dance the hempen jig – A darkly humorous expression meaning “to be hanged,” combining the hangman’s noose (make of hemp rope) with the thrashing action of a person being slowly throttled (the “dance.”)
Davy Jones’ locker – the bottom of the sea, the final resting place for drowned sailors.
dead man’s chest – a sea shanty from Robert Louis Stevenson’s book Treasure Island. The name was supposedly inspired by Dead Chest Island (located in the modern British Virgin Islands) where Blackbeard marooned several of his crew with nothing but a single bottle of rum between them.
dead men tell no tales - kind of self explanatory. A dead pirate can’t turn a fellow pirate in to the authorities.
deadlights – a shutter fastened over a ship’s portholes during stormy weather. Also used euphemistically to refer to eyelids. “Aye, there’s a sight so foul ye’ll want to shut yer deadlights!”
doubloon – a gold Spanish coin.
draught (also draft) – the distance between the waterline and the bottom of a ship’s keel.
driver – a type of sail, similar to a spanker.
duffle – a large cylindrical bag made of tough cloth or canvas with a drawstring closure at the top. Named after the Dutch town where the cloth originated.
Execution Dock – Site on the Thames near London that was used as a place of public execution for pirates. Pirates would be hung until dead and their bodies left dangling until the tide washed over them three times.
fathom – approximately six feet.
fire ship – a ship packed with combustible material and purposely set afire, with the intention of ramming it into or having it drift into an enemy vessel.
flibustier – an American pirate.
flogging – a whipping, especially with the cat o’ nine tails.
fluke – the large, flat, pointed area at the end of an anchor.
fo’c’s’le (or forecastle) – A raised part of the upper deck at the front of a ship.
fore (also forrard) – towards the direction of a ship’s natural motion.
fore-and-aft rigged – sails that are set along the keep of the ship rather than perpendicular to it (compare square-rigged.)
freebooter – another term for “pirate.”
furl – to roll up a sail.
