Sailor's Word-book, A - C — Ba - Ban
BAB.
The Arabic for _mouth_ or _gate_; especially used by seamen for the entrance of the Red Sea, _Bab-el-mandeb_.
BABBING.
An east-country method of catching crabs, by enticing them to the surface of the water with baited lines, and then taking them with a landing net.
BABBLING.
The sound made by shallow rivers flowing over stony beds.
BAC.
A large flat-bottomed French ferry-boat.
In local names it denotes a ferry or place of boating.
BACALLAO [Sp.
] A name given to Newfoundland and its adjacent islands, whence the epithet is also applied to the cod-fish salted there.
BACCHI.
Two ancient warlike machines; the one resembled a battering-ram, the other cast out fire.
BACK.
_To back an anchor.
_ To carry a small anchor ahead of the one by which the ship rides, to partake of the strain, and check the latter from coming home.
--_To back a ship at anchor.
_ For this purpose the mizen top-sail is generally used; a hawser should be kept ready to wind her, and if the wind falls she must be hove apeak.
--_To back and fill.
_ To get to windward in very narrow channels, by a series of smart alternate boards and backing, with weather tides.
--_To back a sail.
_ To brace its yard so that the wind may blow directly on the front of the sail, and thus retard the ship's course.
A sailing vessel is backed by means of the sails, a steamer by reversing the paddles or screw-propeller.
--_To back astern.
_ To impel the water with the oars contrary to the usual mode, or towards the head of the boat, so that she shall recede.
--_To back the larboard_ or _starboard oars_.
To back with the right or left oars only, so as to round suddenly.
--_To back out.
_ (_See Back a Sail.
_) The term is also familiarly used for retreating out of a difficulty.
--_To back a rope or chain_, is to put on a preventer when it is thought likely to break from age or extra strain.
--_To back water.
_ To impel a boat astern, so as to recede in a direction opposite to the former course.
--_Backing the worming.
_ The act of passing small yarn in the holidays, or crevices left between the worming and edges of the rope, to prevent the admission of wet, or to render all parts of equal diameter, so that the service may be smooth.
--_Wind backing.
_ The wind is said to back when it changes contrary to its usual circuit.
In the northern hemisphere on the polar side of the trades, the wind usually changes from east, by the south, to west, and so on to north.
In the same latitudes in the southern hemisphere the reverse usually takes place.
When it backs, it is generally supposed to be a sign of a freshening breeze.
BACK.
The outside or convex part of compass-timber.
Also a wharf.
BACK, OF A SHIP.
The keel and kelson are figuratively thus termed.
BACK, OF THE POST.
An additional timber bolted to the after-part of the stern-post, and forming its after-face.
BACK-BOARD.
A board across the stern sheets of a boat to support the back of passengers; and also to form the _box_ in which the coxswain sits.
BACK-CUTTING.
When the water-level is such that the excavation of a canal, or other channel, does not furnish earth enough for its own banks, recourse is had to _back-cutting_, or the nearest earth behind the base of the banks.
BACK-FRAME.
A vertical wheel for turning the three whirlers of a small rope-machine.
BACK-HER.
The order, in steam-navigation, directing the engineer to reverse the movement of the cranks and urge the vessel astern.
BACKING.
The timber behind the armour-plates of a ship.
BACK-O'-BEYOND.
Said of an unknown distance.
BACK OFF ALL.
The order when the harpooner has thrown his harpoon into the whale.
Also, to back off a sudden danger.
BACK-ROPE.
The rope-pendant, or small chain for staying the dolphin-striker.
Also a piece long enough to reach from the cat-block to the stem, and up to the forecastle, to haul the cat-block forward to hook the ring of the anchor--similarly also for hooking the fish-tackle.
(_See_ GAUB-LINE.
) BACKS.
The outermost boards of a sawn tree.
BACK-STAFF.
A name formerly given to a peculiar sea-quadrant, because the back of the observer was turned towards the sun at the time of observing its zenith distance.
The inventor was Captain Davis, the Welsh navigator, about 1590. It consists of a graduated arc of 30 deg.
united to a centre by two radii, with a second arc of smaller radius, but measuring 6 deg.
on the side of it.
To the first arc a vane is attached for sight,--to the second one for shade,--and at the vertex the horizontal vane has a slit in it.
BACKSTAY-PLATES.
Used to support the backstays.
