Boiler room: The room housing Titanic's boilers, which fueled the engines and were part of the ship's operating machinery.
Black gang: Another phrase for stokers, firemen or any of the engineers who worked below decks, where coal and fumes covered everyone in black.
Bow: The front of a ship.
Bridge: The area of a ship where steering and communication operations occur.
Bulkhead: A partition, or set of walls, dividing a ship. Some bulkheads are watertight or fire resistant. Titanic's were designed to allow no water to pass between them.
Cape Race: Easternmost point on the North American continent, in the province of Newfoundland, Canada. Cape Race's wireless station relayed messages to ships at sea and to Montreal for distribution to North America.
Collapsible: A boat made with canvas sides, allowing it to be collapsed for easy storage.
Crow's nest: The elevated part of the ship where the lookout stands. In sailing ships, the crow's nest may be attached to one of the masts. On Titanic, the crow's nest was a high platform.
Davit: A pulley-operated mechanism used to lower lifeboats from the deck of a ship down into the water.
Deckhouse: A room built on a ship's deck.
Displacement: An amount of water displaced by a ship that's immersed in it, measured in tons. Shipbuilders use displacement to determine a ship's size.
Draw fires: The removal of burning coal from the boilers. This was done in an effort to halt creation of steam and allow the boilers to cool before the water would reach them.
Dry-dock: A large basin lacking water, used for shipbuilding or repairs.
Emergency cutter: A lifeboat swung out at all times, ready for immediate lowering. Cutters were usually needed for emergency situations, such as someone falling overboard. Lifeboats 1 and 2 were Titanic's emergency cutters.
Falls: The ropes used for lowering boats and cargo to and from the deck of a ship.
Firemen: Crewmen who had the job of keeping the steam engines moving by shoveling coal into the boiler furnaces. Also called stokers.
Flanks: The sides of a ship.
Fore peak: The area of a ship's hold that is farthest forward.
Forecastle: A short, raised deck at the bow, often used to house a ship's crew.
Foyer: An entrance room or lobby.
Funnel: The part of the ship that allows for release of engine fumes, much like a building's smokestack. Only three of Titanic's four funnels were actually operational in this way; the fourth served as a vent from the kitchen areas.
Gangway: A passageway or bridge (often a temporary one) used for boarding a ship at dockside.
Gantry: A bridge-like, steel-bar scaffolding used to allow for internal and external ship construction.
Greaser: A member of the engineering crew hired to keep the ship's engines lubricated.
Gunwale: The uppermost edge of the side of a ship or boat.
Helm: The tiller or ship's wheel.
Hull: The frame and sides of a ship.
Inbound: British ships traveling east across the Atlantic, toward Europe.
Keel: The lowest part of the ship that spans the ship's length of the ship in the absolute center. The keel is the first element laid out when ship construction begins.
Knot: A unit of speed used at sea, roughly equivalent to 1.15 miles per hour. (One nautical mile = 6,080 feet.)
List: A tilting of a ship in relation to the surface of the water.
Lookout: A member of the deck crew assigned to watch for danger or approaching objects. Lookouts watched from the crow's nest.
Masthead: The top of a ship's mast.
Morse code: A system of dots and dashes, used to represent the letters of the alphabet, developed by Samuel F.B. Morse in the early part of the 19th century. These signals can be communicated audibly by telegraph, or visually at night with a blinking lamp.
Muster: Assembling of a ship's crew for inspection.
Orlop deck: The lowest deck of a ship with at least four decks.
Outbound: British ships traveling west across the Atlantic, away from Europe.
Poop deck: A deck built on a ship's upper deck, extending back from the area aft of the ship's third mast.
Port: The left-hand side of a ship, looking forward.
Purser: A ship's chief clerk, in charge of most ship accounts.
Quartermaster: A member of a ship's deck crew responsible for steering, navigation and signaling.
R.M.S.: The acronym for "Royal Mail Steamer," a ship used by the United Kingdom for mail service. Both Olympic and Titanic were given these prefixes.
Slipway: Artificial slope down which a ship is launched.
Starboard: The right-hand side of a ship, looking forward.
Steerage: The section of cheapest berths on a passenger ship. This section was originally located in the rear of the ship near the rudder, which steers it. There were two steerage sections on the Titanic, one at the stern, or rudder end of the ship, the other forward at the bow. Passengers in steerage helped more evenly distribute the ship's weight.
Stern: The rear or tail end of a ship.
Stokehold: The space, or room, in which the ship's furnaces are fired.
Stoker: Crew member who tends a ship's furnace. Also called a fireman.
Tiller: The lever fitted to the head of a ship's rudder for steering.
Trimmers: Kept the firemen supplied with coal, which they distributed in wheelbarrows. They also moved the coal between bins to keep the ships balanced. Firemen and trimmers were known commonly referred to as the "black gang."
Triple-screw: A three-propeller ship, like Titanic.
Warp: The process of roping a ship into its berth.
Watertight doors: Doors used to seal off a watertight compartment. Titanic's watertight compartments were only functional if they were sealed shut.
Well deck: The lower deck just fore or aft of the superstructure, which has a higher deck in front of or behind it; the two higher decks create a "well" between them in the form of a lower deck area.
Wheel house: An enclosed structure or room on the bridge in which the ship's wheel is housed. In extreme weather the man at the wheel is protected from the elements.
Wireless operator: A person who operates wireless messaging machinery, which was an early forerunner of radio. Marconi Company wireless operators were used both at land and at sea to relay messages to and from ships. Harold Bride and John Phillips were Titanic's wireless operators. Wireless telegraphy was invented by Guglielmo Marconi.
