Nautical Dictionary
A
A
Alfa, in the International Code of Signals (ICS) it means: "I have a diver down; keep well clear at slow speed."
Embedded Files
A is an Anglo-Saxonism for in or on; as a 'board, a'going, &c.
A VAST. The order hold fast, to stop. Hence the term avastheaving.
A-BOX. When the yards are braced in opposite directions, to ensure a ship casting the right way, by bracing the head yards flat aback.
A-BURTON. The situation of casks when they are stowed in the hold athwart ship, or in a line with the beam.
A-CAST. In weighing anchor, the head yards are generally braced acast, to ensure the vessel casting in the right direction.
A-COCKBILL (see COCK-BILL). The anchor hangs by its ring at the cat-head, in a position for dropping.
A-HOLD. A term used for bringing the ship close to the wind.
A-HOY. A term used for hailing a ship.
A-HULL. A ship under bare poles and her helm a-lee, driving from wind and sea, stern foremost. Also a ship deserted, and exposed to the tempestuous winds.
A-LEE. The contrary of a-weather: the position of the helm when its tiller is borne over to the lee-side of the ship, in order to go about or put her head to windward.—Hard a- lee! or luff a-lee! is said to the steersman to put the helm down.—Helm's a-lee! the word of command given on putting the helm down, and causing the head-sails to shake in the wind.
A-PEEK. In shortening — in a cable when a ship is entirely over her anchor.
A-POISE. Said of a vessel properly trimmed.
A-STARBOARD. The opposite to a-port.
A-STAY. Said of the anchor when, in heaving in, the cable forms 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.
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.
A-WASH. Reefs even with the surface. The anchor just rising to the water's edge, in heaving up.
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. AWK. See AUK.
A. The highest class of the excellence of merchant ships on Lloyd's books, subdivided into A 1 and A 2, after which they descend by the vowels: A 1 being the very best of the first class. Formerly a river-built (Thames) ship took the first rate for 12 years, a Bristol one for 11, and those of the northern ports 10. Some of the out-port built ships keep their rating 6 to 8 years, and inferior ones only 4. But improvements in ship-building, and the large introduction of iron, are now claiming longer life.
A.A.O.S.A. Always afloat or safe aground. The condition for a vessel whilst in port.
A.B. The rating of Able Seamen on the ship's books: these two letters are often used as an epithet for the person so rated. He must be equal to all the duties required of a seaman in a ship—not only as regards the saying to “hand, reef, and steer,” but also to strop a block, splice, knot, turn in rigging, raise a mouse on the main-stay, and be an example to the ordinary seamen and landsmen.
A.B.S. American Bureau of Shipping: A U.S.-based private classification, or standards setting society for merchant ships and other marine systems.
A.B.S. American Bureau of Shipping: A U.S.-based private classification,or standards setting society for merchant ships and other marine systems.
A.H.T. Anchor-handling tug. Moves anchors and tow drilling vessels, lighters and similar.
A.H.T.S. Anchor-handling Tug/Supply. Combined supply and anchor-handling ship. Seismic ship: Conducts seismic surveys to map geological structures beneath the sea bed.
A.I.D. Agency for International Development.
A.I.M. Laying a gun or a rifle at any given object.
A.I.M.S. American Institute of Merchant Shipping.
A.M. The uncials for ante-meridian, or in the forenoon. ( See MERIDIAN.)
A.M.C. American Maritime Congress.
A.P.I. American Petroleum Institute.
A.S.B.A. American Shipbrokers Association.
A.W.O. American Waterway Operators. The national trade association for the barge and towing industry and the shipyards employed in the repair and construction of these craft.
A'TAUNTO, OR ALL-A-TAUNT-O. Every mast an-end and fully rigged.
ABAB. A Turkish sailor who plies in coasting craft.
ABACK - ALL ABACK. The position of the sails when their surfaces press against the mast.
ABACK. The situation of a ship's sails when the wind bears against their front surfaces. They are laid aback, when this is purposely effected to deaden her way by rounding in the weather-braces; and taken aback, when brought to by an unexpected change of wind, or by inattention in the helmsman.—All aback forward, the notice given from the forecastle, when the head-sails are pressed aback by a sudden change in the wind. (See WORK ABACK.)—Taken aback, a colloquialism for being suddenly surprised or found out.
ABACUS. A board with balls sliding on small rods, used in China, Russia, &c., for calculating bills, &c.
ABAFT. This word, generally speaking, means behind, inferred relatively, beginning from the stem and continuing towards the stern, that is, the hinder part of the ship.— Abaft the beam implies any direction between a supposed transverse line amidships and the stern, whether in or out of the ship. It is the relative situation of an object with the ship, when that object is placed in the arc of the horizon contained between a line at right angles with the keel and the point of the compass which is directly opposite the ship's course. An object—as a man overboard—is described by the look-out man at the mast-head as abeam, before, or abaft the beam, by so many points of the compass. As a vessel seen may be “three points before the beam,” &c.
ABAKA. A fine vegetable fibre, with which the white Manila rope, so much used on the India station, is made. This rope floats in water, and is not subject to rot, nor does it require tarring. A frigate on the China station in 1805 had nearly the whole of her running rigging of this cordage.
ABANDONMENT OF A VESSEL. Deserting and abandoning her by reason of unseaworthiness or danger of remaining in her, also when grounded and cannot be saved. This never occurs but in imminent cases; therefore, before the insured can demand recompense from the underwriter, they must cede or abandon to him the right of all property which may be recovered from shipwreck, capture, or any other peril stated in the policy. Other parties entering and bringing the vessel into port obtain salvage. (Vide DERELICT.)
ABASE, TO. An old word signifying to lower a flag or sail. Abaisser is in use in the French marine, and both may be derived from the still older abeigh. Abase literally means to cast down, to humble. The term is still used in law.
ABATEMENT. A plea by which a reduction of freight is demanded, when unforeseen causes have delayed or hindered the performance of a stipulated charter-party.
ABATIS. An obstruction used in temporary fortification, composed of felled trees deprived of their smaller branches, and secured to the ground side by side with their tops towards the enemy; applicable to the front of posts, works, or positions, and occasionally to the bars of rivers.
ABBEY-LUBBER. This is an old term of reproach for idleness, and is here quoted only as bearing upon the nautical lubber. In the “ Burnynge of Paule's Church, 1563,” it is thus explained—“An Abbey-lubber, that was idle, well-fed, a long lewd lither loiterer, that might worke, and would not.”
ABBLAST. Cross-bow; hence, ABBLASTER. Cross-bow man.
ABBROCHYN. The old term for beginning or broaching a barrel, cask, or any “vesselle of drynke.”
ABEAM-ARM. For this curved timber, see FORK-BEAMS.
ABEAM. In a line at right angles to the vessel's length; opposite the centre of a ship's side.
ABER. An ancient British word for the mouth of a river—as Aber-brothick, Aber-avon, Aber-ystwith, and Aber-conway, &c. It also means the confluence of two or more streams.
ABERRATION. An apparent change of place, or alteration of their mean position, in the fixed stars, caused by the earth's orbital movement.— Aberration of a planet signifies its progressive geocentric motion, or the space through which it appears to move, as seen from the earth, during the time which light occupies in passing from the planet to us.— Crown of aberration is a spurious circle surrounding the proper disc of the sun.— Constant of aberration, or amount of displacement in the sun's longitude, arising from the progressive motion of light, is established at 20"·45.
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.
ABJURATION. The oath taken till lately by all officers on receiving their commission, by which they abjured any claim of the Stuarts to the throne, the power of the Pope, and the Romish religion.
ABLE BODIED SEAMEN. A member of the deck crew who is able to perform all the duties of an experienced seamen; certificated by examination; must have three years sea service. Also called Able Seamen and A.B.
ABLE-WHACKETS. A popular sea-game with cards, wherein the loser is beaten over the palms of the hands with a handkerchief tightly twisted like a rope. Very popular with horny-fisted salts.
