B

A metal with which a bearing journal is sometimes lined. It is composed of tin, copper and…

Yachts generally carry three sizes of jib topsails--baby, working, and balloon--the baby jib…

A French ferryboat, also a punt used by shipwrights for carrying tar, pitch, oakum, etc.,…

The wind is said to back when it shifts around the compass contrary to the manner in which the…

A space in a boiler, back of the furnace, bounded on the forward side by the back tube sheet,…

An altitude measured on a back observation quadrant, which requires the observer to turn his…

The after-face of the stern post.

The pressure in a steam cylinder which resists the movement of the piston during the time of…

The disturbed water thrown aft by the action of the paddle-wheels or screw propeller.

A thwartships board in the stern sheets of rowing-boats, which affords a rest for the back of…

The rope stitched to the back of an awning, and running fore-and-aft. To this rope the…

Ropes leading back from the dolphin striker on the lower end of the martingale to steady it,…

A short piece of broad plank, bolted edgeways to the ship's side, in the range of the…

Small separate channels abaft the main channels used for setting up the standing backstays.

Ropes extending from all mast heads above the lower mast heads, and leading to the vessel's…

When a ship, having a fair wind, is unable to stem the current she is said to be back-strapped.

(See Frames.)

(See Uniform.)

A metal plate used in a boiler to direct the flow of gases. It is usually applied as a lining…

The mizzen is said to be bag-piped when its sheet is brought to the weather-mizzen rigging.

A name sometimes applied to the lower reef in fore-and-aft sails, and the upper reef in square…

(See Dock.)

Those frames or bends of timber, of the same capacity or area, which are equally distant from…

A reef-band on a gaff-sail which runs across it diagonally. It is used in bad weather, and…

A valve arranged so that the pressure tending to force it against its seat is wholly or in…

A Spanish pleasure vessel.

A trading sloop of the Philippines.

The projecting open galleries to be seen at the stern of old men-of-war of the line of battle…

The act of throwing water out of a boat.

A big shackle-shaped iron at the mast-head, supported by the capband, and to which the stan…

A simple strap passed around a bale or bag, the two ends meeting on top, one dipping under the…

The cross-staff of the early Portuguese navigators.

A one-mast vessel of from 100 to 200 tons, seen in Muscat.

A fast sailing schooner of Bermuda.

Iron, lead, stone, gravel, or earth placed in the bottom of vessels to give them stability,…

Iron tanks placed in the holds of vessels which can be pumped full or free from water and…

A Simese state galley. It is built to imitate a sea monster, and is propelled by a great…

A Simese vessel brigantine rigged.

A sail made of light canvas and carried in place of the regular fore staysail.

A very large jib of light material used in moderate winds on board racing yachts.

A yacht sail made of light canvas, set upon the jib topsail stay, and sheeting to the quarter…

A large sail of light material which sets between the fore and mainmasts, and is used in…

(See Life Raft.)

The band of canvas sewed over the tabling on the head, luff, and foot, and on the leach, from…

A term sometimes applied to the frame in which a screw propeller is hung.

A boat is said to be double-banked when two men sitting on the same thwart pull separate oars,…

The burning fuel is heaped up in one part of the furnace, leaving the grate partly bare. The…

A vessel engaged in the Bank of New Foundland fishing.

A shoal of sand or mud.

An East Indian vessel propelled by oars.

A circular breastwork of metal inside of which guns are mounted. A gun is said to be in…

A gun or guns mounted in barbette. Covered Battery. Ordnance concealed by a breastwork.…

A gun mounted in barbette.

A Spanish coasting vessel having pole masts and lug sails. Sometimes this name applies to a…

The name by which a Mediterranean lighter is known.

When a ship has no sail set whatever.

A large boat in which the thwarts are double-banked, such as the commodore's or admiral's…

A vessel or boat of state, beautifully furnished; also applies to an excursion boat of broad…

A large double-banked boat used by flag officers.

The crew of a barge.

A vessel having three masts, the fore and main square-rigged, and the mizzen schooner-rigged.…

A vessel with three masts, the foremast square-rigged, and the main and mizzen schooner-rigged.

A sailor's term for a vessel he is fond of.

Shell-fish which adhere to a vessel's bottom, to logs of driftwood, etc.

