Nautical Dictionary

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

K

Kilo, in the International Code of Signals (ICS) it means: "I wish to communicate with you."

K.C.B. Sigla of Knight Commander of the most honourable military order of the Bath.

KAAG. A Manx or Gaelic term for a forelock, stopper, or linch-pin.

KABBELOW. Cod-fish which has been salted and hung for a few days, but not thoroughly dried. Also, a dish of cod mashed.

KABOZIR. A chief or governor on the African coast.

KABURNS. The old name for nippers.

KAFILA. A well-known Eastern word, meaning a party with camels travelling or sojourning; but it was also applied by our early voyagers to convoys of merchant ships.

KAIA. An old term for a quay or wharf.

KAIQUE. See CAIQUE.

KALBAZ, OR HALBAZ. Pronounced kalva; one of the best Turkish delicacies, composed of honey, must, and almonds, beat up together.

KALENDAR. Time accommodated to the uses of life. (See ALMANAC.)

KALI. Salsola kali, a marine plant, generally burned to supply soda for the glass manufactories. Sub-carbonate of potass.

KAMSIN. A south-westerly wind which blows over Egypt in March and April, generally not more than three successive days at a time. Its name signifies the wind of fifty days, not as blowing for such a period, but because it only occurs during fifty days of March and April.

KANJIA. A passage-boat of the Nile.

KANNA. A name for ginseng (which see).

KARAVALLA. See CARAVEL.

KARBATZ. A common boat of Lapland.

KAT. A timber vessel used on the northern coasts of England.

KATABATHRA. Subterraneous passages in certain mountains in Greece, through which the superfluous waters are discharged.

KATAN. A Japanese sword, otherwise cattan.

KATTAN. A corruption of yataghan (which see).

KATTY. See CATTY.

KAULE. A license for trade, given by the authorities in India to our early voyagers.

KAVA. A beverage, in the South Sea Islands, made by steeping the Piper inebrians in water.

KAVER. A word used in the Hebrides for a gentle breeze.

KAY, OR KEY [probably from the Dutch kaayen, to haul]. A place to which ships are hauled. Knoll or head of a shoal—kaya, Malay.

KAYAK. A fishing-boat in all the north polar countries; most likely a corrupted form of the eastern kaique by our early voyagers.

KAYNARD. A term of reproach amongst our early voyagers, probably from canis.

KAYU-PUTIH, OR CAJEPUTI OIL. From the Malay words kayu, wood; and putih, oil; the useful oil obtained from the Melaleuca leucadendron.

KAZIE. A Shetland fishing-boat.

KEAVIE-CLEEK. In the north a crooked piece of iron for catching crabs.

KEAVIE. A coast name for a species of crab that devours cuttle-fish greedily.

KECKLING, OR CACKLING. Is covering a cable spirally (in opposition to rounding, which is close) with three-inch old rope to protect it from chafe in the hawse-hole.

KEDELS. See KIDDLES.

KEDGE-ROPE. The rope which belongs to the kedge-anchor, and restrains the vessel from driving over her bower-anchor.

KEDGE, OR KEDGER. A small anchor used to keep a ship steady and clear from her bower-anchor while she rides in harbour, particularly at the turn of the tide. The kedge- anchors are also used to warp a ship from one part of a harbour to another. They are generally furnished with an iron stock, which is easily displaced for the convenience of stowing. The old English word kedge signified brisk, and they are generally run in to a quick step. (See ANCHOR, WARP.)—To kedge. To warp a ship ahead, though the tide be contrary, by means of the kedge-anchor and hawser.

KEDGER. A mean fellow, more properly cadger; one in everybody's mess, but in no one's watch. An old term for a fisherman.

KEDGING. The operation of tide-working in a narrow channel or river, by kedge- hauling.

KEEL LEG OR HOOK. Means any anchor; as, “she has come to a keelock.”

KEEL-BLOCKS. Short log ends of timbers on which the keel of a vessel rests while building or repairing, affording access to work beneath.

KEEL-DEETERS. The wives and daughters of keelmen, who sweep and clean the keels, having the sweepings of small coal for their trouble.

