Sailor's Word-book, A - C — Be
BAZARAS.
A large flat-bottomed pleasure-boat of the Ganges, moved with both sails and oars.
BEACH.
A littoral margin, or line of coast along the sea-shore, composed of sand, gravel, shingle, broken shells, or a mixture of them all: any gently sloping part of the coast alternately dry and covered by the tide.
The same as _strand_.
BEACH, TO.
Sudden landing--to run a boat on the shore, to land a person with intent to desert him--an old buccaneer custom.
To land a boat on a beach before a dangerous sea, this demands practical skill, for which the Dover and Deal men are famed.
BEACH-COMBERS.
Loiterers around a bay or harbour.
BEACH-COMBING.
Loafing about a port to filch small things.
BEACH-FLEA.
A small crustacean (_Talitra_) frequenting sandy shores.
BEACH-GRASS.
_Alga marina_ thrown up by the surf or tide.
BEACHING A VESSEL.
_See under_ VOLUNTARY STRANDING.
Also, the act of running a vessel up on the beach for various purposes where there is no other accommodation.
BEACH-MAN.
A person on the coast of Africa who acts as interpreter to shipmasters, and assists them in conducting the trade.
BEACH-MASTER.
A superior officer, captain, appointed to superintend disembarkation of an attacking force, who holds plenary powers, and generally leads the storming party.
His acts when in the heat of action, if he summarily shoot a coward, are unquestioned--poor Falconer, to wit!
BEACH-MEN.
A name applied to boatmen and those who land people through a heavy surf.
BEACH-RANGERS.
Men hanging about sea-ports, who have been turned out of vessels for bad conduct.
BEACH-TRAMPERS.
A name applied to the coast-guard.
BEACON.
[Anglo-Saxon, _beacn_.
] A post or stake erected over a shoal or sand-bank, as a warning to seamen to keep at a distance; also a signal-mark placed on the top of hills, eminences, or buildings near the shore for the safe guidance of shipping.
BEACONAGE.
A payment levied for the maintenance of beacons.
BEAFT.
Often used by east-country men for abaft.
BEAK, OR BEAK-HEAD.
A piece of brass like a beak, fixed at the head of the ancient galleys, with which they pierced their enemies.
Pisaeus is said to have first added the rostrum or beak-head.
Later it was a small platform at the fore part of the upper deck, but the term is now applied to that part without the ship before the forecastle, or knee of the head, which is fastened to the stem and is supported by the main knee.
Latterly, to meet steam propulsion, the whole of this is enlarged, strengthened, and armed with iron plates, and thus the armed stem revives the ancient strategy in sea-fights.
Shakspeare makes Ariel thus allude to the beak in the "Tempest:"-- "I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flam'd amazement."
BEAKER.
A flat drinking tumbler or cup, from the German _becher_.
(_See_ BICKER.
) BEAK-HEAD BEAM.
For this important timber _see_ CAT-BEAM.
BEAK-HEAD BULK-HEAD.
The old termination aft of the space called _beak-head_, which inclosed the fore part of the ship.
BEAL.
A word of Gaelic derivation for an opening or narrow pass between two hills.
BEAM.
A long double stratum of murky clouds generally observed over the surface of the Mediterranean previous to a violent storm or an earthquake.
The French call it _trave_.
BEAM.
(_See_ ABEAM.
)--_Before the beam_ is an arc of the horizon, comprehended between a line that crosses the ship's length at right angles and some object at a distance before it; or between the line of the beam and that point of the compass which she stems.
On the _weather_ or _lee_ beam is in a direction to windward or leeward at right angles with the keel.
BEAM-ARM.
Synonymous with _crow-foot_ (which see).
BEAM-ENDS.
A ship is said to be on her beam-ends when she has heeled over so much on one side that her beams approach to a vertical position;
hence also a person lying down is metaphorically said to be on his beam-ends.
BEAM-FILLINGS.
Short lengths of wood cut to fit in between the beams to complete the cargo of a timber ship.
BEAM-LINE.
A line raised along the inside of the ship fore and aft, showing the upper sides of the beams at her side.
BEAM OF THE ANCHOR.
Synonymous with _anchor-stock_.
BEAMS.
Strong transverse pieces of timber stretching across the ship from one side to the other, to support the decks and retain the sides at their proper distance, with which they are firmly connected by means of strong knees, and sometimes of standards.
They are sustained at each end by thick stringers on the ship's side, called shelf-pieces, upon which they rest.
The main-beam is next abaft the main-mast, which is stepped between two beams with transverse supports termed partners; the foremost of these is generally termed the main-beam, or the after-beam of the main-hatchway.
