The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms

A to F








London, May, 1867.



Many years ago, I harboured thoughts of compiling a kind of detailed nautical vade mecum; but a lot of other irons already in the fire marred the project. Still the scheme was backing and filling, when the late[2] Major Shadwell Clerke—opening the year 1836 in the United Service Journal—fired off the following, to me, unexpected announcement:—












We consequently lay upon our oars for some time, but occasionally pulling a stroke or two to keep to the station, and be ready for head-way when required. While thus prepared, in 1842 my excellent and highly accomplished friend was most unexpectedly assailed by an afflicting malady, which at once reduced a brilliant mind to a distressing fatuity,[5] which—after two lingering years—closed his valuable life, and clued up our arrangements.












ABAB. A Turkish sailor who plies in coasting craft.











ABBLAST. Cross-bow; hence,

ABBLASTER. Cross-bow man.

ABBROCHYN. The old term for beginning or broaching a barrel, cask, or any "vesselle of drynke."[13]


ABEAM-ARM. For this curved timber, see Fork-beams.



ABET, To. To excite or encourage—a common word, greatly in use at boat-racings, and other competitive acts.

ABITED. A provincial term for mildewed.








ABOVE-BOARD. Over the deck; a term used for open fair dealing, without artifice or trick.[14]

ABOX. A word used in veering for aback, alluding to the situation of the head-yards in paying off. (See Brace Aback.)—Lay the head-yards abox—in former times, and even at present, many good seamen prefer to lay the head-yards square, or abox, to heave-to. It brings the vessel more under command for sudden evolution, wearing, or staying.


ABRASE, To. To dubb or smooth planks.



ABRID. A pintle-plate.









ABSTRACT. A brief register of the warrant officer's stores, by which[15] the supplies, expenses, and remains are duly balanced. An abstract log contains the most important subjects of a ship's log.



ABUT. When two timbers or planks are united endways, they are said to butt or abut against each other. (See Butt.)





ACALEPHÆ. A class of marine animals of low organization, having a translucent jelly-like structure, and frequently possessing the property of stinging, whence their name (ἀκαλήφη, a nettle). The common jelly-fish (Medusa) and the Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia) are the best-known examples.



"He is my wardrobe-man, my acater,
Cook, butler, and steward."
ACATES. Victuals; provisions purchased; delicious food; dainties.



ACCESS. Means of entry on board.


ACCLIVITY. The upward slope of an inclined cliff.

ACCOIL, To. To coil together, by folding round. (See Coil.)



ACCOMPANY, To. To sail together; to sail in convoy.


ACCOUNT, Going upon. A phrase for buccaneering.

ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL of the Navy. Superintendent of pay and general accounts of the navy.




ACHATOUR. The old word for caterer of a mess.

ACHERNAR. A star of the first magnitude in the constellation Eridanus, called by navigators the "Spring of the River." It is invisible in our latitude. (α Eridani.) Properly should be acher nahr.




ACKER. See Eagre or Aigre. Also, an eddying ripple on the surface of flooded waters. A tide swelling above another tide, as in the Severn. (See Bore.)

ACK-MEN, or Ack-pirates. Fresh-water thieves; those who steal on navigable rivers.

A-COCKBILL (see Cock-bill). The anchor hangs by its ring at the cat-head, in a position for dropping.[17]




ACRE, or Acre-fight. An old duel fought by warriors between the frontiers of England and Scotland, with sword and lance. This duelling was also called camp-fight.



ACT and INTENTION. Must be united in admiralty law.















ADAMAS. The moon in nautic horoscopes.



ADDEL, or Addle. An old term for the putrid water in casks.


ADDLINGS. Accumulated pay or wages.









ADJUSTMENT OF THE COMPASS. Swinging a ship to every point of bearing, to note the variation or error of the needle upon each rhumb, due to the local attraction of the iron, or the mass, on each separate compass bearing. Thus, in lat. 76° N. it was found to be +22° 30′ with the head W.S.W., and -56° 30′ on the opposite bearing, or E.N.E.

















ADRENT, or Adreynte. An old term for drowned.


ADSCRIPTS. Sometimes used for the tangents of arcs.


ADVANCE, To. An old word, meaning to raise to honour.




ADVANCEMENT. Promotion to higher rank.



ADVANTAGE, or Vantage-ground. That which gives superiority of attack on, or defence against, an enemy; affording means of annoyance or resistance.







ÆINAUTÆ. Senators of Miletus, who held their deliberations on board ship.

ÆRATÆ. Ancient ships fitted with brazen prows.


AEROLOGY. The rational doctrine or science of the air and its phenomena.[23]




ÆSTUARY. See Estuary.

ÆWUL. An Anglo-Saxon term for a twig basket for catching fish.



AFFAIR. An indecisive engagement; a duel.






AFFORCIAMENT. An old term for a fortress or stronghold.

AFFREIGHTMENT. A contract for the letting the vessel, or a part of her for freight. (See Contract of Affreightment.)

AFLOAT. Borne up and supported by the water; buoyed clear of the ground; also used for being on board ship.[24]


AFORE THE MAST. See Before the Mast.

AFOUNDRIT. An archaism of sunk or foundered.







"And bad next day that all should readie be,
But they more subtill meaning had than he:
For the next morrowes mede they closely ment,
For feare of after-claps, for to prevent."

AFTER-FACE. See Back of the Post.




AFTERNOON-WATCH. The men on deck-duty from noon till 4 p.m.







AFTMOST. The same as aftermost.

AFTWARD. In the direction of the stern.

AGA. A superior Turkish officer.




AGAVE. The American aloe, from which cordage is made; similar to the piña of Manila. The fruit also, when expressed, affords the refreshing drink "pulque."[26]





AGENTS TO LLOYD'S. See Lloyd's Agents.

AGGRESSION. The first act of injury in provoking warfare.



AGON. A Chinese kind of metal cymbal. (See Gong.) It is singular that Gower, circa 1395, using this old word for gone, thus metallicizes—

"Of brasse, of silver, and of golde,
The world is passed, and agon."
AGONIST. A champion; prize-fighter.



AGUA-ARDIENTE [Sp.] Corrupted into aguardiente,—the adulterated brandy of Spain supplied to ships.[27]





AHOO, or All Ahoo, as our Saxon forefathers had it; awry, aslant, lop-sided. (See Askew.)

AHOY! See Ho!


AID, To. To succour; to supply with provisions or stores.


AIGRE. The sudden flowing of the sea, called in the fens of Lincolnshire, acker. (See Bore.)

AIGUADE [Fr.] Aguada [Sp.] Water as provision for ships.

AIGUADES. Watering-places on French coasts.

AIGUILLE aimantee, magnetic needle. —— de carène, out-rigger. —— d'inclinaison, dipping needle. —— de tré, or à ralingue, a bolt-rope needle.



AILETTES. Small plates of steel placed on the shoulders in mediæval armour.




AIR-BRAVING. Defying the winds.






AIR-JACKET. A leathern garment furnished with inflated bladders, to buoy the wearer up in the water. (See Ayr.)




AIR-SCUTTLES. The same as air-ports.


AIRT, or Art. A north-country word for a bearing point of the compass or quarter of the heavens. Thus the song—

"Of a' the airts the wind can blaw,
I dearly love the west."
AIRY. Breezy.



ALAMAK. The name given in nautical astronomy to that beautiful double star Anak al ard of the Arabians, or γ Andromedæ.





ALBACORE. A fish of the family Scombridæ, found in shoals in the ocean; it is about 5 or 6 feet long, with an average weight of nearly 100 lbs. when fine.







"Most like to that sharp-sighted alcatras,
That beats the air above the liquid glass."


ALEMAYNE. The early name for Germany.


ALEWIFE. The Clupea alosa, a fish of the herring kind, which[30] appears in the Philosophical Transactions for 1678, as the aloofe; the corruption therefore was a ready one.



ALFONDIZA. The custom-house at Lisbon.

ALGA. A species of millepora.



ALGENIB. A principal star (γ) in Pegasus.

ALGERE. A spear used by fishermen in olden times.



ALGOLOGY. Scientific researches into the nature of sea-plants.

ALGORAB. A star taking rank as the α of Corvus, but its brightness of late is rivalled by β Corvi.







ALLEGE. A French ballast-boat.


ALLER-FLOAT, or Aller-trout. A species of fine trout frequenting the shady holes under the roots of the aller or alder tree, on the banks of rivers and brooks.


ALLICIENCY. The attractive power of the magnet.



ALLISION. Synonymous in marine law with collision, though the jurists of Holland introduce it to mark a distinction between one vessel running against another and two vessels striking each other.[32]





ALLOW, To. To concede a destined portion of stores, &c.



ALLY. A friendly or confederated state.




ALMAFADAS. Large dunnage cut on the coast of Portugal.


"His Almagiste and bookes, grete and small."


"And by his eighte speres in his werking,
He knew ful wel how far Alnath was shove
Fro the hed of thilke fix Aries above,
That in the ninthe spere considered is."
[33]ALMIRANTE. A great sea-officer or high-admiral in Spain.

ALMIRANTESA. The wife of an admiral.

ALMURY. The upright part of an astrolabe.



ALONDE. An old English word for ashore, on land.




ALOOF. The old word for "keep your luff," in the act of sailing to the wind. (See Luff.)—Keep aloof, at a distance.

ALOOFE. See Alewife.



ALTAIR. The bright nautical star α Aquilæ, binary

ALTAR. A platform in the upper part of a dock.

ALTEMETRIE. The old term for trigonometry among navigators.



ALTERNATION or Permutation of Quantities, is the varying or changing their order, and is easily found by a continual multiplication of all numbers.



ALTMIKLEC. A silver Turkish coin of 60 paras, or 2s. 91⁄2d. sterling.

ALUFFE, or Aloof. Nearer to the wind. This is a very old form of luff; being noticed by Matthew Paris, and other writers, as a sea-term. (See Luff.)

ALURE. An old term for the gutter or drain along a battlement or parapet wall.

ALVEUS. A very small ancient boat, made from the single trunk of a tree. A monoxylon, or canoe.

A.M. The uncials for ante-meridian, or in the forenoon. (See Meridian.)

AMAIN [Saxon a, and mægn, force, strength]. This was the old word to an enemy for "yield," and was written amayne and almayne. Its literal signification is, with force or vigour, all at once, suddenly; and it is generally used to anything which is moved by a tackle-fall, as "lower amain!" let run at once. When we used to demand the[35] salute in the narrow seas, the lowering of the top-sail was called striking amain (see Strike), and it was demanded by the wave amain (see Waving), or brandishing a bright sword to and fro.

AMALPHITAN CODE, the oldest code of modern sea-laws, compiled, during the first Crusade, by the people of Amalfi in Italy, who then possessed considerable commerce and maritime power.

AMAYE. Sea-marks on the French coast.

AMBASSADOR. A practical joke performed on board ship in warm climates, in which the dupes are unmercifully ducked in the wash-deck tub:—

"And he was wash'd, who ne'er was wash'd before."
AMBER. A hard resinous substance of vegetable origin, generally of a bright yellow colour, and translucent. It is chiefly obtained from the southern shores of the Baltic, and those of Sicily, where it is thrown up by the sea, but it also occurs in beds of lignite.

AMBERGRIS. A fragrant drug found floating on sea-coasts, the origin and production of which was long a matter of dispute, although now known to be a morbid product developed in the intestines of the spermaceti whale (Physeter macrocephalus). It is of a grayish colour, very light, easily fusible, and is used both as a perfume and a cordial, in various extracts, essences, and tinctures.

AMBIENT [from ambio, Lat., to go round]. Surrounding, or investing; whence the atmosphere is designated ambient, because it encompasses the earth.

AMBIGENAL. One of the triple hyperboles of the second order.

AMBIT of a geometrical figure is the perimeter, or the line, or sum or all the lines, by which it is bounded.

AMBITION is usually denominated a virtue or a vice according to its direction; but assuredly more of the former, as it is a grand stimulus to officers to avoid reproach, and aspire to eminence and honour.

AMBLYGON. Obtuse angular.

AMBRY. See Aumbrey.

AMBUSCADE [Span. emboscada]. A body of men lying in wait to surprise an enemy, or cut off his supplies; also the site where they lurk. This, as well as ambush, obviously arose from woods having afforded hiding-places.

AMBUSH. Signifies an attempt to lie in concealment for the purpose of surprising the enemy without his perceiving the intention until he is attacked.

AMELIORATION. An allowance made to the neutral purchaser, on reclaiming a ship irregularly condemned, for repairs she has undergone in his service.[36]

AMICABLE NUMBERS are such as are mutually equal to the sum of each other's aliquot parts.

AMIDSHIPS. The middle of the ship, whether in regard to her length between stem and stern, or in breadth between the two sides. To put the helm amidships is to place it in a line with the keel. The term, however, has a more general bearing to the axis of the ship; as guns, or stores, or place amidships has reference to that line, fore and aft. Externally the term "amidships" as to striking, boarding, &c., would be about the main-mast, or half the length of the ship. (See Midships.)

AMIDWARD. Towards the 'midship or middle section of the vessel.

AMLAGH. A Manx or Gaelic term denoting to manure with sea-weed.

AMLEE. A Manx or Gaelic term for sea-weed.

AMMUNITION. This word had an infinite variety of meanings. It includes every description of warlike stores, comprehending not only the ordnance, but the powder, balls, bullets, cartridges, and equipments.—Ammunition bread, that which is for the supply of armies or garrisons.—Ammunition chest, a box placed abaft near the stern or in the tops of men-of-war, to contain ammunition, for the arms therein placed, in readiness for immediate action.—Ammunition shoes, those made for soldiers and sailors, and particularly for use by those frequenting the magazine, being soft and free from metal.—Ammunition waggon, a close cart for conveying military effects.—Ammunition wife, a name applied to women of doubtful character.

AMNESTY. An act of oblivion, by which, in a professional view, pardon is granted to those who have rebelled or deserted their colours; also to deserters who return to their ships.

AMOK. A term signifying slaughter, but denoting the practice of the Malays, when infuriated to madness with bang (a preparation from a species of hemp), of sallying into the streets, or decks, to murder any whom they may chance to meet, until they are either slain or fall from exhaustion.—To run a-muck. To run madly and attack all we meet (Pope, Dryden). As in the case of mad dogs, certain death awaited them, for if not killed in being taken, torture and impalement followed.

AMORAYLE. An archaism of admiral.

AMORCE [Fr.] A word sometimes used to signify priming-powder.

AMPERES. An ancient vessel, in which the rowers used an oar on each side at once.

AMPHIBIA. A class of animals which, from a peculiar arrangement of breathing organs, can live either in water or on land. [Gr. amphibios, having a double manner of life.] Hence amphibious.

AMPHIPRORÆ. Ancient vessels, both ends of which were prow-shaped, so that in narrow channels they need not turn.[37]

AMPHISCII. The inhabitants of the torrid zone are thus denominated from their shadow being turned one part of the year to the north and the other to the south.

AMPHOTEROPLON. See Heteroplon.

AMPLITUDE. As a general term, implies extent. In astronomy, it is an arc of the horizon intercepted between the true east or west points thereof, and the centre of the sun, star, or planet, at its rising or setting. In other words, it is the horizontal angular distance of a star from the east or west points. It is eastern or ortive when the heavenly object rises, and western or occiduous when it sets, and is moreover northern or southern according to its quarter of the horizon.—Amplitude, in gunnery, is the range or whole distance of a projectile, or the right horizontal line subtending the curvilineal path in which it moved.—Amplitude, in magnetism, is the difference between the rising and setting of the sun from the east and west points, as indicated by the mariner's or magnetic compass—which subtracted from the true amplitude, constitutes the error of the compass, which is the combined effect of variation and local deviation.

AMPOTIS. The recess or ebb of the tide.

AMRELL. An archaic orthography for admiral.

AMULET. A small relic or sacred sentence, preservative against disaster and disease, appended to the neck by superstitious people: few Italian or Spanish seamen are without them.

AMUSETTE. A kind of gun on a stock, like that of a musket, but mounted as a swivel, carrying a ball from half a pound to two pounds weight.

AMY. A foreigner serving on board, subject to some prince in friendship with us.

ANACLASTICS, or Anaclatics. The ancient doctrine of refracted light or dioptrics.—Anaclastic curves, the apparent curves formed at the bottom of a vessel full of water, or anything at great depths overboard to an eye placed in the air; also the heavenly vault as seen through the atmosphere.

ANADROMOUS. A term applied to migratory fishes, which have their stated times of ascending rivers from the sea, and returning again, as the salmon and others.

ANALEM. A mathematical instrument for finding the course and elevation of the sun.

ANALEMMA. A projection of the sphere on the plane of the meridian, taken in a lateral point of view, so that the colours become circles, whilst those whose planes pass through the eye become right lines, and the oblique circles ellipses. On globes it is represented by a narrow double-looped formed figure, the length of which is equal to[38] the breadth of the torrid zone, and is divided into months and days, to show approximately the solar declination and the equation of time.

ANALOGY. Resemblance, relation, or equality; a similitude of ratios or proportions.

ANALYSIS. The resolution of anything into its constituent parts: mathematically, it is the method of resolving problems by reducing them to equations.—Analysis of curves is that which shows their properties, points of inflection, station, variation, &c.—Analysis of finite quantities is termed specious arithmetic or algebra.—Analysis of infinites is a modern introduction, and used for fluxions or the differential calculus.—Analysis of powers is the evolution or resolving them into their roots.—Analysis of metals, fluids, solids, earths, manures, &c.

ANALYTIC. That which partakes of the property of analysis, and is reducible thereby.

ANAN. A word going out of use, uttered when an order was not understood, equal to "What do you say, sir?" It is also used by corruption for anon, immediately.

ANANAS. (Bromelia). Pine-apple.

ANAPHORA. A term sometimes applied to the oblique ascensions of the stars.

ANAS. A genus of water-birds of the order Natatores. Now restricted to the typical ducks.

ANASTROUS. See Dodecatimoria.

ANAUMACHION. The crime amongst the ancients of refusing to serve in the fleet—the punishment affixed to which was infamy.

ANCHIROMACHUS.—A kind of vessel of the middle ages used for transporting anchors and naval stores.

ANCHOR. A large and heavy instrument in use from the earliest times for holding and retaining ships, which it executes with admirable force. With few exceptions it consists of a long iron shank, having at one end a ring, to which the cable is attached, and the other branching out into two arms, with flukes or palms at their bill or extremity. A stock of timber or iron is fixed at right angles to the arms, and serves to guide the flukes perpendicularly to the surface of the ground. According to their various form and size, anchors obtain the epithets of the sheet, best bower, small bower, spare, stream, kedge, and grapling (which see under their respective heads).

Anchor floating, see Floating Anchor.—At anchor, the situation of a ship which rides by its anchor.—To anchor, to cast or to let go the anchor, so that it falls into the ground for the ship to ride thereby.—To anchor with a spring on the cable, see Spring. Anchor is also used figuratively for anything which confers security or stability.

ANCHORABLE. Fit for anchorage.[39]

ANCHORAGE. Ground which is suitable, and neither too deep, shallow, or exposed for ships to ride in safety upon; also the set of anchors belonging to a ship; also a royal duty levied from vessels coming to a port or roadstead for the use of its advantages. It is generally marked on the charts by an anchor, and described according to its attributes of good, snug, open, or exposed.

ANCHOR-BALL. A pyrotechnical combustible attached to a grapnel for adhering to and setting fire to ships.

ANCHOR-CHOCKS. Pieces indented into a wooden anchor-stock where it has become worn or defective in the way of the shank; also pieces of wood or iron on which an anchor rests when it is stowed.


ANCHORED. Held by the anchor; also the act of having cast anchor.

ANCHOR-HOLD. The fastness of the flukes on the ground; also the act of having cast anchor, and taken the ground. (See Home.)

ANCHOR-HOOPS. Strong iron hoops, binding the stock to the end of the shank and over the nuts of the anchor.

ANCHOR-ICE. The ice which is formed on and incrustates the beds of lakes and rivers: the ground-gru of the eastern counties of England. (See Ice-anchor.)

ANCHORING. The act of casting anchor.—Anchoring ground is that where anchors will find bottom, fix themselves, and hold ships securely: free from rocks, wrecks, or other matters which would break or foul the anchor or injure the cable. In legal points it is not admitted as either port, creek, road, or roadstead, unless it be statio tutissima nautis. A vessel dropping anchor in known foul ground, or where any danger is incurred by inability to recover the anchor, or by being there detained until driven off by stress of weather, is not legally anchored.

ANCHOR-LINING. The short pieces of plank fastened to the sides of the ship, under the fore-channels, to prevent the bill of the anchor from tearing the ship's side when fishing or drawing it up. (See also Bill-boards.)

ANCHOR-RING. Formerly the great ring welded into the hole for it. Recent anchors have Jew's-harp shackles, easily replaced, and not so liable to be destroyed by chain-cables.

ANCHOR-SEAT. An old term for the prow of a ship, still in use with eastern nations—Chinese, Japanese, &c.

ANCHOR-SHACKLE. An open link of iron which connects the chain with the anchor—a "Jew's-harp" shackle.

ANCHOR-SMITH. A forger of anchors.

ANCHOR-STOCK. A bar at the upper end of the shank, crossing the direction of the flukes transversely, to steady their proper direction.[40] In small anchors it is made of iron, but in large ones it is composed of two long cheeks or beams of oak, strongly bolted and tree-nailed together, secured with four iron hoops. It is now generally superseded by the iron stock.

ANCHOR-STOCK-FASHION. The method of placing the butt of one wale-plank nearly over the middle of the other; and the planks being broadest in the middle, and tapered to the ends, they resemble an anchor-stock, with which it is more in keeping than is the method called top-and-butt; also pursued in fishing spars, making false rudder-heads, &c.

ANCHOR-STOCKING is a mode of securing and working planks in general with tapered butts.

ANCHOR-STOCK TACKLE. A small tackle attached to the upper part of the anchor-stock when stowing the anchor, its object being to bring it perpendicular and closer to the ship.

ANCHOR-WATCH. A subdivision of the watch kept constantly on deck during the time the ship lies at single anchor, to be in readiness to hoist jib or staysails, to keep the ship clear of her anchor; or in readiness to veer more cable or let go another anchor in case the ship should drive or part her anchor. This watch is also in readiness to avoid collision in close rivers by veering cable, setting sail, using the helm, &c., which formerly involved the essence of seamanship.

ANCHOVY. The Engraulis encrasicholus. A small fish of the family Clupeidæ, about four inches in length, much used in sauces and seasoning when cured. It is migratory, but principally taken in the Mediterranean, where those of Gorgona are most esteemed in commerce.

ANCIENT. A term formerly used for the colours and their bearer, as ensign is now. Shakspeare's Nym was only a corporal, but Pistol was an ancient.

ANCON. A corner or angle of a knee-timber.—Ancon [Sp.] Harbour, bay, or anchorage.

ANCOR-STRENG. A very old designation of a cable.

ANCYLE. A kind of dart thrown with a leathern thong.


ANDREW, or Andrew Millar. A cant name for a man-of-war, and also for government and government authorities.

ANDROMEDA. A hemispherical medusa found in the Indian and Red Seas. The body is transparent and brownish, with a black cross in the middle, and has foliaceous white arms on the under part.

ANDROMEDÆ α. (Alpheratz.) A star of the first magnitude in the constellation of Andromeda.

ANELACE. The early name for a dirk or dagger usually worn at the girdle.[41]

ANEMOMACHIA. A whirlwind or hurricane in old writers.

ANEMOMETER, or Wind-gauge. An instrument wherewith to measure the direction and velocity of wind under its varying forces—a desideratum at sea.

ANEMONE. See Animal Flowers.

ANEMOSCOPE. A vane index with pointers to tell the changes of the wind without referring to the weather-cock.

AN-END. The position of any spar when erected perpendicularly to the deck. The top-masts are said to be an-end when swayed up to their usual stations and fidded. To strike a spar or plank an-end is to drive it in the direction of its length. (See Every Rope an-end.)

ANENT, or Anenst. Opposite to; over against.

ANEROID. A portable barometer or instrument for showing variations of the weather by the pressure of the atmosphere upon a metallic box hermetically sealed.

ANEROST. A coast-word of the western counties for nigh or almost.

ANEW. Enough, as relating to number.

ANGEL-FISH. The Squatina angelus, of the shark family. It inhabits the northern seas, is six or eight feet long, with a cinereous rough back and white smooth belly; the mouth is beneath the anterior part of the head, and the pectoral fins are very large. (Also, Chætodon.)

ANGEL-HEAD. The hook or barb of an arrow; probably angle-head.

ANGEL-SHOT. A ball cut in two, and the halves joined by a chain.

ANGIL. An old term for a fishing-hook [from the Anglo-Saxon ongul, for the same]. It means also a red worm used for a bait in angling or fishing.

ANGLE. The space or aperture intersected by the natural inclination of two lines or planes meeting each other, the place of intersection being called the vertex or angular point, and the lines legs. Angles are distinguished by the number of degrees they subtend, to 360°, or the whole circumference of a circle. Angles are acute, obtuse, right, curvilinear, rectilinear, &c. (all of which see).

ANGLE-DOG, or Angle-twitch. A large earth-worm, sought for bait.

ANGLE-IRONS. Certain strips of iron having their edges turned up at an angle to each other; they are of various sizes, and used for the ribs and knees of the framing of iron vessels.

ANGLE OF COMMUTATION. The difference between the heliocentric longitudes of the earth and a planet or comet, the latter being reduced to the ecliptic.

ANGLE OF ECCENTRICITY. An astronomical term denoting the angle whose sine is equal to the eccentricity of an orbit.


ANGLE OF INCIDENCE. See Incidence.[42]

ANGLE OF LEE-WAY. The difference between the apparent compass-course and the true one—arising from lateral pressure and the effect of sea when close-hauled. It is not applicable to courses when the wind and sea are fair.

ANGLE OF POSITION. A term usually confined to double stars, to distinguish the line of bearing between them when they are apparently very near to each other.


ANGLE OF SITUATION. This was formerly called the angle of position, and is also termed the parallactic angle (which see).

ANGLE OF THE CENTRE. In fortification, the angle formed at the centre of the polygon by lines drawn from thence to the points of two adjacent bastions.


ANGLE OF THE VERTICAL. The difference between the geographical and geocentric latitudes of a place upon the earth's surface.

ANGLER. A fisherman, or one who angles for recreation rather than profit. Also a species of Lophius or toad-fish; from its ugliness and habits called also the sea-devil. It throws out feelers by which small fry are enticed within its power.


ANGLING. The practice of catching fish by means of a rod, line, hook, and bait, which by its mixture of idleness and chance forms recreation; but however simple the art appears, it requires much nicety.

ANGON. A javelin formerly used by the French, the point of which resembled a fleur-de-lis: it is also generally applied to the half-pike or javelin.

ANGOSIADE. An astronomical falsehood; a term originating from the pretended observations of D'Angos at Malta.

ANGRA [Sp.] Bay or inlet.—Angra grande, pequena, &c., on the coasts of Spanish and Portuguese settlements.

ANGUILLIFORM. Applied to fishes having the shape, softness, and appearance of eels.

ANGULAR CRAB. An ugly long-armed crustacean—the Goneplax angulata—with eyes on remarkably long stalks.

ANGULAR DISTANCE. This term, when applied to celestial bodies, implies that the sun and moon, or moon and stars, are within measuring distance for lunars.

ANGULAR MOTION is that which describes an angle, or moves circularly round a point, as planets revolving about the sun.

ANGULAR VELOCITY. This is a term used in the orbits of double stars, and implies the motion in a certain time of one star round the other.

ANILLA. A commercial term for indigo, derived from the plant whence it is prepared. [Sp. anil, indigo, Indigofera; alnyl, Arab.][43]

ANIMAL FLOWERS. Actiniæ, or sea-anemones and similar animals, which project a circle of tentacula resembling flowers. Formerly they were all classed under zoophytes.

ANIMATE. The giving power or encouragement.—To animate a battery, to place guns in its embrasures.—To animate a needle, to magnetize it.—To animate the crew in various ways for any special duty.

ANKER. An anker of brandy contains ten gallons. The kegs in which Hollands is mostly exported are ankers and half-ankers.

ANKER-FISH. A name of a kind of cuttle-fish.

ANKLE-BONE. An old seaman's term for the crawfish.

ANNELIDS. A class of worm-like animals, of which the body is composed of a series of rings.

ANNET. A sea-gull, well known in Northumberland and on the northern coasts.

ANNIVERSARY WINDS. Those which blow constantly at certain seasons of the year, as monsoon, trade, and etesian winds.

ANNONA. An ancient tax for the yearly supply of corn or provisions for the army and capital: still in use in Italy.

ANNOTINÆ. The ancient Roman victuallers or provision vessels.

ANNOTTO (Bixa orellana). The plant from the dried pulp of the seed-vessels of which a delicate red dye is obtained, used to give a rich colour to milk, butter, and cheese.

ANNUAL. Those astronomical motions which return or terminate every year.

ANNUAL ACCOUNTS. The ship's books and papers for the year.

ANNUAL EQUATION. An inequality in the moon's march, arising from the eccentricity of the earth's orbit, whereby the diurnal motion is sometimes quicker and at other times slower than her mean motion.


ANNUAL RETURNS. In addition to the general accounts of the year, there are three returns to be transmitted to the admiral or senior officer for the Admiralty. They are, a report of the sailing and other qualities of the ship; state of the ship as to men; and progress of the young gentlemen in navigation.

ANNUAL VARIATION. The change produced in the right ascension or declination of a star by the precession of the equinoxes and proper motion of the star taken together. Also, the annual variation of the compass.

ANNUL, To. To nullify a signal.

ANNULAR. Resembling an annulus or ring. An annular eclipse takes place when the apparent diameter of the moon is less than that of the sun, and a zone of light surrounds the moon while central.

ANNULAR SCUPPER. A contrivance for fitting scuppers so that[44] the whole can be enlarged by a movable concentric ring, in order that a surcharge of water can be freely delivered; invented by Captain Downes, R.N.

ANNULUS. A geometrical figure. (See Ring.)

ANNULUS ASTRONOMICUS. A ring of brass used formerly in navigation. In 1575 Martin Frobisher, when fitting out on his first voyage for the discovery of a north-west passage, was supplied with one which cost thirty shillings.

ANOMALISTIC MONTH. See Anomalistic Period.

ANOMALISTIC PERIOD. The time of revolution of a primary or secondary planet in reference to its line of apsides; that is, from one perigee or apogee to another.

ANOMALISTIC YEAR. The space of time in which the earth passes through her orbit—distinct from and longer than the tropical year, owing to the precession of the equinoxes.

ANOMALY. Deviation from common rule. An irregularity in the motion of a planet by which it deviates from the aphelion or apogee.—Mean anomaly formerly signified the distance of a planet's mean place from the apogee: it is the angular distance of a planet or comet from perihelion supposing it to have moved with its mean velocity.—True anomaly, the true angular distance of a planet or comet from perihelion. (See Excentric and Equated.)

ANON. Quickly, directly, immediately.

ANONYMOUS PARTNERSHIPS. Those not carried on under a special name, and the particulars known only to the parties themselves. This is much practised in France, and often occasions trouble in prize-courts.

ANSÆ. The dolphins or handles of brass ordnance. Also the projections or arms of the ring on each side of Saturn's globe, in certain situations relative to the earth.

ANSERES. Birds of the goose tribe.

ANSWER, To. To reply, to succeed; as, the frigate has answered the signal. This boat will not answer.

ANSWERS HER HELM. When a ship obeys the rudder or steers.

ANTARCTIC. Opposite to the Arctic—abbreviated from anti-arctic.

ANTARCTIC CIRCLE. One of the lesser circles of the sphere, on the south parallel of the equator, and 231⁄2° from the south pole.

ANTARCTIC OCEAN. That which surrounds the south pole, within the imaginary circle so called.

ANTARCTIC POLE. The south end of the earth's axis.

ANTARES. A star of the first magnitude, popularly known as the scorpion's heart (α Scorpio): it is one of those called "nautical" stars, used for determining the latitude and longitude at night.[45]

ANTECEDENTAL METHOD. A branch of general geometrical proportion, or universal comparison of ratios.

ANTECEDENTIA. A planet's apparent motion to the westward, contrary to the order of the signs.

ANTECEDENT OF A RATIO. The first of the two terms.

ANTECIANS. Those inhabitants of the earth who live under the same meridian, but in opposite hemispheres. (See Antiscii.)

ANTE LUCAN. Before daylight.

ANTE MERIDIAN. Before noon.

ANTE MURAL. See Outworks.

ANTHELION. A mock or spurious sun; a luminous meteor, resembling, but usually larger than, the solar disc.

ANTHRACITE. [Gr. anthrax and lithos.] A stone coal demanding great draught to burn, affording great heat, little smoke, and peculiarly adapted for steamers.

ANTICHTHONES. The inhabitants of countries diametrically opposite to each other.

ANTI-GALLICANS. A pair of extra backstays, sometimes used by merchantmen, to support the masts when running before the trades.

ANTI-GUGGLER. A straw, or crooked tube, introduced into a spirit cask or neck of a bottle, to suck out the contents; commonly used in 1800 to rob the captain's steward's hanging safe in hot climates. Is to be found in old dictionaries.

ANTILOGARITHM. The complement of the logarithm of a sine, tangent, or secant.

ANTIPARALLELS. Those lines which make equal angles with two other lines, but contrary ways.

ANTIPATHES. A kind of coral having a black horny stem.

ANTIPODES. Such inhabitants of the earth as are diametrically opposite to each other. From the people, the term has passed to the places themselves, which are situated at the two extremities of any diameter of the earth.

ANTISCII. The people who dwell in opposite hemispheres of the earth, and whose shadows at noon fall in contrary directions.

ANT ISLANDS. Generally found on Spanish charts as Hormigas.

ANVIL. The massive block of iron on which armourers hammer forge-work. It is also an archaism for the handle or hilt of a sword: thus Coriolanus—

"Here I clip
The anvil of my sword."
It is moreover a little narrow flag at the end of a lance.

ANYHOW. Do the duty by all means, and at any rate or risk: as Nelson, impatient for getting to Copenhagen in 1801, exclaimed—[46]

"Let it be by the Sound, by the Belt, or anyhow, only lose not an hour."
ANY PORT IN A STORM signifies contentment with whatever may betide.

APAGOGE. A mathematical progress from one proposition to another.

APE, or Sea-ape. The long-tailed shark. Also, an active American seal.

APEEK. A ship drawn directly over the anchor is apeek: when the fore-stay and cable form a line, it is short stay apeek; when in a line with the main-stay, long stay apeek. The anchor is apeek when the cable has been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over it.—Yards apeek. When they are topped up by contrary lifts. (See Peak.)

APERTÆ. Ancient deep-waisted ships, with high-decked forecastle and poop.

APERTURE, in astronomy. The opening of a telescope tube next the object-glass, through which the rays of light and image of the object are conveyed to the eye. It is usually estimated by the clear diameter of the object-glass.

APEX. The summit or vertex of anything; as the upper point of a triangle.

APHELION. That point in the orbit of a planet or comet which is most remote from the sun, and at which the angular motion is slowest; being the end of the greater elliptic axis. The opposite of  perihelion.

APHELLAN. The name of the double star α Geminorum, better known as Castor.

APHRACTI. Ancient vessels with open waists, resembling the present Torbay-boats.

APLANATIC. That refraction which entirely corrects the aberration and colour of the rays of light.

APLETS. Nets for the herring-fishery.

APLUSTRE. A word applied in ancient vessels both to the ornament on the prow and to the streamer or ensign on the stern. Here, as in the rudder-head of Dutch vessels frequently, the dog-vane was carried to denote the direction of the wind.

APOBATHRÆ. Ancient gang-boards from the ship to the quays.

APOCATASTASIS. The time in which a planet returns to the same point of the zodiac whence it departed.

APOGEE. That point of the moon's orbit which is furthest from the earth; the opposite of perigee. The apogee of the sun is synonymous with the aphelion of the earth. The word is also used as a general term to express the greatest distance of any heavenly body from the earth.

A-POISE. Said of a vessel properly trimmed.[47]

APOSTLES. The knight-heads or bollard timbers, where hawsers or heavy ropes are belayed.

APOTOME. The difference of two incommensurable mathematical quantities.

APPALTO. The commercial term for a monopoly in Mediterranean ports.

APPARATUS. Ammunition and equipage for war.

APPAREL. In marine insurance, means the furniture or appurtenances of a ship, as masts, yards, sails, ground gear, guns, &c. More comprehensive than apparatus.

APPARELLED. Fully equipped for service.

APPARENT. In appearance, as visible to the eye, or evident to the mind, which in the case of astronomical motions, distances, altitudes, and magnitudes, will be found to differ materially from their real state, and require correcting to find the true place.

APPARENT EQUINOX. The position of the equinox as affected by nutation.


APPARENT MOTION. The motion of celestial bodies as viewed from the earth.

APPARENT NOON. The instant that the sun's centre is on the meridian of a place.

APPARENT OBLIQUITY. The obliquity of the ecliptic affected with nutation.

APPARENT PLACE OF A STAR. This is the position for any day which it seems to occupy in the heavens, as affected with aberration and nutation.

APPARENT TIME. The time resulting from an observation of the sun—an expression per contractionem for apparent solar time.

APPARITION. A star or planet becoming visible after occultation. Perpetual apparition of the lesser northern circles, wherein the stars being above the horizon, never set.

APPEARANCE. The first making of a land-fall: formerly astronomically used for phenomenon and phase. The day of an officer's first joining a ship after his being appointed.

APPLE-PIE ORDER. A strange but not uncommon term for a ship in excellent condition and well looked to. Neat and orderly. Absurdly said to be a corruption of du pol au pied.

APPLICATE. The ordinate, or right line drawn across a curve, so as to be bisected by its diameter.

APPLICATION. A word of extensive use, for the principles of adjusting, augmenting, and perfecting the relations between sciences.

APPOINTED. Commissioned—named for a special duty.[48]

APPOINTMENT. The equipment, ordnance, furniture, and necessaries of a ship. Also an officer's commission. In the Army, appointments usually imply military accoutrements, such as belts, sashes, gorgets, &c.

APPORTER. A bringer into the realm.

APPRAISEMENT. A law instrument taken out by the captors of a vessel, who are primarily answerable for the expense.

APPRENTICE. One who is covenanted to serve another on condition of being instructed in an art, and ships' apprentices are to the same effect. Boys under eighteen years of age bound to masters of merchant ships were exempted from impressment for three years from the date of their indentures; which documents were in duplicate, and exempt from stamp duty.

APPROACHES. The trenches, zig-zags, saps, and other works, by which a besieger makes good his way up to a fortified place. (See Trenches.)

APPROVAL. The senior officer's signature to a demand or application.

APPROXIMATION. A continual approach to a quantity sought, where there is no possibility of arriving at it exactly.

APPULSE. A near approach of one heavenly body to another, so as to form an apparent contact: the term is principally used with reference to stars or planets when the moon passes close to them without causing occultation.

APRON, or Stomach-piece. A strengthening compass timber fayed abaft the lower part of the stern, and above the foremost end of the keel; that is, from the head down to the fore dead-wood knee, to which it is scarfed. It is sided to receive the fastenings of the fore-hoods or planking of the bow.—Apron of a gun, a square piece of sheet-lead laid over the touch-hole for protecting the vent from damp; also over the gun-lock.—Apron of a dock, the platform rising where the gates are closed, and on which the sill is fastened down.

APSIDES, Line of. The imaginary line joining the aphelion and perihelion points in the orbit of a planet.

APSIS. Either of the two points in planetary orbits where they are at the greatest and the least distance from the sun, and are termed higher or lower accordingly. The two are joined by a diameter called the line of the apsides.

AQUAGE. The old law-term denoting the toll paid for water-carriage.

AQUARIUS. The eleventh sign in the zodiac (α Aquarius Sadalmelik).

AQUATIC. Inhabiting or relating to the water.

AQUATILE. An archaism for aquatic; thus Howell's lexicon describes the crocodile as "partly aquatil, partly terrestrial."

AQUATITES. The law-term for everything living in the water.

AQUE. Wall-sided flat-floored boats, which navigate the Rhine.[49]

AQUEDUCT. Conduits or canals built for the conveyance of water.

AQUILA. The constellation Aquila, in which α Aquilæ is an important star of the first magnitude: used by seamen in determining the latitude and longitude; also in lunar distances. (See Altair.)

AQUILON. The north-east wind, formerly much dreaded by mariners.

ARAMECH. The Arabic name for the star Arcturus.

ARBALIST [from arcus and balista]. An engine to throw stones, or the cross-bow used for bullets, darts, arrows, &c.; formerly arbalisters formed part of a naval force.

ARBITER. The judge to whom two persons refer their differences; not always judicial, but the arbiter, in his own person, of the fate of empires and peoples.

ARBITRAGE. The referring commercial disputes to the arbitration of two or more indifferent persons.

ARBITRATION. The settlement of disputes out of court.

ARBOR. In chronometry, a shaft, spindle, or axis.

ARBY. A northern name for the thrift or sea-lavender.

ARC, or Arch. The segment of a circle or any curved line, by which all angles are measured.

ARC DIURNAL. See Diurnal Arc.

ARC NOCTURNAL. See Nocturnal Arc.

ARC OF DIRECTION or Progression. The arc which a planet appears to describe when its motion is direct or progressive in the order of the signs.

ARC OF VISION. The sun's depth below the horizon when the planets and stars begin to appear.

ARCH-BOARD. The part of the stern over the counter, immediately under the knuckles of the stern-timbers.

ARCH OF THE COVE. An elliptical moulding sprung over the cove of a ship, at the lower part of the taffrail.

ARCHED SQUALL. A violent gust of wind, usually distinguished by the arched form of the clouds near the horizon, whence they rise rapidly towards the zenith, leaving the sky visible through it.

ARCHEL, Archil, Orchill. Rocella tinctorum fucus, a lichen found on the rocks of the Canary and Cape de Verde groups; it yields a rich purple. Litmus, largely used in chemistry, is derived from it.

ARCHES. A common term among seamen for the Archipelago. (See also Galley-arches.)

ARCHI-GUBERNUS. The commander of the imperial ship in ancient times.

ARCHIMEDES' SCREW. An ingenious spiral pump for draining docks or raising water to any proposed height,—the invention of that wonderful man. It is also used to remove grain in breweries from[50] a lower to a higher level. The name has been recently applied to the very important introduction in steam navigation—the propelling screw. (See Screw-propeller.)

ARCHING. When a vessel is not strongly built there is always a tendency in the greater section to lift, and the lower sections to fall; hence the fore and after ends droop, producing arching, or hogging (which see).

ARCHIPELAGO. A corruption of Aegeopelagus, now applied to clusters of islands in general. Originally the Ægean Sea. An archipelago has a great number of islands of various sizes, disposed without order; but often contains several subordinate groups. Such are the Ægean, the Corean, the Caribbean, Indian, Polynesian, and others.

ARCHITECTURE. See Naval Architecture.

ARCTIC. Northern, or lying under arktos, the Bear; an epithet given to the north polar regions comprised within the arctic circle, a lesser circle of the sphere, very nearly 23° 28′ distant from the north pole.

ARCTIC OCEAN. So called from surrounding the pole within the imaginary circle of that name.

ARCTIC POLE. The north pole of the globe.

ARCTURUS. α Boötis. A star of the first magnitude, close to the knee of Arctophylax, or Boötes. One of the nautical stars.

ARD, or Aird. A British or Gaelic term for a rocky eminence, or rocks on a wash: hence the word hard, in present use. It is also an enunciation.

ARDENT. Said of a vessel when she gripes, or comes to the wind quickly.

ARE. The archaism for oar (which see). A measure of land in France containing 100 square metres.

AREA. The plane or surface contained between any boundary lines. The superficial contents of any figure or work; as, the area of any square or triangle.

ARENACEOUS. Sandy; partaking of the qualities of sand; brittle; as, arenaceous limestone, quartz, &c.

ARENAL. In meteorology, a cloud of dust, often so thick as to prevent seeing a stone's-throw off. It is common in South America, being raised by the wind from adjoining shores. Also off the coast of Africa at the termination of the desert of Zahara.

ARENATION. The burying of scorbutic patients up to the neck in holes in a sandy beach, for cure; also spreading hot sand over a diseased person.

AREOMETER. An instrument for measuring the specific gravity of fluids.[51]

ARGIN. An old word for an embankment.

ARGO. A name famous from Jason's romantic expedition, but absurdly quoted as the first ship, for the fleets of Danaus and Minos are mentioned long before, and the Argo herself was chased by a squadron under Æetes.

ARGO NAVIS. The southern constellation of the Ship, containing 9 clusters, 3 nebulæ, 13 double and 540 single stars, of which about 64 are easily visible. As most of these were invisible to the Greeks, the name was probably given by the Egyptians.

ARGOL. The tartaric acid or lees adhering to the sides of wine-casks, particularly of port-wine; an article of commerce; supertartrate of potass.

ARGOLET. A light horseman of the middle ages.

ARGONAUTA. The paper-nautilus. The sail which it was supposed to spread to catch the wind, is merely a modified arm which invests the outer surface of the shell.

ARGONAUTS. A company of forty-four heroes who sailed in the Argo to obtain the golden fleece; an expedition which fixes one of the most memorable epochs in history. Also a Geographical Society instituted at Venice, to whom we owe the publication of all the charts, maps, and directories of Coronelli.