KEEL-HAULING. A severe punishment formerly inflicted for various offences, especially in the Dutch navy. The culprit was suspended by a rope from one fore yard- arm attached to his back, with a weight upon his legs, and having another rope fastened to him, leading under the ship's bottom, and through a block at its opposite yard-arm; he was then let fall into the sea, when, passing under the ship's bottom, he was hoisted up on the opposite side of the vessel to the other yard-arm. Aptly described as “under-going a great hard-ship.”

KEEL-PIECES. The parts of the keel which are of large timber.

KEEL-RAKE. Synonymous with keel-haul. See KEEL-HAULING.

KEEL-ROPE. A coarse rope formerly used for cleaning the limber-holes.

KEEL-STAPLES. Generally made of copper, from six to twelve inches long, with a jagged hook to each end. They are driven into the sides of the main and false keels to fasten them.

KEEL. The lowest and principal timber of a ship, running fore and aft its whole length, and supporting the frame like the backbone in quadrupeds; it is usually first laid on the blocks in building, being the base of the superstructure. Accordingly, the stem and stern-posts are, in some measure, a continuation of the keel, and serve to connect the extremities of the sides by transoms, as the keel forms and unites the bottom by timbers. The keel is generally composed of several thick pieces placed lengthways, which, after being scarphed together, are bolted and clinched upon the upper side. In iron vessels the keel is formed of one or more plates of iron, having a concave curve, or limber channel, along its upper surface.—To give the keel, is to careen.—Keel formerly meant a vessel; so many “keels struck the sands.” Also, a low flat-bottomed vessel used on the Tyne to carry coals (21 tons 4 cwt.) down from Newcastle for loading the colliers; hence the latter are said to carry so many keels of coals. [Anglo-Saxon ceol, a small bark.]—False keel. A fir keel-piece bolted to the bottom of the keel, to assist stability and make a ship hold a better wind. It is temporary, being pinned by stake-bolts with spear-points; so when a vessel grounds, this frequently, being of fir or Canada elm, floats and comes up alongside.—Rabbets of the keel. The furrow, which is continued up stem and stern-post, into which the garboard and other streaks fay. The butts take into the gripe ahead, or after-deadwood and stern-post abaft.—Rank keel. A very deep keel, one calculated to keep the ship from rolling heavily.—Upon an even keel. The position of a ship when her keel is parallel to the plane of the horizon, so that she is equally deep in the water at both ends.

KEELAGE. A local duty charged on all vessels coming into a harbour.

KEELING. Rolling on her keel. Also, a sort of cod-fish; some restrict the term to the Gadus morhua, or large cod.

KEELMEN. A rough and hardy body of men, who work the keels of Newcastle. Sometimes termed keel-bullies. They are recognized as mariners in various statutes.

KEELS. An old British name for long vessels—formerly written ceol and cyulis. Verstegan informs us that the Saxons came over in three large ships, styled by themselves keeles.

KEELSON-RIDER. See FALSE KELSON.

KEELSON, OR KELSON. An internal keel, laid upon the middle of the floor-timbers, immediately over the keel, and serving to bind all together by means of long bolts driven from without, and clinched on the upper side of the keelson. The main keelson, in order to fit with more security upon the floor-timbers, is notched opposite to each of them, and there secured by spike-nails. The pieces of which it is formed are usually less in breadth and thickness than those of the keel.

KEEP A GOOD HOLD OF THE LAND. Is to hug it as near as it can safely be done. KEEP HER OWN. Not to fall off; not driven back by tide.

KEEP OFF. To fall to a distance from the shore, or a ship, &c. (See OFFING.)

KEEP THE LAND ABOARD. Is to sail along it, or within sight, as much as possible, or as close as danger will permit.

KEEP YOUR LUFF. An order to the helmsman to keep the ship close to the wind, i.e. sailing with a course as near as possible to the direction from which the wind is coming. (See CLOSE-HAULED.)

KEEP. A strong donjon or tower in the middle of a castle, usually the last resort of its garrison in a siege. Also, a reservoir for fish by the side of a river.—To keep, a term used on several occasions in navigation; as, “Keep her away,” alter the ship's course to leeward, by sailing further off the wind. The reverse is, “ Keep your wind, keep your luff,” close to the wind.

KEEPING A GOOD OFFING. To keep well off shore while under sail, so as to be clear of danger should the wind suddenly shift and blow towards the shore.

KEEPING A WATCH. To have charge of the deck. Also, the act of being on watch-duty.

