Term | Definition |
Abaft | Towards the stem of a vessel. |
Above board | Above deck level. |
Admiral Class | Narrowboats built by Isaac Pimblott & Sons of Northwich (except for the last two pairs, which were built by Yarwoods,) for British Waterways they are named after admirals from Anson to Mountbatten. |
Aegre | Tidal wave or bore. |
Aft | Behind or towards the stern. |
After part | The rear or stern of a craft. |
Albert's Two | A working boater's term for the two Cassiobury Park Locks, Nos. 75 & 76, on the GU main line. |
Amidships | The centre or middle part of a craft. |
Ampton Boats | These were unusual craft 80 feet long, much longer than the normal canal craft as they worked exclusively over a stretch of water without locks, between collieries on Cannock Chase and the Wolverhampton area. |
Animals | A boatman's name for donkeys used singlely, or in pairs, for towing boats. |
Answer Pins or Anser Pins | Hooks and shackles at the stern of a boat used for breasting up or strapping. |
Apron | Part of the lock bottom where the sills are fixed. |
Arm | A branch from the main canal. |
Astern | Behind. Usually at the rear of a vessel, as with a following craft. |
Avon Tar Barge | The Avon tar barge was bluff in the bows with a rounded counter stem. They worked over the Avon section of the Kennet and Avon, under sail until the First World War.Traffic began during the late 1860s and ended in 1967. |
Awash | (1) Washed over by waves or lying low, near the surface of the water. (2) The anchor of a craft is awash when lifted clear of the water. |
Bacat | The experimental system was capable of conveying 140 tons compartment boats across the North Sea within a larger double-hulled vessel. On reaching their home port the smaller craft were to be taken further inland by tugs. |
Back door | Communicating door of a narrowboat, between cabin and hold or cargo space. |
Back end beam or Cabin beam | A plank across the hold just forward of the cabin. |
Back end rail | An iron or steel rail running from side to side on the leading edge of a traditional narrowboat cabin. |
Backering | A horse towing a boat without anyone on the towpath to drive it. |
Balance Beam or Balance. | The beam projecting from a lock gate which balances its weight, and by pushing against which the gate is opened or closed. |
Ballasting | Dredging by hand with a scoop. |
Barge | Large commercial craft used for conveying goods or minerals over the inland waterways. More than 7 foot beam. Also a small passenger or pleasure craft. |
Barge Walk | A towpath in Thames-side usage. |
Bargee | Crewman or owner-skipper of a barge. |
Barlow Boat | These narrowboats operated in the coal trade, mainly from Birmingham. |
Bars | Horizontal beams in the structure of a lock gate. |
Bats | The blades of a propeller. |
BCN | Birmingham Canal Navigation. |
Beam | The maximum width of a boat. |
Beams |  | On a working narrowboat four removable lengths of wood placed across a boat's hold. |
Beck | A dyke or drain. |
Big Engine | A Josher fitted with a 15hp Bolinder engine. |
Black Boats | Thomas Clayton short distance boats used for the transport of bulk liquids. |
Blade | The propeller. |
Block Rope | Used with a pulley block to increase the power of a horse pulling a boat out of a lock. |
Blow To | A warning blast on the horn when approaching a bridge hole or other place where the view is restricted. |
Blue Tops | The last commercial narrowboats built by the British Transport Commission which were fitted with distinctive blue fibreglass hatch covers. |
Bluff | The sturdy, blunt, near-upright construction of a craft, normally relating to the bows. |
Boat | Any type of small craft on the inland waterways. Normally less than 7 foot beam. |
Boat Snapper | Man employed to move unattended boats during loading and unloading processes. |
Boater | Person living or working on a canal boat. |
Bobbins | Short wooden rollers, usually painted, threaded on to the traces of horses, thus preventing chaffing when towing a boat. |
Bolinder | An early single cylinder diesel engine fitted to many trading boats. |
Bollard | Wood or metal posts used for tying up boats at locks and moorings. |
Bore | Tidal wave or aegre. |
Bottom Road | Working boater's term for the route NE of Birmingham to Coventry. |
Bow haulers | Men working in gangs to pull boats or barges, from the towing paths. |
Box mast |  | Square-shaped box-like mast or upright of a canal boat. Often telescoping in two sections. Used as a towing post and to support protective covers. |
Box Pump | A square sectioned pump made from wood with the wooden piston sealed with leather. |
Bracing chains | On working narrowboats these removable and adjustable chains were placed across the hold to pull in the sides of the boat. |
Bracket Open | Driving a motor boat at full speed. |
Bread and Larders | Boatmen who worked the south Oxford Canal. |
Breast | The end wall at the head of a lock, which supports the sill. |
Breast Post | Also called a Head or Mitre Post. The vertical post farthest from the hanging point of a lock gate. |
