FRINGING REEFS. Narrow fringes of coral formation, at a greater or less distance from the shore, according to the slopes of the land.

FRISKING. The wind freshening.

FRITH. Derived from fretum maris, a narrow strait: an arm of the sea into which a river flows. Synonymous with firth (which see).

FRITTERS. Tendinous fibres of the whale's blubber, running in various directions, and connecting the cellular substance which contains the oil. They are what remains after the oil has been tried out, and are used as fuel to try out the next whale.

FROG. An old term for a seaman's coat or frock.

FROG-BELT. A baldrick (which see).

FROG-FISH. See FISHING-FROG.

FROG-LANDERS. Dutchmen in colloquial language.

FROG-PIKE. A female pike, so called from its period of spawning being late, contemporary with the frogs.

FRONT. The foremost rank of a battalion, squadron, file, or other body of men.—To front, to face.

FRONTAGE. The length or face of a wharf.

FRONTIER. The limits or borders of a country.

FRONT OF FORTIFICATION. The whole system of works included between the salient angles, or the capitals prolonged, of any two neighbouring bastions.

FROSTED STEEL. The damasked sword-blades.

FROST-FISH. A small fish, called also tommy-cod; in North America they are taken in large quantities in the depth of winter by fishing through holes cut in the ice.

FROST-RIME. See FROST-SMOKE.

FROST-SMOKE. A thick mist in high latitudes, arising from the surface of the sea when exposed to a temperature much below freezing; when the vapours as they rise are condensed either into a thick fog, or, with the thermometer about zero, hug the water in eddying white wreaths. The latter beautiful form is called in North America a "barber," probably from its resemblance to soap-suds.

FROTH. See FOAM.

F.R.S. The sigla denoting a Fellow of the Royal Society.

FRUMENTARIAE. The ancient vessels which supplied the Roman markets with corn.

FRUSH. A northern term for wood that is apt to splinter and break.

FRY. Young fishes.

FUCUS MAXIMUS. An enormous sea-weed, growing abundantly round the coasts of Tristan d'Acunha, and perhaps the most exuberant of the vegetable tribe. Said to rise from a depth of many fathoms, and to spread over a surface of several hundred feet, it being very tenacious.

FUDDLED. Not quite drunk, but unfit for duty.

FUELL. An old nautical word signifying an opening between two headlands, having no bottom in sight.

FU-FU. A well-known sea-dish of barley and treacle, in merchant ships.

FUGITIVES OVER THE SEA. By old statutes, now obsolete, to depart this realm without the king's license incurred forfeiture of goods; and masters of ships carrying such persons beyond seas, forfeited their vessels.

FUGLEMAN, or more properly FLUGELMAN. A corporal, or active adept, who exhibits the time for each motion at the word of command, to enable soldiers, marines, and small-arm men to act simultaneously.

FULCRUM. The prop or support of a lever in lifting or removing a heavy body.

FULL. The state of the sails when the wind fills them so as to carry the vessel ahead.

FULL AND BY. Sailing close-hauled on a wind; when a ship is as close as she will lie to the wind, without suffering the sails to shiver; hence keep her full is the order to the helmsman not to incline too much to windward, and thereby shake the sails, which would retard the ship's velocity.

FULL BASTION. In fortification, is a bastion whereof the terreplein, or terrace in rear of the parapet, is extended at nearly the same level over the whole of its interior space.

FULL-BOTTOMED. An epithet to signify such vessels as are designed to carry large cargoes.

FULL DRIVE. Fully direct; impetuous violence.

FULL DUE. For good; for ever; complete; belay.

FULLER. The fluting groove of a bayonet.

FULL FEATHER. Attired in best dress or full uniform.

FULL FOR STAYS! The order to keep the sails full to preserve the velocity, assisting the action of the rudder in tacking ship.

FULL MAN. A rating in coasters for one receiving whole pay, as being competent to all his duties; able seaman.

FULL MOON. When her whole illuminated surface is turned towards us; she is then in opposition, or diametrically opposite, to the sun.

FULL PAY. The stipend allowed when on actual service.

FULL RETREAT. When an army, or any body of men, retire with all expedition before a conquering enemy.

FULL REVETMENT. In fortification, that form of retaining wall which is carried right up to the top of the mass retained, leaving no exterior slope above it; the term is principally used with reference to the faces of ramparts.

FULL SAILS. The sails well set, and filled by the wind.

FULL SEA. High water.

FULL SPEED! A self-explanatory order to the engineer of a steamer to get his engine into full play.

FULL SPREAD. All sail set.

FULL SWING. Having full power delegated; complete control.

FULMAR. A web-footed sea-bird, Procellaria glacialis, of the petrel kind, larger than the common gull; its eggs are taken in great quantity at St. Kilda and in the Shetlands.

FUMADO. A commercial name of the pilchard, when garbaged, salted, smoked, pressed, and packed.

FUMBLE-FISTED. Awkward in catching a turn, or otherwise handling a rope.

FUMIGATE, TO. To purify confined or infectious air by means of smoke, sulphuric acid, vinegar, and other correctives.

FUMIGATION-LAMP. An invention for purifying the air in hospital-ships and close places.

FUNERAL HONOURS. Obsequies with naval or military ceremonies.

FUNGI. An almost incalculably numerous order of plants growing on dead vegetable matter, and often produced on a ship's lining by long-continued damp.

FUNK. Touch-wood. Also nervousness, cowardice, or being frightened.—To funk. To blow the smoke of tobacco.

FUNNEL. An iron tube used where necessary for carrying off smoke. The cylindrical appendages to the furnaces of a steam-ship: the funnel is fastened on the top of the steam-chest, where the flues for both boilers meet. Also, the excavation formed by the explosion of a mine. Also, in artillery, a cup-shaped funnel of leather, with a copper spout, for filling powder into shells.

FUNNEL-STAYS. The ropes or chains by which the smoke-funnel is secured in a steam-ship.

FUNNY. A light, clinker-built, very narrow pleasure-boat for sculling, i.e. rowing a pair of sculls. The stem and stern are much alike, both curved. The dimensions are variable, from 20 to 30 feet in length, according to the boat being intended for racing purposes (for which they are mostly superseded by wager-boats), or for carrying one or more sitters.

FUR. The indurated sediment sometimes found in neglected ships' boilers. (See FURRING.)

FURL, TO. To roll up and bind a sail neatly upon its respective yard or boom.

FURLING. Wrapping or rolling a sail close up to the yard, stay, or mast, to which it belongs, by hauling on the clue-lines and buntlines, and winding a gasket or cord about it, to fasten it thereto and secure it snugly.

FURLING IN A BODY. A method of rolling up a top-sail only practised in harbour, by gathering all the loose part of the sail into the top, about the heel of the top-mast, whereby the yard appears much thinner and lighter than when the sail is furled in the usual manner, which is sometimes termed, for distinction sake, furling in the bunt. It is often practised to point the yards, the earings and robins let go, and the whole sail bunted in the top, and covered with tarpaulins.

FURLING-LINE. Denotes a generally flat cord called a gasket. In bad weather, with a weak crew, the top-sail is brought under control by passing the top-mast studding-sail halliards round and round all, from the yard-arm to the bunt; then furling is less dangerous.

FURLOUGH. A granted leave of absence.

FURNACE. The fire-place of a marine boiler.

FURNITURE. The rigging, sails, spars, anchors, cables, boats, tackle, provisions, and every article with which a ship is fitted out. The insurance risk may continue on them when put on shore, during a repair.

FUROLE. The luminous appearance called the corpo santo (which see).

FURRENS. Fillings: those pieces supplying the deficiency of the timber in the moulding-way.

FURRING. Doubling planks on a ship. Also, a furring in the ship's frame.—Furring the boilers, in a steamer, cleaning off the incrustation or sediment which forms on their inner surfaces.

FURROW. The groove or rabbet of a screw; the breech-sight or notch cut on the base-ring of a gun, and also on the swell of the muzzle, by which the piece is laid.

FURTHER ORDERS. These are often impedimenta to active service.

FURTHER PROOF. In prize matters, a privilege, where the court is not satisfied with that originally produced, by which it is allowed to state circumstances affecting it.

FURUBE. A fish taken in the Japanese seas, and considered to be dangerously poisonous.

FURZE. Brushwood, prepared for breaming.

FUSIL. Formerly a light musket with which sergeants of infantry and some particular regiments were armed.

FUSILIERS. Originally those regiments armed with fusils, by whom, though the weapon is obsolete, the title is retained as a distinction.

FUST. A low but capacious armed vessel, propelled with sails and oars, which formerly attended upon galleys; a scampavia, barge, or pinnace.

FUSTICK. In commerce, a dyewood brought principally from the West Indies and Spanish Main.

FUTTLING. A word meaning foot-waling (which see).

FUTTOCK-HEAD. In ship-building, is a name for the 5th, the 7th, and the 9th diagonals, the intervening bevellings being known as sirmarks.

FUTTOCK-HOLES. Places through the top-rim for the futtock-plates.

FUTTOCK-PLANK. The first plank of the ceiling next the kelson; the limber-strake.

FUTTOCK-PLATES. Iron plates with dead-eyes, crossing the sides of the top-rim perpendicularly. The dead-eyes of the top-mast rigging are set up to their upper ends or dead-eyes, and the futtock-shrouds hook to their lower ends.

FUTTOCK-RIDERS. When a rider is lengthened by means of pieces batted or scarphed to it and each other, the first piece is termed the first futtock-rider, the next the second futtock-rider, and so on.

FUTTOCKS, OR FOOT-HOOKS. The separate pieces of timber which compose the frame. There are four futtocks (component parts of the rib), and occasionally five, to a ship. The timbers that constitute her breadth—the middle division of a ship's timbers, or those parts which are situated between the floor and the top timbers—separate timbers which compose the frame. Those next the keel are called ground-futtocks or navel-timbers, and the rest upper futtocks.

FUTTOCK-SHROUDS, OR FOOT-HOOK SHROUDS. Are short pieces of rope or chain which secure the lower dead-eyes and futtock-plates of top-mast rigging to a band round a lower mast.

FUTTOCK-STAFF. A short piece of wood or iron, seized across the upper part of the shrouds at equal distances, to which the cat-harping legs are secured.

FUTTOCK-TIMBERS. See FUTTOCKS.

FUZE. Formerly called also fuzee. The adjunct employed with shells for igniting the bursting charge at the required moment. Time-fuzes, prepared with some composition burning at a known rate, are cut or set to a length proportionate to the time which the shell is destined to occupy in its flight; concussion and percussion fuzes ignite the charge on impact on the object: the former by the dislocation of some of its parts throwing open new passages for its flame, and the latter by the action of various mechanism on its inner priming of detonating composition. They are made either of wood or of metal, and of various form and size according to the kind of ordnance they are intended for. Time-fuzes of special manufacture are also applied to igniting the charges of mines, subaqueous blasts, &c.