KEEPING FULL FOR STAYS. A necessary precaution to give the sails full force, in aid of the rudder when going about.

KEEPING HER WAY. The force of steady motion through the water, continued after the power which gave it has varied or diminished.

KEEPING THE SEA. The term formerly used when orders were issued for the array of the inhabitants of the sea-coasts.

KEG. A small cask, of no fixed contents. Used familiarly for taking offence, as to keg, is to irritate.—To carry the keg. To continue; originally a smuggler's phrase.

KEGGED. Feeling affronted or jeered at.

KELDS. The still parts of a river, which have an oily smoothness while the rest of the water is ruffled.

KELF. The incision made in a tree by the axe when felling it.

KELING. A large kind of cod. Thus in Havelok:—“Keling he tok, and tumberel, Hering, and the makerel.”

KELKS. The milt or roe of fish.

KELLAGH. The Erse term for a wooden anchor with a stone in it, but in later times is applied to any grapnel or small anchor.

KELP. Salsola kali; the ashes produced by the combustion of various marine algæ, and used in obtaining iodine, soda, &c.

KELPIE. A mischievous sea-sprite, supposed to haunt the fords and ferries of the northern coasts of Great Britain, especially in storms.

KELT. A salmon that has been spawning; a foul fish.

KELTER. Ships and men are said to be in prime kelter when in fine order and well- rigged.

KEMP. An old term for a soldier, camper, or camp man. Also a kind of eel.

KEMSTOCK. An old term for capstan.

KEN-SPECKLED. Conspicuous; having distinct marks.

KEN, TO. Ang.-Sax. descrying, as Shakspeare in Henry VI.:—“And far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs.” —Ken, a speck, a striking object or mark.

KENNETS. Large cleats. (See KEVELS.) Also, a coarse Welsh cloth of commerce; see statute 33 Henry VIII. c. 3.

KENNING BY KENNING. A mode of increasing wages formerly, according to whaling law, by seeing how a man performed his duty.

KENNING-GLASS. A hand spy-glass or telescope.

KENT-PURCHASE. A misspelling of cant-purchase, or one used to turn a whale round during the operation of flensing.

KENTLEDGE GOODS. In lieu of ballast.

KENTLEDGE. Pigs of iron cast for permanent ballast, laid over the kelson-plates, or if in the limbers, then called limber-kentledge.

KEPLER'S LAWS. Three famous laws of nature detected by Kepler early in the seventeenth century:—1. The primary planets revolve about the sun in ellipses, having that luminary in one of the foci. 2. The planets describe about the sun equal areas in equal times. 3. The squares of the periodic times of the planets are to each other as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun.

KEPLING. See CAPLIN.

KERFE. The furrow or slit made by the saw in dividing timber.

KERLANGUISHES. The swift-sailing boats of the Bosphorus. The name signifies swallows.

KERMES. A little red gall, occasioned by the puncture of the Coccus ilicis on the leaves of the Quercus coccifera, or Kermes oak; an article of commerce from Spain, used in dyeing.

KERNEL. Corrupted from crenelle; the holes in a battlement made for the purpose of shooting arrows and small shot.

KERNES. Light-armed Irish foot soldiers of low degree, who cleared the way for the heavy gallow-glasses.

KERS. An Anglo-Saxon word for water-cresses.

KERT. An old spelling for chart.

KERVEL. See CARVEL.

KETCH. A vessel of the galliot order, equipped with two masts—viz. the main and mizen masts—usually from 100 to 250 tons burden. Ketches were principally used as yachts for conveying great personages from one place to another. The peculiarity of this rig, affording so much space before the main-mast, and at the greatest beam, caused them to be used for mortar-vessels, hence—Bomb-ketches, which are built remarkably strong, with a greater number of riders than any other vessel of war, as requisite to sustain the violent shock produced by the discharge of their mortars. (See BOMB- VESSEL, MORTAR, and SHELL.)

KETCH. A vessel with one large mast and the after mast small; there are many varieties of this rig.

KETERINS. Marauders who formerly infested the Irish coast and channel. KETOS, OR CETUS. An ancient ship of large dimensions.

KETTLE OF FISH. To have made a pretty kettle of fish of it, implies a perplexity in judgment.

