• Stem
    The foremost timber in a vessel, attached vertically to the keel.
  • Stern
    The after end of a vessel, built around the sternpost.
  • Sternpost
    The aftermost timber in a wooden vessel or steel piece in a steel vessel, forming the stern of the ship and joined to the keel by scarfing or riveting. Originally the rudder was hung on the after end of the sternpost, but today most ships have a separate rudder post.
  • Steward
    The person aboard ship in charge of provisions and aiding the cook.
  • Storm
    A wind with average speed of 48 to 63 knots.
  • Stove-in
    Pushed in; a vessel damaged from the outside.
  • Strait of Gibraltar
    Straits of Gibraltar
    A narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Gibraltar and Spain in Europe from Morocco in Africa. The name comes from the Rock of Gibraltar. Europe and Africa are separated by 7.7 nautical miles (14.3 km; 8.9 mi) of water at that point.
  • Strait of Magellan
    Magellan Strait
    The narrow passage of water at the southern tip of South America, between Puerto Sara and Punta Arenas of Chile, and the Tierra del Fuego Islands. The Strait offers a passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean a little north of Cape Horn, which is at the actual southernmost point of South America.
  • Straits of Le Maire
    Strait of Le Maire
    The sea passage between Staten Island and the eastern area of the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego.
  • Stringer
    A long horizontal piece in a vessel's structure.
  • Striped bass
    A migratory anadromous fish that moves up the Eastern seaboard, arriving in Maine in summertime. They live very near shore and are caught in surf or in rivers below head of tide. They are no longer plentiful enough in Maine for a commercial fishery.
  • Strong's Island
    An island in Micronesia.
  • Studding sail
    stuns'l
    A sail used to increase the sail area of a square-rigged vessel in light winds. Pronounced "stuns'l."
  • Suez Canal
    A ship canal about 103 miles long, linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez with the Mediterranean Sea. It opened in 1869 and was controlled by the British from 1875 to 1956. Its opening was the death blow to sailing ships heading for India. It was the cause of Middle East conflict and was closed until the U.N. intervened and reopened it in 1975.
  • Sulphur
    sulfur
    A non-metallic element used in the chemical and paper industries; also used in medicine to treat skin diseases. Usually spelled "sulfur" in the United States and "sulphur" in Britain.
  • Sun sights

    Altitude observations of the Sun needed for celestial navigation. Sights generally referred to taking a sun sight, but also meant taking star sights at night.

  • Sun time
    The local time at any particular spot. It can be determined by instruments like sundials or by the time the sun is highest in the sky, which is local noon: the start of a day aboard ship.
  • Sundial
    A device that measures time by the position of the sun. Known from Ancient Egypt. For navigation special ones were developed that could tell local noon on board ship.
  • Supercargo
    The man charged with the mercantile business of a voyage and the protection of the owner's interests. Abbreviation of cargo superintendent.
  • Surveyor of Pines and Timber
    Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Woods in America
    "Surveyors of Pines and Timber" were British officials who surveyed New England's forest lands within ten miles of navigable waterways, selecting trees suitable for masts for ships of the British Navy, and marking these trees with the "King's Broad Arrow." This mark, three hatchet strokes, served to warn others that the tree was claimed by the King of England. The "Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Woods in America" was an official appointed by the King and charged with the responsibility for selecting, marking and recording trees chosen for masts, as well as policing and enforcing the unlicensed cutting of protected trees.
  • Swordfish
    A large, warm water, highly migratory ocean traveling fish characterized by its sword. A summer visitor to the banks off the Maine coast. While the largest caught have been 1000 pounds, those that visit the Gulf of Maine are in the 50-60 pound range. Commercially the fish are caught on longlines or harpooned. With such a wideranging fish, fisheries regulation is difficult. It is considered to be overfished but recovering.

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