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LORAN
A system of long-range navigation invented during World War II, in which pulsed signals sent out by 2 pairs of radio stations are used to determine the geographical position of a ship or airplane. It is maintained today as a backup to GPS.
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Lacquerware
Wooden objects coated with lacquer, the varnish being made from the sap of the lacquer tree of China and Japan, which forms a smooth, hard surface that was often inlaid with designs.
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Lam Qua
Chinese artist. See Chinese art.
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Lanyard
A short rope or gasket used for fastening or extending rigging.
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Larboard Port
Larboard is the old term for the left side of a ship when facing forward, now called port. The change to port was made official in 1844.
The first mate's watch on a sailing ship was called the port or larboard watch.
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Lath
A narrow strip of wood used for latticework, such as on a lobster trap, or to support another surface, such as a plaster wall.
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Latitude
Latitude is the measure of how far north or south one is from the equator. This angular measurement is given in degrees, minutes (1/60th of a degree), and seconds (1/60th of a minute) of arc. The nautical mile is set as the distance on the surface of the earth of 1 minute of arc, being an average of 6,080 feet. Thus, there are 60 nautical miles in one degree of latitude. Latitude lines are parallel around the globe; the equator is the 0° latitude line, the North Pole is at 90° North latitude, and the South Pole is at 90° South latitude. The “45th parallel” or the 45° North latitude line runs east-west through the middle of Maine.
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Lead line
A means of finding the depth of water near coasts and probably the earliest device used by coastal navigators to facilitate safe navigation. It consists of a hemp line with a lead weight attached (about 7 pounds). A lump of tallow is pressed into a hollow at the base of the lead to bring up samples of the bottom—sand, mud, shingle, etc. The lead line is marked at specific intervals: 2, 3, 5, 7, 10, 13, 15, 17, and 20 fathoms. Different kinds of marks are used so the leadsman can tell the depth even in the dark.
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Leader
In fishing, a line that can be fastened between the hook and the fishing line itself. Often made of wire to keep it from being cut.
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Leeward
Downwind from the point of reference. The leeward side of a vessel is called the lee side.
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Leeway
The distance a ship is set down to leeward (down wind) of her course by the action of wind or tide. A vessel can make a lot of leeway if a strong cross tide is running or if her keel is not long or deep enough to give her a good grip on the water and hold her up to the wind. The colloquial meaning implies extra room or space or catch-up time.
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Lifts
Boards that are pinned together to form a half model of a vessel. After the model is carved, these boards can be separated and measured to loft the vessel's hull full-sized for construction.
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Lighter
A large, flat-bottomed boat or barge used to transport goods over short distances, or to and from a cargo ship.
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Lima
The capital and largest city in Peru, located on the Pacific Coast.
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Lime
Calcium oxide (CaO), obtained from limestone, and used in mortars, plasters, cement, bleaching powder, and in making paper, glass, and steel.
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Limestone limerock
A sedimentary rock consisting mostly of calcium carbonate, formed from fossilized skeletons of marine microorganisms and coral. Limestone is used as a building stone and to make lime.
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Lines
The contour outline of a vessel. Also, the term for ropes with a specific use.
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Linoleum
A floor covering made from burlap or canvas backing overlaid with a mixture of solidified linseed oil, gums, cork dust and/or wood flour, and pigment.
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Lithograph
An image produced by printing from a plane surface, such as stone or metal plate, on which the image to be printed is ink-receptive and the blank area is ink-repellant.
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Lloyd's
An association of underwriters that originated with daily meetings of London Merchants in Edward Lloyd's Coffee House in London. It has a continuous history of marine underwriting since 1601. Lloyd's is also a center of maritime information about the daily movements of merchant ships and marine casualties, as well as being the leading international authority on the specifications of ships' strength of building and cargo capacity. Lloyd's List is a daily publication of shipping movements, and Lloyd's Register of Shipping is an annual publication giving a list of all merchant ships which have been built to the specifications laid down by Lloyd's Register of Shipping and their tonnage, power, and owners. Lloyd's Register of Yachts performs the same functions for yachts of the world.
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Lobster Homarus americanus
An edible crustacean, Homarus americanus refers to the species found in the North Atlantic.
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Lobster Conservancy
Organization based in Friendship, Maine dedicated to "sustaining a thriving lobster fishery through science and community." Programs include various educational programs, a juvenile lobster monitoring program, and a sonar tracking project.
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Lobster boat
Boat used in the lobster fishery. Over time they have been rowing dories and peapods, sailing Hampton boats and Frienship or Maine sloops. In the early 20th century they started to use gasoline engines and these boats have evolved into the modern Maine lobster boat.
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Lobster car
Floating crate in which lobsters are kept temporarily.
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Lobster pound
A body of water that is enclosed by a fence in which lobsters can be temporarily kept, generally awaiting a better price or shipping. Some buyers have created large tanks, artificial lobster pounds.
