BAARD. A mediaeval transport.
BAARE-Y-LANE. The Manx or Gaelic term for high-water.
BAAS. An old term for the skipper of a Dutch trader.
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.