DOLPHIN OF THE MAST. A kind of wreath or strap formed of plaited cordage, to be fastened occasionally round the lower yards to prevent nip, or as a support to the puddening, where the lower yards rest in the sling, the use of which is to sustain the fore and main yards by the jeers, in case the rigging or chains, by which those yards are suspended, should be shot away in action. (See PUDDENING.)

DOLPHIN-STRIKER. A short perpendicular gaff spar, under the bowsprit-end, for guying down the jib-boom, of which indeed it is the chief support, by means of the martingales. (See MARTINGALE.)

DOLVER. The reclaimed fen-grounds of our eastern coasts.

DOMESTIC NAVIGATION. A term applied to coasting trade.

DOMINIONS. It is a settled point that a conquered country forms immediately a part of the king's dominions; and a condemnation of ships within its harbours as droits of admiralty, is valid, although the conquest may not yet have been confirmed by treaty.

DON. A general name for Spaniards. One of the "perfumed" terms of its time.—To don. To put on.

DONDERBASS. See BOMBARD.

DONEY. The doney of the Coromandel coast is about 70 feet long, 20 feet broad, and 12 feet deep; with a flat bottom or keel part, which at the broadest place is 7 feet, and diminishes to 10 inches in the siding of the stem and stern-post. The fore and after bodies are similar in form from midships. Their light draught of water is about 4 feet, and when loaded about 9 feet. These unshapely vessels in the fine season trade from Madras and Ceylon, and many of them to the Gulf of Manar, as the water is shoal between Ceylon and the southern part of the continent. They have only one mast, and are navigated by the natives in the rudest way; their means for finding the latitude being a little square board, with a string fast to the centre, at the other end of which are certain knots. The upper edge of the board is held by one hand so as to touch the north star, and the lower edge the horizon. Then the string is brought with the other hand to touch the tip of the nose, and the knot which comes in contact with the tip of the nose tells the latitude.

DONJON. The keep, or place of retreat, in old fortifications. A redoubt of a fortress; the highest and strongest tower.

DONKEY-ENGINE. An auxiliary steam-engine for feeding the boilers of the principal engine when they are stopped; or for any other duties independent of the ship's propelling engines.

DONKEY-FRIGATE. Those of 28 guns, frigate-built; that is, having guns protected by an upper deck, with guns on the quarter-deck and forecastle; ship-sloops, in contradistinction to corvettes and sloops.

DONNY. A small fishing-net.

DOOLAH. A passage-boat on the Canton river.

DOOTED. Timber rendered unsound by fissures.

DORADO. The Coryphaena hippuris, an oceanic fish; often called "dolphin."

DOREY. A flat-floored cargo-boat in the West Indies, named after the fish John Dory.

DORNICLE. A northern name for the viviparous blenny.

DORRA. From the Gaelic dorga; a crab-net.

DORSAL FIN. The median fin placed upon the back of fishes.

DORY. A fish, Zeus faber, commonly known as "John Dory," or truly jaune doree, from its golden hues.

DOTTLE. The small portion of tobacco remaining unsmoked in the pipe.

DOUBLE, TO. To cover a ship with an extra planking, usually of 4 inches, either internally or externally, when through age or otherwise she has become loosened; the process strengthens her without driving out the former fastenings. Doubling, however, is a term applied only where the plank thus used is not less than 2 inches thick.—To double a cape. (See DOUBLING A CAPE.)

DOUBLE-ACTING ENGINE. One in which the steam acts upon the piston against a vacuum, both in the upward and downward movement.

DOUBLE-BANK A ROPE, TO. To clap men on both sides.

DOUBLE-BANKED. When two opposite oars are pulled by rowers seated on the same thwart; or when there are two men labouring upon each oar. Also, 60-gun frigates which carry guns along the gangway, as was the custom with Indiamen, are usually styled double-bankers.

DOUBLE-BITTED. Two turns of the cable round the bitts instead of one.

DOUBLE-BLOCK. One fitted with a couple of sheaves, in holes side by side.

DOUBLE-BREECHING. Additional breeching on the non-recoil system, or security for guns in heavy weather.

DOUBLE-CAPSTAN. One shaft so constructed as to be worked both on an upper and lower deck, as in ships of the line, or in Phillips' patent capstan.

DOUBLE-CROWN. A name given to a plait made with the strands of a rope, which forms part of several useful and ornamental knots.

DOUBLE DECK-NAILS. See DECK-NAILS.

DOUBLE DUTCH COILED AGAINST THE SUN. Gibberish, or any unintelligible or difficult language.

DOUBLE EAGLE. A gold coin of the United States, of 10 dollars; value L2, 1s. 8d., at the average rate of exchange.

DOUBLE-FUTTOCKS. Timbers in the cant-bodies, extending from the dead-wood to the run of the second futtock-head.

DOUBLE-HEADED MAUL. One with double faces; top-mauls in contradistinction to pin-mauls.

DOUBLE-HEADED SHOT. Differing from bar-shot by being similar to dumb-bells, only the shot are hemispherical.

DOUBLE-IMAGE MICROMETER. Has one of its lenses divided, and separable to a certain distance by a screw, which at the same time moves an index upon a graduated scale. When fitted to a telescope for sea use, as in chase, it is called a coming-up glass.

DOUBLE INSURANCE. Where the insured makes two insurances on the same risks and the same interest.

DOUBLE-IRONED. Both legs shackled to the bilboe-bolts.

DOUBLE-JACK. See JACK-SCREW.

DOUBLE-LAND. That appearance of a coast when the sea-line is bounded by parallel ranges of hills, rising inland one above the other.

DOUBLE-SIDED. A line-of-battle ship painted so as to show the ports of both decks; or a vessel painted to resemble one, as used to be frequent in the Indian marine.

DOUBLE-STAR. Two stars so close together as to be separable only with a telescope. They are either optically so owing to their accidental situation in the heavens, or physically near each other in space, and one of them revolving round the other.

DOUBLE-TIDE. Working double-tides is doing extra duty. (See WORK DOUBLE-TIDES.)

DOUBLE UPON, TO. See DOUBLING UPON.

DOUBLE WALL-KNOT. With or without a crown, or a double crown, is made by intertwisting the unlaid ends of a rope in a peculiar manner.

DOUBLE-WHIP. A whip is simply a rope rove through a single block; a double whip is when it passes through a lower tail or hook-block, and the standing end is secured to the upper block, or where it is attached.

DOUBLING. (See RANK.) Putting two ranks into one.

DOUBLING A CAPE. In navigation, is to sail round or pass beyond it, so that the point of land separates the ship from her former situation.

DOUBLING-NAILS. The nails commonly used in doubling.

DOUBLING UPON. In a naval engagement, the act of inclosing any part of a hostile fleet between two fires, as Nelson did at the Nile. The van or rear of one fleet, taking advantage of the wind or other circumstances, runs round the van or rear of the enemy, who will thereby be exposed to great danger and confusion.

DOUBLOON. A Spanish gold coin, value 16 dollars: L3, 3s. to L3, 6s. English.

DOUGH-BOYS. Hard dumplings boiled in salt water. A corruption of dough-balls.

DOUSE, TO. To lower or slacken down suddenly; expressed of a sail in a squall of wind, an extended hawser, &c. Douse the glim, your colours, &c., to knock down.

DOUT, TO. To put out a light; to extinguish; do out. Shakspeare makes the dauphin of France say in "King Henry V.:"—

"That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, And dout them."

DOUTER, OR DOUSER. An extinguisher.

D'OUTRE MER. From beyond the sea.

DOVER COURT BEETLE. A heavy mallet. There is an old proverb: "A Dover court; all speakers and no hearers."

"A Dover court beetle, and wedges with steel, Strong lever to raise up the block from the wheel."—Tusser.

DOVE-TAIL. The fastening or letting in of one timber into another by a dove-tailed end and score, so that they hold firmly together, and cannot come asunder endwise. The operation of cutting the mortise is called dove-tailing.

DOVE-TAIL PLATES. Metal plates resembling dove-tails in form, let into the heel of the stern-post and the keel, to bind them together; and also those used for connecting the stem-foot with the fore end of the keel.

DOWAL. A coak of metal in a sheave.

DOWBREK. A northern term for the fish also called spaerling or smelt.

DOWEL. A cylindrical piece of hard wood about three inches in diameter, and the same in length, used as an additional security in scarphing two pieces of timber together. Dowels are also used to secure the joinings of the felloes, or circumferential parts of wheels; and by coopers in joining together the contiguous boards forming the heads of casks.—Dowel, or dowel-bit, is the tool used to cut the holes for the dowels.

DOWELLING. The method of uniting the butts of the frame-timbers together with a cylindrical piece or tenon let in at each end.

DOWN ALL CHESTS! The order to get all the officers' and seamen's chests down below from off the gun-decks when clearing the ship for an engagement.

DOWN ALL HAMMOCKS! The order for all the sailors to carry their hammocks down, and hang them up in their respective berths in readiness to go to bed, or to lessen top-weight and resistance to wind in chase.

DOWN ALONG. Sailing coastways down Channel.

DOWN EAST. Far away in that bearing. This term, as down west, &c., is an Americanism, recently adopted into our vernacular.

DOWNFALLS. The descending waters of rivers and creeks.

DOWN-HAUL. A rope passing up along a stay, leading through cringles of the staysails or jib, and made fast to the upper corner of the sail to pull it down when shortening sail. Also, through blocks on the outer clues to the outer yard-arms of studding-sails, to take them in securely. Also, the cockpit term for a great-coat.

DOWN-HAUL TACKLES. Employed when lower yards are struck in bad weather to prevent them from swaying about after the trusses are unrove.

DOWN IN THE MOUTH. Low-spirited or disheartened.

DOWN KILLOCK! Let go the grapnel; the corruption of keel-hook or anchor.

DOWN OARS! The order on shoving off a boat when the men have had them "tossed up."

DOWNS. An accumulation of drifted sand, which the sea gathers along its shores. The name is also applied to the anchorage or sea-space between the eastern coast of Kent and the Goodwin Sands, the well-known roadstead for ships, stretching from the South to the North Foreland, where both outward and homeward-bound ships frequently make some stay, and squadrons of men-of-war rendezvous in time of war. It is defended by the castles of Sandwich, Deal, and Dover.

DOWN WIND, DOWN SEA. A proverbial expression among seamen between the tropics, where the sea is soon raised by the wind, and when that abates is soon smooth again.

DOWN WITH THE HELM! An order to put the helm a-lee.

DOWSING CHOCK. A breast-hook or piece fayed athwart the apron and lapped on the knight-heads, or inside stuff, above the upper deck; otherwise termed hawse-hook.

DOYLT. Lazy or stupid.

DO YOU HEAR THERE? An inquiry following an order, but very often needlessly.

DRABLER. A piece of canvas laced on the bonnet of a sail to give it more drop, or as Captain Boteler says—"As the bonnet is to the course, so in all respects is the drabler to the bonnet." It is only used when both course and bonnet are not deep enough to clothe the mast.

DRACHMA. A Greek coin, value sevenpence three farthings sterling; 14 cents. American or Spanish real.

DRAFT, OR DRAUGHT. A small allowance for waste on goods sold by weight.

DRAFT OF HANDS. A certain number of men appointed to serve on board a particular man-of-war, who are then said to be drafted. A transfer of hands from one ship to complete the complement of another.

DRAG. A machine consisting of a sharp square frame of iron encircled with a net, and commonly used to rake the mud off from the platform or bottom of the docks, or to clean rivers, or for dragging on the bottom for anything lost. Also, a creeper.