ABLE. A term not simply expressive of strong faculties, but as acquainted with and equal to perform the expected duty.—Able seaman, a thorough or regular bred sailor. (See A.B.)—Able-bodied, sound, healthy, and fit for the Royal service.
ABOARD, ON BOARD. Any thing in, or on the deck of the ship.
ABOARD. Inside or upon a ship; the act of residing afloat; to hug the land in approaching the shore.—To fall aboard of, is for one vessel to run foul of another.—To haul the tacks aboard, is to bring their weather clues down to the chess-tree, or literally, to set the courses.—To lay an enemy aboard, to run into or alongside.
ABODE. Waited for; as, ship ran to the appointed place of rendezvous and abode there for her consort.
ABORD. An Anglo-Saxon term, meaning across, from shore to shore, of a port or river.
ABOUT. Circularly; the situation of a ship after she has gone round, and trimmed sails on the opposite tack.—Ready about! and About-ship! are orders to the ship's company to prepare for tacking by being at their stations.
ABOVE DECK. On the deck.
ABOVE-BOARD. Over the deck; a term used for open fair dealing, without artifice or trick.
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.
ABRAHAM-MEN. A cant term for vagabonds, who formerly begged about under pretence of having been discharged destitute from ships and hospitals; whence an idle malingerer wanting to enter the doctor's list is said to “sham Abraham.” From a ward in Bedlam which was appropriated for the reception of idiots, which was named Abraham: it is a very old term, and was cited by Burton in the Anatomy of Melancholy so far back as 1621.
ABRASE, TO. To dubb or smooth planks.
ABRASION. The rubbing off or wearing away of the parts of a rock, or of the soil, by the impinging and friction of other bodies.
ABREAST. Side by side, parallel, or opposite to; generally used in opposition to abaft or afore.—Line abreast means a fleet advancing or retreating uniformly on a line parallel with the beam.—Abreast of a place, is directly off it; a direction at right angles with the keel or ship's length. In the army the term was formerly used for any number of men in front; but at present they are determined by files.—Abreast. Within-board, signifies on a parallel with the beam.
ABREST. Along side or at right to.
ABRID. A pintle-plate.
ABROACH. On tap, in use; spoken of barrels of beer or other liquors.
ABROAD. Synonymous with foreign, or being on a foreign station. Also an old word for spread; as, all sail abroad.
ABRUPT. A word applied to steep, broken, or craggy cliffs and headlands, especially such as are bold-to and precipitous.
ABSCISS. A part either of the diameter or the transverse axis of a conic section, intercepted between the vertex or any other fixed point and a semi-ordinate.— Abscission of a planet, its being outstripped by another, which joins a third one before it.
ABSENCE. A permission occasionally obtained, on urgent affairs, by officers to quit their duties.
ABSOLUTE. Anything free from conditions.—Absolute equations, the sum of the optic and eccentric equation, or the anomalies arising from a planet's not being equally distant from the earth at all times, and its motion not being uniform.—Absolute gravity is the whole force with which a body tends downwards.
ABSORPTION. A term formerly used for the sinking of islands and tracts of land, instead of subsidence.
ABSQUATULATE. See SQUATTER.
ABSTRACT MATHEMATICS, OR PURE. The branch which investigates and demonstrates the properties of magnitude, figure, or quantity, absolutely and generally considered, without restriction to any species in particular; such as arithmetic and geometry.
ABSTRACT. A brief register of the warrant officer's stores, by which 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.)
ABYME. Places supposed to be the site of constant whirlpools, such as Charybdis, the Maelstrom, and others. It means generally an abyss.
ABYSS. A deep mass of waters; in hydrography it was synonymous with gulf. That volume of ocean lying below 300 fathoms from surface.
ACADEMITE. An old term for an officer brought up at the Royal Navy Academy at Portsmouth, afterwards named the Royal Naval College.
ACAIR-PHUILL. Compounded of the British acair or anchor, and phuill, a pill, or harbour, and means a safe anchorage.
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 ({akalêphê}, a nettle). The common jelly-fish (Medusa) and the Portuguese man-of-war (Physalia) are the best-known examples.
ACAST. The old word for lost or cast-away. In weighing anchor the head-yards are generally braced acast, to cause the vessel to cast in the direction. “Does she take acast?” is frequently the question of the officer abaft.
ACATER. An old word for purveyor of victuals, whence caterer, or superintendent and provider of a mess. Thus in Ben Jonson's “The Devil is an Ass”—“He is my wardrobe-man, my acater, Cook, butler, and steward.”
ACATES. Victuals; provisions purchased; delicious food; dainties.
ACATIUM. A word used in Roman naval affairs for a small boat, and also the main- mast of a ship.
ACCELERATION. The increase of velocity in a moving body by the force of gravity. A planet is said to be accelerated when its actual diurnal motion exceeds its mean. In fixed stars the acceleration is the mean time by which they anticipate the sun's diurnal revolution, which is 3' 56” nearly.—Acceleration of the moon is the increase of her mean motion, caused by a slow change in the excentricity of the terrestrial orbit, and which has sensibly diminished the length of the moon's revolution since the time of the earliest observations.
ACCESS. Means of entry on board.
ACCESSIBLE. A place which can be approached by land or sea.
ACCLIVITY. The upward slope of an inclined cliff.
ACCOIL, TO. To coil together, by folding round. (See COIL.)
ACCOLADE [ad and collum, Lat.] The ceremony of dubbing a knight, and the consequent embrace formerly customary on the occasion.
ACCOMMODATION UNIT. Fitted with cabins and catering facilities for offshore crews. Semisubmersible accommodation units are ofte called "Flotels".
ACCOMMODATIONS. Cabins fitted for passengers.—Accommodation ladder, a convenient flight of steps fixed at the gangway, by which officers and visitors enter the ship.—Accommodation, the physical application of one thing to another by analogy.
ACCOMPANY, TO. To sail together; to sail in convoy.
ACCOST, TO. To pass within hail of a ship; to sail coastwise; to approach, to draw near, or come side by side.
ACCOUNT, GOING UPON. A phrase for buccaneering.
ACCOUNTANT-GENERAL OF THE NAVY. Superintendent of pay and general accounts of the navy.
ACCOUNTS. The several books and registers of stores, provisions, slops, and contingents of a ship or fleet; and they are strictly enjoined to be correct, real, and precise, both in receipt and expenditure.—Account sales, a form of book-keeping in commerce.
ACCOUTREMENT. An old term for an habiliment, or part of the trappings and furniture of a soldier or knight; now generally used for the belts, pouches, and equipments of soldiers or marines.
ACCUL. A word used by old voyagers for the end of a deep bay; it is corrupted from cul de sac.
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. ({a} Eridani.) Properly should be acher nahr.
ACHIEVEMENT. A signal exploit; escutcheon; armorial bearings granted for achievement.
ACHROMATIC. An optical term applied to those telescopes in which aberration of the rays of light, and the colours dependent thereon, are partially corrected. (See APLANATIC.)
ACHRONICAL. An ancient term, signifying the rising of the heavenly bodies at sunset, or setting at sunrise.
ACK-MEN, OR ACK-PIRATES. Fresh-water thieves; those who steal on navigable rivers.
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.)
ACOLYTE. A term sometimes used to distinguish the smaller component of a double star. A subordinate officer in the ancient church.
ACON. A flat-bottomed Mediterranean boat or lump, for carrying cargoes over shoals.
ACQUITTANCE. A commercial term, more generally called quittance (which see).
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.
ACROSS THE TIDE. A ship riding across tide, with the wind in the direction of the tide, would tend to leeward of her anchor; but with a weather tide, or that running against the wind, if the tide be strong, would tend to windward. A ship under sail should prefer the tack that stems the tide, with the wind across the stream, when the anchor is let go.
