Nautical Dictionary
L
L
Lima, in the International Code of Signals (ICS) it means:
In harbour: "The ship is quarantined."
At sea: "You should stop your vessel instantly."
Embedded Files
L. The three L's were formerly vaunted by seamen who despised the use of nautical astronomy; viz. lead, latitude, and look-out, all of them admirable in their way. Dr. or Captain Halley added the fourth L—the greatly desired longitude.
L.G. These uncials on a powder-barrel mean large-grain powder.
L.N.G. Liquefied natural gas carrier, perhaps the most sophisticated of all commercial ships. The cargo tanks are made of a special aluminum alloy and are heavily insulated to carry natural gas in its liquid state at a temperature of -2850F. The LNG ship costs about twice as much as an oil tanker of the same size.
L.O.F. Lloyds open form.
L.O.I. Letter of indemnity.
L.P.G. Liquefied Petroleum Gas, or a carrier of LPG.
L.S.A. Liner Shipping Agreements.
L.T. - L/T. Long Ton = 1016.05 kilogram.
L/C. Letter of credit.
LAAS. An obsolete term for an illegal net or snare.
LABARUM. A standard in early days.
LABBER, TO. To struggle in water, as a fish when caught. To splash.
LABOUR. A ship rolling or pitching heavily in a gale of wind is said to labour.
LABOUR. In the relative mechanical efforts of the human body labouring in various posture, 682-1/3 have been given for the rowing effort, 476 for the effort at a winch, and 209-1/3 for the effort at a pump.
LABOURING. The act of a ship's working, pitching, or rolling heavily, in a turbulent sea, by which the masts, and even the hull, are greatly endangered.
LABOURSOME. Said of a ship which is subject to roll and pitch violently in a heavy sea, either from some defect in her construction, or improper stowage of her hold.
LACE, TO. To apply a bonnet by lacing it to a sail. Also, to beat or punish with a rattan or rope's-end. Also, the trimmings of uniforms.
LACHES. In law, loose practice, or where parties let matters sleep for above seven years, when by applying to the admiralty court they might have compelled the production of an account.
LACING. Rope or cord used to lace a sail to a gaff, or a bonnet to a sail. Also, one of the principal pieces that compose the knee of the head, running up as high as the top of the hair-bracket. Also, a piece of compass or knee timber, fayed to the back of the figure- head and the knee of the head, and bolted to each.
LACUSTRINE. Belonging or referring to a lake.
LADDER-WAYS. The hatchways, scuttles or other openings in the decks, wherein the ladders are placed.
LADDER. The accommodation ladder is a sort of light staircase occasionally fixed on the gangway. It is furnished with rails and man-ropes; the lower end of it is kept at a proper distance from the ship's side by iron bars or braces to render it more convenient. ( See GANGWAY.)—Forecastle-ladder and hold-ladder, for getting into or out of those parts of a ship.—Jacob's ladder, abaft top-gallant masts, where no ratlines are provided. —Quarter or stern ladders. Two ladders of rope, suspended from the right and left side of a ship's stern, whereby to get into the boats which are moored astern.
LADE-GORN, OR LADE-PAIL. A bucket with a long handle to lade water with.
LADE. Anglo-Saxon lædan, to pour out. The mouth of a channel or drain. To lade a boat, is to throw water out.
LADEN IN BULK. A cargo neither in casks, bales, nor cases, but lying loose in the hold, only defended from wet by mats and dunnage. Such are usually cargoes of salt, corn, &c.
LADEN. The state of a ship when charged with materials equal to her capacity. If the goods be heavy, her burden is determined by weight; but if light, she carries as much as she can conveniently stow. A ton in measure is estimated at 2000 lbs. in weight; a vessel of 200 tons ought therefore to carry a weight equal to 400,000 lbs.; but if she cannot float high enough with as great a quantity of it as her hold will contain, then a diminution of it becomes necessary. Vessels carry heavy goods by the ton of 20 cwt., but lighter goods by a ton of cubic feet, which varies according to the custom of the port; in London it is 40, in India from 50 to 52, depending on the goods. Vessels can carry (not safely) twice their tonnage.
LADIA. An unwieldy boat in Russia, for transporting the produce of the interior.
LADIE'S LADDER. Shrouds rattled too closely.
LADING. A vessel's cargo.
LADLE, FOR A GUN. An instrument for charging with loose powder; formed of a cylindrical sheet of copper-tube fitted to the end of a long staff.—Paying-ladle. An iron ladle with a long channelled spout opposite to the handle; it is used to pour melted pitch into the seams.
LADRON. A term for thief, adopted from the Spanish.
LADRONE SHIP. Literally a pirate, but it is the usual epithet applied by the Chinese to a man-of-war.
LADY OF THE GUN-ROOM. A gunner's mate, who takes charge of the after-scuttle, where gunners' stores are kept.
LAG-WOOD. The larger sticks from the head of an oak-tree when felled.
LAGAN, OR LAGAM. Anglo-Saxon liggan. A term in derelict law for goods which are sunk, with a buoy attached, that they may be recovered. Also, things found at the bottom of the sea. Ponderous articles which sink with the ship in wreck.
LAGGERS. On canals, men who lie on their backs on the top of the lading, and pushing against the bridges and tunnels pass the boats through. Also, a transported convict; a lazy fellow.—To lag. To loiter.
LAGGIN. The end of the stave outside a cask or tub.
LAGOON ISLANDS. Those produced by coral animals; they are of various shapes, belted with coral, frequently with channels by which ships may enter, and lie safely inside. They are often studded with the cocoa-nut palm. (See ATOLLS.)
LAGOON. An inland broad expanse of salt water, usually shallow, and connected with the sea by one or more channels, or washes over the reef.
LAGUNES. The shallows which extend round Venice; their depth between the city and the mainland is 3 to 6 feet in general; they are occasioned by the quantities of sand carried down by the rivers which descend from the Alps, and fall into the Adriatic along its north-western shores.
LAID ABACK. See ABACK.
LAID TO. A term used sometimes for hove to, but when a vessel lays to the sails are kept full. As in a gale of wind, under staysails, or close reefs, &c.
LAID UP. A vessel dismantled and moored in a harbour, either for want of employment, or as unfit for further service.
LAID-UP TONNAGE. Ships not in active service; a ship which is out of commission for fitting out, awaiting better markets, needing work for classification, etc.
LAID. A fisherman's name for the pollack. Also, a term in rope-making, the twist being the lay; single-laid, is one strand; hawser-laid, three strands twisted into a rope; cablet- laid, three ropes laid together; this is also termed water-laid.
LAKE-LAWYER. A voracious fish in the lakes of America, called also the mud-fish.
LAKE. A large inland expanse of water, with or without communication with the sea. A lake, strictly considered, has no visible affluent or effluent; but many of the loughs of Ireland, and lochs of Scotland, partake of the nature of havens or gulfs. Moreover, some lakes have affluents without outlets, and others have an outlet without any visible affluent; therein differing from lagoons and ponds. The water of lakes entirely encompassed by land is sometimes salt; that communicating with the sea by means of rivers is fresh.
LAKER. Type of ship which trades only in the Great Lakes of North America. They usually carry grain and ore cargoes.
LAMANTIN. A name used by the early voyagers for the manatee.
LAMB'S-WOOL SKY. A collection of white orbicular masses of cloud. LAMBUSTING. A starting with a rope's-end.
LAMP-SHELLS. A name applied to the Terebratulæ of zoologists. LANCE-KNIGHT. A foot-soldier of old.
LAMPER-EEL. A common corruption of lamprey.
LAMPREY. An eel-like cyclostomous fish, belonging to the genus Petromyzon. There are several species, some marine, others fluviatile.
LAMPRON. The old name for the lamprey.
LANCEPESADO. From Ital. lancia spezzata, or broken lance; originally a soldier who, having broken his lance on the enemy, and lost his horse in fight, was entertained as a volunteer till he could remount himself; hence lance-corporal, one doing corporal's duty, on the pay of a private.
LANCHANG. A Malay proa, carrying twenty-five or thirty men.
LAND HO! The cry when land is first seen.
LAND-BLINK. On Arctic voyages, a peculiar atmospheric brightness on approaching land covered with snow; usually more yellow than ice-blink.
LAND-BREEZE. A current of air which, in the temperate zones, and still more within the tropics, regularly sets from the land towards the sea during the night, and this even on opposite points of the coast. It results from land losing its heat quicker than water; hence the air above it becomes heavier, and rushes towards the sea to establish equilibrium.
LAND-FALL. Making the land. “A good land-fall” signifies making the land at or near the place to which the course was intended, while “a bad land-fall” implies the contrary.
LAND-FEATHER. A sea-cove.
LAND-ICE. Flat ice connected with the shore, within which there is no channel.
LAND-LOUPER. [Dutch.] Meaning he who flies from this country for crime or debt, but not to be confounded with land-lubber (which see).
LAND-LUBBER. A useless longshorer; a vagrant stroller. Applied by sailors to the mass of landsmen, especially those without employment.
LAND-SHARKS. Crimps, pettifogging attorneys, slopmongers, and the canaille infesting the slums of sea-port towns.
LAND-SLIP. The fall of a quantity of land from a cliff or declivity; the land sliding away so as often to carry trees with it still standing upright.
LAND-TURN. A wind that blows in the night, at certain times, in most hot countries.
LAND-WAITERS. See LANDING-WAITERS.
LAND. In a general sense denotes terra firma, as distinguished from sea; but, also, land-laid, or to lay the land, is just to lose sight of it.—Land-locked is when land lies all round the ship.—Land is shut in, signifies that another point of land hides that from which the ship came.—The ship lies land to, implies so far from shore that it can only just be discerned.—To set the land, is to see by compass how it bears.—To make the land. To sight it after an absence.—To land on deck. A nautical anomaly, meaning to lower casks or weighty goods on deck from the tackles.
LANDBRIDGE. A system of through rates and service offered by a carrier for cargo shipments from a foreign port to a U.S. port, across U.S. land to another U.S. port and finally by sea to a foreign port destination.
LANDES. The heathy track between Bordeaux and the Basses Pyrénées; but also denoting uncultivated or unreclaimable spots.
LANDING-STRAKE. In boats, the upper strake of plank but one.
LANDING-SURVEYOR. The custom-house officer who appoints and superintends the landing-waiters.
LANDING-WAITERS. Persons appointed from the custom-house to inspect goods discharged from foreign parts.
LANDMARK. Any steeple, tree, windmill, or other object, serving to guide the seaman into port, or through a channel.
LANDSMEN. The rating formerly of those on board a ship who had never been at sea, and who were usually stationed among the waisters or after-guard. Some of those used to small craft are more ready about the decks than in going aloft. The rating is now Second-class Ordinary.
LANE OR VEIN OF ICE. A narrow channel between two fields. Any open cracks or separations of floe offering navigation.
LANE. “Make a lane there!” An order for men to open a passage and allow a person to pass through.
LANGREL, OR LANGRAGE. A villanous kind of shot, consisting of various fragments of iron bound together, so as to fit the bore of the cannon from which it is to be discharged. It is seldom used but by privateers.
LANGUET. A small slip of metal on the hilt of a sword, which overhangs the scabbard; the ear of a sword.
