This guide has entries for booby-hatch, growler, jack in the basket, "tiddley", and throat seizing, it is also a readable reference work for the interested landlubber. Abridged from the "Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea", the book provides detailed explanations of nearly 1,500 sailing terms. As well as navigational and meteorological definitions, there are entries on weather lore, sailing expressions, and catch phrases - "to the bitter end", for example, is a sailing term that has now passed into general use. The 150 illustrations are themselves a guide to rigs and rigging, knots, tackles, and a wide variety of onboard fittings and equipment.