The greatest beam of all is called the midship-beam.
BEAN-COD.
A small fishing-vessel, or pilot-boat, common on the sea-coasts and in the rivers of Spain and Portugal; extremely sharp forward, having its stem bent inward above in a considerable curve; it is commonly navigated with a large lateen sail, which extends the whole length of the deck, and sometimes of an out-rigger over the stern, and is accordingly well fitted to ply to windward.
They frequently set as many as twenty different sails, alow and aloft, by every possible contrivance, so as to puzzle seamen who are not familiar with the rig.
BEAR.
A large block of stone, matted, loaded with shot, and fitted with ropes, by which it is roused or pulled to and fro to grind the decks withal.
Also, a coir-mat filled with sand similarly used.
BEAR, THE CONSTELLATIONS OF THE.
Ursa Major and Minor, most important to seamen, as instantly indicating by the pointers and pole-star the true north at night, much more correctly than any compass bearing.
BEAR, TO.
The direction of an object from the viewer; it is used in the following different phrases: The land's end bore E. N.
E.
; _i.
e. _ it was seen from the ship in a line with the E. N.
E.
point of the compass.
We bore down upon the enemy; _i.
e. _ having the advantage of the wind, or being to windward, we approached the enemy by sailing large, or from the wind.
When a ship that was to windward comes under another ship's stern, and so gives her the wind, she is said to bear under the lee; often as a mark of respect.
She bears in with the land, is said of a ship when she runs towards the shore.
We bore off the land; _i.
e. _ we increased our distance from the land.
--_To bear down_ upon a ship, is to approach her from the windward.
--_To bear ordnance_, to carry her guns well.
--_To bear sail_, stiff under canvas.
--_To bear up_, to put the helm up, and keep a vessel off her course, letting her recede from the wind and move to leeward; this is synonymous with _to bear away_, but is applied to the ship instead of the helm.
--_Bear up_, one who has duly served for a commission, but from want of interest bears up broken-hearted and accepts an inferior warrant, or quits the profession, seeking some less important vocation; some middies have borne up and yet become bishops, lord-chancellors, judges, surgeons, &c. --_To bear up round_, is to put a ship right before the wind.
--_To bring a cannon to bear_, signifies that it now lies right with the mark.
--_To bear off from_, and _in with_ the land, signifies standing off or going towards the coast.
BEAR A BOB, OR A FIST.
Jocular for "lend a hand."
BEAR A HAND.
Hasten.
BEARD.
The silky filaments or byssus by which some testacea adhere to rocks.
Of an oyster, the gills.
BEARDIE.
A northern name of the three-spined stickleback.
BEARDING.
The angular fore-part of the rudder, in juxtaposition with the stern-post.
Also, the corresponding bevel of the stern-post.
Also, the bevelling of any piece of timber or plank to any required angle: as the bearding of dead wood, clamps, &c. BEARDING-LINE.
In ship-building, is a curved line made by bearding the dead-wood to the shape of the ship's body.
BEARERS.
Pieces of plank placed on the bolts which are driven through the standards or posts for the carpenters' stages to rest upon.
BEARING.
An arc of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compass, or resulting from finical proportion.
There is the _true_ or astronomical bearing, and the _magnetic_ bearing.
It is also the situation of any distant object, estimated with regard to the ship's position; and in this sense the object must bear either ahead, astern, abreast, on the bow, or on the quarter; if a ship sails with a side wind, a distant object is said to bear to leeward or to windward, on the lee quarter or bow, or on the weather quarter or bow.
BEARING BACKSTAYS AFT.
To throw the breast backstays out of the cross-tree horns or out-riggers and bear them aft.
If not done, when suddenly bracing up, the cross-tree horn is frequently sprung or broken off.
BEARING BINNACLE.
A small binnacle with a single compass, usually placed before the other.
In line-of-battle ships it is generally placed on the fife-rail in the centre and foremost part of the poop.
BEARINGS.
The widest part of a vessel below the plank-shear.
The line of flotation which is formed by the water upon her sides when she sits upright with her provisions, stores, and ballast, on board in proper trim.
BEARINGS, TO BRING TO HIS.
Used in conversation for "to bring to reason."
To bring an unruly subject to his senses, to know he is under control, to reduce to order.
BEAT.
The verb means to excel, surpass, or overcome.
"And then their ships could only follow, For we had beat them all dead hollow."
BEATEN BACK.
Returning into port from stress of foul weather.
BEATING, OR TURNING TO WINDWARD.
The operation of making progress by alternate tacks at sea against the wind, in a zig-zag line, or transverse courses; beating, however, is generally understood to be turning to windward in a storm or fresh wind.