LANIARD, OR LANNIERS. A short piece of rope or line made fast to anything to secure it, or as a handle. Such are the laniards of the gun-locks, of the gun-ports, of the buoy, of the cat-hook, &c. The principal laniards are those which secure the shrouds and stays, termed laniards of lower, top-mast, or other rigging. (See DEAD-EYE and HEART.)
LANTCHA. A large Malay craft of the Indian Archipelago.
LANTERN-BRACES. Iron bars to secure the lanterns.
LANTERN-FISH. A west-country name for the smooth sole.
LANTERN. Ships of war had formerly three poop-lanterns, and one in the main-top, to designate the admiral's ship; also deck-lanterns, fighting-lanterns, magazine-lanterns, &c. The signal-lanterns are peculiar. The great ship lantern, hanging to the poop, appears on the Trajan Column.
LANTIONE. A Chinese rowing-boat.
LANYARDS. See LANIARD.
LAP OVER OR UPON. The mast carlings are said to lap upon the beams by reason of their great depth, and head-ledges at the ends lap over the coamings.
LAP-JOINTED. The plates of an iron vessel overlapping each other, as in clincher work.
LAP'S COURSE. One of the oldest and most savoury of the regular forecastle dishes. (See LOBSCOUSE.)
LAPLAND WITCHES. People in Lapland who profess to sell fair winds, thus retaining a remnant of ancient classical superstition.
LAPPELLE, OR LAPEL. The facing of uniform coats. Until the introduction of epaulettes in 1812, the white lapelle was used as synonymous with lieutenant's commission. Hence the brackish poet, in the craven midshipman's lament —“If I had in my country staid, I then had learnt some useful trade, And scorned the white lapelle.”
LAPPING. The undulations occasioned in the waves by the paddle-wheels of a steam- boat. In the polar seas, lapping applies to the young or thin ice, one plate overlapping another, so dangerous to boats and their crews. Also, the overlaying of plank edges in working.
LAPS. The remaining part of the ends of carlings, &c., which are to bear a great weight or pressure; such, for instance, as the capstan-step.
LARBOARD-WATCH. The old term for port-watch. The division of a ship's company called for duty, while the other, the starboard, is relieved from it. (See WATCH.)
LARBOARD. Now called port. The left side of a ship.
LARBOARD. The left side of a ship, when the spectator's face is towards the bow. The Italians derive starboard from questa borda, “this side,” and larboard from, quella borda, “that side;” abbreviated into sta borda and la borda. Their resemblance caused so many mistakes that, by order of the admiralty, larboard is now thrown overboard, and port substituted. “Port the helm” is even mentioned in Arthur Pit's voyage in 1580.
LARBOLINS, OR LARBOLIANS. A cant term implying the larboard-watch, the opposite of starboard.
LARGE. Sailing large: going with the wind free when studding-sails will draw.
LARK. A small boat. Also, frolicsome merriment. (See SKY-LARKING.)
LARRUP, TO. An old word meaning to beat with a rope's-end, strap, or colt.
LASCAR. A native sailor in the East Indies; also, in a military sense, natives of India employed in pitching tents, or dragging artillery, as gun-lascars.
LASH AND CARRY. The order given by the boatswain and his mates on piping up the hammocks, to accelerate the duty.
LASH AWAY. A phrase to hasten the lashing of hammocks.
LASH SHIPS. LASH stand for Lighter Aboard Ship. It is a specialized container ship carrying very large floating containers, or "lighters." The ship carries its own massive crane, which loads and discharges the containers over the stern. The lighters each have a capacity of 400 tons and are stowed in the holds and on deck. While, the ship is at sea with one set of lighters, further sets can be made ready. Loading and discharge are rapid at about 15 minutes per lighter, no port or dock facilities are needed, and the lighters can be grouped for pushing by towboats along inland waterways.
LASH. Lighter aboard ship: A barge carrier designed to act as a shuttle between ports, taking on and discharging barges. The small line forming the boatswain's cat.
LASHER BULL-HEAD. A name for the fish Cottus scorpius.
LASHER. See FATHER-LASHER.
LASHING-EYES. Fittings for lower stays, block-strops, &c., by loops made in the ends of ropes, for a lashing to be rove through to secure them.
LASHING. A rope used to fasten any movable body in a ship, or about her masts, sails, and rigging.
LASK, TO. To go large.—Lasking along. Sailing away with a quartering wind.
LASKETS. Small lines like hoops, sewed to the bonnets and drablers of a sail, to secure the bonnets to the courses, or the drablers to the bonnets.
LASKING ALONG. Sailing a course with the wind quarterly, the yards braced up, and the sheets flowing.
LAST QUARTER. See QUARTER, LAST.
LAST. A dry measure containing 80 bushels of corn. A cargo. A weight of 4000 lbs. A last of cod or white herrings is 12 barrels. Last, or ship-last, a Swedish weight of 2 tons.
LASTAGE. This is a commercial term for the general lading of a ship. It is also applied to that custom which is paid for wares sold by the last, as herrings, pitch, &c.
LASTER. The coming in of the tide.
LATCH. An old term for a cross-bow; temp. Henry VII.— Lee-latch. Dropping to leeward of the course.
LATCHES. The same as laskets (which see; also keys).
LATCHINGS KEYS. Loops on the head-rope of a bonnet, by which it is laced to the foot of the sail.
LATEEN SAIL AND YARD. A long triangular sail, bent by its foremost leech to a lateen yard, which hoists obliquely to the mast; it is mostly used by xebecs, feluccas, &c., in the Mediterranean. A gaff-topsail, if triangular and set on a yard, is lateen. The term lateen-rigged, where sails have short tacks, is wrong. These latter are nothing more or less than clumsy lugs or quadrilaterals. The lateen tack is the yard-arm bowsed amidships.
LATHE. A term for a sort of a cross-bow once used in the fleet.
LATHER, TO. To beat or drub soundly.
LATITUDE BY ACCOUNT. That estimated by the log-board, and the last determined by observation.
LATITUDE BY OBSERVATION. The latitude determined by observations of the sun, star, or moon, by meridional, as also by double altitudes.
LATITUDE OF A CELESTIAL OBJECT. An arc of a circle of longitude between the centre of that object and the ecliptic, and is north or south according to its position.
LATITUDE. In wide terms, the extent of the earth from one pole to the other; but strictly it is the distance of any place from the equator in degrees and their parts; or an arc of the meridian intercepted between the zenith of the place and the equinoctial. Geographical latitude is either northern or southern, according as the place spoken of is on this or that side of the equator. Geocentric latitude is the angular distance of a place from the equator, as corrected for the oblateness of the earth's form; in other words, it is the geographical latitude diminished by the angle of the vertical.
LAUNCE-GAY. An offensive weapon used of old, but prohibited by statute so far back as 7 Richard II. c. 13.
LAUNCE. A term when the pump sucks—from the Danish l[oe]ns, exhausted. Also, a west-country term for the sand-eel, a capital bait for mackerel.
LAUNCH-HO! The order to let go the top-rope after the top-mast has been swayed up and fidded. It is literally “high enough.” So in pumping, when the spear sucks, this term is “Cease.”
LAUNCH, TO. To send a ship, craft, or boat off the slip on shore into the water, “her native element,” as newspapers say. Also, to move things; as, launch forward, or launch aft. Launch is also the movement by which the ship or boat descends into the water.
LAUNCH. The largest or long boat of a ship of war. Others of greater size for gunboats are used by the French, Spaniards, Italians, &c., in the Mediterranean. A launch being proportionably longer, lower, and more flat-bottomed than the merchantman's long-boat, is in consequence less fit for sailing, but better calculated for rowing and approaching a flat shore. Its principal superiority consists in being much fitter to under-run the cable, lay out anchors, &c., which is a very necessary employment in the harbours of the Levant, where the cables of different ships are fastened across each other, and frequently render such operations necessary.
LAUNCHING-WAYS. In ship-building, the bed of timber placed on the incline under the bottom of a ship; otherwise called bilge-ways. On this the cradles, which are movable vertical shores, to keep the ship upright, slide. Sometimes also termed bilge- ways.
LAVEER, TO. An old sea-term for beating a ship to windward; to tack.
LAVER. An edible sea-weed—the Ulva lactuca, anciently lhavan. From this a food is made, called laver-bread, on the shores of S. Wales.
LAVY. A sea-bird nearly as large as a duck, held by the people of the Hebrides as a prognosticator of weather.
LAW OF NATIONS. It was originally merely the necessary law of nature applied to nations, as in the instance of receiving distressed ships with humanity. By various conventional compacts, the Law of Nations became positive; thus flags of truce are respected, and prisoners are not put to death. One independent state is declared incompetent to prescribe to another, so long as that state is innoxious to its neighbours. The Law of Nations consists of those principles and regulations, founded in reason and general convenience, by which the mutual intercourse between independent states is everywhere conducted.
LAX-FISHER. A taker of salmon in their passage from the sea.
LAX. A term for salmon when ascending a river, on the north coast of Scotland.
LAY A GUN, TO. So to direct it as that its shot may be expected to strike a given object; for which purpose its axis must be pointed above the latter, at an angle of elevation increasing according to its distance.
LAY AFT or LAY FORWARD. Signifying the direction you wish the men to go.
LAY HER COURSE, TO. To be able to sail in the direction wished for, however barely the wind permits it.
LAY IN SEA-STOCK, TO. To make provision for the voyage.
LAY IN THE OARS. Unship them from the rowlocks, and place them fore and aft in the boat.
LAY IN. The opposite of lay out. The order for men to come in from the yards after reefing or furling. It also applies to manning, or laying in, to the capstan-bars.
LAY LORDS. The civil members of the admiralty board.
LAY OF A ROPE. The direction in which its strands are twisted; hawser is right-handed; cablet left-handed.
LAY OR LIE ON YOUR OARS! The order to desist rowing, without laying the oars in. —Lay out on your oars! is the order to give way, or pull with greater force.
LAY OUT. See LIE OUT!
LAY THE LAND, TO. Barely to lose sight of it.
LAY UP A SHIP, TO. To dismantle her.
LAY-DAYS. The time allowed for shipping or discharging a cargo; and if not done within the term, fair weather permitting, the vessel comes on demurrage. Thus Captain Cuttle —“A rough hardy seaman, unus'd to shore ways, Knew little of ladies, but much of lay-days.”
LAY-TO. To bring the weather-bow to the sea, with one sail set, and the helm lashed a- lee. (See LIE-TO.)
LAY-UP. Temporary cessation of trading of a ship by a shipowner during a period when there is a surplus of ships in relation to the level of available cargoes. This surplus, known as overtonnaging, has the effect of depressing freight rates to the extent that some shipowners no long find it economical to trade their ship, preferring to lay them up until there is a reversal in the trend.
LAY, BY THE. When a man is paid in proportion to the success of the voyage, instead of by the month. This is common in whalers.
LAY, TO. To come or go; as, lay aloft, lay forward, lay aft, lay out. This is not the neuter verb lie mispronounced, but the active verb lay. (See LIE OUT!)
LAY/CAN. Laydays/cancelling.
LAYING A ROPE. Arranging the yarns for the strands, and then the strands for making a rope, or cable.
LAYING DOWN, OR LAYING OFF. The act of delineating the various lines of a ship to the full size on the mould-loft floor, from the draught given.
LAYING OR LYING OUT ON A YARD. To go out towards the yard-arms. LAYING OR LYING ALONG. Pressed down sideways by a stiff gale.
