Terminology from the Age of Sail

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Search result for any reference to: seam
Beetle: A shipbuilding tool. A heavy iron mallet used to drive wedges (irons) into the seams of wooden ships to open them before caulking.
Bucekarl: A mercenary seaman for hire by anyone who's willing to pay. Sailors were always in short demand, the mortality rate was rather high, ship Captains would often hire who ever they could. Sometimes not the most trusted crew members, these mercenary seaman, mutiny was often instigated or carried out by crew members differing in nationality from the ship, ship's Captain or core crew. Also Buscarl (17th century)
Caulk: The process of driving material into the seams of the ship's deck or sides to make them watertight. The tools used were caulking irons and mallets.
Caulking Mallet: A shipbuilding tool. An iron or wooden mallet (heavy hammer) used to strike a variety of irons, to open and close seams or to fill seams with oakum.
Horsing Iron: A shipbuilding tool. A caulking iron used when caulking deck seams.
Jerry Iron: A shipbuilding tool. An iron tool used for extracting old oakum from seams. Also called meaking iron.
Lubber: An inexperienced, unsure or clumsy seaman (land lubber).
Lubber's Hole: The opening in the floor of the tops on the fore, main and mizzen masts of square-rigged ships to give access to the topmasts from below. Unsure or inexperienced seaman (lubbers) preferred going through this hole rather than over the futtock shrouds as the more experienced sailors did.
Meaking: Extracting old oakum from a wooden vessel's seams.
Oakum: Tarred hemp, flax or jute fibres used for caulking the seams on the decks and sides of wooden ships. Often produced by picking apart old ropes.
Old Man: Seaman's term for the Captain of a ship.
Pitch Ladle: An iron ladle used to pour boiling tar into deck seams to seal and make them watertight.
Reeming Iron: A shipbuilding tool. An iron wedge used to open up seams before caulking.
Sail: A piece of cloth or canvas, or a combination of pieces, cut and sewn together to the desired shape and size and attached to the spars and rigging of a vessel. A sail has the single purpose of catching the wind and propelling the vessel. Sails were often repaired at sea, or at anchor in a secluded bay a thousand miles from home, and thus could be quite a patchwork of different pieces of material. Something the head-seamstress at the Royal Dockyards would have surely disapproved of. Fore-and-aft Sails Lateen Sails Square Sails Flying Jib Headsail Jib Lugsail Mainsail Moonraker Royal Sail Skysail Spanker Spritsail Staysail Studding Sail Topsail Topgallant Sail Trysail Sail (sailcloth) making in the Age of Sail. Sail Iron - used to close and flatten seams and stitching. Dressing Sails.
Weep:: Water leaking into the ship through cracks and seams, continually happening on wooden sailing ships, hence the pumps often being manned 24/7. Weeping is somewhat synonymous to leaking. Excessive weeping would also occur at launch, before the planks had time to plim.

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