ACROSTOLIUM. A buckler, helmet, or other symbolical ornament on the prow of ancient ships; the origin of the modern figure-head.
ACT AND INTENTION. Must be united in admiralty law.
ACT OF COURT. The decision of the court or judge on the verdict, or the overruling of the court on a point of law.
ACT OF GOD. This comprehends all sudden accidents arising from physical causes, as distinguished from human agency, such as from lightning, earthquakes, hurricanes, plagues, and epidemic contagion amongst the crew. For none of these are ship-owners responsible.
ACT OF GRACE. An act of parliament for a general and free pardon to deserters from the service and others.
ACTE. A peninsula; the term was particularly applied by the ancients to the sea-coast around Mount Athos.
ACTING COMMISSION. When a commissioned officer is invalided, his vacancy is filled up pending the pleasure of the admiralty by an acting order. But when an officer dies on a station, where the admiralty delegates the power to the admiral commanding in chief, the vacancy is filled by an acting commission. Thus also rear-admirals now act on acting commissions as vice-admirals during command on their station, but return to their proper position on the navy list when it ceases.
ACTION. A term used instead of battle; hence the order "clear for action." Action and reaction, the mutual counteracting influence of two bodies. Synonymous with battle. Also a term in mechanics for the effort which one body exerts against another, or the effects resulting therefrom.—Action and reaction, the mutual, successive, contrary impulses of two bodies.
ACTIVE SERVICE. Duty against an enemy; operations in his presence. Or in the present day it denotes serving on full-pay, on the active list, in contradistinction to those who are virtually retired, and placed on separate lists.
ACTIVITY. The virtue of acting. The sphere of activity is the surrounding space to which the efficacy of a body extends, as the attraction of the magnet.
ACTO, OR ACTON. A kind of defensive tunic, made of quilted leather, or other strong material, formerly worn under the outer dress, and even under a coat of mail.
ACTUARIÆ. Long light vessels of the ancients, especially contrived for swiftness; propelled both by sails and oars; of the latter never less than twenty.
ACUMBA. Oakum. The Anglo-Saxon term for the hards, or the coarse part, of flax or unplucked wool.
ACUTE-ANGLED TRIANGLE. That which has all its angles acute.
ACUTE. Terminating in a point, and opposed to obtuse. An acute angle is less than a right one, or within 90°.
AD VALOREM. Duties levied on commercial goods, according to their value.
ADAMANT. The loadstone; the magnet—the sense in which it was held by early voyagers; but others considered it a “precyowse stone,” or gem.
ADAMAS. The moon in nautic horoscopes.
ADAPTER. A brass tube to fit the eye-end of a telescope, into which all the eye-pieces will screw.
ADARRIS. A word which Howell explains as the flower of sea-water.
ADDEL, OR ADDLE. An old term for the putrid water in casks.
ADDENDUM. Additional terms at the end of a charter party.
ADDICE, an adze. Also the addled eggs of gulls and other sea-fowl.
ADDLINGS. Accumulated pay or wages.
ADELANTADO. A lieutenant of the king of Spain, but used by old English writers for “admiral.”
ADHESION. Consent to a proposal. Union or temporary cohesion; as, two vessels forced into adhesion by the pressure of the tide on their beam.
ADIT. A space in ancient ships, in the upper and broadest part, at which people entered. The adit of a military mine, is the aperture by which it is dug and charged: the name is also applied to an air-hole or drift.
ADJACENT. Lying close to another object; a word applied to the relative situations of capes or bays from the ship.—Adjacent angle is one immediately contiguous to another, so that they have one common side.
ADJOURN, TO. To put off till another day. Adjournments can be made in courts-martial from day to day, Sundays excepted, until sentence is passed.
ADJUDICATION. The act of adjudging prizes by legal decree. Captors are compelled to submit the adjudication of their captures to a competent tribunal.
ADJUST, TO. To arrange an instrument for use and observation; as, to adjust a sextant, or the escapement of a chronometer. To set the frame of a ship.
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.
ADJUSTMENT. In marine insurance, the ascertaining and finally settling the amount of indemnity—whether of average or of salvage—which the insured (after all proper deductions have been made) is entitled to receive under the policy, when the ship is lost.
ADJUTANT. [From Lat. adjuvo, to help.] A military assistant to field-officers. The term has been applied to an assistant captain of a fleet. It is indeed the duty performed by first lieutenants.
ADMEASURE. Formal measurement of a boat for documentation.
ADMEASUREMENT. The calculation of proportions according to assumed rules, often ignorantly practised in estimating the tonnage of a ship.
ADMIRAL. The admiral is the chief commander of a fleet, but of this rank there are three degrees, distinguished by a flag at the fore, main, or mizen mast, according to the title of admiral, vice-admiral, or rear-admiral. These were again subdivided according to their colour of red, white, or blue, which had to be likewise borne by the squadrons they respectively commanded. (See FLAG.) In 1865 the colours were omitted, and the only flag now hoisted by ships of war is the white St. George's ensign, and for admirals the white St. George's cross at the main, fore, or mizen. The derivation of this noble title from the Greek almyros, from the Latin admirabilis, from the Saxon aenmereeal, and from the French aumer, appear all fanciful. It is extensively received that the Sicilians first adopted it from emir, the sea, of their Saracen masters; but it presents a kind of unusual etymological inversion. The term is most frequent in old Romance; but the style and title was not used by us until 1286; and in 1294, William de Leybourne was designated “Amiral de la Mer du Roy d'Angleterre;” six years afterwards Viscount Narbonne was constituted Admiral of France; which dates nearly fix the commencement of the two states as maritime powers. The epithet of admiral was also formerly applied to any large or leading ship, without reference to flag; and is still used for the principal vessel in the cod and whale fisheries. That which arrives first in any port of Newfoundland retains this title during the season, with certain rights of beach in flakes. The master of the second ship becomes the vice-admiral, and the master of the third the rear-admiral. The lord high-admiral was one of the principal officers of the state, who formerly decided all cases relating to the sea: he wore a gold call and chain, similar in form to that which has descended to the boatswain and his mate. This dignity has been extinct for many years, and the duty merged into that of the lords-commissioners and admiralty court; in 1827, it was revived for a short time in the person of His Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence.
ADMIRALTY BLACK-BOOK. See BLACK-BOOK.
ADMIRALTY COURT. The constitution of this court relatively to the legislative power of the king in council, is analogous to that of the courts of common law relatively to the parliament of the kingdom.— High Court of Admiralty, a supreme court of law, in which the authority of the lord high-admiral is ostensibly exercised in his judicial capacity for the trial of maritime causes of a civil nature. Although termed the High Court of Admiralty, more properly this is the Court of Vice-Admiralty, and relates solely to civil and military matters of the sea, and sea boundaries, prizes, collisions, vessels or goods cast on the shore where the vice-admirals have civil jurisdiction, but no naval power, as the lord-lieutenants of counties are named in their patents “vice-admirals of the same;” in like manner all governors of colonies. All cases in connection are tried by the Admiralty Court in London, or by our “courts of vice-admiralty and prize jurisdictions abroad.” Admirable as some of the decisions of this expensive tribunal have been, it has all the powers of the Inquisition in its practice, and has thereby been an instrument of persecution to some innocent navigators, while it has befriended notorious villains. Besides this we have the Admiralty Court of Oyer and Terminer, for the trial of all murders, piracies, or criminal acts which occur within the limits of the country, on the coast-lines, at sea, or wherever the admiralty jurisdiction extends—the deck of a British ship included.
ADMIRALTY MIDSHIPMAN. Formerly one who, having served the appointed time, and passed his examination for lieutenant, was appointed to a ship by the admiralty, and thus named in contradistinction to those who used to be rated by the captain; he generally had precedence for promotion to “acting orders.”