DRAG FOR THE ANCHOR, TO. The same as creep or sweep.

DRAGGING. An old word for dredging.

DRAGGING ON HER. Said of a vessel in chase, or rounding a point, when she is obliged to carry more canvas to a fresh wind than she otherwise would.

DRAG-NET. A trawl or net to draw on the bottom for flat-fish.

DRAGOMAN. The name for a Turkish interpreter; it is corrupted from tarij-man.

DRAGON. An old name for a musketoon.

DRAGON BEAM OR PIECE. A strut or abutment.

DRAGONET. A sea-fish, the gowdie, or Callionymus lyra.

DRAGON-VOLANT. The old name for a gun of large calibre used in the French navy, whence the term was adopted into ours.

DRAGOON. Originally a soldier trained to serve alike on horse or foot, or as Dr. Johnson equivocally explains it, "who fights indifferently on foot or on horseback." (See TROOP.) The term is now applied to all cavalry soldiers who have no other special designation.

DRAG-ROPES. Those used in the artillery by the men in pulling the gun backwards and forwards in practice and in action.

DRAGS. Whatever hangs over the ship into the sea, as shirts, coats, or the like; and boats when towed, or whatever else that after this manner may hinder the ship's way when she sails, are called drags.

DRAG-SAIL. Any sail with its clues stopped so as when veered away over the quarter to make a stop-water when veering in emergency. The drag-sail formed by the sprit-sail course was frequently used in former wars to retard the ship apparently running away until the enemy got within gun-shot.

DRAG-SAW. A cross-cut saw.

DRAG THE ANCHOR, TO. The act of the anchors coming home.

DRAKE. An early piece of brass ordnance.

DRAKKAR. A Norman pirate boat of former times.

DRAUGHT, OR DRAFT. The depth of water a ship displaces, or of a body of fluid necessary to float a vessel; hence a ship is said to draw so many feet of water when she requires that depth to float her, which, to be more readily known, are marked on the stem and stern-post from the keel upwards. Also, the old name for a chart. Also, the delineation of a ship designed to be built, drawn on a given scale, generally a quarter-inch to the foot, for the builders. (See SHEER-DRAUGHT.)

DRAUGHT-HOOKS. Iron hooks fixed on the cheeks of a gun-carriage for dragging the gun along by draught-ropes.

DRAUGHTSMAN. The artist who draws plans or charts from instructions or surveys.

DRAW. A sail draws when it is filled by the wind. A ship draws so many feet of water.—To let draw a jib is to cease from flattening-in the sheet.—Draw is also a term for halliards in some of the northern fishing-boats.—To draw. To procure anything by official demand from a dockyard, arsenal, or magazine.—To draw up the courses. To take in.—To draw upon a ship is to gain upon a vessel when in pursuit of her.

DRAWBACK. An abatement or reduction of duties allowed by the custom-house in certain cases; as for stores to naval officers in commission.

DRAW-BELLOWS. A northern term for limber-holes (which see).

DRAWING. The state of a sail when there is sufficient wind to inflate it, so as to advance the vessel in her course.

DRAWING UP. Adjusting a ship's station in the line; the converse of dropping astern.

DRAWING WATER. The number of feet depth which a ship submerges.

DRAWN BATTLE. A conflict in which both parties claim the victory, or retire upon equal terms.

DRAW-NET. Erroneously used for drag-net.

DRAWN FOR THE MILITIA. When men are selected by ballot for the defence of the country.

DRAW THE GUNS. To extract the charge of wad, shot, and cartridge from the guns.

DREDGE. An iron scraper-framed triangle, furnished with a bottom of hide and stout cord net above, used for taking oysters or specimens of shells from the bottom.

DREDGER-BOAT. One that uses the net so called, for turbots, soles, sandlings, &c.

DREDGING. Fishing by dragging the dredge.

DREDGING MACHINE. A large lighter, or other flat-bottomed vessel, equipped with a steam-engine and machinery for removing the mud and silt from the bottom, by the revolution of iron buckets in an endless chain.

DREDGY. The ghost of a drowned person.

DREINT. The old word used for drowned, from the Anglo-Saxon.

DRESS, TO. To place a fleet in organized order; also, to arrange men properly in ranks; to present a true continuous line in front.—To dress a ship. To ornament her with a variety of colours, as ensigns, flags, pendants, &c., of various nations, displayed from different parts of her masts, rigging, &c., on a day of festivity.

DREW. A name in our northern isles for the Fucus loreus, a narrow thong-shaped sea-weed.

DRIBBLE. Drizzling showers; light rain.

DRIES. A term opposed to rains on the west coast of Africa.

DRIFT. The altered position of a vessel by current or falling to leeward when hove-to or lying-to in a gale, when but little head-way is made by the action of sails. In artillery, a priming-iron of modern introduction used to clear the vent of ordnance from burning particles after each discharge. Also, a term sometimes used for the constant deflection of a rifled projectile. (See DEFLECTION.)

DRIFTAGE. The amount due to lee-way. (See DRIFT.)

DRIFT-BOLTS. Commonly made of steel, are used as long punches for driving out other bolts.

DRIFT-ICE. The debris of the main pack. (See OPEN ICE.)

DRIFTING-UP. Is used as relating to sands which are driven by the winds. As at Cape Blanco, on the coast of Africa, off the tail of the Desert of Zahara, where the houses and batteries have been thus obliterated.

DRIFT-MUD. Consisting chiefly of an argillaceous earth, brought down by the rivers, floated about, and successively deposited in banks; forming the alluvial and fertile European settlements of Guiana.

DRIFT-NET. A large net, with meshes of one inch, used in the pilchard fishery in August; also, for herrings and mackerel in March: used in drifting in the Chops of the Channel. Also, of strong gauze, for molluscs.

DRIFT-PIECES. Solid pieces fitted at the drifts, forming the scrolls on the drifts: they are commonly mitred into the gunwale.

DRIFTS. Detached masses of soil and underwood torn off the shore by floods and floating about, often mistaken for rocks and dangers. Also, in ship-building, those parts where the sheer is raised, and the rails are cut off, ending with a scroll; as the drift of the quarter-deck, poop-deck, and forecastle.

DRIFT-SAIL. A contrivance, by means of immersing a sail, to diminish the drift of a ship during a gale of wind. (See DRAGS.)

DRIFT-WAY. Synonymous with lee-way.

DRILL. Systematized instruction in the practice of all military exercises.

DRILL-SHIPS. A recent establishment of vessels in which the volunteers composing the Royal Naval Reserve are drilled into practice.

DRINK-PENNY. Earnest money at rendezvous houses, &c.

DRIP-STONE. The name usually given to filters composed of porous stone.

DRIVE, TO [from the Anglo-Saxon dryfan]. A ship drives when her anchor trips or will not hold. She drives to leeward when beyond control of sails or rudder; and if under bare poles, may drive before the wind. Also, to strike home bolts, tree-nails, &c.

DRIVER. A large sail formerly used with the wind aft or quartering. It was a square sail cut like a studding-sail, and set with a great yard on the end of the spanker-boom, across the taffrail. The name latterly has been officially applied to the spanker, both being the aftermost sails of a ship, the ring-tail being only an addition, as a studding or steering sail. (See STEERING-SAIL.) Also, the foremost spur in the bilge-ways, the heel of which is fayed to the fore-side of the foremost poppet, and the sides of it look fore and aft. Also, a sort of fishing-boat.

DRIVER-BOOM. The boom to which the driver is hauled out.

DRIVING A CHARGE. Ramming home the loading of a piece of ordnance.

DRIVING PILES. The motion of a ship bobbing in a head sea, compared to the vertical fall of monkeys on pile heads.

DROG. A Gaelic term, still in use, to express the agitation of the sea.

DROGHER. A small craft which goes round the bays of the West India Islands, to take off sugars, rum, &c., to the merchantmen.—Lumber-drogher is a vessel built solely for burden, and for transporting cotton and other articles coastwise.

DROGHING. The carrying trade of the West India coasts.

DROITS OF ADMIRALTY. Rights, or rather perquisites, which flowed originally from the king by grant or usage, and now reserved to the crown by commission. They are of two kinds—viz. the civil, or those arising from wrecks of the sea, flotsam, jetsam, and lagan, royal fishes, derelicts, and deodands, ejectamenta maris, and the goods of pirates, traitors, felons, suicides, and fugitives within the admiralty jurisdiction; and the prize droits, or those accruing in the course of war, comprehending all ships and goods taken without commission, all vessels improperly captured before hostilities have been formally declared, or found or by accident brought within the admiralty, salvage for all ships rescued, and all ships seized, in any of the ports, creeks, or roads of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland before any declaration of war or reprisals by the sovereign.

DROM-FISH. A large fish taken and cured in quantities in the Portuguese harbours of South America, as well for ship's stores as for the times of fast.

DROMON. A Saracen term denoting the large king's ships from the ninth to the fifteenth century.

DROP, OR DROOP. When a line diverges from a parallel or a curve. It is also a name generally used to the courses, but sometimes given to the depth of the square sails in general; as, "Her main top-sail drops seventeen yards." The depth of a sail from head to foot amidships.—To drop anchor is simply to anchor:—underfoot, in calms, a kedge or stream is dropped to prevent drift.

DROP ASTERN, TO. To slacken a ship's way, so as to suffer another one to pass beyond her. Also, distancing a competitor.

DROP DOWN A RIVER. Synonymous with falling (which see).

DROP-DRY. Completely water-tight.

DROPPING. An old mode of salute by lowering flags or uppermost sails.

DROPS. In ship-building, are small foliages of carved work in the stern munnions and elsewhere. The term also means the fall or declivity of a deck, which is generally of several inches.

DROUD. A fish of the cod kind, frequenting the west coast of Scotland.

DROUGES. Quadrilateral pieces of board, sometimes attached to the harpoon line, for the purpose of checking in some degree the speed of the whale.

DROW. An old northern term for a severe gust of wind accompanied with rain.

DROWNED LAND. Extensive marshes or other water-covered districts which were once dry and sound land.

DROWNING. An early naval punishment; Richard I. enacted that whoever killed a man on ship-board, "he should be bound to the corpse, and thrown into the sea."

DROWNING-BRIDGE. A sluice-gate for overflowing meadows.

DROWNING THE MILLER. Adding too much water to wine or spirits; from the term when too much water has been put into a bowl of flour.

DRUB. To beat. (Captain's despatch.) "We have drubbed the enemy."

DRUDGE. A name truly applied to a cabin-boy.

DRUGGERS. Small vessels which formerly exported fish from Dieppe and other Channel ports, and brought back from the Levant spices and drugs.

DRUM. See STORM-DRUM.

DRUM-CAPSTAN. A contrivance for weighing heavy anchors, invented by Sir S. Morland, who died in 1695.

DRUMHEAD COURT-MARTIAL. Sudden court held in the field for the immediate trial of thefts or misconduct. (See PROVOST-MARSHAL.)

DRUMHEAD OF CAPSTAN. A broad cylindrical piece of elm, resembling a millstone, and fixed immediately above the barrel and whelps. On its circumference a number of square holes are cut parallel to the deck, to receive the bars.

DRUMLER. An ancient transport. (See DROMON.) Also, a small piratical vessel of war.

DRUMMER. The marine who beats the drum, and whose pay is equivalent to that of a private of fourteen years' standing. Also, a singular fish of the corvinas kind, which has the faculty of emitting musical noises, whence it has acquired the name of crocros.