LAYING-TOP. A conical piece of wood, having three or four scores or notches on its surface, used in rope-making to guide the lay.
LAYINGS. A sort of pavement of culch, on the mud of estuaries, for forming a bed for oysters.
LAYTIME. Time allowed by the shipowner to the voyage charterer or bill of lading holder in which to load and/or discharge the cargo. It is expressed as a number of days or hours or as a number of tons per day.
LAZARETTO. A building or vessel appointed for the performance of quarantine, in which all persons are confined coming from places infected with the plague or other infectious diseases. Also, a place parted off at the fore part of the 'tween decks, in some merchantmen, for stowing provisions and stores in.
LAZARUS. The game at cards, called also blind-hookey and snogo.
LAZY GUY. A small tackle or rope to prevent the spanker-boom from swaying about in fine weather.
LAZY PAINTER. A small temporary rope to hold a boat in fine weather.
LAZYJACKS. Lines from topping lifts to under boom which act as anet to catch the sails when lowered.
LEAD-LINE. A line attached to the upper end of the sounding-lead. ( See HAND-LINE and DEEP-SEA LINE.)
LEAD-NAILS. Small round-headed composition nails for nailing lead.
LEAD, SOUNDING. An instrument for discovering the depth of water; it is a tapered cylinder of lead, of 7, 14, or 28 lbs. weight, and attached, by means of a strop, to the lead-line, which is marked at certain distances to ascertain the fathoms. (See HAND- LINE.)— Deep-sea lead. A lead of a larger size, being from 28 to 56 lbs. in weight, and attached to a much longer line. (See DEEP-SEA LINE.)—To heave the lead. To throw it into the sea as far ahead as possible, if the ship is under way.
LEAD. The direction in which running ropes lead fair, and come down to the deck. Also, in Arctic seas, a channel through the ice; synonymous with lane. To lead into battle, or into harbour.
LEADER. A chief. Also, the conducting ship, boat, or man in an enterprise. Also, the guide in firing rockets.
LEADING-BLOCKS. The several blocks used for guiding the direction of any purchase, as hook, snatch, or tail blocks.
LEADING-MARKS. Those objects which, kept in line or in transit, guide the pilot while working into port, as trees, spires, buoys, &c.
LEADING-PART. The rope of a tackle which runs between the fall and the standing part. Generally confused with the fall. It is that part of the fall which is to be hauled on, or overhauled, to ease the purchase.
LEADING-STRINGS. The yoke-lines for steering a boat.
LEADING-WIND. Wind abeam or quartering; more particularly a free or fair wind, and is used in contradistinction to a scant wind. (See WIND.)
LEADSMAN. The man who heaves the hand-lead in the channels. In Calcutta the young gentlemen learning to be pilots are called leadsmen.
LEAF. The side of a lock-gate.
LEAGUE. A confederacy; an alliance. Also, a measure of length consisting of three nautical miles, much used in estimating sea-distances; = 3041 fathoms.
LEAGUER. An old term for a camp. Also, leaguers, the longest water-casks, stowed next the kelson, of 159 English imperial gallons each. Before the invention of water- tanks, leaguers composed the whole ground tier of casks in men-of-war.
LEAK [Anglo-Saxon leccinc]. A chink in the deck, sides, or bottom of a ship, through which the water gets into her hull. When a leak begins, a vessel is said to have sprung a leak.
LEAKAGE. Loss by the act of leaking out of a cask. Also, an allowance of 12 per cent., to merchants importing wine, by the customs.
LEAKIES. Certain irregularities of tide in the Firth of Forth.
LEAKY. The state of a ship admitting water, and a cask or other vessel letting out its contents.
LEAN-BOW. Having a sharp entrance; a thin narrow bow being opposed to bold bow. Fine forward, very fine is lean as a lizard.
LEAN. Used in the same sense as clean or sharp; the reverse of full or bluff in the form of a ship.
LEAP. The sudden fall of a river in one sheet. Also, a weel, made of twigs, to catch fish in.
LEAPER. See LIPPER.
LEAT. A canal leading from a pool to a mill-course.
LEATHAG. A Celtic name for the plaice or flounder.
LEATHER-JACKET. A tropical fish with a very thick skin.
LEATHER. See LATHER.
LEAVE-BREAKING. A liberty man not being back to his time.
LEAVE-TICKET. See LIBERTY-TICKET.
LEAVE. Permission to be absent from the ship for the day. (See ABSENCE, LIBERTY.) —French leave. Going on shore without permission.—Long leave. Permission to be absent for a number of days.
LEAX. See LEX.
LEDGE. A compact line of rocks running parallel to the coast, and which is not unfrequent opposite sandy beaches. The north coast of Africa, between the Nile and the Lesser Syrtis, is replete with them.
LEDGES. The 'thwart-ship pieces from the waste-trees to the roof-trees in the framing of the decks, let into the carlings, to bear gratings, &c. Any cross-pieces of fir or scantling.
LEDO. A barbarous Latin law-term (ledo—onis) for the rising water, or increase of the sea.
LEE-ANCHOR. The leeward one, if under weigh; or that to leeward to which a ship, when moored, is riding.
LEE-BEAM. On the lee-side of the ship, at right angles with the keel.
LEE-BOARDS. Wooden wings or strong frames of plank affixed to the sides of flat-bottomed vessels, such as Dutch schuyts, &c.; these traversing on a stout bolt, by being let down into the water, when the vessel is close-hauled, decrease her drifting to leeward.
LEE-FANG. A rope rove through the cringle of a sail, for hauling in, so as to lace on a bonnet.
LEE-FANGE. The iron bar upon which the sheets of fore-and-aft sails traverse, in small vessels. (See HORSE.)
LEE-GAUGE. Implies being farther from the point whence the wind blows, than another vessel in company.
LEE-GUNWALE UNDER. A colloquial phrase for being sorely over-pressed, by canvas or other cause.
LEE-HATCH, TAKE CARE OF THE! A word of caution to the helmsman, not to let the ship fall to leeward of her course.
LEE-HITCH. The helmsman getting to leeward of the course.
LEE-LURCHES. The sudden and violent rolls which a ship often takes to leeward when a large wave strikes her on the weather-side.
LEE-SHORE. A ship is said to be on a lee-shore, when she is near it, with the wind blowing right on to it.
LEE-SIDE OF THE QUARTER-DECK. Colloquially called the midshipman's parade.
LEE-SIDE. All that part of a ship or boat which lies between the mast and the side farthest from the wind, the other half being the weather-side.
LEE-TIDE. A tide running in the same direction as the wind, and forcing a ship to leeward of the line upon which she appears to sail.
LEE-WAY. What a vessel loses by drifting to leeward in her course. When she is sailing close-hauled in a smooth sea with all sail set, she should make little or no lee-way; but a proportionate allowance must be made under every reduction of sail or increase of sea, the amount depending on the seaman's skill, and his knowledge of the vessel's qualities.
LEE-WHEEL. The assistant to the helmsman.
LEE. From the Scandinavian word l[oe] or laa, the sea; it is the side opposite to that from which the wind is blowing; as, if a vessel has the wind on her port side, that side will be the weather, and the starboard will be the lee side.—Under the lee, expresses the situation of a vessel anchored or sailing near the weather-shore, where there is always smoother water than at a great distance from it.—To lay a ship by the lee, or to come up by the lee, is to let her run off until the wind is brought on the lee-quarter, so that all her sails lie flat against the masts and shrouds.
LEECH-LINES. Ropes fastened to the leeches of the main-sail, fore-sail, and cross-jack, communicating with blocks under the tops, and serving to truss those sails up to the yards. (See BRAILS.)—Harbour leech-lines. Ropes made fast at the middle of the topsail-yards, then passing round the leeches of the top-sails, and through blocks upon the topsail-tye, serving to truss the sails very close up to the yard, previous to their being furled in a body.
LEECH-ROPE. A name given to that vertical part of the bolt-rope to which the border or edge of a sail is sewed. In all sails whose opposite leeches are of the same length, it is terminated above by the earing, and below by the clue. (See BOLT-ROPE, CLUE, and EARINGS.)
LEECHES. The borders or edges of a sail, which are either sloping or perpendicular; those of the square sails are denominated from the ship's side, as the starboard-leech of the main-sail, &c.; but the sails which are fixed obliquely on the masts have their leeches named from their situation with regard to the ship's length, as the hoist or luff, or fore-leech of the mizen, the after-leech of the jib, &c.
LEEWARD. The lee-side. (See LEE.) The opposite of lee is weather, and of leeward, windward.
LEEWARDLY. Said of a ship or vessel which presents so little resistance to the water, when on a wind, as to bag away to leeward. It is the contrary to weatherly.
LEG ALONG. Ropes laid on end, ready for manning.
LEG-BAIL. Dishonest desertion from duty. The phrase is not confined to its nautical bearing.
LEG. The run made on a single tack. Long and short legs (see TACK AND HALF- TACK).
LEGGERS. See LEAGUER.
LEGS AND WINGS. See OVER-MASTED.
LEGS OF THE MARTINETS. Small lines through the bolt-ropes of the courses, above a foot in length, and spliced at either end into themselves, making a small eye into which the martinets are hitched.
LEGS. (See ANGLE.) A fast-sailing vessel is said to have legs.—Legs are used in cutters, yachts, &c., to shore them up in dry harbours when the tide leaves them. The leech-line cringles have also been called legs. Also, the parts of a point which hang on each side of the sail.
LEISTER. A three-pronged dart for striking fish, used in the north of England.
LEIT. A northern term for a snood or link of horse-hair for a fishing-line.
LEITH. A channel on the coast of Sweden, like that round the point of Landfoort to Stockholm.
LEMBUS. A light undecked vessel, used by ancient pirates.
LEMING-STAR. An old name for a comet.
LEMON-ROB. The inspissated juice of limes or lemons, a powerful anti-scorbutic.
LEND A FIST OR A HAND. A request to another to help.
LEND US YOUR POUND HERE! A phrase demanding assistance in man-weight; alluding to the daily allowance of beef.
LENGTHENING-PIECE. The same as short top-timber (which see).
LENGTHENING. The operation of cutting a ship down across the middle, and adding a certain portion to her length. This is done by sawing her planks asunder in different parts of her length, on each side of the midship-frame, to prevent her from being weakened too much in one place. One end is then drawn apart to the required distance. An intermediate piece of timber is next added to the keel, and the vacancy filled up. The two parts of the keelson are afterwards united. Finally, the planks of the side are prolonged, so as to unite with each other, and those of the ceiling refitted.
LENS. The glass of a telescope, or of a microscope, with curved surfaces like a lentil, whence the name.
LENT. The spring fast, during which butchers were prohibited to kill flesh unless for victualling ships, except by special license.
LENTRIÆ. Ancient small vessels, used on rivers.
LENUNCULI. Ancient fishing-boats.
LEO. The fifth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 22d of July. It is one of the ancient constellations.
LEPPO. A sort of chunam, used on the China station, for paying vessels.
LERRICK. A name of the water-bird also called sand-lark or sand-piper.
LESS THAN CONTAINER LOAD. A consignment of cargo which is inefficient to fill a shipping container. It is grouped with other consignments for the same destination in a container at a container freight station.
LESSER CIRCLE. One whose plane does not pass through the centre of the sphere, and therefore divides it unequally. (See GREAT CIRCLE.)
