Sailor's Word-book, A - C — Bris - Bum
BRING UP WITH A ROUND TURN.
Suddenly arresting a running rope by taking a round turn round a bollard, bitt-head, or cleat.
Said of doing a thing effectually though abruptly.
It is used to bring one up to his senses by a severe rating.
BRISAS.
A north-east wind which blows on the coast of South America during the trades.
BRISMAK.
A name among the Shetlanders for the excellent fish called tusk or torsk, the best of the cod kind (_Brosmius vulgaris_).
BRISTOL FASHION AND SHIP-SHAPE.
Said when Bristol was in its palmy commercial days, unannoyed by Liverpool, and its shipping was all in proper good order.
BRITISH-BUILT SHIP.
Such as has been built in Great Britain or Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, the Isle of Man, or some of the colonies, plantations, islands, or territories in Asia, Africa, or America, which, at the time of building the ship, belonged to or were in possession of Her Majesty;
or any ship whatsoever which has been, taken and condemned as lawful prize.
BRITISH SEAS.
_See_ QUATUOR MARIA.
BRITISH SHIP.
May be foreign built, or rebuilt on a foreign keel which belonged to any of the people of Great Britain and Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, or the Isle of Man, or of any colony, island, or territory in Asia, Africa, or America, or was registered before the 1st of May, 1786. BRITISH SUBJECT.
Settled in an enemy's country, may not trade in any contraband goods.
BRITTLE-STAR.
The common name of a long-rayed star-fish (_Ophiocoma rosula_).
BROACH A BUSINESS, TO.
To begin it.
BROACH-TO, TO.
To fly up into the wind.
It generally happens when a ship is carrying a press of canvas with the wind on the quarter, and a good deal of after-sail set.
The masts are endangered by the course being so altered, as to bring it more in opposition to, and thereby increasing the pressure of the wind.
In extreme cases the sails are caught flat aback, when the masts would be likely to give way, or the ship might go down stern foremost.
BROAD ARROW.
The royal mark for government stores of every description.
To obliterate, deface, or remove this mark is felony; or even to be in possession of any goods so marked without sufficient grounds.
It is no doubt one of the Ditmarsh runes.
BROAD AXE.
Formerly a warlike instrument; also for beheading; specially applied to the axe of carpenters for mast-making, and sometimes cutting away the masts or cable.
BROAD CLOTH.
Square sails.
BROAD OF WATER.
An extensive lake with a channel communicating with the sea, or a wide opening of a river after passing a narrow entrance.
BROAD PENNANT.
A swallow-tailed piece of buntin at the mast-head of a man-of-war; the distinctive mark of a commodore.
The term is frequently used for the officer himself.
It tapers, in contradistinction to a cornet, which has only the triangle cut out of it.
BROAD R.
_See_ BROAD ARROW.
BROADS.
Fresh-water lakes, in contradistinction to rivers or narrow waters.
BROADSIDE.
The whole array, or the simultaneous discharge of the artillery on one side of a ship of war above and below.
It also implies the whole of that side of a ship above the water which is situate between the bow and quarter, and is in a position nearly perpendicular to the horizon.
Also, a name given to the old folio sheets whereon ballads and proclamations were printed of old (broad-sheet).
BROADSIDE-ON.
The whole side of a vessel; the opposite of _end-on_.
BROADSIDE WEIGHT OF METAL.
The weight of iron which the guns of a ship can project, when single-shotted, from one side.
(_See_ WEIGHT OF METAL.
) BROADSWORD.
_See_ CUTLAS.
BROCAGE.
The same with _brokerage_ (which see).
BROCLES.
_See_ STRAKE-NAILS.
BRODIE.
The fry of the rock-tangle, or Hettle-codling, a fish caught on the Hettle Bank, in the Firth of Forth.
BROGGING.
A north-country method of catching eels, by means of small sticks called brogs.
BROGUES.
Among seamen, coarse sandals made of green hide; but Shakspeare makes Arviragus put "his clouted brogues from off his feet," for "answering his steps too loud."
This would rather refer to shoes strengthened with hob-nails.
BROKE.
Sentence of a court-martial, depriving an officer of his commission.
BROKEN.
An old army word, used for _reduced_; as, a broken lieutenant, &c. The word is also applied to troops in line when not dressed.
