Sailor's Word-book, A - C — Boo - Boy
BONY-FISH.
One of the names of the hard-head (which see).
BOOBY.
A well-known tropical sea-bird, _Sula fusca_, of the family _Pelecanidae_.
It is fond of resting out of the water at night, even preferring an unstable perch on the yard of a ship.
The name is derived from the way in which it allows itself to be caught immediately after settling.
The direction in which they fly as evening comes on often shows where land may be found.
BOOBY-HATCH.
A smaller kind of companion, but readily removable; it is in use for merchantmen's half decks, and lifts off in one piece.
BOOK.
A commercial term for a peculiar packing of muslin, bast, and other stuffs.
--_Brought to book_, made to account.
BOOKING.
A reprimand.
BOOKS.
(_See_ SHIP'S BOOKS.
) Official documents.
BOOM.
A long spar run out from different places in the ship, to extend or boom out the foot of a particular sail; as, jib-boom, flying jib-boom, studding-sail booms, driver or spanker boom, ringtail-boom, main-boom, square-sail boom, &c. A ship is said to come booming forwards when she comes with all the sail she can make.
Boom also denotes a cable stretched athwart the mouth of a river or harbour, with yards, top-masts, or stout spars of wood lashed to it, to prevent the entrance of an enemy.
--_To top one's boom_, is to start off.
--_To boom off_, to shove a boat or vessel away with spars.
BOOMAGE.
A duty levied to compound for harbour dues, anchorage, and soundage.
BOOM-BOATS.
Those stowed on the booms.
BOOM-BRACE PENDANT.
A rope attached to the extremity of a studding-sail boom, and leading down on deck; it is used to counteract the pressure of the sail upon the boom.
BOOM-COVER.
The tarpaulin, or painted, cover over the spars.
BOOMING.
Sound of distant guns; it is often, but wrongly, applied to the hissing or whistling of shot.
BOOM-IRONS.
Are metal rings fitted on the yard-arms, through which the studding-sail booms traverse; there is one on each top-sail yard-arm, but on the lower yards a second, which opens to allow the boom to be triced up; it is one-fourth from the yard-arms, and holds down the heel of the boom when it is rigged out.
BOOM-JIGGER.
A tackle used in large ships, for rigging out or running in the top-mast studding-sail booms.
BOOMKIN.
_See_ BUMKIN.
BOOM-MAINSAIL.
_See_ MAIN-SAIL.
BOOMS.
A space where the spare spars are stowed; the launch being generally stowed between them.
BOOPAH.
A Tongatabou canoe with a single out-rigger.
BOOTHYR.
An old term, denoting a small river vessel.
BOOT-TOPPING.
The old operation of scraping off the grass, slime, shells, &c. , which adhere to the bottom, near the surface of the water, and daubing it over with a mixture of tallow, sulphur, and resin, as a temporary protection against worms.
This is chiefly performed where there is no dock or other commodious situation for breaming or careening, or when the hurry of a voyage renders it inconvenient to have the whole bottom properly trimmed and cleansed.
The term is now applied to sheathing a vessel with planking over felt.
BOOTY.
That sort of prize which may be distributed at the capstan-head, or at once.
BOOZE.
A carouse; hence, _boozy_, elevated by liquor.
BORA.
A very violent wind experienced in the upper part of the Adriatic Sea, but which fortunately is of no great duration.
BORACCHIO [Sp.
_borracho_, drunk].
A skin for holding wine or water, usually a goat's. Used in the Levant.
A skin-full; literally, gorged with wine.
BORASCA.
A storm, with thunder and lightning.
BORD.
The sea-coast, an old term.
Formerly meant the side, edge, or brim; hence, as applied to a ship, to throw overboard, is to cast anything over the side of the vessel.
BORDELS.
An old word for houses built along a strand.
In the old play called the "Ladies' Privilege," it is said:--"These gentlemen know better to cut a caper than a cable, or board a pink in the bordels than a pinnace."
BORDER.
A term referring to the nature of the vegetation on the margin of a stream or lake, or to artificial works constructed along the banks.
BORD YOU.
A saying of a man waiting, to one who is drinking, meaning that he claims the next turn.
BORE.
A sudden and rapid flow of tide in certain inlets of the sea; as the monstrous wave in the river Hooghly, called _bahu_ by the natives, which rolls in with the noise of distant thunder at flood-tide.
It occurs from February to November, at the new and full moon.
Its cause has not been clearly defined, although it probably arises from the currents during spring-tides, acting on a peculiar conformation of the banks and bed of the river; it strikes invariably on the same part of the banks, majestically rolling over to one side, and passing on diagonally to the other with impetuous violence.
