saber a heavy cavalry sword with a slightly curved blade.
sailing master an officer in charge of navigation.
salts slang term for seasoned sailors.
schooner a sailing vessel with two or more masts.
sealed . . . thimble Letters and documents were sometimes stuck shut with wax, which was then impressed with a seal, a device to ensure they had not been opened; the captain has sealed his packet using a thimble, a metal cap used to protect a finger when sewing.
sealed orders orders that are to be accepted before the person being ordered knows their substance or contents (such as Smollett was given when he signed on as captain of the Hispaniola without knowing the destination of the voyage); here, Silver means that he has taken Livesey's warning without understanding what kind of trouble the doctor has in mind.
sea-walk a kind of rolling, swaggering gait; sailors, walking on the rolling decks of relatively small ships at sea for months on end, did not regain their land legs until they'd been back on shore for some time.
separate peace a treaty or agreement that affects only one individual or group within a larger group.
some by the board Silver means that some who challenged him had been made to walk the plank; that is, they had been forced to walk blindfolded along a board extended over the water from the ship's gunwale until they ran out of board and fell to their deaths. Contemporary pirate scholarship says there is no evidence that this was ever actually done.
something of a butt the object of jokes and teasing.
Spanish Main the Caribbean Sea, or that part of it adjacent to the northern coast of South America.
split him to the chine cut him through to the backbone.
stanch an old spelling of staunch: firm; steadfast; loyal. Silver is using the term in a figurative sense of the nautical meaning watertight and seaworthy.
starboard. . . larboard to the right . . . to the left.
subaltern a subordinate officer.
supercargo an officer on a merchant ship who has charge of the cargo and business dealings.
swabs enlisted men or common sailors; a derisive term as the captain uses it.
the cocks of his hat Sailors of the period wore hats whose brims they rolled on three sides to form a stiff triangle; the Captain's hat has come unrolled on one side.
the downhaul a rope for hauling down a sail; the sail Jim wants to bring in is in the water, so that Jim is not strong enough to move it.
the fable of the mountain and the mouse This is in reference to a saying ("a mountain labored and gave birth to a mouse") and means, roughly, "you seemed to be going to say a lot more than you finally did say."
the gunwale was lipping astern The gunwale (pronounced GUN-ulh) is the upper edge of the side of a boat; water was touching the edge of the jolly-boat's gunwale at the rear (stern).
the Hall . . . the squire The squire is the principal landowner of a district; the Hall is his place of residence, usually a large, old house.
the long nine a large artillery piece mounted on the ship; this is primed with powder and wadding; loaded with nine-pound, round lead shot; aimed; and fired by a gunner by touching the powder with a lit match. Thus, in Chapter 17, the captain asks Trelawney, who is watching the gunner, to tell the others in the jolly-boat when he sees the match so that they can hold or back the boat, because the gunner will have aimed ahead of it.
the man in the chains . . . the crewman using fathoming lines to measure the depth of the water on either side of the ship's bow.
the rules Throughout this part, Silver and the others are referring to a set of rules or code of honor by which gentlemen of fortune have agreed to be bound; this was slightly different from ship to ship and from pirate captain to captain, but was essentially a democratic code specifying rights and responsibilities.
the ship [had to be] warped . . . To warp a ship is to move it by hauling on a line fastened to a pile, dock, anchor, and so on; in this case, the lines were fastened to the ship's boats and the ship hauled by its oarsmen.
the sort of man that made England terrible at sea England was the strongest sea power among European nations of the period, both in its royal navy and its privateers; the man uses "terrible" in the sense of "terrifying, justifiably feared."
their glim their light, in this case their candle, whose wax or tallow is still warm.
thwart a rower's seat extending across a boat.
tiller a bar or handle for turning the rudder of a boat or ship.
tip us a stave start up a song for us; sailors sang to establish a rhythm for their work.
to lose that much blunt, and be hanged into the bargain Blunt is old slang for money, cash; Silver is saying he thought he had lost the treasure and on top of that would be brought to trial and executed.
trades trade winds; one of the winds that blows steadily toward the equator from the northeast in the tropics north of the equator and from the southeast in the tropics south of the equator.
trim the boat to balance the boat by ballasting, shifting cargo, and so on.
two brace two pair.
two fathoms and a half fifteen feet; a fathom is a unit of length used to measure the depth of water or the length of a nautical rope or cable, equal to six feet (1.8288 meters).
Union Jack the national flag of the United Kingdom.
