Recalled a few more great nautical terms (and, Mr. Youngbalt, if you're a Hornblower fan, do be sure you've read the Patrick O'Brian series as well - different, but equally good).
One of my favorites, still in circulation today in non-nautical parlance, but of nautical origin is "slush fund." Slush was the fat used by the ship's cook for frying, etc. - and was considered quite a delicacy. "Slush fund" may have evolved a couple of ways - either that the cook could essentially use the slush as money, buying things from the crew in exchange for slush for their bread - a real treat in the days of salpork and dried peas. Or the cook actually had a fund of money, to be used in port to procure slush and other necessities specific to the cook - but which could end up being used somewhat flexibly, should the cook need to procure something else. In either case, it means a resource, not monitored by the powers that be, that can be used to acquire things outside of the official manner. There's a vary brief, colorul discussion of this in one of Patrick O'Brian's novels, but, alas, they are all stowed belowdecks in preparation for my family weighing anchor and setting a course for our new house.
Handsomely, used at sea or by seaman, does in fact mean slowly, with a connotation of carefully as well.
Another favorite, which I tried to use in day-to-day parlance for a while, but which failed to take, is "light along." It means "bring me" as in "light along my best glass, there's a ship hull-up [meaning hull is visible, so it's fairly close] on the horizon." It also means to help out in hauling on lines of various sorts.
Speaking of lines - we discussed sheets, etc. - there are actually quite a few different types of lines.
sheets - line used to haul sails
shrouds - main lines used in the rigging
ratlines - short horizontal lines used in the rigging - usually made of rope covered in tar
braces - line attached to the end of a yard (horizontal beam off the mast), used to swing the sail
cable - anchor line - cut to a standard length, and thus also used as a unit of measure (100 fathoms)
hawser - heaviest line, I believe
That's all I've got for now.
