Minerva (pp 217–220)

Aboard the merchant ship Minerva in Cape Cod Bay in November 1713, Daniel Waterhouse observes the precarious nature of maritime life and the scientific instruments that keep the vessel afloat.

“worming, parceling, serving, tarring, and splicing her infinite network of hempen lines” — These are specific nautical techniques used to protect hemp ropes from rot and chafe: “worming” fills the grooves, “parceling” wraps the rope in canvas, and “serving” binds it tightly with twine.

“lin-stocks, quoins, gunner’s picks, and worming-irons” — These are the specialized tools of a master gunner: lin-stocks held the slow-burning match, quoins were wooden wedges for aiming, and worming-irons cleared debris from the barrel.

“whittle and file round blocks of wood, called sabots” — A sabot is a wooden base attached to a projectile to help it fit snugly in the bore of a cannon, improving the force of the gunpowder blast.

“Teach’s fleet will be tacking along with us” — Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain’s North American colonies.

“his ships are fore-and-aft rigged… our dear Minerva, a square-rigger” — Square-rigged ships were faster when sailing with the wind behind them, while fore-and-aft rigged ships (like sloops) could sail much closer to the direction the wind was blowing from.

“teaching you how to fuze mortar-bombs” — Unlike solid cannonballs, mortar bombs were hollow spheres filled with gunpowder and fitted with a timed fuze that had to be manually cut and lit.

“reckons it’ll be like the shambolic Repository at the Royal Society” — The Royal Society’s “Repository” was a famous collection of curiosities and scientific instruments that was often criticized for being disorganized and cluttered.

“firing out of a blunderbuss” — A blunderbuss is a short-barreled firearm with a flared muzzle, designed to scatter shot at close range, making it a common defensive weapon on ships.

“before his father’s house during the Fire” — The Great Fire of London in 1666 destroyed most of the City; the reference to the King’s guards suggests the civil unrest and military presence during the catastrophe.

“the same one he sang with Oldenburg in Broad Arrow Tower” — Henry Oldenburg was the first Secretary of the Royal Society; his imprisonment in the Tower of London in 1667 was due to his foreign correspondence being suspected as espionage.

“systole and diastole of a beating heart” — William Harvey’s discovery of the circulation of blood (published 1628) was a foundational moment in modern medicine and a frequent topic of discussion among natural philosophers.