FUZZY. Not firm or sound in substance.

FYKE. A large bow-net used on the American coasts for taking the shad; hence called shad-fykes. Also, the Medusa cruciata, or Medusa's head.

FYRDUNG [the Anglo-Saxon fyrd ung, military service]. This appears on our statutes for inflicting a penalty on those who evaded going to war at the king's command.



G.

GAB. A notch on the eccentric rod of a steam-engine for fitting a pin in the gab-lever to break the connection with the slide-valves. (See GABBE.)

GABARRE. Originally a river lighter; now a French store-ship.

GABART, OR GABBERT. A flat vessel with a long hatchway, used in canals and rivers.

GABBE. An old but vulgar term for the mouth.—Gift of the gab, or glib-gabbet, facility and recklessness of assertion.

GABBOK. A voracious dog-fish which infests the herring fisheries in St. George's Channel.

GABELLE [Fr.] An excise tribute.

GABERDINE. An old name for a loose felt cloak or mantle.

GABERT. A Scotch lighter. (See GABART.)

GABIONADE. A parapet of gabions hastily thrown up.

GABIONS. Cylindrical baskets open at both ends, about 3 feet high and 2 feet in diameter, which, being placed on end and filled with earth, greatly facilitate the speedy formation of cover against an enemy's fire. They are much used for revetments in field-works generally.

GABLE, OR GABULLE. A term in early voyagers for cable. Thus,

"Softe, ser, seyd the gabulle-rope, Methinke gode ale is in your tope."

GABLICK, OR GAFFLOCK. An old term for a crow-bar.

GABY. A conceited simpleton.

GACHUPINS. The name given in South America to European Spaniards.

GAD. A goad; the point of a spear or pike.

GAD-YANG. A coasting vessel of Cochin-China.

GAFF. A spar used in ships to extend the heads of fore-and-aft sails which are not set on stays. The foremost end of the gaff is termed the jaw, the outer part is called the peak. The jaw forms a semicircle, and is secured in its position by a jaw-rope passing round the mast; on it are strung several small wooden balls called trucks, to lessen the friction on the mast when the sail is hoisting or lowering.—To blow the gaff, said of the revealing a plot or giving convicting evidence.

GAFF-HALLIARDS. See HALLIARDS.

GAFF-HOOK. In fishing, a strong iron hook set on a handle, supplementing the powers of the line and fish-hook with heavy fish, in the same way that the landing-net does with those of moderate size.

GAFFLE. A lever or stirrup for bending a cross-bow.

GAFF-NET. A peculiar net for fishing.

GAFF-TOPSAIL. A light triangular or quadrilateral sail, the head being extended on a small gaff which hoists on the top-mast, and the foot on the lower gaff.

GAGE. The quantity of water a ship draws, or the depth she is immersed.

GAGE, WEATHER. When one ship is to windward of another she is said to have the weather-gage of her; or if in the opposite position, the lee-gage.

GAGE-COCKS. These are for ascertaining the height of the water in the boiler, by means of three or more pipes, having a cock to each.

GAINED DAY. The twenty-four hours, or day and night, gained by circumnavigating the globe to the eastward. It is the result of sailing in the same direction as the earth revolves, which shortens each day by four minutes for every degree sailed. In the Royal Navy this run gives an additional day's pay to a ship's crew.

GAIN THE WIND, TO. To arrive on the weather-side of some other vessel in sight, when both are plying to windward.

GAIR-FISH. A name on our northern coasts for the porpoise.

GAIR-FOWL. A name of the great auk, Alca impennis. (See AUK.)

GAIRG. A Gaelic name for the cormorant.

GALAXY. A name of the Milky Way. (See VIA LACTEA.)

GALEAS. See GALLIAS.

GALE OF WIND. Implies what on shore is called a storm, more particularly termed a hard gale or strong gale; number of force, 10.—A stiff gale is the diminutive of the preceding, but stronger than a breeze.—A fresh gale is a still further diminutive, and not too strong for a ship to carry single-reefed top-sails when close-hauled.—A top-gallant gale, if a ship can carry her top-gallant sails.—To gale away, to go free.

GALEOPIS. An ancient war-ship with a prow resembling the beak of a sword-fish.

GALITA. See GUERITE.

GALL. See WIND-GALL.

GALLANTS. All flags borne on the mizen-mast were so designated.

GALLAN WHALE. The largest whale which visits the Hebrides.

GALLED. The result of friction, to prevent which it is usual to cover, with skins, mats, or canvas, the places most exposed to it. (See SERVICE.)

GALLEON, OR GALION. A name formerly given to ships of war furnished with three or four batteries of cannon. It is now retained only by the Spaniards, and applied to the largest size of their merchant ships employed in West India and Vera Cruz voyages. The Portuguese also have ships trading to India and the Brazils nearly resembling the galleons, and called caragues. (See CARACK.)

GALLEOT, OR GALLIOT. A small galley designed only for chase, generally carrying but one mast, with sixteen or twenty oars. All the seamen on board act as soldiers, and each has a musket by him ready for use on quitting his oar. Also, a Dutch or Flemish vessel for cargoes, with very rounded ribs and flattish bottom, with a mizen-mast stept far aft, carrying a square-mainsail and main-topsail, a fore-stay to the main-mast (there being no fore-mast), with fore-staysail and jibs. Some also call the bomb-ketches galliots. (See SCAMPAVIA.)

GALLERY. A balcony projecting from the admiral's or captain's cabin; it is usually decorated with a balustrade, and extends from one side of the ship to the other; the roof is formed by a sort of vault termed a cove, which is frequently ornamented with carving. (See STERN; also QUARTER-GALLERY.)

GALLERY OF A MINE. The passage of horizontal communication, as distinguished from the shaft or vertical descent, made underground by military miners to reach the required position, for lodging the charge, &c.; it averages 4-1/2 feet high by 3 feet wide.

GALLERY-LADDER. Synonymous with stern-ladder.

GALLEY. A low, flat-built vessel with one deck, and propelled by sails and oars, particularly in the Mediterranean. The largest sort, called galleasses, were formerly employed by the Venetians. They were about 160 feet long above, and 130 by the keel, 30 wide, and 20 length of stern-post. They were furnished with three masts and thirty banks of oars, each bank containing two oars, and every oar managed by half-a-dozen slaves, chained to them. There are also half-galleys and quarter-galleys, but found by experience to be of little utility except in fine weather. They generally hug the shore, only sometimes venturing out to sea for a summer cruise. Also, an open boat rowing six or eight oars, and used on the river Thames by custom-house officers, and formerly by press-gangs; hence the names "custom-house galley," "press-galley," &c. Also, a clincher-built fast rowing-boat, rather larger than a gig, appropriated in a man-of-war for the use of the captain. The galley or gally is also the name of the ship's hearth or kitchen, being the place where the grates are put up and the victuals cooked. In small merchantmen it is called the caboose; and is generally abaft the forecastle or fore-part of the ship.

GALLEY-ARCHES. Spacious and well-built structures in many of the Mediterranean ports for the reception and security of galleys.

GALLEY-FOIST OR FUST. The lord-mayor's barge, and other vessels for holidays. (See FUST.)

GALLEY-GROWLERS. Idle grumblers and skulkers, from whom discontent and mutiny generally derive their origin. Hence, "galley-packets," news before the mail arrives.

GALLEY-NOSE. The figure-head.

GALLEY-PACKET. An unfounded rumour. (See GALLEY-GROWLERS.)

GALLEY-PEPPER. The soot or ashes which accidentally drop into victuals in cooking.

GALLEY-SLANG. The neological barbarisms foisted into sea-language.

GALLEY-SLAVE. A person condemned to work at the oar on board a galley, and chained to the deck.

GALLEY-STOKER. A lazy skulker.

GALLEY-TROUGH. See GERLETROCH.

GALLIAS. A heavy, low-built vessel of burden. Not to be confounded with galley, for even Shakspeare, in the Taming of the Shrew, makes Tranio say:—

"My father hath no less Than three great argosies; besides two galeasses, And twelve tight galleys."

GALLIED. The state of a whale when he is seriously alarmed.

GALLIGASKINS. Wide hose or breeches formerly worn by seamen also called petticoat-trousers. P. Penilesse, in his Supplication to the Divell, says: "Some gally gascoynes or shipman's hose, like the Anabaptists," &c.

GALLING-FIRE. A sustained discharge of cannon, or small arms, which by its execution greatly annoys the enemy.

GALLIVATS. Armed row-boats of India, smaller than a grab; generally 50 to 70 tons.

GALLOON. Gold lace. [Fr. galon; Sp. galon.]

GALLOPER. A small gun used by the Indians, easily drawn by one horse.

GALLOW-GLASSES. Formerly a heavy-armed body of foot; more recently applied to Irish infantry soldiers.

GALLOWS. The cross-pieces on the small bitts at the main and fore hatchways in flush-decked vessels, for stowing away the booms and spars over the boats; also termed gallowses, gallows-tops, gallows-bitts, and gallows-stanchions. The word is used colloquially for archness, as well as for notoriously bad characters.

GALLS. Veins of land through which the water oozes.

GALL-WIND. See WIND-GALL.

GALLY-GUN. A kind of culverin.

GALOOT. An awkward soldier, from the Russian golut, or slave. A soubriquet for the young or "green" marine.

GALORE. Plenty, abundance.

GAMBISON. A quilted doublet formerly worn under armour, to prevent its chafing.

GAME-LEG. A lame limb, but not so bad as to unfit for duty.

GAMMON, TO. To pass the lashings of the bowsprit.

GAMMONING. Seven or eight turns of a rope-lashing passed alternately over the bowsprit and through a large hole in the cut-water, the better to support the stays of the fore-mast; after all the turns are drawn as firm as possible, the two opposite are braced together under the bowsprit by a frapping. Gammoning lashing, fashion, &c., has a peculiar seamanlike meaning. The gammoning turns are passed from the standing part or bolt forward, over the bowsprit, aft through the knee forward, making a cross lashing. It was the essence of a seaman's ability, and only forecastle men, under the boatswain, executed it. Now galvanized chain is more commonly used than rope for gammoning.

GAMMONING-HOLE. A mortise-opening cut through the knee of the head, between the cheeks, through which the gammoning is passed.

GAMMON-KNEE. A knee-timber fayed and bolted to the stem, a little below the bowsprit.

GAMMON-PLATE. An iron plate bolted to the stem of some vessels for the purpose of supporting the gammoning of the bowsprit.