DRUXY. Timber in a state of decay, the condition of which is manifested by veins or spots in it of a whitish tint.

DRY-BULB THERMOMETER. The readings of this instrument, when compared with those of a wet-bulb thermometer, indicate the amount of moisture in the air, and thence the probability of rain.

DRY DOCK. An artificial receptacle for examining and repairing vessels. (See GRAVING-DOCK.)

DRY DUCKING. Suspending a person by a rope a few yards above the surface of the water.

DRY FLOGGING. Punishing over the clothes of a culprit.

DRY GALES. Those storms which are accompanied with a clear sky, as the northers of the Gulf of Mexico, the harmattan of Africa, &c.

DRY HOLY-STONING. See HOLY-STONE.

DRY-ROT. A disease destructive of timber, occasioned by a fungus, the Merulius lachrymans, which softens wood and finally destroys it; it resembles a dry pithy cottony substance, whence the name dry-rot, though when in a perfect state, its sinuses contain drops of clear water, which have given rise to its specific Latin name. Free ventilation and cleanliness appear to be the best preservatives against this costly evil.

DRY ROWING. "Row dry." Not to dash the spray with the blade of the oar in the faces of those in the stern-sheets.

D.S.Q. Means, in the complete book, discharged to sick quarters.

DUB. A northern term for a pool of deep and smooth water in a rapid river.

DUBB, TO. To smooth and cut off with an adze the superfluous wood.—To dubb a vessel bright, is to remove the outer surface of the plank completely with an adze. Spotting to examine planks with the adze is also dubbing.

DUBBAH, OR DUBBER. A coarse leathern vessel for holding liquids in India.

DUBHE. A standard nautical star in the Great Bear.

DUCAT. A well-known coin in most parts of Europe; the average gold ducat being nine shillings and sixpence, and the silver three shillings and fourpence.

DUCATOON. A coin of the Dutch Oriental Isles, of seven shillings. Also, a silver coin of Venice, value four shillings and eightpence.

DUCK, TO. To dive, or immerse another under water; or to avoid a shot.

DUCK. The finest canvas (No. 8) for small sails, is sometimes so called; but it is really a lighter cloth than canvas, and is greatly used by seamen and soldiers on tropical stations for frocks and trousers.

DUCKING. A penalty which veteran sailors inflict on those who, for the first time, pass the tropics, the equator, or formerly even the Straits of Gibraltar; and is usually performed in the grog-tub or half-butt, with the assistance of a few buckets of water; the usual fine, however, always prevents the penalty being inflicted.

DUCKING AT THE YARD-ARM. A marine punishment unknown, except by name, in the British navy; but formerly inflicted by the French for grave offences, thus: the criminal was placed astride a short thick batten, fastened to the end of a rope which passed through a block hanging at the yard-arm. Thus fixed, he was hoisted suddenly up to the yard, and the rope being then slackened at once, he was plunged into the sea. This chastisement was repeated several times; conformable to the sentence, a gun advertised the other ships of the fleet thereof that their crews might become spectators. If the offence was very great, he was drawn underneath the keel of the ship, which was called keel-hauling. (See KEEL-HAULING.)

DUCKS. The general name for a sailor's dress in warm climates. Also, the military English of Bombay. See also JEMMY DUCKS, the keeper of the poultry on board ship. Dried herrings, or Digby ducks in N. S.

DUCK-UP! A term used by the steersman when the main-sail, fore-sail, or sprit-sail hinders his seeing to steer by a landmark, upon which he calls out, "Duck-up the clue-lines of those sails," that is, haul the sails out of the way. Also, when a shot is made by a chase-piece, if the clue of the sprit-sail hinders the sight, they call out, "Duck-up," &c.

DUDGEON. An old word for the box-handle of a dirk; it is mentioned by Shakspeare with the blade of the ideal dagger which Macbeth saw before him. It also means offence, anger.

DUDS. A cant term for clothes or personal property. The term is old, but still in common use, though usually applied to clothing of an inferior quality, and even rags and tatters.

DUEL. A single combat at a time and place appointed in consequence of a challenge; a practice which had its uses and abuses, now prohibited.

DUELLO. An Italian word expressive of duelling, long appropriated into our language.

DUFF. Pudding or dough.

DUFFERS. Low pedlars; also those women who assist smugglers. Also, cowardly fellows.

DUG-OUT. A canoe.

DUKE OF YORK. A nickname for a particular storm trysail used in the northern seas.

DULCE, DULSE, DELSE. Iridea dulce, one of the edible fuci. It is an article of trade in America and Holland, and is plentiful on the rocky coasts of Ireland and western England. It probably derived its name from being sweet and pleasant, not requiring cooking.

DULEDGE PLATES. An old name for the tyre-streaks or iron plates on the circumference of the wheel of a field-piece. Duledge was also used for dowel, the wooden pin connecting the felloes.

DULL'D. When said of the wind, fallen or moderated.

DULLISH. The Manx term for the marine eatable leaf dillisk.

DUMB-CHALDER. A metal cleat bolted to the back of the stern-post for one of the pintles to rest upon, to lessen both strain and friction. (See PINTLES.)

DUMB-CLEAT. Synonymous with dumb-chalder and thumb-cleat.

DUMB-CRAFT. Lighters, lumps, or punts, not having sails. Also, a name for the screws used for lifting a ship on a slip.

DUMB-PINTLE. A peculiar rudder-strap. (See PINTLES.)

DUMB-SCRAPING. Scraping wet decks with blunt scrapers.

DUMFOUNDER. To confuse or perplex.

DUMMY. A wood frame landing-place in front of a pier.

DUMP-BOLT. A short bolt driven in to the plank and timber as a partial security previous to the thorough fastenings being put in.

DUMPS. Nearly synonymous with down in the mouth.

DUN. A hill, an eminence.

DUNBAR MEDLAR. A salted herring.

DUNDERHEAD. A term used for the devil, as also for a stupid fellow.

DUN-DIVER. A name for the goosander (Mergus merganser) in immature plumage.

DUNES. An Anglo-Saxon word still in use, signifying mounds or ridges of drifted sands. (See DOWNS.)

DUN-FISH. A peculiar preparation of cod for the American market, by which it retains a dun or dark yellow colour. Dunning is extensively carried on in the spring at Portsmouth and other places in New Hampshire.

DUNGAREE-DUCK. A name given to a small dried fish in Bombay.

DUNGAREE-STUFF. A blue or striped cotton cloth much worn by the seafaring classes in India.

DUNGIYAH. A broad-beamed flat-bottomed Arabian coaster trading between the Red Sea, Gulf of Persia, and the Malabar coast.

DUN-HEAD. In east-country barges the after-planking which forms the cabin.

DUNKIRKS. The well-known name for pirates who sailed out of Dunkirk.

DUNLIN. The name of a species of sand-piper (Tringa cinclus).

DUNN, OR DUIN. A Gaelic word for a fort, a hill, a heap, or a knoll.

DUNNAGE. Loose wood or other substances, as horns, rattan, coir, &c., to stow amongst casks and other cargo to prevent their motion. A vessel dunnages below the dry cargo to keep it from bilge-water.

DUNNAGE BATTENS. An extra floor in a merchantman to preserve the cargo from wet in the event of leakage. They are also used in magazines and sail-rooms so as to form a vacant space beneath the powder-barrels and ceiling.

DUNNAGED. Goods or packages secured with dunnage.

DUNNAGE GRATINGS. Express gratings placed on a steamer's deck to place cargo upon, serving as dunnage.

DUNTER. A northern designation of the porpoise.

DUNTER-GOOSE. A name in the Orkneys for the Somateria mollissima, or eider-duck.

DUR-MAST. An inferior oak of more rapid growth than the true English.

DUST. The refuse of biscuit in the bread-room. Also used for money. This term probably got into use in India, where the boat hire on the Ganges was added to by the Ghat-Manjees, in the way of "Dustooree." Moreover, a tumult or uproar.

DUTCH. Language, or rather gibberish, which cannot be understood by a listener. (See DOUBLE DUTCH.)

DUTCH-CAPER. A light-armed vessel of the seventeenth century, adapted for privateering, and much used by the Dutch.

DUTCH CONSOLATION. "Whatever ill befalls you, there's somebody that's worse;" or "It's very unfortunate; but thank God it's no worse."

DUTCH COURAGE. The excitement inspired by drinking spirits; false energy.

DUTCH EEL-SKUYT. A flat-bottomed somewhat cutter-rigged sea-boat, carrying lee-boards, fitted with two water-tight bulk-heads, making a well for keeping live fish in, the water being admitted through perforated plates fastened on inside the ribs.

DUTCHIFYING. A term used for converting square sterns to round ones.

DUTCHMAN'S BREECHES. The patch of blue sky often seen when a gale is breaking, is said to be, however small, "enough to make a pair of breeches for a Dutchman." Others assign the habiliment to a Welshman, but give no authority for the assumption.

DUTCH PLAICE. The Pleuronectes platessa. When small, it is called fleak; when large, Dutch plaice.

DUTCH PUMP. A punishment so contrived that, if the prisoner would not pump hard, he was drowned.

DUTCH RECKONING. A bad day's work, all in the wrong.

DUTCH REDS. High-smoked herrings prepared in Holland.

DUTIES. Taxes levied by the custom-house upon goods exported or imported.

DUTTEES. Coarse brown calicoes of India.

DUTY. The exercise of those functions which belong to the service, and are carried out from the highest to the lowest.

DWANG-STAFF. This is otherwise the wrain-staff (which see).

DYCE. A langridge for the old hail-shot pieces.

DYCE, OR THYST, "VERY WELL DYCE." (See THUS.)

DYELLE. A kind of mud-drag used for cleaning rivers on our eastern coasts.

DYING MAN'S DINNER. A snatch of refreshment when the ship is in extreme danger.

DYKE. From the Anglo-Saxon dic, a mound or bank; yet in some parts of England the word means a ditch.

DYKE-CAM. A ditch-bank.

DYNAMOMETER. An instrument for measuring the amount of force, and used for indicating the thrust or force of a screw-propeller, or any other motor. There are many, varying in mode according to the express purpose of each, but all founded on the same principle as the name expresses—power and measure, so that a steel-yard is the simplest exponent.



E.

E. The second class of rating on Lloyd's books for the comparative excellence of merchant ships. (See A.)

EAGER. See EAGRE.

EAGLE. The insignia of the Romans, borrowed also by moderns, as Frederic of Prussia and Napoleon. Also, a gold coin of the United States, of the value of five dollars, or L1, 0s. 10d. sterling, at the average rate of exchange.

EAGLE, OR SPREAD-EAGLE. A punishment inflicted by seizing the offender by his arms and legs to the shrouds, and there leaving him for a specified time.

EAGRE, OR HYGRE. The reciprocation of the freshes of various rivers, as for instance the Severn, with the flowing tide, sometimes presenting a formidable surge. The name seems to be from the Anglo-Saxon eagor, water, or AEgir, the Scandinavian god of the sea. (See BORE and HYGRE.)

EAR. A west-country term for a place where hatches prevent the influx of the tide.

EARING-CRINGLE, AT THE HEAD OF A SAIL. In sail-making it is an eye spliced in the bolt-rope, to which the much smaller head-rope is attached. The earings are hauled out, or lashed to cleats on the yards passing through the head corners or cringles of the sails.