An instrument which records the weight or pressure of the atmosphere. The mercurial barometer…

A peculiar, but swift and safe boat of the west of Scotland, capable of carrying a dozen men.

Applied to the master of a vessel who commits fraud in the management of his vessel, whereby…

Breaches of trust and dishonest actions on the part of a shipmaster.

The horizontal revolving part of a windlass, the main piece of a capstan, or the horizontal…

A simple sling made for hoisting a headless barrel. This is much employed on board ship for…

The geometrical plane; the base on which the triangulation is founded; the lowest side of a…

(See Dock.)

A rope made from a certain kind of soft rush. There is no difference between bass rope and…

A sharp-ended, flat-bottom boat of the Canadian Lakes.

A vessel of India, lateen rigged.

Strips of wood or iron placed around the outside of hatch comings after the hatches have been…

In general, light scantlings of wood. In ship-building, long, narrow laths of fir, their ends…

Mounted ordnance. The guns on the sides of the ship, taken collectively are respectively…

A drawing showing the respective positions and ranges of the guns.

Until recently an oil lantern placed near each gun for the purpose of lighting the deck during…

A modern armored man-o'-war carrying a heavy battery.

The hospital on board ship, situated forward between decks. Also known as Sick Bay.

A hospital nurse.

A pleasure boat of the Ganges, having both sails and oars.

A loafer about a sea port.

A stake placed over a shoal as a warning to mariners. Beacons are sometimes placed on…

A vibrating lever through which power is transmitted from the cylinder to the crank.

One of the timbers extending across the vessel for supporting the deck, and for keeping the…

The cast iron framework of a built-up beam.

A drawing instrument used in surveying.

When a vessel is heeled over to such an extent that her beams approach the vertical she is…

The bearings which support the beam.

A sea that breaks against the vessel's beam.

The wrought band about the beam centre.

A wind blowing at right angles to the vessel's course.

The substantial pieces of timber which stretch across the ship from side to side to support…

A fishing or pilot-boat found in Spain and Portugal.

The direction of an object in relation to a point of the compass.

To lend assistance; to hasten.

Meaning the same as bear up.

To approach a vessel from windward is to bear down upon her.

When a ship sails toward the shore she is said to bear in with the land.

To keep a boat clear of a vessel's side, or from a dock.

To approach a vessel by putting the helm up and running off to leeward, is to bear up to her.

The diminishing of the edge or surface of a piece of timber, etc., from a given line, as on…

A curved line occasioned by bearding the dead-wood to the form of the body; the former being…

A support for a shaft journal, and in which it revolves or vibrates. Main Bearing. That…

The direction of an object in relation to a point of the compass. The bearings of a vessel…

The direction of one thing from another by the points of the compass.

Iron bars across the furnace supporting the ends of the grate bars.

Eight points to the right of the wind's eye in the northern hemisphere, but eight points to…

The widest part of a vessel below the covering board or deck line. (See Part II.)

The widest part of a vessel below the plank-sheer or deck line, or the "line of flotation," so…

(See Quarters.)

When sailing close hauled a vessel is said to be beating to windward. (See Eating to Windward.)

Making progress against the direction of the wind when sailing close hauled.

A head wind, necessitating a vessel to tack.

A current of air intercepted in its course toward a vessel is said to becalm her. When the…

When there is no wind, a vessel is said to be becalmed.

A small piece of rope in the shape of an eye or grommet into and across which a toggle is…

A rope-becket secured to the gunwale in which the oar works.

This term applies to many things; pieces of wood placed under the quarters of casks so as to…

A platform for raising a gun carriage above the level of the deck when the gun is too low for…

A solid framing of timber to receive and to support the mortar in a bomb vessel.

The foundation piece upon which an engine is erected.

A term applied to muscular effort. "More beef" has reference to more strength.

Pieces of oak bolted to the outer sides of the bowsprit and through a hole in which the fore…

A large mallet used by caulkers for driving in their reeming irons to open the seams in order…

The bearing of any object from the vessel contained between the ship's beam and that point of…

Expressive of that portion of the crew who live in the forecastle.

A vessel is said to be before the wind when the latter is blowing after the ship--when the…

An order to cease pulling or hauling; to make a rope fast to a belaying pin or other object.

Wooden or iron shapes found in the pin-rails, and used for securing ropes to.

