Sailor's Word-book, A - C — Br - Bring

BOYER.

A sloop of Flemish construction, with a raised work at each end.

BRAB.

The sheaf of the young leaves of the Palmyra palm (and also of the cocoa-nut), from which sinnet or plait for hats is made.

BRAB-TREE.

The Palmyra palm.

BRACE.

The braces are ropes belonging to all the yards of a ship; two to each yard, rove through blocks that are stropped to the yards, or fastened to pendants, seized to the yard-arms.

Their use is either to square or traverse the yards horizontally; hence, _to brace the yard_, is to bring it to either side by means of the braces.

In ship-building, braces are plates of iron, copper, or mixed metal, which are used to bind efficiently a weakness in a vessel; as also to receive the pintles by which the rudder is hung.

BRACE ABACK.

To brace the yards in, so as to lay the sails aback.

--_To brace about_, to turn the yards round for the contrary tack, or in consequence of a change of wind.

--_To brace abox_, a man[oe]uvre to insure casting the right way, by bracing the head-yards flat aback (not square).

--_To brace by_, to brace the yards in contrary directions to each other on the different masts, to effect the stopping of the vessel.

(_See_ COUNTER-BRACE.

)--_To brace in_, to lay the yard less oblique, as for a free wind, or nearly square.

--_To brace round_, synonymous with brace about.

--_To brace sharp_, to cause the yards to have the smallest possible angle with the keel, for the ship to have head-way: deemed generally to form an angle of 20 deg.

with the keel.

--_To brace to_, is to check or ease off the lee braces, and round in the weather ones, to assist in the man[oe]uvre of tacking or wearing.

--_To brace up_, or _brace sharp up_, to lay the yards more obliquely fore and aft, by easing off the weather-braces and hauling in the lee ones, which enables a ship to lie as close to the wind as possible.

BRACE OF SHAKES.

A moment: taken from the flapping of a sail.

I will be with you before it shakes thrice.

BRACE PENDANTS.

Are lengths of rope, or now more generally chain, into which the yard-arm brace-blocks are spliced.

They are used in the merchant service to save rope, to give the blocks more freedom for slewing to their work, but chiefly because when the brace is let go, the falling chain will overhaul it, making it easier to haul in the other brace.

BRACE UP AND HAUL AFT!

The order usually given after being hove-to, with fore or main top-sail square or aback, and jib-sheet flowing, _i.

e. _ haul aft jib-sheet, brace up the yards which had been squared, for the purpose of heaving to.

BRACK.

The Manx or Gaelic name for mackerel.

BRACKETS.

Short crooked timbers resembling knees, fixed in the frame of a ship's head to support the gratings; they likewise served to support and ornament the gallery.

Also, the two vertical side-pieces of the carriage of any piece of ordnance, which support it by the trunnions.

Called also cheeks.

Also, triangular supports to miscellaneous things.

BRACKISH.

Water not fresh; from the Icelandic _breke_, the sea.

BRADS.

Small nails.

BRAE.

A declivity or precipice.

BRAGGIR.

The name given in the Western Islands of Scotland to the broad leaves growing on the top of the _Alga marina_, or sea-grass.

BRAILS.

Ropes passing through leading blocks on the hoops of the mizen-mast and gaff, and fastened to the outermost leech of the sail, in different places, to truss it close up as occasion requires; all trysails and several of the staysails also have brails.

BRAIL UP!

The order to pull upon the brails, and thereby spill and haul in the sail.

The mizen, or spanker, or driver, or any of the gaff-sails, as they may be termed, when brailed up, are deemed furled; unless it blows hard, when they are farther secured by gaskets.

BRAKE.

The handle or lever by which a common ship-pump is usually worked.

It operates by means of two iron bolts, one thrust through the inner hole of it, which bolted through forms the lever axis in the iron crutch of the pump, and serves as the fulcrum for the brake, supporting it between the cheeks.

The other bolt connects the extremity of the brake to the pump-spear, which draws up the spear box or piston, charged with the water in the tube; derived from _brachium_, an arm or lever.

Also, used to check the speed of machinery by frictional force pressing on the circumference of the largest wheel acted on by leverage of the brake.

BRAN, TO.

To go on; to lie under a floe edge, in foggy weather, in a boat in Arctic seas, to watch the approach of whales.

BRANCH.

The diploma of those pilots who have passed at the Trinity House, as competent to navigate vessels in particular places.

The word branch is also metaphorically used for river divergents, but its application to affluents is improper.

Any branch or ramification, as in estuaries, where they traverse, river-like, miles of territory, in labyrinthine mazes.

BRANCH-PILOT.

One approved by the Trinity House, and holding a branch, for a particular navigation.

BRAND.

The Anglo-Saxon for a burnished sword.

A burned device or character, especially that of the broad arrow on government stores, to deface or erase which is felony.