ARGOSY. A merchant ship or carrack of burden, principally of the Levant; the name is by some derived from Ragusa, but by others with more probability from the Argo. Shakspeare mentions "argosies with portly sail." Those   of the Frescobaldi were the richest and most adventurous of those times.

ARGOZIN, or Argnesyn. The person whose office it was to attend to the shackles of the galley-slaves, over whom he had especial charge.

ARGUMENT. An astronomical quantity upon which an equation depends,—or any known number by which an unknown one proportional to the first may be found.

ARGUMENT OF LATITUDE. The distance of a celestial body from one of the nodes of its orbit, upon which the latitude depends.

ARIES. The most important point of departure in astronomy. A northern constellation forming the first of the twelve signs of the zodiac, into which the sun enters about the 20th of March. With Musca, Aries contains 22 nebulæ, 8 double and 148 single stars, but not above 50 are visible to the unassisted eye. The commencement of this sign, called the first point of Aries, is the origin from which the right ascensions of the heavenly bodies are reckoned upon the equator, and their longitudes upon the ecliptic.

ARIS. Sharp corner of stones in piers and docks.

ARIS PIECES. Those parts of a made mast which are under the hoops.[52]

ARITHMETIC. The art of computation by numbers; or that branch which considers their powers and properties.

ARK. The sacred and capacious vessel built by Noah for preservation against the flood. It was 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height; and of whatever materials it was constructed, it was pitched over or pay'd with bitumen. Ark is also the name of a mare's-tail cloud, or cirrhus, when it forms a streak across the sky.

ARLOUP. An archaism for the deck, now called orlop (which see).

ARM. A deep and comparatively narrow inlet of the sea. That part of an anchor on which the palm is shut. The extremity of the bibbs which support the trestle-trees. Each extremity or end of a yard, beam, or bracket.—To arm, to fit, furnish, and provide for war; to cap and set a loadstone; to apply putty or tallow to the lower end of the lead previous to sounding, in order to draw up a specimen of the bottom.—To arm a shot, is to roll rope-yarns about a cross-bar-shot, in order to facilitate ramming it home, and also to prevent the ends catching any accidental inequalities in the bore.

ARMADA. A Spanish term signifying a royal fleet; it comes from the same root as army. The word armado is used by Shakspeare.

ARMADILLA. A squadron of guarda-costas, which formerly cruized on the coasts of South America, to prevent smuggling.

ARMADOR. A Spanish privateer.

ARMAMENT. A naval or military force equipped for an expedition. The arming of a vessel or place.

ARMAMENTA. The rigging and tackling of an ancient ship. It included shipmen and all the necessary furniture of war.

ARMATÆ. Ancient ships fitted with sails and oars, but which fought under the latter only.

ARM-CHEST. A portable locker on the upper deck or tops for holding arms, and affording a ready supply of cutlasses, pistols, muskets or other weapons.

ARMED. Completely equipped for war.—Armed at all points, covered with armour.—Armed "en flute," see Flute.—Armed mast, made of more than one tree.—Armed ship, a vessel fitted out by merchants to annoy the enemy, and furnished with letters of marque, and bearing a commission from the Admiralty to carry on warlike proceedings.


ARMILLARY SPHERE. An instrument composed of various circles, to assist the student in gaining a knowledge of the arrangement and motions of the heavenly bodies. A brass armilla tolomæi was one of the instruments supplied to Martin Frobisher in 1576, price £4, 6s. 8d.

ARMING. A piece of tallow placed in the cavity and over the bottom[53] of a sounding lead, to which any objects at the bottom of the sea become attached, and are brought with the lead to the surface.

ARMINGS. Red dress cloths which were formerly hung fore and aft, outside the upper works on holidays; still used by foreigners. (See Top-armings.) It was also the name of a kind of boarding-net.

ARMIPOTENT. Powerful in war.

ARMISTICE. A cessation of arms for a given time; a short truce for the suspension of hostilities.

ARMLET. A narrow inlet of the sea; a smaller branch than the arm. Also the name of a piece of armour for the arm, to protect it from the jar of the bow-string.

ARMOGAN. An old term for good opportunity or season for navigation, which, if neglected, was liable to costs of demurrage. It is a Mediterranean word for fine weather.

ARMORIC. The language of Brittany, Cornwall, and Wales: the word in its original signification meant maritime.

ARMOUR. A defensive habit to protect the wearer from his enemy; also defensive arms. In old statutes this is frequently called harness.

ARMOUR-CLAD. A ship of war fitted with iron plates on the outside to render her shot-proof.

ARMOURER. In a man-of-war, is a person appointed by warrant to keep the small arms in complete condition for service. As he is also the ship's blacksmith, a mate is allowed to assist at the forge.

ARMOURY. A place appropriated for the keeping of small arms.

ARM-RACK. A frame or fitting for the stowage of arms (usually vertical) out of harm's way, but in readiness for immediate use. In the conveyance of troops by sea arm-racks form a part of the proper accommodation.

ARMS. The munitions of war,—all kinds of weapons whether for offence or defence. Those in a ship are cannons, carronades, mortars, howitzers, muskets, pistols, tomahawks, cutlasses, bayonets, and boarding-pikes.

ARMS of a great Gun. The trunnions.

ARMSTRONG GUN. Invented by Sir William Armstrong. In its most familiar form, a rifled breech-loading gun of wrought iron, constructed principally of spirally coiled bars, and occasionally having an inner tube or core of steel; ranging in size from the smallest field-piece up to the 100 pounder; rifled with numerous shallow grooves, which are taken by the expansion of the leaden coating of its projectile. Late experiments however, connected with iron-plated ships are developing muzzle-loading Armstrong guns, constructed on somewhat similar principles, but with simpler rifling, ranging in size up to the 600 pounder weighing 23 tons.[54]

ARMY. A large body of disciplined men, with appropriate subdivisions, commanded by a general. A fleet is sometimes called a naval army.—Flying army, a small body sent to harass a country, intercept convoys, and alarm the enemy.

ARMYE. A early term for a naval armament.

ARNOT. A northern name for the shrimp.

ARONDEL. A light and swift tartan: probably a corruption of hirondelle (swallow).

ARPENT. A French measure of land, equal to 100 square rods or perches, each of 18 feet. It is about 1⁄7th less than the English acre.

ARQUEBUSS. A word sometimes used for carbine, but formerly meant a garrison-piece, carrying a ball of 31⁄2 ounces; it was generally placed in loop-holes. (See Hagbut.)

ARRACK. An Indian term for all ardent liquors, but that which we designate thus is obtained by the fermentation of toddy (a juice procured from palm-trees), of rice, and of sugar. In Turkey arrack is extracted from vine-stalks taken out of wine-presses.

ARRAIER. The officer who formerly had the care of the men's armour, and whose business it was to see them duly accoutred.


ARREARS. The difference between the full pay of a commissioned officer, and what he is empowered to draw for till his accounts are passed.

ARREST. The suspension of an officer's duty, and restraint of his person, previous to trying him by a court martial. Seamen in Her Majesty's service cannot be arrested for debts under twenty pounds, and that contracted before they entered the navy. Yet it is held in law, that this affords no exemption from arrests either in civil or criminal suits.

ARRIBA. [Sp. pronounced arriva]. Aloft, quickly.—Agir contre son gré, montar arriba, to mount aloft, which has passed into seamen's lingo as areevo, up, aloft, quickly:—mount areevo, or go on deck.

ARRIBAR, To. To land, to attain the bank, to arrive.

ARRIVE, To. In the most nautical sense, is to come to any place by water, to reach the shore.

ARROBA. A Portuguese commercial weight of 32 lbs. Also, a Spanish general wine measure of 41⁄4 English gallons. The lesser arroba, used for oil, is only 31⁄3 English gallons. A Spanish weight of 25 lbs. avoirdupois; one-fourth of a quintal. Also, a rough country cart in Southern Russia.

ARROW. A missive weapon of offence, and whether ancient or modern, in the rudest form among savages or refined by art, is always[55] a slender stick, armed at one end, and occasionally feathered at the other. The natives of Tropical Africa feather the metal barb.

ARROW. In fortification, a work placed at the salient angles of the glacis, communicating with the covert way.—Broad arrow. The royal mark for stores of every kind. (See Broad Arrow.)

ARSENAL. A repository of the munitions of war. Some combine both magazines of naval and military stores, and docks for the construction and repair of ships.

ARSHEEN. A Russian measure of 2 feet 4 in. = 2·333—also Chinese, four of which make 3 yards English.

ART. A spelling of airt (which see). Also, practice as distinguished from theory.

ARTEMON. The main-sail of ancient ships.

ARTHUR. A well-known sea game, alluded to by Grose, Smollet, and other writers.

ARTICLES. The express stipulations to which seamen bind themselves by signature, on joining a merchant ship.

ARTICLES OF WAR. A code of rules and orders based on the act of parliament for the regulation and government of Her Majesty's ships, vessels, and forces by sea: and as they are frequently read to all hands, no individual can plead ignorance of them. It is now termed the New Naval Code.—The articles of war for the land forces have a similar foundation and relation to their service; the act in this case, however, is passed annually, the army itself having, in law, no more than one year's permanence unless so periodically renewed by act of parliament.

ARTIFICER. One who works by hand in wood or metal; generally termed an idler on board, from his not keeping night-watch, and only appearing on deck duty when the hands are turned up.

ARTIFICIAL EYE. An eye worked in the end of rope, which is neater but not so strong as a spliced eye.

ARTIFICIAL HORIZON. An artificial means of catching the altitude of a celestial body when the sea horizon is obscured by fog, darkness, or the intervention of land; a simple one is still the greatest desideratum of navigators. Also a trough filled with pure mercury, used on land, wherein the double altitude of a celestial body is reflected.

ARTIFICIAL LINES. The ingenious contrivances for representing logarithmic sines and tangents, so useful in navigation, on a scale.

ARTILLERY was formerly synonymous with archery, but now comprehends every description of ordnance, guns, mortars, fire-arms, and all their appurtenances. The term is also applied to the noble corps destined to that service: as also to the theory and practice of the[56] science of projectiles: it was moreover given to all kinds of missile weapons, and the translators of the Bible make Jonathan give his "artillery unto his lad."

ARTILLERY, ROYAL MARINE. Formerly a select branch of the R. Marines, specially instructed in gunnery and the care of artillery stores; assigned in due proportion to all ships of war. It is now separate from the other branch (to whose original title the denomination of Light Infantry has been added), and rests on its own official basis; its relation to ships of war, however, remaining the same as before, although while on shore the Royal Marine forces are regulated by an annual act of parliament. (See Royal Marine Artillery.)

ARTIST. A name formerly applied to those mariners who were also expert navigators.

ARTIZAN. A mechanic or operative workman. (See Artificer.)

ARX. A fort or castle for the defence of a place.

ASCENDANT. The part of the ecliptic above the horizon.


ASCENDING SIGNS. Those in which the sun appears to ascend towards the north pole, or in which his motion in declination is towards the north.

ASCENSION. The act of mounting or rising upwards. (See Right Ascension.)

ASCENSIONAL DIFFERENCE. The equinoctial arc intercepted between the right and oblique ascensions (which see).

ASCENSION OBLIQUE. See Oblique Ascension.

ASCENSION RIGHT. See Right Ascension.

ASCII. The inhabitants of the torrid zone, who twice a year, being under a vertical sun, have no shadow.

AS DEAF AS THE MAIN-MAST. Said of one who does not readily catch an order given. Thus at sea the main-mast is synonymous with the door-post on shore.

ASHES. See Windward.

ASHLAR. Blocks of stone masonry fronting docks, piers, and other erections; this term is applied to common or freestone as they come of various lengths, breadths, and thicknesses from the quarry.

ASHORE. Aground, on land.—To go ashore, to disembark from a boat. Opposed to aboard.

ASH-PIT. A receptacle for ashes before the fire-bars in a steamer, or under them in most fire-places.

ASIENTO [Sp.] A sitting, contract, or convention; such as that between Spain and other powers in relation to the supply of stores for South America.[57]

ASK, or Asker. A name of the water-newt.

ASKEW. Awry, crooked, oblique.

ASLANT. Formed or placed in an oblique line, as with dagger-knees, &c.—To sail aslant, turning to windward.

ASLEEP. The sail filled with wind just enough for swelling or bellying out,—as contrasted with its flapping.

ASPECT. The looming of the land from sea-ward.

ASPER. A minute Turkish coin in accounts, of which three go to a para.

ASPIC. An ancient 12-pounder piece of ordnance, about 11 feet long.

ASPIRANT DE MARINE. Midshipman in the French navy.

ASPORTATION. The carrying of a vessel or goods illegally.

ASSAIL, To. To attack, leap upon, board, &c.

ASSAULT. A hostile attack. The effort to storm a place, and gain possession of a post by main force.

ASSEGAI. The spear used by the Kaffirs in South Africa; it is frequently feather-bent to revolve in its flight.

ASSEGUAY. The knife-dagger used in the Levant.


ASSES'-BRIDGE. The well-known name of prop. 5, b. i. of Euclid, the difficulty of which makes many give in.

ASSIEGE, To. To besiege, to invest or beset with an armed force.

ASSIGNABLE. Any finite geometrical ratio, or magnitude that can be marked out or denoted.

ASSILAG. The name given in the Hebrides to a small sea-bird with a black bill. The stormy petrel.

ASSISTANCE. Aid or help: strongly enjoined to be given whenever a signal is made requiring it.

ASSISTANT-SURGEON. The designation given some years ago to those formerly called "surgeon's mates," and considered a boon by the corps.

ASSORTMENT. The arrangement of goods, tools, &c., in a series.

ASSURANCE. (See Marine Insurance.) Conveyance or deed: in which light Shakspeare makes Tranio say that his father will "pass assurance."

ASSURGENT. A heraldic term for a man or beast rising out of the sea.

ASSUROR. He who makes out the policy of assurance for a ship: he is not answerable for the neglect of the master or seamen.

A-STARBOARD. The opposite to a-port.

A-STAY. Said of the anchor when, in heaving in, the cable forms[58] such an angle with the surface as to appear in a line with the stays of the ship.—A long stay apeek is when the cable forms an acute angle with the water's surface, or coincides with the main-stay—short stay when it coincides with the fore-stay.

ASTELLABRE. The same as astrolabe.

ASTERIA. See Sea-star.

ASTERISM. Synonymous with constellation, a group of stars.

ASTERN. Any distance behind a vessel; in the after-part of the ship; in the direction of the stern, and therefore the opposite of ahead.—To drop astern, is to be left behind,—when abaft a right angle to the keel at the main-mast, she drops astern.

ASTEROIDS. The name by which the minor planets between the orbits of Jupiter and Mars were proposed to be distinguished by Sir W. Herschel. They are very small bodies, which have all been discovered since the commencement of the present century; yet their present number is over eighty.

ASTRAGAL. A moulding formerly round a cannon, at a little distance from its breech, the cascabel, and another near the muzzle. It is a half round on a flat moulding.

ASTRAL. Sidereal, relating to the stars.

ASTROLABE. An armillary sphere.—Sea-astrolabe, a useful graduated brass ring, with a movable index, for taking the altitude of stars and planets: it derived its name from the armillary sphere of Hipparchus, at Alexandria.

ASTROMETRY. The numerical expression of the apparent magnitudes of the so-called fixed stars.

ASTRONOMICAL CLOCK. A capital bit of horology, the pendulum of which is usually compensated to sidereal time, for astronomical purposes. (See Sidereal Time.)

ASTRONOMICAL HOURS. Those which are reckoned from noon or midnight of one natural day, to noon or midnight of another.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATIONS. There have been occasional slight records of celestial phenomena from the remotest times, but the most useful ones are those collected and preserved by Ptolemy. Since 1672, science has been enriched with a continued series of astronomical observations of accuracy and value never dreamed of by the ancients.

ASTRONOMICAL PLACE OF A STAR OR PLANET. Its longitude or place in the ecliptic, reckoned from the first point of Aries, according to the natural order of the signs.

ASTRONOMICAL TABLES. Tables for facilitating the calculation of the apparent places of the sun, moon, and planets.

ASTRONOMICALS. The sexagesimal fractions.

ASTRONOMY. The splendid department of the mixed sciences which[59] teaches the laws and phenomena of the universal system. It is practical when it treats of the magnitudes, periods, and distances of the heavenly bodies; and physical when it investigates the causes. In the first division the more useful adaptation nautical is included (which see).

ASTROSCOPIA. Skill in examining the nature and properties of stars with a telescope.

ASTRUM, or Astron. Sirius, or the Dog-star. Sometimes applied to a cluster of stars.

ASWIM. Afloat, borne on the waters.

ASYLUM. A sanctuary or refuge; a name given to a benevolent institution at Greenwich, for 800 boys and 200 girls, orphans of seamen and marines. The Royal Military Asylum is also an excellent establishment of a similar nature at Chelsea, besides numerous others.

ASYMMETRY. A mathematical disproportion. The relation of two quantities which have no measure in common.

ASYMPTOTES. Lines which continually approximate each other, but can never meet.

ATABAL. A Moorish kettle-drum.

ATAGHAN. See Yataghan.

AT ANCHOR. The situation of a vessel riding in a road or port by her anchor.

ATAR. A perfume of commerce, well known as atar-of-roses; atar being the Arabic word for fragrance, corrupted into otto.

A'TAUNTO, or All-a-taunt-o. Every mast an-end and fully rigged.

ATEGAR. The old English hand-dart, named from the Saxon aeton, to fling, and gar, a weapon.

ATHERINE. A silvery fish used in the manufacture of artificial pearls; it is 4 or 5 inches long, inhabits various seas, but is taken in great numbers in the Mediterranean. It is also called argentine.

ATHILLEDA. The rule and sights of an astrolabe.

ATHWART. The transverse direction; anything extending or across the line of a ship's course.—Athwart hawse, a vessel, boat, or floating lumber accidentally drifted across the stem of a ship, the transverse position of the drift being understood.—Athwart the fore-foot, just before the stem; ships fire a shot in this direction to arrest a stranger, and make her bring-to.—Athwart ships, in the direction of the beam; from side to side: in opposition to fore-and-aft.

ATHWART THE TIDE. See Across the Tide.

ATLANTIC. The sea which separates Europe and Africa from the Americas, so named from the elevated range called the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

ATLANTIDES. The daughters of Atlas; a name of the Pleiades.[60]

ATLAS. A large book of maps or charts; so called from the character of that name in ancient mythology, son of Uranus, and represented as bearing the world on his back. Also the Indian satin of commerce.

ATMOSPHERE. The ambient air, or thin elastic fluid which surrounds the globe, and gradually diminishing in gravity rises to an unknown height, yet by gravitation partakes of all its motions.

ATMOSPHERIC or Single-action Steam-engine. A condensing machine, in which the downward stroke of the piston is performed by the pressure of the atmosphere acting against a vacuum.

ATMOSPHERICAL TIDES. The motions generated by the joint influence of the sun and moon; and by the rotatory and orbital course of the earth,—as developed in trade-winds, equinoctial gales, &c.

ATOLLS. An Indian name for those singular coral formations known as lagoon-islands, such as the Maldive cluster, those in the Pacific, and in other parts within the tropics, where the apparently insignificant reef-building zoophytes reside.

ATRIE. To bring the ship to in a gale.

A-TRIP. The anchor is a-trip, or a-weigh, when the purchase has just made it break ground, or raised it clear. Sails are a-trip when they are hoisted from the cap, sheeted home, and ready for trimming. Yards are a-trip when swayed up, ready to have the stops cut for crossing: so an upper-mast is said to be a-trip, when the fid is loosened preparatory to lowering it.

ATTACHED. Belongs to; in military parlance an officer or soldier is attached to any regiment or company with which he is ordered to do duty.

ATTACK. A general assault or onset upon an enemy. Also the arrangement for investment or battle. (See False Attack.)

ATTEMPT, To. To endeavour to carry a vessel or place by surprise; to venture at some risk, as in trying a new channel, &c.

ATTENDANT MASTER. A dockyard official. (See Master-attendant.)

ATTENTION. A military word of command, calling the soldier from the quiescent position of "at ease" into readiness for any exercise or evolution. Also the erect posture due to that word of command, and which is assumed by a private soldier in the presence of an officer. The attending to signals.

ATTERRAGE. The land-fall, or making the land. Usually marked on French charts and plans to show the landing-place.

ATTESTATION. In Admiralty courts the attestation of a deed signifies the testifying to the signing or execution of it.

ATTESTED. Legally certified; proved by evidence.

ATTILE. An old law term for the rigging or furniture of a ship.[61]

ATTORNEY. See Sea-attorney.

ATTRACTION. The power of drawing, or the principle by which all bodies mutually tend towards each other; the great agent in nature's wonderful operations.—Attraction of mountains, the deviating influence exercised on the plumb-line by the vicinity of high land. But exerting also a marvellous effect on all floating bodies, for every seaman knows that a ship stands inshore faster than she stands out, the distances being similar.

ATWEEN, or Atwixt. Betwixt or between, shortened into 'tween, that is, in the intermediate space. The word 'tween decks is usually applied to the lower deck of a frigate, and orlop to that of a line-of-battle ship.

AUBERK, or Hauberk. One who held land to be ready with a coat of mail and attend his lord when called upon so to do. Thus the old poet:—

"Auberk, sketoun, and scheld
Was mani to-broken in that feld."
AUDIT. The final passing of accounts.

AUDITORS OF THE IMPREST. Officers who had the charge of the great accounts of the royal customs, naval and military expenses, &c.; they are now superseded by the commissioners for auditing the public accounts.

AUGES. An astronomical term, synonymous with apsides.

AUGET. A tube filled with powder for firing a mine.

AUGMENTATION of the Moon's Diameter. The increase of her apparent diameter occasioned by an increase of altitude: or that which is due to the difference between her distance from the observer and the centre of the earth.

AUGRE, or Auger. A wimble, or instrument for boring holes for bolts, tree-nails, and other purposes.

AUK, or Awk. A sea-bird with short wings. The great auk or gair-fowl (Alca impennis) was formerly common on all the northern coasts, where they laid their eggs, ingeniously poised, on the bare rocks. They were very good eating, and having been taken in great numbers by the Esquimaux, and by European sailors on whaling voyages, the species is now supposed to be exterminated.

AULIN. An arctic gull (Cataractes parasiticus), given to make other sea-birds mute through fear, and then eat their discharge—whence it is termed dirty aulin by the northern boatmen.

AUMBREY. An old north-country term for a bread and cheese locker.

AUNE. Contraction of ulna. French cloth measure: at Rouen it is equal to the English ell—at Paris 0·95—at Calais 1·52 of that measure.[62]


AURORA. The faint light which precedes sunrising. Also the mythological mother of the winds and stars.

AURORA AUSTRALIS or Borealis. The extraordinary and luminous meteoric phenomenon which by its streaming effulgence cheers the dreary nights of polar regions. It is singular that these beautiful appearances are nowhere mentioned by the ancients. They seem to be governed by electricity, are most frequent in frosty weather, and are proved to be many miles above the surface of the earth, from some of them being visible over 30° of longitude and 20° of latitude at the same instant! In colour they vary from yellow to deep red; in form they are Proteus-like, assuming that of streamers, columns, fans, or arches, with a quick flitting, and sometimes whizzing noises. The aurora is not vivid above the 76th degree of north latitude, and is seldom seen before the end of August. Cook was the first navigator who recorded the southern lights.

AUSTER. The south wind of the ancients, gusts from which quarter are called autan.

AUSTRAL. Relating to the south.—Austral signs, those on the south side of the equator, or the last six of the zodiac.

AUTHORITY. The legal power or right of commanding.


AUTUMNAL EQUINOX. The time when the sun crosses the equator, under a southerly motion, and the days and nights are then everywhere equal in length. (See Libra.)

AUTUMNAL POINT. That part of the ecliptic whence the sun descends southward.

AUTUMNAL SIGNS. Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius.

AUXILIARIES. Confederates, an assisting body of allies; or, physically speaking, vessels using steam as an auxiliary to wind.

AUXILIARY SCREW. A vessel in which the screw is used as an auxiliary force. Such a vessel is usually fully masted for sailing purposes.

AVANIA. The fine or imposition imposed on Christians residing under Turkish governors, when they break the laws.

AVANT-FOSSE. In fortification, an advanced ditch without the counterscarp, and stretching along the foot of the glacis.



AVENTAILE. The movable part of a helmet.

AVENUE. The inlet into a port.

AVERAGE. Whether general or particular, is a term of ambiguous construction, meaning the damage incurred for the safety of the ship and cargo; the contribution made by the owners in general, apportioned to their respective investments, to repair any particular loss or expense sustained; and a small duty paid to the master for his care of the whole. Goods thrown overboard for the purpose of lightening the ship, are so thrown for the good of all, and the loss thus sustained must be made up by a general average or contribution from all the parties interested. (See General Average.)

AVERAGE-ADJUSTER. A qualified person engaged in making statements to show the proper application of loss, damage, or expenses in consequence of the accidents of a sea adventure.

AVERAGE-AGREEMENT. A written document signed by the consignees of a cargo, binding themselves to pay a certain proportion of general average that may from accident arise against them.

AVERAGE-STATER. See Average-adjuster.

AVIST. A west-country term for "a fishing."

AVVISO. An Italian advice-boat. [Aviso, Sp.] Despatch-boat or tender.

AWAFT, or Awheft. The displaying of a stopped flag. (See Wheft.)

AWAIT. Ambush; cutting off vessels by means of boats hidden in coves which they must pass in their course.

AWARD. A judgment, in maritime cases, by arbitration; and the decision or sentence of a court-martial.

A-WASH. Reefs even with the surface. The anchor just rising to the water's edge, in heaving up.


AWAY OFF. At a distance, but in sight.


AWAY THERE. The call for a boat's crew; as, "away there! barge-men."


AWBLAST. The arbalest, or cross-bow.

AWBLASTER. The designation of a cross-bowman.

A-WEATHER. The position of the helm when its tiller is moved to the windward side of the ship, in the direction from which the wind blows. The opposite of a-lee.

A-WEIGH. The anchor being a-trip, or after breaking out of the ground.[64]

AWK. See Auk.

AWKWARD SQUAD. A division formed of those men who are backward in gaining dexterity. (See Squad.)

AWL. A tool of a carpenter, sail-maker, and cobbler.

AWME. A tierce of 39 gallons. A Dutch liquid measure.

AWNING. A cover or canvas canopy suspended by a crow-foot and spread over a ship, boat, or other vessel, to protect the decks and crew from the sun and weather. (See Euphroe.) Also that part of the poop-deck which is continued forward beyond the bulk-head of the cabin.

AWNING-ROPES. The ridge and side ropes for securing the awning.

AXE. A large flat edge-tool, for trimming and reducing timber. Also an Anglo-Saxon word for ask, which seamen still adhere to, and it is difficult to say why a word should be thought improper which has descended from our earliest poets; it may have become obsolete, but without absolutely being vulgar or incorrect.

AXIOM. A self-evident truth or proposition, that cannot be made plainer by demonstration.

AXIS. The imaginary line upon which a planet revolves, the extremities of which are termed the poles,—therefore a line joining the north and south poles. The real or imaginary line that passes through the centre of any cylindrical or spherical body on which it may revolve. Also a right line proceeding from the vertex of a cone to the middle of its base. Also, an imaginary right line passing through the middle of a ship perpendicularly to its base, and equally distant from its sides;—an imaginary line passing through the centre of a gun's bore, parallel with its position.—Axis of a telescope. (See Collimation, Line of.)

AXLE-TREES. The two cross-pieces of a gun-carriage, fixed across and under the fore and hinder parts of the cheeks. The cylindrical iron which goes through the wheel of the chain-pump, and bears the weight of it.

AYE, AYE, SIR. A prompt reply on receiving an order. Also the answer on comprehending an order. Aye-aye, the answer to a sentinel's hail, from a boat which has a commissioned officer on board below the rank of captain. The name of the ship in reply from the boat indicates the presence of a captain. The word "flag," indicates the presence of an admiral.

AYLET. The sea-swallow.

AYONT. Beyond.

AYR. An open sea-beach, and also a bank of sand. (See Aire.) The mediæval term for oar.

AYT. See Eyght.

AZIMUTH. A word borrowed from the Arabic. The complement of[65] the amplitude, or an arc between the meridian of a place and any given vertical line.

AZIMUTHAL ERROR. See Meridian Error.

AZIMUTH CIRCLES. See Vertical Circles.

AZIMUTH COMPASS. A superior graduated compass for ascertaining the amount of magnetic variation, by amplitude or azimuth, when the sun is from 8° to 15° high, either after its rising or before its setting. (See Magnetic Azimuth.) It is fitted with vertical sight vanes for the purpose of observing objects elevated above the horizon.

AZOGUE. [Sp.] Quicksilver.

AZOGUES. Spanish ships fitted expressly for carrying quicksilver.

AZUMBRE. A Spanish wine-measure, eight of which make an arroba.

AZURE. The deep blue colour of the sky, when perfectly cloudless.


BAARD. A mediæval transport.

BAARE-Y-LANE. The Manx or Gaelic term for high-water.

BAAS. An old term for the skipper of a Dutch trader.

BAB. The Arabic for mouth or gate; especially used by seamen for the entrance of the Red Sea, Bab-el-mandeb.

BABBING. An east-country method of catching crabs, by enticing them to the surface of the water with baited lines, and then taking them with a landing net.

BABBLING. The sound made by shallow rivers flowing over stony beds.

BAC. A large flat-bottomed French ferry-boat. In local names it denotes a ferry or place of boating.

BACALLAO [Sp.] A name given to Newfoundland and its adjacent islands, whence the epithet is also applied to the cod-fish salted there.

BACCHI. Two ancient warlike machines; the one resembled a battering-ram, the other cast out fire.

BACK. To back an anchor. To carry a small anchor ahead of the one by which the ship rides, to partake of the strain, and check the latter from coming home.—To back a ship at anchor. For this purpose the mizen top-sail is generally used; a hawser should be kept ready to wind her, and if the wind falls she must be hove apeak.—To back and fill. To get to windward in very narrow channels, by a series of[66] smart alternate boards and backing, with weather tides.—To back a sail. To brace its yard so that the wind may blow directly on the front of the sail, and thus retard the ship's course. A sailing vessel is backed by means of the sails, a steamer by reversing the paddles or screw-propeller.—To back astern. To impel the water with the oars contrary to the usual mode, or towards the head of the boat, so that she shall recede.—To back the larboard or starboard oars. To back with the right or left oars only, so as to round suddenly.—To back out. (See Back a Sail.) The term is also familiarly used for retreating out of a difficulty.—To back a rope or chain, is to put on a preventer when it is thought likely to break from age or extra strain.—To back water. To impel a boat astern, so as to recede in a direction opposite to the former course.—Backing the worming. The act of passing small yarn in the holidays, or crevices left between the worming and edges of the rope, to prevent the admission of wet, or to render all parts of equal diameter, so that the service may be smooth.—Wind backing. The wind is said to back when it changes contrary to its usual circuit. In the northern hemisphere on the polar side of the trades, the wind usually changes from east, by the south, to west, and so on to north. In the same latitudes in the southern hemisphere the reverse usually takes place. When it backs, it is generally supposed to be a sign of a freshening breeze.

BACK. The outside or convex part of compass-timber. Also a wharf.

BACK, of a Ship. The keel and kelson are figuratively thus termed.

BACK, of the Post. An additional timber bolted to the after-part of the stern-post, and forming its after-face.

BACK-BOARD. A board across the stern sheets of a boat to support the back of passengers; and also to form the box in which the coxswain sits.

BACK-CUTTING. When the water-level is such that the excavation of a canal, or other channel, does not furnish earth enough for its own banks, recourse is had to back-cutting, or the nearest earth behind the base of the banks.

BACK-FRAME. A vertical wheel for turning the three whirlers of a small rope-machine.


BACKING. The timber behind the armour-plates of a ship.

BACK-O'-BEYOND. Said of an unknown distance.


BACK-ROPE. The rope-pendant, or small chain for staying the dolphin-striker. Also a piece long enough to reach from the cat-block to the[67] stem, and up to the forecastle, to haul the cat-block forward to hook the ring of the anchor—similarly also for hooking the fish-tackle. (See Gaub-line.)

BACKS. The outermost boards of a sawn tree.

BACK-STAFF. A name formerly given to a peculiar sea-quadrant, because the back of the observer was turned towards the sun at the time of observing its zenith distance. The inventor was Captain Davis, the Welsh navigator, about 1590. It consists of a graduated arc of 30° united to a centre by two radii, with a second arc of smaller radius, but measuring 6° on the side of it. To the first arc a vane is attached for sight,—to the second one for shade,—and at the vertex the horizontal vane has a slit in it.

BACKSTAY-PLATES. Used to support the backstays.

BACKSTAYS. Long ropes extending from all mast-heads above a lower-mast to both sides of the ship or chain-wales; they are extended and set up with dead eyes and laniards to the backstay-plates. Their use is to second the shrouds in supporting the mast when strained by a weight of sail in a fresh wind. They are usually distinguished into breast and after backstays; the first being intended to sustain the mast when the ship sails upon a wind; or, in other terms, when the wind acts upon a ship obliquely from forwards; the second is to enable her to carry sail when the wind is abaft the beam; a third, or shifting backstay, is temporary, and used where great strain is demanded when chasing, chased, or carrying on a heavy pressure of canvas: they are fitted either with lashing eyes, or hook and thimble with selvagee strop, so as to be instantly removed.

BACKSTAY-STOOLS. Detached small channels, or chain-wales, fixed abaft the principal ones. They are introduced in preference to extending the length of the channels.

BACKSTERS. Flat pieces of wood or cork, strapped on the feet in order to walk over loose beach.

BACK-STRAPPED. As a ship carried round to the back of Gibraltar by a counter-current and eddies of wind, the strong currents detaining her there.

BACK-SWEEP. That which forms the hollow of the top-timber of a frame.

BACK-WATER. The swell of the sea thrown back, or rebounded by its contact with any solid body. Also the loss of power occasioned by it to paddles of steamboats, &c. The water in a mill-race which cannot get away in consequence of the swelling of the river below. Also, an artificial accumulation of water reserved for clearing channel-beds and tide-ways. Also, a creek or arm of the sea which runs parallel to the coast, having only a narrow strip of land between it[68] and the sea, and communicating with the latter by barred entrances. The west coast of India is remarkable for its back-waters, which give a most useful smooth water communication from one place to another, such as from Cochin to Quilon, a distance of nearly 70 miles.

BACON, To save. This is an old shore-saw, adopted in nautical phraseology for expressing "to escape," but generally used in pejus ruere; as in Gray's Long Story. (See Foul Hawse.)

BAD-BERTH. A foul or rocky anchorage.

BADDERLOCK. The Fucus esculentus, a kind of eatable sea-weed on our northern shores. Also called pursill.

BADDOCK. A name from the Gaelic for the fry of the Gadus carbonarius, or coal-fish.

BADGE. Quarter badges. False quarter-galleries in imitation of frigate-built ships. Also, in naval architecture, a carved ornament placed on the outside of small ships, very near the stern, containing either a window, or the representation of one, with marine decorations.

BADGE, Seaman's. See Good-conduct Badge.

BADGER, To. To tease or confound by frivolous orders.

BADGER-BAG. The fictitious Neptune who visits the ship on her crossing the line.

BAD-NAME. This should be avoided by a ship, for once acquired for inefficiency or privateer habits, it requires time and reformation to get rid of it again. "Give a dog a bad name" most forcibly exemplified. Ships have endured it even under repeated changes of captains—one ship had her name changed, but she became worse.

BAD-RELIEF. One who turns out sluggishly to relieve the watch on deck. (See One-bell.)

BAESSY. The old orthography of the gun since called base.

BAFFLING. Is said of the wind when it frequently shifts from one point to another.

BAG. A commercial term of quantity; as, a bread or biscuit bag, a sand-bag, &c. An empty purse.—To bag on a bowline, to be leewardly, to drop from a course.

BAG, of the Head-rails. The lowest part of the head-rails, or that part which forms the sweep of the rail.

BAG, The. Allowed for the men to keep their clothes in. The ditty bag included needles and needfuls, love-tokens, jewels, &c.

BAGALA. A rude description of high-sterned vessel of various burdens, from 50 to 300 tons, employed at Muskat and on the shores of Oman: the word signifying mule among the Arabs, and therefore indicative of carrying rather than sailing.

BAG AND BAGGAGE. The whole movable property.

BAGGAGE. The necessaries, utensils, and apparel of troops.[69]

BAGGAGE-GUARD. A small proportion of any body of troops on the march, to whom the care of the whole baggage is assigned.

BAGGETY. The fish otherwise called the lump or sea-owl (Cyclopterus lumpus).

BAGGONET. The old term for bayonet, and not a vulgarism.

BAGNIO. A sort of barrack in Mediterranean sea-ports, where the galley-slaves and convicts are confined.

BAGPIPE. To bagpipe the mizen is to lay it aback, by bringing the sheet to the mizen-shrouds.

BAG-REEF. A fourth or lower reef of fore-and-aft sails, often used in the royal navy.—Bag-reef of top-sails, first reef (of five in American navy); a short reef, usually taken in to prevent a large sail from bagging when on a wind.

BAGREL. A minnow or baggie.

BAGUIO. A rare but dreadfully violent wind among the Philippine Isles.

BAHAR. A commercial weight of a quarter of a ton in the Molucca Islands.

BAIDAR. A swift open canoe of the Arctic tribes and Kurile Isles, used in pursuing otters and even whales; a slender frame from 18 to 25 feet long, covered with hides. They are impelled by six or twelve paddles. (See Kayak.)

BAIKIE. A northern name for the Larus marinus, or black-backed gull.

BAIKY. The ballium, or inclosed plot of ground in an ancient fort.

BAIL. A surety. The cargo of a captured or detained vessel is not allowed to be taken on bail before adjudication without mutual consent. It was also a northern term for a beacon or signal.

BAIL-BOND. The obligation entered into by sureties. Also when a person appears as proxy for the master of a vessel, or, on obtaining letters of marque, he makes himself personally responsible. In prize matters, however, the bail-bond is not a mere personal security given to the individual captors, but an assurance to abide by the adjudication of the court.

BAIL'D. This phrase "I'll be bail'd" is considered as an equivalent to "I'll be bound;" but it is probably an old enunciation for "I'll be poisoned," or "I'll be tormented," if what I utter is not true.

BAILO. A Levantine term for consul.

BAILS, or Bailes. The hoops which bear up the tilt of a boat.

BAIOCCO. An Italian copper coin, about equal to our halfpenny. Also a generic term for copper money or small coin.

BAIRLINN. A Gaelic term for a high rolling billow.

BAIT. The natural or artificial charge of a hook, to allure fish.

BAITLAND. An old word, formerly used to signify a port where refreshments could be procured.[70]

BALÆNA. The zoological name for the right whale.

BALANCE. One of the simple mechanical powers, used in determining the weights and masses of different bodies. Also, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, called Libra. Balance-wheel of a chronometer—see Chronometer.

BALANCE, To. To contract a sail into a narrower compass;—this is peculiar to the mizen of a ship, and to the main-sail of those vessels wherein it is extended by a boom. The operation of balancing the mizen is performed by lowering the yard or gaff a little, then rolling up a small portion of the sail at the peak or upper corner, and lashing it about one-fifth down towards the mast. A boom main-sail is balanced by rolling up a portion of the clew, or lower aftermost corner, and fastening it strongly to the boom.—N.B. It is requisite in both cases to wrap a piece of old canvas round the sail, under the lashing, to prevent its being fretted by the latter.

BALANCE-FISH. The hammer-headed shark (which see).

BALANCE-FRAMES. Those frames or bends of timber, of an equal capacity or area, which are equally distant from the ship's centre of gravity.

BALANCE OF TRADE. A computation of the value of all commodities which we import or export, showing the difference in amount.

BALANCE-REEF. A reef-band that crosses a sail from the outer head-earing to the tack diagonally, making it nearly triangular, and is used to contract it in very blowing weather. (2) A balance reef-band is generally placed in all gaff-sails; the band runs from the throat to the clew, so that it may be reefed either way—by lacing the foot or lower half; or by lacing the gaff drooped to the band: the latter is only done in the worst weather.—This is a point on which seamen may select—but the old plan, as first given, affords more power; (2) is applicable to the severest weather.

BALANCING-POINT. A familiar term for centre of gravity. (See Gravity.)

BALANDRA. A Spanish pleasure-boat. A lighter, a species of schooner.

BALANUS. The acorn-shell. A sessile cirriped.

BALCAR. See Balkar.

BALCONY. The projecting open galleries of old line-of-battle ships' sterns, now disused. They were convenient and ornamental in hot climates, but were afterwards inclosed within sash windows.

BALDRICK. A leathern girdle or sword-belt. Also the zodiac.

BALE. A pack. This word appears in the statute Richard II. c. 3, and is still in common use.

BALE, To. To lade water out of a ship or vessel with buckets (which[71] were of old called bayles), cans, or the like, when the pumps are ineffective or choked.

BALEEN. The scientific term for the whalebone of commerce, derived from balæna, a whale. It consists of a series of long horny plates growing from each side of the palate in place of teeth.

BALE GOODS. Merchandise packed in large bundles, not in cases or casks.

BALENOT. A porpoise or small whale which frequents the river St. Lawrence.

BALESTILHA. The cross-staff of the early Portuguese navigators.

BALINGER, or Balangha. A kind of small sloop or barge; small vessels of war formerly without forecastles. The name was also given by some of the early voyagers to a large trading-boat of the Philippines and Moluccas.

BALISTES. A fish with mailed skin. File-fish.

BALIZAS. Land and sea marks on Portuguese coasts.

BALK. Straight young trees after they are felled and squared; a beam or timber used for temporary purposes, and under 8 inches square. Balks, of timber of any squared size, as mahogany, intended for planks, or, when very large, for booms or rafts.

BALKAR. A man placed on an eminence, like the ancient Olpis, to watch the movements of shoals of fish. In our early statutes he is called balcor.

BALL. In a general sense, implies a spherical and round body, whether naturally so or formed into that figure by art. In a military view it comprehends all sorts of bullets for fire-arms, from the cannon to the pistol: also those pyrotechnic projectiles for guns or mortars, whether intended to destroy, or only to give light, smoke, or stench.

BALLAHOU. A sharp-floored fast-sailing schooner, with taunt fore-and-aft sails, and no top-sails, common in Bermuda and the West Indies. The fore-mast of the ballahou rakes forward, the main-mast aft.

BALL-AND-SOCKET. A clever adaptation to give astronomical or surveying instruments full play and motion every way by a brass ball fitted into a spherical cell, and usually carried by an endless screw.

BALLARAG, To. To abuse or bully. Thus Warton of the French king—

"You surely thought to ballarag us
With your fine squadron off Cape Lagos."
BALLAST. A certain portion of stone, pig-iron, gravel, water, or such like materials, deposited in a ship's hold when she either has no cargo or too little to bring her sufficiently low in the water. It is used to counter-balance the effect of the wind upon the masts, and give the ship a proper stability, that she may be enabled to carry sail without[72] danger of overturning. The art of ballasting consists in placing the centre of gravity, so as neither to be too high nor too low, too far forward nor too far aft, and that the surface of the water may nearly rise to the extreme breadth amidships, and thus the ship will be enabled to carry a good sail, incline but little, and ply well to windward. A want of true knowledge in this department has led to putting too great a weight in ships' bottoms, which impedes their sailing and endangers their masts by excessive rolling, the consequence of bringing the centre of gravity too low. It should be trimmed with due regard to the capacity, gravity, and flooring, and to the nature of whatever is to be deposited thereon. (See Trim.)

BALLAST. As a verb, signifies to steady;—as a substantive, a comprehensive mind. A man is said to "lose his ballast" when his judgment fails him, or he becomes top-heavy from conceit.

BALLASTAGE. An old right of the Admiralty in all our royal rivers, of levying a rate for supplying ships with ballast.

BALLAST-BASKET. Usually made of osier, for the transport and measure of shingle-ballast. Supplied to the gunner for transport of loose ammunition.

BALLAST-LIGHTER A large flat-floored barge, for heaving up and carrying ballast.

BALLAST-MARK. The horizontal line described by the surface of the water on the body of a ship, when she is immersed with her usual weight of ballast on board.

BALLAST-MASTER. A person appointed to see the port-regulations in respect to ballast carried out.

BALLAST-PORTS. Square holes cut in the sides of merchantmen for taking in ballast. But should be securely barred and caulked in before proceeding to sea.

BALLAST-SHIFTING. When by heavy rolling the ballast shifts in the hold.

BALLAST-SHINGLE. Composed of coarse gravel.

BALLAST-SHOOTING. (See Shoots.) In England, and indeed in most frequented ports, the throwing of ballast overboard is strictly prohibited and subject to fine.

BALLAST-SHOVEL. A peculiar square and spoon-pointed iron shovel.

BALLAST-TRIM. When a vessel has only ballast on board.

BALLATOON. A sort of long heavy luggage-vessel of upwards of a hundred tons, employed on the river between Moscow and the Caspian Sea.

BALL-CARTRIDGE. For small arms.

BALL-CLAY. Adhesive strong bottom, brought up by the flukes of the anchors in massy lumps.[73]

BALLISTA. An ancient military engine, like an enormous cross-bow, for throwing stones, darts, and javelins against the enemy with rapidity and violence. Also, the name of the geometrical cross called Jacob's staff.

BALLISTER. A cross-bow man.

