Sailor's Word-book, A - C — Ca - Can
CAAG.
_See_ KAAG.
CABANE.
A flat-bottomed passage-boat of the Loire.
CABBAGE.
Those principally useful to the seaman are the esculent cabbage-tree (_Areca oleracea_), which attains to a great height in the W.
Indies.
The sheaths of the leaves are very close, and form the green top of the trunk a foot and a half in length; this is cut off, and its white heart eaten.
Also, the _Crambe maritima_, sea-kail, or marine cabbage, growing in the west of England.
CABIN.
A room or compartment partitioned off in a ship, where the officers and passengers reside.
In a man-of-war, the principal cabin, in which the captain or admiral lives, is the upper after-part of the vessel.
CABIN-BOY.
A boy whose duty is to attend and serve the officers and passengers in the cabin.
CABIN-LECTURE.
_See_ JOBATION.
CABIN-MATE.
A companion, when two occupy a cabin furnished with two bed-places.
CABLE.
A thick, strong rope or chain which serves to keep a ship at anchor; the rope is cable-laid, 10 inches in circumference and upwards (those below this size being hawsers), commonly of hemp or coir, which latter is still used by the Calcutta pilot-brigs on account of its lightness and elasticity.
But cables have recently, and all but exclusively, been superseded by iron chain.
--_A shot of cable_, two cables spliced together.
CABLE, TO COIL A.
To lay it in fakes and tiers one over the other.
--_To lay a cable.
_ (_See_ LAYING.
)--_To pay cheap the cable_, to hand it out apace; to throw it over.
--_To pay out more cable_, to let more out of the ship.
--_To serve or plait the cable_, to bind it about with ropes, canvas, &c. ; to keep it from galling in the hawse-pipe.
(_See_ ROUNDING, KECKLING, &c. )--_To splice a cable_, to make two pieces fast together, by working the several yarns of the rope into each other; with chain it is done by means of shackles.
--_To veer more cable_, to let more out.
CABLE-BENDS.
Two small ropes for lashing the end of a hempen cable to its own part, in order to secure the clinch by which it is fastened to the anchor-ring.
CABLE-BITTED.
So bitted as to enable the cable to be nipped or rendered with ease.
CABLE-BITTS.
_See_ BITTS.
CABLE-BUOYS.
Peculiar casks employed to buoy up rope cables in a rocky anchorage, to prevent their rubbing against the rocks; they are also attached to the end of a cable when it is slipped, with the object of finding it again.
CABLE-ENOUGH.
The call when cable enough is veered to permit of the anchor being brought to the cat-head.
CABLE-HANGER.
A term applied to any person catching oysters in the river Medway, not free of the fishery, and who is liable to such penalty as the mayor and citizens of Rochester shall impose upon him.
CABLE-LAID ROPE.
Is a rope of which each strand is a hawser-laid rope.
Hawser-laid ropes are simple three-strand ropes, and range up to the same size as cablets, as from 3/4 to 9 inches.
(_See_ ROPE.
) CABLE-SHEET, SHEET-CABLE.
The spare bower cable belonging to a ship.
Sheet is deemed stand-by, and is also applied to its anchor.
CABLE'S LENGTH.
A measure of about 100 fathoms, by which the distances of ships in a fleet are frequently estimated.
This term is frequently misunderstood.
In all marine charts a cable is deemed 607. 56 feet, or one-tenth of a sea mile.
In rope-making the cable varies from 100 to 115 fathoms; cablet, 120 fathoms; hawser-laid, 130 fathoms, as determined by the admiralty in 1830. CABLE-STAGE.
A place constructed in the hold, or cable-tier, for coiling cables and hawsers on.
CABLE-STREAM, STREAM-CABLE.
A hawser or rope something smaller than the bower, used to move or hold the ship temporarily during a calm in a river or haven, sheltered from the wind and sea, &c. CABLE-TIER.
The place in a hold, or between decks, where the cables are coiled away.
CABOBBLED.
Confused or puzzled.
CABOBS, OR KEBAUB.
The Turkish name for small fillets of meat broiled on wooden spits; the use of the term has been extended eastward, and in India signifies a hot spiced dish of fish, flesh, or fowl.
CABONS.
_See_ KABURNS.
CABOOSE, OR CAMBOOSE.
The cook-room or kitchen of merchantmen on deck;
a diminutive substitute for the galley of a man-of-war.
