What does boxhauled mean?
To boxhaul is to turn a sailing vessel onto the opposite tack by an emergency manoeuvre rather than by an ordinary tack. Instead of steering the bow through the wind in the usual way, the crew braces the yards square and backs the headsails, so that the pressure of the wind itself throws the bow round onto the new tack. The term is chiefly encountered as its past form, boxhauled, in descriptions such as "the ship was boxhauled just clear of the rocks." The manoeuvre demanded precise timing and well-drilled hands: performed clumsily it could leave a ship taken aback, dismasted, or unmanageable. It was therefore resorted to mainly in extremis — typically when a vessel found herself too close to a lee shore or otherwise without sea room to come about normally. Today the word lives almost entirely in nautical history, appearing in seamanship treatises, logbooks, and maritime fiction of the age of sail. For readers of Patrick O'Brian or C.S. Forester, encountering a ship "boxhauled round" signals a moment of high drama and skilled seamanship, which is precisely what makes this rare term worth knowing.
verb (past tense and past participle of "boxhaul")Of a sailing ship: to have been turned onto the opposite tack by bracing the yards square and backing the headsails, so that the wind throws the bow around. Boxhauling is an emergency manoeuvre used when there is insufficient sea room to tack in the ordinary way.
- (of a ship) Turned onto the opposite tack by bracing the yards aback and backing the headsails, so the wind swings the bow through the direction from which the wind blows — an emergency manoeuvre used when there is no room to tack conventionally.
"Caught too close to the lee shore, the frigate was boxhauled round just in time to claw off the rocks."
"With the cliffs looming dead to leeward, the captain ordered the ship boxhauled before she could be driven onto them."
"In his memoir the old seaman recalled how the brig was twice boxhauled under a press of canvas during the gale."
"The manoeuvre succeeded: within minutes the vessel had been boxhauled and was standing out to sea on the other tack."
When a tall ship had no room to turn, sailors didn't just steer her round — they deliberately backed the sails and let the wind slam her bow through the eye of the storm: that desperate about-face is being boxhauled.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of boxhauled
The word combines "box," here in the sense of a sharp, angular turn, with "haul," from Middle English halen, itself borrowed from Old French haler, meaning to pull or haul — a term that entered English through the maritime vocabulary of the medieval Channel trade. "Boxhaul" arose in the age of working sail as the name for this particular emergency evolution, though the exact date of its first recorded use is uncertain. It belongs to a family of English nautical terms built on "haul," including "overhaul" and "haulage."
Related word forms
How boxhauled is actually used
Strictly technical and historical; found almost exclusively in nautical literature, seamanship manuals, and accounts of the age of sail. Always used intransitively or passively with the ship as subject ("the ship was boxhauled"), never with a person as direct object. In modern usage it survives mainly among maritime historians and traditional-sail enthusiasts.
Easily confused with boxhauled
"Boxed" means placed or confined in a box (or figuratively trapped), whereas "boxhauled" is strictly a nautical term for turning a ship onto the opposite tack by backing the sails.
"Hauled" refers generally to pulling or dragging something, while "boxhauled" specifically describes the emergency sailing manoeuvre of forcing a ship's bow through the wind by backing the headsails.