage to make sure the wood had not soured inside.

Stave (signal pole)

A barrel board used as the pole for the survivors' signal cloth.

Tallow / tallow dip

Hard animal fat, and a cheap, smoky candle made from it.

Tally stick

A notched stick used to keep count, here of water casks.

Spanish, sailing, and period words found in The Return, set in 1592.

Titles and People

Alcalde ordinario

A town magistrate elected each year by the city council, who judges ordinary crimes in the first instance.

Alguacil

A constable of the court, who arrests offenders and carries a white wand (vara) as his badge of office.

Barber-surgeon

A barber who also cleaned and stitched wounds and let blood.

Carpenter

The ship's carpenter, the man who repairs the hull. Diego is called by this name.

Crier

The town's public caller, who read out sentences and orders in the street.

Don / Doña

Spanish titles of respect for a gentleman and a lady of rank, used before the first name (Doña Isabel).

Hangman

The executioner of the court.

Jailer

The keeper of a prison.

Lay brother

A member of a religious house who takes vows but is not a priest, and does its practical work.

Licenciado

A man with a university degree, used as a title for lawyers and physicians.

Master

The captain of a merchant ship; also a polite address for a skilled tradesman.

Notary (escribano)

An official scribe who writes up legal papers and witnesses them so they hold in court.

Oidor

"Hearer", a judge of the Audiencia, the royal high court.

Porter

The lay brother who keeps the convent gate.

Señor / Señora

Sir / madam; polite forms of address.

Steward

The man who runs a household's business and keeps its keys.

Surety

A person who promises to pay if a borrower cannot; to stand surety is to guarantee a debt.

Church

Ave bell

The church bell rung at dusk for the Hail Mary prayer.

Confession

Telling one's sins to a priest, who may then forgive them in God's name.

Dominicans

The Order of Preachers, the friars' order. Their house in Santo Domingo feeds the poor.

Fray

Spanish for "Brother"; the title for a friar, as in Fray Tomás.

Friar

A member of a religious order who works among ordinary people rather than living shut away in a monastery.

Oil of the sick

Holy oil a priest uses to anoint the dying.

Sacristy

The room beside a church where the vestments, vessels and records are kept.

Vespers / the Hours

Evening prayer, and the set times of prayer through the day kept by friars.

Vestment press

A tall cupboard where a priest's robes are laid flat.

Law, Money and Government

Arroba

A Spanish weight of about twenty-five pounds.

Audiencia

The royal high court and governing council of a Spanish colony. Petitions to the king's justice went to it.

Cabildo

The town council and its hall.

Casas Reales

"Royal Houses", the government buildings of Santo Domingo, where the Audiencia sat.

Deed of gift (carta de cesión)

A written grant handing property over to another, here to the hospital.

Holland cloth

Fine linen woven in the Low Countries.

Inkhorn

A small hollow horn used to carry ink.

Ledger

A merchant's account book.

Maravedí

The smallest Spanish money of account; thirty-four made one real.

Mark

A cross made in place of a signature by someone who cannot write or hold a pen.

Note (note of hand)

A signed promise to repay a debt.

Pieces of eight

Large Spanish silver coins worth eight reales.

Plate

Household silver: dishes, cups and candlesticks.

Pledge

Property held as security for a loan; whoever holds the pledge can claim it if the debt is not paid.

Por ruego de la otorgante

"At the request of the woman making this document"; the legal words written when someone signs for her.

Quill

A pen cut from a feather.

Real (plural reales)

A small Spanish silver coin.

Sand-box

A small pot with a pierced lid for sprinkling sand on wet ink.

Seal / wax

A stamp pressed into hot wax to close a door or paper by law; breaking it without leave is a crime.

Settlement of the voyage

The paying-off of a voyage's costs. In the story it is used as cover to sign away Isabel's estate.

Steelyard

A hanging balance: a weight slides along an iron beam to weigh a load on the hook.

The mills

The sugar mills on the island's plantations. Their owners owed debts to Isabel's late husband.

Vara

A Spanish yard, about thirty-three inches; also a constable's staff of office.

Warrant

The written order to carry out a sentence.

Places

Arcade

A covered walk along the front of buildings, behind a row of arches.

Boiling house

The building at a sugar mill where cane juice was boiled down to sugar.

