"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 whobeatsor 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.
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.SeeTrepang.
BECK [the Anglo-Saxonbecca]. 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, orstool-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.
BEDORBARREL SCREWS. A powerful machine for lifting largebodies, 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.(SeeBee-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. (SeeReeming.)
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.
BEFOREORABAFT 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.SeeBykat.
BEILED. A sea-term in the old law-books, apparently for moored.
BEING.SeeBing.
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.
BELL.Strike the bell.The order to strike the clapper against the bell as many times as there are half hours of the watch elapsed; hence we say it is two bells, three bells, &c., meaning there are two or three half-hours past. The watch of four hours is eight bells.
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 thebellows" 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.SeeWatch.
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 theZostera marina(which see).
BELLY. The swell of a sail. The inner or hollow part of compass timber; the outside is called theback. To belly a sail is to inflate or fill it with the wind, so as to give a taut leech.—Bellying canvasis 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.
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.SeePaunch-mat.
BELLY-STAY. Used half-mast down when a mast requires support; as belly-guy, above.
BELOW. The opposite ofonor'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 sailis to extend or make it fast to its proper yard or stay. (SeeGranny'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 abender," 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, asCarrick-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 therising-squareandfloor-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,&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 offirst,second, orthird 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 themidship-bendordead-flat.
BE-NEAPED. The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height of spring-tides. (SeeNeaped.)
BENGAL LIGHT.SeeBlue 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 ofbunk, or sleeping-places in merchant vessels. (SeeBunk.)
BENN. A small kind of salmon; the earliest in the Solway Frith.
BENT. The trivial name of theArundo 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. (SeeIceberg.)
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.
BERMUDA SAILS.See'Mudian.
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.
BERTHINGOF THE HEAD.SeeHead-boards.
BERVIE. A haddock split and half-dried.
BERWICK SMACK. The old and well-found packets of former days, until superseded by steamers. (SeeBarrack Smack.)
BESETIN 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.
BESSY-LORCH. A northern name of theGobio fluviatilisor gudgeon.
BEST BOWER.SeeBower-anchors.
BETELGUESE. The lucida of Orion, α Orionis, and a standard Greenwich star of the first magnitude.
BETHEL.SeeFloating Bethel.
BETTY MARTIN.SeeMartin.
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 bevellingis that made without, or outside a square; anunder-bevellingwithin; 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 itdivides into two distinct branches, as at the heads of deltas and in fluvial basins.
BIGHT. A substantive made from the preterperfect tense ofbend. 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 layWorse 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 restif laid on the ground; hence, when a ship receives a fracture in this part, she is said to be bilged or bulged.—Bilgeis also the largest circumference of a cask, or that which extends round by the bung-hole.
BILGE-BLOCKS.SeeSliding 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. TheWarriorand 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 withbilge-keels.
BILGE-PLANKS. Certain thick strengthenings on the inner and outer lines of the bilge, to secure theshiftingsas 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 woodW'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 dedeAs smell thereof ye stynk."
The mixture of tar-water and the drainings of sugar cargo is about the worst perfume known.
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 carethat 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 71⁄2inches in compass.
BILL-FISH.SeeGar-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 acleanbill of health, in contradistinction to afoulbill.
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.
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 BOYORBOAT. 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 spelledbeing.
BINGE,To. To rinse, or bull, a cask.
BINGID. An old term for locker.
BINK.SeeBenk.
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 (formerlyBittacle). It appears evidently to be derived from the French termhabittacle, 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 whensteering, or going with a free wind. (SeeConn.)
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. (SeeBirlin.)
BIRD-BOLT. A species of arrow, short and thick, used to kill birds without piercing their skins.
BIRD'S-FOOT SEA-STAR. ThePalmipes membranaceus, one of theAsterinidæ, 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. (SeeEdible Bird's Nest.)
BIREMIS. In Roman antiquity, a vessel with two rows of oars.
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 itpanis nauticus; and of thepanis 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 121⁄2cents, 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. (SeeBitts.)
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 shipsof 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-BOOKof 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 genusGlobiocephalus. 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 forbeer, 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-weedFucus 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. (SeeBalloon-fish.)
BLADE OF AN ANCHOR. That part of the arm prepared to receive the palm.
BLADEORWASH 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. TheLeuciscus alburnusof naturalists, and the fresh-water sprat of Isaak Walton. The name of this fish is from the Anglo-Saxonblican, 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 thisin transituis so termed.
BLEED THE BUOYS. To let the water out.
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. (SeeOrillon.)
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.
BLOAT,To. To dry by smoke; a method latterly applied almost exclusively to cure herrings or bloaters.—Bloatedis also applied to any half-dried fish.
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. Everyblock 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 eithermadeormorticed(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 portis 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 blockadeis to discontinue it.—Blockade is violated by egress as well as by ingress. Warning on the spot is sufficient notice of a blockadede 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, capturedin delicto, and subject to confiscation. The absence of the blockading force removes liability, andmight(in such cases) overrulesright.
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.SeeFixed 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.
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. (SeeGale.)
BLOWN COD. A split cod, half dried by exposure to the wind.Blownis 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-offis 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 termedsumpitan: the poisoned arrow,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. (SeeSea-blubber.)
BLUBBER FORKSANDCHOPPERS. 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.
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 ofboy. 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 11⁄2inch in thickness. (SeePlank.) 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 inclub-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 wordboardhas various other applications among seamen:—To go aboardsignifies 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-boardis 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,&c.
BOARD HIM. A colloquialism for I'll ask, demand, or accost him. Hence Shakspeare makes Polonius say of Hamlet,