LET DRAW! The order to let the wind take the after-leeches of the jibs, &c., over to the lee-side, while tacking.
LET DRIVE, TO. To slip or let fly. To discharge, as a shot from a gun.
LET FALL! The order to drop a sail loosed from its gaskets, in order to set it.
LET FLY, TO. To let go a rope at once, suddenly.
LET FLY. To let go a rope on the instant.
LET GO AND HAUL! OR AFORE HAUL! The order to haul the head-yards round by the braces when the ship casts on the other tack. “Let go,” alluding to the fore-bowline and lee head-braces.
LET GO UNDER FOOT. See UNDER FOOT.
LET IN, TO. To fix or fit a diminished part of one plank or piece of timber into a score formed in another to receive it, as the ends of the carlings into the beams.
LET OUT, OR SHAKE OUT, A REEF, TO. To increase the dimensions of a sail, by untying the points confining a reef in it.
LET RUN, OR LET GO BY THE RUN. Cast off at once.
LET-PASS. Permission given by superior authority to a vessel, to be shown to ships of war, to allow it to proceed on its voyage.
LETTER MEN. See KING'S LETTER MEN.
LETTER-BOARD. Another term for name-board (which see).
LETTER-BOOK. A book wherein is preserved a copy of all letters and orders written by the captain of a ship on public service.
LETTERS OF MART OR MARQUE. A commission formerly granted by the lords of the admiralty, or by the admiral of any distant station, to a merchant-ship or privateer, to cruize against and make prizes of the enemy's ships. The ship so commissioned is also called a letter of marque. The act of parliament requires that on granting letters of marque and reprisal, the captain and two sureties shall appear and give security. In 1778 it was decided that all the ships taken from France by vessels having letters of marque only against the Americans, became droits of admiralty. This commission was forfeitable for acts of cruelty or misconduct.
LETTERS OF REPRISAL. The same as letters of marque.
LETTERS. See CIRCULARS and OFFICIAL LETTERS.
LETTUCE-LAVER. The edible sea-weed Ulva lactuca.
LEVANT. A wind coming from the east, which freshens as the sun rises, and subsides as it declines—To levant, to desert.
LEVANTER. A strong and raw easterly wind in the Mediterranean. LEVANTS. Land-springs on the coasts of Sussex and Hampshire.
LEVEE. A French word for a mole or causeway, adopted of late for river embankments of magnitude, as those of the Po, the Thames, and the Mississippi.
LEVEL-ERROR. The microscopic deviation of the axis of a transit instrument from the horizontal position.
LEVEL-LINES. Lines determining the shape of a ship's body horizontally, or square from the middle line of the ship.
LEVELING. The art of finding how much higher or lower horizontally any given point on the earth's surface is, than another point on the same; practised in various ways.
LEVELLED OUT. Any line continued out from a given point, or intersection of an angle, in a horizontal direction.
LEVELS. Horizontal lines; or as a base square to a perpendicular bob.
LEVER. In the marine steam-engine, the lever and counter-balance weight are fixed upon the wiper-shaft, to form an equipoise to the valves. There is one on each side of the cylinder. (See SPANNER.)—Also, an inflexible bar of iron or wood to raise weights, which takes rank as the first and most simple of the mechanical powers.—To lever. An old word for unloading a ship.
LEVERAGE. The amount of a lever power.
LEVES. Very light open boats of the ancients.
LEVET. The blast of a trumpet or horn.
LEVIN. The old term for lightning.
LEVY. An enrolment or conscription.—To levy. To raise recruits.
LEWER. A provincialism for handspike; a corrupt form of lever.
LEWIS-HOLES. Two holes in the surface of a mortar, superseding ears.
LEWTH [from the Anglo-Saxon lywd]. A place of shelter from the wind.
LEX, OR LEAX. The Anglo-Saxon term for salmon.
LIBERA PISCARIA. A law-term denoting a fishery free to any one.
LIBERTY-DAY. A day announced for permitting a part of the crew to go ashore.
LIBERTY-LIQUOR. Spirits formerly allowed to be purchased when seamen had visitors; now forbidden.
LIBERTY-MEN. Those on leave of absence.
LIBERTY-TICKET. A document specifying the date and extent of the leave granted to a seaman or marine proceeding on his private affairs.
LIBERTY. Permission to go on shore or ship-visiting.
LIBRA. The seventh sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of September; the commencement of this constellation, where the equator intersects the ecliptic, is called the autumnal equinox, from night and day being equal.
LIBRATION OF THE MOON. See EVECTION.
LIBURNA, OR LIBURNICA. Light ancient galliots, both for sails and oars; of the latter from one rank to five; so called from the Liburni, pirates of the Adriatic.
LICENSE. An official permission from the Board of Trade, to such persons as it thinks fit to supply seamen or apprentices for merchant-ships in the United Kingdom. (See RUNNER, LICENSED.)
LICK. In common parlance is a blow. To do anything partially, is to give it a lick and a promise, as in painting or blacking.—To lick, to surpass a rival, or excel him in anything. —Lick of the tar-brush, a seaman.
LICORN. An old name for the howitzer of the last century, then but a kind of mortar fitted on a field-carriage to fire shells at low angles.
LIDO. A borrowed term signifying the shore or margin of the sea. LIE A HULL. Synonymous with hull to, or hulling.
LIE ALONG, TO. (See ALONG.) A ship is said to lie along when she leans over with a side wind.—To lie along the land, is to keep a course parallel with it.
LIE ATHWART, TO. When the tide slackens, and the wind is across tide, it makes a vessel ride athwart.
LIE BY, TO. Dodging under small sail under the land.
LIE IN! The order to come in from the yards when reefing, furling, or other duty is performed.
LIE OFF! An order given to a boat to remain off on her oars till permission is given for her to come alongside.
LIE OUT! The order to the men aloft to distribute themselves on the yards for loosing, reefing, or furling sails.
LIE OVER. A ship heeling to it with the wind abeam.
LIE THE COURSE, TO. When the vessel's head is in the direction wished.
LIE TO. A ship is said to lie to, when, owing to heavy weather, she is obliged, by so arranging her sails, to remain nearly in the same position.
LIE UNDER ARMS, TO. To remain in a state of preparation for immediate action.
LIE UNDER ARMS. To remain with your arms by you, ready for any emergency.
LIE-TO, TO. To cause a vessel to keep her head steady as regards a gale, so that a heavy sea may not tumble into her. She has perhaps a main-topsail or trysails, and comes up to within six points, and falls off to wind abeam, forging rather ahead, but should not altogether fall too much to leeward.
LIEN. A claim to property, and a consequent right of retention. But ships cannot be the subjects of a specific lien to the creditors who supply them with necessaries, because a lien presumes possession by the creditor, and therein the power of holding it till his demands are satisfied. To prevent manifest impediment to commerce, the law of England rejects almost wholly the doctrine of lien as regards ships.
LIESTER. See LISTER.
LIEUTENANT-AT-ARMS. Formerly the junior lieutenant, who, with the master-at- arms, was charged with the drilling of the small-arm men.
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL. The next below the colonel, generally having the active command in the regiment, whether in cavalry, infantry, or artillery, the full colonels being mostly on staff employ, or even in retirement.
LIEUTENANT-GENERAL. The officer taking the next place to a general, ranking with vice-admiral.
LIEUTENANT, IN THE ROYAL NAVY. The officer next in rank and power below the commander. There are several lieutenants in a large ship, and they take precedence according to the dates of their commissions. The senior lieutenant, during the absence of the commander, is charged with the command of the ship, as also with the execution of whatever orders he may have received from the commander relating to the queen's service; holding another's place, as the name implies in French.— Lieutenant in the army. The subaltern officer next in rank below the captain.
LIEUTENANT'S STORE-ROOM. More commonly called the ward-room store-room (which see).
LIFE-BELT. An india-rubber or cork girdle round a person's waist to buoy him up in the water.
LIFE-BOAT. One of such peculiar construction that it cannot sink or be swamped. It is equipped for attending wherever a wreck may happen, and saving the lives of the crew: really one of the greatest blessings conferred by civilization and humanity on mariners. Life-boats were invented by Admiral Samuel Graves, who died in 1787. The Royal National Life-boat Institution has saved by its boats, or by special exertions for which it has granted rewards, 14,980 lives, from the year of its establishment, 1824, to the end of 1865.
LIFE-BUOYS. Are of various descriptions. A very useful one, patented by Cook, is supplied to all Her Majesty's ships. It is composed of two copper cylinders, and has a balanced stem carrying a fuse, burning twenty minutes. It is kept suspended on the quarter, can be let go, and ignited instantaneously, and will support two men for a considerable time.
LIFE-GUARDS. A greatly-privileged body of cavalry, specially assigned to the guarding of the sovereign's person.
LIFE-KITE. A contrivance for saving the lives of shipwrecked persons by forming a communication between the wreck and a lee-shore.
LIFE-LINES. Stretched from gun to gun, and about the upper deck in bad weather, to prevent the men being washed away. The life-lines aloft are stretched from the lifts to the masts to enable seamen to stand securely when manning yards, as in a salute to admirals, &c.
LIFE-PRESERVER. An air-tight apparatus for saving people in cases of wreck.
LIFEBOAT DRILL. The master of every vessel is bound by international law to make the officers, crew and passengers adequately acquainted with the procedures of lowering and the use of lifeboats in case of emergency.
LIFT AN ANCHOR, TO. Either by the purchase; or a ship if she has not sufficient cable on a steep bank lifts, or shoulders, her anchor.
LIFT. A term applied to the sails when the wind catches them on the leeches and causes them to ruffle slightly. Also implies help in work in hand, as “give us a lift.”
LIFTED. Promoted somewhat unexpectedly.
LIFTER. See WIPER.
LIFTING-JACK. A portable machine for lifting heavy objects, acting by the power either of the lever, the tooth and pinion, or the screw.
LIFTING. The rising of fog or haze from the surface of the water.
LIFTS. Ropes which reach from each mast-head to their respective yard-arms to steady and suspend the ends. Their use is to keep the yard in equilibrium, or to raise one of its extremities higher than the other if necessary, but particularly to support the weight when a number of men are employed on it, furling or reefing the sail. The yards are said to be squared by the lifts when they hang at right angles with the masts.—Topping-lifts. (See TOPPING-LIFTS.)
LIG. A fish-hook, with lead cast round its upper part in order to sink it.
LIGAN. See LAGAN.
LIGGER. A line with a float and bait, used for catching pike. A night-hook laid for a pike or eel.
LIGHT AIRS. Unsteady and faint flaws of wind.
LIGHT ALONG! Lend assistance in hauling cables, hawsers, or large ropes along, and lifting some parts in a required direction.
LIGHT BOBS. The old soubriquet for light infantry (which see). LIGHT BREEZES. When light airs have become steady.
LIGHT DISPLACEMENT TONNAGE. The weight of a ship's hull, machinery, equipment and spares.This is often the basis on which ships are paid for when purchased for scrapping. The difference between the loaded displacement and light displacement is the ship's deadweight.
LIGHT ICE. That which has but little depth in the water; it is not considered dangerous to shipping, as not being heavy.
LIGHT INFANTRY. Troops specially trained to the extended and rapid movements necessary to cover the man[oe]uvres of the main body.