BRANDED TICKET.

A discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is written, and the reason he is turned out of the service.

In the army, deserters are branded with D; also B for bad character.

In the navy, a corner of the ticket is cut off.

BRANDLING.

A supposed fry of the salmon species, found on the north of England coasts.

Also, the angler's dew-worm.

BRANDY-PAWNEE.

A cant term for brandy and water in India.

BRANLAIG.

The Manx or Gaelic term for a cove or creek on a shore between rocks.

BRANLIE, OR BRANLIN.

A northern name for the samlet or par.

BRAN-NEW.

Quite new: said of a sail which has never been bent.

BRASH.

Small fragments of crushed ice, collected by wind or currents, near the shore; or such that the ship can easily force through.

BRASS.

Impudent assurance.

BRASSARTS.

Pieces between the elbow and the top of the shoulder in ancient armour.

BRASSER.

A defensive bit of armour for the arm.

BRAT.

A northern name for a turbot.

BRAVE.

This word was not only used to express courage by our early seamen, but was also applied to strength; as, "we had a brave wind."

BRAWET.

A kind of eel in the north.

BRAY, TO.

To beat and bruise in a mortar.

BREACH.

Formerly, what is made by the breaking in of the sea, now applied also to the openings or gaps made in the works of fortified places battered by an enemy's cannon.

Also, an old term for a heavy surf or broken water on a sea-coast; by some called _brist_.

BREACHING.

The act of leaping out of the water; applied to whales.

BREACH OF THE SEA.

Waves breaking over the hull of a vessel in bad weather, or when stranded.

--_A clear breach_ implies the waves rolling clean over without breaking.

Shakspeare in "Twelfth Night" uses the term for the breaking of the waves.

--_Clean-breach_, when masts and every object on deck is swept away.

BREACHY.

Brackish, as applied to water, probably originating in the sea breaking in.

BREAD.

The usual name given to biscuit.

BREAD-BARGE.

The tray in which biscuit is handed round.

BREAD-FRUIT (_Artocarpus incisa_).

This most useful tree has a wide range of growth, but the seedless variety produced in Tahiti and some of the South Sea Islands is superior to others; it has an historical interest from its connection with the voyage of the _Bounty_ in 1787. BREAD-ROOM.

The lowest and aftermost part of the orlop deck, where the biscuit is kept, separated by a bulk-head from the rest; but any place parted off from below deck for containing the bread is so designated.

BREAD-ROOM JACK.

The purser's steward's help.

BREADTH.

The measure of a vessel from side to side in any particular place athwart-ships.

(_See_ STRAIGHT OF BREADTH, HEIGHT OF BREADTH, TOP-TIMBER BREADTH, &c. )--_Breadth of beam_, extreme breadth of a ship.

BREADTH EXTREME.

_See_ EXTREME BREADTH OR BEAM.

BREADTH LINE.

A curved line of the ship lengthwise, intersecting the timbers at their greatest extent from the middle line of the ship.

BREADTH-MOULDED.

_See_ MOULDED BREADTH.

BREADTH-RIDERS.

Timbers placed nearly in the broadest part of the ship, and diagonally, so as to strengthen two or more timbers.

BREAK, TO.

To deprive of commission, warrant, or rating, by court-martial.

BREAK.

The sudden rise of a deck when not flush; when the aft, and sometimes the fore part, of a vessel's deck is kept up to give more height below, and at the drifts.

--_Break of the poop_, where it ends at the foremost part.

BREAKAGE.

The leaving of empty spaces in stowing the hold.

In marine insurance, the term alludes to damage occurring to goods.

BREAK-BEAMS.

Beams introduced at the break of a deck, or any sudden termination of planking.

BREAK-BULK.

To open the hold, to begin unloading and disposing of the goods therein, under legal provisions.

BREAKERS.

Small barrels for containing water or other liquids; they are also used in watering the ship as gang-casks.

(_See_ BAREKA.

) Also, those billows which break violently over reefs, rocks, or shallows, lying immediately at, or under, the surface of the sea.

They are distinguished both by their appearance and sound, as they cover that part of the sea with a perpetual foam, and produce loud roaring, very different from what the waves usually have over a deeper bottom.

Also, a name given to those rocks which occasion the waves to break over them.

--_Breakers ahead!

_ the common pass-word to warn the officer of broken water in the direction of the course.

(_See also_ SHIP-BREAKER.

) BREAK-GROUND.

Beginning to weigh, or to lift the anchor from the bottom.

On shore it means to begin the works for besieging a place, or opening the trenches.

BREAKING.

Breaking out stores or cargo in the hold.

The act of extricating casks or other objects from the hold-stowage.

BREAKING LIBERTY.

Not returning at the appointed time.

BREAKING OF A GALE.