BALLISTIC PENDULUM. An instrument for determining the velocity of projectiles. The original pendulum was of very massive construction, the arc through which it receded when impinged on by the projectile, taking into account their respective weights, afforded, with considerable calculation, a measure of the velocity of impact. Latterly the electro-ballistic pendulum, which by means of electric currents is made to register with very great accuracy the time occupied by the projectile in passing over a measured space, has superseded it, as being more accurate, less cumbrous, and less laborious in its accompanying calculations.

BALLIUM. A plot of ground in ancient fortifications: called also baiky.

BALLOCH. Gaelic for the discharge of a river into a lake.

BALLOEN. A Siamese decorated state-galley, imitating a sea-monster, with from seventy to a hundred oars of a side.

BALL-OFF, To. To twist rope-yarns into balls, with a running end in the heart for making spun-yarn.

BALLOON-FISH (Tetraodon). A plectognathous fish, covered with spines, which has the power of inflating its body till it becomes almost globular.

BALLOW. Deep water inside a shoal or bar.

BALL-STELL. The geometrical instrument named della stella.

BALLY. A Teutonic word for inclosure, now prefixed to many sea-ports in Ireland, as Bally-castle, Bally-haven, Bally-shannon, and Bally-water.

BALSA, or Balza. A South American tree, very porous, which grows to an immense height in a few years, and is almost as light as cork. Hence the balsa-wood is used for the surf-boat called balsa. (See Jangada.)

BALTHEUS ORIONIS. The three bright stars constituting Orion's Belt.

BALUSTERS. The ornamental pillars or pilasters of the balcony or galleries in the sterns of ships, dividing the ward-room deck from the one above.

BAMBA. A commercial shell of value on the Gold Coast of Africa and below it.

BAMBO. An East Indian measure of five English pints.

BAMBOO (Bambusa arundinacea). A magnificent articulated cane, which holds a conspicuous rank in the tropics from its rapid growth and almost universal properties:—the succulent buds are eaten fresh[74] and the young stems make excellent preserves. The large stems are useful in agricultural and domestic implements; also in building both houses and ships; in making baskets, cages, hats, and furniture, besides sails, paper, and in various departments of the Indian materia medica.

BAMBOOZLE, To. To decoy the enemy by hoisting false colours.

BANANA (Musa paradisiaca). A valuable species of plantain, the fruit of which is much used in tropical climates, both fresh and made into bread. Gerarde named it Adam's apple from a notion that it was the forbidden fruit of Eden; whilst others supposed it to be the grapes brought out of the Promised Land by the spies of Moses. The spikes of fruit often weigh forty pounds.

BANCO [Sp.] Seat for rowers.

BAND. The musicians of a band are called idlers in large ships. Also a small body of armed men or retainers, as the band of gentlemen pensioners; also an iron hoop round a gun-carriage, mast, &c.; also a slip of canvas stitched across a sail, to strengthen the parts most liable to pressure.—Reef-bands, rope-bands or robands; rudder-bands (which see).

BANDAGE. A fillet or swathe, of the utmost importance in surgery. Also, formerly, parcelling to ropes.

BANDALEERS, or Bandoleers. A wide leathern belt for the carriage of small cases of wood, covered with leather, each containing a charge for a fire-lock; in use before the modern cartouche-boxes were introduced.

BANDECOOT. A large species of fierce rat in India, which infests the drains, &c.

BANDED-DRUM. See Grunter.

BANDED-MAIL. A kind of armour which consisted of alternate rows of leather or cotton and single chain-mail.

BANDEROLD, or Banderole. A small streamer or banner, usually fixed on a pike: from banderola, Sp. diminutive of bandera, the flag or ensign.

BAND-FISH, or Ribbon-fishes. A popular name of the Gymnetrus genus.

BANDLE. An Irish measure of two feet in length.

BANG. A mixture of opium, hemp-leaves, and tobacco, of an intoxicating quality, chewed and smoked by the Malays and other people in the East, who, being mostly prohibited the use of wine, double upon Mahomet by indulging in other intoxicating matter, as if the manner of doing it cleared off the crime of drunkenness. This horrid stuff gives the maddening excitement which makes a Malay run amok (which see).—To bang is colloquially used to express excelling or beating rivals. (See Suffolk Bang.)

BANGE. Light fine rain.[75]

BANGLES. The hoops of a spar. Also, the rings on the wrists and ankles of Oriental people, chiefly used by females.

BANIAN. A sailor's coloured frock-shirt.

BANIAN or BANYAN DAYS. Those in which no flesh-meat is issued to the messes. It is obvious that they are a remnant of the maigre days of the Roman Catholics, who deem it a mortal sin to eat flesh on certain days. Stock-fish used to be served out, till it was found to promote scurvy. The term is derived from a religious sect in the East, who, believing in metempsychosis, eat of no creature endued with life.

BANIAN-TREE. Ficus indica of India and Polynesia. The tendrils from high branches extend 60 to 80 feet, take root on reaching the ground, and form a cover over some acres. Religious rites from which women are excluded are there performed.

BANJO. The brass frame in which the screw-propeller of a steamer works, and is hung for hoisting the screw on deck. This frame fits between slides fixed on the inner and outer stern-posts; resting in large carriages firmly secured thereto. The banjo is essential to lifting the screw.—Also, the rude instrument used in negro concerts.

BANK. The right or left boundary of a river, in looking from its source towards the sea, and the immediate margin or border of a lake. Also, a thwart, banco, or bench, for the rowers in a galley. Also, a rising ground in the sea, differing from a shoal, because not rocky but composed of sand, mud, or gravel. Also, mural elevations constructed of clay, stones, or any materials at hand, to prevent inundations.

BANK, To. Also, an old word meaning to sail along the margins or banks of river-ports: thus Shakspeare in "King John" makes Lewis the Dauphin demand—

"Have I not heard these islanders shout out
Vive le Roy! as I have bank'd their towns?"
BANKA. A canoe of the Philippines, consisting of a single piece.

BANKER. A vessel employed in the deep-sea cod-fishery on the great banks of Newfoundland. Also, a man who works on the sides of a canal, or on an embankment; a navvy.

BANK-FIRES. In steamers, taking advantage of a breeze by allowing the fires to burn down low, and then pulling them down to a side of the bridge of the fire-place, and there covering them up with ashes taken from the ash-pit, at the same time nearly closing the dampers in the funnel and ash-pit doors. This, with attention on the part of the engineers, will maintain the water hot, and a slight pressure of steam in the boilers. When fuel is added and draught induced the fires are said to be "drawn forward," and steam is speedily generated.

BANK-HARBOUR. That which is protected from the violence of the sea by banks of mud, gravel, sand, shingle, or silt.[76]

BANK-HOOK. A large fish-hook laid baited in running water, attached by a line to the bank.

BANKING. A general term applied to fishing on the great bank of Newfoundland.

BANK OF OARS [banco, Sp.] A seat or bench for rowers in the happily all but extinct galley: these are properly called the athwarts, but thwarts by seamen. The common galleys have 25 banks on each side, with one oar to each bank, and four men to each oar. The galeasses have 32 banks on a side, and 6 or 7 rowers to each bank. (See Double-banked, when two men pull separate oars on the same thwart.)

BANKSAL, or Banksaul, and in Calcutta spelled bankshall. A shop, office, or other place, for transacting business. Also, a square inclosure at the pearl-fishery. Also, a beach store-house wherein ships deposit their rigging and furniture while undergoing repair. Also, where small commercial courts and arbitrations are held.

BANN. A proclamation made in the army by beat of drum, sound of trumpet, &c., requiring the strict observance of discipline, either for the declaring of a new officer, the punishing an offender, or the like.

BANNAG. A northern name for a white trout, a sea-trout.

BANNAK-FLUKE. A name of the turbot, as distinguished from the halibut.

BANNER. A small square flag edged with fringe.

BANNERER. The bearer of a banner.

BANNERET. A knight made on the field of battle.

BANNEROL. A little banner or streamer.

BANNOCK. A name given to a certain hard ship-biscuit.

BANQUETTE. In fortification, a small terrace, properly of earth, on the inside of the parapet, of such height that the defenders standing on it may conveniently fire over the top.

BANSTICKLE. A diminutive fish, called also the three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus).

BAPTISM. A ceremony practised on passengers on their first passing the equinoctial line: a riotous and ludicrous custom, which from the violence of its ducking, shaving, and other practical jokes, is becoming annually less in vogue. It is esteemed a usurpation of privilege to baptize on crossing the tropics.

BAR, of a port or harbour. An accumulated shoal or bank of sand, shingle, gravel, or other uliginous substances, thrown up by the sea to the mouth of a river or harbour, so as to endanger, and sometimes totally prevent, the navigation into it.—Bars of rivers are some shifting and some permanent. The position of the bar of any river may commonly be guessed by attending to the form of the shores at the embouchure. The shore on which the deposition of sediment is going[77] on will be flat, whilst the opposite one is steep. It is along the side of the latter that the deepest channel of the river lies; and in the line of this channel, but without the points that form the mouth of the river, will be the bar. If both the shores are of the same nature, which seldom happens, the bar will lie opposite the middle of the channel. Rivers in general have what may be deemed a bar, in respect of the depth of the channel within, although it may not rise high enough to impede the navigation—for the increased deposition that takes place when the current slackens, through the want of declivity, and of shores to retain it, must necessarily form a bank. Bars of small rivers may be deepened by means of stockades to confine the river current, and prolong it beyond the natural points of the river's mouth. They operate to remove the place of deposition further out, and into deeper water. Bars, however, act as breakwaters in most instances, and consequently secure smooth water within them. The deposit in all curvilinear or serpentine rivers will always be found at the point opposite to the curve into which the ebb strikes and rebounds, deepening the hollow and depositing on the tongue. Therefore if it be deemed advisable to change the position of a bar, it may be in some cases aided by works projected on the last curve sea-ward. By such means a parallel canal may be forced which will admit vessels under the cover of the bar.—Bar, a boom formed of huge trees, or spars lashed together, moored transversely across a port, to prevent entrance or egress.—Bar, the short bits of bar-iron, about half a pound each, used as the medium of traffic on the Negro coast.—Bar-harbour, one which, from a bar at its entrance, cannot admit ships of great burden, or can only do so at high-water.—Capstan-bars, large thick bars put into the holes of the drumhead of the capstan, by which it is turned round, they working as horizontal radial levers.—Hatch-bars, flat iron bars to lock over the hatches for security from theft, &c.—Port-bar, a piece of wood or iron variously fitted to secure a gun-port when shut.—Bar-shallow, a term sometimes applied to a portion of a bar with less water on it than on other parts of the bar.—Bar-shot, two half balls joined together by a bar of iron, for cutting and destroying spars and rigging. When whole balls are thus fitted they are more properly double-headed shot.—To bar. To secure the lower-deck ports, as above.

BARACOOTA. A tropical fish (Sphyræna baracuda), considered in the West Indies to be dangerously poisonous at times, nevertheless eaten, and deemed the sea-salmon.

BARBACAN. In fortification, an outer defence.

BARBADOES-TAR. A mineral fluid bitumen resembling petroleum, of nauseous taste and offensive smell.[78]

BARBALOT. The barbel. Also, a puffin.

BARB-BOLTS. Those which have their points jagged or barbed to make them hold securely, where those commonly in use cannot be clinched. The same as rag-bolt. Those of copper used for the false keel.

BARBECUE. A tropical custom of dressing a pig whole.

BARBEL (Barbus vulgaris). An English river-fish of the carp family, distinguished by the four appendant beards, whence its name is derived. It is between 2 and 3 feet in length, and coarse. Also, barbel is a small piece of armour which protects part of the bassenet.

BARBER. A rating on the ships' books for one who shaves the people, for which he receives the pay of an ordinary seaman. In meteorology, barber is a singular vapour rising in streams from the sea surface,—owing probably to exhalations being condensed into a visible form, on entering a cold atmosphere. It is well known on the shores of Nova Scotia. Also, the condensed breath in frosty weather on beard or moustaches in Arctic travelling.

BARBETTE. A mode of mounting guns to fire over the parapet, so as to have free range, instead of through embrasures.

BARCA-LONGA. A large Spanish undecked coasting-vessel, navigated with pole-masts, i.e. single-masts, without any top-mast or upper part; and high square sails, called lug-sails. Propelled with sweeps as well. The name is also applied to Spanish gunboats by our seamen.

BARCES. Short guns with a large bore formerly used in ships.

BARCHETTA. A small bark for transporting water, provisions, &c.

BARCONE. A short Mediterranean lighter.

BAREKA. A small barrel: spelled also barika (Sp. baréca). Hence the nautical name breaker for a small cask or keg.

BARE-POLES. The condition of a ship having no sails set when out at sea, and either scudding or lying-to by stress of weather. (See Under Bare Poles.)

BARE-ROOM. An old phrase for bore-down.

BARGE. A boat of a long, slight, and spacious construction, generally carvel-built, double-banked, for the use of admirals and captains of ships of war.—Barge, in boat attacks, is next in strength to the launch. It is likewise a vessel or boat of state, furnished and equipped in the most sumptuous style;—and of this sort we may naturally suppose to have been the famous barge or galley of Cleopatra, which, according to the beautiful description of Shakspeare—

"Like a burnished throne
Burnt on the water: the poop was beaten gold,
Purple her sails; and so perfumed, that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver.[79]
Which to the tune of flutes kept time, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster
As amorous of their strokes."
The barges of the lord-mayor, civic companies, &c., and the coal-barges of the Thames are varieties. Also, an early man-of-war, of about 100 tons. Also, an east-country vessel of peculiar construction. Also, a flat-bottomed vessel of burden, used on rivers for conveying goods from one place to another, and loading and unloading ships: it has various names, as a Ware barge, a west-country barge, a sand barge, a row-barge, a Severn trough, a light horseman, &c. They are usually fitted with a large sprit-sail to a mast, which, working upon a hinge, is easily struck for passing under bridges. Also, the bread-barge or tray or basket, for containing biscuit at meals.

BARGEES. The crews of canal-boats and barges.

BARGE-MATE. The officer who steers when a high personage is to visit the ship.

BARGE-MEN. The crew of the barge, who are usually picked men. Also, the large maggots with black heads that infest biscuit.

BARGET. An old term for a small barge.

BARILLA. An alkali procured by burning Salsola kali and other sea-shore plants. It forms a profitable article of Mediterranean commerce. (See Kelp.)

BARK. The exterior covering of vegetable bodies, many of which are useful in making paper, cordage, cloth, dyes, and medicines.

BARK, or Barque [from barca, Low Latin]. A general name given to small ships, square-sterned, without head-rails; it is, however, peculiarly appropriated by seamen to a three-masted vessel with only fore-and-aft sails on her mizen-mast.—Bark-rigged. Rigged as a bark, with no square sails on the mizen-mast.

BARKANTINE, or Barquantine. A name applied on the great lakes of North America to a vessel square-rigged on the fore-mast, and fore-and-aft rigged on the main and mizen masts. They are not three-masted schooners, as they have a regular brigantine's fore-mast. They are long in proportion to their other dimensions, to suit the navigation of the canals which connect some of these lakes.

BARKERS. An old term for lower-deck guns and pistols.

BARKEY. A sailor's term for the pet ship to which he belongs.

BARKING-IRONS. Large duelling pistols.

BARLING. An old term for the lamprey.—Barling-spars, fit for any smaller masts or yards.

BARNACLE (Lepas anatifera). A species of shell-fish, often found sticking by its pedicle to the bottom of ships, doing no other injury than deadening the way a little:[80]

"Barnacles, termed soland geese
In th' islands of the Orcades."—Hudibras.
They were formerly supposed to produce the barnacle-goose! (vide old cyclopedias): the poet, however, was too good a naturalist to believe this, but here, as in many other places, he means to banter some of the papers which were published by the first establishers of the Royal Society. The shell is compressed and multivalve. The tentacula are long and pectinated like a feather, whence arose the fable of their becoming geese. They belong to the order of Cirripeds.

BARNAGH. The Manx or Gaelic term for a limpet.

BAROMETER. A glass tube of 36 inches in length, filled with the open end upwards with refined mercury—thus boiled and suddenly inverted into a cistern, which is furnished with a leathern bag, on which the atmosphere, acting by its varying weight, presses the fluid metal up to corresponding heights in the tube, easily read off by an external scale attached thereto. By attentive observations on this simple prophet, practised seamen are enabled to foretell many approaching changes of wind or weather, and thus by shortening sail in time, save hull, spars, and lives. This instrument also affords the means of accurately determining the heights or depressions of mountains and valleys. This is the mercurial barometer; another, the aneroid barometer, invented by Monsr. Vidi, measures approximately, but not with the permanence of the mercurial. It is constructed to measure the weight of a column of air or pressure of the atmosphere, by pressure on a very delicate metallic box hermetically sealed. It is more sensible to passing changes, but not so reliable as the mercurial barometer. 29·60 is taken as the mean pressure in England; as it rises or falls below this mark, fine weather or strong winds may be looked for:—30·60 is very high, and 29·00 very low. The barometer is affected by the direction of the wind, thus N.N.E. is the highest, and S.S.W. the lowest—therefore these matters govern the decision of men of science, who are not led astray by the change of reading alone. The seaman pilot notes the heavens; the direction of the wind—and the pressure due to that direction—not forgetting sudden changes of temperature. Attention is due to the surface, whether convex or concave.

BARQUE. The same as bark (which see).

BARR. A peremptory exception to a proposition.

BARRA-BOATS. Vessels of the Western Isles of Scotland, carrying ten or twelve men. They are extremely sharp fore and aft, having no floor, but with sides rising straight from the keel, so that a transverse section resembles the letter V. They are swift and safe, for in[81] proportion as they heel to a breeze their bearings are increased, while from their lightness they are as buoyant as Norway skiffs.

BARRACAN. A strong undiapered camblet, used for garments in the Levant and in Barbary; anciently it formed the Roman toga.

BARRACK-MASTER. The officer placed in charge of a barrack.

BARRACKS. Originally mere log-huts, but of late extensive houses built for the accommodation and quartering of troops. Also, the portion of the lower deck where the marines mess. Also, little cabins made by Spanish fishermen on the sea-shore, called barracas, whence our name.

BARRACK SMACK. A corruption of Berwick smack; a word applied to small Scotch traders. The masters were nicknamed barrack-masters.

BARRATRY. Any fraudulent act of the master or mariners committed to the prejudice of the ship's owners or underwriters, whether by fraudulently losing the vessel, deserting her, selling her, or committing any other embezzlement. The diverting a ship from her right course, with evil intent, is barratry.

BARRED KILLIFISH. A small fish from two to four inches in length, which frequents salt-water creeks, floats, and the vicinity of wharves.

BARREL. A cylindrical vessel for holding both liquid and dry goods. Also, a commercial measure of 311⁄2 gallons.

BARREL of a Capstan. The cylinder between the whelps and the paul rim, constituting the main-piece.

BARREL of a Pump. The wooden tube which forms the body of the engine.

BARREL of Small Arms. The tube through which the bullets are discharged. In artillery the term belongs to the construction of certain guns, and signifies the inner tube, as distinguished from the breech piece, trunnion-piece, and hoops or outer coils, the other essential parts of "built-up guns" (which see).

BARREL of the Wheel. The cylinder round which the tiller-ropes are wound.

BARREL-BUILDER. The old rating for a cooper.

BARREL-BULK. A measure of capacity for freight in a ship, equal to five cubic feet: so that eight barrel-bulk are equal to one ton measurement.

BARREL-SCREW. A powerful machine, consisting of two large poppets, or male screws, moved by levers in their heads, upon a bank of plank, with a female screw at each end. It is of great use in starting a launch.

BARRICADE. A strong wooden rail, supported by stanchions extending[82] as a fence across the foremost part of the quarter-deck, on the top of which some of the seamen's hammocks are usually stowed in time of battle. In a vessel of war the vacant spaces between the stanchions are commonly filled with rope-mats, cork, or pieces of old cable; and the upper part, which contains a double rope-netting above the sail, is stuffed with full hammocks to intercept small shot in the time of battle. Also, a temporary fortification or fence made with abatis, palisades, or any obstacles, to bar the approach of an enemy by a given avenue.

BARRIER of Ice. Ice stretching from the land-ice to the sea or main ice, or across a channel, so as to render it impassable.

BARRIER REEFS. Coral reefs that either extend in straight lines in front of the shores of a continent or large island, or encircle smaller isles, in both cases being separated from the land by a channel of water. Barrier reefs in New South Wales, the Bermudas, Laccadives, Maldives, &c.

BARRIERS. A martial exercise of men armed with short swords, within certain railings which separated them from the spectators. It has long been discontinued in England.

BARROW. A hillock, a tumulus.

BARSE. The common river-perch.

BARTIZAN. The overhanging turrets on a battlement.

BARUTH. An Indian measure, with a corresponding weight of 31⁄2 lbs. avoirdupois.

BASE. The breech of a gun. Also, the lowest part of the perimeter of a geometrical figure. When applied to a delta it is that edge of it which is washed by the sea, or recipient of the deltic branches. Also, the lowest part of a mountain or chain of mountains. Also, the level line on which any work stands, as the foot of a pillar. Also, an old boat-gun; a wall-piece on the musketoon principle, carrying a five-ounce ball.

BASE-LINE. In strategy, the line joining the various points of a base of operations. In surveying, the base on which the triangulation is founded.

BASE OF OPERATIONS. In strategy, one or a series of strategic points at which are established the magazines and means of supply necessary for an army in the field.

BASE-RING. In guns of cast-metal, the flat moulding round the breech at that part where the longitudinal surface ends and the vertical termination or cascable begins. The length of the gun is reckoned from the after-edge of the base-ring to the face of the muzzle: but in built-up guns, there being generally no base-ring moulded, and the breech assuming various forms, the length is measured from[83] the after-extreme of the breech, exclusive of any button or other adjunct.

BASHAW. A Turkish title of honour and command; more properly pacha.

BASIL. The angle to which the edge of shipwrights' cutting tools is ground away.

BASILICON. An ointment composed of wax, resin, pitch, black resin, and olive oil. Yellow basilicon, of olive oil, yellow resin, Burgundy pitch, and turpentine.

BASILICUS. A name of Regulus or the Lion's Heart, α Leonis; a star of the first magnitude.

BASILISK. An old name for a long 48-pounder, the gun next in size to the carthoun: called basilisk from the snakes or dragons sculptured in the place of dolphins. According to Sir William Monson its random range was 3000 paces. Also, in still earlier times, a gun throwing an iron ball of 200 lbs. weight.

BASILLARD. An old term for a poniard.

BASIN. A wet-dock provided with flood-gates for restraining the water, in which shipping may be kept afloat in all times of tide. Also, all those sheltered spaces of water which are nearly surrounded with slopes from which waters are received; these receptacles have a circular shape and narrow entrance. Geographically basins may be divided, as upper, lower, lacustrine, fluvial, Mediterranean, &c.

BASIS. See Base.

BASKET. In field-works, baskets or corbeilles are used, to be filled with earth, and placed by one another, to cover the men from the enemy's shot.

BASKET-FISH. A name for several species of Euryale; a kind of star-fish, the arms of which divide and subdivide many times, and curl up and intertwine at the ends, giving the whole animal something of the appearance of a round basket.

BASKET-HILT. The guard continued up the hilt of a cutlass, so as to protect the whole hand from injury.

BASKING SHARK. So called from being often seen lying still in the sunshine. A large cartilaginous fish, the Squalus maximus of Linnæus, inhabiting the Northern Ocean. It attains a length of 30 feet, but is neither fierce nor voracious. Its liver yields from eight to twelve barrels of oil.

BASS, or Bast. A soft sedge or rush (Juncus lævis), of which coarse kinds of rope and matting are made. A Gaelic term for the blade of an oar.

BASSE. A species of perch (Perca labrax), found on the coast and in estuaries, commonly about 18 inches long.[84]

BASSOS. A name in old charts for shoals; whence bas-fond and basso-fondo. Rocks a-wash, or below water.

BAST. Lime-tree, linden (Tilia europea). Bast is made also from the bark of various other trees, macerated in water till the fibrous layers separate. In the Pacific Isles it is very fine and strong, from Hibiscus tiliaceus.

BASTA. A word in former use for enough, from the Italian.

BASTARD. A term applied to all pieces of ordnance which are of unusual or irregular proportions: the government bastard-cannon had a 7-inch bore, and sent a 40-lb. shot. Also, a fair-weather square sail in some Mediterranean craft, and occasionally used for an awning.

BASTARD-MACKEREL, or Horse-Mackerel. The Caranx trachurus, a dry, coarse, and unwholesome fish, of the family Scombridæ, very common in the Mediterranean.

BASTARD-PITCH. A mixture of colophony, black pitch, and tar. They are boiled down together, and put into barrels of pine-wood, forming, when the ingredients are mixed in equal portions, a substance of a very liquid consistence, called in France bray gras. If a thicker consistence is desired, a greater proportion of colophony is added, and it is cast in moulds. It is then called bastard-pitch.

BASTE, To. To beat in punition. A mode of sewing in sail-making.

BASTILE. A temporary wooden tower, used formerly in naval and military warfare.

BASTIONS. Projecting portions of a rampart, so disposed that the bottom of the escarp of each part of the whole rampart may be defended from the parapet of some other part. Their form and dimensions are influenced by many considerations, especially by the effect and range of fire-arms; but it is essential to them to have two faces and two flanks; the former having an average length, according to present systems, of 130 yards, the latter of 40 yards.

BASTON, or Baton. A club used of old by authority. (See Batoon.)

BASTONADO. Beating a criminal with sticks [from bastone, a cudgel]. A punishment common among Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and still practised in the Levant, China, and Russia.

BAT, or Sea-bat. An Anglo-Saxon term for boat or vessel. Also a broad-bodied thoracic fish, with a small head, and distinguished by its large triangular dorsal and anal fins, which exceed the length of the body. It is the Chætodon vespertilio of naturalists.

BAT AND FORAGE. A regulated allowance in money and forage to officers in the field.

BATARDATES. Square-stemmed row-galleys.

BATARDEAU. In fortification, a dam of masonry crossing the ditch: its top is constructed of such a form as to afford no passage along it.[85]

BATARDELLES. Galleys less strong than the capitana, and placed on each side of her.

BATEAU. A flat-bottomed, sharp-ended clumsy boat, used on the rivers and lakes of Canada; some of them are large. Also a peculiar army pontoon.

BATED. A plump, full-roed fish is said to be bated.

BATELLA. A small plying-boat.

BATH. (See Washing-place.) An order of knighthood instituted in 1339, revived in 1725, and enlarged as a national reward of naval and military merit in January, 1815. Henry IV. gave this name, because the forty-six esquires on whom he conferred this honour at his coronation had watched all the previous night, and then bathed as typical of their pure virtue. The order was supposed to belong to men who distinguished themselves by valour as regards the navy, but it is now deemed an inferior representation of court favour.

BATILLAGE. An old term for boat-hire.

BATMAN. A Turkish weight of 6 okes, or about 18 lbs. English. There is also a smaller batman in Turkey, of about 4 lbs. 10 ozs. English. In Persia there are also two batmans—the larger equal to 12 lbs. English, and the other is of about half that weight. Also, a soldier assigned to a mounted officer as groom.

BATOON, Baston, or Baton. A staff, truncheon, or badge of military honour for field-marshals. A term in heraldry. Also, batoons of St. Paul, the fossil spines of echini, found in Malta and elsewhere.

BAT-SWAIN. An Anglo-Saxon expression for boatswain.

BATTA. Extra allowance of pay granted to troops in India, varying somewhat with the nature of the service they are employed upon, and their distance from the capital of the presidency.

BATTALIA. The order of battle.

BATTALION. A force of soldiers, complete in staff and officers, of such strength as will allow of its manœuvres on the field of battle being intimately regulated by one superior officer. The term is now proper to infantry only, and represents from 500 to 1000 men. It is the ordinary unit made use of in estimating the infantry strength of an army.

BATTARD. An early cannon of small size.

BATTELOE. A lateen-rigged vessel of India.

BATTENING THE HATCHES. Securing the tarpaulins over them. (See Battens of the Hatches.)

BATTENS. In general, scantlings of wood from 1 inch to 3 inches broad. Long slips of fir used for setting fair the sheer lines of a ship, or drawing the lines by in the moulding loft, and setting off distances.

BATTENS for Hammocks. See Hammock-battens.[86]

BATTENS of the Hatches. Long narrow laths, or straightened hoops of casks, serving by the help of nailing to confine the edges of the tarpaulins, and keep them close down to the sides of the hatchways, in bad weather. Also, thin strips of wood put upon rigging, to keep it from chafing, by those who dislike mats: when large these are designated Scotchmen.

BATTERING GUNS. Properly guns whose weight and power fit them for demolishing by direct force the works of the enemy; hence all heavy, as distinguished from field or light, guns come under the term. (See Siege-artillery and Garrison Guns.)


BATTERING TRAIN. The train of heavy ordnance necessary for a siege, which, since the copious introduction of vertical and other shell fire, is more correctly rendered by the term siege-train (which see).

BATTERY. A place whereon cannon, mortars, &c., are or may be mounted for action. It generally has a parapet for the protection of the gunners, and other defences and conveniences according to its importance and objects. (See also Floating Battery.) Also, a company of artillery. In field-artillery it includes men, guns (usually six in the British service), horses, carriages, &c., complete for service.

BATTLE. An engagement between two fleets, or even single ships, usually called a sea-fight or engagement. The conflict between the forces of two contending armies.

BATTLE LANTERNS (American). See Fighting-lanterns.

BATTLEMENTS. The vertical notches or openings made in the parapet walls of old castles and fortified buildings, to serve for embrasures to the bowmen, arquebusiers, &c., of former days.

BATTLE-ROYAL. A term derived from cock-fighting, but generally applied to a noisy confused row.

BATTLE THE WATCH, To. To shift as well as we can; to contend with a difficulty. To depend on one's own exertions.

BATTLING-STONE. A large stone with a smooth surface by the side of a stream, on which washers beat their linen.

BATTS. A north-country term for flat grounds adjoining islands in rivers, sometimes used for the islands themselves.

BAT-WARD. An old term for a boat-keeper.

BAUN. See Bore.

BAVIER. The beaver of a helmet.

BAVIN. Brushwood bound up with only one withe: a faggot is tied with two. It is often spelled baven, but Shakspeare has

"Rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burned."
[87]This underwood is sometimes procurable by ships where none other can be got. Bavin in war applies to fascines.

BAW-BURD. An old expression of larboard.

BAWDRICK. Corrupted from baldrick. A girdle or sword-belt.

BAWE. A species of worm, formerly used as a bait for fishing.

BAWGIE. One of the names given to the great black and white gull (Larus marinus) in the Shetlands.

BAWKIE. A northern term for the auk, or razor-bill.

BAXIOS. [Sp.] Rocks or sand-banks covered with water. Scopuli.

BAY. The fore-part of a ship between decks, before the bitts (see Sick-bay). Foremost messing-places between decks in ships of war.

BAY. An inlet of the sea formed by the curvature of the land between two capes or headlands, often used synonymously with gulf; though, in strict accuracy, the term should be applied only to those large recesses which are wider from cape to cape than they are deep. Exposed to sea-winds, a bay is mostly insecure. A bay is distinguished from a bend, as that a vessel may not be able to fetch out on either tack, and is embayed. A bay has proportionably a wider entrance than either a gulf or haven; a creek has usually a small inlet, and is always much less than a bay.

BAY. Laurel; hence crowned with bays.

BAYAMOS. Violent blasts of wind blowing from the land, on the south side of Cuba, and especially from the Bight of Bayamo, by which some of our cruisers have been damaged. They are accompanied by vivid lightning, and generally terminate in rain.

BAY-GULF. A branch of the sea, of which the entrance is the widest part, as contradistinguished from the strait-gulf. The Bay of Biscay is a well-known example of the semicircular gulf.

BAY-ICE. Ice newly formed on the surface of the sea, and having the colour of the water; it is then in the first stage of consolidation. The epithet is, however, also applied to ice a foot or two in thickness in bays.

BAYLE. An old term for bucket.

BAYONET [Sp. bayoneta]. A pike-dagger to fit on the muzzle of a musket, so as not to interfere with its firing.

BAZAR, or Bazaar. A market or market-place. An oriental term.

BAZARAS. A large flat-bottomed pleasure-boat of the Ganges, moved with both sails and oars.

BEACH. A littoral margin, or line of coast along the sea-shore, composed of sand, gravel, shingle, broken   shells, or a mixture of them all: any gently sloping part of the coast alternately dry and covered by the tide. The same as strand.[88]

BEACH, To. Sudden landing—to run a boat on the shore, to land a person with intent to desert him—an old buccaneer custom. To land a boat on a beach before a dangerous sea, this demands practical skill, for which the Dover and Deal men are famed.

BEACH-COMBERS. Loiterers around a bay or harbour.

BEACH-COMBING. Loafing about a port to filch small things.

BEACH-FLEA. A small crustacean (Talitra) frequenting sandy shores.

BEACH-GRASS. Alga marina thrown up by the surf or tide.

BEACHING A VESSEL. See under Voluntary Stranding. Also, the act of running a vessel up on the beach for various purposes where there is no other accommodation.

BEACH-MAN. A person on the coast of Africa who acts as interpreter to shipmasters, and assists them in conducting the trade.

BEACH-MASTER. A superior officer, captain, appointed to superintend disembarkation of an attacking force, who holds plenary powers, and generally leads the storming party. His acts when in the heat of action, if he summarily shoot a coward, are unquestioned—poor Falconer, to wit!

BEACH-MEN. A name applied to boatmen and those who land people through a heavy surf.

BEACH-RANGERS. Men hanging about sea-ports, who have been turned out of vessels for bad conduct.

BEACH-TRAMPERS. A name applied to the coast-guard.

BEACON. [Anglo-Saxon, béacn.] A post or stake erected over a shoal or sand-bank, as a warning to seamen to keep at a distance; also a signal-mark placed on the top of hills, eminences, or buildings near the shore for the safe guidance of shipping.

BEACONAGE. A payment levied for the maintenance of beacons.

BEAFT. Often used by east-country men for abaft.

BEAK, or Beak-head. A piece of brass like a beak, fixed at the head of the ancient galleys, with which they pierced their enemies. Pisæus is said to have first added the rostrum or beak-head. Later it was a small platform at the fore part of the upper deck, but the term is now applied to that part without the ship before the forecastle, or knee of the head, which is fastened to the stem and is supported by the main knee. Latterly, to meet steam propulsion, the whole of this is enlarged, strengthened, and armed with iron plates, and thus the armed stem revives the ancient strategy in sea-fights. Shakspeare makes Ariel thus allude to the beak in the "Tempest:"—

"I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement."
[89]BEAKER. A flat drinking tumbler or cup, from the German becher. (See Bicker.)

BEAK-HEAD BEAM. For this important timber see Cat-beam.

BEAK-HEAD BULK-HEAD. The old termination aft of the space called beak-head, which inclosed the fore part of the ship.

BEAL. A word of Gaelic derivation for an opening or narrow pass between two hills.

BEAM. A long double stratum of murky clouds generally observed over the surface of the Mediterranean previous to a violent storm or an earthquake. The French call it trave.

BEAM. (See Abeam.)—Before the beam is an arc of the horizon, comprehended between a line that crosses the ship's length at right angles and some object at a distance before it; or between the line of the beam and that point of the compass which she stems. On the weather or lee beam is in a direction to windward or leeward at right angles with the keel.

BEAM-ARM. Synonymous with crow-foot (which see).

BEAM-ENDS. A ship is said to be on her beam-ends when she has heeled over so much on one side that her beams approach to a vertical position; hence also a person lying down is metaphorically said to be on his beam-ends.

BEAM-FILLINGS. Short lengths of wood cut to fit in between the beams to complete the cargo of a timber ship.

BEAM-LINE. A line raised along the inside of the ship fore and aft, showing the upper sides of the beams at her side.

BEAM OF THE ANCHOR. Synonymous with anchor-stock.

BEAMS. Strong transverse pieces of timber stretching across the ship from one side to the other, to support the decks and retain the sides at their proper distance, with which they are firmly connected by means of strong knees, and sometimes of standards. They are sustained at each end by thick stringers on the ship's side, called shelf-pieces, upon which they rest. The main-beam is next abaft the main-mast, which is stepped between two beams with transverse supports termed partners; the foremost of these is generally termed the main-beam, or the after-beam of the main-hatchway. The greatest beam of all is called the midship-beam.

BEAN-COD. A small fishing-vessel, or pilot-boat, common on the sea-coasts and in the rivers of Spain and Portugal; extremely sharp forward, having its stem bent inward above in a considerable curve; it is commonly navigated with a large lateen sail, which extends the whole length of the deck, and sometimes of an out-rigger over the stern, and is accordingly well fitted to ply to windward. They frequently set as many as twenty different sails, alow and aloft, by[90] every possible contrivance, so as to puzzle seamen who are not familiar with the rig.

BEAR. A large block of stone, matted, loaded with shot, and fitted with ropes, by which it is roused or pulled to and fro to grind the decks withal. Also, a coir-mat filled with sand similarly used.

BEAR, The constellations of the. Ursa Major and Minor, most important to seamen, as instantly indicating by the pointers and pole-star the true north at night, much more correctly than any compass bearing.

BEAR, To. The direction of an object from the viewer; it is used in the following different phrases: The land's end bore E.N.E.; i.e. it was seen from the ship in a line with the E.N.E. point of the compass. We bore down upon the enemy; i.e. having the advantage of the wind, or being to windward, we approached the enemy by sailing large, or from the wind. When a ship that was to windward comes under another ship's stern, and so gives her the wind, she is said to bear under the lee; often as a mark of respect. She bears in with the land, is said of a ship when she runs towards the shore. We bore off the land; i.e. we increased our distance from the land.—To bear down upon a ship, is to approach her from the windward.—To bear ordnance, to carry her guns well.—To bear sail, stiff under canvas.—To bear up, to put the helm up, and keep a vessel off her course, letting her recede from the wind and move to leeward; this is synonymous with to bear away, but is applied to the ship instead of the helm.—Bear up, one who has duly served for a commission, but from want of interest bears up broken-hearted and accepts an inferior warrant, or quits the profession, seeking some less important vocation; some middies have borne up and yet become bishops, lord-chancellors, judges, surgeons, &c.—To bear up round, is to put a ship right before the wind.—To bring a cannon to bear, signifies that it now lies right with the mark.—To bear off from, and in with the land, signifies standing off or going towards the coast.

BEAR A BOB, or A FIST. Jocular for "lend a hand."

BEAR A HAND. Hasten.

BEARD. The silky filaments or byssus by which some testacea adhere to rocks. Of an oyster, the gills.

BEARDIE. A northern name of the three-spined stickleback.

BEARDING. The angular fore-part of the rudder, in juxtaposition with the stern-post. Also, the corresponding bevel of the stern-post. Also, the bevelling of any piece of timber or plank to any required angle: as the bearding of dead wood, clamps, &c.

BEARDING-LINE. In ship-building, is a curved line made by bearding the dead-wood to the shape of the ship's body.[91]

BEARERS. Pieces of plank placed on the bolts which are driven through the standards or posts for the carpenters' stages to rest upon.

BEARING. An arc of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compass, or resulting from finical proportion. There is the true or astronomical bearing, and the magnetic bearing. It is also the situation of any distant object, estimated with regard to the ship's position; and in this sense the object must bear either ahead, astern, abreast, on the bow, or on the quarter; if a ship sails with a side wind, a distant object is said to bear to leeward or to windward, on the lee quarter or bow, or on the weather quarter or bow.

BEARING BACKSTAYS AFT. To throw the breast backstays out of the cross-tree horns or out-riggers and bear them aft. If not done, when suddenly bracing up, the cross-tree horn is frequently sprung or broken off.

BEARING BINNACLE. A small binnacle with a single compass, usually placed before the other. In line-of-battle ships it is generally placed on the fife-rail in the centre and foremost part of the poop.

BEARINGS. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-shear. The line of flotation which is formed by the water upon her sides when she sits upright with her provisions, stores, and ballast, on board in proper trim.

BEARINGS, To bring to his. Used in conversation for "to bring to reason." To bring an unruly subject to his senses, to know he is under control, to reduce to order.

BEAT. The verb means to excel, surpass, or overcome.

"And then their ships could only follow,
For we had beat them all dead hollow."
BEATEN BACK. Returning into port from stress of foul weather.

BEATING, or Turning to Windward. The operation of making progress by alternate tacks at sea against the wind, in a zig-zag line, or transverse courses; beating, however, is generally understood to be turning to windward in a storm or fresh wind.

BEATING THE BOOBY. The beating of the hands from side to side in cold weather to create artificial warmth.

BEATING WIND. That which requires the ship to make her way by tacks; a baffling or contrary wind.

BEATSTER. One who beats or mends the Yarmouth herring-nets.

BEAT TO ARMS. The signal by drum to summon the men to their quarters.

BEAT TO QUARTERS. The order for the drummer to summon every one to his respective station.[92]

BEAVER. A helmet in general, but particularly that part which lets down to allow of the wearer's drinking.

BECALM, To. To intercept the current of the wind in its passage to a ship, by means of any contiguous object, as a high shore, some other ship to windward, &c. At this time the sails remain in a sort of rest, and consequently deprived of their power to govern the motion of the ship. Thus one sail becalms another.

BECALMED. Implies that from the weather being calm, and not a breath of wind blowing, the sails hang loose against the mast.

BECHE DE MER. See Trepang.

BECK [the Anglo-Saxon becca]. A small mountain-brook or rivulet, common to all northern dialects. A Gaelic or Manx term for a thwart or bench in the boat.

BECKET. A piece of rope placed so as to confine a spar or another rope; anything used to keep loose ropes, tackles, or spars in a convenient place; hence, beckets are either large hooks or short pieces of rope with a knot at one end and an eye in the other; or formed like a circular wreath for handles; as with cutlass hilts, boarding pikes, tomahawks, &c.; or they are wooden brackets, and probably from a corruption and misapplication of this last term arose the word becket, which seems often to be confounded with bracket. Also, a grummet either of rope or iron, fixed to the bottom of a block, for making fast the standing end of the fall.

BECKET, The Tacks and Sheets in the. The order to hang up the weather-main and fore-sheet, and the lee-main and fore-tack, to the small knot and eye becket on the foremost-main and fore-shrouds, when the ship is close hauled, to prevent them from hanging in the water. A kind of large cleat seized on a vessel's fore or main rigging for the sheets and tacks to lie in when not required. Cant term for pockets—"Hands out of beckets, sir."

BED. Flat thick pieces of wood, lodged under the quarters of casks containing any liquid, and stowed in a ship's hold, in order to keep them bilge-free; being steadied upon the beds by means of wedges called quoins. The impression made by a ship's bottom on the mud on having been left by an ebb-tide. The bite made in the ground by the fluke of an anchor. A kind of false deck, or platform, placed on those decks where the guns were too low for the ports.—Bed of a gun-carriage, or stool-bed. The piece of wood between the cheeks or brackets which, with the intervention of the quoin, supports the breech of the gun. It is itself supported, forward, on the bed-bolt, and aft, generally with the intervention of an elevating-screw, on the rear axle-tree.

BED or BARREL SCREWS. A powerful machine for lifting large[93] bodies, and placed against the gripe of a ship to be launched for starting her.

BED-BOLT. A horizontal bolt passing through both brackets of a gun-carriage near their centres, and on which the forward end of the stool-bed rests.

BEDDING A CASK. Placing dunnage round it.

BEDLAMERS. Young Labrador seals, which set up a dismal cry when they cannot escape their pursuers—and go madly after each other in the sea.

BED OF A MORTAR. The solid frame on which a mortar is mounted for firing. For sea-service it is generally made of wood; for land-service, of iron, except in the smaller natures. In mortar vessels as latterly fitted, the bed traverses on a central pivot over a large table or platform of wood, having under it massive india-rubber buffers, to moderate the jar from the discharge.—Bed of a river, that part of the channel of a stream over which the water generally flows, as also that part of the basin of a sea or lake on which the water lies.

BED-OF-GUNS. A nautical phrase implying ordnance too heavy for a ship's scantling, or a fort over-gunned.

BE-DUNDERED. Stupified with noise.

BEE. A ring or hoop of metal.—Bees of the bowsprit. (See Bee-blocks.)

BEE-BLOCKS. Pieces of hard wood bolted to the outer end of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through, the bolt, serving as a pin, commonly called bees.

BEEF. A figurative term for strength.—More beef! more men on.

BEEF-KID. A mess utensil for carrying meat from the coppers.

BEETLE. A shipwright's heavy mallet for driving the wedges called reeming irons, so as to open the seams in order to caulk. (See Reeming.)

BEETLE-HEAD. A large beetle, weighing 1000 lbs., swayed up by a crabwinch to a height, and dropped by a pincer-shaped hook; it is used in pile-driving.

BEFORE or ABAFT THE BEAM. The bearing of any object which is before or abaft a right line to the keel, at the midship section of a ship.

BEFORE THE MAST. The station of the working seamen, as distinguishing them from the officers.

BEGGAR-BOLTS. A contemptuous term for the missiles which were thrown by the galley-slaves at an approaching enemy.

BEHAVIOUR. The action and qualities of a ship under different impulses. Seamen speak of the manner in which she behaves, as if she acted by her own instinct.

BEIKAT. See Bykat.

BEILED. A sea-term in the old law-books, apparently for moored.[94]

BEING. See Bing.