LIGHT SAILS. All above the topgallant-sails; also the studding-sails and flying jib. Men-of-war carry topgallant-sails over double reef.
LIGHT SHIP. In contradistinction to laden; a ship is said to be light when she has no cargo, or merely in ballast. When very crank, she is said to be flying light. Also, a vessel bearing a light as a guide to navigators.
LIGHT WATER-DRAUGHT. The depth of water which a vessel draws when she is empty, or nearly so.
LIGHT WATER-LINE. The line showing the depression of the ship's body in the water when just launched, or quite unladen. (See WATER-LINE.)
LIGHT-BALLS. Are thrown from mortars at night to discover the enemy's working parties, &c. They are composed of saltpetre, sulphur, resin, and linseed-oil, and burn with great brilliancy. The parachute light-ball, which suspends itself in the air by the action of the heated gas from the light against the parachute, is most convenient.
LIGHT-HANDED. Short of the complement of men.
LIGHT-HORSE. A name formerly given to all mounted men who were not encumbered with armour.
LIGHT-HORSEMAN. An old name for the light boat, since called a gig. (See WALLMIA.)
LIGHT-PORT. A scuttle made for showing a light through. Also, a port in timber ships kept open until brought deep by cargo. It is then secured and caulked in. (See RAFT- PORT.)
LIGHT-ROOM. In a ship-of-war, a small space parted off from the magazine, having double-glass windows for more safely transmitting the light by which the gunner and his assistants fill their cartridges. Large ships generally have two light-rooms, the after and the fore.
LIGHT, TO. To move or lift anything along; as “light over to windward,” the cry for helping the man at the weather-earing when taking in a reef. Each man holding by a reef-point helps it over, as the lee-earing cannot be passed until the man to windward calls out, “Haul out to leeward.”
LIGHTEN, TO. To throw ballast, stores, cargo, or other things, overboard in stress of weather, to render the vessel more buoyant.
LIGHTER ABOARD SHIP. An ocean ship which carries barges. These barges are loaded with cargo, often at a variety of locations, towed to the ocean ship, sometimes referred to as the mother ship, and lifted or, in some cases, floated on board. After the ocean crossing, the barges are off-loaded and towed to their various destinations. The ocean ship then receives a further set of barges which have been assembled in readiness. This concept was designed to eliminate the need for specialized port equipment and to avoid transshipment with its consequent extra cost.
LIGHTER. A large, open, flat-bottomed boat, with heavy bearings, employed to carry goods to or from ships.—Ballast lighter. A vessel fitted up to raise ballast from the bottom of a harbour.— Covered or close lighter. One furnished with a deck throughout her whole length, in order to secure such merchandise as might be damaged by wet, and to prevent pillage.
LIGHTERAGE. The charge made for the hire of a lighter. Charge for conveying cargo by lighters or barges.
LIGHTERING. Conveying cargo with another vessel known as a lighter from ship to shore, or vice versa.
LIGHTERMAN. A man employed in a lighter.
LIGHTHOUSE. A sort of tower, erected upon a headland, islet, or rock, whose lights may be seen at a great distance from the land to warn shipping of their approach to these dangers.—A floating light, or light vessel, strongly moored, is used to mark dangers under water. Lights are variously distinguished, as by the number, colour, and continuity of their lights, whether flashing, revolving, &c.
LIGHTNING-CONDUCTOR. The lightning-conductor (introduced by Sir Snow Harris) is a plate connected from the royal mast-head down to the deck, thence by the beams to the ship's copper into the sea. Another kind is a copper-wire chain or rope hoisted to the truck, then passing down by the backstays over the channels into the sea.
LIGHTS. "Out lights", an order given at 8 p.m. in winter, and 9 p.m. in summer, for seamen's lights to be put out. In men-of-war, all the seamen's lights are extinguished by 8 P.M., the officers' at 10, unless the commanding officer gives his permission, through the master-at-arms, for a longer time, as occasion may require.
LIGNAMINA. Timber fit for building.
LIGNUM VITÆ. Guaiacum officinale. A West Indian tree, of the wood of which sheaves of blocks are made. It was allowed to be imported free of all duties.
LIMB-TANGENT. The accurate touch of the edge of a celestial body to the horizon.
LIMB. The graduated arc of an astronomical or surveying instrument. In astronomy, it is the edge or border of the disc of the sun, moon, or one of the planets; in which sense we say the upper limb, the lower limb, the sun or moon's nearest limb, &c.
LIMBER BOARDS OR PLATES. Short movable pieces of plank; a part of the lining of a ship's floor, close to the keelson, and immediately above the limbers. They are occasionally removed to clear them of any rubbish by which they may be clogged, so as to interrupt the passage of water to the pump-well.
LIMBER ROPE. A rope rove fore and aft through the limbers for clearing them when necessary.
LIMBER-BOX. Synonymous with limber-trunk.
LIMBER-CLEARER. A small chain rove fore-and-aft through the limber-passage to clear it when necessary, by hauling backwards and forwards.
LIMBER-PASSAGE. The line of limber-holes throughout the whole length of the floor, on each side of the keelson, for the water to have free access to the pumps.
LIMBER-PLATES. See LIMBER-BOARDS.
LIMBER-STREAK. The streak of foot-waling nearest the keelson, wrought over the lower ends of the first futtocks.
LIMBER. In artillery, the two-wheeled carriage to which the trail of a field gun-carriage is attached for travel.—Limber-boxes are the chests fitted above the axle-tree of the limber for ammunition.— Limber up! is the command so to raise and attach.
LIMBO. Restraint, durance, confinement under arrest, or in the bilboes. Dante uses this term for a division of the infernal regions.
LIME OR LEMON JUICE. A valuable anti-scorbutic, included by act of parliament in the scale of provisions for seamen. It has latterly been so much adulterated that scurvy has increased threefold in a few years.
LIME-POTS. Formerly supplied among the munitions of war to ships.
LIMITING PARALLELS. The parallels of latitude upon the earth's surface, within which occultations of stars or planets by the moon are possible. They are given in the Nautical Almanac for each occultation.
LIMMER. The side-rope to a poop or other ladder.
LIMPET. A well-known shell-fish, giving rise to the brackish proverb, “Sticking fast like a limpet to a rock.”
LINCH OR LINS PIN. The iron pin which keeps the trucks of a gun-carriage confined to the axle-tree.
LINE OF BATTLE SHIP. A ship carrying guns on two decks below her upper deck.
LINE OF BATTLE. A disposition of the fleet at the moment of engagement, by signal or previous order, on which occasion the vessels are usually drawn up as much as possible in a specified bearing, as well to gain and keep the advantage of the wind, as to run the same board, about 1 cable, or 100 fathoms distant from each other. The line-of-battle in sea-fights occurs both in Plutarch (Themistocles ) and Froissart.
LINE OF BEARING. A previously determined bearing given out by a commander-in- chief, as well as line-of-battle. “From line of battle form line of bearing,” or reverse. The line of bearing must be that point of the compass on which the ships bear from each other, and from which the line of battle can readily be formed without losing speed or ground.
LINE OF COLLIMATION. See COLLIMATION, LINE OF.
LINE OF DEFENCE. In fortification, the face of a work receiving flank defence, together with its prolongation to the flanking work.
LINE OF DEMARCATION. A line which is drawn by consent, to ascertain the limits of territories belonging to different powers.
LINE OF LINE. See GUNTER'S LINE.
LINE OF NODES. The imaginary line joining the ascending and descending nodes of the orbit of a planet or comet.
LINE OF OPERATIONS. In strategy, the line an army follows to attain its objective point.
LINE OUT STUFF. To mark timber for dressing to shape.
LINE-BREADTH. See BREADTH LINE.
LINE-OF-BATTLE SHIPS. Formerly those of 74 guns and upwards; or in these iron days, any vessel capable of giving and taking the tremendous blows of the larger ordnance.
LINE-OF-METAL ELEVATION. That which the axis of a gun has above the object when its line of metal is pointed on the latter; it averages 1-1/2° in guns of the old construction.
LINE, TO. To cover one piece with another. Also, to mark out the work on a floor for determining the shape of a vessel's body.—To line a ship, is to strike off with a batten, or otherwise, the directional lines for painting her. (See TOE A LINE.)
LINE. The general appellation of a number of small ropes in a ship, as buntlines, clue- lines, bowlines, &c. Also, the term in common parlance for the equator. Also, in the army, distinguishes the regular numbered regiments of cavalry and infantry from the artillery and guards, to whom exceptional functions are assigned. In fortification, it means a trench, approaches, &c. In a geometrical sense, it signifies length without breadth; and in military parlance, it is drawing up a front of soldiers.—Concluding line. A small rope, which is hitched to the middle of every step of a stern-ladder.—Deep-sea line. A long line, marked at every five fathoms with small strands of line, knotted, and used with the deep-sea lead. The first 20 fathoms are marked as follows: 2 and 3 fathoms with black leather; 5 with white bunting; 7 with red; 10 with leather and a hole in it. Then 13, 15, and 17 repeat the previous marks of 3, 5, and 7. Two knots indicate 20, three knots 30, four knots 40 fathoms, and so on, with an additional knot for every ten. Meanwhile a single knot indicates the intermediate fives. Besides this system some pilots prefer their own marks, as in the Hooghly, where they always measure the line for themselves. The term “deep-sea line” must not now be confined to the use of the lead for the ordinary purposes of safe navigation; deep-sea soundings for scientific purposes are recorded in thousands of fathoms, in which case the line is sometimes made of silk, the object being to obtain the largest amount of strength with a small weight.—Fishing- lines. Particular kinds of lines, generally used for fishing snood, mackerel, whiting, cod, albacore, &c.—Hand-line. A line about 20 fathoms long, marked like the first 20 fathoms of the deep-sea line. It is made fast to a hand-lead of from 7 to 14 lbs., and used to determine the depth of water in going in or out of a harbour, river, channel, &c.— Hauling-line. Any rope let down out of a top, &c., to haul up some light body by hand. —Knave-line. A rope fastened to the cross-trees, under the main or fore top, whence it comes down by the ties to the ram-head, and there it is rove through a piece of wood about 2 feet long, and so is brought to the ship's side, and there hauled up taut to the rails.—Life-line. A rope occasionally extended in several situations for persons to lay hold of, to prevent their falling.—Mar-line. A particular kind of small line, composed of two strands very little twisted; there is both tarred and white mar-line. That supplied for the gunner and for bending light sails is untarred.—Navel-line. A rope depending from the heads of the main and fore masts, and passed round to the bight of the truss to keep it up, whilst the yard is being swayed up, or when the truss, in bracing sharp up, is overhauled to the full.—Spilling-lines. Ropes fixed occasionally to the square sails, particularly the main and fore courses in bad weather, for reefing or furling them more conveniently; they are rove through blocks upon the yard, whence leading round the sail they are fastened abaft the yard, so that the sail is very closely confined.—White-line. That which has not been tarred, in contradistinction to tarred line.
LINER SERVICE. Vessels operating on fixed itineraries or regular schedules and established rates available to all shippers. The freight rates which are charged are based on the shipping company's tariff or if the company is a member of a liner conference, the tariff of that conference.
LINER. A cargo-carrying ship which is operated between scheduled, advertised ports of loading and discharge on a regular basis.
LINERS. Line-of-battle ships. Also, a designation of such packet or passenger ships as trade periodically and regularly to and from ports beyond sea, in contradistinction to chance vessels. Also, a term applied by seamen to men-of-war and to their crews.