Calle of the mole

The street running down to the harbor mole, where Isabel's house stands.

Careening ground

A beach where ships were hauled over to scrape and tar their hulls.

Cooperage

A barrel maker's workshop.

Fortress

The stone fort above the mouth of the Ozama, which also held prisoners.

Lime-kiln

A kiln for burning coral and shell into lime for mortar and whitewash.

Mole

A stone pier or breakwater built out into the harbor.

Ozama

The river at Santo Domingo. Its mouth forms the city's harbor.

Plaza mayor

The main square of a Spanish town, where markets and public punishments were held.

Quay

A stone landing place where ships load and unload (said "key").

Shingle

A beach of loose pebbles and broken shell.

Tanners' quarter

The poor district where hides were cured in pits of lime and bark.

Ward

A hospital room of beds for the sick poor.

Ships

Barca

A small one-masted coasting vessel with a deck, worked by sail and long oars. Salgado's ship.

Bitts / cleat / bollard / ringbolt

Posts, fittings, and iron rings for tying off ropes, on the ship or the quay.

Cable

The heavy anchor rope. A cable's length is a distance of about 200 yards.

Coaming / grating

The raised rim around a deck opening (hatch), and an open wooden lattice cover that lets in light and air.

Fid / splice

A tapered wooden spike for opening rope, and a join made by weaving two rope ends together.

Hawse

The hole in the bow that the anchor cable runs through.

Horn lantern

A lantern with thin, see-through panes of scraped animal horn instead of glass. The bail is its hanging handle.

Lay

The twist of a rope's strands.

Longboat / skiff

A ship's large rowing boat, and a small open rowing boat.

Painter / falls

A rope at a small boat's bow for tying it, and the ropes and pulleys used to lower it.

Stove

Broken in. A stove ship has a hole in her hull; a stove cask has been smashed.

Sweeps

Long oars used to row a sailing ship when there is no wind. They rest in crutches (forked supports), pass through oar ports, and are pulled from the thwarts (cross-benches). The loom is the handle end; the blade dips in the water.

Tholes / gunwale

The pegs that hold a small boat's oars, and the top edge of the boat's side.

Wale / strakes

The thick band of planking along the ship's side, and the long lines of planks that make the hull.

Yard / spar

The cross pole a sail hangs from, and any such pole on a ship.

Sailing Words and Orders

By the mark / by the deep

The leadsman's calls: the depth falls on a marked spot on the line, or between marks.

Ebb / flood

The falling tide going out, and the rising tide coming in. The tide serves when it is right for sailing; it runs foul when it is against you.

Lead / sounding

A lead weight on a marked line, dropped to measure depth. Tallow ("arming") in its hollow base brings up sand or mud from the bottom. The leadsman stands in the chains, a platform on the ship's side.

Weather / lee

The side toward the wind, and the side sheltered from it. To windward means toward the wind; to leeward, away from it.

Weapons

Arquebus / match / serpentine

An early gun fired by a slow-burning cord (the match), held in a curved arm (the serpentine).

Dagger

A short double-edged fighting knife.

Halberd

A long staff with an axe blade and a spike, carried by guards.

Sheath knife

A seaman's working knife carried at the belt.

Staff

A plain wooden pole, often shod with iron, carried by the town watch.

Daily Life and Objects

Alms box

A locked box with a slot in its lid for gifts to the poor.

Bodice / shift / mantle

The fitted top of a woman's dress; the plain linen undergarment beneath; and a loose cloak worn over it.

Breeches

Men's trousers fastened below the knee.

Cask / staves / hoops / bung / head

A wooden barrel; the curved boards it is built from; the bands holding them; the plug in its hole; and its flat end.

Cassava bread

Flat, hard bread made from the root of the cassava plant, the everyday bread of the Caribbean.

Hand's breadth

About four inches.

Jerkin

A close-fitting sleeveless jacket, often of leather.

Kerchief

A square of cloth worn knotted at the throat or over the head.

Lye

A strong alkali used to make soap and wash linen.

Pallet

A thin bed of stuffed cloth laid on the floor.

Press (linen)

A cupboard where clean linen was pressed flat and stored.

Tallow / tallow dip

Hard animal fat, and a cheap, smoky candle made from it.

Tick

A cloth sack stuffed with straw, used as a mattress.