KETTLE-BOTTOM. A name applied to a ship with a flat floor.

KETTLE-NET. A net used in taking mackerel.

KETTLE. The brass or metal box of a compass.

KEVEL-HEADS. The ends of the top timbers, which, rising above the gunwale, serve to belay the ropes, or to be used as kevels.

KEVELING. A coast name for the skate.

KEVELS, OR CAVILS. Large cleats, or also pieces of oak passing through a mortice in the rail, and answer the purpose of timber-heads for belaying ropes to.

KEY OF THE RUDDER. (See WOOD-LOCKS.) In machinery, applies to wedges, forelocks, &c.

KEY-MODEL. In ship-building, a model formed by pieces of board laid on each other horizontally. These boards, being all shaped from the lines on the paper, when put together and fairly adjusted, present the true form of the proposed ship.

KEY, OR CAY [derived from the Spanish cayos, rocks]. What in later years have been so termed will be found in the old Spanish charts as cayos. The term was introduced to us by the buccaneers as small insular spots with a scant vegetation; without the latter they are merely termed sand-banks. Key is especially used in the West Indies, and often applied to the smaller coral shoals produced by zoophytes.

KEY, OR QUAY. A long wharf, usually built of stone, by the side of a harbour, and having posts and rings, cranes, and store-houses, for the convenience of merchant ships.

KEY. In ship-building, means a dry piece of oak or elm, cut tapering, to drive into scarphs that have hook-butts, to wedge deck-planks, or to join any pieces of wood tightly to each other. Iron forelocks.

KEYAGE, OR QUAYAGE. Money paid for landing goods at a key or quay. The same as wharfage.

KEYLE. (See KEEL.) The vessel of that name.

KHALISHEES. Native Indian sailors.

KHAVIAR. See CAVIARE.

KHIZR. The patron deity of the sea in the East Indies, to whom small boats, called beera, are annually sacrificed on the shores and rivers.

KIBE. A flaw produced in the bore of a gun by a shot striking against it.

KIBLINGS. Parts of a small fish used for bait on the banks of Newfoundland.

KICK THE BUCKET, TO. To expire; an inconsiderate phrase for dying. KICK UP A DUST, TO. To create a row or disturbance.

KICK UP A DUST. To knock up a row, to have a disturbance.

KICK. The springing back of a musket when fired. Also, the violent recoil by which a carronade is often thrown off the slide of its carriage. A comparison of excellence or novelty; the very kick.

KICKSHAW. Applied to French cookery, or unsubstantial trifles.

KID. A presuming man.—Kiddy fellow, neat in his dress. Also, a compartment in some fishing-vessels, wherein the fish are thrown as they are caught. Also, a small wooden tub for grog, with two ears; or generally for a mess utensil of that kind. (See KIT.)

KIDDLES. Stakes whereby the free passage of boats and vessels is hindered. Also, temporary open weirs for catching fish.

KIDLEYWINK. A low beershop in our western ports.

KIDNAP, TO. To crimp or carry off by artifice.

KIDNEY. Men of the same kidney, i.e. of a similar disposition.

KIFTIS. The large passage-boats of India, fitted with cabins on each side from stem to stern.

KIHAIA. An officer of Turkish ports in superintendence of customs, &c.; often deputy- governor.

KILDERKIN. A vessel containing the eighth part of a hogshead.

KILE. See KYLE.

KILL-DEVIL. New rum, from its pernicious effects.

KILL. A channel or stream, as Cats-kill, Schuylkill, &c.

KILLER. A name for the grampus, Orca gladiator, given on account of the ferocity with which it attacks and destroys whales, seals, and other marine animals. (See GRAMPUS.)

KILLESE. The groove in a cross-bow.

KILLING-OFF. Striking the names of dead officers from the navy list by a coup de plume.

KILLOCK. A small anchor. Flue of an anchor. (See KELLAGH.)

KILLY-LEEPIE. A name on our northern shores for the Tringa hypoleucos or common sand-piper.

KILN. The dockyard building wherein planks are steamed for the purpose of bending them to round the extremities of a ship.

KIN. See KINN.

KING ARTHUR. A game played on board ship in warm climates, in which a person, grotesquely personating King Arthur, is drenched with buckets of water until he can, by making one of his persecutors smile or laugh, change places with him.

