Muffle to Net Tonnage

Oars are muffled when soft chafing gear is fastened around their looms so that they will not creak and knock in the rowlocks.

An iron shape used for moorings. It is bowl-shape, with an iron upright rod welded in the centre, having an eye at the upper end to fasten the chain or rope, which in turn is connected with the mooring.

A term sometimes applied to sails.

To assemble the crew.

A vessel is said to have a naked bottom when her copper is stripped off--removed.

The place on the stern of a vessel where her name and home port are painted or shown.

A small propeller carrying a regular steam boiler, but using naphtha for fuel instead of coal.

A small boat propelled by the explosive force of naphtha.

One knot. 6,082.66 feet.

The delineation of rivers, harbors, and sea coasts, bordering shores, and such natural and other objects as may serve to show the existence of channels, shoals, rocks, etc. This is also known as Hydrographical Surveying. (See Surveying.)

A place provided with all descriptions of naval stores, timber. ship-building material, etc.

(See engravings.)

(See Hawse Bolsters.)

An officer of the customs; an officer on board a man-of-war.

Either a national or State body of seamen or artillerists, the latter on the same footing as State militia, and who are subject to duty in case of emergency.

A navy yard: a place possessing natural advantages in the way of depth of water, shelter, etc., and which is used as a rendezvous for vessels of war.

Pitch, resin, turpentine, oils. etc.

Water of sufficient depth to permit the passage of vessels.

Conducting of a vessel from one port to another. (See Part III.)

An officer whose special duty it is to have care of the chronometers, compasses, charts, etc., who takes sights of the sun, moon, and stars, from which he calculates the ship's position, shapes the course. etc.; all, however, under the authority of the captain.

A name given to the lowest tides which take place four or five days before the new and full moons. (See Spring Tides.)

A vessel is said to be neaped, or be-neaped when she is aground at the height of the spring tides.

Close to. When a vessel is close-hauled she is sometimes said to be sailing near the wind.

A mythical god of the sea. When crossing the equator for the first time a forward hand, in former days, was conducted blindfolded to a seat consisting of a piece of board laid across a tub filled with water. He was informed by his messmates that Father Neptune would be along shortly to interview him and give him a pass to cross the line. Shortly after this a tremendous bellowing would be heard from over the bows; the blindfold would then be removed, and the poor greeny treated to a view of the most astonishing looking object coming from over the bows. A tremendous rope-yarn beard, deck-swab hair that had been dipped in green paint and dried for the occasion, a spare royal, or some other light sail for a robe, trident in one hand and a speaking trumpet in the other, completed the tout ensemble of this mythological deity, who roared his questions into the victim's ears through the trumpet. Neptune would then decide that the applicant required shaving, so the face of the sufferer would be covered with Stockholm and then scraped off with an iron barrel hoop. Next the victim would be congratulated for passing the ordeal, and again blindfolded; Neptune would disappear; the board pulled away from across the tub, and the final scene would be the newly initiated floundering about in the water to the intense amusement of all hands.

(See Tonnage.)