A buoy, on top of which is suspended a deep-toned bell, which rings when the buoy rocks from…

The handles to the wires in the wheel-house of a steamer connecting the engine-room bells.…

An old name for the cross-staff.

(See Ship's Bells.)

A term applied to the top of a quarter galley when the upper stool is hollowed away, or made…

A sail is said to belly when it is swelled out by the wind.

The inside or hollow part of compass or curved timber, the outside of which is called the back.

When the north star (or other circumpolar body) is so situated that the pole is intercepted…

A zone, as the belt of calms; a girdle.

The area contained between the limits of the south-east and north-east winds near the equator.

(See Armor.)

Fixed points for reference left on a line of survey, indicating a series of levels at…

(See Tide Bench Marks.)

To fasten; to secure one rope to another rope, spar, etc.

To shackle the anchor chain to the anchor.

To secure a sail to a yard, or to a boom and gaff.

The thickest planks on the vessel's outboard side, and to which the knees, beams, etc., are…

The frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the side at any…

(See Neaped.)

Ropes seized to the weather futtock staves and set up to the lee channels for the purpose of…

Schooners of three masts which were built at Bermuda by the English during the war with this…

Bunks on board of vessels are known as berths; a position on board ship; the place of a vessel…

The sleeping-place between decks allotted to a seaman. To berth a ship's company is to assign…

The deck below the gun deck; the upper deck of a man-o'-war is called the spar deck.

Making a vessel fast alongside of a dock. (See Docking a Ship.)

The largest of the two bower anchors. (See Bowers.)

The length on deck from the forepart of the stem to the afterpart of the stern post.

That part of the vessel around the water line.

The space between two decks.

The space contained between any two decks of a ship.

A well-known instrument, composed of a stock and a movable tongue, for taking of angles on…

A piece of deal on which the bevelings or angles of the timbers, etc., are described.

The windings or angles of the timbers, etc., a term applied to any deviation from a square or…

A Calcutta lighter used for discharging cargo.

Pieces of timber bolted to the hounds of a mast for the trestle trees to rest upon.

A small holystone. It is also called a prayer book and a testament. Sailors kneel to use it in…

A curve or indentation in the coast is called a bight. When a curve or bend exists in a rope…

That part of the bottom of a vessel that is next to the keel. In reference to a cask, bilge…

That part of a ship's floor, on either side of the keel, which has more of a horizontal than…

The system of pipes and valves through which water from the bilge can be drawn into the…

One connected to draw water (which may collect) from the bottom of the vessel and deliver it…

Same as Limber Boards.

Said of a vessel when the bilge is broken in by the bottom of the ship coming in contact with…

Fore-and-aft timbers bolted outside along the bilges of a vessel to prevent excessive rolling.

Fore-and-aft timbers bolted inside along the bilges for the purpose of strengthening the frame.

A thick plank used on the same principle as the bilge keel and keelson--a modification of the…

A block placed under a vessel's bilge to steady her while on a dry dock.

Water which has collected in the vessel's bilge either from the natural oozing leaks through…

Timbers belonging to the launching ways, and on which the cradle rests, the latter supporting…

A square bed of timber placed under the bilge of the ship to support her while launching.

The apex of the fluke of an anchor. The term applied to the end of a knee or compass timber.…

A written agreement (practically a note) in which the debtor agrees to pay his creditor on a…

A document obtained by the master from the custom house, or from the health officer of the…

A receipt given by the master, mate, or clerk of a vessel for cargo received alongside or on…

The extra planking or the covering of iron, copper, or brass on the rail abaft the cat-head…

(See Head.)

The cap of a bearing covering the journal.

The iron links which surround the dead-eyes, a general term for clamps, knees, transoms, etc.,…

Two strakes of oak plank, worked all the way fore-and-aft upon the beams of each deck, within…

A stand of wood or brass for the compass to rest in.

A case in which the compass is enclosed.

The glass-front cover to the binnacle stand, and into which the binnacle lamps are fitted.

The dome of the binnacle.

The small lamp which fits into the binnacle hood and lights up the compass-card.

Sick men have their names recorded on a list which is sent to the officer of the deck by the…

A double, or as it is sometimes termed, a two-barreled telescope.

A sort of large chests, or erections in store-rooms, in which the stores are deposited. They…

Those marks denoting the safety depth to which a ship may be loaded.

A term generally used for working up a topside or bulkhead with board or thin plank.

