| Abatement | To lessen a part of the load in order to decrease the draught |
| Aft | Near, toward or in the rear of the ship |
| Ahoy | The normal hail to a ship or boat to attract attention |
| Alongside | Said of a ship when it is beside a pier or another vessel |
| Ashore | On land |
| Audit | Customs clearance |
| Ballast | The additional weight carried in a vessel to giver her stability or adequate draught |
| Berth | Anchorage; mooring |
| Bow | The most forward part of a vessel |
| Bunker | To take fuel aboard |
| Buoyancy | The tendency of a body of water to float when submerged in water |
| Call attention | To warn another vessel to danger |
| Casco | The vessel’s hull and appurtenances but without the equipment |
| Cast-off | To push the vessel off the quay, wharf, embankment or another vessel in order to get underway |
| Clearing | A vessel has been cleared when all customs formalities have been dealt |
| Clevis | A coupler shaped like the letter U with holes for a bolt or pin to pass through to connect chain, wire, etc |
| Craned | A ship is craned when it lies in keel line |
| Davit | A small cast iron crane fitted with hoisting and lowering gear in the form of block and tackles for suspending an anchor or lifeboat; also referred to as anchor davit or boat davit |
| Discharge | Signing off, paying members of the crew on the termination of service aboard |
| Double knot | A sailor’s know with two loops |
| Draw | To scoop or draw water out of a ship or its floor |
| Drift | The distance a vessel makes to leeward by the action of the wind or water currents |
| Fasten | To tie a vessel to the shore or bank |
| Floating support | Pontoon, jetty |
| Freeing | To free a vessel means to pump out water |
| Horn | Signal horn |
| Leading | To guide the hauling part of a rope or cable, i.e. to slacken it or ease it away |
| Lee | Refers to the side of the ship away from the wind. A lee is a shelter or protection. The leeward side of a vessel is the lee-side |
| Lifeboat | A sea boat designed to rescue people from a sinking ship |
| Lock | Structure in rivers or channels allowing vessels to move from one stretch to another by raising or lowering the water level |
| Lookout | An observation station situated at particularly risky and blind parts of the river. A reporting station for safeguarding shipping operations |
| Luff | The windward side of the ship |
| Maneuvering | To work a vessel, e.g. to shift or tow a vessel from one berth to another |
| Manifest | A vessel’s documents covering cargo, passengers, etc. |
| Navigate | The art of the efficient conducting of a vessel |
| Offshore | The term for wind coming from the shore |
| Order | A command to a ship, e.g. a notice of loading berth |
| Passage down-stream | The running or navigation of a vessel down-stream |
| Passage up-stream | The running or navigation of a vessel up-stream |
| Peak | The narrow part of a vessel’s bow or stern or lowest most forward or aft compartment in the bow or stern of a vessel |
| Perpendiculars | A cord from which a metal weight is suspended for the purpose of measuring water depth. |
| Portside | The left side of a ship with the red lamp when facing towards the bow |
| Quarter deck | The stern area of a vessel’s upper deck (the after deck is the rear half of the deck of a vessel) |
| Raking | To touch the bottom lightly in passing over |
| Rear end | To go backwards, go toward the stern |
| Riser | A docking area on a pontoon |
| Roads | A partly sheltered anchorage; a place for ships to anchor |
| Rondeau | To turn or turn around a ship in a circle |
| Running clear | To make way for another vessel |
| Shift | To move a vessel from one berth to another |
| Ship owner | A ship owner with 3 ships maximum |
| Shoal | A sandbank or stretch of shallow water that is dangerous to ships |
| Sill | The lower horizontal member of a lock gate abutting the lock bottom; the shutting sill of the lock gate |
| Singing | To tighten by means of rope or cable |
| Splicing | Joining two ends of rope or cable by untying and relaying the strands of each end |
| Superintendent | Generally a former captain doing service as an inspector for a shipping company |
| To sign on | The engagement of seamen or a seaman’s signing with the captain, or the signing of an agreement |
| To Veer | 1. To change the course of a vessel for the purpose of avoiding an object (e.g. another vessel);2. To change direction using a wench and cable |
| Top | The tip of the mast or masthead |
| Towing | To tow barges through the port by means of a short rope attached to a small tug |
| Trimming | To wrap ropes and cable tightly with hemp rope or seizing |
| Turning | The job of getting a vessel afloat which is at a deadset |
| Turning about | 1. To tow and release a deadlocked ship through back and forth motions; set afloat 2. To turn or pivot a ship |
| Turning down | Changing the course from up-stream to down-stream |
| Waterway | That part of a river or current that allows unimpeded passage |