BACKSTAYS.
Long ropes extending from all mast-heads above a lower-mast to both sides of the ship or chain-wales; they are extended and set up with dead eyes and laniards to the backstay-plates.
Their use is to second the shrouds in supporting the mast when strained by a weight of sail in a fresh wind.
They are usually distinguished into breast and after backstays; the first being intended to sustain the mast when the ship sails upon a wind; or, in other terms, when the wind acts upon a ship obliquely from forwards; the second is to enable her to carry sail when the wind is abaft the beam; a third, or shifting backstay, is temporary, and used where great strain is demanded when chasing, chased, or carrying on a heavy pressure of canvas: they are fitted either with lashing eyes, or hook and thimble with selvagee strop, so as to be instantly removed.
BACKSTAY-STOOLS.
Detached small channels, or chain-wales, fixed abaft the principal ones.
They are introduced in preference to extending the length of the channels.
BACKSTERS.
Flat pieces of wood or cork, strapped on the feet in order to walk over loose beach.
BACK-STRAPPED.
As a ship carried round to the back of Gibraltar by a counter-current and eddies of wind, the strong currents detaining her there.
BACK-SWEEP.
That which forms the hollow of the top-timber of a frame.
BACK-WATER.
The swell of the sea thrown back, or rebounded by its contact with any solid body.
Also the loss of power occasioned by it to paddles of steamboats, &c. The water in a mill-race which cannot get away in consequence of the swelling of the river below.
Also, an artificial accumulation of water reserved for clearing channel-beds and tide-ways.
Also, a creek or arm of the sea which runs parallel to the coast, having only a narrow strip of land between it and the sea, and communicating with the latter by barred entrances.
The west coast of India is remarkable for its back-waters, which give a most useful smooth water communication from one place to another, such as from Cochin to Quilon, a distance of nearly 70 miles.
BACON, TO SAVE.
This is an old shore-saw, adopted in nautical phraseology for expressing "to escape," but generally used in _pejus ruere_; as in Gray's _Long Story_.
(_See_ FOUL HAWSE.
) BAD-BERTH.
A foul or rocky anchorage.
BADDERLOCK.
The _Fucus esculentus_, a kind of eatable sea-weed on our northern shores.
Also called _pursill_.
BADDOCK.
A name from the Gaelic for the fry of the _Gadus carbonarius_, or coal-fish.
BADGE.
Quarter badges.
False quarter-galleries in imitation of frigate-built ships.
Also, in naval architecture, a carved ornament placed on the outside of small ships, very near the stern, containing either a window, or the representation of one, with marine decorations.
BADGE, SEAMAN'S.
_See_ GOOD-CONDUCT BADGE.
BADGER, TO.
To tease or confound by frivolous orders.
BADGER-BAG.
The fictitious Neptune who visits the ship on her crossing the line.
BAD-NAME.
This should be avoided by a ship, for once acquired for inefficiency or privateer habits, it requires time and reformation to get rid of it again.
"Give a dog a bad name" most forcibly exemplified.
Ships have endured it even under repeated changes of captains--one ship had her name changed, but she became worse.
BAD-RELIEF.
One who turns out sluggishly to relieve the watch on deck.
(_See_ ONE-BELL.
) BAESSY.
The old orthography of the gun since called _base_.
BAFFLING.
Is said of the wind when it frequently shifts from one point to another.
BAG.
A commercial term of quantity; as, a bread or biscuit _bag_, a sand-_bag_, &c. An empty purse.
--_To bag on a bowline_, to be leewardly, to drop from a course.
BAG, OF THE HEAD-RAILS.
The lowest part of the head-rails, or that part which forms the sweep of the rail.
BAG, THE.
Allowed for the men to keep their clothes in.
The _ditty bag_ included needles and needfuls, love-tokens, jewels, &c. BAGALA.
A rude description of high-sterned vessel of various burdens, from 50 to 300 tons, employed at Muskat and on the shores of Oman: the word signifying _mule_ among the Arabs, and therefore indicative of carrying rather than sailing.
BAG AND BAGGAGE.
The whole movable property.
BAGGAGE.
The necessaries, utensils, and apparel of troops.
BAGGAGE-GUARD.
A small proportion of any body of troops on the march, to whom the care of the whole baggage is assigned.
BAGGETY.
The fish otherwise called the lump or sea-owl (_Cyclopterus lumpus_).