BELAY, To. To fasten a rope when it has been sufficiently hauled upon, by twining it several times round a cleat, belaying pin, or kevel, without hitching or seizing; this is chiefly applied to the running rigging, which needs to be so secured that it may be quickly let go in case of a squall or change of wind; there being several other expressions used for securing large ropes, as bitting, making fast, stoppering, &c.—Belay there, stop! that is enough!—Belay that yarn, we have had enough of it. Stand fast, secure all, when a hawser has been sufficiently hauled. When the top-sails, or other sails have been hoisted taut up, or "belay the main-tack," &c.

BELAYING PINS. Small wooden or iron cylinders, fixed in racks in different parts of the ship, for belaying running ropes to.

BELEAGUER. To invest or closely surround an enemy's post, in such manner as to prevent all relief or communication.

BELFRY. An ornamental frame or shelter, under which the ship's bell is suspended.


BELLA STELLA. A name used by old seamen for the cross-staff.

BELLATRIX. γ Orionis.

BELL-BUOY. A large can-buoy on which is placed, in wicker-work, a bell, which is sounded by the heaving and setting of the sea.

BELLIGERENT. An epithet applied to any country which is in a state of warfare.

BELLOWS. An old hand at the bellows. A colloquialism for a man up to his duty. "A fresh hand at the bellows" is said when a gale increases.

BELL-ROPE. A short rope spliced round a thimble in the eye of the bell-crank, with a double wall-knot crowned at its end.

BELLS. See Watch.

BELL-TOP. A name applied to the top of a quarter-gallery, when the upper stool is hollowed away, or made like a rim.

BELL-WARE. A name of the Zostera marina (which see).

BELLY. The swell of a sail. The inner or hollow part of compass timber; the outside is called the back. To belly a sail is to inflate or fill it with the wind, so as to give a taut leech.—Bellying canvas is generally applied to a vessel going free, as when the belly and foot reefs which will not stand on a wind, are shaken out.—Bellying to the breeze, the sails filling or being inflated by the wind.—Bellying to leeward, when too much sail is injudiciously carried.[95]

BELLY-BAND. A strip of canvas, half way between the close-reef and the foot of square sails, to strengthen them. Also applied to an army officer's sash.

BELLY-GUY. A tackle applied half-way up sheers, or long spars that require support in the middle. Frequently applied to masts that have been crippled by injudiciously setting up the rigging too taut.

BELLY-MAT. See Paunch-mat.

BELLY-STAY. Used half-mast down when a mast requires support; as belly-guy, above.

BELOW. The opposite of on or 'pon deck. Generally used to distinguish the watch on deck, and those off the watch.

BELT. A metaphorical term in geography for long and proportionally narrow encircling strips of land having any particular feature; as a belt of sand, a belt of hills, &c. It is, in use, nearly synonymous with zone. Also, to beat with a colt or rope's end.

BELTING. A beating; formerly given by a belt.

BELTS. The dusky streaks crossing the surface of the planet Jupiter, and supposed to be openings in his atmosphere.

BENCHES OF BOATS. The seats in the after-part whereon the passengers sit; properly stern-sheets, the others are athwarts, whereon the rowers sit.

BEND, To. To fasten one rope to another, or to an anchor. The term is also applied to any sudden or remarkable change in the direction of a river, and is then synonymous with bight or loop.—Bend a sail is to extend or make it fast to its proper yard or stay. (See Granny's Bend.) Also, bend to your oars, throw them well forward.

BEND. The chock of the bowsprit.

BENDER. A contrivance to bend small cross-bows, formerly used in the navy. Also, "look out for a bender," or "strike out for a bend," applied to coiling the hempen cables.

BENDING ROPES, is to join them together with a bowline knot, and then make their own ends fast upon themselves; not so secure as splicing, but sooner done, and readiest, when it is designed to take them asunder again. There are several bends, as Carrick-bend, hawser-bend, sheet-bend, bowline-bend, &c.

BENDING THE CABLE. The operation of clinching, or tying the cable to the ring of its anchor. The term is still used for shackling chain-cables to their anchors.

BEND-MOULD. A mould made to form the futtocks in the square body, assisted by the rising-square and floor-hollow.

BEND ON THE TACK. In hoisting signals, that piece of rope called the distant line—which keeps the flags so far asunder that they are not confused. Also, in setting free sails, the studding-sail tack, [96]&c.

BEND-ROLL. A rest formerly used for a heavy musket.

BENDS. The thickest and strongest planks on the outward part of a ship's side, between the plank-streaks on which men set their feet in climbing up. They are more properly called wales, or wails. They are reckoned from the water, and are distinguished by the titles of first, second, or third bend. They are the chief strength of a ship's sides, and have the beams, knees, and foot-hooks bolted to them. Bends are also the frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the side, individualized by each particular station. That at the broadest part of the ship is denominated the midship-bend or dead-flat.

BE-NEAPED. The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height of spring-tides. (See Neaped.)

BENGAL LIGHT. See Blue Light.

BENJY. A low-crowned straw-hat, with a very broad brim.

BENK. A north-country term for a low bank, or ledge of rock; probably the origin of bunk, or sleeping-places in merchant vessels. (See Bunk.)

BENN. A small kind of salmon; the earliest in the Solway Frith.

BENT. The trivial name of the Arundo arenaria, or coarse unprofitable grass growing on the sea-shore.

BENTINCK-BOOM. That which stretches the foot of the fore-sail in many small square-rigged merchantmen; particularly used in whalers among the ice, with a reefed fore-sail to see clearly ahead. The tack and sheet are thus dispensed with, a spar with tackle amidships brings the leeches taut on a wind. It is principally worked by its bowline.

BENTINCKS. Triangular courses, so named after Captain Bentinck, by whom they were invented, but which have since been superseded by storm staysails. They are still used by the Americans as trysails.

BENTINCK-SHROUDS. Formerly used; extending from the weather-futtock staves to the opposite lee-channels.

BENT ON A SPLICE. Going to be married.

BERG. A word adopted from the German, and applied to the features of land distinguished as steppes, banquettes, shelves, terraces, and parallel roads. (See Iceberg.)

BERGLE. A northern name for the wrasse.

BERM. In fortification, a narrow space of level ground, averaging about a foot and a half in width, generally left between the foot of the exterior slope of the parapet and the top of the escarp; in permanent fortification its principal purpose is to retain the earth of the parapet, which, when the latter is deformed by fire or by weather, would otherwise fall into the ditch; in field fortification it also serves to protect the escarp from the pressure of a too imminent parapet.[97]


BERMUDA SQUALL. A sudden and strong wintry tempest experienced in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Bermudas; it is preceded by heavy clouds, thunder, and lightning. It belongs to the Gulf Stream, and is felt, throughout its course, up to the banks of Newfoundland.

BERMUDIANS. Three-masted schooners, built at Bermuda during the war of 1814; they went through the waves without rising to them, and consequently were too ticklish for northern stations.

BERNAK. The barnacle goose (Anser bernicla).

BERSIS. A species of cannon formerly much used at sea.

BERTH. The station in which a ship rides at anchor, either alone, or in a fleet; as, she lies in a good berth, i.e. in good anchoring ground, well sheltered from the wind and sea, and at a proper distance from the shore and other vessels.—Snug berth, a place, situation, or establishment. A sleeping berth.—To berth a vessel, is to fix upon, and put her into the place she is to occupy.—To berth a ship's company, to allot to each man the space in which his hammock is to be hung, giving the customary 14 inches in width.—To give a berth, to keep clear of, as to give a point of land a wide berth, is to keep at a due distance from it.

BERTH. The room or apartment where any number of the officers, or ship's company, mess and reside; in a ship of war there is commonly one of these between every two guns as the mess-places of the crew.

BERTH AND SPACE. In ship-building, the distance from the moulding edge of one timber to the moulding edge of the next timber. Same as room and space, or timber and space.

BERTH-DECK. The 'tween decks.

BERTHER. He who assigns places for the respective hammocks to hang in.

BERTHING. The rising or working up of the planks of a ship's sides; as berthing up a bulk-head, or bringing up in general. Berthing also denotes the planking outside, above the sheer-strake, and is called the berthing of the quarter-deck, of the poop, or of the forecastle, as the case may be.

BERTHING of the head. See Head-boards.

BERVIE. A haddock split and half-dried.

BERWICK SMACK. The old and well-found packets of former days, until superseded by steamers. (See Barrack Smack.)

BESET in ice. Surrounded with ice, and no opening for advance or retreat, so as to be obliged to remain immovable.

BESIEGE, To. To endeavour to gain possession of a fortified place defended by an enemy, by directing against it a connected series of offensive military operations.[98]

BESSY-LORCH. A northern name of the Gobio fluviatilis or gudgeon.

BEST BOWER. See Bower-anchors.

BETELGUESE. The lucida of Orion, α Orionis, and a standard Greenwich star of the first magnitude.

BETHEL. See Floating Bethel.


BETWEEN DECKS. The space contained between any two whole decks of a ship.

BETWIXT WIND AND WATER. About the line of load immersion of the ship's hull; or that part of the vessel which is at the surface of the water.

BEVEL. An instrument by which bevelling angles are taken. Also a sloped surface.

BEVELLING. Any alteration from a square in hewing timber, as taken by the bevel, bevelling rule, or bevelling boards.—A standing bevelling is that made without, or outside a square; an under-bevelling within; and the angle is optionally acute or obtuse. In ship-building, it is the art of hewing a timber with a proper and regular curve, according to a mould which is laid on one side of its surface.

BEVELLING-BOARD. A piece of board on which the bevellings or angles of the timbers are described.

BEVERAGE. A West India drink, made of sugar-cane juice and water.

BEWPAR. The old name for buntin, still used in navy office documents.

BEWTER. A northern name for the black-wak, or bittern.

BEZANT. An early gold coin, so called from having been first coined at Byzantium.

BIBBS. Pieces of timber bolted to the hounds of a mast, to support the trestle-trees.

BIBLE. A hand-axe. Also, a squared piece of freestone to grind the deck with sand in cleaning it; a small holy-stone, so called from seamen using them kneeling.

BIBLE-PRESS. A hand rolling-board for cartridges, rocket, and port-fire cases.

BICKER, or Beaker. A flat bowl or basin for containing liquors, formerly made of wood, but in later times of other substances. Thus Butler:

"And into pikes, and musqueteers,
Stamp beakers, cups, and porringers."
BID-HOOK. A small kind of boat-hook.

BIEL-BRIEF. The bottomry contract in Denmark, Sweden, and the north of Germany.

BIERLING. An old name for a small galley.

BIFURCATE. A river is said to bifurcate, or to form a fork, when it[99] divides into two distinct branches, as at the heads of deltas and in fluvial basins.

BIGHT. A substantive made from the preterperfect tense of bend. The space lying between two promontories or headlands, being wider and smaller than a gulf, but larger than a bay. It is also used generally for any coast-bend or indentation, and is mostly held as a synonym of shallow bay.

BIGHT. The loop of a rope when it is folded, in contradistinction to the end; as, her anchor hooked the bight of our cable, i.e. caught any part of it between the ends. The bight of his cable has swept our anchor, i.e. the bight of the cable of another ship as she ranged about has entangled itself about the flukes of our anchor. Any part of the chord or curvature of a rope between the ends may be called a bight.

BIG-WIGS. A cant term for the higher officers.

BILANCELLA. A destructive mode of fishing in the Mediterranean, by means of two vessels towing a large net stretched between them.

BILANCIIS DEFERENDIS. A writ directed to a corporation, for the carrying of weights to such a haven, there to weigh the wool that persons, by our ancient laws, were licensed to transport.

BILANDER. A small merchant vessel with two masts, particularly distinguished from other vessels with two masts by the form of her main-sail, which is bent to the whole length of her yard, hanging fore and aft, and inclined to the horizon at an angle of about 45°. Few vessels are now rigged in this manner, and the name is rather indiscriminately used.

BILBO. An old term for a flexible kind of cutlass, from Bilbao, where the best Spanish sword-blades were made. Shakspeare humorously describes Falstaff in the buck-basket, like a good bilbo, coiled hilt to point.

BILBOES. Long bars or bolts, on which iron shackles slid, with a padlock at the end; used to confine the legs of prisoners in a manner similar to the punishment of the stocks. The offender was condemned to irons, more or less ponderous according to the nature of the offence of which he was guilty. Several of them are yet to be seen in the Tower of London, taken in the Spanish Armada. Shakspeare mentions Hamlet thinking of a kind of fighting,

"That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes."
BILCOCK. The northern name for the water-rail.

BILGE, or Bulge. That part of the floor in a ship—on either side of the keel—which approaches nearer to a horizontal than to a perpendicular direction, and begins to round upwards. It is where the floors and second futtocks unite, and upon which the ship would rest[100] if laid on the ground; hence, when a ship receives a fracture in this part, she is said to be bilged or bulged.—Bilge is also the largest circumference of a cask, or that which extends round by the bung-hole.

BILGE-BLOCKS. See Sliding Bilge-blocks.

BILGE-COADS. In launching a ship, same with sliding-planks.

BILGE-FEVER. The illness occasioned by a foul hold.

BILGE-FREE. A cask so stowed as to rest entirely on its beds, keeping the lower part of the bilge at least the thickness of the hand clear of the bottom of the ship, or other place on which it is stowed.

BILGE-KEELS. Used for vessels of very light draught and flattish bottoms, to make them hold a better wind, also to support them upright when grounded. The Warrior and other iron-clads are fitted with bilge-keels.

BILGE-KEELSONS. These are fitted inside of the bilge, to afford strength where iron, ores, and other heavy cargo are shipped. Otherwise they are the same as sister-keelsons.

BILGE-PIECES. Synonymous with bilge-keels.

BILGE-PLANKS. Certain thick strengthenings on the inner and outer lines of the bilge, to secure the shiftings as well as bilge-keels.

BILGE-PUMP. A small pump used for carrying off the water which may lodge about the lee-bilge, so as not to be under the action of the main pumps. In a steamer it is worked by a single link off one of the levers.

BILGE-TREES. Another name for bilge-coads.

BILGE-WATER. The rain or sea-water which occasionally enters a vessel, and running down to her floor, remains in the bilge of the ship till pumped out, by reason of her flat bottom, which prevents it from going to the well of the pump; it is always (especially if the ship does not leak) of a dirty colour and disgusting penetrating smell. It seems to have been a sad nuisance in early voyages; and in the earliest sea-ballad known (temp. Hen. VI.) it is thus grumbled at:—

"A sak of strawe were there ryght good,
For som must lyg theym in theyr hood,
I had as lefe be in the wood
W'out mete or drynk.
For when that we shall go to bedde,
The pumpe was nygh our bedde's hedde;
A man were as good to be dede
As smell thereof ye stynk."

BILL. A weapon or implement of war, a pike or halbert of the English infantry. It was formerly carried by sentinels, whence Shakspeare humorously made Dogberry tell the sleepy watchmen to have a care[101] that their bills be not stolen. Also, the point or tapered extremity of the fluke at the arm of an anchor. Also a point of land, of which a familiar instance may be cited in the Bill of Portland.

BILLAT. A name on the coast of Yorkshire for the piltock or coal-fish, when it is a year old.

BILL-BOARDS. Doubling under the fore-channels to the water-line, to protect the planking from the bill of the anchor.

BILLET. The allowance to landlords for quartering men in the royal service; the lodging-money charged by consuls for the same.

BILLET-HEAD. A carved prow bending in and out, contrariwise to the fiddle-head (scroll-head). Also, a round piece of wood fixed in the bow or stern of a whale-boat, about which the line is veered when the whale is struck. Synonymous with bollard.

BILLET-WOOD. Small wood mostly used for dunnage in stowing ships' cargoes, also for fuel, usually sold by the fathom; it is 3 feet 4 inches long, and 71⁄2 inches in compass.

BILL-FISH. See Gar-fish.

BILL-HOOK. A species of hatchet used in wooding a ship, similar to that used by hedgers.

BILL OF EXCHANGE. A means of remitting money from one country to another. The receiver must present it for acceptance to the parties on whom it is drawn without loss of time, he may then claim the money after the date specified on the bill has elapsed.

BILL OF FREEDOM. A full pass for a neutral in time of war.

BILL OF HEALTH. A certificate properly authenticated by the consul, or other proper authority at any port, that the ship comes from a place where no contagious disorder prevails, and that none of the crew, at the time of her departure, were infected with any such distemper. Such constitutes a clean bill of health, in contradistinction to a foul bill.

BILL OF LADING. A memorandum by which the master of a ship acknowledges the receipt of the goods specified therein, and promises to deliver them, in like good condition, to the consignee, or his order. It differs from a charter-party insomuch as it is given only for a single article or more, laden amongst the sundries of a ship's cargo.

BILL OF SALE. A written document by which the property of a vessel, or shares thereof, are transferred to a purchaser.

BILL OF SIGHT, or of View. A warrant for a custom-house officer to examine goods which had been shipped for foreign parts, but not sold there.

BILL OF STORE. A kind of license, or custom-house permission, for re-importing unsold goods from foreign ports duty free, within a specified limit of time.[102]

BILLOWS. The surges of the sea, or waves raised by the wind; a term more in use among poets than seamen.

BILLS. The ends of compass or knee timber.

BILLY BOY or BOAT. A Humber or east-coast boat, of river-barge build, and a trysail; a bluff-bowed north-country trader, or large one-masted vessel of burden.

BINARY SYSTEM. When two stars forming a double-star are found to revolve about each other.

BIND. A quantity of eels, containing 10 sticks of 25 each.

BINDINGS. In ship-building, a general name for the beams, knees, clamps, water-ways, transoms, and other connecting parts of a ship or vessel.

BINDING-STRAKES. Thick planks on the decks, in midships, between the hatchways. Also the principal strakes of plank in a vessel, especially the sheer-strake and wales, which are bolted to the knees and shelf-pieces.

BING. A heap; an old north-country word for the sea-shore, and sometimes spelled being.

BINGE, To. To rinse, or bull, a cask.

BINGID. An old term for locker.

BINK. See Benk.

BINN. A sort of large locker, with a lid on the top, for containing a vessel's stores: bread-binn, sail-binn, flour-binn, &c.

BINNACLE (formerly Bittacle). It appears evidently to be derived from the French term habittacle, a small habitation, which is now used for the same purpose by the seamen of that nation. The binnacle is a wooden case or box, which contains the compass, and a light to illuminate the compass at night; there are usually three binnacles on the deck of a ship-of-war, two near the helm being designed for the man who steers, weather and lee, and the other amidships, 10 or 12 feet before these, where the quarter-master, who conns the ship, stands when steering, or going with a free wind. (See Conn.)

BINNACLE-LIGHT. The lamp throwing light upon the compass-card.

BINOCLE. A small binocular or two-eyed telescope.

BIOR-LINN. Perhaps the oldest of our terms for boat. (See Birlin.)

BIRD-BOLT. A species of arrow, short and thick, used to kill birds without piercing their skins.

BIRD'S-FOOT SEA-STAR. The Palmipes membranaceus, one of the Asterinidæ, with a flat thin pentagonal body, of a bright scarlet colour.

BIRD'S NEST. A round top at a mast-head for a look-out station. A smaller crow's nest. Chiefly used in whalers, where a constant look-out is kept for whales. (See Edible Bird's Nest.)

BIREMIS. In Roman antiquity, a vessel with two rows of oars.[103]

BIRLIN. A sort of small vessel or galley-boat of the Hebrides; it is fitted with four to eight long oars, but is seldom furnished with sails.

BIRT. A kind of turbot.

BIRTH-MARKS. A ship must not be loaded above her birth-marks, for, says a maritime proverb, a master must know the capacity of his vessel, as well as a rider the strength of his horse.

BISCUIT [i.e. bis coctus, or Fr. bis-cuit]. Bread intended for naval or military expeditions is now simply flour well kneaded, with the least possible quantity of water, into flat cakes, and slowly baked. Pliny calls it panis nauticus; and of the panis militaris, he says that it was heavier by one-third than the grain from which it was made.

BISHOP. A name of the great northern diver (Colymbus glacialis).

BISMER. A name of the stickleback (Gasterosteus spinachia).

BIT. A West Indian silver coin, varying from 4d. to 6d. In America it is 121⁄2 cents, and in the Spanish settlements is equal with the real, or one-eighth of a dollar. It was, in fact, Spanish money cut into bits, and known as "cut-money."

BITE. Is said of the anchor when it holds fast in the ground on reaching it. Also, the hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to be lifted. Also, to bite off the top of small-arm cartridges.

BITTER. Any turn of a cable about the bitts is called a bitter. Hence a ship is "brought up to a bitter" when the cable is allowed to run out to that stop.

BITTER-BUMP. A north-country name for the bittern.

BITTER-END. That part of the cable which is abaft the bitts, and therefore within board when the ship rides at anchor. They say, "Bend to the bitter-end" when they would have that end bent to the anchor, and when a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to be let go. The bitter-end is the clinching end—sometimes that end is bent to the anchor, because it has never been used, and is more trustworthy. The first 40 fathoms of a cable of 115 fathoms is generally worn out when the inner end is comparatively new.

BITT-HEADS. The upright pieces of oak-timber let in and bolted to the beams of two decks at least, and to which the cross-pieces are let on and bolted. (See Bitts.)

BITT-PINS. Similar to belaying-pins, but larger. Used to prevent the cable from slipping off the cross-piece of the bitts, also to confine the cable and messenger there, in heaving in the cable.

BITTS. A frame composed of two strong pieces of straight oak timber, fixed upright in the fore-part of a ship, and bolted securely to the beams, whereon to fasten the cables as she rides at anchor; in ships[104] of war there are usually two pairs of cable-bitts, and when they are both used at once the cable is said to be double-bitted. Since the introduction of chain-cables, bitts are coated with iron, and vary in their shapes. There are several other smaller bitts; as, the topsail-sheet bitts, paul-bitts, carrick-bitts, windlass-bitts, winch-bitts, jear-bitts, riding-bitts, gallows-bitts, and fore-brace bitts.

BITT-STOPPER. One rove through the knee of the bitts, which nips the cable on the bight: it consists of four or five fathoms of rope tailed out nipper fashion at one end, and clench-knotted at the other. The old bitt-stopper, by its running loop on a standing end, bound the cable down in a bight abaft the bitts—the tail twisted round the fore part helped to draw it still closer. It is now disused—chain cables having superseded hemp.

BITT THE CABLE, To. To put it round the bitts, in order to fasten it, or slacken it out gradually, which last is called veering away.

BIVOUAC. The resting for the night in the open-air by an armed party, instead of encamping.

BIZE. A piercing cold wind from the frozen summits of the Pyrénées.

BLACKAMOOR. A thoroughly black negro.

BLACK-BIRD CATCHING. The slave-trade.

BLACK-BIRDS. A slang term on the coast of Africa for a cargo of slaves.

BLACK-BOOK of the Admiralty. An imaginary record of offences. Also, a document of great authority in naval law, as it contains the ancient admiralty statutes and ordinances.

BLACK-FISH. A common name applied by sailors to many different species of cetaceans. The animal so called in the south seas belongs to the genus Globiocephalus. It is from 15 to 20 feet long, and occurs in countless shoals.

BLACK-FISHER. A water-poacher: one who kills salmon in close-time.

BLACK-FISHING. The illegally taking of salmon, under night, by means of torches and spears with barbed prongs.

BLACK-HEAD. The pewitt-gull (Larus ridibundus).

BLACK-HOLE. A place of solitary confinement for soldiers, and tried in some large ships.

BLACK-INDIES. Newcastle, Sunderland, and Shields.

BLACKING. For the ship's bends and yards. A good mixture is made of coal-tar, vegetable-tar, and salt-water, boiled together, and laid on hot.

BLACKING DOWN. The tarring and blacking of rigging; or the operation of blacking the ship's sides with tar or mineral blacking.

BLACK-JACK. The ensign of a pirate. Also, a capacious tin can for[105] beer, which was formerly made of waxed leather. In 1630 Taylor wrote—

"Nor or of blacke-jacks at gentle buttry-bars,
Whose liquor oftentimes breeds household wars."
BLACK-LIST. A record of misdemeanours impolitically kept by some officers for their private use—the very essence of private tyranny, now forbidden.

BLACK-LOCK. A trout thought to be peculiar to Lough Melvin, on the west of Ireland.

BLACK SHIPS. The name by which the English builders designate those constructed of teak in India.

BLACK SOUTH-EASTER. The well-known violent wind at the Cape of Good Hope, in which the vapoury clouds called the Devil's Table-cloth appear on Table Mountain.

BLACK SQUALL. This squall, although generally ascribed to the West Indies, as well as the white squall, may be principally ascribed to a peculiar heated state of the atmosphere near land. As blackey, when interrogated about weather, generally observes, "Massa, look to leeward," it may be easily understood that it is the condensed air repelled by a colder medium to leeward, and driven back with condensed electricity and danger. So it is sudden to Johnny Newcomes, who lose sails, spars, and ships, by capsizing.

BLACK'S THE WHITE OF MY EYE. When Jack avers that no one can say this or that of him. It is an indignant expression of innocence of a charge.

BLACK-STRAKE. The range of plank immediately above the wales in a ship's side; they are always covered with a mixture of tar and lamp-black, which not only preserves them from the heat of the sun and the weather, but forms an agreeable variety with the painted or varnished parts above them. Vessels with no ports have frequently two such strakes—one above, the other below the wales, the latter being also called the diminishing strake.

BLACK-STRAP. The dark country wines of the Mediterranean. Also, bad port, such as was served for the sick in former times.

BLACK-TANG. The sea-weed Fucus vesicolosus, or tangle.

BLACKWALL-HITCH. A sort of tackle-hook guy, made by putting the bight of a rope over the back of the hook, and there jamming it by the standing part. A mode of hooking on the bare end of a rope where no length remains to make a cat's-paw.

BLACK WHALE. The name by which the right whale of the south seas (Balæna australis) is often known to whalemen.

BLAD. A term on our northern coasts for a squall with rain.

BLADDER-FISH. A term for the tetraodon. (See Balloon-fish.)[106]

BLADE OF AN ANCHOR. That part of the arm prepared to receive the palm.

BLADE or WASH OF AN OAR. Is the flat part of it which is plunged into the water in rowing. The force and effect in a great measure depends on the length of this part, when adequate force is applied. When long oars are used, the boat is generally single-banked, so that the fulcrum is removed further from the rower. Also, the motive part of the screw-propeller.

BLAE, or Blea. The alburnum or sap-wood of timber.

BLAKE. Yellow. North of England.

BLANK. Level line mark for cannon, as point-blank, equal to 800 yards. It was also the term for the white mark in the centre of a butt, at which the arrow was aimed.

BLANKET. The coat of fat or blubber under the skin of a whale.

BLARE, To. To bellow or roar vehemently.—Blare, a mixture of hair and tar made into a kind of paste, used for tightening the seams of boats.

BLARNEY. Idle discourse; obsequious flattery.

BLASHY. Watery or dirty; applied to weather, as "a blashy day," a wet day. In parlance, trifling or flimsy.

BLAST. A sudden and violent gust of wind: it is generally of short duration, and succeeded by a fine breeze.—To blast, to blow up with gunpowder.

BLAST-ENGINE. A ventilating machine to draw off the foul air from the hold of a ship, and induce a current of fresh air into it.

BLATHER. Thin mud or puddle. Also, idle nonsense.

BLAY. A name of the bleak.

BLAZE, To. To fire away as briskly as possible. To blaze away is to keep up a running discharge of fire-arms. Also, to spear salmon. Also, in the woods, to mark a tree by cutting away a portion of its outer surface, thus leaving a patch of whiter internal surface exposed, to call attention or mark a track.

BLAZERS. Applied to mortar or bomb vessels, from the great emission of flame to throw a 13-inch shell.

BLAZING STARS. The popular name of comets.

BLEAK. The Leuciscus alburnus of naturalists, and the fresh-water sprat of Isaak Walton. The name of this fish is from the Anglo-Saxon blican, owing to its shining whiteness—its lustrous scales having long been used in the manufacture of false pearls.

BLEEDING THE MONKEY. The monkey is a tall pyramidal kid or bucket, which conveys the grog from the grog-tub to the mess—stealing from this in transitu is so termed.

BLEED THE BUOYS. To let the water out.[107]

BLENNY. A small acanthopterygious fish (Blennius).

BLETHER-HEAD. A blockhead.

BLETHERING. Talking idle nonsense; insolent prate.

BLIND. A name on the west coast of Scotland for the pogge, or miller's thumb (Cottus cataphractus).

BLIND. Everything that covers besiegers from the enemy. (See Orillon.)

BLINDAGE. A temporary wooden shelter faced with earth, both in siege works and in fortified places, against splinters of shells and the like.

BLIND-BUCKLERS. Those fitted for the hawse-holes, which have no aperture for the cable, and therefore used at sea to prevent the water coming in.

BLIND-HARBOUR. One, the entrance of which is so shut in as not readily to be perceived.

BLIND-ROCK. One lying just under the surface of the water, so as not to be visible in calms.

BLIND-SHELL. One which, from accident or bad fuze, has fallen without exploding, or one purposely filled with lead, as at the siege of Cadiz. Also used at night filled with fuze composition, and enlarged fuze-hole, to indicate the range.

BLIND-STAKES. A sort of river-weir.

BLINK OF THE ICE. A bright appearance or looming (the iceberg reflected in the atmosphere above it), often assuming an arched form; so called by the Greenlanders, and by which reflection they always know when they are approaching ice long before they see it. In Greenland blink means iceberg.

BLIRT. A gust of wind and rain.


BLOCCO. Paper and hair used in paying a vessel's bottom.

BLOCK. (In mechanics termed a pulley.) Blocks are flattish oval pieces of wood, with sheaves in them, for all the running ropes to run in. They are used for various purposes in a ship, either to increase the mechanical power of the ropes, or to arrange the ends of them in certain places on the deck, that they may be readily found when wanted; they are consequently of various sizes and powers, and obtain various names, according to their form or situation, thus:—A single block contains only one sheave or wheel. A double block has two sheaves. A treble or threefold block, three, and so on. A long-tackle or fiddle-block has two sheaves—one below the other, like a fiddle. Cistern or sister block for top-sail lifts and reef tackles. Every[108] block is composed of three, and generally four, parts:—(1.) The shell, or outside wooden part. (2.) The sheave, or wheel, on which the rope runs. (3.) The pin, or axle, on which the sheave turns. (4.) The strop, or part by which the block is made fast to any particular station, and is usually made either of rope or of iron. Blocks are named and distinguished by the ropes which they carry, and the uses they serve for, as bowlines, braces, clue-lines, halliards, &c. &c. They are either made or morticed (which see).

BLOCK. The large piece of elm out of which the figure is carved at the head of the ship.

BLOCKADE. The investment of a town or fortress by sea and land; shutting up all the avenues, so that it can receive no relief.—To blockade a port is to prevent any communication therewith by sea, and cut off supplies, in order to compel a surrender when the provisions and ammunition are exhausted.—To raise a blockade is to discontinue it.—Blockade is violated by egress as well as by ingress. Warning on the spot is sufficient notice of a blockade de facto. Declaration is useless without actual investment. If a ship break a blockade, though she escape the blockading force, she is, if taken in any part of her future voyage, captured in delicto, and subject to confiscation. The absence of the blockading force removes liability, and might (in such cases) overrules right.

BLOCK AND BLOCK. The situation of a tackle when the blocks are drawn close together, so that the mechanical power becomes arrested until the tackle is again overhauled by drawing the blocks asunder. Synonymous with chock-a-block.

BLOCKHOUSE. A small work, generally built of logs, to protect adjacent ports. Blockhouses were primarily constructed in our American colonies, because they could be immediately built from the heavy timber felled to clear away the spot, and open the lines of fire. The ends were simply crossed alternately and pinned. Two such structures, with a space of 6 feet for clay, formed, on an elevated position, a very formidable casemated work. The slanting overhanging roof furnished excellent cover in lieu of loop-holes for musketry.

BLOCK-MAKER. A manufacturer of blocks.

BLOCKS. The several transverse pieces or logs of timber, piled in plane, on which a ship is built, or to place her on for repair: they consist of solid pieces of oak laid on the ground-ways.

BLOCKS, FIXED. See Fixed Blocks.

BLOOD-SUCKERS. Lazy fellows, who, by skulking, throw their proportion of labour on the shoulders of their shipmates.

BLOODY FLAG. A large red flag.

BLOOM. A peculiar warm blast of wind; a term used in iron-foundries.[109]

BLORE. An old word for a stiff gale.

BLOUT. A northern term for the sudden breaking-up of a storm. Blout has been misused for blirt.

BLOW. Applied to the breathing of whales and other cetaceans. The expired air from the lungs being highly charged with moisture, which condenses at the temperature of the atmosphere, appears like a column of steam.

BLOW. A gale of wind.

BLOWE. A very old English word for scold or revile, still in use, as when a man receives a good blowing-up.

BLOW-HOLES. The nostrils of the cetaceans, situated on the highest part of the head. In the whalebone whales they form two longitudinal slits, placed side by side. In the porpoises, grampuses, &c., they are united into a single crescentic opening.

BLOW HOME. The wind does not cease or moderate till it comes past that place, blowing continuously over the land and sea with equal velocity. In a naval sense, it does not blow home when a sea-wind is interrupted by a mountainous range along shore.

BLOWING GREAT GUNS AND SMALL ARMS. Heavy gales; a hurricane.

BLOWING HARD. Said of the wind when it is strong and steady.

BLOWING THE GRAMPUS. Throwing water over a sleeper on watch.

BLOWING WEATHER. A nautical term for a continuance of strong gales. (See Gale.)

BLOWN COD. A split cod, half dried by exposure to the wind. Blown is also frequently applied to bloated herrings, when only partly cured. Also, a cod-fish rises to the surface, and is easily taken, if blown. By being hauled nearly up, and the hook breaking, it loses the power for some time of contracting the air-bladder, and thus dies head out of water.

BLOWN ITSELF OUT. Said of a falling gale of wind.

BLOW OFF, To. To clear up in the clouds.

BLOW-OFF-PIPE, in a steamer, is a pipe at the foot of each boiler, communicating with the sea, and furnished with a cock to open and shut it.—Blowing-off is the act or operation of using the blow-off-pipe to cleanse a marine steam-engine of its brine deposit; also, to clear the boilers of water, to lighten a ship if grounded.

BLOW-OUT. Extravagant feasting regardless of consequences.

BLOW OVER, (It will). Said of a gale which is expected to pass away quickly.

BLOW-PIPE. An engine of offence used by the Araucanians and Borneans, and with the latter termed sumpitan: the poisoned arrow,[110] sumpit, will wound at the distance of 140 or more yards. The arrow is forced through (like boys' pea-shooters) by the forcible and sudden exertion of the lungs. A wafer can be hit at 30 yards to a certainty, and small birds are unerringly stunned at 30 yards by pellets of clay.

BLOW THE GAFF. To reveal a secret; to expose or inform against a person.

BLOW-THROUGH VALVE. A valve admitting steam into the condenser, in order to clear it of air and water before starting the engine.

BLOW UP, To. To abuse angrily.

BLOW-VALVE. A valve by which the first vacuum necessary for starting a steam-engine is produced.

BLUBBER. The layer of fat in whales between the skin and the flesh, which is flinched or peeled off, and boiled for oil, varying from 10 to 20 inches in thickness. (See Sea-blubber.)

BLUBBER FORKS and CHOPPERS. The implements with which blubber is "made off," or cut for stowing away.

BLUBBER-GUY. A large rope stretched from the main to the fore mast head of whalers, to which the speck-falls are attached for the operation of flensing.

BLUE. Till all's blue: carried to the utmost—a phrase borrowed from the idea of a vessel making out of port, and getting into blue water.—To look blue, to be surprised, disappointed, or taken aback, with a countenance expressive of displeasure.

BLUE-JACKETS. The seamen as distinguished from the marines.

BLUE LIGHT. A pyrotechnical preparation for signals by night. Also called Bengal light.

BLUE-LIGHTISM. Affected sanctimoniousness.

BLUE MOON. An indefinite period.

BLUE-NOSE. A general term for a native of Nova Scotia.

BLUE PETER. The signal for sailing when hoisted at the fore-topmast head; this well-known flag has a blue ground with a white square in the centre.

BLUE PIGEON. A nickname for the sounding lead.

BLUE WATER. The open ocean.

BLUFF. An abrupt high land, projecting almost perpendicularly into the sea, and presenting a bold front, rather rounded than cliffy in outline, as with the headland.

BLUFF-BOWED. Applied to a vessel that has broad and flat bows—that is, full and square-formed: the opposite of lean.

BLUFF-HEADED. When a ship has but a small rake forward on, being built with her stem too straight up.[111]

BLUNDERBUSS. A short fire-arm, with a large bore and wide mouth, to scatter a number of musket or pistol bullets or slugs.

BLUNK. A sudden squall, or stormy weather.

BLUSTROUS. Stormy: also said of a braggadocio.

BO. Abbreviation of boy. A familiar epithet for a comrade, derived probably from the negro.

BOADNASH. Buckhemshein coins of Barbary.

BOANGA. A Malay piratical vessel, impelled by oars.

BOARD. Certain offices under the control of the executive government, where the business of any particular department is carried on: as the Board of Admiralty, the Navy Board, Board of Ordnance, India Board, Board of Trade, &c. Also, timber sawn to a less thickness than plank: all broad stuff of under 11⁄2 inch in thickness. (See Plank.) Also, the space comprehended between any two places when the ship changes her course by tacking; or, it is the line over which she runs between tack and tack when working to windward, or sailing against the direction of the wind.—To make a good board. To sail in a straight line when close-hauled, without deviating to leeward.—To make short boards, is to tack frequently before the ship has run any great length of way.—To make a stern board, is when by a current, or any other accident, the vessel comes head to wind, the helm is shifted, and she has fallen back on the opposite tack, losing what she had gained, instead of having advanced beyond it. To make a stern board is frequently a very critical as well as seamanlike operation, as in very close channels. The vessel is allowed to run up into the wind until she has shot up to the weather danger; the helm is then shifted, and with all aback forward, she falls short off on the opposite tack. Such is also achieved at anchor in club-hauling (which see).—To board a ship, is to enter her in a hostile manner in order to take forcible possession of her, either from the attacking ship or by armed boats. The word board has various other applications among seamen:—To go aboard signifies to go into the ship.—To slip by the board, is to slip down a ship's side.—To board it up, is to beat up, sometimes on one tack and sometimes on another.—The weather-board is the side of the ship which is to windward.—By the board, close to a ship's deck.

BOARD AND BOARD. Alongside, as when two ships touch each other.

BOARDERS. Sailors appointed to make an attack by boarding, or to repel such attempt from the enemy. Four men selected from each gun were generally allotted as boarders, also to trim sails, tend pumps, repair rigging, [112]&c.

BOARD HIM. A colloquialism for I'll ask, demand, or accost him. Hence Shakspeare makes Polonius say of Hamlet,

"I'll board him presently."
To make acquaintance with; to fasten on.

BOARD HIM IN THE SMOKE. To take a person by surprise, as by firing a broadside, and boarding in the smoke.

BOARDING. An assault made by one vessel on another, by entering her in battle with a detachment of armed men.

BOARDING-BOOK. A register which has for its object the recording all particulars relative to every ship boarded, a copy of which is transmitted to the admiral under whose orders the ship is employed. (See Guard-book.)

BOARDING-NETTINGS. A framework of stout rope-netting placed where necessary, to obstruct an enemy's boarders.

BOARDING-PIKE. A defensive lance against boarders.

BOARDLINGS. Flippant understrappers of the admiralty and navy-boards.

BOARD OF TRADE. A committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of commercial matters.

BOAT. A small open vessel, conducted on the water by rowing or sailing. The construction, machinery, and even the names of boats, are very different, according to the various purposes for which they are calculated, and the services on which they are employed. Thus we have the long-boat and the jolly-boat, life-boat and gun-boat, but they will appear under their respective appellations.—A bold boat, one that will endure a rough sea well.—Man the boat, send the crew in to row and manage it.

BOATABLE. Water navigable for boats and small river-craft.

BOAT-BUOYS. Means added to increase the buoyancy of life-boats, &c.

BOAT-CHOCKS. Clamps of wood upon which a boat rests when stowed on a vessel's deck.

BOAT-CLOAK. A mantle for the officer going on duty; when left in the boat it is in the coxswain's charge.

BOAT-DAVIT. A curved piece of timber with a sheave at its outer end, which projects over the boat's stern, while the inner end is shipped into a cleat on each side of the bottom of the boat, for weighing anchors when needed. (See Davit.)

BOAT-FAST. See Painter.

BOAT-GEER. A general name for the rigging and furniture of a boat.

BOAT-HIRE. Expenses for the use of shore-boats.

BOAT-HOOK. An iron hook with a straight prong at its hinder part; it is fixed upon a pole, by the help of which a boat is either pulled to, or pushed off from, any place, and is capable of holding on by anything.[113]

BOATILA. A narrow-sterned, flat-bottomed boat of the Gulf of Manar.

BOATING. Transporting men, munitions, or goods, in boats.

BOAT-KEEPER. One of the boat's crew who remains in charge of her during the absence of the others. In small vessels he is sometimes called the boatman.

BOAT-NAILS. Those supplied for the carpenter's use are of various lengths, generally rose-headed, square at the points, and made both of copper and iron. (See Nails.)

BOAT-ROPE. A separate rope veered to the boat to be towed at the ship's stern.

BOAT'S CREW. The men appointed as the crew of any particular boat, as the barge's crew, cutter's crew, &c.

BOAT'S-GRIPES. Lashings for the secure stowage of boats. (See Gripes.)

BOAT-SKIDS. Portable pieces of plank used to prevent chafing when a boat is hoisted or lowered. (See Skids.)

BOATSWAIN. The officer who superintends the boat-sails, ship's-sails, rigging, canvas, colours, anchors, cables and cordage, committed to his charge. He ought also to take care that the blocks and running ropes are regularly placed to answer the purposes for which they are intended, and that the sails are properly fitted to their yards and stays, and well-furled or reefed when occasion requires. He pipes the hands to their several duties, seeing that they attend his call, and ought to be in every way a thorough seaman. Although termed boatswain, the boats are not in his charge. They, with the spars, &c., and stores for repair, belong to the carpenter. The boatswain is the officer of the first lieutenant; he gives no order, but reports defects, and carries out the will of his superior.

BOATSWAIN-BIRD. Phaethon æthereus, a tropical bird, so called from its sort of whistle. It is distinguished by two long feathers in the tail, called the marling-spike.

BOATSWAIN-CAPTAIN. An epithet given by certain popinjays in the service to such of their betters as fully understand the various duties of their station.

BOATSWAIN'S MATE. Is an assistant to the boatswain, who had the peculiar command of the long-boat. He summons the watch or crew by his whistle, and during his watch looks to the decks, and has peculiar calls for "grog," "'bout ship," "pipe to breakfast," "sweepers," &c.

BOATSWAIN'S STORE-ROOM. Built expressly for boatswain's stores, on a platform or light deck.


BOAT THE ANCHOR. Place the anchor in-board in the boat.

BOAT THE OARS. Put them in their proper places fore and aft on the thwarts ready for use.[114]

BOB. A knot of worms on a string, used in fishing for eels; also colloquially, it means a berth.—Shift your bob, to move about, to dodge, to fish.—Bear a bob, make haste, be brisk.

BOB. The ball or balance-weight of a clock's pendulum; the weight attached to the plumb-line.

BOBBERY. A disturbance, row, or squabble; a term much used in the East Indies and China.

BOBBING. A particular method of fishing for eels—

"His hook he bated with a dragon's tail,
And sat upon a rock, and bobb'd for whale."
BOBBING ABOUT. Heaving and setting without making any way.

BOBBLE. The state of waves when dashing about without any regular set or direction, as in cross tides or currents.

BOBSTAY-COLLARS. These are made with large rope, and an eye spliced in each end; they are secured round the bowsprit, on the upper side, with a rose lashing. They are almost entirely superseded by iron bands.

BOBSTAY-HOLES. Those cut through the fore-part of the knee of the head, between the cheeks, for the admission of the bobstay; they are not much used now, as chain bobstays are almost universal, which are secured to plates by shackles.

BOBSTAY-PLATES. Iron plates by which the lower end of the bobstay is attached to the stem.

BOBSTAYS. Ropes or chains used to confine the bowsprit downward to the stem or cut-water. They are fitted in various ways. Their use is to counteract the strain of the foremast-stays, which draw it upwards. The bowsprit is also fortified by shrouds from the bows on each side, which are all very necessary, as the fore-mast and the upper spars on the main-mast are stayed and greatly supported by the bowsprit.

BOCCA. [Sp. boca, mouth.] Is a term used both in the Levant, and on the north coast of South America, or the Spanish Main, for a mouth or channel into any port or harbour, or the entrance into a sound which has a passage out by a contrary way.—Bocca Tigris, Canton River.

BODIES. The figure of a ship, abstractedly considered, is divided into different parts or figures, each of which has the appellation body, as fore-body, midship-body, square-body, &c.

BODKIN. A dirk or dagger, a word still in use, though Johnson says it is the oldest acceptation of it. It is the bodekin of Chaucer; and Shakspeare makes Hamlet ask who would bear the ills of life,

"When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin?"
[115]BODY. The principal corps of an army, or the main strength of a fleet.

BODY, of a Place. In fortification, the space inclosed by the enceinte, or line of bastions and curtains.

BODY-HOOPS. Those which secure the aris pieces of a made mast.

BODY-PLAN. The draught of a proposed ship, showing the breadth and timbers; it is a section supposed to cut the vessel through the broadest part; it is otherwise called the plan of projection.