GAMMON-SHACKLE. A sort of triangular ring formed on the end of a gammon-plate, for the gammoning lashing or chain to be made fast to.

GAND-FLOOK. A name of the saury-pike, Scomberesox saurus.

GANG. A detachment; being a selected number of a ship's crew appointed on any particular service, and commanded by an officer suitable to the occasion.

GANG-BOARD. The narrow platform within the side next the gunwale, connecting the quarter-deck to the forecastle. Also, a plank with several cleats or steps nailed to it to prevent slipping, for the convenience of walking into or out of a boat upon the shore, where the water is shallow.

GANG-CASKS. Small barrels used for bringing water on board in boats; somewhat larger than breakers, and usually containing 32 gallons.

GANGWAY. The platform on each side of the skid-beams leading from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, and peculiar to deep-waisted ships, for the convenience of walking expeditiously fore and aft; it is fenced on the outside by iron stanchions and ropes, or rails, and in vessels of war with a netting, in which part of the hammocks are stowed. In merchant ships it is frequently called the gang-board. Also, that part of a ship's side, and opening in her bulwarks, by which persons enter and depart, provided with a sufficient number of steps or cleats, nailed upon the ship's side, nearly as low as the surface of the water, and sometimes furnished with a railed accommodation-ladder projecting from the ship's side, and secured by iron braces. Also, narrow passages left in the hold, when a ship is laden, in order to enter any particular place as occasion may require, or stop a leak. Also, it implies a thoroughfare of any kind.—To bring to the gangway, to punish a seaman by seizing him up to a grating, there to undergo flogging.

GANNERET. A sort of gull.

GANNET. The Sula bassana, or solan goose: a large sea bird of the family Pelecanidae, common on the Scottish coasts.

GANNY-WEDGE. A thick wooden wedge, used in splitting timber.

GANTAN. An Indian commercial measure, of which 17 make a baruth.

GANT-LINE. Synonymous with girt-line (which see).

GANT-LOPE, OR GAUNTLOPE (commonly pronounced gantlet). A race which a criminal was sentenced to run, in the navy or army, for any heinous offence. The ship's crew, or a certain division of soldiers, were disposed in two rows face to face, each provided with a knotted cord, or knittle, with which they severely struck the delinquent as he ran between them, stripped down to the waist. This was repeated according to the sentence, but seldom beyond three times, and constituted "running the gauntlet."

GANTREE, OR GANTRIL. A wooden stand for a barrel.

GANZEE. Corrupted from Guernsey. (See JERSEY.)

GAP. A chasm in the land, which, when near, is useful as a landmark.

GAPE. The principal crevice or crack in shaken timber.—The seams gape, or let in water.

GARAVANCES. The old term for calavances (which see).

GARBEL. A word synonymous with garboard (which see).

GARBLING. The mixing of rubbish with a cargo stowed in bulk.

GARBOARD-STRAKE, OR SAND-STREAK. The first range of planks laid upon a ship's bottom, next the keel, into which it is rabbeted, and into the stem and stern-post at the ends.

GARDE-BRACE. Anglo-Norman for armour for the arm.

GARE. See GAIR-FOWL. Also, the Anglo-Saxon for ready. (See YARE.)

GARETTE. A watch-tower.

GARFANGLE. An archaic term for an eel-spear.

GAR-FISH. The Belone vulgaris, or bill-fish, the bones of which are green. Also called the guard-fish, but it is from the Anglo-Saxon gar, a weapon.

GARGANEY. The Querquedula circia, a small species of duck, allied to the teal.

GARLAND. A collar of ropes formerly wound round the head of the mast, to keep the shrouds from chafing. Also, a strap lashed to a spar when hoisting it in. Also, a large rope grommet, to place shot in on deck. Also, in shore-batteries, a band, whether of iron or stone, to retain shot together in their appointed place. Also, the ring in a target, in which the mark is set. Also, a wreath made by crossing three small hoops, and covering them with silk and ribbons, hoisted to the main-topgallant-stay of a ship on the day of the captain's wedding; but on a seaman's wedding, to the appropriate mast to which he is stationed. Also, a sort of cabbage-net, whose opening is extended by a hoop, and used by sailors to contain their day's provisions, being hung up to the beams within their berth, safe from cats, rats, ants, and cockroaches.

GARNET. A sort of purchase fixed to the main-stay of a merchant-ship, and used for hoisting the cargo in and out at the time of loading or delivering her. A whip.—Clue-garnet. (See CLUE and CLUE-GARNETS.)

GARNEY. A term in the fisheries for the fins, sounds, and tongues of the cod-fish.

GARNISH. Profuse decoration of a ship's head, stern, and quarters. Also money which pressed men in tenders and receiving ships exacted from each other, according to priority.

GARR. An oozy vegetable substance which grows on ships' bottoms.

GARRET, OR GARITA. A watch-tower in a fortification; an old term.

GARRISON. A military force guarding a town or fortress; a term for the place itself; also for the state of guard there maintained.

GARRISON GUNS. These are more powerful than those intended for the field; and formerly nearly coincided with naval guns; but now, the introduction of armour-plating afloat leads to furnishing coast-batteries with the heaviest guns of all.

GARRISON ORDERS. Those given out by the commandant of a garrison.

GARROOKA. A fishing-craft of the Gulf of Persia.

GARTERS. A slang term for the ship's irons or bilboes.

GARTHMAN. One who plies at a fish-garth, but is prohibited by statute from destroying the fry of fish.

GARVIE. A name on our northern shores for the sprat.

GASKET. A cord, or piece of plaited stuff, to secure furled sails to the yard, by wrapping it three or four times round both, the turns being at a competent distance from each other.—Bunt-gasket ties up the bunt of the sail, and should consequently be the strongest; it is sometimes made in a peculiar net form. In some ships they have given place to beckets.—Double gaskets. Passing additional frapping-lines round the yards in very stormy weather.—Quarter-gasket. Used only for large sails, and is fastened about half-way out upon the yard, which part is called the quarter.—Yard-arm gasket. Used for smaller sails; the end is made fast to the yard-arm, and serves to bind the sail as far as the quarter-gasket on large yards, but extends quite into the bunt of small sails.

GAS-PIPE. A term jocularly applied to the newly-introduced breech-loading rifle.

GAT. A swashway, or channel amongst shoals.

GATE. The old name for landing-places, as Dowgate and Billingsgate; also in cliffs, as Kingsgate, Margate, and Ramsgate; those in Greece and in Italy are called scala. Also, a flood, sluice, or water gate.

GATE, OR SEA-GATE. When two ships are thrown on board one another by a wave, they are said to be in a sea-gate.

GATHER AFT A SHEET, TO. To pull it in, by hauling in slack.

GATHER WAY, TO. To begin to feel the impulse of the wind on the sails, so as to obey the helm.

GATH-LINN. A name of the north polar star; two Gaelic words, signifying ray and moisture, in allusion to its subdued brightness.

GATT. A gate or channel, a term used on the Flemish coast and in the Baltic. The Hellegat of New York has become Hell Gate.

GAUB-LINE. A rope leading from the martingale in-board. The same as back-rope.

GAUGE. See GAGE.

GAUGE. An instrument for measuring shot, wads, &c. For round shot there are two kinds, viz. the high gauge, a cylinder through which the shot must pass; and the low gauge, a ring through which it must not pass.

GAUGE-COCKS. A neat apparatus for ascertaining the height of the water in a steamer's boiler.

GAUGE-ROD. A graduated iron for sounding the pump-well.

GAUGNET. The Sygnathus acus, sea-needle, or pipe-fish.

GAUNTLET. (See GIRT-LINE.) Also, a rope round the ship to the lower yard-arms, for drying scrubbed hammocks. Of old the term denoted the armed knight's iron glove. (See GANT-LOPE, for running the gauntlet.)

GAUNTREE. The stand for a water or beer cask.

GAUNTS. The great crested grebe in Lincolnshire.

GAUT, OR GHAUT. In the East Indies, a landing-place; and also a chain of hills, as the Western Gauts, on the Mysore coast.

GAVELOCK. An iron crow. Of old, a pike; thus in Arthur and Merlin—

"Gavelokes also thicke flowe So gnattes, ichil avowe."

GAVER. A Cornish name for the sea cray-fish.

GAW. A southern term for a boat-pole.

GAWDNIE. The dragonet, or yellow gurnard; Callionymus lyra.

GAW-GAW. A lubberly simpleton.

GAWKY. A half-witted, awkward youth. Also, the shell called horse-cockle.

GAWLIN. A small sea-fowl which the natives of the Western Isles of Scotland trust in, as a prognosticator of the weather.

GAWN-TREE. See GANTREE.

GAWPUS. A stupid, idle fellow.

GAWRIE. A name for the red gurnard; Trigla cuculus.

GAZONS [Fr.] Sods of earth or turf, cut in wedge-shaped form, to line the parapet and face the outside of works.

GAZZETTA. The name of a small coin in the Adriatic and Levant. It was the price of the first Venetian newspaper, and thereby gave the name to those publications. In the Greek islands the word is used for ancient coins.

G.C.B. The initials for Grand Cross of the most honourable and Military Order of the Bath.

GEAR [the Anglo-Saxon geara, clothing]. A general name for the rigging of any particular spar or sail; and in or out of gear implies anything being fit or unfit for use.

GEARING. A complication of wheels and pinions, or of shafts and pulleys, &c.

GEARS. See JEERS.

GEE, TO. To suit or fit; as, "that will just gee."

GELLYWATTE. An old term for a captain's boat, the original of jolly-boat. (See Captain Downton's voyage to India in 1614, where "she was sent to take soundings within the sands.")

GENERAL. The commander of an army: the military rank corresponding to the naval one of admiral. The title includes all officers above colonels, ascending with qualifying prefixes, as brigadier-general, major-general, lieutenant-general, to general, above which is nothing save the exceptional rank of field-marshal and of captain-general or commander-in-chief of the land forces of the United Kingdom.

GENERAL AVERAGE. A claim made upon the owners of a ship and her cargo, when the property of one or more has been sacrificed for the good of the whole.

GENERAL BREEZO. See BREEZO.

GENERALISSIMO. The supreme commander of a combined force, or of several armies in the field.

GENERAL OFFICERS. All those above the rank of a colonel.

GENERAL ORDERS. The orders issued by the commander-in-chief of the forces.

GENERAL SHIP. Where persons unconnected with each other load goods on board, in contradistinction to a chartered ship.

GENEVA PRINT. An allusion to the spirituous liquor so called,—

"And if you meet An officer preaching of sobriety, Unless he read it in Geneva print, Lay him by the heels."—Massinger.