BAGGONET.
The old term for bayonet, and not a vulgarism.
BAGNIO.
A sort of barrack in Mediterranean sea-ports, where the galley-slaves and convicts are confined.
BAGPIPE.
_To bagpipe the mizen_ is to lay it aback, by bringing the sheet to the mizen-shrouds.
BAG-REEF.
A fourth or lower reef of fore-and-aft sails, often used in the royal navy.
--_Bag-reef of top-sails_, first reef (of five in American navy); a short reef, usually taken in to prevent a large sail from bagging when on a wind.
BAGREL.
A minnow or baggie.
BAGUIO.
A rare but dreadfully violent wind among the Philippine Isles.
BAHAR.
A commercial weight of a quarter of a ton in the Molucca Islands.
BAIDAR.
A swift open canoe of the Arctic tribes and Kurile Isles, used in pursuing otters and even whales; a slender frame from 18 to 25 feet long, covered with hides.
They are impelled by six or twelve paddles.
(_See_ KAYAK.
) BAIKIE.
A northern name for the _Larus marinus_, or black-backed gull.
BAIKY.
The ballium, or inclosed plot of ground in an ancient fort.
BAIL.
A surety.
The cargo of a captured or detained vessel is not allowed to be taken on bail before adjudication without mutual consent.
It was also a northern term for a beacon or signal.
BAIL-BOND.
The obligation entered into by sureties.
Also when a person appears as proxy for the master of a vessel, or, on obtaining letters of marque, he makes himself personally responsible.
In prize matters, however, the bail-bond is not a mere personal security given to the individual captors, but an assurance to abide by the adjudication of the court.
BAIL'D.
This phrase "I'll be bail'd" is considered as an equivalent to "I'll be bound;" but it is probably an old enunciation for "I'll be poisoned," or "I'll be tormented," if what I utter is not true.
BAILO.
A Levantine term for consul.
BAILS, OR BAILES.
The hoops which bear up the tilt of a boat.
BAIOCCO.
An Italian copper coin, about equal to our halfpenny.
Also a generic term for copper money or small coin.
BAIRLINN.
A Gaelic term for a high rolling billow.
BAIT.
The natural or artificial charge of a hook, to allure fish.
BAITLAND.
An old word, formerly used to signify a port where refreshments could be procured.
BALAENA.
The zoological name for the right whale.
BALANCE.
One of the simple mechanical powers, used in determining the weights and masses of different bodies.
Also, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, called Libra.
Balance-wheel of a chronometer--_see_ CHRONOMETER.
BALANCE, TO.
To contract a sail into a narrower compass;--this is peculiar to the mizen of a ship, and to the main-sail of those vessels wherein it is extended by a boom.
The operation of balancing the mizen is performed by lowering the yard or gaff a little, then rolling up a small portion of the sail at the peak or upper corner, and lashing it about one-fifth down towards the mast.
A boom main-sail is balanced by rolling up a portion of the clew, or lower aftermost corner, and fastening it strongly to the boom.
--N.
B.
It is requisite in both cases to wrap a piece of old canvas round the sail, under the lashing, to prevent its being fretted by the latter.
BALANCE-FISH.
The hammer-headed shark (which see).
BALANCE-FRAMES.
Those frames or bends of timber, of an equal capacity or area, which are equally distant from the ship's centre of gravity.
BALANCE OF TRADE.
A computation of the value of all commodities which we import or export, showing the difference in amount.
BALANCE-REEF.
A reef-band that crosses a sail from the outer head-earing to the tack diagonally, making it nearly triangular, and is used to contract it in very blowing weather.
(2) A balance reef-band is generally placed in all gaff-sails; the band runs from the throat to the clew, so that it may be reefed either way--by lacing the foot or lower half; or by lacing the gaff drooped to the band: the latter is only done in the worst weather.
--This is a point on which seamen may select--but the old plan, as first given, affords more power; (2) is applicable to the severest weather.
BALANCING-POINT.
A familiar term for centre of gravity.
(_See_ GRAVITY.
) BALANDRA.
A Spanish pleasure-boat.
A lighter, a species of schooner.
BALANUS.
The acorn-shell.
A sessile cirriped.
BALCAR.
_See_ BALKAR.
BALCONY.
The projecting open galleries of old line-of-battle ships' sterns, now disused.