BODY-POST. An additional stern-post introduced at the fore-part of an aperture cut in the dead-wood in a ship fitted with a screw-propeller.

BOG. A marsh, or a tract of land, which from its form and impermeable bottom retains stagnant water. (See Quagmire.)

BOG-BLUTER. A northern name for the bittern, from its habit of thrusting its bill into marshy places.

BOG-TROTTER. Any one who lives among marshy moors, but generally applied to the Emeralders.

BOGUE, To. To drop off from the wind. To edge away to leeward with the wind; not holding a good wind, and driving very much to leeward. Used only to clumsy inferior craft.

BOGUE. Mouth of a river; hence disembogue. Bogue forts, China.

BOHEMIAN. A conceited dawdler in his duties. Shakspeare ridicules Simple as a Bohemian Tartar; both of which terms were applied to gipsies.

BOILER. Of a steam-engine, made of wrought iron, or copper-plates, which being partly filled with water, and having fire applied to the outside, generates steam to supply the engine.

BOILERS. Termed coppers; the ship's cooking utensils, of iron or copper.

BOILING. The "whole boiling" means the entire quantity, or whole party; applied to number or quantity. A contemptuous epithet.

BOLD-BOW. A broad bluff bow.

BOLDERING WEATHER. Cloudy and thundery.

BOLD-SHORE. A steep coast where the water, deepening rapidly, admits the near approach of shipping without the danger of grounding.

BOLD-TO. Applied to land; the same as steep-to.

BOLE. A small boat.

BOLIDE. A name for aërolite (which see).

BOLINE. See Bowline. Clavus in navi.

BOLLAN. The Manx or Gaelic term for the fish old-wife.

BOLLARD. A thick piece of wood on the head of a whale-boat, round which the harpooner gives the line a turn, in order to veer it steadily, and check the animal's velocity. Also a strong timber fixed vertically into the ground, part being left above it, on which to fasten ropes.[116] Also a lighter sort of dolphin for attaching vessels to. Wharves have bollards to which vessels are secured when alongside.

BOLLARD-TIMBERS. Two pieces of oak, usually called knight-heads (which see).

BOLLING or BOWLING AWAY. Going with a free wind.

BOLME. An old term for a waterman's pole or boom.

BOLOTO. A small boat of the Philippines and Moluccas.

BOLSTERS. Small cushions or bags of tarred canvas, used to preserve the stays from being chafed by the motion of the masts, when the ship pitches at sea. Pieces of soft wood covered with canvas, placed on the trestle-trees, for the eyes of the rigging to rest upon, and prevent a sharp nip. Also pieces of oak timber fayed to the curvature of the bow, under the hawse-holes, and down upon the upper cheek, to prevent the cable from rubbing against the cheeks.—Bolsters for sheets, tacks, &c., are small pieces of fir or oak, fayed under the gunwale, or other part, with the outer surface rounded to prevent chafing.—Bolsters, for the anchor lining. Solid pieces of oak bolted to the ship's side at the fore part of the fore-chains on which the stanchions are fixed that receive the anchor lining.

BOLT. A cylindrical pin of iron or copper to unite the different parts of a vessel, varied in form according to the places where they are required. In ship-building square ones are used in frame-fastening; the heads of all bolts are round, saucer, or collared.—Bolt of the irons, which runs through three pairs of shackles.—Drift or drive-bolts are used to drive out others.—Bay-bolts, have jags or barbs on each side, to keep them from flying out of their holes.—Clench-bolts are clenched with rivetting hammers.—Fend or fender bolts, made with long and thick heads, and struck into the outermost bends of the ship, to save her sides from bruises.—Forelock-bolts have at the end a forelock of iron driven in, to keep them from starting back.—Set-bolts are used for forcing the planks, and bringing them close together.—Ring-bolts are used for the bringing to of the planks, and those parts whereto are fastened the breeches and tackle of the guns.—Scarp-bolts and keel-bolts, pointed, not clinched, used for false keel or temporary purposes.—Bringing-to bolts, fitted with an eye at one end, and a nut and screw at the other, for bringing to the ends at the stem, &c.—To bolt, to start off, to run away.

BOLT-BOAT. An old term for a boat which makes good weather in a rough sea.

BOLTING TIMBERS. Those on each side of the stem, continued up for the security of the bowsprit. (See Knight-heads.)

BOLT OF CANVAS. The piece or roll of 39 yards in which it is supplied, but which usually measure about 40 yards in length; it is generally from 22 to 30 inches wide.[117]

BOLT-ROPE. A rope sewed all round the edge of the sail, to prevent the canvas from tearing. The bottom part of it is called the foot-rope, the sides leech-ropes, and if the sail be oblong or square the upper part is called the head-rope; the stay or weather rope of fore-and-aft sails is termed the luff.

BOLTROPE-NEEDLE. A strong needle for stitching the sail to the bolt-ropes.

BOLT-SPRIT. See Bowsprit.

BOLT-STRAKE. Certain strakes of plank which the beam fastenings pass through.

BOLT-TOE. The cock of a gun-lock.

BOMB [formerly bomber, from bomba]. The mortar of bomb-vessels.

BOMB or MORTAR VESSELS. Small ships fortified for throwing bombs into a fortress; said to be the invention of M. Reyneau, and to have been first used at the bombardment of Algiers in 1682. Until then it had been judged impracticable to bombard a place from the sea.

BOMBALO. A delicate kind of sand-eel taken in quantities at Bombay.

BOMBARD. A piece of ordnance, anciently in use before the introduction of more complete cannon with improved gunpowder, propelling iron balls. Its bore, for the projection of stone shot, sometimes exceeded 20 inches in diameter, but was short; its chamber, for containing the powder-charge, being about as long, but much narrower both within and without. There were also very diminutive varieties of it. It has been vaguely called by some writers basilisk, and by the Dutch donderbass. Used to assail a town, fortress, or fleet, by the projection of shells from mortars. It was also the name of a barrel, or large vessel for liquids; hence, among other choice epithets, Prince Henry calls that "tun of man," Falstaff, a "huge bombard of sack." Also, a Mediterranean vessel, with two masts like the English ketch.

BOMB-BED BEAMS. The beams which support the bomb-bed in bomb-vessels.

BOMB-BEDS. See Bed of a Mortar.

BOMBO. Weak cold punch.

BOMB-SHELL. A large hollow ball of cast-iron, for throwing from mortars (distinguished by having ears or lugs, by which to lift it with the shell-hooks into the mortar), and having a hole to receive the fuze, which communicates ignition to the charge contained in the shell. (See Fuze.)

BOME-SPAR [a corruption of boom]. A spar of a larger kind.

BOMKIN. See Bumkin.

BONA FIDE. In good faith; without subterfuge—Bona fides is a condition necessary to entitle to the privilege of pre-emption in our admiralty courts.[118]

BONAVENTURE. The old outer mizen, long disused.

BONDING. See Warehousing System.

BONDING-POND. An inclosed space of water where the tide flows, for keeping timber in.

BOND-MAN. A harsh method in some ships, in keeping one man bound for the good behaviour of another on leave.

BOND OF BOTTOMRY. An authority to borrow money, by pledging the keel or bottom of the ship. (See Bottomry.)


BON GRACE. Junk-fenders; for booming off obstacles from a ship's sides or bows. (See Bowgrace.)

BONITO. The Thynnus pelamys, a fish of the scomber family, commonly about 2 feet long, with a sharp head, small mouth, full eyes, and a regular semi-lunar tail.

BONI-VOCHIL. The Hebridean name for the great northern diver (Colymbus glacialis).

BONNET. An additional part laced to the foot of the jibs, or other fore-and-aft sails, in small vessels in moderate weather, to gather more wind. They are commonly one-third of the depth of the sails they belong to. Thus we say, "Lace on the bonnet," or "Shake off the bonnet." Bonnets have lately been introduced to secure the foot of an upper-topsail to a lower-topsail yard. The unbonnetted sail is for storm service. Bonnet, in fortification, is a raised portion of the works at any salient angle, having the same plan, but 10 or 12 feet more command than the work on which it is based. It assists in protecting from enfilade, and affords a plunging fire.

BONNET-FLOOK. A name of the well-known flat-fish, brill, pearl, or mouse-dab; the Pleuronectes rhombus.

BONXIE. The Shetland name for the skua-gull (Cataractes vulgaris). Also a very general northern term for sea-birds.

BONY-FISH. One of the names of the hard-head (which see).


BOOBY-HATCH. A smaller kind of companion, but readily removable; it is in use for merchantmen's half decks, and lifts off in one piece.

BOOK. A commercial term for a peculiar packing of muslin, bast, and other stuffs.—Brought to book, made to account.[119]

BOOKING. A reprimand.

BOOKS. (See Ship's Books.) Official documents.

BOOM. A long spar run out from different places in the ship, to extend or boom out the foot of a particular sail; as, jib-boom, flying jib-boom, studding-sail booms, driver or spanker boom, ringtail-boom, main-boom, square-sail boom, &c. A ship is said to come booming forwards when she comes with all the sail she can make. Boom also denotes a cable stretched athwart the mouth of a river or harbour, with yards, top-masts, or stout spars of wood lashed to it, to prevent the entrance of an enemy.—To top one's boom, is to start off.—To boom off, to shove a boat or vessel away with spars.

BOOMAGE. A duty levied to compound for harbour dues, anchorage, and soundage.

BOOM-BOATS. Those stowed on the booms.

BOOM-BRACE PENDANT. A rope attached to the extremity of a studding-sail boom, and leading down on deck; it is used to counteract the pressure of the sail upon the boom.

BOOM-COVER. The tarpaulin, or painted, cover over the spars.

BOOMING. Sound of distant guns; it is often, but wrongly, applied to the hissing or whistling of shot.

BOOM-IRONS. Are metal rings fitted on the yard-arms, through which the studding-sail booms traverse; there is one on each top-sail yard-arm, but on the lower yards a second, which opens to allow the boom to be triced up; it is one-fourth from the yard-arms, and holds down the heel of the boom when it is rigged out.

BOOM-JIGGER. A tackle used in large ships, for rigging out or running in the top-mast studding-sail booms.

BOOMKIN. See Bumkin.

BOOM-MAINSAIL. See Main-sail.

BOOMS. A space where the spare spars are stowed; the launch being generally stowed between them.

BOOPAH. A Tongatabou canoe with a single out-rigger.

BOOTHYR. An old term, denoting a small river vessel.

BOOT-TOPPING. The old operation of scraping off the grass, slime, shells, &c., which adhere to the bottom, near the surface of the water, and daubing it over with a mixture of tallow, sulphur, and resin, as a temporary protection against worms. This is chiefly performed where there is no dock or other commodious situation for breaming or careening, or when the hurry of a voyage renders it inconvenient to have the whole bottom properly trimmed and cleansed. The term is now applied to sheathing a vessel with planking over felt.

BOOTY. That sort of prize which may be distributed at the capstan-head, or at once.[120]

BOOZE. A carouse; hence, boozy, elevated by liquor.

BORA. A very violent wind experienced in the upper part of the Adriatic Sea, but which fortunately is of no great duration.

BORACCHIO [Sp. borracho, drunk]. A skin for holding wine or water, usually a goat's. Used in the Levant. A skin-full; literally, gorged with wine.

BORASCA. A storm, with thunder and lightning.

BORD. The sea-coast, an old term. Formerly meant the side, edge, or brim; hence, as applied to a ship, to throw overboard, is to cast anything over the side of the vessel.

BORDELS. An old word for houses built along a strand. In the old play called the "Ladies' Privilege," it is said:—"These gentlemen know better to cut a caper than a cable, or board a pink in the bordels than a pinnace."

BORDER. A term referring to the nature of the vegetation on the margin of a stream or lake, or to artificial works constructed along the banks.

BORD YOU. A saying of a man waiting, to one who is drinking, meaning that he claims the next turn.

BORE. A sudden and rapid flow of tide in certain inlets of the sea; as the monstrous wave in the river Hooghly, called bahu by the natives, which rolls in with the noise of distant thunder at flood-tide. It occurs from February to November, at the new and full moon. Its cause has not been clearly defined, although it probably arises from the currents during spring-tides, acting on a peculiar conformation of the banks and bed of the river; it strikes invariably on the same part of the banks, majestically rolling over to one side, and passing on diagonally to the other with impetuous violence. The bore also occurs in England, near Bristol; and in America, in several rivers, but especially in the Bay of Fundy, where at the river Petticodiac the tide rises 76 feet. It also occurs in Borneo and several rivers in the East. (See Hygre.) Also, the interior cavity of a piece of ordnance, generally cylindrical in shape, except when a part of it is modified into a chamber.

BOREAS. A classical name for the north wind, still in use; indeed a brackish proverb for extreme severity of weather says—"Cold and chilly, like Boreas with an iceberg in each pocket."

BORE DOWN. Sailed down from to windward.

BORHAME. A northern term for the flounder.

BORING. In Arctic seas, the operation of forcing the ship through loose ice under a heavy press of sail; at least attempting the chance of advantage of cracks or openings in the pack.

BORN with a Silver Spoon in his Mouth. Said of a person who, by[121] birth or connection, has all the usual obstacles to advancement cleared away for him. Those who toil unceasingly for preferment, and toil in vain, are said to have been born with a wooden ladle. Again, the silver-spoon gentry are said to come on board through the cabin windows; those less favoured, over the bows, or through the hawse-holes.

BORNE. Placed on the books for victuals and wages; also supernumerary and "for rank."

BORROW, To. To approach closely either to land or wind; to hug a shoal or coast in order to avoid adverse tide.

BORT. The name given to a long fishing-line in the Shetland Isles.

BOSS. A head of water, or reservoir. Also the apex of a shield.

BOTARGA. The roe of the mullet pressed flat and dried; that of commerce, however, is from the tunny, a large fish of passage which is common in the Mediterranean. The best kind comes from Tunis; it must be chosen dry and reddish. The usual way of eating it is with olive-oil and lemon-juice.

BOTCH, To. To make bungling work.

BOTE'S-CARLE. An old term for the coxswain of a boat.

BOTHERED. Getting among adverse currents, with shifting winds.

BOTH SHEETS AFT. The situation of a square-rigged ship that sails before the wind, or with the wind right astern. It is said also of a half-drunken sailor rolling along with his hands in his pockets and elbows square.

BOTTE. An old English term for boat, and assuredly the damaged boat into which Prospero is turned adrift by Shakspeare.

BOTTLE-BUMP. The bittern, so called on our east coast.

BOTTLE-CHARTS. Those on which the set of surface currents are exhibited, derived from papers found in bottles which have been thrown overboard for that purpose, and washed up on the beach, or picked up by other ships.

BOTTLE-NOSE, or Bottle-nosed Whale. A name applied to several of the smaller cetaceans of the northern seas, more especially to the Hyperoodon rostratus.

BOTTOM. A name for rich low land formed by alluvial deposits: but in a general sense it denotes the lowest part of a thing, in contradistinction to the top or uppermost part. In navigation, it is used to denote as well the channel of rivers and harbours as the body or hull of a ship. Thus, in the former sense we say "a gravelly bottom, clayey bottom," &c., and in the latter sense "a British bottom, a Dutch bottom," &c. By statute, certain commodities imported in foreign bottoms pay a duty called "petty customs," over and above what they are liable to if imported in British bottoms. Bottom of a ship or boat is that part which is below the wales.[122]

BOTTOM-CLEAN. Thoroughly clean, free from weeds, &c.

BOTTOM-PLANK. That which is placed between the garboard-strake and lower back-strake.

BOTTOMREE, or Bottomry-bond. The contract of bottomry is a negotiable instrument, which may be put in suit by the person to whom it is transferred: it is in use in all countries of maritime commerce and interests. A contract in the nature of a mortgage of a ship, when the owner of it borrows money to enable him to carry on the voyage, and pledge the keel, or bottom of the ship, as a security for the repayment. If the ship be lost the lender also loses his whole money; but if it return in safety then he shall receive back his principal, and also the premium stipulated to be paid, however it may exceed the usual or legal rate of interest. The affair is, however, only regarded as valid upon the ground of necessity; and thus exacting more than the interest allowed by law is not deemed usury.

BOTTOMRY PREMIUM. A high rate of interest charged on the safety of the ship—the lender losing his whole money if she be lost.

BOTTOM-WIND. A phenomenon that occurs on the lakes in the north of England, especially Derwent Water, which is often agitated by swelling waves without any apparent cause.

BOUCHE. See Bush.

BOUGE or Bowge and Chine, or Bilge and Chimb. The end of one cask stowed against the bilge of another. To prepare a ship for the purpose of sinking it.

BOUILLI. Termed by seamen bully-beef; disliked because all the substance is boiled away to enrich the cook's grease-tub, and the meat is useless as food; rejected even by dogs. In one ship of war it produced mutiny; vide Adams' account of the Bounty miseries. It is also the name given to highly cooked meat in hermetically sealed tin canisters.

BOULDER-HEAD. A work against the encroachment of the sea, made of wooden stakes.

BOULDERS. Stones worn and rounded by the attrition of the waves of the sea: the word, on the authority of Hunter, was considered a technical term in the fourteenth century, as appears in a warrant of John of Gaunt for the repair of Pontefract Castle—"De peres, appelés buldres, a n're dit chastel come nous semblerez resonables pur la defense de meisme."

BOULEPONGES. A drink to which many of the deaths of Europeans in India were ascribed; but in Bernier's "Travels," in the train of Aurungzebe, in 1664, we are informed that "bouleponge is a beverage made of arrack, sugar, lemon-juice, and a little muscadine." Probably a corruption of bowls of punch. (See Punch.)[123]

BOUNCE. The larger dog-fish.

BOUNCER. A gun which kicks violently when fired.

BOUND. Destined for a particular service. Intended voyage to a place.—Ice-bound. Totally surrounded with ice.—Tide-bound, or be-neaped. (See Neaped.)—Wind-bound. Prevented from sailing by contrary wind.—Where are you bound to?—i.e. To what place are you going?—Bound on a cruise. A corruption of the old word bowne, which is still in use on the northern coasts, and means to make ready, to prepare.

BOUNTY. A sum of money given by government, authorized by act of parliament or royal proclamation, to men who voluntarily enter into the army or navy; and the widow of such volunteer seaman killed or drowned in the service was entitled to a bounty equal to a year's pay.

BOUNTY-BOATS. Those which fished under the encouragement of a bounty from government.

BOUNTY-LIST. A register of all persons who have received the bounty to which they are entitled after having passed three musters in the service.

BOURN. See Burn.

BOURSE. A place where merchants congregate. An exchange.

BOUSE. See Bowse.

BOUT. A turn, trial, or round. An attack of illness; a convivial meeting.—'Bout ship, the brief order for "about ship."

BOW. The fore-end of a ship or boat; being the rounding part of a vessel forward, beginning on both sides where the planks arch inwards, and terminating where they close, at the rabbet of the stem or prow, being larboard or starboard from that division. A bold bow is broad and round; a lean bow, narrow and thin.—On the bow. An arc of the horizon (not exceeding 45°) comprehended between some distant object and that point of the compass which is right ahead. Four points on either bow is met by four points before the beam.

BOW. An astronomical instrument formerly used at sea, consisting of only one large graduated arc of 90°, three vanes, and a shank or staff. Also the bow of yew, a weapon of our early fleets.

BOW. She bows to the breeze; when the sails belly out full, and the ship inclines and goes ahead, pitching or bowing over the blue waves.

BOW-BYE. The situation of a ship when, in stays, she falls back off the wind again, and gets into irons, which demands practical seamanship for her extrication. This was deemed a lubberly act in our fleets of old.

BOW-CHASERS. Two long chase-guns placed forward in the bow-ports to fire directly ahead, and being of small bore for their length, carry shot to a great distance.[124]

BOWD-EATEN. An old expression for eaten by weevils.

BOWER-ANCHORS. Those at the bows and in constant working use. They are called best and small, not from a difference of size, but as to the bow on which they are placed; starboard being the best bower, and port the small bower. The appropriated cables assume the respective names. (See also Spare Anchor, Sheet, Stream, Coasting, Kedge, &c.)

BOW-FAST. A rope or chain for securing a vessel by the bow. (See Fast.)

BOWGE, or Bouge. An old term for bilge.

BOWGER. A name given in the Hebrides to the coulter-neb, or puffin (Fratercula arctica).

BOWGRACE. A kind of frame or fender of old junk, placed round the bows and sides of a ship to prevent her receiving injury from floating ice or timbers. (See Bon Grace.)

BOWING. An injury done to yards by too much topping, and letting their weights hang by the lifts. The state of a top-sail yard when it arches in the centre from hoisting it too tautly. Also of the mast when it bellies or is crippled by injudiciously setting up the rigging too taut.

BOWING THE SEA. Meeting a turbulent swell in coming to the wind.

BOWLINE. A rope leading forward which is fastened to a space connected by bridles to cringles on the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails: it is used to keep the weather-edge of the sail tight forward and steady when the ship is close hauled to the wind; and which, indeed, being hauled taut, enables the ship to come nearer to the wind. Hence the ship sails on a bowline, or stands on a taut bowline.—To check or come up a bowline is to slacken it when the wind becomes large or free.—To sharp or set taut a bowline is to pull it as taut as it can well bear.

BOWLINE-BEND. The mode of bending warps or hawsers together by taking a bowline in the end of one rope, and passing the end of the other through the bight, and making a bowline upon it.

BOWLINE-BRIDLE. The span attached to the cringles on the leech of a square sail to which the bowline is toggled or clinched.

BOWLINE-CRINGLE. An eye worked into the leech-rope of a sail; usually in that of a fore-sail two, a main-sail three, and the fore-topsails three, but the main-topsail four. By these the sails are found in the dark, by feeling alone.

BOWLINE HAUL. A hearty and simultaneous bowse. (See One! two!! three!!!) In hauling the bowline it is customary for the leading man to veer, and then haul, three times in succession, singing out one, two, three—at the last the weight of all the men is thrown[125] in together: this is followed by "belay, oh!" When the bowlines are reported "bowlines hauled, sir," by the officer in command of the fore-part of the ship, the hands, or the watch, return to their duties.

BOWLINE-KNOT. That by which the bowline-bridles were fastened to the cringles: the bowline-knot is made by an involution of the end and a bight upon the standing part of a rope. A further involution makes what is termed a bowline on a bight. It is very difficult to explain by words:—holding the rope some distance from the end by the left hand, the end held in the right is laid on the main part, and by a twist given screw-fashion to the right, a loop or kink is formed inclosing this end, which is then passed behind, and back in the same direction with the former, and then jammed home. It is rapidly done, easily undone, and one of the most seamanlike acts, exhibiting grace as well as power. It can be made by a man with but one arm.

BOW-LINES. In ship-building, longitudinal curves representing the ship's fore-body cut in a vertical section.

BOWLING-ALONG. Going with a free wind.

BOW-LOG TIMBERS. A provincial name for hawse-wood.

BOWMAN. In a single-banked boat he who rows the foremost oar and manages the boat-hook; called by the French "brigadier de l'embarcation." In double-banked boats there are always two bowmen. Also an archer, differently pronounced.

BOW-OAR. The foremost oar or oars, in pulling a boat.

BOW-PIECES. The ordnance in the bows; also in building.

BOW-RAIL. A rail round the bows.

BOWSE, To. To pull upon any body with a tackle, or complication of pulleys, in order to remove it, &c. Hauling upon a tack is called "bowsing upon a tack," and when they would have the men pull all together, they cry, "Bowse away." Also used in setting up rigging, as "Bowse away, starboard;" "Bowse away, port." It is, however, mostly a gun-tackle term.—Bowse up the jib, a colloquialism to denote the act of tippling: it is an old phrase, and was probably derived from the Dutch buyzen, to booze.

BOWSPRIT, or Bolt-sprit. A large spar, ranking with a lower-mast, projecting over the stem; beyond it extends the jib-boom, and beyond that again the flying jib-boom. To these spars are secured the stays of the fore-mast and of the spars above it; on these stays are set the fore and fore-topmast staysails, the jib, and flying-jib, which have a most useful influence in counter-balancing the pressure of the after-sails, thereby tending to force the ship ahead instead of merely turning her round. In former times underneath these spars were set a sprit-sail, sprit-topsail, &c.

BOWSPRIT, Running. In cutter-rigged vessels. (See Cutter.)[126]

BOWSPRIT-BITTS. Are strong upright timbers secured to the beams below the deck; they have a cross-piece bolted to them, the inner end of the bowsprit steps between them, and is thus prevented from slipping in. The cross-piece prevents it from canting up.

BOWSPRIT-CAP. The crance or cap on the outer end of the bowsprit, through which the jib-boom traverses.

BOWSPRIT-GEAR. A term denoting the ropes, blocks, &c., belonging to the bowsprit.

BOWSPRIT-HEART. The heart or block of wood used to secure the lower end of the fore-stay, through which the inner end of the jib-boom is inserted. It is seldom, if ever, used now, an iron band round the bowsprit, with an eye on each side for the fore-stays, being preferred.

BOWSPRIT-HORSES. The ridge-ropes which extend from the bowsprit-cap to the knight-heads.

BOWSPRIT-LADDER. Skids over the bowsprit from the beak-head in some ships, to enable men to run out upon the bowsprit.

BOWSPRIT-NETTING. The netting placed just above a vessel's bowsprit, for stowing away the fore-topmast staysail; it is usually lashed between the ridge-ropes.

BOWSPRIT-SHROUDS. Strong ropes or chains leading from nearly the outer end of the bowsprit to the luff of the bow, giving lateral support to that spar.

BOW-STAVES. Early supplied to our men-of-war.

BOW-TIMBERS. Those which form the bow of the ship.

BOX. The space between the back-board and the stern-post of a boat, where the coxswain sits.

BOXES OF THE PUMPS. Each ordinary pump has an upper and lower box, the one a fixture in the lower part of its chamber, the other attached to the end of the spear or piston-rod; in the centre of each box is a valve opening upwards.

BOXHAULING. Is an evolution by which a ship is veered sharp round on her heel, when the object is to avoid making a great sweep. The helm is put a-lee, the head-yards braced flat aback, the after-yards squared, the driver taken in, and the head-sheets hauled to windward; when she begins to gather stern-way the helm is shifted and sails trimmed. It is only resorted to in emergencies, as a seaman never likes to see his ship have stern-way. With much wind and sea this evolution would be dangerous.

BOXING. A square piece of dry hard wood, used in connecting the frame timbers. Also, the projection formerly left at the hawse-pieces, in the wake of the hawse-holes, where the planks do not run through; now disused. The stem is said to be boxed when it is joined to the fore end of the keel by a side scarph. (See Boxing of Rudder.)[127]

BOXING OFF. Is performed by hauling the head-sheets to windward, and laying the head-yards flat aback, to pay the ship's head out of the wind, when the action of the helm alone is not sufficient for that purpose; as when she is got "in irons."

BOX THE COMPASS, To. Not only to repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its divisions.

BOYART. An old term for a hoy.

BOYAUX. The zig-zags or tortuous trenches in the approach of a besieger.

BOYER. A sloop of Flemish construction, with a raised work at each end.

BRAB. The sheaf of the young leaves of the Palmyra palm (and also of the cocoa-nut), from which sinnet or plait for hats is made.

BRAB-TREE. The Palmyra palm.

BRACE. The braces are ropes belonging to all the yards of a ship; two to each yard, rove through blocks that are stropped to the yards, or fastened to pendants, seized to the yard-arms. Their use is either to square or traverse the yards horizontally; hence, to brace the yard, is to bring it to either side by means of the braces. In ship-building, braces are plates of iron, copper, or mixed metal, which are used to bind efficiently a weakness in a vessel; as also to receive the pintles by which the rudder is hung.

BRACE ABACK. To brace the yards in, so as to lay the sails aback.—To brace about, to turn the yards round for the contrary tack, or in consequence of a change of wind.—To brace abox, a manœuvre to insure casting the right way, by bracing the head-yards flat aback (not square).—To brace by, to brace the yards in contrary directions to each other on the different masts, to effect the stopping of the vessel. (See Counter-brace.)—To brace in, to lay the yard less oblique, as for a free wind, or nearly square.—To brace round, synonymous with brace about.—To brace sharp, to cause the yards to have the smallest possible angle with the keel, for the ship to have head-way: deemed generally to form an angle of 20° with the keel.—To brace to, is to check or ease off the lee braces, and round in the weather ones, to assist in the manœuvre of tacking or wearing.—To brace up, or brace sharp up, to lay the yards more obliquely fore and aft, by easing off the weather-braces and hauling in the lee ones, which enables a ship to lie as close to the wind as possible.

BRACE OF SHAKES. A moment: taken from the flapping of a sail. I will be with you before it shakes thrice.

BRACE PENDANTS. Are lengths of rope, or now more generally chain, into which the yard-arm brace-blocks are spliced. They are[128] used in the merchant service to save rope, to give the blocks more freedom for slewing to their work, but chiefly because when the brace is let go, the falling chain will overhaul it, making it easier to haul in the other brace.


BRACK. The Manx or Gaelic name for mackerel.

BRACKETS. Short crooked timbers resembling knees, fixed in the frame of a ship's head to support the gratings; they likewise served to support and ornament the gallery. Also, the two vertical side-pieces of the carriage of any piece of ordnance, which support it by the trunnions. Called also cheeks. Also, triangular supports to miscellaneous things.

BRACKISH. Water not fresh; from the Icelandic breke, the sea.

BRADS. Small nails.

BRAE. A declivity or precipice.

BRAGGIR. The name given in the Western Islands of Scotland to the broad leaves growing on the top of the Alga marina, or sea-grass.

BRAILS. Ropes passing through leading blocks on the hoops of the mizen-mast and gaff, and fastened to the outermost leech of the sail, in different places, to truss it close up as occasion requires; all trysails and several of the staysails also have brails.


BRAKE. The handle or lever by which a common ship-pump is usually worked. It operates by means of two iron bolts, one thrust through the inner hole of it, which bolted through forms the lever axis in the iron crutch of the pump, and serves as the fulcrum for the brake, supporting it between the cheeks. The other bolt connects the extremity of the brake to the pump-spear, which draws up the spear box or piston, charged with the water in the tube; derived from brachium, an arm or lever. Also, used to check the speed of machinery by frictional force pressing on the circumference of the largest wheel acted on by leverage of the brake.

BRAN, To. To go on; to lie under a floe edge, in foggy weather, in a boat in Arctic seas, to watch the approach of whales.

BRANCH. The diploma of those pilots who have passed at the Trinity House, as competent to navigate vessels in particular places. The word branch is also metaphorically used for river divergents, but its[129] application to affluents is improper. Any branch or ramification, as in estuaries, where they traverse, river-like, miles of territory, in labyrinthine mazes.

BRANCH-PILOT. One approved by the Trinity House, and holding a branch, for a particular navigation.

BRAND. The Anglo-Saxon for a burnished sword. A burned device or character, especially that of the broad arrow on government stores, to deface or erase which is felony.

BRANDED TICKET. A discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is written, and the reason he is turned out of the service. In the army, deserters are branded with D; also B for bad character. In the navy, a corner of the ticket is cut off.

BRANDLING. A supposed fry of the salmon species, found on the north of England coasts. Also, the angler's dew-worm.

BRANDY-PAWNEE. A cant term for brandy and water in India.

BRANLAIG. The Manx or Gaelic term for a cove or creek on a shore between rocks.

BRANLIE, or Branlin. A northern name for the samlet or par.

BRAN-NEW. Quite new: said of a sail which has never been bent.

BRASH. Small fragments of crushed ice, collected by wind or currents, near the shore; or such that the ship can easily force through.

BRASS. Impudent assurance.

BRASSARTS. Pieces between the elbow and the top of the shoulder in ancient armour.

BRASSER. A defensive bit of armour for the arm.

BRAT. A northern name for a turbot.

BRAVE. This word was not only used to express courage by our early seamen, but was also applied to strength; as, "we had a brave wind."

BRAWET. A kind of eel in the north.

BRAY, To. To beat and bruise in a mortar.

BREACH. Formerly, what is made by the breaking in of the sea, now applied also to the openings or gaps made in the works of fortified places battered by an enemy's cannon. Also, an old term for a heavy surf or broken water on a sea-coast; by some called brist.

BREACHING. The act of leaping out of the water; applied to whales.

BREACH OF THE SEA. Waves breaking over the hull of a vessel in bad weather, or when stranded.—A clear breach implies the waves rolling clean over without breaking. Shakspeare in "Twelfth Night" uses the term for the breaking of the waves.—Clean-breach, when masts and every object on deck is swept away.

BREACHY. Brackish, as applied to water, probably originating in the sea breaking in.

BREAD. The usual name given to biscuit.[130]

BREAD-BARGE. The tray in which biscuit is handed round.

BREAD-FRUIT (Artocarpus incisa). This most useful tree has a wide range of growth, but the seedless variety produced in Tahiti and some of the South Sea Islands is superior to others; it has an historical interest from its connection with the voyage of the Bounty in 1787.

BREAD-ROOM. The lowest and aftermost part of the orlop deck, where the biscuit is kept, separated by a bulk-head from the rest; but any place parted off from below deck for containing the bread is so designated.

BREAD-ROOM JACK. The purser's steward's help.

BREADTH. The measure of a vessel from side to side in any particular place athwart-ships. (See Straight of Breadth, Height of Breadth, Top-timber Breadth, &c.)—Breadth of beam, extreme breadth of a ship.

BREADTH EXTREME. See Extreme Breadth or Beam.

BREADTH LINE. A curved line of the ship lengthwise, intersecting the timbers at their greatest extent from the middle line of the ship.

BREADTH-MOULDED. See Moulded Breadth.

BREADTH-RIDERS. Timbers placed nearly in the broadest part of the ship, and diagonally, so as to strengthen two or more timbers.

BREAK, To. To deprive of commission, warrant, or rating, by court-martial.

BREAK. The sudden rise of a deck when not flush; when the aft, and sometimes the fore part, of a vessel's deck is kept up to give more height below, and at the drifts.—Break of the poop, where it ends at the foremost part.

BREAKAGE. The leaving of empty spaces in stowing the hold. In marine insurance, the term alludes to damage occurring to goods.

BREAK-BEAMS. Beams introduced at the break of a deck, or any sudden termination of planking.

BREAK-BULK. To open the hold, to begin unloading and disposing of the goods therein, under legal provisions.

BREAKERS. Small barrels for containing water or other liquids; they are also used in watering the ship as gang-casks. (See Bareka.) Also, those billows which break violently over reefs, rocks, or shallows, lying immediately at, or under, the surface of the sea. They are distinguished both by their appearance and sound, as they cover that part of the sea with a perpetual foam, and produce loud roaring, very different from what the waves usually have over a deeper bottom. Also, a name given to those rocks which occasion the waves to break over them.—Breakers ahead! the common pass-word to warn the officer of broken water in the direction of the course. (See also Ship-breaker.)

BREAK-GROUND. Beginning to weigh, or to lift the anchor from[131] the bottom. On shore it means to begin the works for besieging a place, or opening the trenches.

BREAKING. Breaking out stores or cargo in the hold. The act of extricating casks or other objects from the hold-stowage.

BREAKING LIBERTY. Not returning at the appointed time.

BREAKING OF A GALE. Indications of a return of fine weather; short gusts at intervals; moaning or whistling of the wind through the rigging.

BREAKING-PLATE DISTANCE. The point within which iron-plated ships, under concentrated fire, may be damaged.


BREAKING-UP OF THE MONSOON. A nautical term for the violent storms that attend the shifting of periodical winds.

BREAK-OFF. (See Broken-off). "She breaks off from her course," applied only when the wind will not allow of keeping the course; applies only to "close-hauled" or "on a wind."—Break-off! an order to quit one department of duty, to clap on to another.

BREAK-SHEER, To. When a ship at anchor is laid in a proper position to keep clear of her anchor, but is forced by the wind or current out of that position, she is said to break her sheer. Also, for a vessel to break her sheer, or her back, means destroying the gradual sweep lengthways.

BREAK-UP, To. To take a ship to pieces when she becomes old and unserviceable.

BREAK-WATER. Any erection or object so placed as to prevent the sea from rolling inwards. Where there is no mole or jetty the hull of an old ship may be sunk at the entrance of a small harbour, to break off or diminish the force of the waves as they advance towards the vessels moored within. Every bar to a river or harbour, intended to secure smooth water within, acts as a break-water.

BREAM. A common fresh as well as salt water fish (Abramis brama), little esteemed as food.

BREAMING. Cleaning a ship's bottom by burning off the grass, ooze, shells, or sea-weed, which it has contracted by lying long in harbour; it is performed by holding kindled furze, faggots, or reeds to the bottom, which, by melting the pitch that formerly covered it, loosens whatever filth may have adhered to the planks; the bottom is then covered anew with a composition of sulphur, tallow, &c., which not only makes it smooth and slippery, so as to divide the fluid more readily, but also poisons and destroys those worms which eat through the planks in the course of a voyage. This operation may be performed either by laying the ship aground after the tide has ebbed from her or by docking or careening.[132]

BREAST, To. To run abeam of a cape or object. To cut through a sea, the surface of which is poetically termed breast.—To breast the sea, to meet it by the bow on a wind.—To breast the surf, to brave it, and overcome it swimming.—To breast a bar, to heave at the capstan.—To breast to, the act of giving a sheer to a boat.

BREAST-BACKSTAYS. They extend from the head of an upper-mast, through an out-rigger, down to the channels before the standing backstays, for supporting the upper spars from to windward. When to leeward, they are borne abaft the top-rim. (See Backstays.)

BREAST-BEAMS. Those beams at the fore-part of the quarter-deck, and the after-part of the forecastle, in those vessels which have a poop and a top-gallant forecastle.

BREAST-FAST. A large rope or chain, used to confine a ship's broadside to a wharf or quay, or to some other ship, as the head-fast confines her forward, and the stern-fast abaft.

BREAST-GASKETS. An old term for bunt-gaskets.

BREAST-HOOKS. Thick pieces of timber, incurvated into the form of knees, and used to strengthen the fore-part of a ship, where they are placed at different heights, directly across the stem internally, so as to unite it with the bows on each side, and form the principal security, supporting the hawse-pieces and strain of the cables. The breast-hooks are strongly connected to the stem and hawse-pieces by tree-nails, and by bolts driven from without through all, and forelocked or clinched upon rings inside.

BREAST-RAIL. The upper rail of the balcony; formerly it was applied to a railing in front of the quarter-deck, and at the after-part of the forecastle-deck. Also, fife-rail.

BREAST-ROPE. The lashing or laniard of the yard-parrels. (See also Horse.) Also, the bight of a mat-worked band fastened between the shrouds for the safety of the lad's-man in the chains, when sounding, so that he may hang over the water, and let the lead swing clear.

BREAST-WORK. A sort of balustrade of rails, mouldings, or stanchions, which terminates the quarter-deck and poop at the fore ends, and also incloses the forecastles both before and behind. (See Parapet.) Now applicable to the poop-rails only. In fortification, it signifies a parapet thrown up as high as the breasts of the men defending it.

BREATHER. A tropical squall.

BREATH OF WIND. All but a dead calm.

BREECHING. A strong rope passing through at the cascable of a gun, used to secure it to the ship's side, and prevent it recoiling too much in time of battle, also to secure it when the ship labours; it is fixed by reeving it through a thimble stropped upon the cascable or knob at the breech of the gun; one end is rove and clinched, and the other[133] is passed through the ring-bolt in the ship's side, and seized back. The breeching is of sufficient length to let the muzzle of the cannon come within the ship's side to be charged, or to be housed and lashed. Clinch-shackles have superseded the ring-bolts, so that guns may be instantly unshackled and shifted.

BREECHING-BOLT. Applies to the above.

BREECH-LOADER. A gun, large or small, charged at the breech. The method is a very old one revived, but with such scientific modifications as to have enormously increased the effectiveness of small-arms; with cannon its successful practical application to the larger natures has not yet been arrived at, but with field-guns it has added largely to accuracy of practice and facility of loading.

BREECH OF A CANNON. The after-end, next the vent or touch-hole. It is the most massive part of a gun; strictly speaking, it is all the solid metal behind the bottom of the bore. Also, the outside angle formed by the knee-timber, the inside of which is the throat.

BREECH-SIGHT. The notch cut on the base ring of a gun.

BREEZE. This word is widely understood as a pleasant zephyr; but among seamen it is usually applied as synonymous with wind in general, whether weak or strong.

BREEZE, Sea or Land. A shifting wind blowing from sea and land alternately at certain hours, and sensibly only near the coasts; they are occasioned by the action of the sun raising the temperature of the land so as to draw an aërial current from sea-ward by day, which is returned as the earth cools at night.

BREEZE, To kick up a. To excite disturbance, and promote a quarrelsome row.

BREEZING UP. The gale freshening.

BREEZO. A toast given by the presiding person at a mess-table; derived from brisée générale.

BREVET. A rank in the army higher than the regimental commission held by an officer, affording him a precedence in garrison and brigade duties. Something approaching this has been attempted afloat, under the term "staff."

BREWING. The appearance of a collection of black and tempestuous clouds, rising gradually from a particular part of the hemisphere, as the forerunner of a storm.

BRICKLAYER'S CLERK. A contemptuous expression for lubberly pretenders to having seen "better days," but who were forced to betake themselves to sea-life.

BRIDGE. A narrow gangway between two hatchways, sometimes termed a bridge. Military bridges to afford a passage across a river for troops, are constructed with boats, pontoons, casks, trusses, trestles, [134]&c. Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel. Also, the middle part of the fire-bars in a marine boiler, on either side of which the fires are banked. Also, a narrow ridge of rock, sand, or shingle, across the bottom of a channel, so as to occasion a shoal over which the tide ripples. That between Mount Edgecombe and St. Nicholas' Isle, at Plymouth, has occasioned much loss of life.

BRIDGE-ISLET. A portion of land which becomes insular at high-water—as Old Woman's Isle at Bombay, and among others, the celebrated Lindisfarne, thus tidally sung by Scott:—

"The tide did now his flood-mark gain,
And girdled in the saint's domain:
For, with the flow and ebb, its style
Varies from continent to isle;
Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice ev'ry day
The pilgrims to the shrine find way;
Twice every day the waves efface
Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace."
BRIDGE-TRAIN. An equipment for insuring the passage of troops over a river. Pontooners. (See Pontoon.)

BRIDLE. See Mooring-bridle and Bowline-bridle.

BRIDLE-PORT. A square port in the bows of a ship, for taking in mooring bridles. They are also used for guns removed from the port abaft, and required to fire as near a line ahead as possible. They are main-deck chase-ports.

BRIDLES. The upper part of the moorings laid in the queen's harbours, to ride ships or vessels of war. (See Moorings.)

BRIG. A two-masted square-rigged vessel, without a square main-sail, or a trysail-mast abaft the main-mast. This properly constituted the snow, but both classes are latterly blended, and the terms therefore synonymous.

BRIGADE. A party or body of men detached for a special service. A division of troops under the command of a general officer. In artillery organization on land, a brigade is a force usually composed of more than a battery; in the field it commonly consists of two or three batteries; on paper, and for administrative purposes, of eight.

BRIGADE-MAJOR. A staff officer attached to a brigade, and is the channel through which all orders are received from the general and communicated to the troops.


BRIGADIER. An officer commanding a brigade, and somewhat the same as commodore for a squadron of ships.

BRIGANDINE. A pliant scale-like coat of mail.[135]

BRIGANTINE. A square-rigged vessel with two masts. A term variously applied by the mariners of different European nations to a peculiar sort of vessel of their own marine. Amongst British seamen this vessel is distinguished by having her main-sail set nearly in the plane of her keel, whereas the main-sails of larger ships are spread athwart the ship's length, and made fast to a yard which hangs parallel to the deck; but in a brig, the foremost side of the main-sail is fastened at different heights to hoops which encircle the main-mast, and slide up and down it as the sail is hoisted or lowered: it is extended by a gaff above and a boom below. Brigantine is a derivative from brig, first applied to passage-boats; in the Celtic meaning "passage over the water." (See Hermaphrodite or Brig Schooner.)

BRIGANTS. Formerly, natives of the northern parts of England.

BRIGDIE. A northern name for the basking shark (Squalus maximus).

BRIGHT LOOK-OUT. A vigilant one.

BRIG-SCHOONER. (See Hermaphrodite and Brigantine, by which, term she is at present classed in law.) Square-rigged on the fore-mast, schooner on the main-mast.

BRILL. The Pleuronectes rhombus, a common fish, allied to, but rather smaller than, the turbot.

BRIM. The margin or bank of a stream, lake, or river.

BRIMSTONE. See Sulphur.

BRINE, or Pickle. Water replete with saline particles, as brine-pickle for salt meat. The briny wave.

BRINE-GAUGE. See Salinometer.

BRINE-PUMPS. When inconvenient to blow off the brine which collects at the bottom of a steamer's boilers, the brine-pump is used for clearing away the deposit.

BRING BY THE LEE, To. To incline so rapidly to leeward of the course when the ship sails large, or nearly before the wind, as in scudding before a gale, that the lee-side is unexpectedly brought to windward, and by laying the sails all aback, exposes her to the danger of over-setting. (See Broach-to.)

BRING 'EM NEAR. The day-and-night telescope.

BRINGERS UP. The last men in a boarding or small-arm party. Among soldiers, it means the whole last rank of a battalion drawn up, being the hindmost men of every file.

BRING HOME THE ANCHOR, To, is to weigh it. It applies also when the flukes slip or will not hold; a ship then brings home her anchor.—Bring home the log. When the pin slips out of the log ship and it slides through the water.