The bore also occurs in England, near Bristol; and in America, in several rivers, but especially in the Bay of Fundy, where at the river Petticodiac the tide rises 76 feet.
It also occurs in Borneo and several rivers in the East.
(_See_ HYGRE.
) Also, the interior cavity of a piece of ordnance, generally cylindrical in shape, except when a part of it is modified into a chamber.
BOREAS.
A classical name for the north wind, still in use; indeed a brackish proverb for extreme severity of weather says--"Cold and chilly, like Boreas with an iceberg in each pocket."
BORE DOWN.
Sailed down from to windward.
BORHAME.
A northern term for the flounder.
BORING.
In Arctic seas, the operation of forcing the ship through loose ice under a heavy press of sail; at least attempting the chance of advantage of cracks or openings in the pack.
BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON IN HIS MOUTH.
Said of a person who, by birth or connection, has all the usual obstacles to advancement cleared away for him.
Those who toil unceasingly for preferment, and toil in vain, are said to have been born with a wooden ladle.
Again, the silver-spoon gentry are said to come on board through the cabin windows; those less favoured, over the bows, or through the hawse-holes.
BORNE.
Placed on the books for victuals and wages; also supernumerary and "for rank."
BORROW, TO.
To approach closely either to land or wind; to hug a shoal or coast in order to avoid adverse tide.
BORT.
The name given to a long fishing-line in the Shetland Isles.
BOSS.
A head of water, or reservoir.
Also the apex of a shield.
BOTARGA.
The roe of the mullet pressed flat and dried; that of commerce, however, is from the tunny, a large fish of passage which is common in the Mediterranean.
The best kind comes from Tunis; it must be chosen dry and reddish.
The usual way of eating it is with olive-oil and lemon-juice.
BOTCH, TO.
To make bungling work.
BOTE'S-CARLE.
An old term for the coxswain of a boat.
BOTHERED.
Getting among adverse currents, with shifting winds.
BOTH SHEETS AFT.
The situation of a square-rigged ship that sails before the wind, or with the wind right astern.
It is said also of a half-drunken sailor rolling along with his hands in his pockets and elbows square.
BOTTE.
An old English term for boat, and assuredly the damaged boat into which Prospero is turned adrift by Shakspeare.
BOTTLE-BUMP.
The bittern, so called on our east coast.
BOTTLE-CHARTS.
Those on which the set of surface currents are exhibited, derived from papers found in bottles which have been thrown overboard for that purpose, and washed up on the beach, or picked up by other ships.
BOTTLE-NOSE, OR BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE.
A name applied to several of the smaller cetaceans of the northern seas, more especially to the _Hyperoodon rostratus_.
BOTTOM.
A name for rich low land formed by alluvial deposits: but in a general sense it denotes the lowest part of a thing, in contradistinction to the top or uppermost part.
In navigation, it is used to denote as well the channel of rivers and harbours as the body or hull of a ship.
Thus, in the former sense we say "a gravelly bottom, clayey bottom," &c. , and in the latter sense "a British bottom, a Dutch bottom," &c. By statute, certain commodities imported in foreign bottoms pay a duty called "petty customs," over and above what they are liable to if imported in British bottoms.
Bottom of a ship or boat is that part which is below the wales.
BOTTOM-CLEAN.
Thoroughly clean, free from weeds, &c. BOTTOM-PLANK.
That which is placed between the garboard-strake and lower back-strake.
BOTTOMREE, OR BOTTOMRY-BOND.
The contract of bottomry is a negotiable instrument, which may be put in suit by the person to whom it is transferred: it is in use in all countries of maritime commerce and interests.
A contract in the nature of a mortgage of a ship, when the owner of it borrows money to enable him to carry on the voyage, and pledge the keel, or bottom of the ship, as a security for the repayment.
If the ship be lost the lender also loses his whole money; but if it return in safety then he shall receive back his principal, and also the premium stipulated to be paid, however it may exceed the usual or legal rate of interest.
The affair is, however, only regarded as valid upon the ground of necessity; and thus exacting more than the interest allowed by law is not deemed usury.
BOTTOMRY PREMIUM.
A high rate of interest charged on the safety of the ship--the lender losing his whole money if she be lost.
BOTTOM-WIND.
A phenomenon that occurs on the lakes in the north of England, especially Derwent Water, which is often agitated by swelling waves without any apparent cause.
BOUCHE.
_See_ BUSH.
BOUGE OR BOWGE AND CHINE, OR BILGE AND CHIMB.
The end of one cask stowed against the bilge of another.
To prepare a ship for the purpose of sinking it.
BOUILLI.
Termed by seamen bully-beef; disliked because all the substance is boiled away to enrich the cook's grease-tub, and the meat is useless as food; rejected even by dogs.