GENOUILLERE [Fr.] That part of a battery which remains above the platform, and under the gun after the opening of the embrasure. Of course a knee-step.

GENTLE. A maggot or grub used as a bait by anglers.

GENTLE GALE. In which a ship carries royals and flying-kites; force 4.

GENTLEMEN. The messmates of the gun-room or cockpit—as mates, midshipmen, clerks, and cadets.

GEOCENTRIC. As viewed from the centre of the earth.

GEO-GRAFFY. A beverage made by seamen of burnt biscuit boiled in water.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. See POSITION, GEOGRAPHICAL.

GEORGIUM SIDUS. The planet discovered by Sir W. Herschel was so named at first; but astronomers adopted Uranus instead, as safer to keep in the neutral ground of mythology.

GERLETROCH. The Salmo alpinus, red char, or galley-trough.

GERRACK. A coal-fish in its first year.

GERRET. A samlet or parr.

GERRICK. A Cornish name for a sea-pike.

GERRON. A cant name for the sea-trout.

GESERNE. Anglo-Norman for battle-axe.

GESTLING. A meeting of the members of the Cinque Ports at Romney.

GET AFLOAT. Pulling out a grounded boat.

GET-A-PULL. The order to haul in more of a rope or tackle.

GHAUT. See GAUT.

GHEE. The substitute for butter served out to ships' companies on the Indian station.

GHOST. A false image in the lens of an instrument.

GHRIME-SAIL. The old term for a smoke-sail.

GIB. A forelock.

GIBB. The beak, or hooked upper lip of a male salmon.

GIBBOUS. The form of a planet's disc exceeding a semicircle, but less than a circle.

GIB-FISH. A northern name for the male of the salmon.

GIBRALTAR GYN. Originally devised there for working guns under a low roof. (See GYN.)

GIDDACK. A name on our northern coasts for the sand-launce or sand-eel, Ammodytes tobianus.

GIFFOOT. A Jewish corruption of the Spanish spoken at Gibraltar and the sea-ports.

GIFT-ROPE [synonymous with guest-rope]. A rope for boats at the guest-warp boom.

GIG. A light narrow galley or ship's boat, clincher-built, and adapted for expedition either by rowing or sailing; the latter ticklish at times.

GILDEE. A name in the Scottish isles for the Morhua barbata, or whiting pout.

GILGUY. A guy for tracing up, or bearing a boom or derrick. Often applied to inefficient guys.

GILL. A ravine down the surface of a cliff; a rivulet through a ravine. The name is often applied also to the valley itself.

GILLER. A horse-hair fishing line.

GILLS. Small hackles for drying hemp.

GILPY. Between a man and boy.

GILSE. A common misnomer of grilse (which see).

GILT. A cant, but old term for money, on which Shakspeare (Henry V. act ii. scene 1) committed a well-known pun—

"Have for the gilt of France (O guilt indeed!)"

GILT-HEAD, OR GILT-POLL. The Sparus aurata, a fish of the European and American seas, with a golden mark between the eyes. (See SEDOW.)

GIMBALS. The two concentric brass rings, having their axles at right angles, by which a sea-compass is suspended in its box, so as to counteract the effect of the ship's motion. (See COMPASS.) Also used for the chronometers.

GIMBLETING. The action of turning the anchor round on its fluke, so that the motion of the stock appears similar to that of the handle of a gimlet when it is employed to bore a hole. To turn anything round on its end.

GIMLET-EYE. A penetrating gaze, which sees through a deal plank.

GIMMART. See GYMMYRT.

GIMMEL. Any disposition of rings, as links, device of machinery. (See GIMBALS.)

GIN. A small iron cruciform frame, having a swivel-hook, furnished with an iron sheave, to serve as a pulley for the use of chain in discharging cargo and other purposes.

GINGADO. See JERGADO.

GINGAL. A long barrelled fire-arm, throwing a ball of from 1/4 to 1/2 lb., used throughout the East, especially in China; made to load at the breach with a movable chamber. (See also JINGAL.)

GINGERBREAD-HATCHES. Luxurious quarters—

"Gingerbread-hatches on shore."

GINGERBREAD WORK. Profusely carved decorations of a ship.

GINGERLY. Spruce and smart, but somewhat affected in movement.

GINNELIN. Catching fish by the hand; tickling them.

GINNERS, OR GINNLES. The gills of fish.

GINSENG. A Chinese root, formerly highly prized for its restorative virtues, and greatly valued among the items of a cargo. It is now almost out of the Materia Medica.

GIP, TO. To take the entrails out of fishes.

GIRANDOLE. Any whirling fire-work.

GIRD, TO. To bind; used formerly for striking a blow.

GIRDLE. An additional planking over the wales or bends. Also, a frapping for girding a ship.

GIRT. The situation of a ship which is moored so taut by her cables, extending from the hawse to two distant anchors, as to be prevented from swinging to the wind or tide. The ship thus circumstanced endeavours to swing, but her side bears upon one of the cables, which catches on her heel, and interrupts her in the act of traversing. In this position she must ride with her broadside or stern to the wind or current, till one or both of the cables are slackened, so as to sink under the keel; after which the ship will readily yield to the effort of the wind or current, and turn her head thither. (See RIDE.)

GIRT-LINE. A whip purchase, consisting of a rope passing through a single block on the head of a lower mast to hoist up the rigging thereof, and the persons employed to place it; the girt-line is therefore the first rope employed to rig a ship. (Sometimes mis-called gant-line.)

GISARMS. An archaic term for a halbert or hand-axe.

GIVE A SPELL. To intermit or relieve work. (See SPELL.)

GIVE CHASE, TO. To make sail in pursuit of a stranger.

GIVE HER SO AND SO. The direction of the officer of the watch to the midshipman, reporting the rate of sailing by the log, and which requires correction in the judgment of that officer, from winds, &c., before marking on the log-board.

GIVE HER SHEET. The order to ease off; give her rope.

GIVE WAY. The order to a boat's crew to renew rowing, or to increase their exertions if they were already rowing. To hang on the oars.

GIVE WAY TOGETHER. So that the oars may all dip and rise together, whereby the force is concentrated.

GIVE WAY WITH A WILL. Pull heartily together.

GIVING. The surging of a seizing; new rope stretching to the strain.

GLACIS. In fortification, that smooth earthen slope outside the ditch which descends to the country, affording a secure parapet to the covered way, and exposing always a convenient surface to the fire of the place.

GLADENE. A very early designation of the sea-onion.

GLAIRE. A broadsword or falchion fixed on a pike.

GLANCE. (See NORTHERN-GLANCE.) Also, a name for anthracite coal.

GLASAG. The Gaelic name of an edible sea-weed of our northern isles.

GLASS. The usual appellation for a telescope (see the old sea song of Lord Howard's capture of Barton the pirate). Also, the familiar term for a barometer. Glass is also used in the plural to denote time-glass on the duration of any action; as, they fought yard-arm and yard-arm three glasses, i.e. three half-hours.—To flog or sweat the half-hour glass. To turn the sand-glass before the sand has quite run out, and thus gaining a few minutes in each half-hour, make the watch too short.—Half-minute and quarter-minute glasses, used to ascertain the rate of the ship's velocity measured by the log; they should be occasionally compared with a good stop watch.—Night-glass. A telescope adapted for viewing objects at night.

GLASS CLEAR? Is the sand out of the upper part? asked previously to turning it, on throwing the log.

GLASSOK. A coast name for the say, seath, or coal-fish.

GLAVE. A light hand-dart. Also, a sword-blade fixed on the end of a pole.

GLAYMORE. A two-handed sword. (See CLAYMORE.)

GLAZED POWDER. Gunpowder of which the grains, by friction against one another in a barrel worked for the purpose, have acquired a fine polish, sometimes promoted by a minute application of black-lead; reputed to be very slightly weaker than the original, and somewhat less liable to deterioration.

GLEN. An Anglo-Saxon term denoting a dale or deep valley; still in use for a ravine.

GLENT, TO. To turn aside or quit the original direction, as a shot does from accidentally impinging on a hard substance.

GLIB-GABBET. Smooth and ready speech.

GLIM. A light; familiarly used for the eyes.—Dowse the glim, put out the light.

GLOAMING. The twilight. Also, a gloomy dull state of sky.

GLOBE RANGERS. A soubriquet for the royal marines.

GLOBULAR SAILING. A general designation for all the methods on which the rules of computation are founded, on the hypothesis that the earth is a sphere; including great circle sailing.

GLOG. The Manx or Erse term which denotes the swell or rolling of the sea after a storm.

GLOOM-STOVE. Formerly for drying powder, at a temperature of about 140 deg.; being an iron vessel in a room heated from outside, but steam-pipes are now substituted.

GLOOT. See GALOOT.

GLOWER, TO. To stare or look intently.

GLUE. See MARINE GLUE.

GLUM. As applied to the weather, overcast and gloomy. Socially, it is a grievous look.

GLUT. A piece of wood applied as a fulcrum to a lever power. Also, a bit of canvas sewed into the centre of a sail near the head, with an eyelet-hole in the middle for the bunt-jigger or becket to go through. Glut used to prevent slipping, as sand and nippers glut the messenger; the fall of a tackle drawn across the sheaves, by which it is choked or glutted; junks of rope interposed between the messenger and the whelps of the capstan.

GLYN. A deep valley with convex sides. (See CWM.)

GNARLED. Knotty; said of timber.

GNARRE. An old term for a hard knot in a tree; hence Shakspeare's "unwedgeable and gnarled oak."

GNOLL. A round hillock. (See KNOLL.)

GNOMON. The hand; style of a dial.

GO! A word sometimes given when all is ready for the launch of a vessel from the stocks.

GO AHEAD! OR GO ON! The order to the engineer in a steamer.

GO ASHORE, TO. To land on leave.

GO ASHORES. The seamen's best dress.

GOBARTO. A large and ravenous fish of our early voyagers, probably a shark.

GOBBAG. A Gaelic name for the dog-fish.

GOB-DOO. A Manx term for a mussel.

GOBISSON. Gambesson; quilted dress worn under the habergeon.

GOBLACHAN. A Gaelic name for the parr or samlet.

GOB-LINE. See GAUB-LINE.

GOBON. An old English name for the whiting.

GOB-STICK. A horn or wooden spoon.

GO BY. Stratagem.—To give her the go by, is to escape by deceiving.

GOBY. A name of the gudgeon (which see). It was erroneously applied to white-bait.

GOD. We retain the Anglo-Saxon word to designate the ALMIGHTY; signifying good, to do good, doing good, and to benefit; terms such as our classic borrowings cannot pretend to.