EARINGS. Certain small ropes employed to fasten the upper corners of a sail to its yard, for which purpose one end of the earing is passed through itself; and the other end is passed five or six times round the yard-arm, and through the cringle; the two first turns, which are intended to stretch the head of the sail tight along the yard, are passed beyond the lift and rigging on the yard-arm, and are called outer turns, while the rest, which draw it close up to the yard, and are passed within the lift, &c., are called inner turns. Below the above are the reef-earings, which are used to reef the sail when the reef-tackles have stretched it to take off the strain.

EARNE. See ERNE.

EARNEST. A sum paid in advance to secure a seaman's service.

EARS. In artillery the lugs or ear-shaped rings fashioned on the larger bombs or mortar-shells for their convenient handling with shell-hooks. The irregularity of surface caused by the ears is intended to be modified in future construction by the substitution of lewis-holes (which see).

EAR-SHOT. The distance or range of hearing.

EARS OF A BOAT. The knee-pieces at the fore-part on the outside at the height of the gunwale.

EARS OF A PUMP. The support of the bolt for the handle or break.

EARTH. One of the primary planets, and the third in order from the sun.

EARTH-BAGS. See SAND-BAGS.

EAR-WIGGING. Feeding an officer's ear with scandal against an absent individual.

EASE, TO STAND AT. To remain at rest.

EASE AWAY! To slacken out a rope or tackle-fall.

EASE HER! In a steamer, is the command to reduce the speed of the engine, preparatory to "stop her," or before reversing for "turn astern."

EASE OFF! EASE OFF HANDSOMELY, OR EASE AWAY THERE! To slacken out a rope or tackle-fall carefully.

EASE THE HELM! An order often given in a vessel close-hauled, to put the helm down a few spokes in a head sea, with the idea that if the ship's way be deadened by her coming close to the wind she will not strike the opposing sea with so much force. It is thought by some that extreme rolling as well as pitching are checked by shifting the helm quickly, thereby changing the direction of the ship's head, and what is technically called "giving her something else to do."

EASE UP, TO. To come up handsomely with a tackle-fall.

EAST. From the Anglo-Saxon, y'st. One of the cardinal points of the compass. Where the sun rises due east, it makes equal days and nights, as on the equator.

EAST-COUNTRY. A term applied to the regions bordering on the Baltic.

EAST-COUNTRY SHIPS. The same as easterlings.

EASTERLINGS. Traders of the Baltic Sea. Also, natives of the Hanse Towns, or of the east country.

EASTERN AMPLITUDE. An arc of the horizon, intercepted between the point of the sun's rising and the east point of the magnetic compass.

EAST INDIA HOY. A sloop formerly expressly licensed for carrying stores to the E. I. Company's ships.

EASTING. The course made good, or gained, to the eastward.

EASTINTUS. From the Saxon, east-tyn, an easterly coast or country. Leg. Edward I.

EAST WIND. This, in the British seas, is generally attended with a hazy atmosphere, and is so ungenial as to countenance the couplet—

"When the wind is in the east, 'Tis good for neither man nor beast."

EASY. Lower gently. A ship not labouring in a sea.—Taking it easy. Neglecting the duty. "Not so violent."

EASY DRAUGHT. The same as light draught of water (which see).

EASY ROLL. A vessel is said to "roll deep but easy" when she moves slowly, and not with quick jerks.

EATING THE WIND OUT OF A VESSEL. Applies to very keen seamanship, by which the vessel, from a close study of her capabilities, steals to windward of her opponent. This to be done effectually demands very peculiar trim to carry weather helm to a nicety.

EAVER. A provincial term for the direction of the wind. A quarter of the heavens.

EBB. The lineal descendant of the Anglo-Saxon ep-flod, meaning the falling reflux of the tide, or its return back from the highest of the flood, full sea, or high water. Also termed sae-aebbung, sea-ebbing, by our progenitors.

EBB, LINE OF. The sea-line of beach left dry by the tide.

EBBER, OR EBBER-SHORE. From the Anglo-Saxon signifying shallow.

EBB-TIDE. The receding or running out of the sea, in contradistinction to flood.

EBONY. A sobriquet for a negro.

ECHELON. [Fr.] Expressing the field-exercise of soldiers, when the divisions are placed in a situation resembling the steps of a ladder, whence the name.

ECHINUS. A word lugged in to signify the sweep of the tiller. (See SEA-EGG.)

ECLIPSE. An obscuration of a heavenly body by the interposition of another, or during its passage through the shadow of a larger body. An eclipse of the sun is caused by the dark body of the moon passing between it and the earth. When the moon's diameter exceeds the sun's, and their centres nearly coincide, a total eclipse of the sun takes place; but if the moon's diameter be less, then the eclipse is annular.

ECLIPTIC. The great circle of the heavens which the sun appears to us to describe in the course of a year, in consequence of the earth's motion round that luminary. It is inclined to the equinoctial at an angle of nearly 23 deg. 28', called the obliquity of the ecliptic, and cuts it in two points diametrically opposite to each other, called the equinoctial points. The time when the sun enters each of these points (which occurs about the 20th of March and 23d of September, respectively) is termed the equinox, day and night being then equal; at these periods, especially about the time of the vernal equinox, storms, called the equinoctial gales, are prevalent in many parts of the globe. The two points of the ecliptic, which are each 90 deg. distant from the equinoctial points, are called the solstitial points. That great circle which passes through the equinoctial points and the poles of the earth, is called the equinoctial colure; and that which passes through the solstitial points and the poles of the earth, the solstitial colure.

ECLIPTIC CONJUNCTION. Is the moon in conjunction with the sun at the time of new moon, both luminaries having then the same longitude, or right ascension.

ECLIPTIC LIMITS. Certain limits of latitude within which eclipses take place, and beyond which they cannot occur.

ECONOMY. A term expressive of the system and internal arrangement pursued in a ship.

EDDY. Sometimes used for the dead-water under a ship's counter. Also, the water that by some interruption in its course, runs contrary to the direction of the tide or current, and appears like the motion of a whirlpool. Eddies in the sea not unfrequently extend their influence to a great distance, and are then merely regarded as contrary or revolving currents. It is the back-curl of the water to fill a space or vacuum formed sometimes by the faulty build of a vessel, having the after-body fuller than the fore, which therefore impedes her motion. It also occurs immediately after a tide passes a strait, where the volume of water spreads suddenly out, and curves back to the edges. The Chinese pilots call eddies, chow-chow water.

EDDY-TIDE. When the water runs back from some obstacle to the free passage of the stream.

EDDY-WIND. That which is beat back, or returns, from a sail, bluff hill, or anything which impedes its passage; in other words, whenever the edges or veins of two currents of air, coming from opposite directions, meet, they form an eddy, or whirlwind (which see). They are felt generally near high coasts intersected by ravines. The eddy-wind of a sail escaping, in a curve, makes the sail abaft shiver.

EDGE AWAY, TO. To decline gradually from the course which the ship formerly steered, by sailing larger, or more off, or more away from before the wind than she had done before.

EDGE DOWN, TO. To approach any object in an oblique direction.

EDGING OF PLANK. Sawing or hewing it narrower.

EDUCTION PIPE. A pipe leading from the bottom of a steam-cylinder to the upper part of the condenser in a steam-engine.

EEAST. The Erse term for a fish, still used in the Isle of Man.

EEKING. See EKEING.

EEL. A well-known fish (Anguilla vulgaris), of elongated form, common in rivers and estuaries, and esteemed for food.

EELER. An adept at knowing the haunts and habits of eels, and the methods of taking them.

EEL-FARES. A fry or brood of eels.

EEL-GRASS. A name for the sea-wrack (Zostera marina); it is thrown ashore by the sea in large quantities.

EEL-POUT. A name for the burbot (Molva lota), a fresh-water fish.

EEL-SKUYT. See DUTCH EEL-SKUYT.

EEL-SPEAR. A sort of trident with ten points for catching eels, called in Lincolnshire an eel-stang.

EFFECTIVE. Efficient, fit for service; it also means the being present and at duty.

EFFECTS. Personal property; sale of effects; or the auction of the property of deceased officers and seamen:

"The effects of that sail Will be a sale of effects."

EFFLUENT, OR DIVERGENT, applied to any stream which runs out of a lake, or out of another river. All tributaries are affluents.

EGG, TO. To instigate, incite, provoke, to urge on: from the Anglo-Saxon eggion.

EGGS. These nutritious articles of food might be used longer at sea than is usual. The shell of the egg abounds with small pores, through which the aqueous part of the albumen constantly exhales, and the egg in consequence daily becomes lighter, and approaches its decomposition. Reaumur varnished them all over, and thus preserved eggs fresh for two years; then carefully removing the varnish, he found that such eggs were still capable of producing chickens. Some employ, with the same intention, lard or other fatty substance for closing the pores, and others simply immerse the egg for an instant in boiling water, by which its albumen is in part coagulated, and the power of exhalation thereby checked. Eggs packed in lime-water suffered to drain, have after three years' absence in the West Indies been found good; this does not destroy vitality.

EGMONT, OR PORT EGMONT FOWLS. The large Antarctic gulls with dark-brown plumage, called shoemakers.

EGRESS. At a transit of an inferior planet over the sun, this term means the passing off of the planet from his disc.

EGYPTIAN HERRING. A northern coast name for the gowdanook, saury-pike, or Scomberesox saurus.

EIDER DUCK. The Somateria mollissima. A large species of duck, inhabiting the coasts of the northern seas. The down of the breast, with which it lines its nest, is particularly valuable on account of its softness and lightness.

EIGHEN. The index of the early quadrant.

EILET-HOLE [Fr. [oe]illet]. Refer to EYELET-HOLES.

EJECTAMENTA MARIS. Sea products thrown on the beach, whence they become droits of admiralty. (See JETSAM.)

EKE, TO. [Anglo-Saxon eacan, to prolong.] To make anything go far by reduction and moderation, as in shortening the allowance of provisions on a voyage unexpectedly tedious.

EKEING. A piece of wood fitted, by scarphing or butting, to make good a deficiency in length, as the end of a knee and the like. The ekeing is also the carved work under the lower part of the quarter-piece, at the aft part of the quarter-gallery.

ELBOW. That part of a river where it suddenly changes its direction, forming a reach to the next angle or turn. Also, a promontory. Also, a communication in a steam-pipe.

ELBOW-GREASE. Hard labour with the arms.

ELBOW IN THE HAWSE. Two crosses in a hawse. When a ship, being moored in a tide-way, swings twice the wrong way, thereby causing the cables to take half a round turn on each other. (See HAWSE.)

ELDEST. The old navy term for first, as applied to the senior lieutenant.

ELEMENTS. The first principles of any art or science.—The elements of an orbit are certain proportions which define the path of a heavenly body in space, and enable the astronomer to calculate its position for past or future times.

ELEPHANTER. A heavy periodical rain of Bombay.

ELEPHANT-FISH. The Chimaera callorynchus, named from the proboscis-like process on its nose. Though inferior to many other fish, it is yet palatable food.

ELEVATE! In great-gun exercise, the order which prepares for adjusting the quoin.

ELEVATED POLE. That terrestrial pole which is above the horizon of a spectator.

ELEVATION, IN SHIP-BUILDING. A vertical and longitudinal view of a vessel, synonymous with sheer-draught and sheer-plan. In other words, it is the orthographic design whereon the heights and lengths are expressed.

ELEVATION, ANGLE OF. In gunnery, that which the axis of the bore makes with the plane of the horizon. It is attained by sinking the breech of the gun until its axis points above the object to be fired at, so that the shot may describe a curve somewhat similar to a parabola, counteracting the action of gravity during its flight, and alighting upon the mark.

