"The Sea Thing" by Frank Belknap Long

Published in Weird Tales in December 1925.

In changing the the name from "de la Vega" to "de Vegie", I couldn't figure out how to pronounce "de Vegie", and I switch back and forth between at least two different ways. Ugh. Why would you change it to that? "Vega" or "de la Vega" is hardly difficult to say, and "de Vegie" doesn't seem much like a pet-name shortening of it. *boggle*

Rabelaisian: François Rabelais, a 16th century French humorist and satirist. In this adjectival form: marked by gross robust humor, extravagance of caricature, or bold naturalism; bawdy

Topgallant: On a square rigged sailing vessel, a topgallant sail is the square-rigged sail or sails immediately above the topsail or topsails. It is also known as a gallant or garrant sail, garrant being where we get this t'garns'l sailor-speak from.

weather leaches: a leach, in the nautical sense, is a vertical edge of a square sail, or the after edge of a fore-and-aft sail. Not sure though about "weather leaches". If you know what this usage means, please leave a comment below.

taffrail: the handrail around the open deck area toward the stern of a ship or boat, although sometimes (and most likely in this case) taffrail refers to the complete deck area at the stern of a vessel.

weather rang: this one completely baffles me. I have no idea what this is, but I suspect something to do with the sail (maybe the weather leaches from above?). Or it could again just be bad editing (this book is overall poorly edited, most obvious in the random (mis-)placement of a lot of commas). If it is bad editing, then I'm not sure what term it was supposed to be.

Feyjoo: a real surname of Galician origin, although usually spelled with an 'i' instead of a 'y', so Feijóo, Feijoo or Feijó

shagreen: the rough skin of various sharks and rays when covered with small close-set tubercles

The picture used is an illustration from the Weird Tales publication of the story by Andrew Brosnatch.

To follow along: https://pseudopod.org/2021/01/29/pseudopod-742-the-sea-thing/