It is generally furnished with cast-iron apparatus for cooking.
CABOTAGE [Ital.
] Sailing from cape to cape along a coast; or the details of coast pilotage.
CABURNS.
Spun rope-yarn lines, for worming a cable, seizing, winding tacks, and the like.
CACAO [Sp.
] The plant _Theobroma_, from which what is commonly termed cocoa is derived.
CACCLE, OR KECCLE.
To apply a particular kind of service to the cable.
(_See_ KECKLING.
) CACHE.
A hidden reservoir of provision (to secure it from bears) in Arctic travel.
Also, a deposit of despatches, &c. CADE.
A small barrel of about 500 herrings, or 1000 sprats.
CADENCE.
The uniform time and space for marching, more indispensable to large bodies of troops than to parties of small-arm men; yet an important part even of their drill.
The regularity requisite in pulling.
CADET.
A volunteer, who, serving at his own charge, to learn experience, waits for preferment; a designation, recently introduced, for young gentlemen formerly rated volunteers of the first class.
Properly, the younger son in French.
CADGE, TO.
To carry.
--_Cadger_, a carrier.
Kedge may be a corruption, as being carriable.
CAESAR'S PENNY.
The tip given by a recruiting sergeant.
CAFFILA.
_See_ KAFILA.
CAGE.
An iron cage formed of hoops on the top of a pole, and filled with combustibles to blaze for two hours.
It is lighted one hour before high-water, and marks an intricate channel navigable for the period it burns; much used formerly by fishermen.
CAGE-WROCK.
An old term for a ship's upper works.
CAIQUE, OR KAIQUE.
A small Levantine vessel.
Also, a graceful skiff seen in perfection at Constantinople, where it almost monopolizes the boat traffic.
It is fast, but crank, being so narrow that the oars or sculls have their looms enlarged into ball-shaped masses to counter-balance their out-board length.
It has borne for ages the wave-line now brought out in England as the highest result of marine architecture.
It may have from one to ten or twelve rowers.
CAIRBAN.
A name in the Hebrides for the basking-shark.
CAIRN.
Piles of stones used as marks in surveying.
CAISSON, OR CAISSOON.
An adopted term for a sort of float sunk to a required depth by letting water into it, when it is hauled under the ship's bottom, receives her steadily, and on pumping out the water floats her.
These were long used in Holland, afterwards at Venice, and in Russia, where they were known as _camels_ (which see).
Caisson is also a vessel fitted with valves, to act instead of gates for a dry dock.
Used also in _pontoons_ (which see).
CAKE-ICE.
Ice formed in the early part of the season.
CALABASH.
_Cucurbita_, a gourd abundant within the tropics, furnishing drinking and washing utensils.
At Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands they attain a diameter of 2 feet.
There is also a calabash-tree, the fruit not exceeding the size of oranges.
CALABASS.
An early kind of light musket with a wheel-lock.
Bourne mentions it in 1578. CALALOO.
A dish of fish and vegetables.
CALAMUS.
_See_ RATTAN.
CALANCA.
A creek or cove on Italian and Spanish coasts.
CALAVANCES [_Phaseolus vulgaris.
_ _Haricot_, Fr.
] Small beans sometimes used for soup, instead of pease.
CALCULATE, TO.
This word, though disrated from respectability by American misuse, signified to foretell or prophesy; it is thus used by Shakspeare in the first act of "Julius Caesar."
To calculate the ship's position, either from astronomical observations or rate of the log.
CALENDAR.
A distribution of time.
(_See_ ALMANAC.
) CALENDAR-TIME.
On which officers' bills are drawn.
CALF.
A word generally applied to the young of marine mammalia, as the whale.
--_Calf_, in the Arctic regions, a mass of floe ice breaking from under a floe, which when disengaged rises with violence to the surface of the water; it differs from a tongue, which is the same body kept fixed beneath the main floe.
The iceberg is formed by the repeated freezing of thawed snow running down over the slopes, until at length the wave from beneath and weight above causes it to break off and fall into the sea, or, as termed in Greenland, to calve.
Thus, berg, is fresh-water ice, the work of years.
The floe, is salt water frozen suddenly each winter, and dissolving in the summer.
CALF, OR CALVA.
A Norwegian name, also used in the Hebrides, for islets lying off islands, and bearing a similar relation to them in size that a calf does to a cow.