LINES OF FLOTATION. Those horizontal marks supposed to be described by the surface of the water on the bottom of a ship, and which are exhibited at certain depths upon the sheer-draught. (See LIGHT WATER-LINE, and LOAD WATER-LINE.)
LINES. Ropes used for various purposes aboard a boat.
LINES. With shipwrights, are the various plans for determining the shape and form of the ship's body on the mould-loft floor. Also, a species of field-works, consisting of a series of fronts, constructed in order to cover the front and form the immediate defence of an army or the frontiers of a state.
LING. A brushwood useful in breaming. Also, a fish, the Lota molva; it invariably inhabits the deep valleys of the sea, while the cod is always found on the banks. When sun-dried it is called stock-fish.
LINGET. Small langridge; slugs.
LINGO. A very old word for tongue or dialect, rather than language or speech.
LININGS. The reef-bands, leech and top linings, buntline cloths, and other applied pieces, to prevent the chafing of the sails. In ship-building, the term means thin dressed board nailed over any rough surface to give it a finish.
LINK WORMING. Guarding a cable from friction, by worming it with chains. LINNE. A Gaelic term for pool, pond, lake, or sea.
LINKISTER. An interpreter; linguist.
LINKS. A northern phrase for the windings of a river; also for flat sands on the sea- shore, and low lands overflowed at spring tides.
LINSEY-WOLSEY. A stuff in extensive use commercially; it is a mixture of flax and wool.
LINSTOCK. In olden times it was a staff about 3 feet long, having a sharp point at the foot to stick in the deck, and a forked head to hold a lighted match. It gave way to the less dangerous match-tub, and since that to gun-locks, friction-tubes, &c.
LINTRES. Ancient canoes capable of carrying three lintrarii.
LIP. Insolence and bounce.
LIPPER. A sea which washes over the weather chess-tree, perhaps leaper. Also, the spray from small waves breaking against a ship's bows.
LIPPING. Making notches on the edge of a cutlass or sword.
LIPS OF SCARPHS. The substance left at the ends, which would otherwise become sharp, and be liable to split.
LIQUORS. A term applicable to all fluids, but at sea it is expressly applied to alcoholic spirits.
LIRA. An Italian coin. A silver coin of about tenpence sterling. LISBONINE. A national denomination for the moidore. LISSOM. Active, supple.
LIST AND RECEIPT. The official document sent with officers or men of any description, discharged from one ship to another; it merely states the names and qualities, with the date of discharge.
LIST, TO. To incline to one side; as “the ship has a list to port,” i.e. leans over to that side.
LIST. A roll of names, as the army and navy lists; but usually at sea it means the doctor's list. Also, the abbreviation for enlist. “Why did you list?” said when a man is grumbling who has entered a service voluntarily.
LISTER. A sort of three-pronged harpoon used in the salmon fisheries; also, a light spear for killing fish in general.
LISTING. A narrow strip cut off the edge of a plank, in order to expose for examination, and get at, a vessel's timbers.
LITTER. A sort of hurdle bed, on which to carry wounded men from the field to the boats.
LITTORAL. Relating to a coast; often used as synonymous with sea-board.
LITTORARIÆ. Ancient coasting vessels.
LIVE-LUMBER. Passengers, ladies, landsmen, cattle, sheep, pigs, and poultry.
LIVE-SHELL. One filled with its charge of powder or other combustible. It is also called a loaded shell.
LIVE, TO. To be able to withstand the fury of the elements; said of a boat or ship, &c.
LIVELY. To lift lightly to the sea; as a boat, &c.
LIVER-FACED. Mean and cowardly, independent of complexion.
LIVERY-ARROW. A missile formerly supplied to our ships of war.
LIVID SKY. That blackish red and blue which pervade the sky, previous to an easterly gale, at sea: —“Deep midnight now involves the livid skies Where eastern breezes, yet enervate, rise.”—Falconer.
LIZARD. A piece of rope, sometimes with two legs, and one or more iron thimbles spliced into it. It is used for various purposes; one is often made fast to the topsail-tye, for the buntlines to reeve through, to confine them to the centre of the yard. A lizard with a tail and thimble is used as a fair lead, to lead out where the lift runs in a line with the object. The lower boom topping-lift is thus helped by carrying the lizard out to the fore- brace block. In yards sent aloft ready for crossing, the lizard confines the yard rope until the order is given, “Sway across,” when, letting the lizard run, all cross simultaneously.
LIZIERE. In fortification, a word sometimes used for berm (which see). A narrow bank of earth supporting the parapet when deformed by fire.
LLANOS [Sp. plains]. Immense plains in S. America, with alternate arid patches and verdure.
LLOYD'S AGENTS. Persons appointed in all parts of the commercial world, to forward accounts of the arrivals and departures of vessels, or any information interesting to the underwriters.
LLOYD'S LIST. A gazette, published formerly twice a week, but latterly daily, under the superintendence of a committee chosen by the subscribers, and transmitted over the whole world.
LLOYD'S REGISTER OF SHIPPING. British classification society.
LLOYD'S REGISTER. An annual list of British and foreign shipping, ranked by letter and number in different classes.
LLOYD'S SURVEYORS. Practical persons specially appointed in London, and most of the out-ports of the United Kingdom, to investigate the state and condition of merchant- ships for the underwriters.
LLOYD'S. An establishment which, from a subscription coffee-house, has grown to a society which has transacted the bulk of the British insurance business regularly since 1601; and even before that period assurers had met there “time out of mind.” A register is kept of every ship, whether foreign or English, with the place where it was built, the materials used in its construction, its age, state of repair, and general character.
LOAD FACTOR. Percentage of cargo or passengers carried e.g. 4000 tons carried on a vessel of 10000 capacity has a load factor of 40%.
LOAD LINE. The line on a vessel indicating the maximum depth to which that vessel can sink when loaded with cargo. Also known as marks.
LOAD WATER-LINE. The draught of water exhibited when the ship is properly loaded; in a word, her proper displacement, not always sufficiently considered.
LOAD WATER-SECTION. A horizontal section at the load water-line in the ship- builder's draught.
LOADED LEG. Subdivision of a ship's voyage during which the ship is carrying cargo.
LOADED-SHELL. A shell filled with lead, to be thrown from a mortar. The term is also used for live-shells.
LOADING-CHAMBER. The paterero, or inserting piece in breech-loading. LOADING OF A SHIP. See CARGO and LADING.
LOADSMAN. A pilot, or person who conducts into or out of harbours. LOADSTONE. See MAGNET and DIPPING-NEEDLE.
LOAFER. One who hangs about a dock, ready for every job except a hard one.
LOATH TO DEPART. Probably the first line of some favourite song; formerly the air was sounded in men-of-war, when going foreign, for the women and children to quit the ship.
LOB-COCK. A lubber; an old term of utter contempt.
LOB-TAILING. The act of the sperm whale in violently beating the water with its tail.
LOB-WORM. A worm found at low-water in sand, esteemed for bait.
LOB. A sluggish booby; whence lubber. Also, that part of a tree where it first divides into branches.
LOBBY. A name sometimes given to an apartment close before the great cabin bulk- head.
LOBLOLLY-BOY. A man who attended the surgeon and his assistants, to summon the sick, and attend on them. A man is now stationed in the bay, under the designation of sick-berth attendant.
LOBLOLLY. A name formerly applied to pottage, burgoo, or gruel.
LOBSCOUSE. An olla-podrida of salt-meat, biscuit, potatoes, onions, spices, &c., minced small and stewed together. (See LAP'S COURSE.)
LOBSTER-BOAT. A bluff, clincher-built vessel, fitted with a well, to preserve the lobsters alive.
LOBSTER-TOAD. See DEEP-SEA CRAB.
LOBSTER. A well-known marine crustacean, Astacus marinus. Also, red-coats of old; whence lobster-box, a colloquialism for barracks.
LOC-MEN, OR LOCO-MEN. An old term for pilots.
LOCAL ATTRACTION. The effect of the iron in a ship on her compasses; it varies with the position of a compass in a ship, also with that of a ship on the earth's surface, and with the direction of the ship's head. In iron ships it is affected by the line of direction in which they are built. Its detection and remedies are amongst the most important studies of navigators of iron ships and steamers.
LOCAL MARINE-BOARD. See MARINE BOARDS.
LOCH. Gaelic for lake, in Scotland and Ireland. In Scotland also an arm of the sea, where the tides ebb and flow; on the east coast called a firth, though on the west mostly termed a loch.
LOCHABER AXE. A formidable weapon once used by the Highlanders.
LOCK-FAST. A modified principle in the breech-loading of fire-arms.
LOCK, STOCK, AND BARREL. An expression derived from fire-arms, and meaning the whole.
LOCK, TO. To entangle the lower yards when tacking.
LOCK. A spelling of loch (which see). Also, the general name for any works made to confine or raise the water of a river; a canal inclosed between the sluice-gate above and the flood-gate below.
LOCK. The striking instrument by which fire is produced for the discharge of a gun, containing the cock, the hammer, the pan, &c. It was first introduced in naval ordnance by Sir Charles Douglas, and has now given way to the detonating hammer and friction- tube, as the old match and the salamander did to the lock.
LOCKAGE. The cost of passing vessels through canal-locks.
LOCKER. Divisions in cabins and store-rooms.—Boatswain's locker. A chest in small craft wherein material for working upon rigging is kept.—Chain-locker or chain-well, where the chain-cables are kept; best abreast the main-mast, as central weight, but often before the fore-mast.—Davy Jones' locker. The bottom of the sea, where nothing is lost, because you know where it is.— Shot-lockers, near the pump-well in the hold. Also, the receptacle round the coamings of hatchways.
LOCKET. The chape of a sword-scabbard.
LOCKING-IN. The alternate clues and bodies of the hammocks when hung up.
LOCOMOTIVE-POWER. The force of sails and wind, or steam.
LODE-MANAGE, OR LODEMANSHIP. The hire of a pilot. It also meant both pilotage and seamanship; whence Chaucer —“His herborough, his moone, and his lodemanage, There was none such from Hull to Cartage.”
LODE-MEREGE. In the laws of Oleron, seems identical with lode-manage. LODE-SHIP. A pilot boat, which was also employed in fishing; it is mentioned in statute 31 Edward III. c. 2.
LODE-STAR. The north star. But Spenser alludes to any star as a guide to mariners:—“Like as a ship, whose lode-star, suddenly Cover'd with clouds, her pilot hath dismay'd.” Shakspeare coincides with this, in comparing Hermia's eyes to lode-stars.
LODESMEN. An Anglo-Saxon word for pilots.
LODGE ARMS. The word of command to an armed party preparatory to their breaking off.
LODGEMENT. In fortification, an established footing, such as a besieger makes by throwing up hasty cover, against the fire of the defenders, on any freshly gained post.
LODGING-KNEES, OR DECK-BEAM KNEES. Those riding on the hanging or dagger-knees, and fixed horizontally in the ship's frame.
LODIA. A large trading boat of the White Sea.
LOE, OR LAWE. An eminence, whether natural or artificial. LOFTY SHIPS. Once a general name for square-rigged vessels:—“A mackerel sky and mares' tails Make lofty ships carry low sails.”
LOG or LOG BOOK. See LOG-BOOK.
