To begin a voyage. This term is used for mechanically-powered vessels as well as for sailing vessels. To set the sails on a vessel is to raise, open, and extend them to the wind.

A bow-shaped or U-shaped steel or iron fitting with a pin across the throat end, used as a connection between lengths of chain or to attach other fittings. Shackles used in the rigging have a threaded pin, and those used for joining lengths of anchor chain have a smooth heavy pin.

A member of the Millennial Church, originating in England in the middle of the 18th century and brought to the U.S. in 1774, advocating celibacy, common ownership of property, and a strict and simple way of life: so called from their practice of shaking during religious services.

A percentage of ownership. In the days of the Down Easter, ships were owned in sixty-fourths.

A delicacy used in soup in China. Finning is the practice of catching sharks for their fins alone. In the past fishermen have cut off the fins and returned the crippled and dying shark to the water, which generally meant that it would be eaten alive by its fellows.

The controlling line attached to a sail.

Thin pieces of wood laid in overlapping rows and used to cover the outside walls or the roof of a building.

A petty officer, responsible to the chief officer, whose duties include the opening and battening down of hatches and cargo ports, and maintaining wooden masts, spars, and decks. A ship's carpenter can also work in a shipyard, building vessels.

Marine painting featuring an accurate depiction of a vessel, usually commissioned by the owner or captain.

Local apparent time which is reset every day at noon based on a noon sun sight. A ship's new day traditionally began at noon.

A shallow area of water.

Barrel staves bundled for export. A stave is a narrow piece of softwood about 42 inches long, used to form the sides of the finished barrel.

Whaling method using boats that set out from shore and then processed the whales on shore. It was practiced in many areas where whales pass close to land.

A small swimming crustacean, typically caught commercially by trawling. Maine's shrimp are northern shrimp, and the Gulf of Maine is at the southern limit of their range. The fishery is a winter fishery which began in the 1930s.

In the lobster fishery, the heads or funnel shaped nets that let the lobsters into the kitchen section of the trap.

Tables that allow celestial sights to be transformed into a vessel's position using precomputed data. Data needed are the altitude of the body observed, the ship's estimated or dead reckoning position, and the time. The only calculations needed are adding and subtracting. The process is called sight reduction.

The thread made by silk worms to form their cocoons. The Chinese cultivated the mulberry tree, whose leaves the silkworms ate, and nurtured the eggs of the worms. After the worms spun cocoons and changed into moths, Chinese women unwound the cocoons into fine threads several hundred yards long, dyed them, and spun them into silk fiber. The thread was woven into a light, shiny cloth. Europeans were introduced to silk as a result of Alexander the Great's military campaigns in Asia. The ancient Greeks called the Chinese the "silk people."