Guns of Icarus Online Nautical Terms Guide

Guns of Icarus Online Nautical Terms Guide by Thomas

As I’ve seen more players using nautical terms instead of Left or Right when relaying information; I thought it would be fun to put up a somewhat poorly constructed picture and description of these terms.

The front of the ship is called the “Bow”; while the far back is referred to as the “Stern”.

The “Bridge” of the ship is where the helm is located, generally towards the Stern and higher up than the deck. (not true for all ships)

The “Midship” is just that, the middle part of the ship, most often just called the “Deck”. (Most ships have multiple levels of decks).

While the most common terms you’ll hear in game are “Starboard” (to the right) and “Port” (to the left).

Moving towards the Bow is Fore while moving towards the Stern is “Aft” or “Astern”.

Since we’re in airships, we also have things like the Hull and Balloon (or Zeppelin).

If you want to get super fancy and not use things like “left”, “right”, “behind us”, or the O’Clock system to inform crew members of objects in relation to your ship (12 o’clock being dead ahead, 3 o’clock is being directly right, etc); you can use fancy nautical terms like Starboard Bow (in front and to the right); or Port Quarter (behind and to the left).

(Starboard Bow, Port Bow, Dead Ahead, Starboard Quarter, Port Quarter, Dead Astern)

I’m far from an expert in this field of Nautical Nonsense, so if I got something wrong; please correct me. Or if you have other useful terms to add, toss them down. Hope you enjoyed~