The front end is called the bow and the rear the stern. The main mass is termed the hull. The overhanging part of the stern is the counter. The raised deck at the bow is the forecastle – abbreviated to fo’c’sle and pronounced “foksul” – and the corresponding part at the stern is known as the poop. The poop was at one time called the “aftercastle” because in olden days the two ends of the ship were strongholds or castles from which boarding parties were launched or repelled.

The centre is the waist or well deck and the sides of the waist are the bulwarks. These stretch from the fo’c’sle aft to the poop. The left-hand side of the vessel looking forward is termed port and the right-hand side is starboard. The portside used to be called “larboard”. It was found that confusion arose in rough weather owing to the noise of the wind and the sea, so the name was changed to one that sounded quite different even in such conditions.