They were convenient and ornamental in hot climates, but were afterwards inclosed within sash windows.
BALDRICK.
A leathern girdle or sword-belt.
Also the zodiac.
BALE.
A pack.
This word appears in the statute Richard II.
c.
3, and is still in common use.
BALE, TO.
To lade water out of a ship or vessel with buckets (which were of old called _bayles_), cans, or the like, when the pumps are ineffective or choked.
BALEEN.
The scientific term for the whalebone of commerce, derived from _balaena_, a whale.
It consists of a series of long horny plates growing from each side of the palate in place of teeth.
BALE GOODS.
Merchandise packed in large bundles, not in cases or casks.
BALENOT.
A porpoise or small whale which frequents the river St. Lawrence.
BALESTILHA.
The cross-staff of the early Portuguese navigators.
BALINGER, OR BALANGHA.
A kind of small sloop or barge; small vessels of war formerly without forecastles.
The name was also given by some of the early voyagers to a large trading-boat of the Philippines and Moluccas.
BALISTES.
A fish with mailed skin.
File-fish.
BALIZAS.
Land and sea marks on Portuguese coasts.
BALK.
Straight young trees after they are felled and squared; a beam or timber used for temporary purposes, and under 8 inches square.
Balks, of timber of any squared size, as mahogany, intended for planks, or, when very large, for booms or rafts.
BALKAR.
A man placed on an eminence, like the ancient Olpis, to watch the movements of shoals of fish.
In our early statutes he is called _balcor_.
BALL.
In a general sense, implies a spherical and round body, whether naturally so or formed into that figure by art.
In a military view it comprehends all sorts of bullets for fire-arms, from the cannon to the pistol: also those pyrotechnic projectiles for guns or mortars, whether intended to destroy, or only to give light, smoke, or stench.
BALLAHOU.
A sharp-floored fast-sailing schooner, with taunt fore-and-aft sails, and no top-sails, common in Bermuda and the West Indies.
The fore-mast of the ballahou rakes forward, the main-mast aft.
BALL-AND-SOCKET.
A clever adaptation to give astronomical or surveying instruments full play and motion every way by a brass ball fitted into a spherical cell, and usually carried by an endless screw.
BALLARAG, TO.
To abuse or bully.
Thus Warton of the French king-- "You surely thought to _ballarag_ us With your fine squadron off Cape Lagos."
BALLAST.
A certain portion of stone, pig-iron, gravel, water, or such like materials, deposited in a ship's hold when she either has no cargo or too little to bring her sufficiently low in the water.
It is used to counter-balance the effect of the wind upon the masts, and give the ship a proper stability, that she may be enabled to carry sail without danger of overturning.
The art of ballasting consists in placing the centre of gravity, so as neither to be too high nor too low, too far forward nor too far aft, and that the surface of the water may nearly rise to the extreme breadth amidships, and thus the ship will be enabled to carry a good sail, incline but little, and ply well to windward.
A
want of true knowledge in this department has led to putting too great a weight in ships' bottoms, which impedes their sailing and endangers their masts by excessive rolling, the consequence of bringing the centre of gravity too low.
It should be trimmed with due regard to the capacity, gravity, and flooring, and to the nature of whatever is to be deposited thereon.
(_See_ TRIM.
) BALLAST.
As a verb, signifies to steady;--as a substantive, a comprehensive mind.
A man is said to "lose his ballast" when his judgment fails him, or he becomes top-heavy from conceit.
BALLASTAGE.
An old right of the Admiralty in all our royal rivers, of levying a rate for supplying ships with ballast.
BALLAST-BASKET.
Usually made of osier, for the transport and measure of shingle-ballast.
Supplied to the gunner for transport of loose ammunition.
BALLAST-LIGHTER A large flat-floored barge, for heaving up and carrying ballast.
BALLAST-MARK.
The horizontal line described by the surface of the water on the body of a ship, when she is immersed with her usual weight of ballast on board.
BALLAST-MASTER.
A person appointed to see the port-regulations in respect to ballast carried out.
BALLAST-PORTS.
Square holes cut in the sides of merchantmen for taking in ballast.
But should be securely barred and caulked in before proceeding to sea.
BALLAST-SHIFTING.
When by heavy rolling the ballast shifts in the hold.
BALLAST-SHINGLE.
Composed of coarse gravel.
BALLAST-SHOOTING.
(_See_ SHOOTS.