As the Calf at Mull and the Calf of Man.
CALFAT.
The old word for caulking.
[_Calfater_, Fr.
; probably from _cale_, wedge, and _faire_, to make.
] To wedge up an opening with any soft material, as oakum.
[_Calafatear_, Sp.
] CALIBER, OR CALIBRE.
The diameter of the bore of a gun, cannon, shot, or bullet.
A ship's caliber means the known weight her armament represents.
CALIPASH.
The upper shell of a turtle.
CALIPEE.
The under shell of a turtle.
CALIVER.
A hand-gun or arquebuss; probably the old name of the matchlock or carabine, precursors of the modern fire-lock, or Enfield rifle.
(_See_ CALABASS.
) CALL.
A peculiar silver pipe or whistle, used by the boatswain and his mates to attract attention, and summon the sailors to their meals or duties by various strains, each of them appropriated to some particular purpose, such as hoisting, heaving, lowering, veering away, belaying, letting go a tackle-fall, sweeping, &c. This piping is as attentively observed by sailors, as the bugle or beat of drum is obeyed by soldiers.
The coxswains of the boats of French ships of war are supplied with calls to "in bow oar," or "of all," "oars," &c. CALLIPERS.
Bow-legged compasses, used to measure the girth of timber, the external diameter of masts, shot, and other circular or cylindrical substances.
Also, an instrument with a sliding leg, used for measuring the packages constituting a ship's cargo, which is paid for by its cubical contents.
CALL THE WATCH.
This is done every four hours, except at the dog-watches, to relieve those on deck, also by pipe.
"All the watch," or all the starboard, or the port, first, second, third, or fourth watches.
CALM.
There being no wind stirring it is designated flat, dead, or stark, under each of which the surface of the sea is unruffled.
CALM LATITUDES.
That tropical tract of ocean which lies between the north-east and south-east trade-winds; its situation varies several degrees, depending upon the season of the year.
The term is also applied to a part of the sea on the Polar side of the trades, between them and the westerly winds.
CALVERED SALMON.
Salmon prepared in a peculiar manner in early times.
CALVE'S TONGUE.
A sort of moulding usually made at the caps and bases of round pillars, to taper or hance the round part to the square.
CAMBER.
The part of a dockyard where cambering is performed, and timber kept.
Also, a small dock in the royal yards, for the convenience of loading and discharging timber.
Also, anything that curves upwards.
--_To camber_, to curve ship-planks.
CAMBER-KEELED.
Keel slightly arched upwards in the middle of the length, but not actually hogged.
CAMBOOSE.
A form of _caboose_ (which see).
CAMELS.
All large ships are built, at St. Petersburg, in a dockyard off the Granite Quay, where the water is shallow; therefore a number of camels or caissons are kept at Cronstadt, for the purpose of carrying them down the river.
Camels are hollow cases of wood, constructed in two halves, so as to embrace the keel, and lay hold of the hull of a ship on both sides.
They are first filled with water and sunk, in order to be fixed on.
The water is then pumped out, when the vessel gradually rises, and the process is continued until the ship is enabled to pass over the shoal.
Similar camels were used at Rotterdam about 1690. CAME-TO.
Brought to an anchor.
CAMFER.
_See_ CHAMFER.
CAMISADO.
A sudden surprise or assault of the enemy.
CAMOCK.
A very early term for crooked timber.
CAMP.
The whole extent of ground on which an army pitches its tents and lodges.
(_See_ DECAMP.
) CAMP, OR CAMP-OUT, TO.
In American travel, to rest for the night without a standing roof; whether under a light tent, a screen of boughs, or any makeshift that the neighbourhood may afford.
CAMPAIGN.
A series of connected operations by an army in the field, unbroken by its retiring into quarters.
CAMPAIGNER.
A veteran soldier.
CAMP-EQUIPAGE.
_See_ EQUIPAGE.
CAMPER.
_See_ KEMP.
CAMPESON.
_See_ GAMBISON.
CAMP-FIGHT.
_See_ ACRE.
CAN.
A tin vessel used by sailors to drink out of.
CANAICHE, OR CANASH.
An inner port, as at Granada in the West Indies.
CANAL-BOAT.
A barge generally towed by horses, but furnished with a large square-sail for occasional use.
CAN-BODIES.
The old term for anchor-buoys, now can-buoys.
CAN-BUOYS.