ADMIRALTY. An office for the administration of naval affairs, presided over by a lord high-admiral, whether the duty be discharged by one person, or by commissioners under the royal patent, who are styled lords, and during our former wars generally consisted of seven. The present constitution of the Board of Admiralty comprises—the first lord, a minister and civilian as to office; four naval lords; one civil lord attending to accounts, &c.; one chief secretary; one second secretary. Two lords and one secretary form a legal Board of Admiralty wherever they may be assembled, under the authority of the board or its chief.
ADONIS. An anguilliform fish, about six inches long: it is of a golden colour, with a greenish tint, and has a white line from its very small gills to the tail.
ADORNINGS. The carved work on the quarter and stern-galleries of men-of-war.
ADOWN. The bawl of privateersmen for the crew of a captured vessel to go below. Saxon, adoun.
ADREAMT. Dozing; the sensation so often combatted with towards the end of a first or a middle watch, it being the state, as an old author has it, “between sleeping and waking.”
ADRENT, OR ADREYNTE. An old term for drowned.
ADRIFT. Floating at random; the state of a boat or vessel broken from her moorings, and driven to and fro without control by the winds and waves. Cast loose; cut adrift.
ADSCRIPTS. Sometimes used for the tangents of arcs.
ADVANCE MONEY. In men-of-war and most merchant ships the advance of two months' wages is given to the crew, previous to going to sea; the clearing off of which is called working up the dead horse.
ADVANCE NOTE. A document issued by owners of a ship or their agents, promising to pay a seaman, or to his order, a sum of money in part of his wages, within a certain number of days after he has sailed in the ship. Advance notes are quite negotiable before a seaman has taken his departure.
ADVANCE-LIST. The register by which two months' wages to the crew are paid, on first commission, and a quarter's to officers.
ADVANCE, TO. An old word, meaning to raise to honour.
ADVANCED POST. A spot of ground seized by a party to secure their front. A piquet or outpost.
ADVANCED SQUADRON. One on the look-out.—Advance, or vanguard, that division of a force which is next the enemy, or which marches before a body.—Advance fosse, a ditch of water round the esplanade or glacis of a fortification.—Advance! the order to marines and small-arm men to move forward.
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.
ADVENTURE. An enterprise in which something is left to hazard.—A bill of adventure is one signed by the merchant, by which he takes the chances of the voyage.
ADVERSARY. Generally applied to an enemy, but strictly an opponent in single combat.
ADVERSE. The opposite of favourable; as, an adverse wind.
ADVICE-BOAT. A small fast-sailing vessel in advance of a fleet, employed to carry intelligence with all possible despatch. They were first used in 1692, to gain tidings of what was transacting in Brest, previous to the battle of La Hogue.
ADVOCATE GENERAL. An officer of the High Court of Admiralty, whose duty it is to appear for the lord high-admiral in that court, the court of delegates, or any other wherein his rights are concerned.— Judge-advocate of the navy, a law officer appointed to watch over and direct proceedings connected with courts-martial.—Deputy judge- advocate, an appointment made by the sudden selection of some secretary, or captain's clerk, to perform the duty at a court-martial (where no legal person is empowered), utterly ignorant of the law or the customs of the naval service.
ADZE, OR ADDICE. A cutting tool of the axe kind, for dubbing flat and circular work, much used by shipwrights, especially by the Parsee builders in India, with whom it serves for axe, plane, and chisel. It is a curious fact that from the polar regions to the equator, and southerly throughout Polynesia, this instrument and its peculiar adaptations, whether made of iron, basalt, nephrite, &c., all preserve the same idea or identity of conception.
ÆINAUTÆ. Senators of Miletus, who held their deliberations on board ship.
ÆRATÆ. Ancient ships fitted with brazen prows.
AEROLITES. One of the many names given to those solid masses or stones which occasionally fall from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The assumption of their periodicity cannot, as yet, be considered as confirmed.
AEROLOGY. The rational doctrine or science of the air and its phenomena.
AEROMANCY. Formerly the art of divining by the air, but now used for foretelling the changes in the weather, either by experience or by instruments.
AEROMETRY. The science of measuring the air, its powers, pressure, and properties.
ÆSTIVAL. Belonging to summer; the solstitial point whereby the sun's ascent above the equator is determined.
ÆSTUARY. See ESTUARY.
ÆWUL. An Anglo-Saxon term for a twig basket for catching fish.
AFEARD. This is a very common expression for afraid, and though thought low, is a true archaism of our language, as seen in Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Ben Jonson. Major Moor terms it an old and good word.
AFER. The south-west wind of the Latins, and used by some of the early voyagers. AFFAIR. An indecisive engagement; a duel.
AFFECTED. An algebraic term for an equation in which the unknown quantity rises to two or more several powers.
AFFECTIONATE FRIENDS. An official inconsistent subscription, even to letters of reproof and imprest, used by the former Board of Commissioners of the Navy to such officers as were not of noble families or bore titles; the only British board that ever made so mean a distinction, equally kind with the regrets of the clergy on burning a heretic, or those of Walton in cutting a live fish tenderly. It was probably adopted from James, Duke of York, who, when lord high-admiral, always so subscribed his official letters. It is said that this practice was discontinued in consequence of a distinguished naval captain—a knight—adding, “your affectionate friend.” He was thereupon desired to “discontinue such an expression,” when he replied, “I am, gentlemen, no longer your affectionate friend, J. Phillimore.”
AFFIDAVIT. A declaration upon oath, weakened in importance by its too frequent administration at custom-houses, lazarettos, &c. Declarations are now substituted in the case of naval officers.
AFFIRMATIVE. The positive sign or quantity in algebra; also signal flag or pendant by which a request or order is answered.
AFFLUENT. A stream flowing directly into another stream; a more specific term than tributary.
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.
AFORE THE MAST. See BEFORE THE MAST. AFOUNDRIT. An archaism of sunk or foundered.
AFORE. A Saxon word opposed to abaft, and signifying that part of the ship which lies forward or near the stem. It also means farther forward; as, the galley is afore the bitts. —Afore, the same as before the mast.—Afore the beam, all the field of view from amidship in a right angle to the ship's keel to the horizon forward.
AFRAID. One of the most reproachful sea-epithets, as not only conveying the meaning being struck with fear, but also implies rank cowardice. (See AFEARD.)
AFT-CASTLE. An elevation on the after-part of our ships of war, opposed to forecastle, for the purpose of fighting.
AFT—a Saxon word contradistinctive of fore, and an abbreviation of abaft—the hinder part of the ship, or that nearest the stern.—Right aft is in a direct line with the keel from the stern.—To haul aft a sheet is to pull on the rope which brings the clue or corner of the sails more in the direction of the stern.—The mast rakes aft when it inclines towards the stern. The opposite of afore. Near the stern. That part of the ship from the midships to the stern.
AFTER BOW SPRING LINE. A mooring line fixed to the bow of the boat and leading aft where it is attached to the dock. This prevents the boat from moving forward in its berth. Its opposite, the forward quarter spring line, is used to keep the boat from moving aft in its berth.
AFTER PERPENDICULAR. A line drawn square from the intersection of the cross-seam with the rabbet to the base of the sheer, half-breadth, &c.
AFTER TIMBERS. All those timbers abaft the Midships or dead-flat.
AFTER-BODY. That part of the ship's hull which is abaft the midships or dead-flat, as seen from astern. The term is, however, more particularly used in expressing the figure or shape of that part of the ship. (See DEAD-FLAT.)
AFTER-CLAP. Whatever disagreeable occurrence takes place after the consequences of the cause were thought at an end; a principal application being when a ship, supposed to have struck, opens her fire again.
AFTER-END. The stern of a ship, or anything in her which has that end towards the stern.
AFTER-FACE. See BACK OF THE POST.
AFTER-GUARD. The men who are stationed on the quarter-deck and poop, to work the after-sails. It was generally composed of ordinary seamen and landsmen, constituting with waisters the largest part of the crew, on whom the principal drudgery of the ship devolved. At present the crews of ships-of-war are composed chiefly of able and ordinary seamen—landsmen are omitted.