KING JOHN'S MEN. The Adullamites of the navy.

KING-CRAB. The Limulus polyphemus of the West Indies.

KING-FISH. The Zeus luna. Carteret took one at Masafuero 5-1/2 feet long, and weighing 87 lbs. Also, the Scomber maximus of the West Indies.

KING-FISHER. The Alcedo ispida; a small bird of brilliant plumage frequenting rivers and brooks, and feeding upon fish, which it catches with great dexterity. (See HALCYON.)

KING'S BARGAIN: GOOD OR BAD; said of a seaman according to his activity and merit, or sloth and demerit.

KING'S BENCHER. The busiest of the galley orators: also galley-skulkers.

KING'S HARD BARGAIN. A useless fellow, who is not worth his hire.

KING'S LETTER MEN. An extinct class of officers, of similar rank with midshipmen. The royal letter was a kind of promise that if they conducted themselves well, they should be promoted to the rank of lieutenant.

KING'S OWN. All the articles supplied from the royal magazines, and marked with the broad arrow. Salt beef or junk.

KING'S PARADE. A name given to the quarter-deck of a man-of-war, which is customarily saluted by touching the hat when stepping on it.

KINK. An accidental curling, twist, or doubling turn in a cable or rope, occasioned by its being very stiff, or close laid, or by being drawn too hastily out of the coil or tier in which it was coiled. (See COILING.)—To kink. To twist.

KINKLINGS. A coast name for periwinkles.

KINN. From the Gaelic word for head; meaning, in local names, a hill or promontory.

KINTLE. A dozen of anything. Remotely corrupted from quintal.

KINTLIDGE. A term for iron-ballast. (See KENTLEDGE.)

KIOCK, OR BLUE-BACK. An alosa fish, used by the American and other fishermen as a bait for mackerel.

KIOSK. A pavilion on the poop of some Turkish vessels.

KIPLIN. The more perishable parts of the cod-fish, cured separately from the body.

KIPPAGE. An old term for equipage, or ship's company.

KIPPER-TIME. The time during which the statutes prohibit the taking of salmon.

KIPPER. Salmon in the act of spawning; also, the male fish, and especially beaked fish. Kipper is also applied to salmon which has undergone the process of kippering (which see).

KIPPERING. A method of curing fish in which salt is little used, but mainly sugar, pepper, and drying in the sun, and occasionally some smoke. Salmon thus treated is considered a dainty, though the cure is far less lasting than with salt.

KISMISSES. The raisins issued in India, resembling the sultanas of the Levant. The word is derived from the Turkish. They seldom have seeds.

KIST. A word still in use in the north for chest.

KIT. A small wooden pail or bucket, wherewith boats are baled out; generally with an ear. (See KID.) Also, a contemptuous term for total; as, the whole kit of them.

KITT, OR KIT. An officer's outfit. Also, a term among soldiers and marines to express the complement of regimental necessaries, which they are obliged to keep in repair. Also, a seaman's wardrobe.

KITTIWAKE. A species of gull of the northern seas; so called from its peculiar cry: the Larus tridactylus.

KITTY-WITCH. A small kind of crab on the east coast.

KLEG. The fish Gadus barbatus.

KLEPTES. The pirates of the Archipelago; literally the Greek for robbers.

KLICK-HOOKS. Large hooks for catching salmon in the daytime.

KLINKER. A flat-bottomed lighter or praam of Sweden and Denmark.

KLINKETS. Small grating-gates, made through palisades for sallies.

KLIPPEN. The German for cliffs; in use in the Baltic.—Blinde Klippen, reefs of rocks under water.

KLOSH. Seamen of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden.

KNAGGY. Crotchety; sour-tempered.

KNAGS. Points of rocks. Also, hard knots in wood.

KNAP [from the Anglo-Saxon cnæp, a protuberance]. The top of a hill. Also, a blow or correction, as “you'll knap it,” for some misdeed.

KNAPSACK. A light water-proof case fitted to the back, in which the foot-soldier carries his necessaries on a march.

KNARRS. Knots in spars. (See GNARRE.)

KNECK. The twisting of rope or cable as it is veering out.