The heart of a gale is said to be broken; parole is broken; also, leave, bulk, &c. (which see).
BROKEN-BACKED.
The state of a ship so loosened in her frame, either by age, weakness, or some great strain from grounding amidships, as to droop at each end, causing the lines of her sheer to be interrupted, and termed _hogged_.
It may result from fault of construction, in the midship portions having more buoyancy, and the extreme ends too much weight, as anchors, boats, guns, &c. , to sustain.
BROKEN-OFF.
Fallen off, in azimuth, from the course.
Also, men taken from one duty to be put on another.
BROKEN SQUALL.
When the clouds separate in divisions, passing ahead and astern of a ship, and affecting her but little, if at all.
BROKEN WATER.
The contention of currents in a narrow channel.
Also, the waves breaking on and near shallows, occasionally the result of vast shoals of fish, as porpoise, skip-jacks, &c. , which worry untutored seamen.
BROKER.
Originally a broken tradesman, from the Anglo-Saxon _broc_, a misfortune; but, in later times, a person who usually transacts the business of negotiating between the merchants and ship-owners respecting cargoes and clearances: he also effects insurances with the underwriters; and while on the one hand he is looked to as to the regularity of the contract, on the other he is expected to make a candid disclosure of all the circumstances which may affect the risk.
BROKET.
A small brook; the sea-lark is so called at the Farne Islands.
BROKE-UP.
Said of a gale of wind passing away; or a ship which has gone to pieces on a reef, &c. BROND.
An old spelling of _brand_, a sword.
BRONGIE.
A name given to the cormorant in the Shetland Islands.
BROOD.
Oysters of about two years old, which are dredged up at sea, for placing on the oyster-beds.
BROOD-HEN STAR.
The cluster of the Pleiades.
BROOK, OR BROOKLET.
Streams of fresh or salt water, less than a rivulet, creeping through narrow and shallow passages.
The clouds _brook-up_, when they draw together and threaten rain.
BROOM.
A besom at the mast-head signifies that the ship is to be sold: derived probably from the old practice of displaying boughs at shops and taverns.
Also, a sort of _spartium_, of which ropes are made.
BROOMING.
_See_ BREAMING.
BROTHER-OFFICERS.
Those of the same ship or regiment.
BROTH OF A BOY.
An excellent, though roystering fellow.
BROUGHT BY THE LEE.
_See_ BRING BY THE LEE.
BROUGHT-TO.
A chase made to stop, and heave-to.
Also, the cable is brought-to when fastened to the messenger by nippers.
The messenger is brought to the capstan, or the cable to the windlass.
BROUGHT TO HIS BEARINGS.
Reduced to obedience.
BROUGHT TO THE GANGWAY.
Punished.
BROW.
An inclined plane of planks, on one or both sides of a ship, to communicate internally; a stage-gangway for the accommodation of the shipwrights, in conveying plank, timber, and weighty articles on board.
Also, the face of a rising ground.
An old term for a gang-board.
BROWN BESS.
A nickname for the old government regulation bronzed musket, although till recently it was brightly burnished.
BROWN BILL.
The old weapon of the English infantry: hence, perhaps the expression "Brown Bess" for a musket.
BROWN GEORGE.
A hard and coarse biscuit.
BROWNIE.
The Polar bear, so called by the whalers.
It is also a northern term for goblin.
BROWN JANET.
A cant phrase for a knapsack.
BROWN-PAPER WARRANT.
_See_ WARRANT.
BROWSE.
A light kind of dunnage.
BRUISE-WATER.
A ship with very bluff bows, built more for carrying than sailing.
BRUISING WATER.
Pitching heavily to a head-sea, and making but little head-way.
BRUN-SWYNE.
An early name for a seal.
BRUSH.
A move; a skirmish.
BRYDPORT.
An old word signifying cable.
The best hemp grew at Bridport, in Dorsetshire; and there was a statute, that the cables and hawsers for the Royal Navy were to be made thereabouts.
BUB.
A liquor or drink.
_Bub_ and _grub_ meaning inversely meat and drink.
BUBBLE.
Another term for spirit-level, used for astronomical instruments.
BUBBLER.