GODENDA. An offensive weapon of our early times, being a poleaxe with a spike at its end.

GO DOWN. The name given to store-houses and magazines in the East Indies.

GODSEND. An unexpected relief or prize; but wreckers denote by the term vessels and goods driven on shore.

GOE. A creek, smaller than a voe.

GOELETTE [Fr.] A schooner. Also, a sloop-of-war.

GOGAR. A serrated worm used in the north for fishing-bait.

GOGLET. An earthen vase or bottle for holding water.

GOILLEAR. The Gaelic for a sea-bird of the Hebrides, said to come ashore only in January.

GOING ABOUT. Tacking ship.

GOING FREE. When the bowlines are slackened, or sailing with the wind abeam.

GOING LARGE. Sailing off the wind.

GOING THROUGH THE FLEET. A cruel punishment, long happily abolished. The victim was sentenced to receive a certain portion of the flogging alongside the various ships, towed in a launch by a boat supplied from each vessel, the drummers beating the rogue's march.

GOLDENEY. A name for the yellow gurnard among the northern fishermen.

GOLD FISH. The trivial name of the Cyprinus auratus, one of the most superb of the finny tribe. It was originally brought from China, but is now generally naturalized in Europe.

GOLD MOHUR. A well known current coin in the East Indies, varying a little in value at each presidency, but averaging fifteen rupees, or thirty shillings.

GOLE. An old northern word for a stream or sluice.

GOLLETTE. The shirt of mail formerly worn by foot soldiers. Also, a French sloop-of-war, spelled goelette.

GOMER. A particular form of chamber in ordnance, consisting in a conical narrowing of the bore towards its inner end. It was first devised for the service of mortars, and named after the inventor, Gomer, in the late wars.

GOMERE [Fr.] The cable of a galley.

GONDOLA. A light pleasure-barge universally used on the canals of Venice, generally propelled by one man standing on the stern with one powerful oar, though the larger kinds have more rowers. The middle-sized gondolas are upwards of 30 feet long and 4 broad, with a well furnished cabin amidships, though exclusively black as restricted by law. They always rise at each end to a very sharp point of about the height of a man's breast. The stem is always surmounted by the ferro, a bright iron beak or cleaver of one uniform shape, seemingly derived from the ancient Romans, being the "rostrisque tridentibus" of Virgil, as may be seen in many of Hadrian's large brass medals. The form of the gondola in the water is traced back till its origin is lost in antiquity, yet (like that of the Turkish caiques) embodies the principles of the wave-line theory, the latest effort of modern ship-building science. Also, a passage-boat of six or eight oars, used on other parts of the coast of Italy.

GONDOLIER. A man who works or navigates a gondola.

GONE. Carried away. "The hawser or cable is gone;" parted, broken.

GONE-GOOSE. A ship deserted or given up in despair (in extremis).

GONFANON [Fr.] Formerly a cavalry banneret; corrupted from the gonfalone of the Italians.

GONG. A kind of Chinese cymbal, with a powerful and sonorous tone produced by the vibrations of its metal, consisting mainly of copper and tutenag or zinc; it is used by some vessels instead of a bell. A companion of Sir James Lancaster in 1605 irreverently states that it makes "a most hellish sound."

GONGA. A general name for a river in India, whence comes Ganges.

GOOD-AT-ALL-POINTS. Practical in every particular.

GOOD-CONDUCT BADGE. Marked by a chevron on the lower part of the sleeve, granted by the admiralty, and carrying a slight increase of pay, to petty officers, seamen, and marines. One of a similar nature is in use in the army.

GOOD MEN. The designation of the able, hard-working, and willing seamen.

GOOD SHOALING. An approach to the shore by very gradual soundings.

GOOLE. An old term for a breach in a sea-bank.

GOOSANDER. The Mergus merganser, a northern sea-fowl, allied to the duck, with a straight, narrow, and serrated bill, hooked at the point.

GOOSE-NECK. A curved iron, fitted outside the after-chains to receive a spare spar, properly the swinging boom, a davit. Also, a sort of iron hook fitted on the inner end of a boom, and introduced into a clamp of iron or eye-bolt, which encircles the mast; or is fitted to some other place in the ship, so that it may be unhooked at pleasure. It is used for various purposes, especially for guest-warps and swinging booms of all descriptions.

GOOSE-WINGS OF A SAIL. The situation of a course when the buntlines and lee-clue are hauled up, and the weather-clue down. The clues, or lower corners of a ship's main-sail or fore-sail, when the middle part is furled or tied up to the yard. The term is also applied to the fore and main sails of a schooner or other two-masted fore-and-aft vessel; when running before the wind she has these sails set on opposite sides.

GOOSE WITHOUT GRAVY. A severe starting, so called because no blood followed its infliction.

GORAB. See GRAB.

GORD. An archaism denoting a deep hole in a river.

GORES. Angular pieces of plank inserted to fill up a vessel's planking at any part requiring it. Also, the angles at one or both ends of such cloths as increase the breadth or depth of a sail. (See GORING-CLOTH.)

GORGE. The upper and narrowest part of a transverse valley, usually containing the upper bed of a torrent. Also, in fortification, a line joining the inner extremities of a work.

GORGE-HOOK. Two hooks separated by a piece of lead, for the taking of pike or other voracious fish.

GORGET. In former times, and still amongst some foreign troops, a gilt badge of a crescent shape, suspended from the neck, and hanging on the breast, worn by officers on duty.

GORING, OR GORING-CLOTH. That part of the skirts of a sail cut on the bias, where it gradually widens from the upper part down to the clues. (See SAIL.)

GORMAW. A coast name for the cormorant.

GORSE. Heath or furze for breaming a vessel's bottom.

GO SLOW. The order to the engineer to cut off steam without stopping the play of the engine.

GOSSOON. A silly awkward lout.

GOTE. See GUTTER.

GOUGING. In ship-building (see SNAIL-CREEPING). Also, a cruel practice in one or two American states, now extremely rare, in which a man's eye was squeezed out by his rival's thumb-nail, the fingers being entangled in the hair for the necessary purchase.

GOUGINGS. A synonym of gudgeons (which see).

GOUKMEY. One of the names in the north for the gray gurnard.

GOULET. Any narrow entrance to a creek or harbour, as the goletta at Tunis.

GOURIES. The garbage of salmon.

GOVERNMENT. Generally means the constitution of our country as exercised under the legislature of king or queen, lords, and commons.

GOVERNOR. An officer placed by royal commission in command of a fortress, town, or colony. Governors are also appointed to institutions, hospitals, and other establishments. Also, a revolving bifurcate pendulum, with two iron balls, whose centrifugal divergence equalizes the motion of the steam-engine.

GOW. An old northern term for the gull.

GOWDIE. The Callionymus lyra, dragonet, or chanticleer.

GOWK. The cuckoo; but also used for a stupid, good-natured fellow.

GOWK-STORM. Late vernal equinoctial gales contemporary with the gowk or cuckoo.

GOWT, OR GOTE. A limited passage for water.

GOYLIR. A small sea-bird held to precede a storm; hence seamen call them malifiges. Arctic gull.

GRAB. The large coasting vessel of India, generally with two masts, and of 150 to 300 tons.—To grab. In familiar language, to catch or snatch at anything with violence.

GRABBLE, TO. To endeavour to hook a sunk article. To catch fish by hand in a brook.

GRAB SERVICE. Country vessels first employed by the Bombay government against the pirates; afterwards erected into the Bombay Marine.

GRACE. See ACT OF GRACE.

GRADE. A degree of rank; a step in order or dignity.

GRAFTING. An ornamental weaving of fine yarns, &c., over the strop of a block; or applied to the tapered ends of the ropes, and termed pointing.

GRAIN OF TIMBER. In a transverse section of a tree, two different grains are seen: those running in a circular manner are called the silver grain; the others radiate, and are called bastard grain.—Grain is also a whirlwind not unfrequent in Normandy, mixed with rain, but seldom continues above a quarter of an hour. They may be foreseen, and while they last the sea is very turbulent; they may return several times in the same day, a dead calm succeeding.

GRAIN. In the grain of, is immediately preceding another ship in the same direction.—Bad-grain, a sea-lawyer; a nuisance.

GRAIN-CUT TIMBER. That which is cut athwart the grain when the grain of the wood does not partake of the shape required.

GRAINED POWDER. That corned or reduced into grains from the cakes, and distinguished from mealed powder, as employed in certain preparations.

GRAINS. A five-pronged fish-spear, grains signifying branches.

GRAIN UPSET. When a mast suffers by buckles, it is said to have its grain upset. A species of wrinkle on the soft outer grain which will be found corresponding to a defect on the other side. It is frequently produced by an injudicious setting up of the rigging.

GRAM. A species of pulse given to horses, sheep, and oxen in the East Indies, and supplied to ships for feeding live-stock.

GRAMPUS. A corruption of gran pisce. An animal of the cetacean or whale tribe, distinguished by the large pointed teeth with which both jaws are armed, and by the high falcate dorsal fin. It generally attains a length of 20 to 25 feet, and is very active and voracious.

GRAMPUS, BLOWING THE. Sluicing a person with water, especially practised on him who skulks or sleeps on his watch.

GRAND DIVISION. A division of a battalion composed of two companies, or ordinary divisions, in line.

GRANDSIRE. The name of a four-oared boat which belonged to Peter the Great, now carefully preserved at St. Petersburg as the origin of the Russian fleet.

GRANNY'S BEND. The slippery hitch made by a lubber.

GRANNY'S KNOT. This is a term of derision when a reef-knot is crossed the wrong way, so as to be insecure. It is the natural knot tied by women or landsmen, and derided by seamen because it cannot be untied when it is jammed.

GRAPESHOT. A missile from guns intermediate between case-shot and solid shot, having much of the destructive spread of the former with somewhat of the range and penetrative force of the latter. A round of grapeshot consists of three tiers of cast-iron balls arranged, generally three in a tier, between four parallel iron discs connected together by a central wrought-iron pin. For carronades, the grape, not being liable to such a violent dispersive shock, they are simply packed in canisters with wooden bottoms.

GRAPNEL, OR GRAPLING. A sort of small anchor for boats, having a ring at one end, and four palmed claws at the other.—Fire grapnel. Resembling the former, but its flukes are furnished with strong fish-hook barbs on their points, usually fixed by a chain on the yard-arms of a ship, to grapple any adversary whom she intends to board, and particularly requisite in fire-ships. Also, used to grapple ships on fire, in order to tow them away from injuring other vessels.

GRAPNEL-ROPE. That which is bent to the grapnel by which a boat rides, now substituted by chain.

GRAPPLE, TO. To hook with a grapnel; to lay hold of. First used by Duilius to prevent the escape of the Carthaginians.