Indications of a return of fine weather; short gusts at intervals; moaning or whistling of the wind through the rigging.

BREAKING-PLATE DISTANCE.

The point within which iron-plated ships, under concentrated fire, may be damaged.

BREAKING THE EY.

_See_ EYGHT.

BREAKING-UP OF THE MONSOON.

A nautical term for the violent storms that attend the shifting of periodical winds.

BREAK-OFF.

(_See_ BROKEN-OFF).

"She breaks off from her course," applied only when the wind will not allow of keeping the course; applies only to "close-hauled" or "on a wind."

--_Break-off!

_ an order to quit one department of duty, to clap on to another.

BREAK-SHEER, TO.

When a ship at anchor is laid in a proper position to keep clear of her anchor, but is forced by the wind or current out of that position, she is said to break her sheer.

Also, for a vessel to break her sheer, or her back, means destroying the gradual sweep lengthways.

BREAK-UP, TO.

To take a ship to pieces when she becomes old and unserviceable.

BREAK-WATER.

Any erection or object so placed as to prevent the sea from rolling inwards.

Where there is no mole or jetty the hull of an old ship may be sunk at the entrance of a small harbour, to break off or diminish the force of the waves as they advance towards the vessels moored within.

Every bar to a river or harbour, intended to secure smooth water within, acts as a break-water.

BREAM.

A common fresh as well as salt water fish (_Abramis brama_), little esteemed as food.

BREAMING.

Cleaning a ship's bottom by burning off the grass, ooze, shells, or sea-weed, which it has contracted by lying long in harbour;

it is performed by holding kindled furze, faggots, or reeds to the bottom, which, by melting the pitch that formerly covered it, loosens whatever filth may have adhered to the planks; the bottom is then covered anew with a composition of sulphur, tallow, &c. , which not only makes it smooth and slippery, so as to divide the fluid more readily, but also poisons and destroys those worms which eat through the planks in the course of a voyage.

This operation may be performed either by laying the ship aground after the tide has ebbed from her or by docking or careening.

BREAST, TO.

To run abeam of a cape or object.

To cut through a sea, the surface of which is poetically termed breast.

--_To breast the sea_, to meet it by the bow on a wind.

--_To breast the surf_, to brave it, and overcome it swimming.

--_To breast a bar_, to heave at the capstan.

--_To breast to_, the act of giving a sheer to a boat.

BREAST-BACKSTAYS.

They extend from the head of an upper-mast, through an out-rigger, down to the channels before the standing backstays, for supporting the upper spars from to windward.

When to leeward, they are borne abaft the top-rim.

(_See_ BACKSTAYS.

) BREAST-BEAMS.

Those beams at the fore-part of the quarter-deck, and the after-part of the forecastle, in those vessels which have a poop and a top-gallant forecastle.

BREAST-FAST.

A large rope or chain, used to confine a ship's broadside to a wharf or quay, or to some other ship, as the head-fast confines her forward, and the stern-fast abaft.

BREAST-GASKETS.

An old term for bunt-gaskets.

BREAST-HOOKS.

Thick pieces of timber, incurvated into the form of knees, and used to strengthen the fore-part of a ship, where they are placed at different heights, directly across the stem internally, so as to unite it with the bows on each side, and form the principal security, supporting the hawse-pieces and strain of the cables.

The breast-hooks are strongly connected to the stem and hawse-pieces by tree-nails, and by bolts driven from without through all, and forelocked or clinched upon rings inside.

BREAST-RAIL.

The upper rail of the balcony; formerly it was applied to a railing in front of the quarter-deck, and at the after-part of the forecastle-deck.

Also, fife-rail.

BREAST-ROPE.

The lashing or laniard of the yard-parrels.

(_See also_ HORSE.

) Also, the bight of a mat-worked band fastened between the shrouds for the safety of the lad's-man in the chains, when sounding, so that he may hang over the water, and let the lead swing clear.

BREAST-WORK.

A sort of balustrade of rails, mouldings, or stanchions, which terminates the quarter-deck and poop at the fore ends, and also incloses the forecastles both before and behind.

(_See_ PARAPET.

) Now applicable to the poop-rails only.

In fortification, it signifies a parapet thrown up as high as the breasts of the men defending it.

BREATHER.

A tropical squall.

BREATH OF WIND.

All but a dead calm.

BREECHING.

A strong rope passing through at the cascable of a gun, used to secure it to the ship's side, and prevent it recoiling too much in time of battle, also to secure it when the ship labours; it is fixed by reeving it through a thimble stropped upon the cascable or knob at the breech of the gun; one end is rove and clinched, and the other is passed through the ring-bolt in the ship's side, and seized back.

The breeching is of sufficient length to let the muzzle of the cannon come within the ship's side to be charged, or to be housed and lashed.