A fish found in the waters of the Ohio, thus named from the bubbling noise it makes.
BUCCANEER.
A name given to certain piratical rovers, of various European nations, who formerly infested the coasts of Spanish America.
They were originally inoffensive settlers in Hispaniola, but were inhumanly driven from their habitations by the jealous policy of the Spaniards; whence originated their implacable hatred to that nation.
Also, a large musketoon, about 8 feet in length, so called from having been used by those marauders.
BUCENTAUR.
A large and splendid galley of the doge of Venice, in which he received the great lords and persons of quality who went there, accompanied by the ambassadors and councillors of state, and all the senators seated on benches by him.
The same vessel served also in the magnificent ceremony on Ascension-day, when the doge threw a ring into the sea to espouse it, and to denote his dominion over the Gulf of Venice.
BUCHAN BOILERS.
The heavy breaking billows among the rocks on the coast of Buchan.
BUCHT.
A Shetland term for lines of 55 fathoms.
BUCK, TO.
To wash a sail.
BUCKALL.
An earthen wine-cup used in the sea-ports of Portugal, Spain, and Italy.
[From _bocale_, It.
] BUCKER.
A name for the grampus in the Hebrides.
It is also applied, on some of our northern coasts, to the porpoise.
BUCKET.
A small globe of hoops, covered with canvas, used as a recall for the boats of whalers.
BUCKET-ROPE.
That which is tied to a bucket for drawing water up from alongside.
BUCKETS.
Are made either of canvas, of leather, or of wood; the latter are used principally for washing the decks, and therefore answer the purposes of pails.
BUCKET-VALVE.
In a steamer's engine, is a flat metal plate filling up the passage between the air-pump and the condenser, and acted upon by both in admitting or repressing the passage of water.
BUCKHORN.
Whitings, haddocks, thorn-backs, gurnet, and other fish, cleaned, gently salted, and dried in the sun.
BUCKIE.
A northern name for the whelk.
BUCKIE-INGRAM.
A name for the hermit-crab.
BUCKIE-PRINS.
A northern designation for a periwinkle.
BUCKLE.
A mast buckles when it suffers by compression, so that the fibre takes a sinuous form, and the grain is _upset_.
Also, in Polar regions, the bending or arching of the ice upwards, preceding a nip.
BUCKLERS.
Two blocks of wood fitted together to stop the hawse-holes, leaving only sufficient space between them for the cable to pass, and thereby preventing the ship taking in much water in a heavy head-sea.
They are either _riding_ or _blind bucklers_ (which see).
BUCKRA.
A term for white man, used by the blacks in the West Indies, Southern States of America, and the African coast.
BUCK-WEEL.
A bow-net for fish.
BUDE.
An old name for the biscuit-weevil.
BUDGE-BARREL.
A small cask with copper and wooden hoops, and one head formed by a leather hose or bag, drawing close by a string, for carrying powder in safety from sparks.
In heraldry, the common bucket is called a water bouget or budget.
BUDGEROW.
A cabined passage-boat of the Ganges and Hooghly.
BUFFET A BILLOW, TO.
To work against wind and tide.
BUG.
An old term for a vessel more remarkable in size than efficiency.
Thus, when Drake fell upon Cadiz, his sailors regarded the huge galleys opposed to them as mere "great bugges."
BUGALILO.
A large trading-boat of the Gulf of Persia; the _buglo_ of our seamen.
BUGAZEENS.
An old commercial term for calicoes.
BUILD.
A vessel's form or construction.
BUILD A CHAPEL, TO.
To turn a ship suddenly by negligent steerage.
BUILDER'S CERTIFICATE.
A necessary document in admiralty courts, containing a true account of a ship's denomination, tonnage, trim, where built, and for whom.
BUILDING.
The work of constructing ships, as distinguished from naval architecture, which may rather be considered as the art or theory of delineating ships on a plane.
The pieces by which this complicated machine is framed, are joined together in various places by scarfing, rabbeting, tenanting, and scoring.
BUILT.
A prefix to denote the construction of a vessel, as carvel or clinker-built, bluff-built, frigate-built, sharp-built, &c. ; English, French, or American built, &c. BUILT-BLOCK.
Synonymous with _made-block_ (which see).
The lower masts of large ships are built or made.