A year introduced into the calendar by Julius Caesar, and is known as the Julian Correction.…

The upper ends of the bitts.

To confine the cable to the bitts by one turn under the cross-piece and another turn round the…

To bitter a rope or cable is to take a turn with it around the bitts. (See Bitt the Cable.)

The last part of a rope or cable; when the end of the cable by which the vessel is riding is…

Forecastle bitts are perpendicular timbers stepped in the keel and extending above the deck;…

A list of the names of men who have committed some offense against the order and discipline of…

The names of men recorded for punishment.

A ship built in India of tea.

A broad strake, which is parallel to and worked upon the upper edge of the wales in order to…

A simple hitchmade over and around the hook of a tackle block, and which answers the same…

The flat part of an oar that is thrust in the water in rowing. The arms of a steamer's…

When one vessel is in such a position to windward as to take the wind out of another vessel's…

Pipe and valves for leading steam from boiler or main steam pipe to condenser direct.

Pieces of wood, or a hollow shape of iron called the shell, between or inside of which one or…

A design of a vessel whittled from a block of wood, instead of being drawn on paper. (See…

(See Chock-a-Block.)

These are surface and bottom. Those through which water and sediment are discharged from…

To betray a confidence; to disclose a secret.

Fans for moving air, either for ventilation or to aid furnace draft.

Expressive of a heavy gale.

Discharging dirty or super-salted water from a boiler.

A name for a man-o'-war's man.

A flag having a blue ground and a white centre, and which, when hoisted at the fore, signifies…

A term applied to the open sea.

A designation for a Nova Scotia seaman.

A vessel that has full bows, after the style of a canal boat's bows, is said to be…

A vessel having a nearly perpendicular stem, or cut-water, is said to be bluff-headed.

When a vessel is sailing close-hauled she is said to be making a board on the port or…

Timber sawed to a less thickness than plank; all broad stuff of, or under, one inch and a half…

The English Board of Trade is a public institution having jurisdiction over merchant shipping.…

Men who enter upon a vessel other than their own, either in a hostile or friendly manner; in…

Certain members of the ship's company detailed to board the enemy's vessel.

As applied to a naval engagement, to enter the enemy's vessel with hostile purpose.

A net work of ropes extending from the bulwark-rail upwards, and completely or nearly…

A strong meshwork, the lower edge of which is made fast to the rail, and the upper part triced…

A lance or spear used in repelling boarders.

A lance having a steel head, and used in repelling an attack by boarders.

A small vessel propelled by oars or sails and termed respectively, a row-boat or a sail-boat;…

Short rope ladders hanging down from the boat-boom for affording access to the boats when the…

The single lengths of rope seized on to the boat-booms and allowed to hang down so that the…

The booms that swing out from either side of the vessel and to which the boats ride by making…

The shapes of wood in which a boat rests when it is stowed on deck.

Purchases made with two blocks and a length of rope used for hoisting a boat to the davits.

An understood signal made from the ship summoning a boat to return.

(See Shove Off; Up Oars; Let Fall; Give Way; Give-Way Together; Hold Water; Stern All; Oars;…

To arrange the oars fore and aft in a boat along the thwarts so as to have them ready for the…

(See Torpedo.)

A wooden staff, with a hook-shape in one end, belonging to the furni ture of a boat. It is…

A boat of flat-bottom and pinched or narrow stern common to the Gulf of Manar.

An officer under the mates whose duty it is to work the crew under the orders of the officer…

A warrant officer whose duty it is to care for the rigging, anchors and cables; to see that…

A piece of board shaped and hung like a scup seat, and used to sit on while being swayed aloft…

The chest, or other receptacle, in which the boatswain keeps marlinspikes, serving mallets,…

The chief petty officer of the watch, who, in the absence of the boatswain, repeats the orders…

The chains or ropes leading from the underneath outboard end of the bowsprit to the stem where…

The figure of a ship, abstractedly considered, is supposed to be divided into different parts,…

A ship construction drawing showing the frames as curved lines. The forward body, or bow, is…

A closed vessel in which steam is generated from water. The various kinds of boilers come…

(See Deck.)

A broad bow.

A steep coast; a shore that may be closely approached by a vessel.

A small boat.

(See Knight Heads.)

(See Knight Heads.)

A small sailboat of the Philippines and Moluccas.