BEATING THE BOOBY.
The beating of the hands from side to side in cold weather to create artificial warmth.
BEATING WIND.
That which requires the ship to make her way by tacks; a baffling or contrary wind.
BEATSTER.
One who _beats_ or mends the Yarmouth herring-nets.
BEAT TO ARMS.
The signal by drum to summon the men to their quarters.
BEAT TO QUARTERS.
The order for the drummer to summon every one to his respective station.
BEAVER.
A helmet in general, but particularly that part which lets down to allow of the wearer's drinking.
BECALM, TO.
To intercept the current of the wind in its passage to a ship, by means of any contiguous object, as a high shore, some other ship to windward, &c. At this time the sails remain in a sort of rest, and consequently deprived of their power to govern the motion of the ship.
Thus one sail becalms another.
BECALMED.
Implies that from the weather being calm, and not a breath of wind blowing, the sails hang loose against the mast.
BECHE DE MER.
_See_ TREPANG.
BECK [the Anglo-Saxon _becca_].
A small mountain-brook or rivulet, common to all northern dialects.
A Gaelic or Manx term for a thwart or bench in the boat.
BECKET.
A piece of rope placed so as to confine a spar or another rope;
anything used to keep loose ropes, tackles, or spars in a convenient place; hence, beckets are either large hooks or short pieces of rope with a knot at one end and an eye in the other; or formed like a circular wreath for handles; as with cutlass hilts, boarding pikes, tomahawks, &c. ; or they are wooden brackets, and probably from a corruption and misapplication of this last term arose the word becket, which seems often to be confounded with bracket.
Also, a grummet either of rope or iron, fixed to the bottom of a block, for making fast the standing end of the fall.
BECKET, THE TACKS AND SHEETS IN THE.
The order to hang up the weather-main and fore-sheet, and the lee-main and fore-tack, to the small knot and eye becket on the foremost-main and fore-shrouds, when the ship is close hauled, to prevent them from hanging in the water.
A
kind of large cleat seized on a vessel's fore or main rigging for the sheets and tacks to lie in when not required.
Cant term for pockets--"Hands out of beckets, sir."
BED.
Flat thick pieces of wood, lodged under the quarters of casks containing any liquid, and stowed in a ship's hold, in order to keep them bilge-free; being steadied upon the beds by means of wedges called quoins.
The impression made by a ship's bottom on the mud on having been left by an ebb-tide.
The bite made in the ground by the fluke of an anchor.
A kind of false deck, or platform, placed on those decks where the guns were too low for the ports.
--_Bed of a gun-carriage_, or _stool-bed_.
The piece of wood between the cheeks or brackets which, with the intervention of the quoin, supports the breech of the gun.
It is itself supported, forward, on the bed-bolt, and aft, generally with the intervention of an elevating-screw, on the rear axle-tree.
BED OR BARREL SCREWS.
A powerful machine for lifting large bodies, and placed against the gripe of a ship to be launched for starting her.
BED-BOLT.
A horizontal bolt passing through both brackets of a gun-carriage near their centres, and on which the forward end of the stool-bed rests.
BEDDING A CASK.
Placing dunnage round it.
BEDLAMERS.
Young Labrador seals, which set up a dismal cry when they cannot escape their pursuers--and go madly after each other in the sea.
BED OF A MORTAR.
The solid frame on which a mortar is mounted for firing.
For sea-service it is generally made of wood; for land-service, of iron, except in the smaller natures.
In mortar vessels as latterly fitted, the bed traverses on a central pivot over a large table or platform of wood, having under it massive india-rubber buffers, to moderate the jar from the discharge.
--_Bed of a river_, that part of the channel of a stream over which the water generally flows, as also that part of the basin of a sea or lake on which the water lies.
BED-OF-GUNS.
A nautical phrase implying ordnance too heavy for a ship's scantling, or a fort over-gunned.
BE-DUNDERED.
Stupified with noise.
BEE.
A ring or hoop of metal.
--_Bees of the bowsprit.
_ (_See_ BEE-BLOCKS.
) BEE-BLOCKS.
Pieces of hard wood bolted to the outer end of the bowsprit, to reeve the fore-topmast stays through, the bolt, serving as a pin, commonly called bees.
BEEF.
A figurative term for strength.
--_More beef!
_ more men on.
BEEF-KID.
A mess utensil for carrying meat from the coppers.
BEETLE.
A shipwright's heavy mallet for driving the wedges called reeming irons, so as to open the seams in order to caulk.
(_See_ REEMING.
) BEETLE-HEAD.