BRINGING IN. The detention of a vessel on the high seas, and bringing her into port for adjudication.[136]

BRINGING-TO THE YARD. Hoisting up a sail, and bending it to its yard.


BRING-TO AN ANCHOR, To. To let go the anchor in the intended port. "All hands bring ship to an anchor!" The order by which the people are summoned for that duty, by the pipes of the boatswain and his mates.

BRING UP, To. To cast anchor.

BRING UP WITH A ROUND TURN. Suddenly arresting a running rope by taking a round turn round a bollard, bitt-head, or cleat. Said of doing a thing effectually though abruptly. It is used to bring one up to his senses by a severe rating.

BRISAS. A north-east wind which blows on the coast of South America during the trades.

BRISMAK. A name among the Shetlanders for the excellent fish called tusk or torsk, the best of the cod kind (Brosmius vulgaris).

BRISTOL FASHION AND SHIP-SHAPE. Said when Bristol was in its palmy commercial days, unannoyed by Liverpool, and its shipping was all in proper good order.

BRITISH-BUILT SHIP. Such as has been built in Great Britain or Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, or some of the colonies, plantations, islands, or territories in Asia, Africa, or America, which, at the time of building the ship, belonged to or were in possession of Her Majesty; or any ship whatsoever which has been, taken and condemned as lawful prize.

BRITISH SEAS. See Quatuor Maria.

BRITISH SHIP. May be foreign built, or rebuilt on a foreign keel which belonged to any of the people of Great Britain and Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, or the Isle of Man, or of any colony, island, or territory in Asia, Africa, or America, or was registered before the 1st of May, 1786.

BRITISH SUBJECT. Settled in an enemy's country, may not trade in any contraband goods.

BRITTLE-STAR. The common name of a long-rayed star-fish (Ophiocoma rosula).[137]

BROACH A BUSINESS, To. To begin it.

BROACH-TO, To. To fly up into the wind. It generally happens when a ship is carrying a press of canvas with the wind on the quarter, and a good deal of after-sail set. The masts are endangered by the course being so altered, as to bring it more in opposition to, and thereby increasing the pressure of the wind. In extreme cases the sails are caught flat aback, when the masts would be likely to give way, or the ship might go down stern foremost.

BROAD ARROW. The royal mark for government stores of every description. To obliterate, deface, or remove this mark is felony; or even to be in possession of any goods so marked without sufficient grounds. It is no doubt one of the Ditmarsh runes.

BROAD AXE. Formerly a warlike instrument; also for beheading; specially applied to the axe of carpenters for mast-making, and sometimes cutting away the masts or cable.

BROAD CLOTH. Square sails.

BROAD OF WATER. An extensive lake with a channel communicating with the sea, or a wide opening of a river after passing a narrow entrance.

BROAD PENNANT. A swallow-tailed piece of buntin at the mast-head of a man-of-war; the distinctive mark of a commodore. The term is frequently used for the officer himself. It tapers, in contradistinction to a cornet, which has only the triangle cut out of it.

BROAD R. See Broad Arrow.

BROADS. Fresh-water lakes, in contradistinction to rivers or narrow waters.

BROADSIDE. The whole array, or the simultaneous discharge of the artillery on one side of a ship of war above and below. It also implies the whole of that side of a ship above the water which is situate between the bow and quarter, and is in a position nearly perpendicular to the horizon. Also, a name given to the old folio sheets whereon ballads and proclamations were printed of old (broad-sheet).

BROADSIDE-ON. The whole side of a vessel; the opposite of end-on.

BROADSIDE WEIGHT OF METAL. The weight of iron which the guns of a ship can project, when single-shotted, from one side. (See Weight of Metal.)


BROCAGE. The same with brokerage (which see).

BROCLES. See Strake-nails.

BRODIE. The fry of the rock-tangle, or Hettle-codling, a fish caught on the Hettle Bank, in the Firth of Forth.

BROGGING. A north-country method of catching eels, by means of small sticks called brogs.[138]

BROGUES. Among seamen, coarse sandals made of green hide; but Shakspeare makes Arviragus put "his clouted brogues from off his feet," for "answering his steps too loud." This would rather refer to shoes strengthened with hob-nails.

BROKE. Sentence of a court-martial, depriving an officer of his commission.

BROKEN. An old army word, used for reduced; as, a broken lieutenant, &c. The word is also applied to troops in line when not dressed. The heart of a gale is said to be broken; parole is broken; also, leave, bulk, &c. (which see).

BROKEN-BACKED. The state of a ship so loosened in her frame, either by age, weakness, or some great strain from grounding amidships, as to droop at each end, causing the lines of her sheer to be interrupted, and termed hogged. It may result from fault of construction, in the midship portions having more buoyancy, and the extreme ends too much weight, as anchors, boats, guns, &c., to sustain.

BROKEN-OFF. Fallen off, in azimuth, from the course. Also, men taken from one duty to be put on another.

BROKEN SQUALL. When the clouds separate in divisions, passing ahead and astern of a ship, and affecting her but little, if at all.

BROKEN WATER. The contention of currents in a narrow channel. Also, the waves breaking on and near shallows, occasionally the result of vast shoals of fish, as porpoise, skip-jacks, &c., which worry untutored seamen.

BROKER. Originally a broken tradesman, from the Anglo-Saxon broc, a misfortune; but, in later times, a person who usually transacts the business of negotiating between the merchants and ship-owners respecting cargoes and clearances: he also effects insurances with the underwriters; and while on the one hand he is looked to as to the regularity of the contract, on the other he is expected to make a candid disclosure of all the circumstances which may affect the risk.

BROKET. A small brook; the sea-lark is so called at the Farne Islands.

BROKE-UP. Said of a gale of wind passing away; or a ship which has gone to pieces on a reef, &c.

BROND. An old spelling of brand, a sword.

BRONGIE. A name given to the cormorant in the Shetland Islands.

BROOD. Oysters of about two years old, which are dredged up at sea, for placing on the oyster-beds.

BROOD-HEN STAR. The cluster of the Pleiades.

BROOK, or Brooklet. Streams of fresh or salt water, less than a rivulet, creeping through narrow and shallow passages. The clouds brook-up, when they draw together and threaten rain.[139]

BROOM. A besom at the mast-head signifies that the ship is to be sold: derived probably from the old practice of displaying boughs at shops and taverns. Also, a sort of spartium, of which ropes are made.

BROOMING. See Breaming.

BROTHER-OFFICERS. Those of the same ship or regiment.

BROTH OF A BOY. An excellent, though roystering fellow.

BROUGHT BY THE LEE. See Bring by the Lee.

BROUGHT-TO. A chase made to stop, and heave-to. Also, the cable is brought-to when fastened to the messenger by nippers. The messenger is brought to the capstan, or the cable to the windlass.

BROUGHT TO HIS BEARINGS. Reduced to obedience.


BROW. An inclined plane of planks, on one or both sides of a ship, to communicate internally; a stage-gangway for the accommodation of the shipwrights, in conveying plank, timber, and weighty articles on board. Also, the face of a rising ground. An old term for a gang-board.

BROWN BESS. A nickname for the old government regulation bronzed musket, although till recently it was brightly burnished.

BROWN BILL. The old weapon of the English infantry: hence, perhaps the expression "Brown Bess" for a musket.

BROWN GEORGE. A hard and coarse biscuit.

BROWNIE. The Polar bear, so called by the whalers. It is also a northern term for goblin.

BROWN JANET. A cant phrase for a knapsack.


BROWSE. A light kind of dunnage.

BRUISE-WATER. A ship with very bluff bows, built more for carrying than sailing.

BRUISING WATER. Pitching heavily to a head-sea, and making but little head-way.

BRUN-SWYNE. An early name for a seal.

BRUSH. A move; a skirmish.

BRYDPORT. An old word signifying cable. The best hemp grew at Bridport, in Dorsetshire; and there was a statute, that the cables and hawsers for the Royal Navy were to be made thereabouts.

BUB. A liquor or drink. Bub and grub meaning inversely meat and drink.

BUBBLE. Another term for spirit-level, used for astronomical instruments.

BUBBLER. A fish found in the waters of the Ohio, thus named from the bubbling noise it makes.

BUCCANEER. A name given to certain piratical rovers, of various[140] European nations, who formerly infested the coasts of Spanish America. They were originally inoffensive settlers in Hispaniola, but were inhumanly driven from their habitations by the jealous policy of the Spaniards; whence originated their implacable hatred to that nation. Also, a large musketoon, about 8 feet in length, so called from having been used by those marauders.

BUCENTAUR. A large and splendid galley of the doge of Venice, in which he received the great lords and persons of quality who went there, accompanied by the ambassadors and councillors of state, and all the senators seated on benches by him. The same vessel served also in the magnificent ceremony on Ascension-day, when the doge threw a ring into the sea to espouse it, and to denote his dominion over the Gulf of Venice.

BUCHAN BOILERS. The heavy breaking billows among the rocks on the coast of Buchan.

BUCHT. A Shetland term for lines of 55 fathoms.

BUCK, To. To wash a sail.

BUCKALL. An earthen wine-cup used in the sea-ports of Portugal, Spain, and Italy. [From bocale, It.]

BUCKER. A name for the grampus in the Hebrides. It is also applied, on some of our northern coasts, to the porpoise.

BUCKET. A small globe of hoops, covered with canvas, used as a recall for the boats of whalers.

BUCKET-ROPE. That which is tied to a bucket for drawing water up from alongside.

BUCKETS. Are made either of canvas, of leather, or of wood; the latter are used principally for washing the decks, and therefore answer the purposes of pails.

BUCKET-VALVE. In a steamer's engine, is a flat metal plate filling up the passage between the air-pump and the condenser, and acted upon by both in admitting or repressing the passage of water.

BUCKHORN. Whitings, haddocks, thorn-backs, gurnet, and other fish, cleaned, gently salted, and dried in the sun.

BUCKIE. A northern name for the whelk.

BUCKIE-INGRAM. A name for the hermit-crab.

BUCKIE-PRINS. A northern designation for a periwinkle.

BUCKLE. A mast buckles when it suffers by compression, so that the fibre takes a sinuous form, and the grain is upset. Also, in Polar regions, the bending or arching of the ice upwards, preceding a nip.

BUCKLERS. Two blocks of wood fitted together to stop the hawse-holes, leaving only sufficient space between them for the cable to pass, and thereby preventing the ship taking in much water in a heavy head-sea. They are either riding or blind bucklers (which see).[141]

BUCKRA. A term for white man, used by the blacks in the West Indies, Southern States of America, and the African coast.

BUCK-WEEL. A bow-net for fish.

BUDE. An old name for the biscuit-weevil.

BUDGE-BARREL. A small cask with copper and wooden hoops, and one head formed by a leather hose or bag, drawing close by a string, for carrying powder in safety from sparks. In heraldry, the common bucket is called a water bouget or budget.

BUDGEROW. A cabined passage-boat of the Ganges and Hooghly.

BUFFET A BILLOW, To. To work against wind and tide.

BUG. An old term for a vessel more remarkable in size than efficiency. Thus, when Drake fell upon Cadiz, his sailors regarded the huge galleys opposed to them as mere "great bugges."

BUGALILO. A large trading-boat of the Gulf of Persia; the buglo of our seamen.

BUGAZEENS. An old commercial term for calicoes.

BUILD. A vessel's form or construction.

BUILD A CHAPEL, To. To turn a ship suddenly by negligent steerage.

BUILDER'S CERTIFICATE. A necessary document in admiralty courts, containing a true account of a ship's denomination, tonnage, trim, where built, and for whom.

BUILDING. The work of constructing ships, as distinguished from naval architecture, which may rather be considered as the art or theory of delineating ships on a plane. The pieces by which this complicated machine is framed, are joined together in various places by scarfing, rabbeting, tenanting, and scoring.

BUILT. A prefix to denote the construction of a vessel, as carvel or clinker-built, bluff-built, frigate-built, sharp-built, &c.; English, French, or American built, &c.

BUILT-BLOCK. Synonymous with made-block (which see). The lower masts of large ships are built or made.

BUILT-UP GUNS. Recently invented guns of great strength, specially adapted to meet the requirements of rifled artillery and of the attack of iron plating. They are usually composed of an inner core or barrel (which may be of coiled and welded iron, but is now generally preferred of tough steel), with a breech-piece, trunnion-piece, and various outer strengthening hoops or coils of wrought iron, shrunk or otherwise forced on; having their parts put together at such predetermined relative tensions, as to support one another under the shock of explosion, and thereby avoiding the faults of solid cast or forged guns, whereof the inner parts are liable to be destroyed before the outer can take their share of the strain. The first practical example of the[142] method was afforded by the Armstrong gun, the "building up" which obtained in ancient days, before the casting of solid guns, having been apparently resorted to as an easy means of producing large masses of metal, without realizing the principle of the mutual support of the various parts.

BUIRAN. A Gaelic word signifying the sea coming in, with a noise as of the roar of a bull.

BULCH, To. To bilge a ship.

BULGE. (See Bilge.) That part of the ship she bears upon when on the ground.

BULGE-WAYS. Otherwise bilge-ways (which see).

BULK. In bulk; things stowed without cases or packages. (See Bulk-head and Laden in Bulk.)

BULKER. A person employed to measure goods, and ascertain the amount of freight with which they are chargeable.

BULK-HEAD, The. Afore, is the partition between the forecastle and gratings in the head, and in which are the chase-ports.

BULK-HEADS. Partitions built up in several parts of a ship, to form and separate the various cabins from each other. Some are particularly strong, as those in the hold, which are mostly built with rabbeted or cyphered plank; others are light, and removable at pleasure. Indeed the word is applied to any division made with boards, to separate one portion of the 'tween decks from another.

BULK OF A SHIP. Implies the whole cargo when stowed in the hold.

BULL. An old male whale. Also, a small keg; also the weak grog made by pouring water into a spirit-cask nearly empty.

BULL-DANCE. At sea it is performed by men only, when without women. It is sometimes called a stag-dance.

BULL-DOG, or Muzzled Bull-dog. The great gun which stands "housed" in the officer's ward-room cabin. General term for main-deck guns.

BULLETIN. Any official account of a public transaction.

BULLET-MOULD. An implement for casting bullets.

BULLETS. Leaden balls with which all kinds of fire-arms are loaded.

BULL-HEAD, or Bull-jub. A name of the fish called miller's thumb (Cottus gobio).

BULLOCK-BLOCKS. Blocks secured under the top-mast trestle-trees, which receive the top-sail ties through them, in order to increase the mechanical power used in hoisting them up.

BULLOCK-SLINGS. Used to hoist in live bullocks.

BULL'S-EYE. A sort of block without a sheave, for a rope to reeve through; it is grooved for stropping. Also, the central mark of a[143] target. Also, a hemispherical piece of ground glass of great thickness, inserted into small openings in the decks, port-lids, and scuttle-hatches, for the admission of light below.

BULL'S-EYE CRINGLE. A piece of wood in the form of a ring, which answers the purpose of an iron thimble; it is seldom used by English seamen, and then only for the fore and main bowline-bridles.

BULL-TROUT. The salmon-trout of the Tweed. A large species of trout taken in the waters of Northumberland.


BULWARK. The planking or wood-work round a vessel above her deck, and fastened externally to the stanchions and timber-heads. In this form it is a synonym of berthing. Also, the old name for a bastion.

BULWARK-NETTING. An ornamental frame of netting answering the purpose of a bulwark.

BUMBARD. A cask or large vessel for liquids. (See Bombard.) Trinculo, in the "Tempest," thinks an impending storm-cloud "looks like a foul bumbard."

BUM-BOAT. A boat employed to carry provisions, vegetables, and small merchandise for sale to ships, either in port or lying at a distance from the shore; thus serving to communicate with the adjacent town. The name is corrupted from bombard, the vessels in which beer was formerly carried to soldiers on duty.

BUMKIN, Bumpkin, or Boomkin. A short boom or beam of timber projecting from each bow of a ship, where it is fayed down upon the false rail. Its use is to extend the clue or lower corner of the fore-sail to windward, for which purpose there is a large block fixed on its outer end, through which the tack is passed, and when hauled tight down is said to be aboard. The name is also applied to the pieces on each quarter, for the main-brace blocks.

BUMKIN. A small out-rigger over the stern of a boat, usually serving to extend the mizen.

BUMMAREE. A word synonymous with bottomry, in maritime law. It is also a name given to a class of speculating salesmen of fish, not recognized as regular tradesmen.

BUMP, To. To bump a boat, is to pull astern of her in another, and insultingly or inimically give her the stem; a practice in rivers and narrow channels.

BUMP-ASHORE. Running stem-on to a beach or bank. A ship bumps by the action of the waves lifting and dropping her on the bottom when she is aground.[144]

BUMPERS. Logs of wood placed over a ship's side to keep off ice.

BUND. In India, an embankment; whence, Bunda head, and Bunda boat.

BUNDLE-UP! The call to the men below to hurry up on deck.

BUNDLING Things into a Boat. Loading it in a slovenly way.

BUNGLE, To. To perform a duty in a slovenly manner.

BUNGO, or Bonga. A sort of boat used in the Southern States of America, made of the bonga-tree hollowed out.

BUNG-STARTER. A stave shaped like a bat, which, applied to either side of the bung, causes it to start out. Also, a soubriquet for the captain of the hold. Also, a name given to the master's assistant serving his apprenticeship for hold duties.

BUNG-UP and BILGE-FREE. A cask so placed that its bung-stave is uppermost, and it rests entirely on its beds.

BUNK. A sleeping-place in the fore-peak of merchantmen; standing bed-places fixed on the sides between decks.

BUNKER. For stowing coal in steamers. Cellular spaces on each side which deliver the coal to the engine-room.—Wing-bunkers below the decks, cutting off the angular side-spaces of the hold, and hatched over, are usually filled with sand, holy-stones, brooms, junk-blocks, &c., saving stowage.

BUNT of a Sail. The middle part of it, formed designedly into a bag or cavity, that the sail may gather more wind. It is used mostly in top-sails, because courses are generally cut square, or with but small allowance for bunt or compass. "The bunt holds much leeward wind;" that is, it hangs much to leeward. In "handed" or "furled" sails, the bunt is the middle gathering which is tossed up on the centre of the yard.—To bunt a sail is to haul up the middle part of it in furling, and secure it by the bunt-gasket.

BUNTERS. The men on the yard who gather in the bunt when furling sails.

BUNT-FAIR. Before the wind.

BUNT-GASKET. See Gasket.

BUNTING. A name on our southern shores for the shrimp.

BUNTING, or Buntin. A thin woollen stuff, of which the ship's colours, flags, and signals are usually made.

BUNT-JIGGER. A small gun-tackle purchase, of two single blocks, one fitted with two tails, used in large vessels for bowsing up the bunt of a sail when furling: a peculiar combination of two points, fitted to a spar to which it is hooked.

BUNTLINE-CLOTH. The lining sewed up the fore-part of the sail in the direction of the buntline to prevent that rope from chafing the sail.[145]

BUNTLINE-CRINGLE. An eye worked into the bolt-rope of a sail, to receive a buntline. This is only in top-gallant sails, and is seldom used now. In the merchant service all buntlines are generally passed through an eyelet-hole in the sail, and clinched round its own part.

BUNTLINES. Ropes attached to the foot-ropes of top-sails and courses, which, passing over and before the canvas, turn it up forward, and thus disarm the force of the wind; at one-third from each clue, eyelet-holes are worked in the canvas, and by grummets passed through, a toggle is secured on both bights: to this buntline-toggle the buntline attaches by an eye or loop. When the sails are loosed to dry, the bowlines, unbent from the bridles, are attached to these toggles, and haul out the sails by the foot-ropes like table-cloths. The buntline is rove through a block at the mast-head, passes through the buntline span attached to the tye-blocks on the yard to retain them in the bunt, or amidships, down before all, and looped to the toggles aforesaid. By aid of the clue-lines, reef-tackles, and buntlines, a top-sail is taken in or quieted if the sheets carry away, but more especially by the buntlines, as the wind has no hold then to belly the canvas.

BUNTLINE-SPANS. Short pieces of rope with a thimble in one end, the other whipped; the buntlines are rove through these thimbles: they are attached to the tie-blocks to keep the sail in the bunt when hauled up.

BUNTLINE-TOGGLES. See Buntlines and Toggle.

BUNT SLAB-LINES. Reeve through a block on the slings of the yard or under the top, and pass abaft the sail, making fast to its foot. Their object is to lift the foot of a course so as to see underneath it, or to prevent it from chafing. Something of the same kind is used for top-sails, to keep them from rubbing on the stays when flapping in a calm.

BUOY. A sort of close cask, or block of wood, fastened by a rope to the anchor, to show its situation after being cast, that the ship may not come so near it as to entangle her cable about its stock or flukes.—To buoy a cable is to make fast a spar, cask, or the like, to the bight of the cable, in order to prevent its galling or rubbing on the bottom. When a buoy floats on the water it is said to watch. When a vessel slips her cable she attaches a buoy to it in order afterwards to recover it. Thus the blockading squadrons off Brest and in Basque Roads frequently slipped, by signal, and each in beautiful order returned and picked up their cables.—To stream the buoy is to let it fall from the ship's side into the water, which is always done before the anchor is let go, that it may not be fouled by the buoy-rope as it sinks to the bottom.—Buoys of various kinds are also placed upon rocks or sand-banks to direct mariners where to avoid danger.[146]

BUOYANCY. Capacity for floating lightly.—Centre of buoyancy, in naval architecture, the mean centre of that part of the vessel which is immersed in the water. (See Centre of Cavity.)

BUOYANT. The property of floating lightly on the water.

BUOY-ROPE. The rope which attaches the buoy to the anchor, which should always be of sufficient strength to lift the anchor should the cable part; it should also be little more in length than equal to the depth of the water (at high-water) where the anchor lies.—To bend the buoy-rope, pass the running eye over one fluke, take a hitch over the other arm, and seize. Or, take a clove-hitch over the crown on each arm or fluke, stopping the end to its own part, or to the shank.

BUOY-ROPE KNOT. Used where the end is lashed to the shank. A knot made by unlaying the strands of a cable-laid rope, and also the small strand of each large strand; and after single and double walling them, as for a stopper-knot, worm the divisions, and round the rope.

BURBOT. A fresh-water fish (Molva lota) in esteem with fishermen.

BURDEN. Is the quantity of contents or number of tons weight of goods or munitions which a ship will carry, when loaded to a proper sea-trim: and this is ascertained by certain fixed rules of measurement. The precise burden or burthen is about twice the tonnage, but then a vessel would be deemed deeply laden.

BURG [the Anglo-Saxon burh]. A word connected with fortification in German, as in almost all the Teutonic languages of Europe. In Arabic the same term, with the alteration of a letter, burj, signifies primarily a bastion, and by extension any fortified place on a rising ground. This meaning has been retained by all northern nations who have borrowed the word; and we, with the rest, name our towns, once fortified, burghs or boroughs.

BURGALL. A fish of the American coasts, from 6 to 12 inches long: it is also called the blue-perch, the chogset, and the nibbler—the last from its habit of nibbling off the bait thrown for other fishes.

BURGEE. A swallow-tailed or tapered broad pendant; in the merchant service it generally has the ship's name on it.

BURGOMASTER. In the Arctic Sea, a large species of gull (Larus glaucus).

BURGONET. A steel head-piece, or kind of helmet. Shakspeare makes Cleopatra, alluding to Antony, exclaim—

"The demi-Atlas of this earth, the arm
And burgonet of men."
In the second part of "Henry VI." Clifford threatens Warwick—

"And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear,
And tread it underfoot with all contempt."
[147]BURGOO. A seafaring dish made of boiled oatmeal seasoned with salt, butter, and sugar. (See Loblolly and Skilly.)

BURLEY. The butt-end of a lance.

BURLEY-TWINE. A strong and coarse twine or small string.

BURN, or Bourne. The Anglo-Saxon term for a small stream or brook, originating from springs, and winding through meadows, thus differing from a beck. Shakspeare makes Edgar say in "King Lear"—

"Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me."
The word also signifies a boundary.

BURNETTIZE, To. To impregnate canvas, timber, or cordage with Sir William Burnett's fluid, a solution of chloride of zinc.

BURN THE WATER. A phrase denoting the act of killing salmon in the night, with a lister and lighted torch in the boat.

BURN-TROUT. A northern term for a small species of river-trout.

BURR. The iris or hazy circle which appears round the moon before rain. Also, a Manx or Gaelic term for the wind blowing across on the tide. Also, the sound made by the Newcastle men in pronouncing the letter R.

BURREL. A langrage shot, consisting of bits of iron, bullets, nails, and other matters, got together in haste for a sudden emergency.

BURROCK. A small weir over a river, where weals are laid for taking fish.

BURR-PUMP. A name of the bilge-pump.

BURSER. See Purser.

BURST. The explosion of a shell or any gun.

BURTHEN. See Burden.

BURTON. A small tackle rove in a particular manner; it is formed by two blocks or pulleys, with a hook-block in the bight of the running part; it is generally used to set up or tighten the shrouds, whence it is frequently termed a top-burton tackle; but it is equally useful to move or draw along any weighty body in the hold or on the deck, as anchors, bales of goods, large casks, &c. (See Spanish-burton.) The burton purchase, also runner-purchase (which see).

BUSH, or Bouche. A circular shouldered piece of metal, usually of brass, let into the lignum vitæ sheaves of such blocks as have iron pins, thereby preventing the sheave from wearing, without adding much to its weight. The operation of placing it in the wood is called bushing or coaking, though the last name is usually given to smaller bushes of a square shape. Brass bushes are also extensively applied in the marine steam-engine work. Also, in artillery, the plug (generally of copper, on account of the superior resistance of that metal to the flame of exploded gunpowder), having a diameter of about an inch, and[148] a length equal to the intended length of the vent, screwed into the metal of the gun at the place of the vent, which is then drilled in it. Guns may be re-bushed when the vent has worn too large, by the substitution of a new bush.

BUSH. The forests in the West Indies, Australia, &c.

BUSHED. Cased with harder metal, as that inserted into the holes of some rudder braces or sheaves in general, to prevent their wearing.


BUSKING. Piratical cruising; also, used generally, for beating to windward along a coast, or cruising off and on.

BUSS. A small strong-built Dutch vessel with two masts, used in the herring and mackerel fisheries, being generally of 50 to 70 tons burden.

BUST-HEAD. See Head.

BUSY as the Devil in a gale of wind. Fidgety restlessness, or double diligence in a bad cause; the imp being supposed to be mischievous in hard gales.

BUT. A northern name for a flounder or plaice. Also, a conical basket for catching fish.

BUTCHER'S BILL. A nickname for the official return of killed and wounded which follows an action.

BUTESCARLI. The early name for the sea-officers in the British Navy (see Equipment).

BUTT. The joining of two timbers or planks endways. Also, the opening between the ends of two planks when worked. Also, the extremities of the planks themselves when they are united, or abut against each other. The word likewise is used to denote the largest end of all timber. Planks under water as they rise are joined one end to another. In large ships butt-ends are most carefully bolted, for if any one of them should spring, or give way, the leak would be very dangerous and difficult to stop.—To start or spring a butt is to loosen the end of a plank by the ship's weakness or labouring.—Butt-heads are the same with butt-ends.—Butt is also a mark for shooting at, and the hind part of a musket or pistol. Also, a wine-measure of 126 gallons.

BUTT-AND-BUTT. A term denoting that the butt ends of two planks come together, but do not overlay each other. (See Hook and Butt and Hook-scarph.)

BUTT-END. The shoulder part of a fire-lock.

BUTTER-BOX. A name given to the brig-traders of lumpy form, from London, Bristol, and other English ports. A cant term for a Dutchman.

BUTTER-BUMP. A name of the bittern in the north.[149]

BUTTER-FINGERED. Having a careless habit of allowing things to drop through the fingers.

BUTTLE. An eastern-county name for the bittern.

BUTTOCK. The breadth of the ship astern from the tuck upwards: it is terminated by the counter above, by the bilge below, by the stern-post in the middle, and by the quarter on the side. That part abaft the after body, which is bounded by the fashion pieces, and by the wing transom, and the upper or second water-line. A ship is said to have a broad, or narrow, buttock according to her transom convexity under the stern.

BUTTOCK-LINES. In ship-building, the longitudinal curves at the rounding part of the after body in a vertical section.

BUTTON. The knob of metal which terminates the breech end of most guns, and which affords a convenient bearing for the application of handspikes, breechings, &c.

BUTTONS, To make. A common time-honoured, but strange expression, for sudden apprehension or misgiving.

BUTTRESS. In fortification. (See Counterforts.)

BUTT-SHAFT, or Butt-bolt. An arrow without a barb, used for shooting at a butt.


BUXSISH. A gratuity, in oriental trading.

BUZZING. Sometimes used for booming (which see).

BY. On or close to the wind.—Full and by, not to lift or shiver the sails; rap-full.

BY AND LARGE. To the wind and off it; within six points.

BYKAT. A northern term for a male salmon of a certain age, because of the beak which then grows on its under-jaw.

BYLLIS. An old spelling for bill (which see).

BYRNIE. Early English for body-armour.

BYRTH. The old expression for tonnage. (See Burden or Burthen.)

BYSSA. An ancient gun for discharging stones at the enemy.

BYSSUS. The silken filaments of any of the bivalved molluscs which adhere to rocks, as the Pinna, Mytilus, &c. The silken byssus of the great pinna, or wing-shell, is woven into dresses. In the Chama gigas it will sustain 1000 lbs. Also, the woolly substance found in damp parts of a ship.

BY THE BOARD. Over the ship's side. When a mast is carried away near the deck it is said to go by the board.

BY THE HEAD. When a ship is deeper forward than abaft.

BY THE LEE. The situation of a vessel going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side.[150]

BY THE STERN. When the ship draws more water abaft than forward. (See By the Head.)

BY THE WIND. Is when a ship sails as nearly to the direction of the wind as possible. (See Full and By.) In general terms, within six points; or the axis of the ship is 671⁄2 degrees from the direction of the wind.

BY-WASH. The outlet of water from a dam or discharge channel.


CAAG. See Kaag.

CABANE. A flat-bottomed passage-boat of the Loire.

CABBAGE. Those principally useful to the seaman are the esculent cabbage-tree (Areca oleracea), which attains to a great height in the W. Indies. The sheaths of the leaves are very close, and form the green top of the trunk a foot and a half in length; this is cut off, and its white heart eaten. Also, the Crambe maritima, sea-kail, or marine cabbage, growing in the west of England.

CABIN. A room or compartment partitioned off in a ship, where the officers and passengers reside. In a man-of-war, the principal cabin, in which the captain or admiral lives, is the upper after-part of the vessel.

CABIN-BOY. A boy whose duty is to attend and serve the officers and passengers in the cabin.

CABIN-LECTURE. See Jobation.

CABIN-MATE. A companion, when two occupy a cabin furnished with two bed-places.

CABLE. A thick, strong rope or chain which serves to keep a ship at anchor; the rope is cable-laid, 10 inches in circumference and upwards (those below this size being hawsers), commonly of hemp or coir, which latter is still used by the Calcutta pilot-brigs on account of its lightness and elasticity. But cables have recently, and all but exclusively, been superseded by iron chain.—A shot of cable, two cables spliced together.

CABLE, To Coil a. To lay it in fakes and tiers one over the other.—To lay a cable. (See Laying.)—To pay cheap the cable, to hand it out apace; to throw it over.—To pay out more cable, to let more out of the ship.—To serve or plait the cable, to bind it about with ropes, canvas, &c.; to keep it from galling in the hawse-pipe. (See Rounding, Keckling[151], &c.)—To splice a cable, to make two pieces fast together, by working the several yarns of the rope into each other; with chain it is done by means of shackles.—To veer more cable, to let more out.

CABLE-BENDS. Two small ropes for lashing the end of a hempen cable to its own part, in order to secure the clinch by which it is fastened to the anchor-ring.

CABLE-BITTED. So bitted as to enable the cable to be nipped or rendered with ease.


CABLE-BUOYS. Peculiar casks employed to buoy up rope cables in a rocky anchorage, to prevent their rubbing against the rocks; they are also attached to the end of a cable when it is slipped, with the object of finding it again.

CABLE-ENOUGH. The call when cable enough is veered to permit of the anchor being brought to the cat-head.

CABLE-HANGER. A term applied to any person catching oysters in the river Medway, not free of the fishery, and who is liable to such penalty as the mayor and citizens of Rochester shall impose upon him.

CABLE-LAID ROPE. Is a rope of which each strand is a hawser-laid rope. Hawser-laid ropes are simple three-strand ropes, and range up to the same size as cablets, as from 3⁄4 to 9 inches. (See Rope.)

CABLE-SHEET, Sheet-cable. The spare bower cable belonging to a ship. Sheet is deemed stand-by, and is also applied to its anchor.

CABLE'S LENGTH. A measure of about 100 fathoms, by which the distances of ships in a fleet are frequently estimated. This term is frequently misunderstood. In all marine charts a cable is deemed 607·56 feet, or one-tenth of a sea mile. In rope-making the cable varies from 100 to 115 fathoms; cablet, 120 fathoms; hawser-laid, 130 fathoms, as determined by the admiralty in 1830.

CABLE-STAGE. A place constructed in the hold, or cable-tier, for coiling cables and hawsers on.

CABLE-STREAM, Stream-cable. A hawser or rope something smaller than the bower, used to move or hold the ship temporarily during a calm in a river or haven, sheltered from the wind and sea, &c.

CABLE-TIER. The place in a hold, or between decks, where the cables are coiled away.

CABOBBLED. Confused or puzzled.

CABOBS, or Kebaub. The Turkish name for small fillets of meat broiled on wooden spits; the use of the term has been extended eastward, and in India signifies a hot spiced dish of fish, flesh, or fowl.

CABONS. See Kaburns.

CABOOSE, or Camboose. The cook-room or kitchen of merchantmen[152] on deck; a diminutive substitute for the galley of a man-of-war. It is generally furnished with cast-iron apparatus for cooking.

CABOTAGE [Ital.] Sailing from cape to cape along a coast; or the details of coast pilotage.

CABURNS. Spun rope-yarn lines, for worming a cable, seizing, winding tacks, and the like.

CACAO [Sp.] The plant Theobroma, from which what is commonly termed cocoa is derived.

CACCLE, or Keccle. To apply a particular kind of service to the cable. (See Keckling.)

CACHE. A hidden reservoir of provision (to secure it from bears) in Arctic travel. Also, a deposit of despatches, &c.

CADE. A small barrel of about 500 herrings, or 1000 sprats.

CADENCE. The uniform time and space for marching, more indispensable to large bodies of troops than to parties of small-arm men; yet an important part even of their drill. The regularity requisite in pulling.

CADET. A volunteer, who, serving at his own charge, to learn experience, waits for preferment; a designation, recently introduced, for young gentlemen formerly rated volunteers of the first class. Properly, the younger son in French.

CADGE, To. To carry.—Cadger, a carrier. Kedge may be a corruption, as being carriable.

CÆSAR'S PENNY. The tip given by a recruiting sergeant.

CAFFILA. See Kafila.

CAGE. An iron cage formed of hoops on the top of a pole, and filled with combustibles to blaze for two hours. It is lighted one hour before high-water, and marks an intricate channel navigable for the period it burns; much used formerly by fishermen.

CAGE-WROCK. An old term for a ship's upper works.

CAIQUE, or Kaique. A small Levantine vessel. Also, a graceful skiff seen in perfection at Constantinople, where it almost monopolizes the boat traffic. It is fast, but crank, being so narrow that the oars or sculls have their looms enlarged into ball-shaped masses to counter-balance their out-board length. It has borne for ages the wave-line now brought out in England as the highest result of marine architecture. It may have from one to ten or twelve rowers.

CAIRBAN. A name in the Hebrides for the basking-shark.

CAIRN. Piles of stones used as marks in surveying.

CAISSON, or Caissoon. An adopted term for a sort of float sunk to a required depth by letting water into it, when it is hauled under the ship's bottom, receives her steadily, and on pumping out the water floats her. These were long used in Holland, afterwards at Venice,[153] and in Russia, where they were known as camels (which see). Caisson is also a vessel fitted with valves, to act instead of gates for a dry dock. Used also in pontoons (which see).

CAKE-ICE. Ice formed in the early part of the season.

CALABASH. Cucurbita, a gourd abundant within the tropics, furnishing drinking and washing utensils. At Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands they attain a diameter of 2 feet. There is also a calabash-tree, the fruit not exceeding the size of oranges.

CALABASS. An early kind of light musket with a wheel-lock. Bourne mentions it in 1578.

CALALOO. A dish of fish and vegetables.

CALAMUS. See Rattan.

CALANCA. A creek or cove on Italian and Spanish coasts.

CALAVANCES [Phaseolus vulgaris. Haricot, Fr.] Small beans sometimes used for soup, instead of pease.

CALCULATE, To. This word, though disrated from respectability by American misuse, signified to foretell or prophesy; it is thus used by Shakspeare in the first act of "Julius Cæsar." To calculate the ship's position, either from astronomical observations or rate of the log.

CALENDAR. A distribution of time. (See Almanac.)

CALENDAR-TIME. On which officers' bills are drawn.

CALF. A word generally applied to the young of marine mammalia, as the whale.—Calf, in the Arctic regions, a mass of floe ice breaking from under a floe, which when disengaged rises with violence to the surface of the water; it differs from a tongue, which is the same body kept fixed beneath the main floe. The iceberg is formed by the repeated freezing of thawed snow running down over the slopes, until at length the wave from beneath and weight above causes it to break off and fall into the sea, or, as termed in Greenland, to calve. Thus, berg, is fresh-water ice, the work of years. The floe, is salt water frozen suddenly each winter, and dissolving in the summer.

CALF, or Calva. A Norwegian name, also used in the Hebrides, for islets lying off islands, and bearing a similar relation to them in size that a calf does to a cow. As the Calf at Mull and the Calf of Man.

CALFAT. The old word for caulking. [Calfater, Fr.; probably from cale, wedge, and faire, to make.] To wedge up an opening with any soft material, as oakum. [Calafatear, Sp.]

CALIBER, or Calibre. The diameter of the bore of a gun, cannon, shot, or bullet. A ship's caliber means the known weight her armament represents.

CALIPASH. The upper shell of a turtle.

CALIPEE. The under shell of a turtle.

CALIVER. A hand-gun or arquebuss; probably the old name of the[154] matchlock or carabine, precursors of the modern fire-lock, or Enfield rifle. (See Calabass.)

CALL. A peculiar silver pipe or whistle, used by the boatswain and his mates to attract attention, and summon the sailors to their meals or duties by various strains, each of them appropriated to some particular purpose, such as hoisting, heaving, lowering, veering away, belaying, letting go a tackle-fall, sweeping, &c. This piping is as attentively observed by sailors, as the bugle or beat of drum is obeyed by soldiers. The coxswains of the boats of French ships of war are supplied with calls to "in bow oar," or "of all," "oars," &c.

CALLIPERS. Bow-legged compasses, used to measure the girth of timber, the external diameter of masts, shot, and other circular or cylindrical substances. Also, an instrument with a sliding leg, used for measuring the packages constituting a ship's cargo, which is paid for by its cubical contents.

CALL THE WATCH. This is done every four hours, except at the dog-watches, to relieve those on deck, also by pipe. "All the watch," or all the starboard, or the port, first, second, third, or fourth watches.

CALM. There being no wind stirring it is designated flat, dead, or stark, under each of which the surface of the sea is unruffled.

CALM LATITUDES. That tropical tract of ocean which lies between the north-east and south-east trade-winds; its situation varies several degrees, depending upon the season of the year. The term is also applied to a part of the sea on the Polar side of the trades, between them and the westerly winds.

CALVERED SALMON. Salmon prepared in a peculiar manner in early times.

CALVE'S TONGUE. A sort of moulding usually made at the caps and bases of round pillars, to taper or hance the round part to the square.

CAMBER. The part of a dockyard where cambering is performed, and timber kept. Also, a small dock in the royal yards, for the convenience of loading and discharging timber. Also, anything that curves upwards.—To camber, to curve ship-planks.

CAMBER-KEELED. Keel slightly arched upwards in the middle of the length, but not actually hogged.

CAMBOOSE. A form of caboose (which see).

CAMELS. All large ships are built, at St. Petersburg, in a dockyard off the Granite Quay, where the water is shallow; therefore a number of camels or caissons are kept at Cronstadt, for the purpose of carrying them down the river. Camels are hollow cases of wood, constructed in two halves, so as to embrace the keel, and lay hold of the hull of a ship on both sides. They are first filled with water and sunk, in order[155] to be fixed on. The water is then pumped out, when the vessel gradually rises, and the process is continued until the ship is enabled to pass over the shoal. Similar camels were used at Rotterdam about 1690.

CAME-TO. Brought to an anchor.

CAMFER. See Chamfer.

CAMISADO. A sudden surprise or assault of the enemy.

CAMOCK. A very early term for crooked timber.

CAMP. The whole extent of ground on which an army pitches its tents and lodges. (See Decamp.)

CAMP, or Camp-out, To. In American travel, to rest for the night without a standing roof; whether under a light tent, a screen of boughs, or any makeshift that the neighbourhood may afford.

CAMPAIGN. A series of connected operations by an army in the field, unbroken by its retiring into quarters.

CAMPAIGNER. A veteran soldier.

CAMP-EQUIPAGE. See Equipage.

CAMPER. See Kemp.

CAMPESON. See Gambison.


CAN. A tin vessel used by sailors to drink out of.

CANAICHE, or Canash. An inner port, as at Granada in the West Indies.

CANAL-BOAT. A barge generally towed by horses, but furnished with a large square-sail for occasional use.

CAN-BODIES. The old term for anchor-buoys, now can-buoys.

CAN-BUOYS. Are in the form of a cone, and therefore would countenance the term cone-buoys. They are floated over sands and other obstructions in navigation, as marks to be avoided; they are made very large, to be seen at a distance; where there are several, they are distinguished by their colour, as black, red, white, or chequered; &c.

CANCELLED TICKET. One rendered useless by some subsequent arrangement or clerk's error. In either case the word "cancelled" is to be written across in large characters, and due record made. The corner cut off cancels good character, yet they are a certificate for time.

CANCER. The Crab; the fourth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of June, and commences the summer solstice.

CANDLE-BARK. A cylindrical tin box for candles.

CANE. The rattan (Calamus rudentum), is extensively used in the East for rigging, rope, and cables. The latter have remained for years at the bottom of the sea uninjured by teredo, or any destructive crustacea. The cables, too, resist any but the sharpest axes, when used to connect logs as booms, to stop the navigation of rivers.[156]

CANEVAS. The old word for hempen canvas; but many races, even the Chinese, make sails entirely of cane. The Americans frequently use cotton, and term that cloth duck. In the islands of the South Pacific it is made from the bark of various trees, grasses, &c.

CAN-HOOKS. They are used to sling a cask by the chimes, or ends of its staves, and are formed by reeving the two ends of a piece of rope or chain through the eyes of two flat hooks, and there making them fast. The tackle is then hooked to the middle of the bight.

CANISTER SHOT. See Case-shot.

CANNIKIN. A small drinking-vessel.

CANNON. The well-known piece of artillery, mounted in battery on board or on shore, and made either of brass or iron. The principal parts are:—1st. The breech, together with the cascable and its button, called by seamen the pommelion. The breech is of solid metal, from the bottom of the concave cylinder or chamber to the cascable. 2d. The trunnions, which project on each side, and serve to support the cannon, hold it almost in equilibrio. 3d. The bore or caliber, is the interior of the cylinder, wherein the powder and shot are lodged when the cannon is loaded. The entrance of the bore is called the mouth or muzzle. It may be generally described as gradually tapering, with the various modifications of first and second reinforce and swell, to the muzzle or forward end. (See Gun.)

CANNONADE. The opening and continuance of the fire of artillery on any object attacked. Battering with cannon-shot.

CANNON-PERER. An ancient piece of ordnance used in ships of war for throwing stone shot.

CANNON-PETRONEL. A piece of ordnance with a 6-inch bore which carried a 24-lb. ball.

CANNON, RIFLED. Introduced by Captain Blakely, Sir W. Armstrong, and others.

CANNON ROYAL. A 60-pounder of eight and a half inches bore. (See Carthoun.)

CANNON-SERPENTINE. An old name for a gun of 7-inches bore.

CANOE. A peculiar boat used by several uncivilized nations, formed of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and sometimes of several pieces of bark joined together, and again of hide. They are of various sizes, according to the uses for which they are designed, or the countries to which they belong. Some carry sail, but they are commonly rowed with paddles, somewhat resembling a corn-shovel; and instead of rowing with it horizontally, as with an oar, they manage it perpendicularly. In Greenland and Hudson Bay, the Esquimaux limits of America, skin-boats are chiefly in use, under the name of kaiack, oomiak, baidar, [157]&c.

CANOPUS. The lucida of Argo Navis, and a Greenwich star. Also, a city of classical importance, visited by the heroes of the Trojan war, the reputed burial-place of the pilot of Menelaus, &c. But, as some ancient places have been so fortunate as to renew their classical importance in modern times, so this, under the modern name of Abukeir, has received a new "stamp of fate," by its overlooking, like Salamis, the scene of a naval battle, which also led to a decision of the fate of nations. In this bay Nelson, at one blow, destroyed the fleet of the enemy, and cut off the veteran army of France from the shores of Egypt. The Canopian mouth of the Nile was the most westerly of all the branches of that celebrated river.