Breasting up | Two or more boats secured side by side for river navigation or passing through a double lock. |
Bridge Hole | The opening and channel beneath a bridge. |
Brighouse Fender | An intricately made rope stern fender for Yorkshire Keels. |
Bulk | Ornamental structure of wood and light canvas, stuffed with hay, fitted to the front board or cratch of a narrowboat. |
Bull Nose or Knuckle | Bull Nose is a Thames term for the rounded stonework at the entrance to a lock. Knuckle is the equivalent dockland term. |
Bumping Pieces | Wooden or iron protective cladding on lock gates or the breast wall. |
Butt Strap | In riveted iron and steel boats this was used to secure butted joints between plates. |
Butty | Non-powered boat of a working pair, on the narrow canals. Originally a horse boat but later towed by a motorboat. |
BW or BWB | British Waterways and its predecessor the British Waterways Board |
Bye-Trader | Any trader on a canal other than the company owning the canal. |
Bye-wash | The overflow weir that allows canal water to by-pass a lock. |
Cabbage Turn | A sharp turn between Wormleighton and Marston Doles on the Oxford Canal. |
Cabin beam or Back end beam | A plank across the hold just forward of the cabin. |
Cabin block | Wedge-shaped block on the stern cabin roof of a narrowboat. Used to support the rearmost of a set of top planks |
Carvel build | The construction of a wooden boat with planks laid edge to edge. |
Caulking | Making the seams of a wooden boat watertight by sealing them with oakum. |
Chalico | Protective dressing of horse dung, tar and cow-hair used in boat building. |
Change Boat | An alternative boat used by working boaters when their own boats were being docked. |
Check Pin | A horn shaped pin on the lock side, to hold boats on their checking straps. |
Checking Strap | A rope attached to the stern of a butty boat, which was put around a bollard to slow the boat. |
Cill or Sill | The brick, masonry or concrete bed at the bottom of lock gates. |
Clamp up | To freeze up. |
Clapping Post or Clapping Quoin | The old and modern terms for the vertical sill of a lock against which the lock gate closes. |
Clinker build | The construction of a wooden craft with overlapping side planks. |
Clough | A paddle, or small door, used to control the flow of water through a lock or weir. |
Cockpit | Open space at the rear of a narrowboat's stern cabin. |
Coin or Coyn | The hollow quoin into which a lock gate heel post is recessed. |
Coin Post | Old Staffs & Worcs. term for a lock gate heel post. |
Compartment Boats | Also called "Tom puddings". Once used on the Aire and Calder Navigation and formed into trains to be pushed and/or pulled by a tug. |
Contour Canal | A canal built to follow the natural levels, or contours, of the terrain thus reducing the number of locks and earthworks required. |
Corketts Two | A working boater's term for the Ivinghoe Locks, Nos. 32 & 33, on the GU main line. |
Cotting | A fenland term for uprooting rushes or reeds in a river. See also Roding. |
Counter | Flat, rounded stern deck of a motorboat. |
Cradging | A fenland term for re-enforcing a bank with reeds or turf. |
Cratch | Triangular front board on a narrowboat. |
Cross Beam | Wide planks across the hold of a boat, slotted to hold stands. |
Cross Straps | Two short ropes used to tow an empty boat. |
Cross Wind | To enter a lock or other narrow place at an angle and thus colliding with the sides rather than gliding down the centre. |
Crossover Bridge | A bridge carrying the towpath from one side of the canal to the other. Also called a Turnover or Roving Bridge. |
Cut | An artificial channel or canal. |
Cutter | A small pipe with a vertical loop of brass, fitting above the upright exhaust pipe of a motor boat to break the force of the exhaust under bridges and tunnels. |
Dandy Paddle | Trent & Mersey boatman's term for a top paddle. |
Day boat | Also known as a Joey boat. A boat often used for day trips, sometimes without a stern cabin. |
Deck lid | Hinged cover over a locker, at deck level. |
Dipper | A metal bowl with a handle used for as an all-purpose utensil. |
Dodswell Two | A working boater's term for Dudswell Locks, Nso. 47 & 48, on the GU main line. |
Dolly | An iron or steel stump on the counter of a motor boat, used for towropes. |
Doors | A fenland term for gates, therefore lock gates are known as sluice doors. |
Double Lock | A two-rise staircase lock or normal locks placed side by side to increase traffic capacity. |
Downhill Runner (or Strap) | Another name for a Checking Strap - a rope attached to the stern of a butty boat, which was put around a bollard to slow the boat. |
Draw | To raise, as in drawing a paddle to allow water through a lock or weir. |
Drop | To lower, as in dropping a paddle to shut off the flow of water through a lock or weir. |
Dummy Bows | The false bows attached to the first boat in a train of compartment boats, also called the jebus. |
Dunnage or Dennage | Scraps of timber used to raise cargo above the floor of the hold, thus enabling slings to be passed beneath. |
Dydle | A Norfolk term for clearing or dredging a channel. |