In one ship of war it produced mutiny;
vide Adams' account of the _Bounty_ miseries.
It is also the name given to highly cooked meat in hermetically sealed tin canisters.
BOULDER-HEAD.
A work against the encroachment of the sea, made of wooden stakes.
BOULDERS.
Stones worn and rounded by the attrition of the waves of the sea: the word, on the authority of Hunter, was considered a technical term in the fourteenth century, as appears in a warrant of John of Gaunt for the repair of Pontefract Castle--"De peres, appeles buldres, a n're dit chastel come nous semblerez resonables pur la defense de meisme."
BOULEPONGES.
A drink to which many of the deaths of Europeans in India were ascribed; but in Bernier's "Travels," in the train of Aurungzebe, in 1664, we are informed that "bouleponge is a beverage made of arrack, sugar, lemon-juice, and a little muscadine."
Probably a corruption of bowls of punch.
(_See_ PUNCH.
) BOUNCE.
The larger dog-fish.
BOUNCER.
A gun which kicks violently when fired.
BOUND.
Destined for a particular service.
Intended voyage to a place.
--_Ice-bound.
_ Totally surrounded with ice.
--_Tide-bound_, or be-neaped.
(_See_ NEAPED.
)--_Wind-bound.
_ Prevented from sailing by contrary wind.
--_Where are you bound to?
_--_i.
e. _ To what place are you going?
--_Bound on a cruise.
_ A corruption of the old word _bowne_, which is still in use on the northern coasts, and means to make ready, to prepare.
BOUNTY.
A sum of money given by government, authorized by act of parliament or royal proclamation, to men who voluntarily enter into the army or navy; and the widow of such volunteer seaman killed or drowned in the service was entitled to a bounty equal to a year's pay.
BOUNTY-BOATS.
Those which fished under the encouragement of a bounty from government.
BOUNTY-LIST.
A register of all persons who have received the bounty to which they are entitled after having passed three musters in the service.
BOURN.
_See_ BURN.
BOURSE.
A place where merchants congregate.
An exchange.
BOUSE.
_See_ BOWSE.
BOUT.
A turn, trial, or round.
An attack of illness; a convivial meeting.
--_'Bout ship_, the brief order for "about ship."
BOW.
The fore-end of a ship or boat; being the rounding part of a vessel forward, beginning on both sides where the planks arch inwards, and terminating where they close, at the rabbet of the stem or prow, being larboard or starboard from that division.
A bold bow is broad and round;
a lean bow, narrow and thin.
--_On the bow.
_ An arc of the horizon (not exceeding 45 deg.
) comprehended between some distant object and that point of the compass which is right ahead.
Four points on either bow is met by four points before the beam.
BOW.
An astronomical instrument formerly used at sea, consisting of only one large graduated arc of 90 deg.
, three vanes, and a shank or staff.
Also the bow of yew, a weapon of our early fleets.
BOW.
_She bows to the breeze_; when the sails belly out full, and the ship inclines and goes ahead, pitching or bowing over the blue waves.
BOW-BYE.
The situation of a ship when, in stays, she falls back off the wind again, and gets into irons, which demands practical seamanship for her extrication.
This was deemed a lubberly act in our fleets of old.
BOW-CHASERS.
Two long chase-guns placed forward in the bow-ports to fire directly ahead, and being of small bore for their length, carry shot to a great distance.
BOWD-EATEN.
An old expression for eaten by weevils.
BOWER-ANCHORS.
Those at the bows and in constant working use.
They are called best and small, not from a difference of size, but as to the bow on which they are placed; starboard being the best bower, and port the small bower.
The appropriated cables assume the respective names.
(_See also_ SPARE ANCHOR, SHEET, STREAM, COASTING, KEDGE, &c. ) BOW-FAST.
A rope or chain for securing a vessel by the bow.
(_See_ FAST.
) BOWGE, OR BOUGE.
An old term for bilge.
BOWGER.
A name given in the Hebrides to the coulter-neb, or puffin (_Fratercula arctica_).
BOWGRACE.
A kind of frame or fender of old junk, placed round the bows and sides of a ship to prevent her receiving injury from floating ice or timbers.
(_See_ BON GRACE.
) BOWING.
An injury done to yards by too much topping, and letting their weights hang by the lifts.
The state of a top-sail yard when it arches in the centre from hoisting it too tautly.
Also of the mast when it bellies or is crippled by injudiciously setting up the rigging too taut.
BOWING THE SEA.
Meeting a turbulent swell in coming to the wind.
BOWLINE.
A rope leading forward which is fastened to a space connected by bridles to cringles on the leech or perpendicular edge of the square sails: it is used to keep the weather-edge of the sail tight forward and steady when the ship is close hauled to the wind; and which, indeed, being hauled taut, enables the ship to come nearer to the wind.