LOG-BOARD. Two boards shutting together like a book, and divided into several columns, in which to record, through the hours of the day and night, the direction of the wind and the course of the ship, with all the material occurrences, together with the latitude by observation. From this table the officers work the ship's way, and compile their journals. The whole being written by the mate of the watch with chalk, is rubbed out every day at noon. Now a slate is more generally used.
LOG-BOOK. Mostly called the log, is a journal into which the log-board is daily transcribed, together with any other circumstance deserving notice. The intermediate divisions or watches are usually signed by the commanding officer. It is also divided into harbour-log and sea-log.
LOG-CANOE. One hollowed out of a single log. (See CANOE.)
LOG-GLASS. The sand-glass used at heaving the log to obtain the rate of sailing. It is a 28 seconds glass for slow sailing, and 14 seconds for fast sailing.
LOG-LINE AND LOG-SHIP. A small line about 100 fathoms long, fastened to the log- ship by means of two legs, one of which passes through a hole at the corner, and is knotted on the opposite side, while the other leg is attached by a pin fixed into another hole so as to draw out when stop is called, i.e. when the glass has run out. This line, from the distance of 10, 12, or 15 fathoms of the log-ship, has certain knots or divisions, which ought to be 47 feet 4 inches from each other, though it was the common practice at sea not to have them above 42 feet. The estimate of the ship's way or distance run is done by observing the length of the line unwound whilst the glass is running; for so many knots as run out in that time, so many miles the ship sails in an hour.—To heave the log is to throw it into the water on the lee-side, well out of the wake, letting it run until it gets beyond the eddies, then a person holding the glass turns it up just as the first mark, or stray-line, goes out, from which the knots begin to be reckoned. The log is, however, at best, a precarious way of computing, and must be corrected by experience. The inventor of it is not known, and no mention is made of it till the year 1607, in an East India voyage, published by Purchas. The mode before, and even now in some colliers, and in native craft in the East Indies, is to throw a log or chip overboard at the foremost channel-plate, and to walk aft, keeping up with it until it passes the stern, thus estimating (and closely too by practice) the rate of motion. Other methods have been invented by various people, but Massey's Patent Log gives the most accurate measurement. The same principle is also applied to the deep-sea sounding-lead.
LOGGED. Entered in the log. A very serious punishment, not long disused, as a mark of disgrace, by recording the omissions of an officer. It may yet be demanded if arrest ensues.
LOGGED. When a ship is on her beam ends, or in that state in which she is unmanageable at sea. (See WATER-LOGGED.)
LOGGERHEAD, OR LOGGER-HEAT. A round ball of iron attached to a long handle with a hook at the end of it. It heats tar by being made hot in the fire, and then plunged into the tar-bucket. It was also used to pound cocoa before chocolate was supplied. Also, an upright rounded piece of wood, near the stern of a whale-boat, for catching a turn of the line to. Also, a name given to a well-known turtle, Chelonia caouana, from its having a great head; it is sometimes called the whooper or whapper. (See TURTLE.)
LOGWOOD. Dyewood, Hæmatoxylon campechianum. It occurs on both sides of the American coasts near the Isthmus of Darien, and is a great article of trade, varying from £5 to £10 per ton. Recent discoveries of the products of coal have reduced the price.
LOICH. A statute term, comprehending the fishes lobbe, ling, and cod.
LONDAGE. An old term for landing from a boat.
LONDON WAGGON. The tender which carried the impressed men from off the tower to the receiving-ship at the Nore.
LONG AND SHORT BOARDS. See TACK AND HALF-TACK.
LONG AND SHORT LEG. A term used in working to windward, meaning a long and short tack alternately.
LONG BALLS. Engaging beyond the reach of carronades.
LONG BOAT. Is carvel-built, full, flat, and high, and is usually the largest boat belonging to a ship, furnished with spars and sails, and may be armed and equipped for cruizing short distances; her principal employ, however, is to bring heavy stores on board, and also to go up small rivers to fetch water, wood, &c. At sea it is stowed between the fore and main masts. Not used in the navy. (See LAUNCH.)
LONG LEAVE. The leave granted to men returning from a foreign station.
LONG OYSTER. A name of the sea cray-fish.
LONG STERN-TIMBERS. See STERN-TIMBERS.
LONG STROKE. The order to a boat's crew to stretch out and hang on her.
LONG TIMBERS, OR LONG TOP-TIMBERS. Synonymous with double futtocks. Timbers in the cant-bodies, reaching from the dead-wood to the head of the second futtock, and forming a floor.
LONG TOGS. Landsman's clothes.
LONG TOM, OR LONG TOM TURKS. Pieces of lengthy ordnance for chasers, &c.
LONG TON. 2,240 pounds.
LONG VOYAGE. One in which the Atlantic Ocean is crossed.
LONG-BOW. A noted weapon formerly supplied to our men-of-war. LONG CHALKS. Great strides. (See CHALKS.)
LONG-GASKETS. Those used for sea service; the opposite of harbour-gaskets (which see).
LONG-JAWED. The state of rope when its strands are straightened by being much strained and untwisted, and from its pliability will coil both ways.
LONG-LEAVE. Permission to visit friends at a distance.
LONG-LEGGED. Said of a vessel drawing much water.—Long leggers, lean schooners. Longer than ordinary proportion to breadth. Swift.
LONG-SERVICE. A cable properly served to prevent chafing under particular use.
LONG-SHOT. A distant range. It is also used to express a long way; a far-fetched explanation; something incredible.
LONG-TACKLES. Those overhauled down for hoisting up top-sails to be bent. Long- tackle blocks have two sheaves of different sizes placed one above the other, as in fiddle-blocks.
LONG-TAILS. A sobriquet for the Chinese.
LONG-WINDED WHISTLERS. Chase-guns.
LONGÆ. Roman row-boats built to carry a large number of men.
LONGER. Each row of casks in the hold, athwart. Also, the fore and aft space allotted to a hammock; the longers reckoned similarly to last.
LONGIE. A name of the foolish guillemot, Uria troile, in the north.
LONGITUDE BY ACCOUNT. The distance east and west, as computed from the ship's course and distance run, carried forward from the last astronomical determination.
LONGITUDE BY CHRONOMETER. Is estimated by the difference between the time at the place, and the time indicated by chronometer.
LONGITUDE BY LUNAR OBSERVATION. The longitude calculated by observing the moon's angular distance from the sun or a fixed star. It is the only check on chronometers, and very valuable in long voyages, though now much neglected, since the establishment of compulsory examination in the merchant service, which does not require lunars.
LONGITUDE OF A CELESTIAL BODY. An arc of the ecliptic, contained between the first point of Aries and a circle of longitude passing through the centre of the body.
LONGITUDE, GEOCENTRIC. The angular distance of a heavenly body from the first point of Aries, measured upon the ecliptic, as viewed from the earth.
LONGITUDE, HELIOCENTRIC. The angular distance of a body from the first point of Aries, measured upon the ecliptic, as viewed from the sun.
LONGITUDE. Is an arc of the equator, or any parallel of latitude, contained between the meridian of a place and that of Greenwich, or any other first meridian. These arcs being similar, are expressed by the same number of degrees and miles, though the absolute distance on the earth's surface decreases as the latitude increases, for which see DEPARTURE. East longitude extends 180 degrees to the right, when looking north, and west longitude as many to the left of the first meridian.
LONGITUDINAL SECTION. In ship-building, a line which cuts the draught of a vessel lengthwise.
LONGSHORE. A word used rather contemptuously for alongshore; land usage. —'Longshore fellows, landsmen pretenders.—'Longshore owners, those merchants who become notorious for sending their ships to sea scantily provided with stores and provisions.
LOO, OR LOE. A little round hill or heap of stones.—Under the loo, is shelter from the wind; to leeward.
LOOF. The after part of a ship's bow, before the chess-tree, or that where the planks begin to be incurvated as they approach the stem. Hence, the guns which lie here are called loof-pieces.
LOOF. Usually pronounced and spelled luff (which see).
LOOK OUT FOR SQUALLS. Beware; cautionary.
LOOK-OUT. Watchful attention; there is always a look-out kept from the forecastle, foretopsail-yard, or above, to watch for any dangerous object lying near a ship's track, for any strange sail heaving in sight, &c.; the officer of the watch accordingly calls frequently from the quarter-deck to the mast-head-man appointed for this service, “Look out afore there.”
LOOK, TO. The bearing or direction, as, she looks up, is approaching her course.—A plank looks fore and aft, means, is placed in that direction.
LOOM-GALE. An easy gale of wind, in which a ship can carry her whole top-sails a- trip.
LOOM, TO. An indistinct enlarged appearance of any distant object in light fogs, as the coast, ships, &c.; “that land looms high,” “that ship looms large.” The effect of refraction.
LOOM. The handle of an oar. Also, the track of a fish.
LOON, OR LUNDE. The great northern diver, Colymbus glacialis. A bird about the size of a goose, which frequents the northern seas, where “as straight as a loon's leg,” is a common comparison.
LOOP-HOLES. Small openings made in the walls of a castle, or a fortification, for musketry to fire through. Also, certain apertures formed in the bulk-heads, hatches, and other parts of a merchant-ship, through which small arms might be fired on an enemy who boarded her, and for close fight. They were formerly called meurtrières, and were introduced in British slave-vessels.
LOOP. A bight or bend. The winding of a river.
LOOPS OF A GUN-CARRIAGE. The iron eye-bolts to which the tackles are hooked.
LOOSE A ROPE, TO. To cast it off, or let it go.
LOOSE FALL. The losing of a whale after an apparently good opportunity for striking it.
LOOSE ICE. A number of pieces near each other, but through which the ship can make her way.
LOOSE, TO. To unfurl or cast loose any sail, in order to its being set, or dried after rain.
LOOSERS. Men appointed to loose the sails.
LOOSING FOR SEA. Weighing the anchor.
LOOT. Plunder, or pillage; a term adopted from China.
LOOVER-WAYS. Battens or boards placed at a certain angle, so as to admit air, but not wet; a kind of Venetian-blind.
LOOVERED BATTENS. The battens that inclose the upper part of the well. (See LOOVER-WAYS.)
LOP AND TOP. The top and branches of a felled tree.
LOP-SIDED. Uneven; one side larger than the other.
LORCHA. A swift Chinese sailing vessel carrying guns.
LORD OF MISRULE. See MASTER OF MISRULE.
LORD WARDEN OF THE CINQUE PORTS. A magistrate who has the jurisdiction of the ports or havens so called. Generally held by one high in office, or an old minister.
LORDS COMMISSIONERS. See COMMISSIONERS.
LORICA. A defensive coat-armour made of leather; when iron plates were applied, it became a jack.
LORN. A northern name for the crested cormorant, Phalacrocorax cristatus. LORRELL. An old term for a lubberly fellow.
LOSE WAY, TO. When a ship slackens her progress in the water.
LOSING THE NUMBER OF THE MESS. Dead, drowned, or killed. (See NUMBER.) LOSING GROUND. Dropping to leeward while working; the driftage.
LOSS. Total loss is the insurance recovered under peril, according to the invoice price of the goods when embarked, together with the premium of insurance. Partial loss upon either ship or goods, is that proportion of the prime cost which is equal to the diminution in value occasioned by the damage. (See INSURANCE.)