CANOPY. A light awning over the stern-sheets of a boat.

CANT, To. To turn anything about, or so that it does not stand square. To diverge from a central right line. Cant the boat or ship; i.e. for careening her.

CANT. A cut made in a whale between the neck and the fins, to which the cant-purchase is made fast, for turning the animal round in the operation of flensing.

CANTARA. A watering-place.

CANT-BLOCKS. The large purchase-blocks used by whalers to cant the whales round under the process of flensing.

CANT-BODY. An imaginary figure of that part of a ship's body which forms the shape forward and aft, and whose planes make obtuse angles with the midship line of the ship.

CANTEEN. A small tin vessel for men on service to carry liquids. Also, a small chest containing utensils for an officer's messing. Also, a kind of sutling-house in garrisons.

CANTERA. A Spanish fishing-boat.

CANT-FALLS. See Spike-tackle.

CANT-HOOK. A lever with a hook at one end for heavy articles.

CANTICK-QUOINS. Short three-edged pieces of wood to steady casks from labouring against each other.

CANTING BALLAST. Is when by a sudden gust or stress of weather a ship is thrown so far over that the ballast settles to leeward, and prevents the ship from righting.

CANTING-LIVRE. See Console-bracket.

CANT-LINE. Synonymous with girt-line, as to cant the top over the lowermast-head.

CANTONMENTS. Troops detached and quartered in different towns and villages near each other.

CANT-PURCHASE. This is formed by a block suspended from the mainmast-head, and another block made fast to the cant cut in the whale. (See Cant-blocks.)[158]

CANT-RIBBONS. Those ribbons that do not lie in a horizontal or level direction.

CANT-ROPE. See Four-cant.

CANT-SPAR. A hand-mast pole, fit for making small masts or yards, booms, &c.

CANT-TIMBERS. They derive their name from being canted or raised obliquely from the keel. The upper ends of those on the bow are inclined to the stem, as those in the after-part incline to the stern-post above. In a word, cant-timbers are those which do not stand square with the middle line of the ship. They may be deemed radial bow or stern-timbers.

CANVAS [from cannabis, hemp]. A cloth made of hemp, and used for the sails of ships. It is purchased in bolts, and numbered from 1 to 8, rarely to 9 and 10. Number 1 being the coarsest and strongest, is used for the lower sails, as fore-sail and main-sail in large ships. When a vessel is in motion by means of her sails she is said to be under canvas.

CANVAS-BACK DUCK. An American wild duck (Fuligula valisneria), which takes this name from the colour of the back feathers; much esteemed as a delicacy.

CANVAS-CLIMBER. A word used by Marston for a sailor who goes aloft; hence Marina tells Leonine—

"And, clasping to a mast, endur'd a sea
That almost burst the deck, and from the ladder-tackle
Wash'd off a canvas-climber."
CAP. A strong thick block of wood having two large holes through it, the one square, the other round, used to confine two masts together, when one is erected at the head of the other, in order to lengthen it. The principal caps of a ship are those of the lower masts, which are fitted with a strong eye-bolt on each side, wherein to hook the block by which the top-mast is drawn up through the cap. In the same manner as the top mast slides up through the cap of the lower mast, the topgallant-mast slides up through the cap of the top-masts. When made of iron the cap used to be called a crance.—To cap a mast-head is placing tarpaulin guards against weather. The term is applied to any covering such as lead put over iron bolts to prevent corrosion by sea-water, canvas covers over the ends of rigging, &c. &c. Also, pieces of oak laid on the upper blocks on which a vessel is built, to receive the keel. They are split out for the addition of the false keel, and therefore should be of the most free-grained timber. Also, the coating which guards the top of a quill tube. Also, the percussion priming for fire-arms.—Cap-a-pied, armed from head to foot.[159]

CAP, To. To puzzle or beat in argument. To salute by touching the head-covering, as Shakspeare makes Iago's friends act to Othello. It is now more an academic than a sea-term.

CAPABARRE. An old term for misappropriating government stores. (See Marryat's Novels.)

CAPACISE. A corrupt form of capsize.

CAPACITY. Burden, tonnage, fitness for the service, rating.

CAPE. A projecting point of land jutting out from the coast-line; the extremity of a promontory, of which last it is the secondary rank. It differs from a headland, since a cape may be low. The Cape of Good Hope is always familiarly known as "The Cape." Cape was also used for a rhumb-line.

CAPE, To. To keep a course. How does she cape? how does she lie her course?

CAPE FLY-AWAY. A cloud-bank on the horizon, mistaken for land, which disappears as the ship advances. (See Fog.)

CAPE-HEN. See Molly-mawk.

CAPELLA. The lucida of Auriga, and a nautical star.

CAPE-MERCHANT [capo]. An old name for super-cargo in early voyages, as also the head merchant in a factory.

CAPE-PIGEON, or Cape-petrel. A sea-bird which follows a ship in her passage round the cape; the Procellaria capensis. (See Pintados.)

CAPER. A light-armed vessel of the 17th century, used by the Dutch for privateering.


CAPFUL OF WIND. A light flaw, which suddenly careens a vessel and passes off.

CAPITAL of a Work. In fortification, an imaginary line bisecting its most prominent salient angle.

CAPITANA. Formerly the principal galley in a Mediterranean fleet: the admiral's ship.

CAPITULATION. The conditions on which a subdued force surrenders, agreed upon between the contending parties.

CAPLIN, or Capelin. A fish of the family Clupeidæ, very similar to a smelt; frequently imported from Newfoundland dried. It is the general bait for cod-fish there.

CAP'N. The way in which some address the commanders of merchant vessels.

CAPON. A jeering name for the red-herring.

CAPONNIERE. In fortification, a passage across the bottom of the ditch, covered, at the least, by a parapet on each side, and very generally also with a bomb-proof roof, when it may be furnished with many guns, which are of great importance in the defence of a fortress,[160] as the besieger can hardly silence them till he has constructed batteries on the brink of the ditch.

CAPOTE. A good storm-coat with a hood, much worn in the Levant, and made of a special manufacture.

CAPPANUS. The worm which adheres to, and gnaws the bottom of a ship, to prevent which all ships should be sheathed with copper.

CAPPED. A ship making against a race or very strong currents.

CAPRICORNUS. The tenth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of December, and opens the winter solstice.

CAP-SCUTTLE. A framing composed of coamings and head-ledges raised above the deck, with a top which shuts closely over into a rabbet.

CAP-SHORE. A supporting spar between the cap and the trestle-tree.

CAPSIZE, To. To upset or overturn anything.

CAP-SQUARE. The clamp of iron which shuts over the trunnions of a gun to secure them to the carriage, having a curve to receive one-third part of the trunnion, the other two being sunk in the carriage; it is closed by forelocks.

CAPSTAN, Cabestan, Capstern, Capston, &c. A mechanical arrangement for lifting great weights. There is a variety of capsterns, but they agree in having a horizontal circular head, which has square holes around its edge, and in these long bars are shipped, and are said to be "swifted" when their outer ends are traced together; beneath is a perpendicular barrel, round which is wrapped the rope or chain used to lift the anchor or other great weight, even to the heaving a ship off a shoal. Now, in most ships where a capstern is used to lift the anchor, the chain cable is itself brought to the capstern. The purchase or lifting power is gained by the great sweep of the bars. A perpendicular iron spindle passes through the whole capstern, and is stepped into a socket on the deck below the one on which it stands. In some cases capsterns are double in height, so that bars may be worked on two decks, giving more room for the men.


CAPSTAN, To heave at the. To urge it round, by pushing against the bars, as already described.

CAPSTAN, To man the. To place the sailors at it in readiness to heave.

CAPSTAN, To paul the. To drop all the pauls into their sockets, to prevent the capstan from recoiling during any pause of heaving.[161]

CAPSTAN, To rig the. To fix the bars in their respective holes, thrust in the pins to confine them, and reeve the swifter through the ends.


CAPSTAN-BAR PINS. Pins inserted through their ends to prevent their unshipping.

CAPSTAN-BARRING. An obsolete sea-punishment, in which the offender was sentenced to carry a capstan-bar during a watch.

CAPSTAN-BARS. Long pieces of wood of the best ash or hickory, one end of which is thrust into the square holes in the drumhead, like the spokes of a wheel. They are used to heave the capstan round, by the men setting their hands and chests against them, and walking round. They are also held in their places in the drumhead holes, by little iron bolts called capstan or safety pins, to prevent their flying out when the surging overcomes the force of the men. Many men have been killed by this action, and more by the omission to "pin and swift."


CAPSTAN-STEP. (See Step of the Capstan.) The men march round to the tune of a fiddle or fife, and the phrase of excitement is, "Step out, lads, make your feet tell."

CAPSTAN-SWIFTER. A rope passed horizontally through notches in the outer ends of the bars, and drawn very tight: the intent is to steady the men as they walk round when the ship rolls, and to give room for a greater number to assist, by manning the swifters both within and without.

CAPTAIN. This title is said to be derived from the eastern military magistrate katapan, meaning "over everything;" but the term capitano was in use among the Italians nearly 200 years before Basilius II. appointed his katapan of Apulia and Calabria, a.d. 984. Hence, the corruption of the Apulian province into capitanata. Among the Anglo-Saxons the captain was schipp-hláford, or ship's lord. The captain, strictly speaking, is the officer commanding a line-of-battle ship, or a frigate carrying twenty or more cannon. A captain in the royal navy is answerable for any bad conduct in the military government, navigation, and equipment of his ship; also for any neglect of duty in his inferior officers, whose several charges he is appointed to regulate. It is also a title, though incorrectly, given to the masters of all vessels whatever, they having no commissions. It is also applied in the navy itself to the chief sailor of particular gangs of men; in rank,[162] captain of the forecastle, admiral's coxswain, captain's coxswain, captain of the hold, captain of main-top, captain of fore-top, &c.

CAPTAIN. A name given to the crooner, crowner, or gray gurnard (Trigla gurnardus).

CAPTAIN of a Merchant Ship. Is a certificated officer in the mercantile marine, intrusted with the entire charge of a ship, both as regards life and property. He is in no way invested with special powers to meet his peculiar circumstances, but has chiefly to depend upon moral influence for maintaining order amongst his passengers and crew during the many weeks or even months that he is cut off from appeal to the laws of his country, only resorting to force on extreme occasions. Great tact and judgment is required to fulfil this duty properly.

CAPTAIN of a Ship of War. Is the commanding officer; as well the post-captain (a title now disused) as those whose proper title is commander.

CAPTAIN of the Fleet. Is a temporary admiralty appointment; he is entitled to be considered as a flag-officer, and to a share in the prize-money accordingly. He carries out all orders issued by the commander-in-chief, but his special duty is to keep up the discipline of the fleet, in which he is supreme. He is the adjutant-general of the force, hoisting the flag and wearing the uniform of rear-admiral.

CAPTAIN of the Head. Not a recognized rating, but an ordinary man appointed to attend to the swabs, and to keep the ship's head clean.

CAPTAIN of the Hold. The last of the captains in rank, as a first-class petty officer.

CAPTAIN of the Port. The captain of the port is probably better explained by referring to that situation at Gibraltar. He belongs to the Board of Health; he controls the entries and departures, the berthing at the anchorage, and general marine duties, but possesses no naval authority. Hence, the port-captain is quite another officer. (See Port-captain.)

CAPTAIN-GENERAL. The highest army rank.

CAPTAIN'S CLERK. One whose duty is strictly to keep all books and official papers necessary for passing the captain's accounts at the admiralty.

CAPTAIN'S CLOAK. The jocose name given to the last sweeping clause, the thirty-sixth article of war:—"All other crimes not capital, and for which no punishment is hereby directed to be inflicted, shall be punished according to the laws and customs in such cases used at sea."

CAPTAIN'S GIG. See Gig.[163]

CAPTAIN'S STORE-ROOM. A place of reserve on the platform deck, for the captain's wines and sea-stores.

CAPTIVE. A prisoner of war.

CAPTORS. The conquerors of and sharers in the proceeds of a prize. Captors are not at liberty to release prisoners belonging to the ships of the enemy. The last survivor is in law the only captor.

CAPTURE. A prize taken by a ship of war at sea; is the taking forcible possession of vessels or goods belonging to one nation by those of a hostile nation. Vessels are looked on as prizes if they fight under any other standard than that of the state from which they have their commission; if they have no charty-party, manifest, or bill of lading, or if loaded with effects belonging to the king's enemies, or even contraband goods. Whether the capture be lawful or unlawful, the insurer is rendered liable to the loss.

CAR. A north-country word, denoting any swampy land surrounded by inclosures, and occasionally under water.

CARABINEER. One who uses the carbine.

CARACK, Carrak, or Carrick. A large ship of burden, the same with those called galleons. Hippus, the Tyrian, is said to have first devised caracks, and onerary vessels of prodigious bulk for traffic or offence.

CARACORA. A proa of Borneo, Ternate, and the Eastern Isles; also called caracol by early voyagers.

CARAMOUSSAL. A Turkish merchant ship with a pink-stern.

CARAVEL, or Caravela. A Portuguese despatch boat, lateen-rigged, formerly in use; it had square sails only on the fore-mast, though dignified as a caravela.

CARAVELAO. A light pink-sterned vessel of the Azores.

CARBASSE. See Karbatz.

CARBIN. A name in our northern isles for the basking shark.

CARBINE, or Carabine. A fire-arm of less length and weight than a musket, originally carrying a smaller ball, though latterly, for the convenience of the supply of ammunition, throwing the same bullet as the musket, though with a smaller charge. It has been proper to mounted troops since about a.d. 1556, and has been preferred to the musket as a weapon for the tops of ships as well as boats.

CARCASS. An iron shell for incendiary purposes, filled with a very fiercely flaming composition of saltpetre, sulphur, resin, turpentine, antimony, and tallow. It has three vents for the flame, and sometimes is equipped with pistol barrels, so fitted in its interior as to discharge their bullets at various times.

CARCASS OF A SHIP. The ribs, with keel, stem, and stern-post, after the planks are stripped off.[164]

CARCATUS [from caricato, It.] A law-term for a freighted ship.

CARD. The dial or face of the magnetic compass-card.

"Reason the card, but passion is the gale."—Pope.
Probably derived from cardinal.

CARDINAL POINTS. The general name by which the north, east, south, and west rhumbs of the horizon are distinguished.

CARDINAL POINTS OF THE ECLIPTIC. The equinoctial and solstitial points; namely, the commencement of Aries and Libra, and of Cancer and Capricornus.

CARDINAL SIGNS. The zodiacal signs which the sun enters at the equinoxes and solstices.

CARDINAL WINDS. Those from the due north, east, south, and west points of the compass.

CAREEN, To. A ship is said to careen when she inclines to one side, or lies over when sailing on a wind; off her keel or carina.

CAREENING. The operation of heaving the ship down on one side, by arranging the ballast, or the application of a strong purchase to her masts, which require to be expressly supported for the occasion to prevent their springing; by these means one side of the bottom, elevated above the surface of the water, may be cleansed or repaired. (See Breaming.) But this operation is now nearly superseded by sheathing ships with copper, whereby they keep a clean bottom for several years.

CAREENING BEACH. A part of the strand prepared for the purpose of a ship's being grounded on a list or careen, to repair defects.

CARFINDO. One of the carpenter's crew.

CARGO. The merchandise a ship is freighted with.

CARGO-BOOK. The master of every coasting-vessel is required to keep a cargo-book, stating the name of the ship, of the master, of the port to which she belongs, and that to which she is bound; with a roll of all goods, shippers, and consignees. In all other merchant ships the cargo-book is a clean copy of all cargo entered in the gangway-book, and shows the mark, number, quality, and (if measurement goods) the dimensions of such packages of a ship's cargo.

CARICATORE. Places where the traders of Sicily take in their goods, from caricare, to load.

CARINA. An old term, from the Latin, for the keel, or a ship's bottom. The north-country term keel means an entire vessel: "So many keels touched the strand." (See Keel.)

CARL, or Male Hemp. See Fimble or Female Hemp.

CARLE-CRAB. The male of the black-clawed crab, Cancer pagurus; also of the partan or common crab.

CARLINE-KNEES. Timbers going athwart the ship, from the sides to the hatchway, serving to sustain the deck on both sides.[165]

CARLINES, or Carlings. Pieces of timber about five inches square, lying fore and aft, along from one beam to another. On and athwart these the ledges rest, whereon the planks of the deck and other portions of carpentry are made fast. The carlines have their end let into the beams, called "culver-tail-wise," or scored in pigeon-fashion. There are other carlines of a subordinate character.

CARLINO, or Caroline. A small silver coin of Naples, value 4d. English. Ten carlini make a ducat in commerce.

CARN-TANGLE. A long and large fucus, thrown on our northern beaches after a gale of wind in the offing.

CAROUS. A sort of gallery in ancient ships, which turned on a pivot. It was hoisted to a given height by tackles, and thus brought to project over, or into, the vessel of an adversary, furnishing a bridge for boarding.

CARP. A well-known fresh-water fish of the Cyprinidæ family, considered to have been introduced into England in the time of Henry VIII.; but in Dame Berner's book on angling, published in 1486, it is described as the "daynteous fysshe" in England.

CARPENTER, Ship. A ship-builder. An officer appointed to examine and keep in order the hull of a ship, and all her appurtenances, likewise the stores committed to him by indenture from the store-keeper of the dockyard. The absence of other tradesmen whilst a ship is at sea, and the numerous emergencies in which ships are placed requiring invention, render a good ship's carpenter one of the most valuable artizans on board.

CARPENTER'S CREW. Consists of a portion of the crew, provided for ship-carpentry and ship-building. In ships of war there are two carpenter's mates and one caulker, one blacksmith, and a carpenter's crew, according to the size of the ship.

CARPENTER'S STORE-ROOM. An apartment built below, on the platform-deck, for keeping the carpenter's stores and spare tools in.


CARPET-KNIGHT. A man who obtains knighthood on a pretence for services in which he never participated.

CARPET-MEN. Those officers who, without services or merit, obtain rapid promotion through political or other interest, and are yet declared "highly meritorious and distinguished."

CARR. See Car.

CARRAC, Carraca, Carrack, or Carricke. A name given by the Spaniards and Portuguese to the vessels they sent to Brazil and the East Indies; large, round built, and fitted for fight as well as burden. Their capacity lay in their depth, which was extraordinary. English vessels of size and value were sometimes also so called.[166]

CARRARA. The great northern diver, Colymbus glacialis.

CARREE. A Manx or Gaelic term for the scud or small clouds that drive with the wind.

CARRIAGE of a Gun. The frame on which it is mounted for firing, constructed either exclusively for this purpose, or also for travelling in the field. Carriages for its transport only, are not included under this term. The first kind only is in general use afloat, where it usually consists of two thick planks (called brackets or cheeks) laid on edge to support the trunnions, and resting, besides other transverse connections, on two axle-trees, which are borne on low solid wooden wheels called trucks, or sometimes, to diminish the recoil, on flat blocks called chocks. The hind axle-tree takes, with the intervention of various elevating arrangements, the preponderance of the breech. The second kind is adapted for field and siege work: the shallow brackets are raised in front on high wheels, but unite behind into a solid beam called the trail, which tapers downwards, and rests on the ground when in action, but for travel is connected to a two-wheeled carriage called a limber (which see). Gun-carriages are chiefly made of elm for ship-board, as less given to splinter from shot, and of oak on shore; wrought-iron, however, is being applied for the carriages of the large guns recently introduced, and even cast-iron is economically used in some fortresses little liable to sudden counter-battery.

CARRICK. An old Gaelic term for a castle or fortress, as well as for a rock in the sea.

CARRICK-BEND. A kind of knot, formed on a bight by putting the end of a rope over its standing part, and then passing it.

CARRICK-BITTS. The bitts which support the ends or spindles of the windlass, whence they are also called windlass-bitts.

CARRIED. Taken, applied to the capture of forts and ships.

CARRONADE. A short gun, capable of carrying a large ball, and useful in close engagements at sea. It takes its name from the large iron-foundry on the banks of the Carron, near Falkirk, in Scotland, where this sort of ordnance was first made, or the principle applied to an improved construction. Shorter and lighter than the common cannon, and having a chamber for the powder like a mortar, they are generally of large calibre, and carried on the upper works, as the poop and forecastle.

CARRONADE SLIDE. Composed of two wide balks of elm on which the carronade carriage slides. As the slide is bolted to the ship's side, and is a radius from that bolt or pivot, carronades were once the only guns which could be truly concentrated on a given object.

CARRY, To. To subdue a vessel by boarding her. To move anything along the decks. (See Lash and Carry, as relating to hammocks.)[167] Also, to obtain possession of a fort or place by force. Also, the direction or movement of the clouds. Also, a gun is said to carry its shot so many yards. Also, a ship carries her canvas, and her cargo.

CARRY AWAY, To. To break; as, "That ship has carried away her fore-topmast," i.e. has broken it off. It is customary to say, we carried away this or that, when knocked, shot, or blown away. It is also used when a rope has been parted by violence.

CARRYING ON DUTY. The operations of the officer in charge of the deck or watch.

CARRYING ON THE WAR. Making suitable arrangements for carrying on the lark or amusement.

CARRY ON, To. To spread all sail; also, beyond discretion, or at all hazards. In galley-slang, to joke a person even to anger; also riotous frolicking.


CARTE BLANCHE. In the service sense of the term, implies an authority to act at discretion.

CARTEL. A ship commissioned in time of war to exchange the prisoners of any two hostile powers, or to carry a proposal from one to the other; for this reason she has only one gun, for the purpose of firing signals, as the officer who commands her is particularly ordered to carry no cargo, ammunition, or implements of war. Cartel also signifies an agreement between two hostile powers for a mutual exchange of prisoners. In late wars, ships of war fully armed, but under cartel, carried commissions for settling peace, as flags of truce. Cartel-ships, by trading in any way, are liable to confiscation.

CARTHOUN. The ancient cannon royal, carrying a 66-lb. ball, with a point blank range of 185 paces, and an extreme one of about 2000. It was 12 feet long and of 81⁄2 inches diameter of bore.

CARTOUCH-BOX. The accoutrement which contains the musket-cartridges: now generally called a pouch.

CARTOW. See Cart-piece.

CART-PIECE. An early battering cannon mounted on a peculiar cart.

CARTRIDGE. The case in which the exact charge of powder for fire-arms is made up—of paper for small-arms, of flannel for great guns, or of sheet metal for breech-loading muskets. For small-arms generally the cartridge contains the bullet as well as the powder, and in the case of most breech-loaders, the percussion priming also; in the case of some very light pieces the shot is included, and then named a round of "fixed ammunition;" and for breech-loading guns some sort of lubricator is generally inclosed in the forward end of the cartridge.

CARTRIDGE-BOX. A cylindrical wooden box with a lid sliding upon a handle of small rope, just containing one cartridge, and used for its[168] safe conveyance from the magazine to the gun—borne to and fro by powder-monkeys (boys) of old. The term is loosely applied to the ammunition pouch.

CARUEL. See Carvel.

CARVED WORK. The ornaments of a ship which are wrought by the carver.

CARVEL. A light lateen-rigged vessel of small burden, formerly used by the Spaniards and Portuguese. Also, a coarse sea-blubber, on which turtles are said to feed.

CARVEL-BUILT. A vessel or boat, the planks of which are all flush and smooth, the edges laid close to each other, and caulked to make them water-tight: in contradistinction to clinker-built, where they overlap each other.

CARY. See Mother Cary's Chicken. Procellaria pelagica.

CASCABLE. That generally convex part of a gun which terminates the breech end of it. The term includes the usual button which is connected to it by the neck of the cascable.

CASCADE. A fall of water from a considerable height, rather by successive stages than in a single mass, as with a cataract.

CASCO. A rubbish-lighter of the Philippine Islands.

CASE. The outside planking of the ship.

CASE-BOOK. A register or journal in which the surgeon records the cases of all the sick and wounded, who are placed under medical treatment.

CASEMATE. In fortification, a chamber having a vaulted roof capable of resisting vertical fire, and affording embrasures or loop-holes to contribute to the defence of the place: without these it would be merely a bomb-proof.

CASERNES. Often considered as synonymous with barracks; but more correctly small lodgments erected between the ramparts and houses of a fortified town, to ease the inhabitants by quartering soldiers there, who are also in better condition for duty than if living in various parts.

CASE-SHOT, Common. Called also canister-shot. Adapted for close quarters if the enemy be uncovered. It consists of a number of small iron balls, varying in weight and number, packed in a cylindrical tin case fitting the bore of the gun from which it is to be fired. Burrel, langrage, and other irregular substitutes, may be included under the term. Spherical case-shot are officially called shrapnel shell (which see).

CASHIERED. Sentenced by a court-martial to be dismissed the service. By such sentence an officer is rendered ever after incapable of serving the sovereign in any position, naval or military.[169]

CASING. The lining, veneering, or planking over a ship's timbers, especially for the cabin-beams; the sheathing of her. Also a bulk-head round a mast to prevent the interference of cargo, or shifting materials.

CASING-COVER. In the marine steam-engine is a steam-tight opening for the slide-valve rod to pass through.

CASK. A barrel for fluid or solid provisions. (See Stowage.)

CASKETS (properly Gaskets). Small ropes made of sinnet, and fastened to grummets or little rings upon the yards. Their use is to make the sail fast to the yard when it is to be furled.

CASSAVA, or Cassada. A species of the genus Jatropha janipha, well known to seamen as the cassava bread of the West Indies. Tapioca is produced from the Jatropha manihot. Caution is necessary in the use of these roots, as the juice is poisonous. The root used as chewsticks, to cleanse the teeth and gums, by the negroes, produces a copious flow of frothy saliva.

CAST. A coast term meaning four, as applied to haddocks, herrings, &c. Also, the appearance of the sky when day begins to break. A cast of pots, &c.—A'cast, when a ship's yards are braced a'cast preparatory to weighing. Also condemned, cast by survey, &c.

CAST, To. To fall off, so as to bring the direction of the wind on one side of the ship, which before was right ahead. This term is particularly applied to a ship riding head to wind, when her anchor first loosens from the ground. To pay a vessel's head off, or turn it, is getting under weigh on the tack she is to sail upon, and it is casting to starboard, or port, according to the intention.—To cast anchor. To drop or let go the anchor for riding by—synonymous with to anchor.—To cast a traverse. To calculate and lay off the courses and distances run over upon a chart.—To cast off. To let go at once. To loosen from.

CAST. A short boat passage.

CAST-AWAY. Shipwrecked.

CAST-AWAYS. People belonging to vessels stranded by stress of weather. Men who have hidden themselves, or are purposely left behind, when their vessel quits port.


CAST-KNEES. Those hanging knees which compass or arch over the angle of a man-of-war's ports, rider, &c.

CASTLE. A place strong by art or nature, or by both. A sort of little citadel. (See Forecastle, Aft-castle, &c.)

CASTLE-WRIGHTS. Particular artificers employed in the erection of the early ship's castles.

CAST-OFFS. Landsmen's clothes.[170]

CAST OF THE LEAD. The act of heaving the lead into the sea to ascertain what depth of water there is. (See also Heave the Lead and Sounding.) The result is a cast—"Get a cast of the lead."

CASTOR. α Gemini, a well-known nautical star in the zodiac, which has proved to be a double star.

CASTOR AND POLLUX. Fiery balls which appear at the mast-heads, yard-arms, or sticking to the rigging of vessels in a gale at sea. (See Compasant and Corposant.)

CASTRAMETATION. The art of planning camps, and selecting an appropriate position, in which the main requirement is that the troops of all arms should be so planted in camp as immediately to cover their proper positions in the line of battle.


CASUALTIES. In a military sense, comprehends all men who die, are wounded, desert, or are discharged as unfit for service.

CAT. A ship formed on the Norwegian model, and usually employed in the coal and timber trade. These vessels are generally built remarkably strong, and may carry six hundred tons; or in the language of their own mariners, from 20 to 30 keels of coals. A cat is distinguished by a narrow stern, projecting quarters, a deep waist, and no ornamental figure on the prow.

CATALAN. A small Spanish fishing-boat.

CATAMARAN. A sort of raft used in the East Indies, Brazils, and elsewhere: those of the island of Ceylon, like those of Madras and other parts of that coast, are formed of three logs; the timber preferred for their construction is the Dúp wood, or Cherne-Maram, the pine varnish-tree. Their length is from 20 to 25 feet, and breadth 21⁄2 to 31⁄2 feet, secured together by means of three spreaders and cross lashings, through small holes; the centre log is much the largest, with a curved surface at the fore-end, which tends and finishes upwards to a point. The side logs are very similar in form, and fitted to the centre log. These floats are navigated with great skill by one or two men, in a kneeling position; they think nothing of passing through the surf which lashes the beach at Madras and at other parts of these coasts, when even the boats of the country could not live upon the waves; they are also propelled out to the shipping at anchor when boats of the best construction and form would be swamped. In the monsoons, when a sail can be got on them, a small out-rigger is placed at the end of two poles, as a balance, with a bamboo mast and yard, and a mat or cotton-cloth sail, all three parts of which are connected; and when the tack and sheet of the sail are let go, it all falls fore and aft alongside, and being light, is easily managed. In carrying a press of sail, they are trimmed by the balance-lever, by going out on the[171] poles so as to keep the log on the surface of the water, and not impede its velocity, which, in a strong wind, is very great.

CATANADROMI. Migratory fishes, which have their stated times of going from fresh-water to salt and returning, as the salmon, &c.

CATAPULT. A military engine used by the ancients for throwing stones, spears, &c.

CATARACT. The sudden fall of a large body of water from a higher to a lower level, and rather in a single sheet than by successive leaps, as in a cascade.

CATASCOPIA. Small vessels anciently used for reconnoitring and carrying despatches.

CAT-BEAM. This, called also the beak-head beam, is the broadest beam in the ship, and is generally made of two beams tabled and bolted together.

CAT-BLOCK. A two or three fold block, with an iron strop and large hook to it, which is employed to cat or draw the anchor up to the cat-head, which is also fitted with three great sheaves to correspond.

CATCH. A term used among fishermen to denote a quantity of fish taken at one time.

CATCH A CRAB. In rowing, when an oar gets so far beneath the surface of the water, that the rower cannot recover it in time to prevent his being knocked backwards.

CATCH A TURN THERE. Belay quickly.

CATCH-FAKE. An unseemly doubling in a badly coiled rope.

CATERER. A purveyor and provider of provisions: now used for the person who takes charge of and regulates the economy of a mess. (See Acater.)

CAT-FALL. The rope rove for the cat-purchase, by which the anchor is raised to the cat-head or catted.

CAT-FISH. A name for the sea-wolf (Anarrhicas lupus).

CAT-GUT. A term applied to the sea-laces or Fucus filum. (See Sea-catgut.)

CAT-HARPINGS, or Catharpin Legs. Ropes under the tops at the lower end of the futtock-shrouds, serving to brace in the shrouds tighter, and affording room to brace the yards more obliquely when the ship is close-hauled. They keep the shrouds taut for the better ease and safety of the mast.

CAT-HEAD. The cat-head passes through the bow-bulwark obliquely forward on a radial line from the fore-mast, rests on the timbers even with the water-way, passes through the deck, and is secured to the side-timbers. It is selected from curved timber. Its upper head is on a level with the upper rail; it is furnished with three great sheaves, and externally strengthened by a cat-head knee. It not only is used[172] to lift the anchor from the surface of the water, but as it "looks forward," the cat-block is frequently lashed to the cable to aid by its powerful purchase when the capstan fails to make an impression. The cat-fall rove through the sheaves, and the cat-block furnish the cat-purchase. The cat-head thus serves to suspend the anchor clear of the bow, when it is necessary to let it go: the knee by which it is supported is generally ornamented with carving. Termed also cat-head bracket.

CAT-HOLES. Places or spaces made in the quarter, for carrying out fasts or springs for steadying or heaving astern.

CAT-HOOK. A strong hook which is a continuation of the iron strop of the cat-block, used to hook the ring of the anchor when it is to be drawn up or catted.

CAT-LAP. A common phrase for tea or weak drink.

CAT O' NINE TAILS. An instrument of punishment used on board ships in the navy; it is commonly of nine pieces of line or cord, about half a yard long, fixed upon a piece of thick rope for a handle, and having three knots on each, at small intervals, nearest one end; with this the seamen who transgress are flogged upon the bare back.

CATRAIA. The catraia of Lisbon and Oporto, or pilot surf-boats, are about 56 feet long, by 15 feet beam, impelled by sixteen oars.

CAT-RIG. A rig which in smooth water surpasses every other, but, being utterly unsuited for sea or heavy weather, is only applicable to pleasure-boats who can choose their weather. It allows one sail only—an enormous fore-and-aft main-sail, spread by a gaff at the head and a boom at the foot, hoisted on a stout mast, which is stepped close to the stem.

CAT-ROPE. A line for hauling the cat-hook about: also cat-back-rope, which hauls the block to the ring of the anchor in order to hook it.

CAT'S-PAW. A light air perceived at a distance in a calm, by the impressions made on the surface of the sea, which it sweeps very gently, and then passes away, being equally partial and transitory. Old superstitious seamen are seen to scratch the backstays with their nails, and whistle to invoke even these cat's-paws, the general forerunner of the steadier breeze. Cat's-paw is also a name given to a particular twisting hitch, made in the bight of a rope, so as to induce two small bights, in order to hook a tackle on them both. Also, good-looking seamen employed to entice volunteers.

CAT'S-SKIN. A light partial current of air, as with the cat's-paw.

CAT'S-TAIL. The inner part of the cat-head, that fays down upon the cat-beam.

CAT-STOPPER, or Cathead-stopper. A piece of rope or chain rove through the ring of an anchor, to secure it for sea, or singled before letting it go.[173]

CAT-TACKLE. A strong tackle, used to draw the anchor perpendicularly up to the cat-head, which latter is sometimes called cat.

CATTAN. See Katan.

CAT THE ANCHOR. When the cat is hooked and "cable enough" veered and stoppered, the anchor hangs below the cat-head, swings beneath it; it is then hauled close up to the cat-head by the purchase called the cat-fall. The cat-stopper is then passed, and the cat-block unhooked.

CATTING. The act of heaving the anchor by the cat-tackle. Also, sea-sickness.

CATTY. A Chinese commercial weight of 18 ozs. English. Tea is packed in one or two or more catty boxes, hence most likely our word tea-caddy.

CAUDAL FIN. The vertical median fin terminating the tail of fishes.

CAUDICARIÆ. A kind of lighter used by the Romans on the Tiber.

CAUL. The membrane encompassing the head of some infants when born, and from early antiquity esteemed an omen of good fortune, and a preservative against drowning; it was sought by the Roman lawyers with as much avidity as by modern voyagers. Also, a northern name for a dam-dike. Also, an oriental license. (See Kaule.)

CAULK, To. (See Caulking.) To lie down on deck and sleep, with clothes on.

CAULKER. He who caulks and pays the seams. This word is mistaken by many for cawker (which see).

CAULKER'S SEAT. A box slung to a ship's side whereon a caulker can sit and use his irons; it contains his tools and oakum.

CAULKING of a Ship. Forcing a quantity of oakum, or old ropes untwisted and drawn asunder, into the seams of the planks, or into the intervals where the planks are joined together in the ship's decks or sides, or rends in the planks, in order to prevent the entrance of water. After the oakum is driven in very hard, hot melted pitch or rosin is poured into the groove, to keep the water from rotting it. Among the ancients the first who made use of pitch in caulking were the inhabitants of Phæacia, afterwards called Corfu. Wax and rosin appear to have been commonly used before that period; and the Poles still substitute an unctuous clay for the same purpose for the vessels on their navigable rivers.

CAULKING-BUTT. The opening between ends or joints of the planks when worked for caulking.

CAULKING-IRONS. The peculiar chisels used for the purpose of caulking: they are the caulking-iron, the making-iron, the reeming-iron, and the rasing-iron.

CAULKING-MALLET. The wooden beetle or instrument with which the caulking-irons are driven.[174]

CAURY. Worm-eaten.

CAVALIER. In fortification, a work raised considerably higher than its neighbours, but generally of similar plan. Its object is to afford a plunging fire, especially into the near approaches of a besieger, and to shelter adjacent faces from enfilade. Its most frequent position in fortresses is at the salient of the ravelin, or within the bastion; and in siege-works in the advanced trenches, for the purpose of enabling the musketry of the attack to drive the defenders out of the covered way.

CAVALLO, by some Carvalhas. An oceanic fish, well-known as the bonito or horse-mackerel.

CAVALOT. A gun carrying a ball of one pound.

CAVALRY. That body of soldiers which serves and fights on horseback.

CAVER. See Kaver.

CAVIARE. A preparation of the roe of sturgeons and other fish salted. It forms a lucrative branch of commerce in Italy and Russia.

CAVIL. A large cleat for belaying the fore and main tacks, sheets, and braces to. (See Kevels.)

CAVITY. In naval architecture signifies the displacement formed in the water by the immersed bottom and sides of the vessel.

CAWE, or Cawfe. An east-country eel-box, or a floating perforated cage in which lobsters are kept.

CAWKER. An old term signifying a glass of strong spirits taken in the morning.

CAY, or Cayos. Little insulated sandy spots and rocks. The Spaniards in the West Indies called the Bahamas Los Cayos, which we wrote Lucayos. (See Key.)

CAZE-MATTE. See Casemate.

CAZERNS. See Casernes.

C.B. The uncials of Companion of the most honourable Order of the Bath. This grade was recently distributed so profusely that an undecorated veteran testily remarked that if government went on thus there would soon be more C.B.'s than A.B.'s in the navy.

CEASE FIRING. The order to leave off.

CEILING. The lining or planks on the inside of a ship's frame: these are placed on the flat of the floor, and carried up to the hold-beams. The term is a synonym of foot-waling (which see).

CELLS. See Sills.

CELOCES, or Celetes. Light row-boats, formerly used in piracy, and also for conveying advice.

CEMENT, Roman. For docks, piers, &c. See Pozzolana.

CENTIME. See Franc.

CENTINEL. See Sentinel.

CENTRAL ECLIPSE. See Eclipse.[175]

CENTRE (usually Center). The division of a fleet between the van and the rear of the line of battle, and between the weather and lee divisions in the order of sailing.

CENTRE of Cavity, of Displacement, of Immersion, and of Buoyancy, are synonymous terms in naval architecture for the mean centre of that part of a vessel which is immersed in the water.

CENTRE OF GRAVITY, or Balancing Point. See Gravity.

CENTRE OF MOTION. See Motion (Centre of).

CENTURION. A military officer who commanded one hundred men, in the Roman armies.

CEOLA. A very old term for a large ship.

CERADENE. A large fresh-water mussel.

CERCURI. Ancient ships of burden fitted with both sails and oars.

CERTIFICATE. A voucher or written testimony to the truth of any statement. An attestation of servitude, signed by the captain, is given with all discharges of men in the navy.

CERTIFY, To. To bear official testimony.

CESSATION OF ARMS. A discontinuation or suspension of hostilities.

CETINE. An ancient large float, says Hesychius, "in bulk like a whale;" derived from cetus, which applied both to whale and ship.

C.G. Coast-guard (which see).

CHAD. A fish like a small bream, abundant on the south-west coasts of England.

CHAFE, To. To rub or fret the surface of a cable, mast, or yard, by the motion of the ship or otherwise, against anything that is too hard for it.—Chafing-gear, is the stuff put upon the rigging and spars to prevent their being chafed.

CHAFFER. A name for a whale or grampus of the northern seas.

CHAFING-CHEEKS. A name given by old sailors to the sheaves instead of blocks on the yards in light-rigged vessels.

CHAFING-GEAR. Mats, sinnet, spun-yarn, strands, battens, scotchmen, and the like.

CHAIN. When mountains, hills, lakes, and islands are linked together, or follow each other in succession, so that their whole length greatly exceeds their breadth, they form what is termed a chain. A measuring chain is divided into links, &c., made of stout wire, because line is apt to shrink on wet ground and give way. The chain measure is 66 feet.

CHAINAGE OF SHIP. An old right of the admiral.

CHAIN-BOLT. A large bolt to secure the chains of the dead-eyes through the toe-link, for the purpose of securing the masts by the shrouds. Also, the bolts which fasten the channel-plates to the ship's side.

CHAIN-CABLE COMPRESSOR. A curved arm of iron which[176] revolves on a bolt through an eye at one end, at the other is a larger eye in which a tackle is hooked; it is used to bind the cable against the pipe through which it is passing, and check it from running out too quickly.

CHAIN-CABLE CONTROLLER. A contrivance for the prevention of one part of the chain riding on another while heaving in.

CHAIN-CABLES. Are not new; Cæsar found them on the shores of the British Channel. In 1818 I saw upwards of eighty sail of vessels with them at Desenzano, on the Lago di Garda. They have all but superseded hemp cables in recent times; they are divided into parts 15 fathoms in length, which are connected by shackles, any one of which may be slipped in emergency; at each 71⁄2 fathoms a swivel used to be inserted, but in many cases they are now dispensed with.

CHAIN-CABLE SHACKLES. Used for coupling the parts of a chain-cable at various lengths, so that they may be disconnected when circumstance demands it.

CHAIN-HOOK. An iron rod with a handling-eye at one end, and a hook at the other, for hauling the chain-cables about.

CHAIN-PIPE. An aperture through which a chain-cable passes from the chain-well to the deck above.

CHAIN-PLATES. Plates of iron with their lower ends bolted to the ship's sides under the channels, and to these plates the dead-eyes are fastened; other plates lap over and secure them below. Formerly, and still in great ships, the dead-eyes were linked to chain-pieces, and from their being occasionally made in one plate they have obtained this appellation.

CHAIN-PUMP. This is composed of two long metal tubes let down through the decks somewhat apart from each other, but joined at their lower ends, which are pierced with holes for the admission of water. Above the upper part of the tubes is a sprocket-wheel worked by crank handles; over this wheel, and passing through both tubes, is an endless chain, furnished at certain distances with bucket valves or pistons, turning round a friction-roller. The whole, when set in motion by means of the crank handles, passing down one tube and up the other, raises the water very rapidly.

CHAINS, properly Chain-wales, or Channels. Broad and thick planks projecting horizontally from the ship's outside, to which they are fayed and bolted, abreast of and somewhat behind the masts. They are formed to project the chain-plate, and give the lower rigging greater out-rig or spread, free from the top-sides of the ship, thus affording greater security and support to the masts, as well as to prevent the shrouds from damaging the gunwale, or being hurt by rubbing against it. Of course they are respectively designated fore, main, and mizen.[177] They are now discontinued in many ships, the eyes being secured to the timber-heads, and frequently within the gunwale to the stringers or lower shelf-pieces above the water-way.—In the chains, applies to the leadsman who stands on the channels between two shrouds to heave the hand-lead.

CHAIN-SHOT. Two balls connected either by a bar or chain, for cutting and destroying the spars and rigging of an enemy's ship.

CHAIN-SLINGS. Chains attached to the sling-hoop and mast-head, by which a lower yard is hung. Used for boat or any other slings demanded.

CHAIN-STOPPER. There are various kinds of stoppers for chain-cables, mostly acting by clamping or compression.

CHAIN, Top. A chain to sling the lower yards in time of battle, to prevent them from falling down when the ropes by which they are hung are shot away.

CHAIN-WELL, or Locker. A receptacle below deck for containing the chain-cable, which is passed thither through the deck-pipe.

CHALAND. A large flat-bottomed boat of the Loire.

CHALDERS. Synonymous with gudgeons of the rudder.

CHALDRICK. An Orkney name for the sea-pie (Hæmatopus ostralegus).

CHALDRON. A measure of coals, consisting of 36 bushels; a cubic yard = 19 cwts. 19 lbs.

CHALINK. A kind of Massoolah boat.

CHALK, To. To cut.—To walk one's chalks, to run off; also, an ordeal for drunkenness, to see whether the suspected person can move along the line. "Walking a deck-seam" is to the same purpose, as the man is to proceed without overstepping it on either side.

CHALKS. Marks. "Better by chalks:" wagers were sometimes determined by he who could reach furthest or highest, and there make a chalk-mark.—Long chalks, great odds.

CHALLENGE. The demand of a sentinel to any one who approaches his post. Also, the defiance to fight.

CHAMADE. To challenge attention. A signal made by beat of drum when a conference is desired by the enemy on having matter to propose. It is also termed beating a parley.

CHAMBER, or Chamber-piece. A charge piece in old ordnance, like a paterero, to put into the breech of a gun prepared for it. (See Murderer.) Used by the Chinese, as in gingals (which see).

CHAMBER OF A MINE. The seat or receptacle prepared for the powder-charge, usually at the end of the gallery, and out of the direct line of it; and, if possible, tamped or buried with tight packing of earth, &c., to increase the force of explosion.[178]

CHAMBER OF A PIECE OF ORDNANCE. The end of the bore modified to receive the charge of powder. In mortars, howitzers, and shell-guns, they are of smaller diameter than the bore, for the charges being comparatively small, more effect is thus expected. The gomer chamber (which see) is generally adopted in our service. In rifled guns the powder-chamber is not rifled; it and the bullet-chamber differ in other minute respects from the rest of the bore. Patereroes for festive occasions are sometimes called chambers; as the small mortars, formerly used for firing salutes in the parks, termed also pint-pots from their shape and handles.

CHAMBERS. Clear spaces between the riders, in those vessels which have floor and futtock riders.

CHAMFER. The cutting or taking off a sharp edge or angle from a plank or timber. It is also called camfering.