Are in the form of a cone, and therefore would countenance the term cone-buoys.
They are floated over sands and other obstructions in navigation, as marks to be avoided; they are made very large, to be seen at a distance; where there are several, they are distinguished by their colour, as black, red, white, or chequered; &c. CANCELLED TICKET.
One rendered useless by some subsequent arrangement or clerk's error.
In either case the word "cancelled" is to be written across in large characters, and due record made.
The corner cut off cancels good character, yet they are a certificate for time.
CANCER.
The Crab; the fourth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of June, and commences the summer solstice.
CANDLE-BARK.
A cylindrical tin box for candles.
CANE.
The rattan (_Calamus rudentum_), is extensively used in the East for rigging, rope, and cables.
The latter have remained for years at the bottom of the sea uninjured by teredo, or any destructive crustacea.
The cables, too, resist any but the sharpest axes, when used to connect logs as booms, to stop the navigation of rivers.
CANEVAS.
The old word for hempen canvas; but many races, even the Chinese, make sails entirely of cane.
The Americans frequently use cotton, and term that cloth duck.
In the islands of the South Pacific it is made from the bark of various trees, grasses, &c. CAN-HOOKS.
They are used to sling a cask by the chimes, or ends of its staves, and are formed by reeving the two ends of a piece of rope or chain through the eyes of two flat hooks, and there making them fast.
The tackle is then hooked to the middle of the bight.
CANISTER SHOT.
_See_ CASE-SHOT.
CANNIKIN.
A small drinking-vessel.
CANNON.
The well-known piece of artillery, mounted in battery on board or on shore, and made either of brass or iron.
The principal parts are:--1st.
The breech, together with the cascable and its button, called by seamen the pommelion.
The breech is of solid metal, from the bottom of the concave cylinder or chamber to the cascable.
2d.
The trunnions, which project on each side, and serve to support the cannon, hold it almost in equilibrio.
3d.
The bore or caliber, is the interior of the cylinder, wherein the powder and shot are lodged when the cannon is loaded.
The entrance of the bore is called the mouth or muzzle.
It may be generally described as gradually tapering, with the various modifications of first and second reinforce and swell, to the muzzle or forward end.
(_See_ GUN.
) CANNONADE.
The opening and continuance of the fire of artillery on any object attacked.
Battering with cannon-shot.
CANNON-PERER.
An ancient piece of ordnance used in ships of war for throwing stone shot.
CANNON-PETRONEL.
A piece of ordnance with a 6-inch bore which carried a 24-lb.
ball.
CANNON, RIFLED.
Introduced by Captain Blakely, Sir W. Armstrong, and others.
CANNON ROYAL.
A 60-pounder of eight and a half inches bore.
(_See_ CARTHOUN.
) CANNON-SERPENTINE.
An old name for a gun of 7-inches bore.
CANOE.
A peculiar boat used by several uncivilized nations, formed of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and sometimes of several pieces of bark joined together, and again of hide.
They are of various sizes, according to the uses for which they are designed, or the countries to which they belong.
Some carry sail, but they are commonly rowed with paddles, somewhat resembling a corn-shovel; and instead of rowing with it horizontally, as with an oar, they manage it perpendicularly.
In Greenland and Hudson Bay, the Esquimaux limits of America, skin-boats are chiefly in use, under the name of kaiack, oomiak, baidar, &c. CANOPUS.
The lucida of Argo Navis, and a Greenwich star.
Also, a city of classical importance, visited by the heroes of the Trojan war, the reputed burial-place of the pilot of Menelaus, &c. But, as some ancient places have been so fortunate as to renew their classical importance in modern times, so this, under the modern name of Abukeir, has received a new "stamp of fate," by its overlooking, like Salamis, the scene of a naval battle, which also led to a decision of the fate of nations.
In this bay Nelson, at one blow, destroyed the fleet of the enemy, and cut off the veteran army of France from the shores of Egypt.
The Canopian mouth of the Nile was the most westerly of all the branches of that celebrated river.
CANOPY.
A light awning over the stern-sheets of a boat.
CANT, TO.
To turn anything about, or so that it does not stand square.
To diverge from a central right line.
Cant the boat or ship; _i.
e. _ for careening her.
CANT.
A cut made in a whale between the neck and the fins, to which the cant-purchase is made fast, for turning the animal round in the operation of flensing.
CANTARA.