ELGER. An eel-spear, Promptorium Parvulorum, yielding many together.

ELIGUGS. Aquatic birds of passage of the auk kind on our western coasts; called also razor-bills.

ELITE. The elite of naval or military forces is the choicest selection from them.

ELLECK. The trivial name of the Trigla cuculus.

ELLIOT-EYE. The Elliot-eye, introduced by the Hon. Admiral Elliot, secretary of the Admiralty, is an eye worked over an iron thimble in the end of a hempen bower-cable, to facilitate its being shackled to the chain for riding in very deep water.

ELLIPSE. In geometry, an oval figure, formed of the section of a cone by a plane cutting through both its sides obliquely.

ELMO'S FIRE, ST. See COMPASANT.

ELONGATION. The angular distance of a heavenly body from the sun eastward or westward.

ELVERS. The name of eels on the western coasts of England.

EMBARGO. A temporary injunction or arrest laid on ships or merchandise by public authority, sometimes general, to prevent all ships departing, and sometimes partial, as upon foreign ships only, or to prevent their coming in. A breach of embargo, under the knowledge of the insured, discharges the underwriters from liability.

EMBARK, TO. To go on board, or to put on board a vessel.

EMBARKATION. Applies to the shipping of goods, troops, and stores. Also, the peculiar boats of a country. [Sp. embarcation.]

EMBARMENT. An old term, meaning an embargo.

EMBARRAS. An American term for places where the navigation of rivers or creeks is rendered difficult by the accumulation of driftwood, trees, &c.

EMBATTLE. To arrange forces for conflict.

EMBATTLED. In buildings, crenellated or pierced with loop-holes.

EMBEDDED. Firmly fixed in the mud or sand.

EMBER-GOOSE (OR IMBER?). A name for the great northern diver or loon (Colymbus glacialis).

EMBEZZLEMENT, or simple theft, by persons belonging to a merchant ship, is not deemed a peril of the sea. But robbery violently committed by persons not belonging to the ship, is a peril for which the insurer is answerable.—To embezzle is to misappropriate by a breach of trust.

EMBOUCHURE. A French word adopted as signifying the mouth of a river, by which its waters are discharged, or by which it is entered. The term is now in general use.

EMBRASURES. The cut or opening made through the parapet of a battery for the muzzle of the gun and the passage of the shot.

EMERALDERS. A term for the natives of Ireland, from its evergreen verdure.

EMERGENCY. Imminent want in difficult circumstances.

EMERSION. The prismatic space or solid raised out on the weather side by the inclination of the ship. In astronomy it signifies the re-appearance of a celestial object after undergoing occultation or eclipse.

EMINENCE. A high or rising ground overlooking the country around.

EMISSARY. A culvert or drain.

EMPRISE. A hazardous attempt upon the enemy.

EMPTIONS. Stores purchased.

EMPTY. Cargo discharged.

EMPTY BASTION. In fortification is a bastion whereof the terreplein, or terrace in rear of the parapet, not having been carried farther to the rear than its regular distance, leaves a large space within it of a lower level.

EMPTY BOTTLE. See MARINE OFFICER.

ENCAMPMENT. See CAMP.

ENCEINTE. [Fr.] A slightly bastioned wall or rampart line of defence, which sometimes surrounds the body of a place; when only flanked by turrets it is called a Roman wall.

ENCIRCLING REEFS. A name given to a form of coral reef, the architecture of myriads of zoophytes in tropical seas.

ENCOUNTER. The hostile meeting of two ships or squadrons; also, a conflict between troops.

ENDANGER, TO. To expose to peril.

ENDECAGON. In geometry, a plane figure of eleven sides and angles.

ENDELONG. The old English word for lengthways.

END FOR END. Reversing cordage, casks, logs, spars, &c.—To shift a rope end for end, as in a tackle, the fall is made the standing part, and the standing part becomes the fall; or when a rope runs out all a block, and is unreeved; or in coming to an anchor, if the stoppers are not well put on, and the cable runs all out end for end. (See AN-END.)

END OF A TRENCH. The place where the trenches are opened.

END-ON. Said particularly of a ship when only her bows and head-sails are to be seen, but generally used in opposition to broadside-on.

ENEMY. The power or people against whom war is waged.

ENFIELD RIFLE. The name of the present regulation musket for infantry, as made at the government works at Enfield, on an improvement of the Minie principle; whether the breach-loading rifle, which it is intended to substitute for this arm, will acquire the same title, remains to be determined.

ENFILADE FIRE. Is that which sweeps a line of works or men from one end to the other; it is on land nearly the equivalent to "raking fire" at sea.

ENGAGEMENT. In a naval sense, implies a battle at sea, or an action of hostility between single ships, squadrons, or fleets of men-of-war. Also, a conflict between two contending armies.

ENGINE, MARINE. (See MARINE ENGINES.) Engine was of old a military machine for warfare.

ENGINE-BEARERS. Sleepers, or pieces of timber placed between the keelson, in a steamer, and the boilers of the steam-engine, to form a proper seat for the boilers and machinery.

ENGINEER. A duly qualified officer appointed to plan and direct the attack or defence of a fortification, as well as the construction of fortified works. Engineers are also persons in charge of the machinery of steam-vessels. In government steamers they are in three classes, under warrant from the admiralty.

ENGINE-ROOM TELEGRAPH. A dial-contrivance by which the officer on deck can communicate with the engineer below.

ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERY MAN WILL DO HIS DUTY. This is introduced into a naval vocabulary, not as wanting explanation, but that in recording the most remarkable signal ever made to a fleet, we may remind the tyro, that these words of Nelson are admirably adapted for all the varying changes of sea-life, whether in times of war or peace.

ENGLISH. A term applied to the vessels and men of the whole empire, and its maritime population. "Indeed," says Burke in a letter to Admiral Keppel, "I am perfectly convinced that Englishman and seaman are names that must live and die together."

ENLARGE. The wind is said to enlarge when it veers from the side towards the stern.

ENLISTMENT. The engaging recruits for the army or marines.

ENNEAGON. A figure that has nine sides and as many angles.

ENNIS, OR INNIS. A term for island on the west coast of Ireland and in some parts of Scotland.

ENROL, TO. To enter the name on the roll of a corps.

ENSCONCE, TO. To intrench; to protect by a slight fortification.

ENSENADA [Sp. bay]. This term is frequently used on the coasts of Chili and Peru.

ENSIGN. [From the Anglo-Saxon segn.] A large flag or banner, hoisted on a long pole erected over the stern, and called the ensign-staff. It is used to distinguish the ships of different nations from each other, as also to characterize the different squadrons of the navy; it was formerly written ancient. Ensign is in the army the title of the junior rank of subaltern officers of infantry; from amongst them are detailed the officers who carry the colours.

ENTERING AT CUSTOM-HOUSE. The forms required of the master of a merchant ship before her cargo can be discharged.

ENTERING-LADDERS. Are of two sorts; one of them being used by the vessel's side in harbour or in fair weather, the other is made of ropes, with small staves for steps, and is hung out of the gallery to come aboard by, when the sea runs so high as to risk staving the boat if brought alongside; the latter are termed stern-ladders.

ENTERING-PORTS. Ports cut down on the middle gun-deck of three-deckers, to serve as door-ways for persons going in and out of the ship.

ENTERING-ROPES, OR SIDE-ROPES. Three are sometimes used to aid in climbing the ship's side. They hang from the upper part on the right, left, and middle of the steps. (See GANGWAY.) The upper end of an entering-rope is rove through an eye in the iron stanchion at the gangway; it is walled, crowned, and otherwise ornamentally fitted.

ENTERPRISE. An undertaking of difficulty and danger.

ENTRANCE. A term for the bow of a vessel, or form of the fore-body under the load water-line; it expresses the figure of that which encounters the sea, and is the opposite of run. Also, the first appearance of a person on board after entry on the ship's books. Also, the fore-foot of a ship. Also, the mouth of a harbour.

ENTRANCE MONEY. Payment on entering a mess.

ENTRY. In the ship's books; first putting down the appearance or day on which a man joins. Also, the forcing into an enemy's ship.

ENVELOPE. In astronomy, a band of light encircling the head of a comet on the side near the sun, and passing round it, so as to form the commencement of the tail.—In fortification, a work of single lines thrown up to inclose a weak ground; usually a mere earth-work.

EPAULE, OR SHOULDER. In fortification, that part of a bastion adjacent to the junction of a face with a flank. The actual meeting of these two lines forms the "angle of the shoulder."

EPAULEMENT. In fortification, a covering mass raised to protect from the fire of the enemy, but differing from a parapet in having no arrangement made for the convenient firing over it by defenders. It is usually adopted for side-passages to batteries and the like.

EPAULET. The bullion or mark of distinction worn on the shoulders by officers, now common to many grades, but till recently worn only by captains and commanders, whence the brackish poet—

"Hail, magic power that fills an epaulet, No wonder hundreds for thee daily fret!"

the meaning of which is now pointless.

EPHEMERIS, OR NAUTICAL ALMANAC. This in its wide sense, and recognizing its value to navigators and astronomers, must be pronounced one of the most useful of publications. How Drake and Magellan got on is matter of marvel, for sailors were not especially administered to till 1675, when the Kalendarium Nauticum, by Henry Seaman, Mariner, appeared; it comprised the usual matter of annual almanacs, and was enriched with such precepts and rules in the practice of navigation and traffic as are in daily use. But in 1767 our nautical almanac, a tabular statement of the geocentric planetary positions, which may be said to have created a new era in voyaging, was published; and this book, with certain alterations, was in force up to 1830, when a commission of the Royal Society and astronomers established the present Ephemeris, now so much valued. It is published annually, but computed to four years in advance, to accommodate those proceeding on long voyages. Attempts have been made in other countries to publish The Nautical Almanac, improved and corrected, but they are mere copies, corrected by the errata furnished annually in advance.

EPICYCLOID. A geometrical curve generated by making a circle roll upon the circumference of another circle; it is found useful in determining the figure of the teeth of wheel-work, and other purposes in mechanics. If the generating circle proceeds along the convexity of the periphery, it is called an upper or exterior epicycloid; if along the concavity, a lower or interior epicycloid.

EPOCH. The time to which certain given numbers or quantities apply.

EPROUVETTE. A small piece of ordnance specially fitted for testing the projectile force of samples of gunpowder.

EQUATED ANOMALY. This is also called the true anomaly, and is the distance of the sun from the apogee, or a planet from its aphelion, seen from the sun.

EQUATION, ANNUAL. See ANNUAL EQUATION.

EQUATION OF EQUINOXES. The difference between the mean and apparent places of the equinox.

EQUATION OF THE CENTRE. The difference between the true and mean anomalies of a planet.

EQUATION OF TIME. The difference between mean and apparent time, or the acceleration or retardation of the sun's return to the meridian.

EQUATOR. Called also the equinoctial line, or simply the line, being an imaginary circle round the earth, dividing the globe into two equal parts, and equally distant from both poles. Extended to the heavens, it forms a circle called the celestial equator, which in like manner divides the heavens into two equal parts, the northern and southern hemispheres.

EQUATORIAL CURRENT. The set, chiefly westerly, so frequently met with near the equator, especially in the Atlantic Oceans.

EQUATORIAL DOLDRUMS. See DOLDRUMS.