Hence the ship sails on a bowline, or stands on a taut bowline.
--_To check or come up a bowline_ is to slacken it when the wind becomes large or free.
--_To sharp or set taut a bowline_ is to pull it as taut as it can well bear.
BOWLINE-BEND.
The mode of bending warps or hawsers together by taking a bowline in the end of one rope, and passing the end of the other through the bight, and making a bowline upon it.
BOWLINE-BRIDLE.
The span attached to the cringles on the leech of a square sail to which the bowline is toggled or clinched.
BOWLINE-CRINGLE.
An eye worked into the leech-rope of a sail; usually in that of a fore-sail two, a main-sail three, and the fore-topsails three, but the main-topsail four.
By these the sails are found in the dark, by feeling alone.
BOWLINE HAUL.
A hearty and simultaneous bowse.
(_See_ ONE!
TWO!!
THREE!!!
) In hauling the bowline it is customary for the leading man to veer, and then haul, three times in succession, singing out one, two, three--at the last the weight of all the men is thrown in together: this is followed by "belay, oh!"
When the bowlines are reported "bowlines hauled, sir," by the officer in command of the fore-part of the ship, the hands, or the watch, return to their duties.
BOWLINE-KNOT.
That by which the bowline-bridles were fastened to the cringles: the bowline-knot is made by an involution of the end and a bight upon the standing part of a rope.
A further involution makes what is termed a bowline on a bight.
It is very difficult to explain by words:--holding the rope some distance from the end by the left hand, the end held in the right is laid on the main part, and by a twist given screw-fashion to the right, a loop or kink is formed inclosing this end, which is then passed behind, and back in the same direction with the former, and then jammed home.
It is rapidly done, easily undone, and one of the most seamanlike acts, exhibiting grace as well as power.
It can be made by a man with but one arm.
BOW-LINES.
In ship-building, longitudinal curves representing the ship's fore-body cut in a vertical section.
BOWLING-ALONG.
Going with a free wind.
BOW-LOG TIMBERS.
A provincial name for hawse-wood.
BOWMAN.
In a single-banked boat he who rows the foremost oar and manages the boat-hook; called by the French "brigadier de l'embarcation."
In double-banked boats there are always two bowmen.
Also an archer, differently pronounced.
BOW-OAR.
The foremost oar or oars, in pulling a boat.
BOW-PIECES.
The ordnance in the bows; also in building.
BOW-RAIL.
A rail round the bows.
BOWSE, TO.
To pull upon any body with a tackle, or complication of pulleys, in order to remove it, &c. Hauling upon a tack is called "bowsing upon a tack," and when they would have the men pull all together, they cry, "Bowse away."
Also used in setting up rigging, as "Bowse away, starboard;" "Bowse away, port."
It is, however, mostly a gun-tackle term.
--_Bowse up the jib_, a colloquialism to denote the act of tippling: it is an old phrase, and was probably derived from the Dutch _buyzen_, to booze.
BOWSPRIT, OR BOLT-SPRIT.
A large spar, ranking with a lower-mast, projecting over the stem; beyond it extends the jib-boom, and beyond that again the flying jib-boom.
To these spars are secured the stays of the fore-mast and of the spars above it; on these stays are set the fore and fore-topmast staysails, the jib, and flying-jib, which have a most useful influence in counter-balancing the pressure of the after-sails, thereby tending to force the ship ahead instead of merely turning her round.
In former times underneath these spars were set a sprit-sail, sprit-topsail, &c. BOWSPRIT, RUNNING.
In cutter-rigged vessels.
(_See_ CUTTER.
) BOWSPRIT-BITTS.
Are strong upright timbers secured to the beams below the deck; they have a cross-piece bolted to them, the inner end of the bowsprit steps between them, and is thus prevented from slipping in.
The cross-piece prevents it from canting up.
BOWSPRIT-CAP.
The crance or cap on the outer end of the bowsprit, through which the jib-boom traverses.
BOWSPRIT-GEAR.
A term denoting the ropes, blocks, &c. , belonging to the bowsprit.
BOWSPRIT-HEART.
The heart or block of wood used to secure the lower end of the fore-stay, through which the inner end of the jib-boom is inserted.
It is seldom, if ever, used now, an iron band round the bowsprit, with an eye on each side for the fore-stays, being preferred.
BOWSPRIT-HORSES.
The ridge-ropes which extend from the bowsprit-cap to the knight-heads.
BOWSPRIT-LADDER.
Skids over the bowsprit from the beak-head in some ships, to enable men to run out upon the bowsprit.
BOWSPRIT-NETTING.