AFTER-LADDER leads to captain's and officers' quarters, and only used by officers.
AFTER-ORDERS. Those which are given out after the regular issue of the daily orders.
AFTER-PART. The locality towards the stern, from dead-flat; as, in the after-part of the fore-hold.
AFTER-PEAK. The contracted part of a vessel's hold, which lies in the run, or aftermost portion of the hold, in contradistinction to fore-peak. Both are the sharp ends of the ship.
AFTER-RAKE. That part of the hull which overhangs the after-end of keel.
AFTER-SAILS. All those on the after-masts, as well as on the stays between the main and mizen masts. Their effect is to balance the head-sails, in the manner that a weather- cock or vane is moved, of which the main-mast must be considered the pivot or centre. The reverse of head-sails. “Square the after-yards,” refers to the yards on the main and mizen masts.
AFTER-TIMBERS. All those timbers abaft the midship section or bearing part of a vessel.
AFTER. A comparative adjective, applied to any object in the hind part of a ship or boat; as, the after-cabin, the after -hatchway, &c.—After sails, yards, and braces—those attached to the main and mizen masts. Opposed to fore.
AFTERMOST. The last objects in a ship, reckoned from forwards; as, the aftermost mast, aftermost guns, &c.
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.
AGAINST THE SUN. Coiling a rope in the direction from the right hand towards the left—the contrary of with the sun. This term applies to a position north of the sun; south of the sun it would be reversed.
AGAL-AGAL. One of the sea fuci, forming a commercial article from the Malay Isles to China, where it is made into a strong cement. The best is the Gracilaria spinosa. Agal-agal derives its name from Tanjong Agal on the north coast of Borneo; where it was originally collected. It is now found in great abundance throughout the Polynesian Islands, Mauritius, &c. It is soluble, and forms a clear jelly—used by consumptive patients. It fetches a high price in China. It is supposed that the sea-swallow derives his materials for the edible bird's nests at Borneo from this fucus.
AGATE. The cap for the pivots of the compass-cards, formed of hard siliceous stone, a chalcedony or carnelian, &c.
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.”
AGE. In chronology, a period of a hundred years.—Ship's age, one of the stipulations of contracts at Lloyd's.—Age of the moon, is the interval of time or number of days elapsed since the previous conjunction or new moon.
AGENCY FEE. A fee charged to the ship by the ship's agent, representing payment for services while the ship was in port. Sometimes called attendance fee.
AGENCY, NAVAL. A useful class of persons, who transact the monetary affairs of officers, and frequently help them to the top branches of the profession. They are paid for their services by a percentage of 2-1/2.
AGENCY. Payment pro operâ et labore, fixed by the prize act at five per cent. as a fair average, but it gives nothing where the property is restored; in such cases it is usual for the agent to charge a gross sum.
AGENT. In physics, expresses that by which a thing is done or effected.—Navy agent is a deputy employed to pass accounts, transact business, and receive pay or other monies, in behoof of the officers and crew, and to apply the proceeds as directed by them.— Agent victuallers, officers appointed to the charge of provisions at our foreign ports and stations, to contract for, buy, and regulate, under the authority of the commissioners of the navy. (See NEGLIGENCE.)—Prize agent, one appointed for the sale of prizes, and nominated in equal numbers by the commander, the officers, and the ship's company.
AGENTS TO LLOYD'S. See LLOYD'S AGENTS.
AGGRESSION. The first act of injury in provoking warfare.
AGIO. An Italian word, applied to denote the profit arising from discounting bills; also the difference between the value of bank-stock and currency.
AGISTMENT. An embankment against the sea or rivers, or one thrown up to fence out a stream.
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.
AGREEMENT. Except vessels of less than eighty tons register, the master of a ship must enter into an agreement with every seaman whom he carries from any port in Great Britain as one of his crew; and that agreement must be in the form sanctioned by the Board of Trade. (See RUNNING AGREEMENT.)
AGROUND. The situation of a ship or other vessel whose bottom touches or rests upon the ground. It also signifies stranded, and is used figuratively for being disabled or hindered.
AGUA-ARDIENTE [Sp.] Corrupted into aguardiente,—the adulterated brandy of Spain supplied to ships.
AGUADA. The Spanish and Portuguese term for a watering-place.
AGUGLIA. A common name for sharp-pointed rocks. From the Italian for needle; written agulha in Spanish and Portuguese charts.
AHEAD. A term especially referable to any object farther onward, or immediately before the ship, or in the course steered, and therefore opposed to astern.—Ahead of the reckoning, is sailing beyond the estimated position of the ship.—Ahead is also used for progress; as, cannot get ahead, and is generally applied to forward, in advance.
AHOLD. A term of our early navigators, for bringing a ship close to the wind, so as to hold or keep to it.
AHOO, OR ALL AHOO, as our Saxon forefathers had it; awry, aslant, lop-sided. (See ASKEW.)
AHOY! See HO!
AID TO NAVIGATION. Any fixed object that a navigator may use to find his position, such as permanent land or sea markers, buoys, radiobeacons, and lighthouses.
AID-DE-CAMP. A military staff officer, who carries and circulates the general's orders; and another class selected as expert at carving and dancing. In a ship, flag-lieutenant to an admiral, or, in action, the quarter-deck midshipmen to a captain.
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.
AIGUILLES. The peculiar small fishing-boats in the Garonne and other rivers of Guienne.
AIGULETS [Fr. aiguillettes]. Tagged points or cords worn across the breast in some uniforms of generals, staff-officers, and special mounted corps.
AILETTES. Small plates of steel placed on the shoulders in mediæval armour.
AIM. The direction of a musket, cannon, or any other fire-arm or missile weapon towards its object.—To take aim, directing the piece to the object.
AIR FUNNEL. A cavity framed between the sides of some timbers, to admit fresh air into the ship and convey the foul air out of it.
AIR-BLADDER. A vesicle containing gas, situated immediately beneath the spinal column in most fish, and often communicating by a tube with the gullet. It is the homologue of the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates.
AIR-BRAVING. Defying the winds.
AIR-CONE, in the marine engine, is to receive the gases which enter the hot-well from the air-pump, where, after ascending, they escape through a pipe at the top.
AIR-FUNNEL. A cavity formed by omission of a timber in the upper works of a vessel, to admit fresh air into the hold of a ship and convey the foul out of it.
AIR-GUN. A silent weapon, which propels bullets by the expansive force of air only.
AIR-JACKET. A leathern garment furnished with inflated bladders, to buoy the wearer up in the water. (See AYR.)
AIR-PIPES. Funnels for clearing ships' holds of foul air, on the principle of the rarefying power of heat.
AIR-PORTS. Large scuttles in ships' bows for the admission of air, when the other ports are down. The Americans also call their side-ports by that name.
AIR-PUMP. An apparatus to remove the water and gases accumulating in the condenser while the engine is at work. AIR-SCUTTLES. The same as air-ports.
AIR-SHAFTS. Vertical holes made in mining, to supply the adits with fresh air. Wooden shafts are sometimes adopted on board ship for a similar purpose.
AIR. The elastic, compressible, and dilatable fluid encompassing the terraqueous globe. It penetrates and pervades other bodies, and thus animates and excites all nature.—Air means also a gentle breath of wind gliding over the surface of the water.—To air, to dry or ventilate.
AIRE. A name in our northern islands for a bank of sand.
AIRING-STAGE. A wooden platform, on which gunpowder is aired and dried.
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.
AKEDOWN. A form of the term acton, as a defensive dress.
ALABLASTER. An arbalist or cross-bow man; also the corruption of alabaster.
ALAMAK. The name given in nautical astronomy to that beautiful double star Anak al ard of the Arabians, or {g} Andromedæ.
ALAMOTTIE. The Procellaria pelagica, or Storm-finch; Mother Cary's chicken, or stormy petrel.