Pieces of soft wood, sometimes covered with canvas, which are placed upon the trestle-trees,…

Pieces of oak timber fayed to the curvature of the bow, under the hawse-holes, and down upon…

A roll of canvas is called a bolt, and contains thirty-nine yards, whatever may be its width.…

The rope that goes around the edges of sails, and to which the latter is sewed.

Cylindrical or square pins of iron or copper, of various forms, for fastening and securing the…

A hollow shell of iron filled with an explosive substance so arranged that the shell is blown…

A mortar platform.

A mortar vessel.

A mortar boat.

(See Bomb.)

A vessel is said to carry a bone in her mouth when she is coming along rapidly so as to curl…

A dug out made from the bongo tree.

The piece of canvas secured to the foot of a head sail by a lacing, and which is taken off in…

A wooden hood which covers a small after-hatchway which is used for obtaining access to the…

A spar used for extending the foot of a fore-and-aft sail or a studding sail--pronounced stun'…

A rope leading from the end of the stun-sail boom through a tail block in the main rigging.

A fore-and-aft foresail having its foot spread by a boom.

(See Boom Pendant.)

An iron half-circle which is secured to the iron band of a boom for the sheet traveler (the…

Iron rings or collars at the extremity of the yard arms and through which the stun-sail-booms…

A light tackle used for rigging out and in the stun-sail booms.

A fore-and-aft mainsail, having its foot spread by a boom.

A double purchase used to guy out booms when the vessel is running so that they will not come…

Whips which lead from the after end of a boom through a block at the lower mast head, thence…

Scraping off the marine growth from a vessel's bottom, and giving the latter a coating of some…

A short-lived but violent wind experienced in the northern part of the Adriatic Sea.

The inside cylindrical surface of an engine cylinder. Any cylindrical hole that has been…

Forcing a vessel through ice.

A small projection from the body of a piece, the end of which is surfaced to form a seating;…

The situation of a square-rigged vessel when sailing right before the wind--the wind dead-aft…

Charts of currents calculated by the drift of bottles thrown overboard, tightly corked and…

All that part of a ship or vessel that is below the wales. Hence, we use the epithet…

A bottomry bond is a contract entered into in order for the master to secure a loan of money…

Preserved beef put up in air-tight cans and carried in large quantities by naval vessels.…

In reference to a vessel's destination.

The forward part of a vessel on either side. (See Apple Bows, Bluff-bowed.)

An old navigating instrument. (See Part III.)

An old navigating instrument, employed for measuring angles. It consisted of a graduated arc…

The circular part of the ship forward, terminated at the rabbet of the stem.

Guns situated so as to fire through the bow ports, or sharp on either bow from the main…

Chafing gear made of rope and placed around a vessel's bows to prevent them from being chafed…

The towers placed on each bow of the vessel, and inside of which is contained the lamp for…

The rope leading over the vessel's bows to another vessel or wharf and by which the forward…

A sea coming from a direction so as to break against the vessel's bow.

Nathaniel Bowditch, LL.D., F.R.S., a celebrated mathematician, astronomer, navigator and…

A mast or yard is said to be bowed when it is set up so taut as to spring it.

The anchors that are carried at the cat-heads. (See Best Bower.)

A noose made in a rope with a certain kind of knot. (See engraving.) A rope attached to the…

The span extending between the two cringles on the leaches of a square sail, and to which the…

Eyes worked in the belt-rope on the leaches of square sails, and in which the bowline bridle…

A loop-knot made in the end of a rope. (See engraving.)

A short rope pendant with a thimble spliced in each end, and a part of the bowline bridle.

A double bowline. (See engraving.)

A vessel is said to be bowling along when she is sailing rapidly with a free wind.

To haul.

A strong spar projecting outward over the stem of a vessel, and on which all, or a part, of…

Perpendicular timbers extending above the deck, and between which the heel of the bowsprit is…

The iron band fitted to the outboard end of the bowsprit, with a ring on top for the jib boom…

The ropes leading from the side of the bowsprit cap back to the bows of the vessel where they…

(See Dock.)

A device for recording the height of tides, consisting of a long, vertical box, closed at the…

(See Brasses.)

To wear a vessel short round instead of making a long sweep. (See Abox.)

Calling the names of the thirty-two points of the compass in order. (See engraving.)

