take a caulk - to nap.
tender – a boat whose main purpose is to provide services to a larger ship.
tiller – a lever used to manipulate the rudder and turn the ship; eventually the use of tillers fell out of favor with the advent of steering wheels.
topgallant – the name of the sail (or mast) above the topsail (or mast); generally the highest sails on a ship.
topman – a sailor who works aloft.
topmast – the length of a single mast in the Golden Age was generally limited to the length of a tree; to build higher masts, several spars were placed together, so a topmast was any mast that was affixed to a lower mast. Also, the term could refer to the highest mast on a ship.
topsail – a sail set above another sail.
transom – the surface that forms the stern of a vessel.
Treasure Island – title of a book written by Robert Louis Stevenson in the 1880s. Treasure Island’s influence on everything we typically expect out of pirate stories is almost impossible to overstate. You can read the entire text here.
trysail – a small, strong, triangular, fore-and-aft sail used in inclement weather in place of the mainsail (which would catch too much wind to be used safely) to help keep the ship pointed into the wind.
vessel – another name for a ship or boat.