A large beetle, weighing 1000 lbs.
, swayed up by a crabwinch to a height, and dropped by a pincer-shaped hook; it is used in pile-driving.
BEFORE OR ABAFT THE BEAM.
The bearing of any object which is before or abaft a right line to the keel, at the midship section of a ship.
BEFORE THE MAST.
The station of the working seamen, as distinguishing them from the officers.
BEGGAR-BOLTS.
A contemptuous term for the missiles which were thrown by the galley-slaves at an approaching enemy.
BEHAVIOUR.
The action and qualities of a ship under different impulses.
Seamen speak of the manner in which she behaves, as if she acted by her own instinct.
BEIKAT.
_See_ BYKAT.
BEILED.
A sea-term in the old law-books, apparently for moored.
BEING.
_See_ BING.
BELAY, TO.
To fasten a rope when it has been sufficiently hauled upon, by twining it several times round a cleat, belaying pin, or kevel, without hitching or seizing; this is chiefly applied to the running rigging, which needs to be so secured that it may be quickly let go in case of a squall or change of wind; there being several other expressions used for securing large ropes, as bitting, making fast, stoppering, &c. --_Belay there_, stop!
that is enough!
--_Belay that yarn_, we have had enough of it.
Stand fast, secure all, when a hawser has been sufficiently hauled.
When the top-sails, or other sails have been hoisted taut up, or "belay the main-tack," &c. BELAYING PINS.
Small wooden or iron cylinders, fixed in racks in different parts of the ship, for belaying running ropes to.
BELEAGUER.
To invest or closely surround an enemy's post, in such manner as to prevent all relief or communication.
BELFRY.
An ornamental frame or shelter, under which the ship's bell is suspended.
BELL.
_Strike the bell.
_ The order to strike the clapper against the bell as many times as there are half hours of the watch elapsed; hence we say it is two bells, three bells, &c. , meaning there are two or three half-hours past.
The watch of four hours is eight bells.
BELLA STELLA.
A name used by old seamen for the cross-staff.
BELLATRIX.
{g} Orionis.
BELL-BUOY.
A large can-buoy on which is placed, in wicker-work, a bell, which is sounded by the heaving and setting of the sea.
BELLIGERENT.
An epithet applied to any country which is in a state of warfare.
BELLOWS.
An old hand at the bellows.
A colloquialism for a man up to his duty.
"A fresh hand at the _bellows_" is said when a gale increases.
BELL-ROPE.
A short rope spliced round a thimble in the eye of the bell-crank, with a double wall-knot crowned at its end.
BELLS.
_See_ WATCH.
BELL-TOP.
A name applied to the top of a quarter-gallery, when the upper stool is hollowed away, or made like a rim.
BELL-WARE.
A name of the _Zostera marina_ (which see).
BELLY.
The swell of a sail.
The inner or hollow part of compass timber;
the outside is called the _back_.
To belly a sail is to inflate or fill it with the wind, so as to give a taut leech.
--_Bellying canvas_ is generally applied to a vessel going free, as when the belly and foot reefs which will not stand on a wind, are shaken out.
--_Bellying to the breeze_, the sails filling or being inflated by the wind.
--_Bellying to leeward_, when too much sail is injudiciously carried.
BELLY-BAND.
A strip of canvas, half way between the close-reef and the foot of square sails, to strengthen them.
Also applied to an army officer's sash.
BELLY-GUY.
A tackle applied half-way up sheers, or long spars that require support in the middle.
Frequently applied to masts that have been crippled by injudiciously setting up the rigging too taut.
BELLY-MAT.
_See_ PAUNCH-MAT.
BELLY-STAY.
Used half-mast down when a mast requires support; as belly-guy, above.
BELOW.
The opposite of _on_ or _'pon deck_.
Generally used to distinguish the watch on deck, and those off the watch.
BELT.
A metaphorical term in geography for long and proportionally narrow encircling strips of land having any particular feature; as a belt of sand, a belt of hills, &c. It is, in use, nearly synonymous with zone.
Also, to beat with a colt or rope's end.
BELTING.
A beating; formerly given by a belt.
BELTS.
The dusky streaks crossing the surface of the planet Jupiter, and supposed to be openings in his atmosphere.
BENCHES OF BOATS.
The seats in the after-part whereon the passengers sit; properly stern-sheets, the others are athwarts, whereon the rowers sit.
BEND, TO.
To fasten one rope to another, or to an anchor.
The term is also applied to any sudden or remarkable change in the direction of a river, and is then synonymous with bight or loop.
--_Bend a sail_ is to extend or make it fast to its proper yard or stay.
