Like any organization or community, the cruising community has its own jargon, or lingo, terms that are used within the community. Some may be familiar even to new cruisers, but many will not.
The cruising community is full of awesome people who just want to help others fall in love with cruising. Most people you will come across are super helpful and will give you advise whenever they can. However, those who have been cruising for awhile will use quite of bit of terminology that may be new to anyone who hasn’t cruised before.
Since they are used for most ships and even boats, people have at least heard of the terminology focused on the ship itself, but may have a hard time keeping some of them separate and remember which term means what.
Ship vs Boat – To some people this distinction is very important. There are definitely those who will correct you if you call a cruise ship a boat. So what is the difference? All ships are boats, but not all boats are ships. That might not be technically correct, but it is an easy way to keep them straight in your mind.
- A boat is any watering vessel, regardless of size.
- A ship is usually a large ocean going watercraft. Usually a boat is considered a ship if its over 100 ft in length, so cruise ships are definitely ships!
Forward and Aft – A lot of onboard ship maps will use these terms, so it is important to know what they mean.
- Forward – front of the ship
- Aft – back of the ship
Bow and Stern
- Bow – front outside of the ship
- Stern – back outside of the ship
Starboard and Port – I honestly haven’t heard these used that often, but it is good to know which is which.
- Starboard is the right side of the ship when you are facing forward
- Port is the left side of the ship when you are facing forward. It is also the town or place that has a harbor for a ship to stop and load or unload passengers and/or cargo.
Sometimes starboard and port will be used to describe things outside of the ship or boat, as in: there is a dolphin on the starboard side of the boat. Obviously the dolphin is not ON the boat.
Have you ever wondered where the term starboard comes from? I did. Since most sailors are right handed, the steering oar was placed on the right side of the stern. Over time, sailors combined the Old English words “steor” meaning “steer” and “bord” meaning “the side of the boat” into one word: starboard.
The word “Port” comes from ships docking at ports on the side of the ship opposite the starboard side. Which explains why we have two definitions for what a port is.
Gangway – is the walkway passengers use to get off the ship and onto land. This is a temporary “bridge” from the ship to land.
Gangway is literally the “way of the gang” the way the gang of sailors went. Yet another Old English word that has been modernized.
If you haven’t figured out by now, I have a degree in English and find etymology (or study of the origin of words) very interesting, so you may find that it will creep up every now and then.
Dock – is a structure that extends out from the land into a body of water where boats and ships can be moored. For a cruise ship, the gangway will extend from the ship to the dock.
There are other “ship terms” that exist, but are used more for sailing vessels or are specific to the actually running of the ship. They aren’t terms that cruisers really need to know.
Cruising From The Ozarks 