Rehearsing the thirty-two points of the compass in order, commencing at north, and going…

A rod whose ends are secured to two parts of a boiler-shell to resist internal pressure. Heel…

Rudder gudgeons are sometimes termed braces. The rope leading from the yard arm, and by…

To lay the yard so that the sail will throw against the mast.

To lay the head sails aback and keep the after sails full.

To lay the yard more thwartships.

(See Pendant.)

To slack the lee head braces so as to permit the ship's head to come quickly to the wind.

To lay the yard nearer fore-and-aft.

To lay the yard as nearly fore-and-aft as possible.

A common term for handcuffs or hand irons. Garters is a name applied to leg irons.

Straps of iron, copper or mixed metals, secured with bolts and screws in the stern-post and…

A stationary supporting arm. (See Strut.)

Ropes used for gathering fore-and-aft sails into the mast; spankers are provided with brails.…

The lever used for working a deck pump.

Technically, the brass wearing pieces about pins, in which they revolve or vibrate.

When whole seas roll over a vessel it is said that they make a clear breach; when the seas…

A term more particularly applied to some essential dimensions of the extent of a ship or…

A curved line of the ship lengthwise, intersecting the timbers at their respective broadest…

The sudden termination or rise in the decks of some merchcant ships, where the aft, and…

To commence to unload.

When the anchor is lifted from the bottom it is said to break ground.

When the wind comes more ahead so that a vessel is obliged to go off from her course in order…

Said of an anchored vessel when she tends the wrong way so as not to lie well for keeping…

A vessel breaks up when she is torn in pieces by the waves; a storm breaks up when it ceases.

A small cask for containing water, carried in boats under the thwarts.

A sudden breaking of waves against a steep shore, or against a coralreef, rocks, etc. (See…

A natural or artificial barrier across the mouth of a harbor which prevents the seas outside…

Burning off the marine growth from a vessel's bottom.

(obsolete). They were set up in the channels to support the mast when on the wind.

A rope used for securing a vessel's side to a wharf or to another vessel.

The knees placed across the stem and apron for the purpose of uniting the bows.

The rail that runs across the forward part of the poop deck.

A rope pasing across the leadsman's breast to prevent him from falling overboard while…

A band of canvas passing across the breast of the leadsman to prevent him from falling…

Large pieces of compass timber fixed within and athwart the bows of the ship, of which they…

To meet the sea bows on.

The outer angle of a knee timber; the bottom of a block, where the standing part of the tackle…

That section of a gun which is abaft the chamber--the aftermost part of the gun.

The hinged shape of metal in a breech-loading gun which closes the breech and receives the…

The mechanism which opens and closes the breech.

The cylindrical shape of steel which fits into and closes the breech of the gun, on the…

(See Sight.)

A life-saving contrivance for getting people ashore from a wreck. It is in the shape of the…

The thin metal structure, attached to a boiler, leading the products of combustion from the…

The rope passing through the cascabel of a gun and employed to prevent the recoil beyond a…

The rope which is rove through the cascabel of a muzzle-loading gun and secured to each side…

Bolts in the ship's side by which the two ends of the breeching are secured.

A gun which is charged at the breech instead of the muzzle.

(See Land Breeze and Sea Breeze.)

The metal in a valve seat separating the ports.

A platform which extends across the deck on steam vessels, and which is raised considerably…

The steering compass on the bridge of a steamship.

A structure forming a wall at the back of the furnace grate to bring the gases of combustion…

(See Bowline Bridle.) A span of chain or rope, formed by having the ends secured. The hauling…

The forward port on the gun deck.

The foremast ports on the gun deck of a man-o'-war.

A vessel with two masts, both of them square-rigged. (See Brigantine, Hermaphrodite Brig,…

The prison on board ship.

In olden times a brigantine was a two-masted vessel, square-rigged on the fore, and…

An expression used in reference to the brass fixings about decks, such as binnacles, belaying…

(See Cock.)

To fall off so much when running free as to bring the wind around on what was a moment before…

To lie-to; to heave-to; to come to an anchorage.

A vessel is said to bring up when she casts anchor. Bring up all Standing. When a vessel comes…

A brush made of hog bristles and used for cleaning the interior of the gun. It is passed…

When, as sometimes happens, the crew break into the ship's stores, they are said to broach…

To fly up in the wind.