KNEE OF THE HEAD. A large flat piece of timber, fixed edgeways, and fayed upon the fore-part of a ship's stem, supporting the ornamental figure. (See HEAD.) Besides which, this piece is otherwise useful as serving to secure the boom or bumkin, by which the fore-tack is extended to windward, and by its great breadth preventing the ship from falling to leeward, when close-hauled, so much as she would otherwise be liable to do. It also affords security to the bowsprit by increasing the angle of the bobstay, so as to make it act more perpendicularly on the bowsprit. The knee of the head is a phrase peculiar to shipwrights; by seamen it is called the cut-water (which see).

KNEE-TIMBER. That sort of crooked timber which forms at its back or elbow an angle of from 24° to 45°; but the more acute this angle is, the more valuable is the timber on that account. Used for knees, rising floors, and crutches. Same as raking-knees.

KNEE. Naturally grown timber, or bars of iron, bent to a right angle, or to fit the surfaces, and to secure bodies firmly together, as hanging knees secure the deck-beams to the sides. They are divided into hanging-knees, diagonal hanging-knees, lodging- knees or deck-beam knees, transom-knees, helm-post transom-knees, wing transom- knees (which see).

KNEES. Dagger-knees are those which are fixed rather obliquely to avoid an adjacent gun-port, or where, from the vicinity of the next beam, there is not space for the arms of two lodging-knees.— Lodging-knees are fixed horizontally in the ship's frame, having one arm bolted to the beam, and the other across two or three of the timbers.—Standard- knees are those which, being upon a deck, have one arm bolted down to it, and the other pointing upwards secured to the ship's side; such also, are the bits and channels.

KNETTAR. A string used to tie the mouth of a sack.

KNIFE. An old name for a dagger: thus Lady Macbeth—“That my keen knife see not the wound it makes.”

KNIGHT-HEADS. Two large oak timbers, one on each side of the stem, rising up sufficiently above it to support the bowsprit, which is fixed between them. The term is synonymous with bollard timbers.— Knight-heads also formerly denoted in many merchant ships, two strong frames of timber fixed on the main-deck, a little behind the fore-mast, which supported the ends of the windlass. They were frequently called the bitts, and then their upper parts only were denominated the knight-heads, from having been embellished with a carved head. (See WINDLASS.) Also, a name formerly given to the lower jear-blocks, which were then no other than bitts, containing several sheaves, and nearly resembling our present topsail-sheet bitts.

KNIGHTHOOD. An institution by princes, either for the defence of religion, or as marks of honour on officers who have distinguished themselves by their valour and address. This dignity being personal, dies with the individual so honoured. The initials of our own orders are:—K.G., Knight of the Garter; K.T., Knight of the Thistle; K.S.P., Knight of St. Patrick; G.C.B., Grand Cross of the Bath; K.C.B., Knight Commander of the Bath; G.C.H., Knight Grand Cross of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order; K.H., Knight of the Hanoverian Guelphic Order; G.C.M.G., Grand Cross of St. Michael and George; E.S.I., Most Exalted Star of India. The principal foreign orders worn by our navy are those of Hanover, St. Ferdinand and Merit, the Tower and Sword, Legion of Honour, Maria Theresa, St. Bento d'Avis, Cross of Charles III., San Fernando, St. Louis, St. Vladimir, St. Anne of Russia, Red Eagle of Prussia, Redeemer of Greece, Medjidie of Turkey, Leopold of Austria, Iron Crown of Austria, William of the Netherlands.

KNIGHTS. Two short thick pieces of wood, formerly carved like a man's head, having four sheaves in each, one of them abaft the fore-mast, called fore-knight, and the other abaft the main-mast, called main-knight.

KNITTLE. See NETTLES.

KNOB, OR KNOBBE. An officer; perhaps from the Scotch term knabbie, the lower class of gentry.

KNOCK OFF WORK AND CARRY DEALS. A term used to deride the idea of any work, however light, being relaxation; just as giving up taking in heavy beams of timber and being set to carry deals, is not really knocking off work.

KNOCK OFF. An order to leave off work.

KNOCKABOUT. A type of schooner without a bowsprit.

KNOCKER. A peculiar and fetid species of West Indian cockroach, so called on account of the knocking noise they make in the night.

KNOLL. The top of a rounded hill; the head of a bank, or the most elevated part of a submarine shoal. [Perhaps derived from nowl, a provincialism for head.]

KNOPP. See KNAP.