CHAMPION. The great champion of England, who at the coronation of the sovereign throws down his gauntlet, and defies all comers. Held at the coronations of George IV., William IV., and Victoria, by a naval officer, a middy in 1821.

CHANCERY, In. When a ship gets into irons. (See Irons.)

CHANCY. Dangerous.

CHANDLER, Ship. Dealer in general stores for ships.

CHANGE. In warrantry, is the voluntary substitution of a different voyage for a merchant ship than the one originally specified or agreed upon, an act which discharges the insurers. (See Deviation.)

CHANGEY-FOR-CHANGEY. A rude barter among men-of-war's men, as bread for vegetables, or any "swap."

CHANNEL. In hydrography, the fair-way, or deepest part of a river, harbour, or strait, which is most convenient for the track of shipping. Also, an arm of the sea, or water communication running between an island or islands and the main or continent, as the British Channel. In an extended sense it implies any passage which separates lands, and leads from one ocean into another, without distinction as to shape.

CHANNEL-BOLTS. The long bolts which pass through all the planks, and connect the channel to the side.

CHANNEL-GROPERS. The home-station ships cruising in the Channel; usually small vessels to watch the coast in former times, and to arrest smugglers.

CHANNEL-GROPING. The carrying despatches, and cruising from port to port in soundings.

CHANNEL-PLATES. See Chain-plates.

CHANNEL-WALES. Strakes worked between the gun-deck and the upper deck ports of large ships. Also, the outside plank which receives the bolts of the chain-plates. The wale-plank extends fore and aft to support the channels.[179]

CHANTICLEER. A name in the Frith of Forth for the dragonet or gowdie (Callionymus lyra). The early or vigilant cock, from which several English vessels of war have derived their names.

CHAP. A general term for a man of any age after boyhood; but it is not generally meant as a compliment.

CHAPE. The top locket of a sword scabbard.

CHAPELLING A SHIP. The act of turning her round in a light breeze, when she is close hauled, without bracing the head-yards, so that she will lie the same way that she did before. This is commonly occasioned by the negligence of the steersman, or by a sudden change of the wind.

CHAPLAIN. The priest appointed to perform divine service on board ships in the royal navy.

CHAPMAN. A small merchant or trader; a ship's super-cargo.

CHAR. A fine species of trout taken in our northern lakes.

CHARACTERS. Certain marks invented for shortening the expression of mathematical calculations, as +, -, ×, ÷, =, : :: :, √, &c.

CHARGE. The proportional quantity of powder and ball wherewith a gun is loaded for execution. The rules for loading large ordnance are: that the piece be first cleaned or scoured inside; that the proper quantity of powder be next driven in and rammed down, care however being taken that the powder in ramming be not bruised, because that weakens its effect; that a little quantity of paper, lint, or the like, be rammed over it, and then the ball be intruded. If the ball be red hot, a tompion, or trencher of green wood, is to be driven in before it. Also, in martial law, an indictment or specification of the crime of which a prisoner stands accused. Also, in evolutions, the brisk advance of a body to attack an enemy, with bayonets fixed at the charge, or firmly held at the hip. Also, the command on duty, every man's office.—A ship of charge, is one so deeply immersed as to steer badly.—To charge a piece, is to put in the proper quantity of ammunition.

CHARGER. The horse ridden by an officer in action; a term loosely applied to any war-horse.

CHARITY-SLOOPS. Certain 10-gun brigs built towards the end of Napoleon's war, something smaller than the 18-gun brigs; these were rated sloops, and scandal whispers "in order that so many commanders might charitably be employed."

CHARLES'S WAIN. The seven conspicuous stars in Ursa Major, of which two are called the pointers, from showing a line to the pole-star.

CHART, or Sea-chart. A hydrographical map, or a projection of some part of the earth's superficies in plano, for the use of navigators, further distinguished as plane-charts, Mercator's charts, globular charts, and the bottle or current chart, to aid in the investigation of surface[180] currents (all which see). A selenographic chart represents the moon, especially as seen by the aid of photography and Mr. De la Rue's arrangement.

CHARTER. To charter a vessel is to take her to freight, under a charter-party. The charter or written instrument by which she is hired to carry freight.

CHARTERED SHIP. One let to hire to one or more, or to a company. A general ship is where persons, unconnected, load goods.

CHARTERER. The person hiring or chartering a ship, or the government or a company by their agents.

CHARTER-PARTY. The deed or written contract between the owners and the merchants for the hire of a ship, and safe delivery of the cargo; thus differing from a bill of lading, which relates only to a portion of the cargo. It is the same in civil law with an indenture at the common law. It ought to contain the name and burden of the vessel, the names of the master and freighters, the place and time of lading and unlading, and stipulations as to demurrage. The charter-party is dissolved by a complete embargo, though not by the temporary stopping of a port. It is thus colloquially termed a pair of indentures.

CHASE, To. To pursue a ship, which is also called giving chase.—A stern chase is when the chaser follows the chased astern, directly upon the same point of the compass.—To lie with a ship's fore-foot in a chase, is to sail and meet with her by the nearest distance, and so to cross her in her way, as to come across her fore-foot. A ship is said to have a good chase when she is so built forward or astern that she can carry many guns to shoot forwards or backwards; according to which she is said to have a good forward or good stern chase. Chasing to windward, is often termed chasing in the wind's eye.

CHASE. The vessel pursued by some other, that pursuing being the chaser. This word is also applied to a receptacle for deer and game, between a forest and a park in size, and stored with a larger stock of timber than the latter.

CHASE, Bow. Cannon situated in the fore part of the ship to fire upon any object ahead of her. Chasing ahead, or varying on either bow.

CHASE of a Gun. That part of the conical external surface extending from the moulding in front of the trunnions to that which marks the commencement of the muzzle; that is, in old pattern guns, from the ogee of the second reinforce, to the neck or muzzle astragal.

CHASE-GUNS. Such guns as are removed to the chase-ports ahead or astern, if not pivot-guns.

CHASE-PORTS. The gun-ports at the bows and through the stern of a war-ship.[181]

CHASER. The ship which is pursuing another.

CHASE-SIGHT. Where the sight is usually placed.

CHASE-STERN. The cannon which are placed in the after-part of a ship, pointing astern.

CHASSE MAREES. The coasting vessels of the French shores of the Channel; generally lugger-rigged; either with two or three masts, and sometimes a top-sail; the hull being bluffer when used for burden only, are thus distinguished from luggers. They seldom venture off shore, but coast it.

CHATHAM. See Chest of Chatham.

CHATS. Lice. Also lazy fellows.

CHATTA, or Chatty. An Indian term for an earthen vessel sometimes used for cooking.

CHAW. See Quid.

CHEATING THE DEVIL. Softenings of very profane phrases, the mere euphemisms of hard swearing, as od rot it, od's blood, dash it, dang you, see you blowed first, deuce take it, by gosh, be darned, and the like profane preludes, such as boatswains and their mates are wont to use.

CHEAT THE GLASS. See Flogging the Glass.

CHEBACCO BOAT. A description of fishing-vessel employed in the Newfoundland fisheries. It is probably named from Chebucto Bay.

CHECK. (See Bowline.) To slack off a little upon it, and belay it again. Usually done when the wind is by, or as long as she can lay her course without the aid of the bowline.—To check is to slacken or ease off a brace, which is found to be too stiffly extended, or when the wind is drawing aft. It is also used in a contrary sense when applied to the cable running out, and then implies to stopper the cable.—Check her, stop her way.

CHECKERS. A game much used by seamen, especially in the tops, where usually a checker-board will be found carved.

CHECKING-LINES. These are rove through thimbles at the eyes of the top-mast and top-gallant rigging, one end bent to the lift and brace, the other into the top. They are used to haul them in to the mast-head, instead of sending men aloft.

CHEEK. Insolent language.—Own cheek, one's self.—Cheeky, flippant.

CHEEK-BLOCKS. Usually fitted to the fore-topmast head, for the purpose of leading the jib-stay, halliards, &c.

CHEEKS. A general term among mechanics for those pieces of timber in any machine which are double, and perfectly corresponding to each other. The projections at the throat-end of a gaff which embrace the mast are termed jaws. Also, the sides of a gun-carriage. (See Brackets.) Also, the sides of a block. Also, an old soubriquet for a marine, derived from a rough pun on his uniform in olden days.[182]

CHEEKS, or Cheek-knees. Pieces of compass-timber on the ship's bows, for the security of the beak-head, or knee of the head, whence the term head-knee. Two pieces of timber fitted on each side of a mast, from beneath the hounds and its uppermost end. Also, the circular pieces on the aft-side of the carrick-bitts.

CHEEKS OF AN EMBRASURE. The interior faces or sides of an embrasure.

CHEEKS OF THE MAST. The faces or projecting parts on each side of the masts, formed to sustain the trestle-trees upon which the frame of the top, together with the top-mast, immediately rest. (See Hounds and Bibbs.)

CHEER, To. To salute a ship en passant, by the people all coming on deck and huzzahing three times; it also implies to encourage or animate. (See also Hearty and Man Ship!)

CHEERING. The result of an animated excitement in action, which often incites to valour. Also, practised on ships parting at sea, on joining an admiral, &c. In piratical vessels, to frighten their prey with a semblance of valour.

CHEERLY. Quickly; with a hearty will. "Cheerly, boys, cheerly," when the rope comes in slowly, or hoisting a sail with a few hands.

CHEESE. A circle of wads covered with painted canvas.

CHELYNGE. An early name of the cod-fish.

CHEQUE, or Check. An office in dockyards. Cheque for muster, pay, provision, desertion, discharged, or dead—under DDD. or DSqd.

CHEQUE, Clerk of the. An officer in the royal dockyards, who goes on board to muster the ship's company, of whom he keeps a register, thereby to check false musters, the penalty of which is cashiering.

CHEQUERED SIDES. Those painted so as to show all the ports; more particularly applicable to two or more rows.

CHERIMERI. In the East, a bribe in making a contract or bargain.

CHERRY. A species of smelt or spurling, taken in the Frith of Tay.

CHESIL. From the Anglo-Saxon word ceosl, still used for a bank or shingle, as that remarkable one connecting the Isle of Portland with the mainland, called the Chesil Beach.

CHESS-TREE. A piece of oak fastened with iron bolts on each top-side of the ship. Used for boarding the main-tack to, or hauling home the clues of the main-sail, for which purpose there is a hole in the upper part, through which the tack passes, that extends the clue of the sail to windward. Where chain has been substituted of late for rope, iron plates with thimble-eyes are used for chess-trees.

CHEST OF CHATHAM. An ancient institution, restored and established by an order in council of Queen Elizabeth, in 1590, supported[183] by a contribution from each seaman and apprentice, according to the amount of his wages, for the wounded and hurt seamen of the royal navy, under the name of smart-money.

CHEST-ROPE. The same with the guest or gift rope, and is added to the boat-rope when the boat is towed astern of the ship, to keep her from sheering, i.e. from swinging to and fro. (See Guess-warp.)

CHEVAUX DE FRISE. An adopted term for pickets pointed with iron, and standing through beams, to stop an enemy: this defence is also called a turn-pike or pike-turn.

CHEVENDER. An old name for the chevin or chub.

CHEVILS. See Kevels.

CHEVIN. An old name for the chub.

CHEVRON. The distinguishing mark on the sleeves of sergeants' and corporals' coats, the insignia of a non-commissioned officer. Also, a mark recently instituted as a testimony of good conduct in a private. Further, now worn by seamen getting good-service pay.

CHEWING OF OAKUM or Pitch. When a ship suffers leakage from inefficient caulking. (See Seam.)

CHEZ-VOUS. A kind of "All Souls" night in Bengal, when meats and fruits are placed in every corner of a native's house. Hence shevoe, for a ship-gala.

CHICO [Sp. for small].—Boca-chica, small mouth of a river.

CHIEF. See Commander-in-chief. A common abbreviation.

CHIEF MATE, or Chief Officer. The next to a commander in a merchantman, and who, in the absence of the latter, acts as his deputy.

CHIGRE, Chagoe, Chiggre, or Jigger. A very minute insect of tropical countries, which pierces the thick skin of the foot, and breeds there, producing great pain. It is neatly extricated with its sac entire by clever negroes.

CHILLED SHOT. Shot of very rapidly cooled cast-iron, i.e. cast in iron moulds, and thus found to acquire a hardness which renders them of nearly equal efficiency with steel shot for penetrating iron plates, yet produced at about one-quarter the price. They invariably break up on passing through the plates, and their fragments are very destructive on crowded decks; though in the attack of iron war vessels, where the demolishment of guns, carriages, machinery, turrets, &c., is required, the palm must still be awarded to steel shot and shell.

CHIMBE [Anglo-Saxon]. The prominent part or end of the staves, where they project beyond the head of a cask.

CHIME. See Chine.

CHIME IN, To. To join a mess meal or treat. To chime in to a chorus or song.

CHINCKLE. A small bight in a line.[184]

CHINE. The backbone of a cliff, from the backbones of animals; a name given in the Isle of Wight, as Black Gang Chine, and along the coasts of Hampshire. Also, that part of the water-way which is left the thickest, so as to project above the deck-plank; and it is notched or gouged hollow in front, to let the water run free.

CHINE AND CHINE. Casks stowed end to end.

CHINED. Timber or plank slightly hollowed out.

CHINGLE. Gravel. (See Shingle.)

CHINGUERITO. A hot and dangerous sort of white corn brandy, made in Spanish America.

CHINSE, To. To stop small seams, by working in oakum with a knife or chisel—a temporary expedient. To caulk slightly those openings that will not bear the force required for caulking.

CHINSING-IRON. A caulker's tool for chinsing seams with.

CHIP, To. To trim a gun when first taken from the mould or castings.

CHIPS. The familiar soubriquet of the carpenter on board ship. The fragments of timber and the planings of plank are included among chips.—Chip of the old block, a son like his father.

CHIRURGEON. [Fr.] The old name for surgeon.

CHISEL. A well-known edged tool for cutting away wood, iron, &c.

CHIT. A note. Formerly the note for slops given by the officer of a division to be presented to the purser.

CHIULES. The Saxon ships so called.

CHIVEY. A knife.

CHLET. An old Manx term for a rock in the sea.

CHOCK. A sort of wedge used to rest or confine any weighty body, and prevent it from fetching way when the ship is in motion. Also, pieces fitted to supply a deficiency or defect after the manner of filling. Also, blocks of timber latterly substituted beneath the beams for knees, and wedged by iron keys. (See Boat-chocks.)—Chock of the bowsprit. See Bend.—Chocks of the rudder, large accurately adapted pieces of timber kept in readiness to choak the rudder, by filling up the excavation on the side of the rudder hole, in case of any accident. It is also choaked or chocked, when a ship is likely to get strong stern-way, when tiller-ropes break, &c.—To chock, is to put a wedge under anything to prevent its rolling. (See Chuck.)

CHOCK-A-BLOCK, or Chock and Block. Is the same with block-a-block and two-blocks (which see). When the lower block of a tackle is run close up to the upper one, so that you can hoist no higher, the blocks being together.

CHOCK-AFT, Chock-full, Chock-home, Chock-up, &c. Denote as far aft, full, home, up, &c., as possible, or that which fits closely to one another.[185]

CHOCK-CHANNELS. Those filled in with wood between the chain-plates, according to a plan introduced by Captain Couch, R.N.

CHOCOLATE-GALE. A brisk N.W. wind of the West Indies and Spanish main.

CHOGSET. See Burgall.

CHOKE. The nip of a rocket.

CHOKED. When a running rope sticks in a block, either by slipping between the cheeks and the shiver, or any other accident, so that it cannot run.

CHOKE-FULL. Entirely full; top full.

CHOKE THE LUFF. To place suddenly the fall of a tackle close to the block across the jaw of the next turn of the rope in the block, so as to prevent the leading part from rendering. Familiarly said of having a meal to assuage hunger; to be silenced.

CHOKEY. An East Indian guard-house and prison.

CHOMMERY. See Chasse Marées, for which this is the men's term.

CHOP. A permit or license of departure for merchant ships in the China trade. A Chinese word signifying quality. Also, an imperial chop or mandate; a proclamation.

CHOP, or Chapp. The entrance of a channel, as the Chops of the English Channel.

CHOP-ABOUT, To. Is applied to the wind when it varies and changes suddenly, and at short intervals of time.

CHOPPING-SEA. A synonym of cockling sea (which see).

CHOPT. Done suddenly in exigence; as, chopt to an anchor.

CHORD. In geometry, is a line which joins the extremities of any arc of a circle.

CHOW-CHOW. Eatables; a word borrowed from the Chinese. It is supposed to be derived from chou-chou, the tender parts of cabbage-tree, bamboo, &c., preserved.

CHOWDER. The principal food in the Newfoundland bankers, or stationary fishing vessels; it consists of a stew of fresh cod-fish, rashers of salt pork or bacon, biscuit, and lots of pepper. Also, a buccaneer's savoury dish, and a favourite dish in North America. (See Cod-fisher's Crew.) Chowder is a fish-seller in the western counties.

CHOWDER-HEADED. Stupid, or batter-brained.

CHRISTIAN. A gold Danish coin, value in England from 16s. to 16s. 4d.

CHRISTIAN'S GALES. The tremendous storms in 1795-6, which desolated the fleet proceeding to attack the French West India Islands, under Admiral Christian.

CHROCKLE. A tangle or thoro'put (which see).

CHRODANE. The Manx and Gaelic term for gurnet.[186]

CHRONOMETER. A valuable time-piece fitted with a compensation-balance, adjusted for the accurate measurement of time in all climates, and used by navigators for the determination of the longitude.

CHRONOMETER RATE. The number of seconds or parts of seconds which it loses or gains per diem. (See Rating.)

CHRUIN. A Gaelic term for masts.—Chruin-spreie, the bowsprit.

CHUB. The Leuciscus cephalus, a fresh-water fish.

CHUCK. A sea-shell. Nickname for a boatswain, "Old chucks." Also, an old word signifying large chips of wood.

CHUCKLE-HEADED. Clownishly stupid; lubberly.

CHULLERS. A northern name for the gills of a fish.

CHUNAM. Lime made of burned shells, and much used in India for the naval store-houses. That made at Madras is of peculiarly fine quality, and easily takes a polish like white marble.

CHUNK. A coarse slice of meat or bread; more properly junk. Also, the negro term for lumps of firewood.

CHUNTOCK. A powerful dignitary among the Chinese. (See Jantook.)

CHURCH. The part of the ship arranged on Sunday for divine service.

CHURCH-WARDEN. A name given on the coast of Sussex to the shag or cormorant. Why, deponent sayeth not.

CHUTE. A fall of water or rapid; the word is much used in North America, wherever the nomenclature of the country retains traces of the early French settlers. (See Shoot.)

CILLS. Horizontal pieces of timber to ports or scuttles; mostly spelled sills (which see). Generally pronounced by sailors sell, as the port-sell.

CINGLE [from cir-cingle, a horse's belt]. A belt worn by seamen.

CINQUE-PORT. A kind of fishing-net, having five entrances.

CINQUE PORTS, The. These are five highly privileged stations, the once great emporiums of British commerce and maritime greatness; they are Dover, Hastings, Sandwich, Romney, and Hythe, which, lying opposite to France, were considered of the utmost importance. To these were afterwards added Winchelsea, Rye, and Seaford. These places were honoured with peculiar immunities and privileges, on condition of their providing a certain number of ships at their own charge for forty days. Being exempted from the jurisdiction of the Admiralty court, the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports is authorized to make rules for the government of pilots within his jurisdiction, and in many other general acts exceptions are provided to save the franchises of the Cinque Ports unimpeached. It is a singular fact that it has never been legally determined whether the Downs and adjacent roadsteads are included in the limits of the Cinque Ports. All derelicts found without the limits by Cinque Port vessels are droits of[187] admiralty. This organization was nearly broken up in the late state reforms, but the Lord Warden still possesses some power and jurisdiction.

CIPHERING. A term in carpentry. (See Syphered.)

CIRCLE. A plane figure bounded by a line called the circumference, everywhere equally distant from a point within it, called the centre.

CIRCLE OF PERPETUAL APPARITION. A circle of the heavens parallel to the equator, and at a distance from the pole of any place equal to the latitude: within this circle the stars never set.

CIRCLES, Great, Lesser, Azimuth, Vertical (which see).

CIRCLES OF LONGITUDE. These are great circles passing through the poles of the ecliptic, and so cutting it at right angles.

CIRCULARS. Certain official letters which are sent to several persons, and convey the same information.

CIRCUMNAVIGATION. The term for making a voyage round the world.

CIRCUMPOLAR. A region which includes that portion of the starry sphere which remains constantly above the horizon of any place.

CIRCUMVALLATION, Lines of. Intrenchments thrown up by a besieging army, outside itself, and round the besieged place, but fronting towards the country, to prevent interference from outside. This continuous method has gone out of favour, though some covering works of concentrated strength are still considered essential.

CIRRIPEDIA. A group of marine animals, allied to the crustacea. They are free and natatory when young, but in the adult state attached to rocks or some floating substance. They are protected by a multivalve shell, and have long ciliated curled tentacles, whence their name (curl-footed). The barnacles (Lepas) and the acorn-shells (Balanus) are familiar examples.

CIRRO-CUMULUS. This, the sonder-cloud, or system of small roundish clouds in the upper regions of the atmosphere, commonly moves in a different current of air from that which is blowing at the earth's surface. It forms the mackerel sky alluded to in the following distich:—

"A mack'rel sky and mares'-tails
Make lofty ships carry low sails."
CIRRO-STRATUS. Is the stratus of the upper regions of the atmosphere, heavier looking than the cirrus, but not so heavy as the stratus.

CIRRUS. The elegant modification of elevated clouds, usually termed mares'-tails (see the distich given at Cirro-cumulus); otherwise the curl-cloud.

CISCO. A fish of the herring kind, of which thousands of barrels are annually taken and salted in Lake Ontario.[188]

CISTERN. A reservoir for water placed in different parts of a ship, where a constant supply may be required. Also furnished with a leaden pipe, which goes through the ship's side, whereby it is occasionally filled with sea-water, and which is thence pumped up to wash the decks, &c.

CITADEL. A fortified work of superior strength, and dominating everything else, generally separated therefrom by an open space of glacis or esplanade; often useful against domestic as well as foreign enemies.

CIVIL BRANCH. That department executed by civilians, as contradistinguished from the army or navy branch.

CIVILIANS. The surgeon, chaplain, purser or paymaster, assistant surgeons, secretary, and ship clerks, on board men-of-war.

CIVIL LORD. The lay or junior member of the admiralty board.

CIVIL WAR. That between subjects of the same realm, or between factions of the same state.

CLAIMANTS. Persons appealing to the jurisdiction of the admiralty court. They are denominated colourable, or fair, according to the informality, or justice, of their claims.

CLAKE. A name for the barnacle-goose (Anser bernicla). Also, for the Lepas anatifera, a cirriped often found attached to vessels or timber by a long fleshy peduncle, sometimes 4 or 5 feet in length.

CLAM. A well-known bivalve shell-fish. "As happy as a clam at high-water," a figurative expression for otiose comfort.

CLAMBER. To climb; to ascend quickly.

CLAMPING. Applying a cross-head, or stirrup-piece, in a socket.

CLAMP-NAILS. Such nails as are used to fasten clamps; they are short and stout, with large heads.

CLAMPS. Pieces of timber applied to a mast or yard, to prevent the wood from bursting. Also, thick planks lying fore and aft under the beams of the first orlop or second deck, the same as the rising-timbers are to the deck. They are securely fayed to all the timbers, to which they are fastened by nails through the clamp, and penetrating two-thirds of the thickness of the timbers. Also, substantial strakes, worked inside, on which the ends of the beams rest. Also, smooth crooked plates of iron forelocked upon the trunnions of cannon; these, however, are more properly termed cap-squares. (See Carriage.) Also, any plate of iron made to open and shut, so as to confine a spar. A one-cheeked block; the spar to which it is fastened being the other cheek.—To clamp, is to unite two bodies by surfaces or circular plates.—Clamped, is when a piece of board is fitted with the grain to the end of another piece of board across the grain.

CLAMS. Strong pieces used by shipwrights for drawing bolts, [189]&c. Also, a kind of forceps used for bringing up specimens of the bottom in sounding; a drag. (See Clam.)

CLANG. The rattling or clashing of arms.

CLAP-BOARD [German, klapp-bord]. An east-country commercial plank, which ought to be upwards of 13 feet in length; cask-staves are also clap-boards. Clap-board, in the colonies, is the covering the side of a house with narrow boards, "lapping fashion," in contradistinction to shingling, or tiling, or clench-built.

CLAP-MATCH. A sort of seal, distinct from the fur-seal.

CLAP ON! The order to lay hold of any rope, in order to haul upon it. Also, to "Clap on the stoppers before the bitts," i.e. fasten the stoppers; or, "Clap on the cat-fall," i.e. lay hold of the cat-fall.—To clap a stopper over all, to stop a thing effectually; to clap on the stopper before the bitts next to the manger or hawse-hole; to order silence.—To clap in irons, to order an offender into the bilboes.—To clap on canvas, to make more sail.

CLAPPER. A name for the valve of a pump-box. Also, a plank or foot-bridge across a running stream; also, the clapper of a bell.

CLAP-SILL. The lockage of a flood-gate.

CLARTY. In north-country whalers, used for wet, slippery.

CLASHY. Showery weather.

CLASP-HOOK. An iron clasp, in two parts, moving upon the same pivot, and overlapping one another. Used for bending chain-sheets to the clues of sails, jib-halliards, &c. (See Spar-hook.)

CLASS. Order or rank; specially relating to dockyard men.

CLASSIFICATION OF SHIPS. A register made of vessels according to the report rendered in by special surveyors. (See Navy and Lloyd's Register.)

CLAW, or Claw off, To. To beat, or turn to windward from a lee-shore, so as to be at sufficient distance from it to avoid shipwreck. It is generally used when getting to windward is difficult.

CLAYMORE. Anciently a two-handed sword of the Highlanders, but latterly applied to their basket-hilted sword.

CLEACHING NET. A hand-net with a hoop and bar, used by fishermen on the banks of the Severn.

CLEAN. Free from danger, as clean coast, clean harbour; in general parlance means quite, entirely. So Shakspeare represents Ægeon

"Roaming clean through the bounds of Asia."
Also, applied to a ship's hull with a fine run fore and aft.—Clean entrance, clean run.—To clean a ship's bottom. (See Breaming and Hog.)

CLEAN BILL. (See Bill of Health.) When all are in health.

CLEAN DONE. Quite. In a seamanlike manner; purpose well effected; adroitly tricked. (See Weathered.)[190]

CLEAN-FISH. On the northern coasts, a salmon perfectly in season.

CLEAN-FULL. Keeping the sail full, bellying, off the wind.

CLEAN OFF THE REEL. When the ship by her rapidity pulls the line off the log-reel, without its being assisted. Also, upright conduct. Also, any performance without stop or hindrance, off-hand.

CLEAN SHIP. A whale-ship unfortunate in her trip, having no fish or oil.

CLEAR. Is variously applied, to weather, sea-coasts, cordage, navigation, &c., as opposed to foggy, to dangerous, to entangled. It is usually opposed to foul in all these senses.

CLEAR, To. Has several significations, particularly to escape from, to unload, to empty, to prepare, &c., as:—To clear for action. To prepare for action.—To clear away for this or that, is to get obstructions out of the way.—To clear the decks. To remove lumber, put things in their places, and coil down the ropes. Also, to take the things off a table after a meal.—To clear goods. To pay the custom-house dues and duties.—To clear the land. To escape from the land.—To clear a lighter, or the hold. To empty either.

CLEARANCE. The document from the customs, by which a vessel and her cargo, by entering all particulars at the custom-house, and paying the dues, is permitted to clear out or sail.

CLEAR FOR GOING ABOUT. Every man to his station, and every rope an-end.

CLEARING LIGHTERS. All vessels pertaining to public departments should be cleared with the utmost despatch.

CLEAR THE PENDANT. See Up and Clear the Pendant.

CLEAR WATER. A term in Polar seas implying no ice to obstruct navigation, well off the land, having sea-room.

CLEAT A GUN, To. To nail large cleats under the trucks of the lower-deckers in bad weather, to insure their not fetching way.

CLEATS, or Cleets. Pieces of wood of different shapes used to fasten ropes upon: some have one and some two arms. They are called belaying cleat, deck-cleat, and a thumb-cleat. Also, small wedges of wood fastened on the yards, to keep ropes or the earing of the sail from slipping off the yard. Mostly made of elm or oak.

CLEAVAGE. The splitting of any body having a structure or line of cleavage: as fir cleaves longitudinally, slates horizontally, stones roughly, smoothly, conchoidal, or stratified, &c.

CLEFTS. Wood sawn lengthways into pieces less in thickness than in breadth. (See Plank.)

CLENCH, To. To secure the end of a bolt by burring the point with a hammer. Also, a mode of securing the end of one rope to another. (See Clinch.)[191]


CLENCH-NAILS. They are much used in boat-building, being such as can be driven without splitting the boards, and drawn without breaking. (See Rove and Clench.)

CLEP. A north-country name for a small grapnel.

CLERK. Any naval officer doing the duty of a clerk.

CLETT. A northern or Erse word to express a rock broken from a cliff, as the holm in Orkney and Shetland.

CLEUGH. A precipice, a cliff. Also, a ravine or cleft.

CLEW. Of a hammock or cot. (See Clue.)

CLICKS. Small pieces of iron falling into a notched wheel attached to the winches in cutters, &c., and thereby serving the office of pauls. (See Ratchet, or Ratchet-paul, in machinery.) It more peculiarly belongs to inferior clock-work, hence click.

CLIFF [from the Anglo-Saxon cleof]. A precipitous termination of the land, whatever be the soil. (See Crag.)

CLIMATE. Formerly meant a zone of the earth parallel to the equator, in which the days are of a certain length at the summer solstice. The term has now passed to the physical branch of geography, and means the general character of the weather.

CLINCH. A particular method of fastening large ropes by a half hitch, with the end stopped back to its own part by seizings; it is chiefly to fasten the hawsers suddenly to the rings of the kedges or small anchors; and the breechings of guns to the ring-bolts in the ship's side. Those parts of a rope or cable which are clinched. Thus the outer end is "bent" by the clinch to the ring of the anchor. The inner or tier-clinch in the good old times was clinched to the main-mast, passing under the tier beams (where it was unlawfully, as regards the custom of the navy, clinched). Thus "the cable runs out to the clinch," means, there is no more to veer.—To clinch is to batter or rivet a bolt's end upon a ring or piece of plate iron; or to turn back the point of a nail that it may hold fast. (See Clench.)

CLINCH A BUSINESS, To. To finish it; to settle it beyond further dispute, as the recruit taking the shilling.

CLINCH-BUILT. Clinker, or overlapping edges.

CLINCHER. An incontrovertible and smart reply; but sometimes the confirmation of a story by a lie, or by some still more improbable yarn: synonymous with capping.

CLINCHER or Clinker Built. Made of clincher-work, by the planks lapping one over the other. The contrary of carvel-work. Iron ships after this fashion are distinguished as being lap-jointed.[192]

CLINCHER-NAILS. Those which are of malleable metal, as copper, wrought iron, &c., which clinch by turning back the points in rough-built fir boats where roofs and clinching are thus avoided.

CLINCHER-WORK. The disposition of the planks in the side of any boat or vessel, when the lower edge of every plank overlaps that next below it. This is sometimes written as pronounced, clinker-work.

CLIPHOOK. A hook employed for some of the ends of the running rigging.

CLIPPER. A fast sailer, formerly chiefly applied to the sharp-built raking schooners of America, and latterly to Australian passenger-ships. Larger vessels now built after their model are termed clipper-built: sharp and fast; low in the water; rakish.

CLIVE. An old spelling of cliff.

CLOCK-CALM. When not a breath of wind ruffles the water.

CLOCK-STARS. A name for the nautical stars, which, from their positions having been very exactly ascertained, are used for determining time.

CLOD-HOPPER. A clownish lubberly landsman.

CLOKIE-DOO. A west of Scotland name for the horse-mackerel.

CLOSE-ABOARD. Near or alongside; too close to be safe. "The boat is close aboard," a caution to the officer in command to receive his visitor. "The land is close aboard," danger inferred.

CLOSE-BUTT. Where caulking is not used, the butts or joints of the planks are sometimes rabbeted, and fayed close, whence they are thus denominated.

CLOSE CONTRACT. One not advertised.

CLOSED PORT. One interdicted.

CLOSE-FIST. One who drives a hard bargain in petty traffic.

CLOSE HARBOUR. That is one gained by labour from the element, formed by encircling a portion of water with walls and quays, except at the entrance, or by excavating the land adjacent to the sea or river, and then letting in the water.

CLOSE-HAULED. The general arrangement or trim of a ship's sails when she endeavours to progress in the nearest direction possible contrary to the wind; in this manner of sailing the keel of square-rigged vessels commonly makes an angle of six points with the line of the wind, but cutters, luggers, and other fore-and-aft rigged vessels will sail even nearer. This point of sailing is synonymous with on a taut bowline and on a wind.

CLOSE PACK. The ice floes so jammed together that boring is impossible, and present efforts useless. (See Pack-ice.)

CLOSE-PORTS. Those which lie up rivers; a term in contradistinction to out-ports.[193]

CLOSE-QUARTERS, or Close-fights. Certain strong bulk-heads or barriers of wood, formerly stretching across a merchant ship in several places; they were used for retreat and shelter when a ship was boarded by an adversary, and were therefore fitted with loop-holes. Powder-chests were also fixed upon the deck, containing missiles which might be fired from the close quarters upon the boarders. The old slave-ships were thus fitted in case of the negroes rising, and flat-headed nails were cast along the deck to prevent their walking with naked feet. In the navy, yard-arm and yard-arm, sides touching.

CLOSE-REEFED. The last reefs of the top-sails, or other sails set, being taken in.

CLOSE-SIGHT. The notch in the base-ring of a cannon, to place the eye in a line with the top-sight.

CLOSE THE WIND, To. To haul to it.—Close upon a tack or bowline, or close by a wind, is when the wind is on either bow, and the tacks or bowlines are hauled forwards that they may take the wind to make the best of their way.—Close to the wind, when her head is just so near the wind as to fill the sails without shaking them.

CLOSE WITH THE LAND, To. To approach near to it.

CLOSH [from the Danish klos]. A sobriquet for east-country seamen.

CLOTHED. A mast is said to be clothed when the sail is so long as to reach the deck-gratings. Also, well clothed with canvas; sails well cut, well set, and plenty of them.

CLOTHES-LINES. A complete system of parallel lines, hoisted between the main and mizen masts twice a week to dry the washed clothes of the seamen.

CLOTHING. The rigging of the bowsprit.—Clothing the bowsprit is rigging it. Also, the purser's slops for the men.

CLOTH IN THE WIND. Too near to the wind, and sails shivering. Also, groggy.

CLOTHS. In a sail, are the breadths of canvas in its whole width. When a ship has broad sails they say she spreads much cloth.

CLOTTING. A west-country method of catching eels with worsted thread.

CLOUD. A collection of vapours suspended in the atmosphere. Also, under a cloud of canvas.

CLOUGH. A word derived from the verb to cleave, and signifying a narrow valley between two hills. (See Cleugh.) Also, in commerce, an allowance on the turn of the beam in weighing.

CLOUT. From the Teutonic kotzen, a blow. Also, a gore of blood.

CLOUT-NAILS [Fr. clouter]. To stud with nails, as ships' bottoms and piles were before the introduction of sheet copper.

CLOUTS. Thin plates of iron nailed on that part of the axle-tree of a[194] gun-carriage that comes through the nave, and through which the linch-pin goes.

CLOVE-HITCH. A knot or noose by which one rope is fastened to another. (See Hitch.) Two half hitches round a spar or rope.

CLOVE-HOOK. Synonymous with clasp-hook.

CLOVES. Planks made by cleaving. Certain weights for wool, butter, &c. Also, long spike-nails [derived from clou, Fr.]

CLOW. A kind of sluice in which the aperture is regulated by a board sliding in a frame and groove.

CLOY, To. To drive an iron spike by main force into the vent or touch-hole of a gun, which renders it unserviceable till the spike be either worked out, or a new vent drilled. (See Nailing and Spiking.)

CLUBBED. A fashion which obtained in the time of pig-tails of doubling them up while at sea.

CLUBBING. Drifting down a current with an anchor out.

CLUBBING A FLEET. Manœuvring so as to place the first division on the windward side.

CLUBBOCK. The spotted blenny or gunnel (Gunnellus vulgaris).

CLUB-HAUL, To. A method of tacking a ship by letting go the lee-anchor as soon as the wind is out of the sails, which brings her head to wind, and as soon as she pays off, the cable is cut and the sails trimmed; this is never had recourse to but in perilous situations, and when it is expected that the ship would otherwise miss stays. The most gallant example was performed by Captain Hayes in H.M.S. Magnificent, 74, in Basque Roads, in 1814, when with lower-yards and top-masts struck, he escaped between two reefs from the enemy at Oleron. He bore the name of Magnificent Hayes to the day of his death, for the style in which he executed it.

CLUB-LAW. The rule of violence and strength.

CLUE. Of a square sail, either of the lower corners reaching down to where the tacks and sheets are made fast to it; and is that part which comes goring out from the square of the sail.

CLUE-GARNETS. A sort of tackle rove through a garnet block, attached to the clues of the main and fore sails to haul up and truss them to the yard; which is termed clueing up those sails as for goose-wings, or for furling. (See Block.)

CLUE-LINES. Are for the same purpose as clue-garnets, only that the latter term is solely appropriated to the courses, while the word clue-line is applied to those ropes on all the other square sails; they come down from the quarters of the yards to the clues, or lower corners of the sails, and by which the sails are hauled or clued up for furling.

CLUE OF A HAMMOCK. The combination of small lines by which it is suspended, being formed of knittles, grommets, and laniards;[195] they are termed double or single clues, according as there are one or two at each end. Latterly iron grommets or rings were introduced, but did not afford the required spread, and in some cases triangular irons, or span-shackles were substituted, called Spanish clues, formed by fixing the knittles at equal distances upon a piece of rope instead of a grommet, which having an eye spliced, and a laniard placed at each end, extends the hammock in the same way as a double clue.—From clue to earing. A phrase implying from the bottom to the top, or synonymous with "from top to toe." Or literally the diagonal of a square sail. Also, every portion, as in shifting dress; removing every article. Also, cleaning a ship from clue to earing; every crevice.—A clue up. A case of despair. In readiness for death.

CLUE-ROPE. In large sails, the eye or loop at the clues is made of a rope larger than the bolt-rope into which it is spliced.

CLUE UP! The order to clue up the square sails.

CLUMP. A circular plantation of trees.

CLUMP-BLOCKS. Those that are made thicker or stronger than ordinary blocks. (See Block, Tack-and-Sheet.)

CLUSTER. See Group.

CLUTCH. The oyster spawn adhering to stones, oyster shells, &c.

CLUTCH. Forked stanchions of iron or wood. The same as crutch, clutch, or clamp block. (See Snatch-block.)

CLUTTERY. Weather inclining to stormy.


COACH-HORSES. The crew of the state barge; usually fifteen selected men, to support the captain in any daring exploits.

COACH-WHIP. The pendant.

COAD. In ship-building, the fayed piece called bilge-keel.

COAK. A small perforated triangular bit of brass inserted into the middle of the shiver (now called sheave) of a block, to keep it from splitting and galling by the pin, whereon it turns. Called also bush, cock or cogg, and dowel.

COAKING. Uniting pieces of spar by means of tabular projections formed by cutting away the solid of one piece into a hollow, so as to make a projection in the other fit in correctly, the butts preventing the pieces from drawing asunder. Coaks, or dowels, are fitted into the beams and knees of vessels, to prevent their slipping.

COAL-FISH. The Gadus carbonarius. Called gerrack in its first year, cuth or queth in its second, sayth in its third, lythe in its fourth, and colmie in its fifth, when it is full grown.[196]

COALING. Taking in a supply of coals for a cruise or voyage.

COALS. To be hauled over the coals, is to be brought to strict account.

COAL-SACKS. An early name of some dark patches of sky in the Milky Way, nearly void of stars visible to the naked eye. The largest patch is near the Southern Cross, and called the Black Magellanic Cloud.

COAL-SAY. The coal-fish.

COAL-TAR. Tar extracted from bituminous coal.

COAL-TRIMMER. One employed in a steamer to stow and trim the fuel. This duty and that of the stoker are generally combined.

COAMING-CARLINGS. Those timbers that inclose the mortar-beds of bomb-vessels, and which are called carlings, because they are shifted occasionally. Short beams where a hatchway is cut.

COAMINGS of the Hatches or Gratings. Certain raised work rather higher than the decks, about the edges of the hatch-openings of a ship, to prevent the water on deck from running down. Loop-holes were made in the coamings for firing muskets from below, in order to clear the deck of an enemy when a ship is boarded. There is a rabbet in their inside upper edge, to receive the hatches or gratings.

COAST. The sea-shore and the adjoining country; in fact, the sea-front of the land. (See Shore.)

COAST-BLOCKADE. A body of men formerly under the jurisdiction of the Customs, termed Preventive Service, offering a disposable force in emergency; but which has been turned over to the control of the Admiralty, and now become the Coast-guard, over which a commodore, as controller-general, presides. (See Fencibles.)

COASTER. See Coasting.

COASTING, or To Coast along. The act of making a progress along the sea-coast of any country, for which purpose it is necessary to observe the time and direction of the tide, to know the reigning winds, the roads and havens, the different depths of water, and the qualities of the ground. As these vessels are not fitted for distant sea voyages, they are termed coasters.

COASTING PILOT. A pilot who has become sufficiently acquainted with the nature of any particular coast, to conduct a ship or fleet from one part of it to another; but only within his limits. He may be superseded by the first branch-pilot he meets after passing his bounds.

COASTING TRADE. The commerce of one port of the United Kingdom with another port thereof. A trade confined by law to British ships and vessels.

COAST-WAITER. Custom-house superintendents of the landing and shipping of goods coastways.

COAST-WARNING. Synonymous with storm-signal; formerly fire-beacons were used to give warning of the approach of an enemy.[197]

COAT. A piece of tarred canvas nailed round above the partners, or that part where the mast or bowsprit enters the deck. Its use is to prevent the water from running down between decks. There is sometimes a coat for the rudder, nailed round the hole where the rudder traverses in the ship's counter. It also implies the stuff with which the ship's sides or masts are varnished, to defend them from the sun and weather, as turpentine, pitch, varnish, or paint; in this sense we say, "Give her a coat of tar or paint." By neglecting the scraper this may become a crust of coatings.

COAT OF MAIL. The chiton shell.

COAT-TACKS. The peculiar nails with which the mast coats are fastened.

COB. A young herring. Also, a sea-gull. Also, a sort of short break-water—so called in our early statutes: such was that which forms the harbour of Lyme Regis, originally composed of piles and timber, lined with heaps of rock; but now constructed of stone compacted with cement.

COBB. A Gibraltar term for a Spanish dollar.

COBBING. An old punishment sometimes inflicted at sea for breach of certain regulations—chiefly for those quitting their station during the night. The offender was struck a certain number of times on the breech with a flat piece of wood called the cobbing-board. Also, when watch was cried, all persons were expected to take off their hats on pain of being cobbed.

COBBLE, To. To mend or repair hastily. Also, the coggle or cog (which see).—Cobble or coggle stones, pebbly shingle, ballast-stones rounded by attrition, boulders, &c.

COBBLER. An armourer's rasp.

COBBO. The small fish known as the miller's thumb.

COBLE. A low flat-floored boat with a square stern, used in the cod and turbot fishery, 20 feet long and 5 feet broad; of about one ton burden, rowed with three pairs of oars, and furnished with a lug-sail; it is admirably constructed for encountering a heavy swell. Its stability is secured by the rudder extending 4 or 5 feet under her bottom. It belonged originally to the stormy coast of Yorkshire. There is also a small boat under the same name used by salmon fishers.

COBOOSE. See Caboose.

COCK. That curved arm affixed to the lock of small arms, which, when released by the touch of the trigger, flies forward and discharges the piece by percussion, whether of flint and steel, fulminating priming, needles abutting on the latter, &c.

COCKADE. First worn by St. Louis on his unfortunate crusade.

COCK-A-HOOP. In full confidence, and high spirits.[198]

COCKANDY. A name on our northern shores for the puffin, otherwise called Tom Noddy (Fratercula arctica).

COCK-BILL. The situation of the anchor when suspended from the cat-head ready for letting go. Also said of a cable when it hangs right up and down. To put the yards a-cockbill is to top them up by one lift to an angle with the deck. The symbol of mourning.

COCK-BOAT. A very small boat used on rivers or near the shore. Formerly the cock was the general name of a yawl: it is derived from coggle or cog (which see).

COCKETS, or Coquets. An official custom-house warrant descriptive of certain goods which the searcher is to allow to pass and be shipped. Also, a galley term for counterfeit ship-papers.—Cocket bread. Hard sea-biscuit.

COCK-PADDLE. A name of the paddle or lump-fish (Cyclopterus lumpus).

COCKLE. A common bivalve mollusc (Cardium edule), often used as food.

COCKLING SEA. Tumbling waves dashing against each other with a short and quick motion.

COCKPIT. The place where the wounded men are attended to, situated near the after hatchway, and under the lower gun-deck. The midshipmen alone inhabited the cockpit in former times, bu