ALAND. A term formerly used for to the shore, on shore, or to land.
ALARM-POST. A place appointed for troops to assemble, in case of a sudden alarm.
ALARM, ALARUM [from the Italian all'armi!] An apprehension from sudden noise or report. The drum or signal by which men are summoned to stand on their guard in time of danger.—False alarm is sometimes occasioned by a timid or negligent sentry, and at others designedly by an officer, to ascertain the promptness of his men. Sometimes false alarms are given by the enemy to harass the adversary. Old Rider defines alarm as a “watch-word shewing the neernesse of the enemies.”
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.
ALBANY BEEF. A name for the sturgeon of the Hudson River, where it is taken in quantity for commerce.
ALBATROSS. A large, voracious, long-winged sea-bird, belonging to the genus Diomedea; very abundant in the Southern Ocean and the Northern Pacific, though said to be rarely met with within the tropics.
ALBION. An early name of England, from the whiteness of the eastern coast cliffs. ALBURNUM. The sap-wood of timber, commonly termed the slab-cuts.
ALCAID. A governor, or officer of justice, amongst the Moors, Spaniards, and Portuguese.
ALCATRAZ. The pelican. Alcatraz Island is situated in the mouth of the river San Francisco, in California, so named from its being covered with these birds. Also Alcatraz on the coast of Africa, from Pelecanus sula—booby. Columbus mentions the alcatraz when nearing America, and Drayton says—“Most like to that sharp-sighted alcatras, That beats the air above the liquid glass.”
ALDEBARAN. The lucida of Taurus, the well-known nautical star, popularly called Bull's-eye.
ALEMAYNE. The early name for Germany.
ALERT. On the look-out, and ready for any sudden duty. Nearly synonymous with alarm. Alerto—called frequently by Spanish sentinels. Watchful. Quick. To be ready for any emergency.
ALEWIFE. The Clupea alosa, a fish of the herring kind, which appears in the Philosophical Transactions for 1678, as the aloofe; the corruption therefore was a ready one.
ALEXIACUS. The appellation under which Neptune was implored to protect the nets of the tunny fisheries from the sword-fish.
ALFERE, OR ALFEREZ [alfier, Fr.; alferez, Span.] Standard-bearer; ensign; cornet. The old English term for ensign; it was in use in our forces till the civil wars of Charles I.
ALFONDIZA. The custom-house at Lisbon.
ALGA. A species of millepora.
ALGÆ. Sea-weeds, and the floating scum-like substances on fresh water; they deserve to be more studied, for some, as dulse, laver, badderlocks, &c., are eatable, and others are useful for manure.
ALGEBRA. A general method of resolving mathematical problems, by means of equations, or rather computing abstract quantities by symbols or signs; a literal arithmetic.
ALGENIB. A principal star ({g}) in Pegasus. ALGERE. A spear used by fishermen in olden times.
ALGIER DUTY. An imposition laid on merchants' goods by the Long Parliament, for the redemption of captives in the Mediterranean.
ALGOL. A wonderful variable star in Perseus, which goes through its changes in about two days and twenty-one hours.
ALGOLOGY. Scientific researches into the nature of sea-plants.
ALGORAB. A star taking rank as the {a} of Corvus, but its brightness of late is rivalled by {b} Corvi.
ALHIDADE. An Arabic name for the index or fiducial of an astronomical or geometrical instrument, carrying sight or telescope; used by early navigators. A rule on the back of a common astrolabe, to measure heights, &c.
ALIEN. Generally speaking, one born in a foreign country, out of the king's allegiance; but if the parents be of the king's obedience, the child is no alien. An alien enemy, or person under the allegiance of the state at war with us, is not generally disabled from being a witness in admiralty courts; nor are debts due to him forfeited, but only suspended.—Alien's duty, the impost laid on all goods imported into England in foreign bottoms, over and above the regular customs.
ALIGNMENT. An imaginary line, drawn to regulate the order of a squadron.
ALIQUOT PART. That which will exactly divide a number, leaving no remainder.
ALL HANDS. An expression used when the whole of the crew are required for any special evolution.
ALL IN THE WIND. When a vessel is too close to the wind, so that her sails shake.
ALL-A-TAUNTO. Every mast perpendicular, and fully rigged. Yards across.
ALL. The total quantity; quite; wholly.—All aback, when all the sails are taken aback by the winds.—All ahoo, or all-a-ugh, confused; hanging over; crooked.—All-a-taunt-o, a ship fully rigged, with masts in and yards crossed.—All hands, the whole ship's company.—All hands ahoy, the boatswain's summons for the whole crew to repair on deck, in distinction from the watch.—All hands make sail! the cheering order when about to chase a strange vessel.—All hands to quarters! the call in armed merchantmen, answering to the Beat to quarters in a man-of-war.—All in the wind, when a vessel's head is too close to the wind, so that all her sails are shivering.—All over, resemblance to a particular object, as a ship in bad kelter: “she's a privateer all over.”—All overish, the state of feeling when a man is neither ill nor well, restless in bed and indifferent to meals. In the tropics this is considered as the premonitory symptom of disease, and a warning which should be looked to.—All ready, the answer from the tops when the sails are cast loose, and ready to be dropped.—All standing, fully equipped, or with clothes on. To be brought up all standing, is to be suddenly checked or stopped, without any preparation.—Paid off all standing, without unrigging or waiting to return stores; perhaps recommissioned the next day or hour.—All's well, the sentry's call at each bell struck (or half hour) between the periods of broad daylight, or from 8 P.M. to 4 A.M.— All to pieces, a phrase used for out-and-out, extremely, or excessively; as, “we beat her in sailing all to pieces.”—All weathers, any time or season; continually.
ALLAN. A word from the Saxon, still used in the north to denote a piece of land nearly surrounded by a stream.
ALLEGE. A French ballast-boat.
ALLEGIANCE. The legal obedience of a subject to his sovereign in return for the protection afforded; a debt which, in a natural-born subject, cannot be cancelled by any change of time, or place, or circumstance, without the united consent of the legislature. 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.
ALLIANCE. A league or confederacy between sovereigns or states, for mutual safety and defence. Subjects of allies cannot trade with the common enemy, on pain of the property being confiscated as prize to the captors.
ALLICIENCY. The attractive power of the magnet.
ALLIGATOR [from the Spanish lagarto]. The crocodile of America. The head of this voracious animal is flat and imbricate; several of the under teeth enter into and pass through the upper jaw; the nape is naked; on the tail are two rough lateral lines.
ALLIGATOR WATER. The brackish water inside the mouths of tropical rivers, with white and muddy surface running into the sea.
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.
ALLOCUTION. The harangue anciently made by the Roman generals to exhort their forces.
ALLOTMENT-LIST. A document containing the requisite details, attested by the four signing officers, to be transmitted to the Navy Office.
ALLOTMENT. A part of the pay apportioned monthly to the wives, children, mothers, or destitute fathers of the warrant and petty officers, seamen, and marines of ships of war on foreign stations. In the merchant service all such stipulations for allotting any portion of a seaman's wages during his absence must be inserted in the agreement.
ALLOTTING. Persons agreeing to buy a ship's cargo appoint a disinterested person to allot a share to each by affixing their respective names.
ALLOW, TO. To concede a destined portion of stores, &c.
ALLOWANCE. The ration or allotted quantum of provisions which each individual receives; and it is either double, full, two-thirds, half, or short, according to incidents.
ALLUVION. An accretion formed along sea-shores and the banks of rivers by the deposition of the various substances held in solution or washed by the waters. Sea alluvions differ from those of rivers, in that they form a slope towards the land.
ALLY. A friendly or confederated state.
ALMACANTARS STAFF. An instrument formerly used at sea for observing the sun's amplitude, formed of an arc of about 15 degrees.
ALMACANTARS. Circles parallel to the horizon, and supposed to pass through every degree of the meridian. An Arabic term, synonymous with parallels of latitude.