KNOT. A large knob formed on the extremity of a rope, generally by untwisting its ends, and interweaving them regularly among each other; of these there are several sorts, differing in form, size, and name, as diamond knot, kop knot, overhand knot, reef knot, shroud knot, stopper knot, single wall knot, double wall knot. The bowline knot is so firmly made, and fastened to the cringles of the sails, that they must break, or the sails split, before it will slip. (See RUNNING BOWLINE.) The sheepshank knot serves to shorten a rope without cutting it, and may be presently loosened. The wall-knot is so made with the lays of a rope that it cannot slip, and serves for sheets, tacks, and stoppers. Knots are generally used to act as a button, in preventing the end of a rope from slipping through the hole of a dead-eye, or through the turns of a laniard, by which they are sometimes made fast to other ropes.— Knot also implies a division on the log line, bearing a similar proportion to a mile, which half a minute does to an hour; that is, it is 1/120 of a mile; hence we say, the ship was going 8 knots, signifying 8 miles per hour. Indeed, in nautical parlance, the words knot and mile are synonyms, alluding to the geographical mile of 60' to a degree of latitude.

KNOWL. A term commonly given to the summits of elevated lands in the west of England, therefore probably the same as knoll.

KNOWLEDGE. In admiralty law, opposed to ignorance, and the want of which is liable to heavy penalty.

KNUCKLE-RAILS. Those mouldings which are placed at the knuckles of the stern- timbers.

KNUCKLE-TIMBERS. The top-timbers in the fore-body, the heads of which stand perpendicular, and form an angle with the flare or hollow of the top-side.

KNUCKLE-UNDER. Obey your superior's order; give way to circumstances.

KNUCKLE. A sudden angle made on some timbers by a quick reverse of shape, such as the knuckles of the counter-timbers.

KNURRT. Stunted; not freely grown.

KOFF. A large Dutch coasting trader, fitted with two masts, and sails set with sprits.

KOMETA. A captain formerly elected in the Spanish navy by twelve experienced navigators.

KOOLIE, OR COOLIE. An Indian day-labourer and porter.

KOOND. A large cistern at a watering-place in India.

KOPEK. A Russian copper coin, 100 of which make a rouble; in value nearly a halfpenny, and named from kopea, a spear, because formerly stamped with St. George spearing the dragon.

KOROCORA. A broad-beamed Molucca vessel, with high stem and stern, and an out-rigger. It is common among the Malay islands.

KOTA. An excellent turpentine procured in India.

KOUPANG. A gold coin of Japan and the Moluccas, of various value, from 25 to 44 shillings.

KOWDIE. The New Zealand pine spars.

KRABLA. A Russian vessel, usually from Archangel, fitted for killing the whale, walrus, and other Arctic quarry.

KRAKEN. The fictitious sea-monster of Norway.

KRANG. The body of a whale when divested of its blubber, and therefore abandoned by the whalers.

KRAYER. A small vessel, but perhaps larger than the cogge, being thus mentioned in the Morte Arthure—“Be thanne cogge appone cogge, krayers and other.”

KREE, TO. A north-country word: to beat, or bruise.

KREEL. A framework of timber for the catching of fish, especially salmon. Also a crab- pot, made of osiers, on the principal of a wire mouse-trap. Also, a sportsman's fishing basket.

KRENNEL. The smaller cringle for bowline bridles, &c.

KRINGLE, TO. To dry and shrivel up. Also a form of cringle (which see).

KRIS. The formidable dagger used by the Malays.

KROO-MEN, OR CREW-MEN. Fishmen. A tribe of African negroes inhabiting Cape Palmas, Krou-settra, and Settra-krou, subjects of Great Britain, and cannot be made slaves; they are specially employed in wooding and watering where hazardous to European constitutions.

KUB-HOUSE, OR CUBBOOS. See CABOOSE.

KYAR. Cordage made in India from the fibres which envelope the cocoa nut, and having the advantage of elasticity and buoyancy, makes capital cables for country ships. (See COIR.)

KYDLE. A dam in a river for taking fish—“Fishes love soote smell; also it is trewe Thei love not old kydles as thei doe the newe.”

KYLE. A bay, or arm of the sea, on our northern shores, as the Kyles of Bute, &c.

KYNTALL. An old form of quintal (which see).