GRASP. The handle of a sword, and of an oar. Also, the small of the butt of a musket.

GRASS. A term applied to vegetables in general. (See FEED OF GRASS.)

GRASS-COMBERS. A galley-term for all those landsmen who enter the naval service from farming counties. Lord Exmouth found many of them learn their duties easily, and turn out valuable seamen.

GRATING-DECK. A light movable deck, similar to the hatch-deck, but with open gratings.

GRATINGS. An open wood-work of cross battens and ledges forming cover for the hatchways, serving to give light and air to the lower decks. In nautical phrase, he "who can't see a hole through a grating" is excessively drunk.

GRATINGS OF THE HEAD. See HEAD-GRATINGS.

GRATUITOUS MONEY. A term officially used for bounty granted to volunteers in Lord Exmouth's expedition against Algiers.

GRAVE, TO. To clean a vessel's bottom, and pay it over.

GRAVELIN. A small migratory fish, commonly reputed to be the spawn of the salmon.

GRAVELLED. Vexed, mortified.

GRAVING. The act of cleaning a ship's bottom by burning off the impurities, and paying it over with tar or other substance, while she is laid aground during the recess of the tide. (See BREAMING.)

GRAVING BEACH OR SLIP. A portion of the dockyard where ships were landed for a tide.

GRAVING-DOCK. An artificial receptacle used for the inspecting, repairing, and cleaning a vessel's bottom. It is so contrived that after the ship is floated in, the water may run out with the fall of the tide, the shutting of the gates preventing its return.

GRAVITATION. The natural tendency or inclination of all bodies towards the centre of the earth; and which was established by Sir Isaac Newton, as the great law of nature.

GRAVITY, CENTRE OF. The centre of gravity of a ship is that point about which all parts of the body, in any situation, balance each other. (See SPECIFIC GRAVITY.)

GRAWLS. The young salmon, probably the same as grilse.

GRAY-FISH, AND GRAY-LORD. Two of the many names given to the Gadus carbonarius or coal-fish.

GRAYLE. Small sand. Also, an old term for thin gravel.

GRAYLING. A fresh-water fish of the Salmo tribe. (See OMBRE.)

GRAYNING. A species of dace found on our northern coast.

GRAY-SCHOOL. A particular shoal of large salmon in the Solway about the middle of July.

GRAZE. The point at which a shot strikes and rebounds from earth or water.

GRAZING-FIRE. That which sweeps close to the surface it defends.

GREASY. Synonymous with dirty weather.

GREAT CIRCLE. One whose assumed plane passes through the centre of the sphere, dividing it equally.

GREAT-CIRCLE SAILING. Is a method for determining a series of points in an arc of a great circle between two points on the surface of the earth, for the purpose of directing a ship's course as nearly as possible on such arc; that is, on the curve of shortest distance between the place from which she sets out, and that at which she is to arrive.

GREAT GUN. The general sea-term for cannons, or officers of great repute.

GREAT GUNS AND SMALL-ARMS. The general armament of a ship. Also, a slang term for the blowing and raining of heavy weather.

GREAT-LINE FISHING. That carried on over the deeper banks of the ocean. (See LINE-FISHING.) It is more applicable to hand-fishing, as on the banks of Newfoundland, in depths over 60 fathoms.

GREAT OCEAN. The Pacific, so called from its superior extent.

GREAT SHAKES. See SHAKE.

GREAVES. Armour for the legs.

GRECALE. A north-eastern breeze off the coast of Sicily, Greece lying N.E.

GREEN. Raw and untutored; a metaphor from unripe fruit—thus Shakspeare makes Pandulph say:

"How green are you and fresh in this old world!"

GREEN-BONE. The trivial name of the viviparous blenny, or guffer, the backbone of which is green when boiled; also of the gar-fish.

GREEN-FISH. Cod, hake, haddock, herrings, &c., unsalted.

GREEN-HANDS. Those embarked for the first time, and consequently inexperienced.

GREEN-HORN. A lubberly, uninitiated fellow. A novice of marked gullibility.

GREENLAND DOVE. The puffinet; called scraber in the Hebrides; about the size of a pigeon.

GREENLAND WHALE. See RIGHT WHALE.

GREEN-MEN. The five supernumerary seamen who had not been before in the Arctic Seas, whom vessels in the whale-fishery were obliged to bear, to get the tonnage bounty.

GREEN SEA. A large body of water shipped on a vessel's deck; it derives its name from the green colour of a sheet of water between the eye and the light when its mass is too large to be broken up into spray.

GREEN-SLAKE. The sea-weed otherwise called lettuce-laver (which see).

GREEN TURTLE. The common name for the edible turtle, which does not yield tortoise-shell.

GREENWICH STARS. Those used for lunar computations in the nautical ephemeris.

GREEP. The old orthography of gripe.

GREGO. A coarse Levantine jacket, with a hood. A cant term for a rough great-coat.

GRENADE. Now restricted to hand-grenade, weighing about 2 lbs., and the fuze being previously lit, is conveniently thrown by hand from the tops of ships on to an enemy's deck, from the parapet into the ditch, or generally against an enemy otherwise difficult to reach. A number of grenades, moreover, being quilted together with their fuzes outwards, called a "bouquet," is fired short distances with good effect from mortars in the latter stages of a siege.

GRENADIERS. Formerly the right company of each battalion, composed of the largest men, and originally equipped for using hand-grenades. Now-a-days the companies of a regiment are equalized in size and other matters; and the title in the British army remains only to the fine regiment of grenadier guards.

GRENADO. The old name for a live shell. Thuanus says that they were first used at the siege of Wacklindonck, near Gueldres; and that their inventor, in an experiment in Venice, occasioned the burning of two-thirds of that city.

GREVE. A low flat sandy shore; whence graving is derived.

GREY-FRIARS. A name given to the oxen of Tuscany, with which the Mediterranean fleet was supplied.

GREY-HEAD. A fish of the haddock kind, taken on the coast of Galloway.

GREYHOUND. A hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.

GRIAN. A Gaelic term for the bottom, whether of river, lake, or sea.

GRIBAN. A small two-masted vessel of Normandy.

GRID. The diminutive of gridiron.

GRIDIRON. A solid timber stage or frame, formed of cross-beams of wood, for receiving a ship with a falling tide, in order that her bottom may be examined. The Americans also use for a similar purpose an apparatus called a screw-dock, and another known as the hydraulic-dock.

GRIFFIN, OR GRIFF. A name given to Europeans during the first year of their arrival in India; it has become a general term for an inexperienced youngster.

GRIG. Small eels.

GRILL, TO. To broil on the bars of the galley-range, as implied by its French derivation.

GRILSE. One of the salmon tribe, generally considered to be a young salmon on the return from its first sojourn at the sea; though by some still supposed to be a distinct fish.

GRIN AND BEAR IT. The stoical resignation to unavoidable hardship, which, being heard on board ship by Lord Byron, produced the fine stanza in "Childe Harold," commencing "Existence might be borne."

GRIND. A half kink in a hempen cable.

GRIP. The Anglo-Saxon grep. The handle of a sword; also a small ditch or drain. To hold, as "the anchor grips." Also, a peculiar groove in rifled ordnance.

GRIPE. Is generally formed by the scarph of the stem and keel. (See FORE-FOOT.) This is retained, or shaved away, according to the object of making the vessel hold a better wind, or have greater facility in wearing.—To gripe. To carry too much weather-helm. A vessel gripes when she tends to come up into the wind while sailing close-hauled. She gripes according to her trim. If it continues it is remedied by lightening forward, or making her draw deeper aft.

GRIPED-TO. The situation of a boat when secured by gripes.

GRIPES. A broad plait formed by an assemblage of ropes, woven and fitted with thimbles and laniards, used to steady the boats upon the deck of a ship at sea. The gripes are fastened at their ends to ring-bolts in the deck, on each side of the boat; whence, passing over her middle and extremities, they are set up by means of the laniards. Gripes for a quarter boat are similarly used.

GRITT. An east-country term for the sea-crab.

GROATS. An allowance for each man per mensem, assigned formerly to the chaplain for pay.

GROBMAN. A west-country term for a sea-bream about two-thirds grown.

GRODAN. A peculiar boat of the Orcades; also the Erse for a gurnard.

GROG. A drink issued in the navy, consisting of one part of spirits diluted with three of water; introduced in 1740 by Admiral Vernon, as a check to intoxication by mere rum, and said to have been named from his grogram coat. Pindar, however, alludes to the Cyclops diluting their beverage with ten waters. As the water on board, in olden times, became very unwholesome, it was necessary to mix it with spirits, but iron tanks have partly remedied this. The addition of sugar and lemon-juice now makes grog an agreeable anti-scorbutic.

GROG-BLOSSOM. A red confluence on the nose and face of an excessive drinker of ardent spirits; though sometimes resulting from other causes.

GROG-GROG. The soft cry of the solan goose.

GROGGY, OR GROGGIFIED. Rendered stupid by drinking, or incapable of performing duty by illness; as also a ship when crank, and birds when crippled.

GROGRAM. From gros-grain. A coarse stuff of which boat-cloaks were made. From one which Admiral Vernon wore, came the term grog.

GROINING. A peculiar mode of submarine embankment; a quay run out transversely to the shore.

GROMAL. An old word for gromet, or apprentice.

GROMET. A boy of the crew of the ships formerly furnished by the Cinque Ports (a diminutive from the Teutonic grom, a youth); his duty was to keep ship in harbour. Now applied to the ship's apprentices.

GROMMET, OR GRUMMET. A ring formed of a single strand of rope, laid in three times round; used to fasten the upper edge of a sail to its stay in different places, and by means of which the sail is hoisted or lowered. Iron or wooden hanks have now been substituted. (See HANKS.) Grommets are also used with pins for large boats' oars, instead of rowlocks, and for many other purposes.

GROMMET-WAD. A ring made of 1-1/2 or 2 inch rope, having attached to it two cross-pieces or diameters of the same material; it acts by the ends of these pieces biting on the interior of the bore of the gun.

GROOVE-ROLLERS. These are fixed in a groove of the tiller-sweep in large ships, to aid the tiller-ropes, and prevent friction.

GROPERS. The ships stationed in the Channel and North Sea.

GROPING. An old mode of catching trout by tickling them with the hands under rocks or banks. Shakspeare makes the clown in "Measure for Measure" say that Claudio's offence was—

"Groping for trouts in a peculiar river."

GROSETTA. A minute coin of Ragusa, somewhat less than a farthing.

GROUND, TO. To take the bottom or shore; to be run aground through ignorance, violence, or accident.—To strike ground. To obtain soundings.