ALMADIA. A small African canoe, made of the bark of trees. Some of the larger square-sterned negro-boats are also thus designated.
ALMAFADAS. Large dunnage cut on the coast of Portugal.
ALMAGEST. The celebrated work of Ptolemy on geometry and astronomy. Ricciolus adopted the term in 1651 for his Body of Mathematical Science. It became general, whence Chaucer—“His Almagiste and bookes, grete and small.”
ALMANAC. A record of the days, feasts, and celestial phenomena of the year. Though confounded with calendar, it is essentially different—the latter relating to time in general, and the almanac to that of a year; but the term calendar can be properly used for a particular year. (See EPHEMERIS.)
ALMATH [Hamal]. The star in Aries whence the first mansion of the moon takes its name.
ALMIRANTE. A great sea-officer or high-admiral in Spain.
ALMIRANTESA. The wife of an admiral.
ALMURY. The upright part of an astrolabe.
ALNUS CAVER. Transport-ships of the early English, so called from the wood of which they were constructed.
ALOFT [Anglo-Saxon, alofte, on high]. Above; overhead; on high. Synonymous with up above the tops, at the mast-head, or anywhere about the higher yards, masts, and rigging of ships.—Aloft there! the hailing of people in the tops.—Away aloft! the command to the people in the rigging to climb to their stations. Also, heaven: “Poor Tom is gone aloft.” On the yards or in the rigging. Up above the deck, up the mast or in the rigging.
ALONDE. An old English word for ashore, on land.
ALONG [Saxon]. Lengthwise.—Alongside, by the side of a ship; side by side.—Lying along, when the wind, being on the beam, presses the ship over to leeward with the press of sail; or, lying along the land.
ALONGSHORE. A common nautical phrase signifying along the coast, or a course which is in sight of the shore, and nearly parallel to it. ( See 'LONGSHORE.)
ALONGSIDE. Close beside a ship, wharf or jetty.
ALONGST. In the middle of a stream; moored head and stern.
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.
ALOW. Synonymous with below; as alow and aloft, though more properly low and aloft. Carrying all sail alow and aloft is when the reefs are shaken out, and all the studding- sails set.
ALPHABETICAL LIST. This is a list which accompanies the ship's books; it contains the names and number of every person in the pay-book.
ALTAIR. The bright nautical star {a} Aquilæ, binary.
ALTAR. A platform in the upper part of a dock.
ALTEMETRIE. The old term for trigonometry among navigators.
ALTERNATE. Reciprocal.—Alternate angles are the internal angles formed by a line cutting two parallels, and lying on the opposite side of the cutting line; the one below the first parallel, and the other above.—Alternate ratio is that of which the antecedents and consequents bear respectively to each other in any proportion which has the quantities of the same kind.
ALTERNATING WINDS. Peculiar winds blowing at stated times one way, and then, from a sudden alteration in the temperature of the elements, setting in the contrary direction. A remarkable instance is that of the Gulf of Arta in the Ionian Sea, where the effect is promoted by local causes. All land and sea breezes are strictly alternating winds. These however are mostly intertropical; the solar heat causing the sea-breeze to blow on the land by day, and condensation and greater heat of the sea causing a reaction when the land has cooled to a lower temperature.
ALTERNATION OR PERMUTATION OF QUANTITIES, is the varying or changing their order, and is easily found by a continual multiplication of all numbers.
ALTIMETRY. Trigonometry; the art of measuring heights or depressions of land, whether accessible or not.
ALTITUDE. The elevation of any of the heavenly bodies above the plane of the horizon, or its angular distance from the horizon, measured in the direction of a great circle passing through the zenith. Also the third dimension of a body, considered with regard to its elevation above the ground.—Apparent altitude is that which appears by sensible observations made on the surface of the globe.— Altitude of the pole. The arc of the meridian between the pole of the heavens and the horizon of any place, and therefore equal to its geographical latitude.—Altitude of the cone of the earth's and moon's shadow, is the height of the one or the other during an eclipse, and is measured from the centre of the body.—Altitude of a shot or shell. The perpendicular height of the vertex of the curve in which it moves above the horizon.—Meridian altitude. The arc of the meridian,—or greater or less altitude, measured from the horizon, of a celestial object in its passage over the meridian, above or below the pole, of the place of the observer. In Polar regions two such transits of the sun, and in England similarly, circumpolar stars afford double observations for the determination of time or latitude. The general term is understood by seamen to denote mid-day, when the passage and meridian altitude of the sun affords the latitude.—True altitude is that produced by correcting the apparent one for parallax and refraction.
ALTMIKLEC. A silver Turkish coin of 60 paras, or 2_s. 9-1/2_d. 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.
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 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. Suddenly. Quickly. At once. With force.
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.
AMAS- The outboard hulls of a trimaran.
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. A place to lie inwaiting.
AMELIORATION. An allowance made to the neutral purchaser, on reclaiming a ship irregularly condemned, for repairs she has undergone in his service.
AMERICA'S CUP. The America’s Cup, dating from 1851, is the oldest trophy in is considered yacht racing’s Holy Grail.
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.
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.
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.)
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 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 BALL. A black ball visible in all direction display in the forward part of a vessel at anchor.
ANCHOR BEND. A type of knot used to fasten an anchor to its line.
ANCHOR CHAIN. A chain attached to the anchor. The chain acts partially as a weight to keep the anchor lying next to the ground so that it can dig in better.
ANCHOR CHOCK. A chock bolted upon the gunwale abaft the fore-drifts, for the bill of the sheet-anchor to rest on.
ANCHOR DETAIL. Crew at the bow to handle the ground tackle.
ANCHOR HANDLING TUG. Tug that moves anchors and tow drilling vessels, lighters and similar. Also ANCHOR HANDLING TUG/SUPPLY used also for supplies.
ANCHOR LOCKER. Storage space used for the anchor rode and anchor.
ANCHOR POCKET. A recess in the bow for storinganchor.
ANCHOR WINDLASS. A windlass used to assist when raising the anchor.
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.
ANCHOR-DAVIT. See DAVIT.
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.)
ANCHOR-LIGHT. A white light visible in all direction display in the forward part of a vessel at anchor.
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 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-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-STOCK. A bar at the upper end of the shank, crossing the direction of the flukes transversely, to steady their proper direction. 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-STOCKING is a mode of securing and working planks in general with tapered butts.
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.
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.
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.
ANCHORED. Held by the anchor; also the act of having cast 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.
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.
ANDREA-FERRARA. See FERRARA.
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 {a}. (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.
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.
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 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 ELEVATION. See ELEVATION.
ANGLE OF INCIDENCE. The angle made with the line of direction by an impinging body at the point of impact; as that formed by the direction of the wind upon the sails or of the water upon the rudder of a ship.
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 REFLECTION. See REFLECTION.
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 SHOULDER. See EPAULE.
ANGLE OF THE VERTICAL. The difference between the geographical and geocentric latitudes of a place upon the earth's surface.
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. 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).
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.
ANGLES OF TIMBERS. See BEVELLING.
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.]
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-FISH. A name of a kind of cuttle-fish.
ANKER. An anker of brandy contains ten gallons. The kegs in which Hollands is mostly exported are ankers and half-ankers.
ANKLE-BONE. An old seaman's term for the crawfish.
ANMIDSHIPS. In midships, or in the middle of the ship, either with regard to her length or breadth. Hence that timber or frame which has the greatest breadth and capacity in the ship is denominated the midship bend.
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 PARALLAX. See PARALLAX.
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 SCUPPER. A contrivance for fitting scuppers so that 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.
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.
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.
ANNULUS. A geometrical figure. (See RING.)
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.
ANT ISLANDS. Generally found on Spanish charts as Hormigas.
ANTARCTIC CIRCLE. One of the lesser circles of the sphere, on the south parallel of the equator, and 23-1/2° 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.