EQUATORIAL SECTOR. An instrument of large radius for finding the difference in the right ascension and declination of two heavenly bodies.

EQUATORIAL TELESCOPE. A glass so mounted that it enables the observer to follow the stars as they move equatorially.

EQUES AURATUS. An heraldic term for a knight.

EQUILATERAL TRIANGLE. A figure of three equal straight sides, and therefore of three equal angles.

EQUINOCTIAL. Synonymous with equator (which see).

EQUINOCTIAL GALES. Storms which are observed to prevail about the time of the sun's crossing the equator, at which time there is equal day and night throughout the world.

EQUINOCTIAL POINTS. See ECLIPTIC.

EQUINOXES. The two points of intersection of the ecliptic and the equator; so called, because on the sun's arrival at either of them, the night is everywhere equal in length to the day.

EQUIP, TO. A term frequently applied to the business of fitting a ship for a trading voyage, or arming her for war. (See FITTING.)

EQUIPAGE. An admiral's retinue. Camp equipage consists of tents, furniture, cooking utensils, &c.

EQUIPMENT. The complete outfit of an officer.

EQUITABLE TITLE. Either this, or a legal claim, are absolutely necessary to establish an insurable interest in a ship or cargo. (See QUALIFIED PROPERTY.)

ERIGONE. A name sometimes applied to the constellation Virgo.

ERNE. From the Anglo-Saxon earne, a vulture, a bird of the eagle kind. Now used to denote the sea-eagle.

ERRATIC WINDS. See VARIABLES.

ESCALADE. The forcing a way over a rampart or other defence, properly by means of ladders or other contrivances for climbing.

ESCAPE-VALVES. In marine engines. (See CYLINDER ESCAPE-VALVES.)

ESCARP. In fortification, that steep bank or wall immediately in front of and below the rampart, which is thus secured against being directly stormed by a superior force; it is generally the inner side of the ditch.

ESCHEATOR, THE KING'S. An officer at the exchequer of very ancient establishment, under the lord-treasurer, whose business it is to inform of escheats and casual profits of the crown, and to seize them into the king's hands.

ESCORT. A guard of troops attending an individual by way of distinction. Also, a guard placed over prisoners on a march.

ESCUTCHEON. The compartment in the middle of the ship's stern, where her name is written. [Derived from ex-scutum.]

ESKIPPAMENTUM. An archaism for tackle or ship-furniture.

ESKIPPER. Anglo-Norman to ship, and eskipped was used for shipped.

ESKIPPESON. An old law term for a shipping or passage by sea.

ESNECCA. In the twelfth century, a royal yacht, though some deem it to have been a kind of transport.

ESPIALS. Night watches afloat, in dockyards and harbours; generally a boat named by the ordinary.

ESPLANADE. Generally that space of level ground kept vacant between the works of a fortress and neighbouring houses or other obstructions; though originally applied to the actual surface of the glacis.

ESQUIMAUX. A name derived from esquimantsic, in the Albinaquis language, eaters of raw flesh. Many tribes in the Arctic regions are still ignorant of the art of cookery.

ESSARA. The prickly heat.

ESTABLISHMENT. The regulated complement or quota of officers and men to a ship, either in time of war or peace. The equipment. The regulated dimensions of spars, cabin, rigging, &c.—Establishment of a port. An awkward phrase lately lugged in to denote the tide-hour of a port.

ESTIVAL. See AESTIVAL.

ESTOC. A small stabbing sword.

ESTUARY. An inlet or shoaly arm of the sea into which a river or rivers empty, and subject to tidal influence.

ESTURE. An old word for the rise and fall of water.

ETESIAN WINDS. The Etesiae of the ancients; winds which blow constantly every year during the time of the dog-days in the Levant.

ETIQUETTE. Naval or military observances, deemed to be law.

EUPHROE. See UVROU.

EVACUATE. To withdraw from a town or fortress, in virtue of a treaty or capitulation; or in compliance with superior orders.

EVECTION. A term for the libration of the moon, or that apparent oscillatory inequality in her motion, caused by a change in the excentricity of her orbit, whereby her mean longitude is sometimes increased or diminished to the amount of 1 deg. 20', whereby we sometimes see a little further round one side than at others.

EVE-EEL. A northern name for the conger; from the Danish hav-aal, or sea-eel.

EVENING GUN. The warning-piece, after the firing of which the sentries challenge.

EVEN KEEL. When a ship is so trimmed as to sit evenly upon the water, drawing the same depth forward as aft. Some vessels sail best when brought by the head, others by the stern.

EVERY INCH OF THAT! An exclamation to belay a rope without rendering it.

EVERY MAN TO HIS STATION. See STATION.

EVERY ROPE AN-END. The order to coil down the running rigging, or braces and bowlines, after tacking, or other evolution. Also, the order, when about to perform an evolution, to see that every rope is clear for running.

EVERY STITCH SET. All possible canvas spread.

EVOLUTION. The change of form and disposition during man[oe]uvres, whether of men or ships; movements which should combine celerity with precision and regularity.

EWAGE. An old law term meaning the toll paid for water-passage.

EXALTATION. A planet being in that sign in which it is supposed to exert its utmost influence.

EXAMINATION. A searching by, or cognizance of, a magistrate, or other authorized officer. Now strict in navy and army.

EXCENTRIC. In a steam-engine, a wheel placed on the crank-shaft, having its centre on one side of the axis of the shaft, with a notch for the gab-lever.

EXCENTRIC ANOMALY. An auxiliary angle employed to abridge the calculations connected with the motion of a planet or comet in an elliptic orbit.

EXCENTRICITY. In astronomical parlance, implies the deviation of an elliptic orbit from a circle.

EXCENTRIC ROD, by its action on the gab-lever, which it catches either way, puts the engine into gear.

EXCHANGE. A term in the mercantile world, to denote the bills by which remittances are made from one country to another, without the transmission of money. The removal of officers from one ship to another. Also, a mutual agreement between contending powers for exchange of prisoners.

EXCHEQUERED. Seized by government officers as contraband. Marked with the broad arrow. It also refers to proceedings on the part of the crown against an individual in the Exchequer Court, where suits for debts or duties due to the crown are brought.

EXECUTION. The Lords of the Admiralty have a right to issue their warrant, and direct the time and manner, without any special warrant from the crown for that purpose.—Military execution is the ravaging and destroying of a country that refuses to pay contribution.

EXECUTIVE BRANCH. The commissioned and working officers of the ship, as distinguished from the civilian branch.

EXERCISE. The practice of all those motions, actions, and management of arms, whereby men are duly trained for service. Also, the practice of loosing, reefing, and furling sails.—Exercise, in naval tactics, may be applied to the forming a fleet into order of sailing, line of battle, &c. The French term is evolutions or tactiques, and may be defined as the execution of the movements which the different orders and disposition of fleets occasionally require, and which the several ships are directed to perform by means of signals. (See SIGNALS.)

EX LEX. An outlaw (a term of law).

EXPANSION-VALVE. In the marine engine, a valve which shuts off the steam in its passage to the slide-valves, when the piston has travelled a certain distance in the cylinder, leaving the remaining part of the stroke to be performed by the expansion of the steam.

EXPEDIENT. A stratagem in warfare.

EXPEDITION. An enterprise undertaken either by sea or land, or both, against an enemy; it should be conducted with secrecy and rapidity of movement.

EXPENDED. Used up, consumed, or asserted to be so.

EXPENSE BOOKS. Accounts of the expenditure of the warrant officer's stores, attested by the signing officers.

EXPLOITING. Transporting trees or timber by a river. Exploit was an old verb meaning to perform.

EXPLORATOR. An examiner of a country. A scout.

EXPORT, TO. To send goods or commodities out of a country, for the purposes of traffic, under the general name of exports.

EXPORTATION. The act of sending exports to foreign parts.

EXPORTER. The person who sends the exports abroad.

EXPOSED ANCHORAGE. An open and dangerous place, by reason of the elements or the enemy.

EXTERIOR SIDE. The side of an imaginary polygon, upon which the plan of a fortification is constructed.

EXTERIOR SLOPE. In fortification, that slope of a work towards the country which is next outward beyond its superior slope.

EXTERNAL CONTACT. In a transit of Mercury or Venus over the sun's disc, this expression means the first touch of the planet's and sun's edges, before any part of the former is projected on the disc of the luminary.

EXTRAORDINARIES. Contingent expenses.

EXTREME BREADTH. The extent of the midships, or dead flat, with the thickness of the bottom plank included.

EXTREMITIES. The stem and stern posts of a ship.

EY. See EYGHT.

EYE. The circular loop of a shroud or stay where it goes over the mast.—To eye, to observe minutely.—Flemish eye, a phrase particularly applied to the eye of a stay, which is either formed at the making of the rope; or by dividing the yarns into two equal parts, knotting each pair separately, and pointing the whole over after parcelling. This eye stopped by the mouse forms the collar. It is not strong, soon rots, and seldom, if ever, used now where strength is of more importance than neatness.

EYE-BOLTS. Those which have an eye or opening in one end, for hooking tackles to, or fastening ropes.

EYELET-HOLES, are necessary in order to bend a sail to its yard or boom, or to reef it; they consist of round holes worked in a sail to admit a cringle or small rope through, chiefly the robands (or rope-bands), and the points of the reef-line. (See SAIL.)

EYE OF A BLOCK-STROP. That part by which it is fastened or suspended to any particular place upon the sails, masts, or rigging; the eye is sometimes formed by making two eye-splices, termed lashing eyes, on the ends of the strop, and then seizing them together with a small line, so as to bind both round a mast, yard, or boom, as is deemed necessary.

EYE OF AN ANCHOR. The hole in the shank wherein the ring is fixed.

EYE OF A STAY. That part of a stay which is formed into a sort of collar to go round the mast-head; the eye and mouse form the collar.

EYE OF THE WIND. The direction to windward from whence it blows. (See WIND'S-EYE.)

EYE-SHOT. Within sight.

EYES OF A MESSENGER. Eyes spliced in its ends to lash together.

EYES OF A SHIP. (See EYES OF HER.)

EYES OF HER. The foremost part of the bay, or in the bows of a ship. In olden times, and now in Spanish and Italian boats, as well as Chinese junks, an eye is painted on each bow. The hawse-holes also are deemed the "eyes of her."

EYE-SORE. Any disagreeable object.

EYE-SPLICE. (See SPLICE.) A kind of splice made by turning the end of a rope back, and the strands passed through the standing part.—Eye of a splice, the strand turned up, by the fid or marline-spike, to receive the opposite strand.

EYGHT. An alluvial river-island, where osiers usually grow, called also ait, ayt, ey, eyet, or eyot. Also, the thickest part of a scule of herrings; when this is scattered by the fishermen, it is termed "breaking the ey."



F.

FACE. The edge of a sharp instrument. Also, the word of command to soldiers, marines, and small-arm men, to turn upon the heel a quarter or half a circle round in the direction ordered.

FACED. Turned up with facings on the cuffs and collars of uniforms and regimentals.

FACE OF A GUN. The surface of the metal at the extremity of the muzzle.

FACE-PIECE. A piece of elm tabled on to the knee of the head, in the fore-part, to assist the conversion of the main piece; and likewise to shorten the upper bolts, and prevent the cables from rubbing against them as the knee gets worn.

FACES OF A WORK. In fortification, are the two lines forming its most prominent salient angle.

FACHON. An Anglo-Norman term for a sword or falchion.

FACING. Letting one piece of timber into another with a rabbet to give additional strength or finish. Also, a movement for forming soldiers and small-arm men.—Facings. The front of regimentals and uniforms.