GROUNDAGE. A local duty charged on vessels coming to anchor in a port or standing in a roadstead, as anchorage.

GROUND-BAIT, OR GROUNDLING. A loach or loche.

GROUND-GRU. See ANCHOR-ICE.

GROUND-GUDGEON. A little fish, the Cobitis barbatula.

GROUND-ICE. See ANCHOR-ICE.

GROUNDING. The act of laying a ship on shore, in order to bream or repair her; it is also applied to runnings aground accidentally when under sail.

GROUND-PLOT. See ICHNOGRAPHY.

GROUND-SEA. The West Indian name for the swell called rollers, or in Jamaica the north sea. It occurs in a calm, and with no other indication of a previous gale; the sea rises in huge billows, dashes against the shore with roarings resembling thunder, probably due to the "northers," which suddenly rage off the capes of Virginia, round to the Gulf of Mexico, and drive off the sea from America, affecting the Bahama Banks, but not reaching to Jamaica or Cuba. The rollers set in terrifically in the Gulf of California, causing vessels to founder or strike in 7 fathoms, and devastating the coast-line. H.M.S. Lily foundered off Tristan d'Acunha in similar weather. In all the latter cases no satisfactory cause is yet assigned. (See ROLLER.)

GROUND-STRAKE. A name sometimes used for garboard-strake.

GROUND-SWELL. A sudden swell preceding a gale, which rises along shore, often in fine weather, and when the sea beyond it is calm. (See ROLLER.)

GROUND-TACKLE. A general name given to all sorts of ropes and furniture which belong to the anchors, or which are employed in securing a ship in a road or harbour.

GROUND-TIER. The lowest water-casks in the hold before the introduction of iron tanks. It also implies anything else stowed there.

GROUND-TIMBERS. Those which lie on the keel, and are fastened to it with bolts through the kelson.

GROUND-WAYS. The large blocks and thick planks which support the cradle on which a ship is launched. Also, the foundation whereon a vessel is built.

GROUP. A set of islands not ranged in a row so as to form a chain, and the word is often used synonymously with cluster.

GROUPER. A variety of the snapper, which forms a staple article of food in the Bermudas, and in the West Indies generally.

GROWEN. See GROWN-SEA.

GROWING. Implies the direction of the cable from the ship towards the anchors; as, the cable grows on the starboard-bow, i.e. stretches out forwards towards the starboard or right side.

GROWING PAY. That which succeeds the dead-horse, or pay in prospect.

GROWLERS. Smart, but sometimes all-jaw seamen, who have seen some service, but indulge in invectives against restrictive regulations, rendering them undesirable men. There are also too many "civil growlers" of the same kidney.

GROWN-SEA. When the waves have felt the full influence of a gale.

GRUANE. The Erse term for the gills of a fish.

GRUB. A coarse but common term for provisions in general—

"In other words they toss'd the grub Out of their own provision tub."

GRUB-TRAP. A vulgarism for the mouth.

GRUFF-GOODS. An Indian return cargo consisting of raw materials—cotton, rice, pepper, sugar, hemp, saltpetre, &c.

GRUMBLER. A discontented yet often hard-working seaman. Also, the gurnard, a fish of the blenny kind, which makes a rumbling noise when struggling to disengage itself on reaching the surface.

GRUMMET. See GROMMET.

GRUNTER. A name of the Pogonias of Cuvier (a fish also termed the banded drum and young sheepskin); and several other fish.

GRYPHON. An archaic term for the meteorological phenomenon now called typhoon. (See TYPHOON.)

GUANO. The excrement of sea-birds, a valuable manure found in thick beds on certain islets on the coast of Peru, indeed, in all tropical climates. The transport of it occupies a number of vessels, called guaneros. It is of a dingy yellow colour, and offensive ammoniacal effluvium. Captain Shelvocke mentions it in 1720, having taken a small bark laden with it.

GUARA. The singular and ingenious rudder by which the rafts or balzas of Peru are enabled to work to windward. It consists of long boards between the beams, which are raised or sunk according to the required evolution. A device not unlike the sliding-keels or centre-boards lately introduced.

GUARANTEE. An undertaking to secure the performance of articles stipulated between any two parties. Also, the individual who so undertakes.

GUARD. The duty performed by a body of men stationed to watch and protect any post against surprise. A division of marines appointed to take the duty for a stated portion of time. "Guard, turn out!" the order to the marines on the captain's approaching the ship. Also, the bow of a trigger and the hilt of a sword.

GUARDA-COSTA. Vessels of war of various sizes which formerly cruised against smugglers on the South American coasts.

GUARD-BOARDS. Synonymous with chain-wales.

GUARD-BOAT. A boat appointed to row the rounds amongst the ships of war in any harbour, &c., to observe that their officers keep a good look-out, calling to the guard-boat as she passes, and not suffering her crew to come on board without previously having communicated the watch-word of the night. Also, a boat employed to enforce the quarantine regulations.

GUARD-BOOK. Report of guard; a copy of which is delivered at the admiral's office by the officer of the last guard. Also, a full set of his accounts kept by a warrant-officer for the purpose of passing them.

GUARD-FISH. A corruption of the word gar-fish.

GUARDIAN OF THE CINQUE PORTS. Otherwise lord warden (which see).

GUARD-IRONS. Curved bars of iron placed over the ornaments of a ship to defend them from damage.

GUARDO. A familiar term applied equally to a guard-ship or any person belonging to her. It implies "harbour-going;" an easy life.

GUARDO-MOVE. A trick upon a landsman, generally performed in a guard-ship.

GUARD-SHIP. A vessel of war appointed to superintend the marine affairs in a harbour, and to visit the ships which are not commissioned every night; she is also to receive seamen who are impressed in time of war. In the great ports she carries the flag of the commander-in-chief. Each ship takes the guard in turn at 9 A.M.; the vessel thus on duty hoists the union-jack at the mizen, and performs the duties afloat for twenty-four hours. The officer of the guard is accountable to the admiral for all transactions on the water during his guard.

GUBB, OR GUBBEN. The Erse term for a young sea-gull.

GUBBER. One who gathers oakum, driftwood, &c., along a beach. The word also means black mud.

GUDDLE, TO. To catch fish with the hands by groping along a stream's bank.

GUDGE, TO. To poke or prod for fish under stones and banks of a river.

GUDGEON. The Gobio fluviatilis, a well-known river-fish, 6 or 7 inches in length.

GUDGEONS. The metal braces with eyes bolted upon the stern-post for the pintles of the rudder to work in, as upon hinges. Also, the notches made in the carrick-bitts for receiving the metal bushes wherein the spindle of a windlass works.

GUEBRES. Fire-worshippers. (See PARSEES.)

GUERDON. A reward or recompense for good service.

GUERILLA. Originally an irregular warfare, but now used mostly for the irresponsible kind of partisan who carries it on.

GUERITE, OR GALITA. In fortification, a projecting turret on the top of the escarp, whence a sentry may observe the outside of the rampart.

GUERNSEY-FROCK. See JERSEY.

GUESS-WARP, OR GUEST-ROPE. A rope carried to a distant object, in order to warp a vessel towards it, or to make fast a boat. (See CHEST-ROPE.)

GUESTLINGS. The name of certain meetings held at the Cinque Ports.

GUEST-WARP BOOM. A swinging spar (lower studding-boom) rigged from the ship's side with a warp for boats to ride by.

GUFFER. A British sea-fish of the blenny tribe, common under stones at low-water mark, remarkable as being ovo-viviparous.

GUIDE. See FLOOR-GUIDE.

GUIDE-RODS. The regulators of the cross-head of an engine's air-pump.

GUIDES. Men supposed to know the country and its roads employed to direct a body of men on their march. The French and Belgians have "corps de guides."

GUIDON. The swallow-tailed silk flag in use by dragoon regiments, instead of a standard. Also, the sergeant bearing the same.

GUIDOR. A name in our old statutes synonymous with conder (which see).

GUILLEM. A sea-fowl. (See LAVY.)

GUILLEMOT. A web-footed diving sea-bird allied to the auks.

GUIMAD. A small fish of the river Dee.

GUINEA-BOAT. A fast-rowing galley, of former times, expressly built for smuggling gold across the Channel, in use at Deal.

GUINEAMAN. A negro slave-ship.

GUINEA-PIGS. The younger midshipmen of an Indiaman.

GUIST. The same as guess or guest (which see).

GULDEN. A name for a water-fowl.

GULF, OR GULPH. A capacious bay, and sometimes taking the name of a sea when it is very extensive; such are the Euxine or Black Sea, otherwise called the Gulf of Constantinople; the Adriatic Sea, called also the Gulf of Venice; the Mediterranean is itself a prodigious specimen. A gulf is, strictly speaking, distinguished from a sea in being smaller, and from a bay in being larger and deeper than it is broad. It is observed that the sea is always most dangerous near gulfs, from the currents being penned up by the shores.

GULF-STREAM. Is especially referable to that of Mexico, the waters of which flow in a warm stream at various velocities over the banks between Cuba and America, past the Bermudas, touch the tail of the great bank of Newfoundland, and thence in a sweep to Europe, part going north, and the other southerly down to the tropics again.

GULF-WEED. The Fucus natans, considered to belong to the Gulf Stream, and found floating in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. Many small crustacea live amongst it, and assume its bright orange-yellow hue.

GUL-GUL. A sort of chunam or cement made of pounded sea-shells mixed with oil, which hardens like a stone, and is put over a ship's bottom in India, so that worms cannot penetrate even when the copper is off.

GULL. A well-known sea-bird of the genus Larus; there are many species. Also, a large trout in the north. The name is, moreover, familiarly used for a lout easily deceived or cheated; thus Butler in Hudibras—

"The paltry story is untrue, And forg'd to cheat such gulls as you."

It is also applied to the washing away of earth by the violent flowing of water; the origin perhaps of the Kentish gull-stream.

GULLET. A small stream in a water-worn course.

GULL-SHARPER. One who preys upon Johnny Raws.

GULLY. The channels worn on the face of mountains by heavy rains. Also, a rivulet which empties itself into the sea.

GULLY SQUALL. Well known off tropical America in the Pacific, particularly abreast of the lakes of Leon, Nicaragua, &c. Monte Desolado gusts have dismantled many stout ships.

GULPIN. An awkward soldier; a weak credulous fellow [from the Gaelic golben, a novice].

GUM. "Shaking the gum out of a sail" is said of the effect of bad weather on new canvas.

GUMPUS. A fish, called also numscull, for allowing itself to be guddled.