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Locust Black Locust, Robinia pseudoacacia
A tree that produces a strong hard wood used in ship building primarily for trunnels or tree nails. Rot resistant, it is not native to Maine but has been introduced.
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Loft laying off; laying down
A large building for drawing full-sized patterns and laying out wooden pieces for a vessel. As a verb, to loft is to draw the lines of the vessel on the floor of the mold loft.
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Loftsman loftsmen
A shipyard worker who lays down the ship's lines taken from plans supplied by the drawing office.
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Log logbook
1. Short for logbook, a document required to be kept by merchant and naval vessels. In the log must be recorded specific information relating to the navigation of the ship, the organization of her crew, and other activities on board. It contains weather conditions, courses, speeds, punishments, illnesses, and deaths. 2. A device to measure a ship's speed through the water.
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London Company
Also called Virginia Company of London, an English stock company established in 1606 to establish colonies in America. One of two identical companies, the other being the Plymouth Company. Responsible for establishing Jamestown.
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Long lumber
Large boards used for building.
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Longitude
Longitude lines around the globe run north-south, and measure position east or west of a reference line. In 1884 an international conference agreed that the reference line would be the Greenwich Meridian, the longitude line that runs north-south through the observatory in Greenwich, England, outside of London. Maine’s longitude ranges from 67° to 71° West longitude. While there are approximately 60 nautical miles per degree of longitude at the equator, that distance diminishes to nothing at the poles, where all of the longitude lines converge. Longitude was not easily measured until chronometers became available.
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Longline long-line, trawl line
In fishing, a longline is a line suspended by buoys and weighted down onto which smaller lines (gangings) with baited hooks are fastened. Modern monofilament long lines can extend for miles and have thousands of hooks. Older long lines were called trawls and were around 1800 feet long.
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Lovell, Solomon Solomon Lovell
General Solomon Lovell was in charge of the American army that attempted to drive the British from Castine in 1779 in the Penobscot Expedition. The expedition failed.
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Low freight rate cargoes bulk cargoes
Goods, like wheat or cotton, that could be shipped in bulk at low rates per ton.
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Loyalist
An American who sided with the British during the American Revolution.
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Luminism
A style of realistic landscape and seascape painting developed in the United States in the mid-nineteenth century and concerned with the study and depiction of effects of light and atmosphere.
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Lunar distance
Longitude by lunar distances involves using the relationship of the moon with stars as a giant clock. Measuring the Moon's position relative to stars lets time be read. The observation would be the same anyplace on earth at the same time. Thus taking this observation would determine the time at a standard meridian. Comparing it with local time will give the navigator longitude.
Noting that the moon moves past the stars faster than the planets, astronomers proposed a way to find longitude by lunar distances in the early 16th century. The invention of the Hadley quadrant in 1731 made these accurate measurements possible at sea.
Another requirement was accurate tables to predict where the moon was with respect to nearby stars or the sun at a standard meridian. One of the reasons for creating the Greenwich Observatory was to record the moon’s location. There Tobias Mayer and Neville Maskelyne developed useful tables and a method to calculate longitude at sea. The purpose of the tables was to give the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) for small angles between the moon and a few stars every three hours. The navigator, in computing his observed data, found the GMT that matched the observations. That time, then, was compared with the local time, often found with a noon sun sighting, and carried on a watch that did not need long-term accuracy as did a marine chronometer. Every hour of difference between the local time of the sighting and the GMT of the predicted time counted as 15° of longitude.
The method generally could not compete with the precision provided by a chronometer, yet was popular in the 19th century before chronometers became relatively inexpensive. But it took a good navigator about four hours to complete the calculations. Happily, those calculations were simplified with a new method provided by America’s most famous navigator, Nathaniel Bowditch, in 1802.
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Lyman, Theodore Theodore Lyman
Theodore Lyman was born in York and worked in the Kennebunk store belonging to Waldo Emerson, father of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He became a merchant in Boston, making a fortune in the West Indies trade, and was among the first to send ships to the Pacific coast for furs. Many of his vessels were built at Kennebunk, in the Bourne shipyard. In 1800 he launched the Atahualpa, named for a Peruvian hero and martyr. Captain William Sturgis was captain of this vessel. On his second voyage Sturgis by-passed the Pacific coast and sailed directly to China, carrying a cargo of 300,000 Mexican silver dollars. While becalmed in Macao Roads, he found sixteen pirate junks waiting and had to hold off the attackers with his few cannon until a breeze returned and he was able to sail to the Portuguese fort at Macao. During the encounter, Sturgis stood beside a powder keg with a lighted torch, prepared to blow up his ship rather than let it be taken by pirates. On returning to Boston at the end of the trip, Lyman, the vessel’s owner, forced Sturgis to pay freight on the cannon he had used to save the ship from the pirates, because Sturgis had taken the cannon on board without orders.
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