FACK. See FAKE.

FACTOR. A commercial superintendent, or agent residing beyond sea, commissioned by merchants to buy or sell goods on their account by a letter of attorney.

FACTORAGE. A certain percentage paid to the factor by the merchant on all he buys or sells.

FACTORY. A place where a considerable number of factors reside; as Lisbon, Leghorn, Calcutta, &c. Factory comprehends the business of a firm or company, as that of the India Company at Canton, or the Hudson's Bay Fur Company in North America.

FACULAE. Luminous streaks upon the disc of the sun, among which the maculae, or dark spots, usually appear.

FADOME. The old form used for fathom (which see).

FAFF, TO. To blow in flaws.

FAG, TO. To tire.—A fag. A deputy labouring-man, or one who works hard for another.

FAG-END. Is the end of any rope. This term is also applied to the end of a rope when it has become untwisted.

FAGGOTS. Men who used to be hired to answer to names on the books, when the crew were mustered by the clerk of the cheque. Such cheating was once still more prevalent in the army.

FAGOT. A billet for stowing casks. A fascine (which see).

FAG-OUT, TO. To wear out the end of a rope or end of canvas.

FAIK, OR FALK. A name in the Hebrides for the sea-fowl razor-bill (Alca torda).

FAIR. A general term for the wind when favourable to a ship's course, in opposition to contrary or foul; fair is more comprehensive than large, since it includes about 16 points, whereas large is confined to the beam or quarter, that is, to a wind which crosses the keel at right angles, or obliquely from the stern, but never to one right astern. (See LARGE and SCANT.)—Fair, in ship-building, denotes the evenness or regularity of a curve or line.—To fair, means to clip the timbers fair.

FAIR-CURVE. In delineating ships, is a winding line whose shape is varied according to the part of the ship it is intended to describe. This curve is not answerable to any of the figures of conic sections, although it occasionally partakes of them all.

FAIRING. Sheering a ship in construction. Also, the draught of a ship. To run off a great number of different lines or curves, in order to ascertain the fairness in point of curvature of every part, and the beauty of the whole.

FAIR-LEAD. Is applied to ropes as suffering the least friction in a block, when they are said to lead fair.

FAIR-LEADER. A thimble or cringle to guide a rope. A strip of board with holes in it, for running-rigging to lead through, and be kept clear, so as to be easily distinguished at night.

FAIR-MAID. A west-country term for a dried pilchard.

FAIR-WAY. The navigable channel of a harbour for ships passing up or down; so that if any vessels are anchored therein, they are said to lie in the fair-way. (See PILOT'S FAIR-WAY.) Also, when the proper course is gained out of a channel.

FAIR-WEATHER. That to which a ship may carry the small sails.

FAKE. One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies disposed in a coil. (See COILING.) The fakes are greater or smaller in proportion to the space which a cable is allowed to occupy.

FALCON. In early times a small cannon, having a length of about 7 feet, a diameter of bore of 3 inches, and throwing a ball of nearly 3 lbs. weight, with a point-blank range of 130 paces, and a random one of 1500.

FALCONET. A primitive cannon smaller than the falcon; it threw a ball of 1-1/2 lb.

FALK. See FAKE.

FALL. A vertical descent of a river through a narrow rocky pass, or over a ledge, to the impediment of navigation. Also, the loose end of a tackle, or that part to which the power is applied in hoisting, and on which the people pull. Also, in ship-building, the descent of a deck from a fair-curve lengthwise, as frequently seen in merchantmen and yachts, to give height to the commander's cabin, and sometimes forward at the hawse-holes. Also, a large cutting down of timber. Also, North American English for autumn, when the navigation of northern inland waters is about to close till the succeeding spring.

FALL, TO. A town or fortress is said to fall when it is compelled to surrender to besiegers.

FALL ABOARD OF, TO. To strike another vessel, or have a collision with it. Usually applied to the motion of a disabled ship coming in contact with another.

FALL! A FALL! The cry to denote that the harpoon has been effectively delivered into the body of a whale.

FALL ASTERN, TO. To lessen a ship's way so as to allow another to get ahead of her. To be driven backwards.

FALL BACK, TO. To recede from any position previously occupied.

FALL CALM, TO. Speaking of the weather, implies a total cessation of the wind.

FALL CLOUD. See STRATUS.

FALL DOWN, TO. To sail, drift, or be towed to some lower part nearer a river's mouth or opening.

FALLEN-STAR. A name for the jelly-fish or medusa, frequently thrown ashore in summer and autumn.

FALL FOUL OF, TO. To reprimand severely. (See FALL ABOARD OF.)

FALL IN, TO. The order to form, or take assigned places in ranks. (See ASSEMBLY.)

FALLING GLASS. When the mercury of the barometer is sinking in the tube.

FALLING HOME. When the top-sides are inclined within the perpendicular; opposite of wall-sided. (See TUMBLING HOME.)

FALLING OFF. The opposite of griping, or coming up to the wind; it is the movement or direction of the ship's head to leeward of the point whither it was lately directed, particularly when she sails near the wind, or lies by. Also, the angle contained between her nearest approach to the direction of the wind, and her furthest declination from it when trying.

FALLING OUT. When the top-sides project beyond a perpendicular, as in flaring.

FALLING STARS. Meteors which have very much the appearance of real stars. They were falsely regarded as foreboders of wind, as Seneca in Hippolytus, "Ocior cursum rapiente flamma stella cum ventis agitata longos porrigit ignes." Some are earthy, others metallic.

FALLING TIDE, OR EBB OF TIDE. This phrase, implying a previous flow of tide towards high-water, requires here only a partial explanation: the sea, after swelling for about six hours, and thus entering the mouths of rivers, and rising along the sea-shore more or less, according to the moon's age and other circumstances, rests for a quarter of an hour, and then retreats or ebbs during the next six hours. After a similar pause the phenomenon recommences,—occupying altogether about twelve hours and fifty minutes. A table of the daily time of high-water at each port is requisite for the shipping. There are curious variations to this law, as when strong rivers rise and fall, and yet do not admit salt water. Their currents, indeed, of fresh water, are found far off the land, as in the Tiber, and off several in the West Indies, South America, &c. (See TIDE.)

FALL IN WITH, TO. To meet, when speaking of a ship; to discover, when speaking of the land.

FALL OF TIDE. An ebb.

FALL OUT, TO. To increase in breadth. Among soldiers and small-arm men, to quit the ranks of a company.

FALLS. When a ship is not flush, this is the term given to those risings of some parts of her decks (which she may have) more than others.

FALL-WIND. A sudden gust.

FALMADAIR. An old word signifying rudder, or a pilot.

FALSE ALARM. See ALARM.

FALSE ATTACK. A feigned assault, made to induce a diversion or distraction of the enemy's forces, in order that the true object elsewhere may be carried.

FALSE COLOURS. To sail under false colours and chase is an allowable stratagem of war, but firing under them is not permitted by the maritime law of England.

FALSE FIRE, BLUE FLAMES. A composition of combustibles filled into a wooden tube, which, upon being set fire to, burns with a light blue flame from a half to several minutes. They are principally used as night-signals, but often to deceive an enemy.

FALSE KEEL. A kind of supplemental or additional keel secured under the main one, to protect it should the ship happen to strike the ground.

FALSE KELSON, OR KELSON RIDER. A piece of timber wrought longitudinally above the main kelson.

FALSE MUSTER. An incorrect statement of the crew on the ship's books, which if proved subjects the captain to cashiering.

FALSE PAPERS. Frequently carried by slavers and smugglers.

FALSE POST. See FALSE STERN-POST.

FALSE RAIL. A thin plank fayed at the head-rails as a strengthener.

FALSE STEM. A hard timber fayed to the fore-part of the main stem, its tail covering the fore-end of the keel. (See CUT-WATER.)

FALSE STERN. An additional stern fixed on the main one, to increase the length and improve the appearance of a vessel.

FALSE STERN-POST. A piece bolted to the after-edge of the main stern-post to improve steerage, and protect it should the ship tail aground.

FAMILY-HEAD. When the stem was surmounted with several full-length figures, as was the custom many years ago.

FAMLAGH. The Erse or Manx term for oar or ore weed, wrack, or manure of sea-weed.

FANAL [Fr.] A lighthouse.

FANCY-LINE. A line rove through a block at the jaws of a gaff, used as a down-haul. Also, a line used for cross-hauling the lee topping-lift. Also, a cord laid up neatly for sashed cabin-windows. Sometimes used for tracing-line.

FANE. An old term for weather-cock: "a fayne of a schipe." (See VANE.)

FANG, TO. To pour water into a pump in order to fetch it, when otherwise the boxes do not hold the water left on them.

FANGS. The valves of the pump-boxes.

FANIONS. Small flags used in surveying stations, named after the bannerets carried by horse brigades, and corrupted from the Italian word gonfalone, a standard.

FANNAG-VARRY. The Erse term for a shag or cormorant, still in use on our north-western shores, and in the Isle of Man.

FANNING. The technical phrase for breadthening the after-part of the tops. Also, widening in general.

FANNING-BREEZE. One so gentle that the sail alternately swells and collapses.

FANTODS. A name given to the fidgets of officers, who are styled jib-and-staysail Jacks.

FARDAGE. Dunnage; when a ship is laden in bulk.

FARE [Anglo-Saxon, fara]. A voyage or passage by water, or the money paid for such passage. Also, a fishing season for cod; and likewise the cargo of the fishing vessel. (See HOW FARE YE?)

FARE-CROFTS. The vessels that formerly plied between England and France.

FARRANE. The Erse term for a gentle breeze, still used on our north-western shores.

FARTHEL. An old word for furling sails. Also, a burden, according to Shakspeare in Hamlet; and a weight, agreeably to the depositions of the "Portingalls" before Sir Francis Drake, in re the great carrack's cargo in 1592; there were "ij^c fardells of synamon:" of this famous prize the queen reserved to herself the lion's share.

FASCINES. Faggots of brush or other small wood, varying according to the object in view and the material available, from about 6 to 9 inches in diameter, and from 6 to 18 feet in length, firmly bound with withes at about every 18 inches. They are of vast use in military field-engineering.

FASH. An irregular seam. The mark left by the moulds upon cast bullets. (Short for fashion—ship-fashion, soldier-fashion.)

FASHION-PIECES. The fashion of the after-part of a ship, in the plane of projection. They are the hindmost timbers in the run of a ship, which terminate the breadth, and form the shape of the stern; they are united to the stern-post, and to the end of the wing-transom by a rabbet.

FASKIDAR. A name of the Cataractes parasiticus, or Arctic gull.

FAST. A rope, cablet, or chain by which a vessel is secured to a wharf; and termed bow, head, breast, quarter, or stern fasts, as the case may be.

FAST AGROUND. Immovable, or high and dry.

FAST AND LOOSE. An uncertain and shuffling conduct.

FASTENINGS. "Let go the fasts!" throw off the ropes from the bollards or cleats. Also used for the bolts, &c., which hold together the different parts of a ship.

FASTNESS. A strong post, fortified by nature and art.

FAST SAILER. A ship which, in nautical parlance, "has legs."

FAST STAYING. Quick in going about.

FAT, OR BROAD. If the tressing in or tuck of a ship's quarter under water hangs deep, or is overfull, they say she has a fat quarter.

FATHER. The dockyard name given to the person who constructs a ship of the navy.