GUN. The usual service name for a cannon (which see); it was originally called great gun, to distinguish it from the small or hand guns, muskets, blunderbusses, &c. The general construction for guns of cast metal is fairly represented by the old rule that the circumference at the breech ought to measure eleven calibres, at the trunnions nine, and at the muzzle seven, for iron; and in each instance two calibres less for brass guns. But the introduction of wrought-iron guns, built up with outer jackets of metal shrunk on one above another, is developing other names and proportions in the new artillery. (See BUILT-UP GUNS.) The weight of these latter, though differently disposed, and required not so much for strength as for modifying the recoil or shock to the carriage on discharge, is not very much less, proportionally, for heavy guns of full power, than that of the old ones, being about 1-1/4 cwt. of gun for every 1 lb. of shot; for light guns for field purposes it is about 3/4 cwt. for every 1 lb. of shot. Guns are generally designated from the weight of the shot they discharge, though some few natures, introduced principally for firing shells, were distinguished by the diameter of their bore in inches; with the larger guns of the new system, in addition to this diameter, the weight in tons is also specified.—Gun, in north-country cant, meant a large flagon of ale, and son of a gun was a jovial toper: the term, owed its derivation to lads born under the breast of the lower-deck guns in olden times, when women were allowed to accompany their husbands. Even in 1820 the best petty officers were allowed this indulgence, about one to every hundred men. Gunners also, who superintended the youngsters, took their wives, and many living admirals can revert to kindness experienced from them. These "sons of a gun" were tars, and no mistake.—Morning gun, a signal fired by an admiral or commodore at day-break every morning for the drums or bugles to sound the reveille. A gun of like name and nature is generally in use in fortresses; as is also the evening gun, fired by an admiral or commodore at 9 P.M. in summer, and 8 P.M. in winter, every night, on which the drums or bugles sound the retreat.

GUN AND HEAD MONEY. Given to the captors of an enemy's ship of war destroyed, or deserted, in fight. It was formerly assumed to be about L1000 per gun.

GUNBOAT. A light-draught boat fitted to carry one or more cannon in the bow, so as to cannonade an enemy while she is end-on. They are principally useful in fine weather, to cover the landing of troops, or such other occasions. They were formerly impelled by sails and sweeps but now by steam-power, which has generally increased their size, and much developed their importance. According to Froissart, cannon were fired from boats in the fourteenth century.

GUN-CHAMBERS. In early artillery, a movable chamber with a handle, like a paterero, used in loading at the breech. In more recent times the name has been used for the small portable mortars for firing salutes in the parks.

GUN-COTTON. An explosive compound, having some advantages over gunpowder, but so irregular hitherto in its action that it is at present used only for mining purposes. It consists of ordinary cotton treated with nitric and sulphuric acid and water, and has been named by chemists "pyroxylin," "nitro-cellulose," &c.

GUN-DECK. See DECKS.

GUN-FIRE. The morning or evening guns, familiarly termed "the admiral falling down the hatchway."

GUN-GEAR. Everything pertaining to its handling.

GUN-HARPOON. See HARPOON.

GUN-LADLE. See LADLE.

GUN-LOD. A vessel filled with combustibles, but rather for explosion than as a fire-ship.

GUN-METAL. The alloy from which brass guns are cast consists of 100 parts of copper to 10 of tin, retaining much of the tenacity of the former, and much harder than either of the components; but the late improved working of wrought-iron and steel has nearly superseded its application to guns.

GUNNADE. A short 32-pounder gun of 6 feet, introduced in 1814; afterwards termed the shell-gun.

GUNNEL. See GUNWALE.

GUNNELL. A spotted ribbon-bodied fish, living under stones and among rocks.

GUNNER, OF A SHIP OF WAR. A warrant-officer appointed to take charge of the ammunition and artillery on board; to keep the latter properly fitted, and to instruct the sailors in the exercise of the cannon. The warrant of chief-gunner is now given to first-class gunners.—Quarter-gunners. Men formerly placed under the direction of the gunner, one quarter-gunner being allowed to every four guns. In the army, gunner is the proper title of a private soldier of the Royal Artillery, with the exception of those styled drivers.

GUNNER-FLOOK. A name among our northern fishermen for the Pleuronectes maximus, or turbot.

GUNNER'S DAUGHTER. The name of the gun to which boys were married, or lashed, to be punished.

GUNNER'S HANDSPIKE. Is shorter and flatter than the ordinary handspike, and is shod with iron at the point, so that it bites with greater certainty against the trucks of guns.

GUNNER'S MATE. A petty officer appointed to assist the gunner.

GUNNER'S PIECE. In destroying and bursting guns, means a fragment of the breech, which generally flies upward.

GUNNER'S QUADRANT. See QUADRANT.

GUNNER'S TAILOR. An old rating for the man who made the cartridge-bags.

GUNNER'S YEOMAN. See YEOMAN.

GUNNERY. The art of charging, pointing, firing, and managing artillery of all kinds.

GUNNERY-LIEUTENANT. "One who, having obtained a warrant from a gunnery ship, is eligible to large ships to assist specially in supervising the gunnery duties; he draws increased pay."

GUNNERY-SHIP. A ship fitted for training men in the practice of charging, pointing, and firing guns and mortars for the Royal Navy. (See SEAMEN-GUNNERS.)

GUNNING. An old term for shooting; it is now adopted by the Americans. After the wreck of the Wager, on hearing the pistols fired at Cozens, "it was rainy weather, and not fit for gunning, so that we could not imagine the meaning of it."—Gunning a ship. Fitting her with ordnance.—Gunning, in mining, is when the blast explodes and does not rend the mass.—Gunning, signals enforced by guns.

GUNNING-BOAT, OR GUNNING-SHOUT. A light and narrow boat in which the fen-men pursue the flocks of wild-fowl.

GUNNY. Sackcloth or coarse canvas, made of fibres used in India, chiefly of jute.

GUNNY-BAGS. The sacks used on the India station for holding rice, biscuit, &c.; often as sand-bags in fortification.

GUN-PENDULUM. See BALLISTIC PENDULUM.

GUN-PORTS. See PORTS.

GUNPOWDER. The well-known explosive composition which, for its regularity of effect and convenience in manufacture and use, is still preferred for general purposes to all the new and more violent but more capricious agents. In England it is composed of 75 parts saltpetre to 10 sulphur and 15 charcoal; these proportions are varied slightly in different countries. The ingredients are mixed together with great mechanical nicety, and the compound is then pressed and granulated. On the application of fire it is converted into gas with vast explosive power, but subject to tolerably well-known laws.

GUN-ROOM. A compartment on the after-end of the lower gun-deck of large ships of war, partly occupied by the junior officers; but in smaller vessels it is below the gun-deck, and the mess-room of the lieutenants.

GUNROOM-PORTS. In frigates, stern-ports cut through the gun-room.

GUN-SEARCHER. An iron instrument with several sharp-pointed prongs and a wooden handle: it is used to find whether the bore is honey-combed.

GUN-SHOT. Formerly, the distance up to which a gun would throw a shot direct to its mark, without added elevation; as the "line of metal" (which see) was generally used in laying, this range was about 800 yards. But now that ranges are so greatly increased, with but slight additions to the elevation, the term will include the distances of ordinary "horizontal fire" (which see); as between ships, with rifled guns, it will not quite reach two miles: though when the mark is large, as a town or dockyard, it is still within long range at five miles' distance.

GUN-SIGHT. See DISPART, or SIGHTS.

GUN-SLINGS. Long rope grommets used for hoisting in and mounting them.

GUN-STONES. An old term for cannon-balls, from stones having been first supplied to the ordnance and used for that purpose. Shakspeare makes Henry V. tell the French ambassadors that their master's tennis-balls shall be changed to gun-stones. This term was retained for a bullet, after the introduction of iron shot.

GUN-TACKLE PURCHASE. A tackle composed of a rope rove through two single blocks, the standing part being made fast to the strop of one of the blocks. It multiplies the power applied threefold.

GUNTEN. A boat of burden in the Moluccas.

GUNTER'S LINE. Called also the line of numbers, and the line of lines, is placed upon scales and sectors, and named from its inventor, Edmund Gunter. It is a logarithmic scale of proportionals, wherein the distance between each division is equal to the number of mean proportionals contained between the two terms, in such parts as the distance between 1 and 10 is 10,000, &c.

GUNTER'S QUADRANT. A kind of stereographic projection on the plane of the equinoctial; the eye is supposed in one of the poles, so that the tropic, ecliptic, and horizon form the arches of the circles, but the hour-circles are all curves, drawn by means of several altitudes of the sun, for some particular latitude, for every day in the year. The use of this instrument is to find the hour of the day, the sun's azimuth, and other common problems of the globe; as also to take the altitude of an object in degrees.

GUNWALE, OR GUNNEL. Nearly synonymous with plank-sheer (which see); but its strict application is that horizontal plank which covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore drifts. The gunwale of a boat is a piece of timber going round the upper sheer-strake as a binder for its top-work.—Gunwale-to. Vessels heeling over, so that the gunwale is even with the water. When a boat sails with a free wind, and rolls each side, or gunwale, to the water's edge, she rolls gunwale-to.

GURGE. A gulf or whirlpool.

GURNARD. A fish of the genus Trigla, so called from its peculiar grunt when removed from the water. Falstaff uses the term "soused gurnet" in a most contemptuous view, owing to its poorness; and its head being all skin and bone gave rise to the saying that the flesh on a gurnard's head is rank poison.

GURNET-PENDANT. A rope, the thimble of which is hooked to the quarter-tackle of the main-yard; it is led through a hole in the deck, for the purpose of raising the breech of a gun, when hoisting in, to the level required to place it on its carriage.

GUSSOCK. An east-country term for a strong and sudden gust of wind.

GUST, OR GUSH. A sudden violent wind experienced near mountainous lands; it is of short duration, and generally succeeded by fine breezes.

GUT. A somewhat coarse term for the main part of a strait or channel, as the Gut of Gibraltar, Gut of Canso.

GUTTER [Anglo-Saxon geotan, to pour out or shed]. A ditch, sluice, or gote.

GUTTER-LEDGE. A cross-bar laid along the middle of a large hatchway in some vessels, to support the covers and enable them the better to sustain any weighty body.

GUY. A rope used to steady a weighty body from swinging against the ship's side while it is hoisting or lowering, particularly when, there is a high sea. Also, a rope extended from the head of sheers, and made fast at a distance on each side to steady them. The jib-boom is supported by its guys. Also, the name of a tackle used to confine a boom forward, when a vessel is going large, and so prevent the sail from gybing, which would endanger the springing of the boom, or perhaps the upsetting of the vessel. Also, a large slack rope, extending from the head of the main-mast to the head of the fore-mast, and sustaining a temporary tackle to load or unload a ship with.