Clinch-shackles have superseded the ring-bolts, so that guns may be instantly unshackled and shifted.

BREECHING-BOLT.

Applies to the above.

BREECH-LOADER.

A gun, large or small, charged at the breech.

The method is a very old one revived, but with such scientific modifications as to have enormously increased the effectiveness of small-arms; with cannon its successful practical application to the larger natures has not yet been arrived at, but with field-guns it has added largely to accuracy of practice and facility of loading.

BREECH OF A CANNON.

The after-end, next the vent or touch-hole.

It is the most massive part of a gun; strictly speaking, it is all the solid metal behind the bottom of the bore.

Also, the outside angle formed by the knee-timber, the inside of which is the throat.

BREECH-SIGHT.

The notch cut on the base ring of a gun.

BREEZE.

This word is widely understood as a pleasant zephyr; but among seamen it is usually applied as synonymous with wind in general, whether weak or strong.

BREEZE, SEA OR LAND.

A shifting wind blowing from sea and land alternately at certain hours, and sensibly only near the coasts; they are occasioned by the action of the sun raising the temperature of the land so as to draw an aerial current from sea-ward by day, which is returned as the earth cools at night.

BREEZE, TO KICK UP A.

To excite disturbance, and promote a quarrelsome row.

BREEZING UP.

The gale freshening.

BREEZO.

A toast given by the presiding person at a mess-table; derived from _brisee generale_.

BREVET.

A rank in the army higher than the regimental commission held by an officer, affording him a precedence in garrison and brigade duties.

Something approaching this has been attempted afloat, under the term "staff."

BREWING.

The appearance of a collection of black and tempestuous clouds, rising gradually from a particular part of the hemisphere, as the forerunner of a storm.

BRICKLAYER'S CLERK.

A contemptuous expression for lubberly pretenders to having seen "better days," but who were forced to betake themselves to sea-life.

BRIDGE.

A narrow gangway between two hatchways, sometimes termed a bridge.

Military bridges to afford a passage across a river for troops, are constructed with boats, pontoons, casks, trusses, trestles, &c. Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel.

Also, the middle part of the fire-bars in a marine boiler, on either side of which the fires are banked.

Also, a narrow ridge of rock, sand, or shingle, across the bottom of a channel, so as to occasion a shoal over which the tide ripples.

That between Mount Edgecombe and St. Nicholas' Isle, at Plymouth, has occasioned much loss of life.

BRIDGE-ISLET.

A portion of land which becomes insular at high-water--as Old Woman's Isle at Bombay, and among others, the celebrated Lindisfarne, thus _tidally_ sung by Scott:-- "The tide did now his flood-mark gain, And girdled in the saint's domain: For, with the flow and ebb, its style Varies from continent to isle;

Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice ev'ry day The pilgrims to the shrine find way;

Twice every day the waves efface Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace."

BRIDGE-TRAIN.

An equipment for insuring the passage of troops over a river.

Pontooners.

(_See_ PONTOON.

) BRIDLE.

_See_ MOORING-BRIDLE and BOWLINE-BRIDLE.

BRIDLE-PORT.

A square port in the bows of a ship, for taking in mooring bridles.

They are also used for guns removed from the port abaft, and required to fire as near a line ahead as possible.

They are main-deck chase-ports.

BRIDLES.

The upper part of the moorings laid in the queen's harbours, to ride ships or vessels of war.

(_See_ MOORINGS.

) BRIG.

A two-masted square-rigged vessel, without a square main-sail, or a trysail-mast abaft the main-mast.

This properly constituted the snow, but both classes are latterly blended, and the terms therefore synonymous.

BRIGADE.

A party or body of men detached for a special service.

A

division of troops under the command of a general officer.

In artillery organization on land, a brigade is a force usually composed of more than a battery; in the field it commonly consists of two or three batteries;

on paper, and for administrative purposes, of eight.

BRIGADE-MAJOR.

A staff officer attached to a brigade, and is the channel through which all orders are received from the general and communicated to the troops.

BRIGADE-ORDERS.

Those issued by the general officer commanding troops which are brigaded.

BRIGADIER.

An officer commanding a brigade, and somewhat the same as commodore for a squadron of ships.

BRIGANDINE.

A pliant scale-like coat of mail.

BRIGANTINE.

A square-rigged vessel with two masts.

A term variously applied by the mariners of different European nations to a peculiar sort of vessel of their own marine.

Amongst British seamen this vessel is distinguished by having her main-sail set nearly in the plane of her keel, whereas the main-sails of larger ships are spread athwart the ship's length, and made fast to a yard which hangs parallel to the deck;

but in a brig, the foremost side of the main-sail is fastened at different heights to hoops which encircle the main-mast, and slide up and down it as the sail is hoisted or lowered: it is extended by a gaff above and a boom below.