FATHER-LASHER. A name of the scorpius or scorpion, Cottus scorpius, a fish about 9 inches long, common near rocky coasts.

FATHOM [Anglo-Saxon, faedm]. The space of both arms extended. A measure of 6 feet, used in the length of cables, rigging, &c., and to divide the lead (or sounding) lines, for showing the depth of water.—To fathom, is to ascertain the depth of water by sounding. To conjecture an intention.

FATHOM-WOOD. Slab and other offal of timber, sold at the yards, by fathom lots: cubic measurement.

FATIGUE-PARTY. A party of soldiers told off to any labour-duty not strictly professional.

FAULCON. A small cannon. (See FALCON.)

FAUN. Anglo-Norman for a flood-gate or water-gate.

FAUSSEBRAYE. In fortification, a kind of counterguard or low rampart, intended to protect the lower part of the main escarp behind it from being breached, but considered in modern times to do more harm than good to the defence.

FAVOUR, TO. To be careful of; also to be fair for.—"Favour her" is purely a seaman's term; as when it blows in squalls, and the vessel is going rap-full, with a stiff weather-helm and bow-seas, "favour her boy" is "ease the helm, let the sails lift, and head the sea." So, in hauling in a rope, favour means to trust to the men's force and elasticity, and not part the rope by taking a turn on a cleat, making a dead nip. A thorough seaman "favours" his spars and rigging, and sails his ship economically as well as expeditiously.

FAY, TO. To fit any two pieces of wood, so as to join close and fair together; the plank is said to fay to the timbers, when it lies so close to them that there shall be no perceptible space between them.

FAY FENA. A kind of Japanese galley, of 30 oars.

FEALTY. Loyalty and due devotion to the queen's service.

FEARN. A small windlass for a lighter.

FEAR-NOUGHT. Stout felt woollen cloth, used for port-linings, hatchway fire-screens, &c. The same as dread-nought.

FEATHER. (See SWINE'S or SWEDISH FEATHER.) It is used variously. (See also FULL FEATHER and WHITE FEATHER.)

FEATHER, TO CUT A. When a ship has so sharp a bow that she makes the spray feather in cleaving it.

FEATHER AN OAR, TO. In rowing, is to turn the blade horizontally, with the top aft, as it comes out of the water. This lessens the resistance of the air upon it.

FEATHER-EDGED. A term used by shipwrights for such planks as are thicker on one edge than the other.

FEATHERING-PADDLES. (Morgan's patent.)

FEATHER-SPRAY. Such as is observed at the cut-water of fast steamers, forming a pair of wing feathers.

FEATHER-STAR. The Comatula rosacea, one of the most beautiful of British star-fishes.

FEAZE, TO. To untwist, to unlay ropes; to teaze, to convert it into oakum.

FEAZINGS. The fagging out or unravelling of an unwhipped rope.

FECKET. A Guernsey frock.

FECKLESS. Weak and silly.

FEEDER. A small river falling into a large one, or into a dock or float. Feeders, in pilot slang, are the passing spurts of rain which feed a gale.

FEEDING-GALE. A storm which is on the increase, sometimes getting worse at each succeeding squall. When a gale freshens after rain, it is said to have fed the gale.

FEEDING-PART OF A TACKLE. That running through the sheaves, in opposition to the standing part.

FEED OF GRASS. A supply of any kind of vegetables.

FEED-PUMP. The contrivance by which the boilers of a steamer are supplied with water from the hot-well, while the engines are at work.

FEED-WATER. In steamers, the water which supplies the boiler.

FEEL THE HELM, TO. To have good steerage way, carrying taut weather-helm, which gives command of steerage. Also said of a ship when she has gained head-way after standing still, and begins to obey the helm.

FEINT. A mock assault, generally made to conceal a true one.

FELL, TO. To cut down timber. To knock down by a heavy blow. Fell is the Anglo-Saxon for a skin or hide.

FELL-HEAD. The top of a mountain not distinguished by a peak.

FELL IN WITH. Met by chance.

FELLOES [from felly]. The arch-pieces which form the rim or circumference of the wheel, into which the spokes and handles are fitted.

FELLOW. A sailor's soubriquet for himself; he will ask if you "have anything for a fellow to do?"

FELLS. Upland levels and mountainous tracts.

FELT. Stuff made of wool and hair. Patent felt is saturated with tar, and used to place inside the doubling or sheathing of a vessel's bottom. Employed also in covering the boilers and cylinders of steam-engines.

FELUCCA. (See LUNTRA.) A little vessel with six or eight oars, frequent in the Mediterranean; its helm may be applied in the head or stern, as occasion requires. Also, a narrow decked galley-built vessel in great use there, of one or two masts, and some have a small mizen; they carry lateen sails.

FEN. Low tracts inundated by the tides, capable, when in a dry state, of bearing the weight of cattle grazing upon them; differing therein from bog or quagmire. When well drained, they form some of the best land in the country.

FENCE. A palisade. Also, the arm of the hammer-spring of a gun-lock.

FENCIBLES. Bodies of men raised for limited service, and for a definite period. In rank they are junior to the line and royal marines, but senior to yeomanry or volunteers.

FENCING. The art of using the small-sword with skill and address.

FEND. An aphaeresis from defend; to ward off.

FEND OR FENDER BOLTS. Made with long and thick heads, struck into the outermost bends or wales of a ship, to save her sides from hurts and bruises.

FENDER-PILES. In a dock, &c.

FENDERS. Two pieces of oak-plank fayed edgeways against the top-sides, abreast the main hatchway, to prevent the sides being chafed by the hoisting of things on board. They are not wanted where the yard-tackles are constantly used. Also, pieces of old cable, or other materials, hung over the side to prevent it from chafing against a wharf; as also to preserve a small vessel from being damaged by a large one. The fenders of a boat are usually made of canvas, stuffed, and neatly painted.

FEND OFF, TO. In order to avoid violent contact, is, by the application of a spar, junk, rattans, &c., to prevent one vessel running against another, or against a wharf, &c. Fend off, with the boat-hook or stretchers in a boat.—Fend the boat, keep her from beating against the ship's side.

FERNAN BAG. A small ditty-bag, often worn by sailors, for holding tobacco and other things. They have applied the term to the pouches in monkeys' cheeks, where they carry spare food.

FERRARA. A species of broadsword, named after the famous Spanish sword-smith, Andrea Ferrara.

FERRIAGE. An old right of the admiralty over all rivers between the sea and the first bridges.

FERRY. A passage across a river or branch of the sea by boat.

FERRY-BOATS. Vessels or wherries duly licensed for conveying passengers across a river or creek.

FETCH, TO. To reach, or arrive at; as, "we shall fetch to windward of the lighthouse this tack."

FETCH HEAD-WAY OR STERN-WAY. Said of a vessel gathering motion ahead or astern.

FETCHING THE PUMP. Pouring water into the upper part in order to expel the air contained between the lower box and that of the pump-spear. (See PUMP.)

FETCH OF A BAY OR GULF. The whole stretch from head to head, or point to point.

FETCH WAY, TO. Said of a gun, or anything which escapes from its place by the vessel's motion at sea.

FETTLE, TO. To fit, repair, or put in order. Also, a threat.

FEU-DE-JOIE. A salute fired by musketry on occasions of public rejoicing, so that it should pass from man to man rapidly and steadily, down one rank and up the other, giving one long continuous sound.

FEZ. A red cloth skull-cap, worn by the people of Fez and Morocco, and in general use amongst Mediterranean sailors.

F.G. The initials on a powder cask, denote fine grain.

FICHANT. In fortification, said of flanking fire which impinges on the face it defends; that is, of a line of defence where the angle of defence is less than a right angle.

FID. A square bar of wood or iron, with a shoulder at one end, used to support the weight of the top-mast when erected at the head of the lower mast, by passing through a mortise or hole at the lower end of the former, and resting its ends on the trestle-trees, which are sustained by the head of the latter; the fid, therefore, must be withdrawn every time the mast is lowered; the topgallant-mast is retained at the head of the top-mast in the same manner. There is also a patent screw fid, which can be removed after hauling taut the mast rope, without having first to lift the mast. (See MAST.) A fid is also a conical pin of hard wood, of any size from 10 inches downwards, tapering to a point, used to open the strands of a rope in splicing: of these some are large, for splicing cables, and some small, for the bolt-ropes of sails, &c. Fid is improperly applied to metal of the same shape; they are then termed marling-spikes (called stabbers by sail-makers—which see). Also, the piece of oakum with which the vent of a gun is plugged. Some call it the vent-plug (which see). Also, colloquially used for a quid or chew of tobacco, or a small but thick piece of anything, as of meat in clumsy carving.

FIDDED. When a mast has been swayed high enough the fid is then inserted, and the mast-rope relieved of the weight.

FIDDLE. A contrivance to prevent things from rolling off the table in bad weather. It takes its name from its resemblance to a fiddle, being made of small cords passed through wooden bridges, and hauled very taut.

FIDDLE-BLOCK. A long shell, having one sheave over the other, and the lower smaller than the upper (see LONG-TACKLES), in contradistinction to double blocks, which also have two sheaves, but one abreast of the other. They lie flatter and more snugly to the yards, and are chiefly used for lower-yard tackles.

FIDDLE-FISH. A name of the king-crab (Limulus polyphemus), from its supposed resemblance to that instrument.

FIDDLE-HEAD. When there is no figure; this means that the termination of the head is formed by a scroll turning aft or inward like a violin: in contradistinction to the scroll-head (which see).

FIDE JUSSORS. Bail sureties in the instance court of the admiralty.

FIDLER. A small crab, with one large claw and a very small one. It burrows on drowned lands.

FIDLER'S GREEN. A sort of sensual Elysium, where sailors are represented as enjoying, for "a full due," those amenities for which Wapping, Castle Rag, and the back of Portsmouth Point were once noted.

FIELD. The country in which military operations are being carried on; the scene of a conflict.—Taking the field, quitting cantonments, and going on active service.

FIELD-ALLOWANCE. A small extra payment made to officers, and sometimes to privates, on active service in the field, to compensate partly the enhanced price of all necessaries.

FIELD-ARTILLERY. Light ordnance fitted for travel as to be applicable to the active operations of the field. The term generally includes the officers, men, and horses, also the service. According to the present excellent establishment of rifled field-guns for the British service, the Armstrong 12-pounder represents the average type.

FIELD-DAY. A day of exercise and evolutions.

FIELD-FORTIFICATION. Is the constructing of works intended to strengthen the position of forces operating in the field; works of that temporary and limited quality which may be easily formed with the means at hand.

FIELD-GLASS. A telescope, frequently so termed. Also, the binocular or opera-glass, used for field-work, night-work, and at races.

FIELD-GUN. See FIELD-ARTILLERY.

FIELD-ICE. A sheet of smooth frozen water of a general thickness, and of an extent too large for its boundaries to be seen over from a ship's mast-head. Field-ice may be all adrift, but yet pressed together, and when any masses detach, as they suddenly do, they are termed floes. They as suddenly become pressed home again and cause nips. (See NIP.)

FIELD-MARSHAL. The highest rank in the British army.

FIELD-OFFICERS. The colonel, lieutenant-colonels, and majors of a regiment; so called because, not having the common duties in quarters, they are mostly seen when the troops are in the field.

FIELD OF VIEW. That space which is visible in a telescope at one view, and which diminishes under augmenting eye-pieces.

FIELD-PIECES. Light guns proper to be taken into field operations; one or more of them is now carried by all ships of war for land service.