LOSSAN. A Manx or Erse term for the luminosity of the sea.
LOST DAY. The day which is lost in circumnavigating the globe to the westward, by making each day a little more than twenty-four hours long. (See GAINED DAY.)
LOST HER WAY. When the buoy is streamed, and all is ready for dropping the anchor.
LOST OR NOT LOST. A phrase originally inserted in English policies of insurance, in cases where a loss was already apprehended. It is now continued by usage, and is held not to make the contract a wager, nor more hazardous.
LOST! LOST! When a whale flukes, dives, or takes tail up to “running,” and the boats have no chance in chasing.
LOST. The state of being foundered or cast away; said of a ship when she has either sunk, or been beat to pieces by the violence of the sea.
LOT. The abbreviation of allotment, or allowance to wife or mother. (See ALLOTMENT.)
LOTMAN. An old term for pirate.
LOUGH. See LOCH.
LOUND. Calm, out of wind.
LOW AND ALOFT. Sail from deck to truck: “every stitch on her.” LOWE. A flame, blaze. The torch used in the north by fish-poachers.
LOW LATITUDES. Those regions far removed from the poles of the earth towards the equator, 10° south or north of it.
LOW SAILS. The courses and close-reefed top-sails.
LOW WATER. The lowest point to which the tide ebbs. (See TIDE.) Also, used figuratively for being in distress, without money.
LOW. An old term for a small hill or eminence.
LOWER COUNTER. The counter between the upper counter and the rail under the lights.
LOWER HANDSOMELY, LOWER CHEERLY. Are opposed to each other; the former being the order to lower gradually, and the latter to lower expeditiously.
LOWER MASTS. See MAST.
LOWER TRANSIT. The opposite to the upper transit of a circumpolar star: the passage sub polo.
LOWER-BREADTH-SWEEP. The second on the builder's draught, representing the lower height of breadth, on which line is set off the main half-breadth of the ship at its corresponding timber.
LOWER-DECKERS. The heaviest armament, usually on the lower deck.
LOWER-FINISHING. See FINISHINGS.
LOWER-HEIGHT. See MAIN-BREADTH.
LOWER-HOLD-BEAMS. The lowest range of beams in a merchantman.
LOWER-HOLD. The space for cargo in a merchant-vessel, fitted with 'tween-decks.
LOWER-HOPE. A well-known reach in the Thames where ships wait for the turn of the tide.
LOWER-LIFTS. The lifts of the fore, main, and crossjack-yards.
LOWER, TO. The atmosphere to become cloudy. Also, to ease down gradually, expressed of some weighty body suspended by tackles or ropes, which, being slackened, suffer the said body to descend as slowly, or expeditiously, as occasion requires.
LOXODROMIC. The line of a ship's way when sailing oblique to the meridian.
LOXODRONIUS. The traverse table.
LOZENGE. The diamond-cut figure. (See RHOMBUS.)
LUBBER-LAND. A kind of El Dorado in sea-story, or country of pleasure without work, all sharing alike.
LUBBER, OR LUBBART. An awkward unseamanlike fellow; from a northern word implying a clownish dolt. A boatswain defined them as “fellows fitted with teeth longer than their hair,” alluding to their appetites.
LUBBER'S HOLE. The vacant space between the head of a lower-mast and the edge of the top, so termed from timid climbers preferring that as an easier way for getting into the top than trusting themselves to the futtock-shrouds. The term has been used for any cowardly evasion of duty.
LUBBER'S POINT. A black vertical line or mark in the compass-bowl in the direction of the ship's head, by which the angle between the magnetic meridian and the ship's line of course is shown.
LUBRICATOR. The oil or similar material applied to the bearings of machinery to obviate friction. Also, special preparations of the same included in cartridges for rifled fire-arms, to prevent the fouling from the burnt powder adhering to the interior of the bore.
LUCE. The old word for a full-grown pike or jack, immortalized by Shakspeare.
LUCIDA. The bright star or {a} of each constellation.
LUCKEN. An unsplit haddock half-dry.
LUCKY MINIE'S LINES. The long stems of the sea-plant Chorda filum.
LUCKY-PROACH. A northern term for father-lasher, Cottus scorpius.
LUFF AND LIE. A very old sea-term for hugging the wind closely.
LUFF AND TOUCH HER! Try how near the wind she will come. (See TOUCHING.)
LUFF INTO A HARBOUR, TO. To sail into it, shooting head to wind, gradually. A ship is accordingly said to spring her luff when she yields to the effort of the helm, by sailing nearer to the wind, or coming to, and does not shake the wind out of her sails until, by shortening all, she reaches her anchorage.
LUFF ROUND, OR LUFF A-LEE. The extreme of the movement, by which it is intended to throw the ship's head up suddenly into the wind, in order to go about, or to lessen her way to avoid danger.
LUFF UPON LUFF. One luff-tackle applied to the fall of another, to afford an increase of purchase.
LUFF-TACKLE. A purchase composed of a double and single block, the standing end of the rope being fast to the single block, and the fall coming from the double. This name is given to any large tackle not destined for any particular place, but to be variously used as occasion may require. It is larger than the jigger-tackle, but smaller than the fore and main yard-tackles or the stay-tackles. (See LUFF UPON LUFF.)
LUFF, OR LOOFE. The order to the helmsman, so as to bring the ship's head up more to windward. Sometimes called springing a luff. Also, the air or wind. Also, an old familiar term for lieutenant. Also, the fullest or roundest part of a ship's bows. Also, the weather- leech of a sail.
LUG-BOAT. The fine Deal boats which brave the severest weather; they are rigged as luggers, and dip the yards in tacking. They really constitute a large description of life- boat.
LUG-SAIL. A sail used in boats and small vessels. It is in form like a gaff-sail, but depends entirely on the rope of the luff for its stability. The yard is two-thirds of the breadth at foot, and is slung at one-fourth from the luff. On the mast is an iron hoop or traveller, to which it is hoisted. The tack may be to windward, or at the heel of the mast amidships. It is powerful, but has the inconvenience of requiring to be lowered and shifted on the mast at every tack, unless the tack be secured amidships. Much used in the barca-longa, navigated by the Spaniards.
LUG. The Arenicola piscatorum, a sand-worm much used for bait. Also, of old, the term for a perch or rod used in land-measuring, containing 16-1/2 feet, and which may have originated the word log.
LUGAR [Sp.] A name for watering-places on the Spanish coast.
LUGGER. A small vessel with quadrilateral or four-cornered cut sails, set fore-and-aft, and may have two or three masts. French coasters usually rig thus, and are called chasse marées; but with us it is confined to fishing craft and ships' boats; some carry top-sails. During the war of 1810 to 1814 French luggers, as well as Guernsey privateers, were as large as 300 tons, and carried 18 guns. One captured inside the Needles in 1814, carried a mizen-topsail. The Long Bet of Plymouth, a well-known smuggler, long defied the Channel gropers, but was taken in 1816.
LUGS. The ears of a bomb-shell, to which the hooks are applied in lifting it.
LULL-BAG. A wide canvas hose in whalers for conducting blubber into the casks, as it is “made off.”
LULL. The brief interval of moderate weather between the gusts of wind in a gale. Also, an abatement in the violence of surf.
LUMBER. Logs as they arrive at the mills. Also, timber of any size, sawed or split for use. Also, things stowed without order.
LUMBERER. One who cuts timber (generally in gangs) in the forests of North America during the winter, and, on the melting of the snow, navigates it, first by stream-driving the separate logs down the spring torrents, then in bays or small rafts down the wider streams, and finally in rafts of thousands of square yards of surface down the navigable rivers, to the mills or to the port of shipment.
LUMIERE CENDREE. A term adopted from the French to signify the ash-coloured faint illumination of the dark part of the moon's surface about the time of new moon, caused by sunlight reflected from the earth.
LUMP SUM. A full payment of arrears, and not by periodical instalments of money. LUNAR. The brief epithet for the method of finding the longitude by the moon and sun or moon and stars. (See WORKING A LUNAR.)
LUMP. A stout heavy lighter used in our dockyards for carrying anchors, chains, or heavy stores to or from vessels. Also, the trivial name of the baggety, an ugly fish, likewise called the sea-owl, Cyclopterus lumpus. Also, undertaking any work by the lump or whole.—By the lump, a sudden fall out of the slings or out of a top; altogether.
LUMPERS. So named from labouring at lump or task work. Labourers employed to load and unload a merchant ship when in harbour. In the north the term is applied to those who furnish ballast to ships.
LUMPSUM FREIGHT. Money paid to shipper for charter of a ship (or portion) up to stated limit irrespective of quantity of cargo.
LUNAR DAY. The interval between a departure and return of the moon to the meridian.
LUNAR DISTANCES. An important element in finding the longitude at sea, by what is termed nautical astronomy. It is effected by measuring the apparent distance of the moon from the sun, planet, or certain bright stars, and comparing it with that given in the nautical almanac, for every third hour of Greenwich time.
LUNAR INEQUALITY. See VARIATION OF THE MOON.
LUNAR OBSERVATIONS. The method of observing the apparent distances between given celestial objects, and then clearing the angles from the effects of parallax and refraction.
LUNAR TABLES. The tabulated logarithmic aid for correcting the apparent distance, and facilitating the reduction of the observations.
LUNATION. The period in which the moon goes through every variety of phase; that is, one synodical revolution.
LUNETTE. In fortification, a work composed of two faces meeting in a salient angle, from the inner extremities of which two short flanks run towards the rear, leaving an open gorge; it is generally applied only in connection with other works. Prize-masters will recollect that lunette is also the French name for a spy-glass or telescope.
LUNGE [a corruption of allonge]. A pass or thrust with a sword; a shove with a boarding-pike.
LUNI-SOLAR PRECESSION. See PRECESSION.
LUNI-SOLAR. A chronological term; it is the moon's cycle multiplied into that of the sun.
LUNT. A match-cord to fire great guns—a match for a linstock. LUNTRA. See FELUCCA.
LURCA. An old term for a small Mediterranean coaster.
LURCH. A heavy roll, weather or lee, as occasioned by a sea suddenly striking or receding from the weather-bilge of the vessel.—To be left in the lurch is to be left behind in a case where others make their escape.
LUSH. Intoxicating fluids of any kind. Also, a northern term for splashing in water. LUSORIÆ. Ancient vessels of observation or pleasure.
LUST. An archaism of list. (See LIST.)
LUTE-STERN. Synonymous with pink-stern.
LUTINGS. The dough stoppages to the seams of the coppers, &c., when distilling sea water.
LYING ALONG. See LAYING ALONG.
LYING ON HIS OARS. Taking a rest; at ease.
LYING-TO. See LIE-TO.
LYING. The situation of a whale when favourable for sticking—the “lie” usually occurs after feeding.
LYM. From the Celtic leim, a port; as Lyme and Lymington. LYMPHAD. The heraldic term for an old-fashioned ship or galley.
LYNCH-LAW. A word recently imported into our parlance from America, signifying illegal and revengeful execution at the wish of a tumultuous mob.
LYRA. One of the ancient northern constellations. Also, a name of the gray gurnard, or crooner (which see).
LYRIE. The name in the Firth of Forth for the Cottus cataphractus, or armed bull-head. LYTER. The old orthography for lighter (which see).
LYTHE. A name for the pollack, Gadus pollachius. Also, the coal-fish in its fourth year.
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