ANTARCTIC. Opposite to the Arctic—abbreviated from anti-arctic.
ANTARES. A star of the first magnitude, popularly known as the scorpion's heart ({a} Scorpio): it is one of those called “nautical” stars, used for determining the latitude and longitude at night.
ANTE LUCAN. Before daylight.
ANTE MERIDIAN. Before noon.
ANTE MURAL. See OUTWORKS.
ANTECEDENT OF A RATIO. The first of the two terms.
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.
ANTECIANS. Those inhabitants of the earth who live under the same meridian, but in opposite hemispheres. (See ANTISCII.)
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.
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.
ANTI-TRIP CHINE. A flared out aft section of the side/bottom of the boat. The purpose is to prevent the hard chine of the boat catching a wake or small wave on a sharp turn.
ANTICHTHONES. The inhabitants of countries diametrically opposite to each other.
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.
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.
ANY PORT IN A STORM signifies contentment with whatever may betide.
ANYHOW. Do the duty by all means, and at any rate or risk: as Nelson, impatient for getting to Copenhagen in 1801, exclaimed—“Let it be by the Sound, by the Belt, or anyhow, only lose not an hour.”
APAGOGE. A mathematical progress from one proposition to another.
APE, OR SEA-APE. The long-tailed shark. Also, an active American seal.
APEAK. Said of anchor when cable is taut and vertical. Apparent wind, the direction of the wind as is relative to the speed and direction of the boat.
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 {a} 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.
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 EQUINOX. The position of the equinox as affected by nutation.
APPARENT HORIZON. See HORIZON.
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.
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.
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.
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 ({a} 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. AQUEDUCT. Conduits or canals built for the conveyance of water.
AQUILA. The constellation Aquila, in which {a} 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. Method of settling disputes which is usually binding on parties. A clause usually in a charter party. 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 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.
ARC, OR ARCH. The segment of a circle or any curved line, by which all angles are measured.
ARCH OF THE COVE. An elliptical moulding sprung over the cove of a ship, at the lower part of the taffrail.
ARCH-BOARD. The part of the stern over the counter, immediately under the knuckles of the stern-timbers.
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 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 OCEAN. So called from surrounding the pole within the imaginary circle of that name.
ARCTIC POLE. The north pole of the globe.
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.
ARCTURUS. {a} 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.
ARGIN. An old word for an embankment.
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.
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.
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 OF LATITUDE. The distance of a celestial body from one of the nodes of its orbit, upon which the latitude depends.
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.
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 PIECES. Those parts of a made mast which are under the hoops.
ARIS. Sharp corner of stones in piers and docks.
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-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.
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.
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.
ARMED STEM. See BEAK.
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, 6_s. 8_d.
ARMING. A piece of tallow placed in the cavity and over the bottom 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-CLAD. A ship of war fitted with iron plates on the outside to render her shot- proof.
ARMOUR. A defensive habit to protect the wearer from his enemy; also defensive arms. In old statutes this is frequently called harness.
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.
ARMS OF A GREAT GUN. The trunnions.
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.
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.
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 3-1/2 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.
ARRAY. The order of battle.—To array. To equip, dress, or arm for battle.
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 4-1/4 English gallons. The lesser arroba, used for oil, is only 3-1/3 English gallons. A Spanish weight of 25 lbs. avoirdupois; one-fourth of a quintal. Also, a rough country cart in Southern Russia.
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 OF AGREEMENT. The document containing all particulars relating to the terms of agreement between the Master of the vessel and the crew. Sometimes called ship's articles, shipping articles.
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.
ARTICLES. The express stipulations to which seamen bind themselves by signature, on joining a merchant ship.
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 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.”
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.
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.
ASABOSA. Association of Ships' Agents & Brokers.
ASCENDANT. The part of the ecliptic above the horizon.
ASCENDING NODE. See NODES.
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 OBLIQUE. See OBLIQUE ASCENSION.
ASCENSION RIGHT. See RIGHT ASCENSION.
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).
ASCII. The inhabitants of the torrid zone, who twice a year, being under a vertical sun, have no shadow.
ASH-PIT. A receptacle for ashes before the fire-bars in a steamer, or under them in most fire-places.
ASH. Timber much used in ship-building, principally for ladders, gratings, capstan bars, handspikes and oars.
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.
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.
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.
ASLANT. Not perpendicular, not a direct line.
ASLEEP. The sail filled with wind just enough for swelling or bellying out,—as contrasted with its flapping.
ASPECT RATIO. The relationship between the height of a sail and its breadth. i.e. A sail with a height of 30' and a breadth of 20' has an aspect ratio of 3:2 .A tall and narrow sail is said to have a high Aspect ratio.
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.
ASSEMBLY. That long roll beat of the drum by which soldiers, or armed parties, are ordered to repair to their stations. It is sometimes called the fall-in.
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.
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 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.
AT ANCHOR. The situation of a vessel riding in a road or port by her anchor.
AT SEA. In marine insurance this phrase applies to a ship which is free from its moorings and ready to sail.
ATABAL. A Moorish kettle-drum.
ATAGHAN. See YATAGHAN.
ATAR. A perfume of commerce, well known as atar-of-roses; atar being the Arabic word for fragrance, corrupted into otto.
ATEGAR. The old English hand-dart, named from the Saxon aeton, to fling, and gar, a weapon.
ATHAWARTHAWSE. Anything drifting across the bow of a ship by accident.
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 or THWART. Across, generally across the slip; as the thwarts or seats on which rowers sit.
ATHWART THE TIDE. See ACROSS THE TIDE.
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.
ATHWARTSHIPS. At right angles to the centerline of the boat; rowboat seats are generally athwartships. The reverse of fore and aft.
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.
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.
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.
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.
AUGER, AUGUR. An instrument to bore holes with.
AUGER. A carpenter's tool boat builders use for boring holes in wood.
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.
AURIGA. A northern constellation, and one of the old 48 asterisms; it is popularly known as the Waggoner: {a} Auriga, Capella.
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.
AURORA. The faint light which precedes sunrising. Also the mythological mother of the winds and stars.
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.
AUTOMATIC BLOW-OFF APPARATUS. See BLOW-OFF-PIPE.
AUTOMATIC PILOT. An instrument designed to control automatically a vessel's steering gear so that she follows a pre-determined track through the water.
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.
AUXILIARY. A second method of propelling a vessel. On a sailboat this could be a engine.
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.
AVAST HEAVING! The cry to arrest the capstan when nippers are jammed, or any other impediment occurs in heaving in the cable, not unfrequently when a hand, foot, or finger, is jammed;—stop!
AVAST. The order to stop, hold, cease, or stay, in any operation: its derivation from the Italian basta is more plausible than have fast.
AVENTAILE. The movable part of a helmet.
AVENUE. The inlet into a port.
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.
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.)
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.
AWASH. Water washing over.
AWAY ALOFT. The order to the men in the rigging to start up.
AWAY OFF. At a distance, but in sight.
AWAY SHE GOES. A common expression used for men to step out smartly with any purchase.
AWAY SHE GOES. The order to step out with the tackle fall. The cry when a vessel starts on the ways launching; also when a ship, having stowed her anchor, fills and makes sail.
AWAY THERE. The call for a boat's crew; as, “away there! barge-men.”
AWAY WITH IT. The order to walk along briskly with a tackle fall, as catting the anchor, &c.
AWBLAST. The arbalest, or cross-bow.
AWBLASTER. The designation of a cross-bowman.
AWEIGH. To raise an anchor off the bottom.
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-ROPES. The ridge and side ropes for securing the awning.
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. A covering of canvas spread over the deck of a vessel to keep off sun and rain.
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 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.
AZIMUTH. A word borrowed from the Arabic. The complement of the amplitude, or an arc between the meridian of a place and any given vertical line.
AZIMUTHAL ERROR. See MERIDIAN ERROR.
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.
Google Sites
Report abuse