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DAGGER	A piece of timber crossing all the puppets of the bilge-ways to keep them together. Dagger-knees . Knees placed obliquely, to avoid a port.
DAVITS	Pieces of timber or iron, with sheaves or blocks at their ends, projecting over a vessel's sides or stern, to hoist boats up to. Also, a spar with a roller or sheave at its end, used for fishing the anchor, called a fish-davit .
DEAD-EYE	A circular block of wood, with three holes through it, for the lanyards of rigging to reeve through, without sheaves, and with a groove round it for an iron strap.
DEAD-FLAT	One of the bends, amidships.
DEAD-LIGHTS	Ports placed in the cabin windows in bad weather.
DEAD RECKONING	A reckoning kept by observing a vessel's courses and distances by the log, to ascertain her position.
DEAD-RISING or RISING-LINE	Those parts of a vessel's floor, throughout her whole length, where the floor-timber is terminated upon the lower futtock.
DEAD-WATER	The eddy under a vessel's counter.
DEAD-WOOD	Blocks of timber, laid upon each end of the keel, where the vessel narrows.
DECK	The planked floor of a vessel, resting upon her beams.
DECK-STOPPER	A stopper used for securing the cable forward of the windlass or capstan, while it is overhauled. (See STOPPER.)
DEEP-SEA-LEAD	The lead used in sounding at great depths. (Pronounced dipsey .)
DEPARTURE	The easting or westing made by a vessel. The bearing of an object on the coast from which a vessel commences her dead reckoning.
DERRICK	A single spar, supported by stays and guys, to which a purchase is attached, used to unload vessels, and for hoisting.
DOG	A short iron bar, with a fang or teeth at one end, and a ring at the other. Used for a purchase, the fang being placed against a beam or knee, and the block of a tackle hooked to the ring.
DOG-VANE	A small vane, made of feathers or buntin, to show the direction of the wind.
DOG-WATCHES	Half watches of two hours each, from 4 to 6, and from 6 to 8, P.M. (See WATCH.)
DOLPHIN	A rope or strap round a mast to support the puddening, where the lower yards rest in the slings. Also, a spar or buoy with a large ring in it, secured to an anchor, to which vessels may bend their cables.
DOLPHIN-STRIKER.	The martingale.
DOUSE	To lower suddenly.
DOWELLING	A method of coaking, by letting pieces into the solid, or uniting two pieces together by tenoning.
DOWNHAUL	A rope used to haul down jibs, staysails, and studdingsails.
DRABLER	A piece of canvass laced to the bonnet of a sail, to give it more drop.
DRAG	A machine with a bag net, used for dragging on the bottom for anything lost.
DRAUGHT	The depth of water which a vessel requires to float her.
DRAW	A sail draws when it is filled by the wind. To draw a jib , is to shift it over the stay to leeward, when it is aback.
DRIFTS	Those pieces in the sheer-draught where the rails are cut off.
DRIVE	To scud before a gale, or to drift in a current.
DRIVER	A spanker.
DROP	The depth of a sail, from head to foot, amidships.
DRUM-HEAD	The top of the capstan.
DUB	To reduce the end of a timber.
DUCK	A kind of cloth, lighter and finer than canvass; used for small sails.
DUNNAGE	Loose wood or other matters, placed on the bottom of the hold, above the ballast, to stow cargo upon.