A broad piece of bunting cut swallow-tail for a commodore, and rectangular for a rear…

A large expanse of water connecting with and close to the sea.

A western river name for a flat-boat.

The side of a vessel from the cutwater to the end of the overhang; a simultaneous discharge…

A simultaneous discharge of all the guns on one side.

As the name indicates, a gun on the side of a vessel.

A cutlass; a cutting sword with a heavy, broad blade.

The breaking of waves as on a shoal; the vertical leaping and tumbling action of water…

When a vessel droops at both ends, owing to weakness, or from having been pounded on the…

The condition of a ship when the sheer has departed from the regular and pleasing curve with…

A prismatic instrument, being a combination of zenith telescope and transit.

When a vessel is luffed into the wind.

A name applied to a bluff-bowed vessel, which created much disturbance under the bows when…

A vessel is said to be bruising water when she pitches heavily into a head-sea.

A freebooter; a pirate.

A designation for a swaggering, bullying ship officer.

An elegantly appointed galley of the Doge of Venice, and in which he received the senate,…

The broad piece of plank or iron plate secured to the outer ends of the arms of a paddle wheel.

The rope-handle of a bucket.

A tompion to fit into the circular opening in the half-ports.

A block fitted into the hawse-hole; a tompion for the half ports when there is no gun. A blind…

A trading boat of the Gulf of Persia.

(See Bilge.)

(See Laden in Bulk.)

Partitions dividing various parts of the vessel.

A small keg. (See Bull the Buoy.)

A vessel is said to bull the buoy when she thumps against it.

Strong, broad slings of canvas used for hoisting live cattle in and out of a vessel.

An egg-shaped piece of wood having a hole in it for a rope to reeve through. A bull's eye has…

To abuse; to treat with contempt.

A framework of ratline stuff seized in diamond shape, and used instead of bulwarks.

The rail on top of the bulwarks, and bolted through to the top of the bulwark stanchions.

The fence built around the vessel over the covering board (plank shears). Bulwarks are…

Market boats which come alongside of a vessel in port with vegetables, fruit, etc., to dispose…

A log fender hung over the side.

This word is spelled in two other ways, namely: boomkin and bumkin. They are short horizontal…

Space enclosed in which to stow fuel.

(See Coal. Bunkers.)

The middle of a square sail that lies on top of the yard when the sail is furled.

(See Gasket.)

A purchase used for lifting the bunt of heavy square sails to the yard in furling.

A whip employed for lifting up the bunt of light square sails to the yard in furling.

Woolen stuff of various colors out of which flags are manufactured.

A piece of rope having two legs with a thimble spliced into the end of each, and made fast to…

Ropes toggled to the foot of square sails, and used for lifting the foot of the sail to the…

A floating shape anchored to the bottom to mark out a channel; also floated over a shoal, or…

The connecting rope between the buoy and its anchor.

Floating beacons for the guidance of vessels. (See Part I.)

The business of the Navy Department is divided under eight heads, called Bureaus, each one…

A swallow-tailed piece of bunting.

The weight or measure that any ship will carry or contain when fit for sea.

A tackle used for various purposes. A single Spanish burton is made of three single blocks. A…

An annular shell for lining, or reducing the diameter of a hole.

A piece of metal set into a wooden block sheave to prevent wearing away the wood where the pin…

The ends of deck and outside planks where they meet are termed butt ends. To start a butt…

The joints of the planks endwise; also the opening between the ends of the planks when worked…

When, after a period of calm, a sudden and violent wind strikes the vessel, it is said to come…

A joint in boiler construction formed by bringing together the edges of two plates and holding…

A long, narrow plate laid lengthways over butt joint, and riveted to both sheets.

A sailor's name for a Dutch seaman.

The rounding of the vessel's body abaft, which is bounded by the fashion-pieces, and at the…

That rounding of the body abaft bounded by the fashion-pieces; and, at the upper part, by the…

(On the sheer draught.) Curves, lengthwise, representing the ship as cut in vertical sections.

An arrangement of pipes and valves whereby steam or water can be led out of its regular course…

Over the ship's side; overboard.

A vessel is said to be by the head when she draws more water forward than she should do to be…

When a vessel in going free has fallen off so much that the wind has been brought around the…

To let go altogether instead of slacking away gradually.

A vessel is said to be by the stern when she draws more water aft than she should do to be in…

Same as Full and By.