BUILT-UP GUNS.
Recently invented guns of great strength, specially adapted to meet the requirements of rifled artillery and of the attack of iron plating.
They are usually composed of an inner core or barrel (which may be of coiled and welded iron, but is now generally preferred of tough steel), with a breech-piece, trunnion-piece, and various outer strengthening hoops or coils of wrought iron, shrunk or otherwise forced on; having their parts put together at such predetermined relative tensions, as to support one another under the shock of explosion, and thereby avoiding the faults of solid cast or forged guns, whereof the inner parts are liable to be destroyed before the outer can take their share of the strain.
The first practical example of the method was afforded by the Armstrong gun, the "building up" which obtained in ancient days, before the casting of solid guns, having been apparently resorted to as an easy means of producing large masses of metal, without realizing the principle of the mutual support of the various parts.
BUIRAN.
A Gaelic word signifying the sea coming in, with a noise as of the roar of a bull.
BULCH, TO.
To bilge a ship.
BULGE.
(_See_ BILGE.
) That part of the ship she bears upon when on the ground.
BULGE-WAYS.
Otherwise _bilge-ways_ (which see).
BULK.
In bulk; things stowed without cases or packages.
(_See_ BULK-HEAD and LADEN IN BULK.
) BULKER.
A person employed to measure goods, and ascertain the amount of freight with which they are chargeable.
BULK-HEAD, THE.
Afore, is the partition between the forecastle and gratings in the head, and in which are the chase-ports.
BULK-HEADS.
Partitions built up in several parts of a ship, to form and separate the various cabins from each other.
Some are particularly strong, as those in the hold, which are mostly built with rabbeted or cyphered plank; others are light, and removable at pleasure.
Indeed the word is applied to any division made with boards, to separate one portion of the 'tween decks from another.
BULK OF A SHIP.
Implies the whole cargo when stowed in the hold.
BULL.
An old male whale.
Also, a small keg; also the weak grog made by pouring water into a spirit-cask nearly empty.
BULL-DANCE.
At sea it is performed by men only, when without women.
It is sometimes called a stag-dance.
BULL-DOG, OR MUZZLED BULL-DOG.
The great gun which stands "housed" in the officer's ward-room cabin.
General term for main-deck guns.
BULLETIN.
Any official account of a public transaction.
BULLET-MOULD.
An implement for casting bullets.
BULLETS.
Leaden balls with which all kinds of fire-arms are loaded.
BULL-HEAD, OR BULL-JUB.
A name of the fish called miller's thumb (_Cottus gobio_).
BULLOCK-BLOCKS.
Blocks secured under the top-mast trestle-trees, which receive the top-sail ties through them, in order to increase the mechanical power used in hoisting them up.
BULLOCK-SLINGS.
Used to hoist in live bullocks.
BULL'S-EYE.
A sort of block without a sheave, for a rope to reeve through; it is grooved for stropping.
Also, the central mark of a target.
Also, a hemispherical piece of ground glass of great thickness, inserted into small openings in the decks, port-lids, and scuttle-hatches, for the admission of light below.
BULL'S-EYE CRINGLE.
A piece of wood in the form of a ring, which answers the purpose of an iron thimble; it is seldom used by English seamen, and then only for the fore and main bowline-bridles.
BULL-TROUT.
The salmon-trout of the Tweed.
A large species of trout taken in the waters of Northumberland.
BULLYRAG, TO.
To reproach contemptuously, and in a hectoring manner; to bluster, to abuse, and to insult noisily.
Shakspeare makes mine host of the Garter dub Falstaff a bully-rook.
BULWARK.
The planking or wood-work round a vessel above her deck, and fastened externally to the stanchions and timber-heads.
In this form it is a synonym of berthing.
Also, the old name for a bastion.
BULWARK-NETTING.
An ornamental frame of netting answering the purpose of a bulwark.
BUMBARD.
A cask or large vessel for liquids.
(_See_ BOMBARD.
) Trinculo, in the "Tempest," thinks an impending storm-cloud "looks like a foul bumbard."
BUM-BOAT.
A boat employed to carry provisions, vegetables, and small merchandise for sale to ships, either in port or lying at a distance from the shore; thus serving to communicate with the adjacent town.
