BEAR A HAND. Hasten.
BEARD. The silky filaments or byssus by which some testacea adhere to
rocks. Of an oyster, the gills.
BEARDIE. A northern name of the three-spined stickleback.
BEARDING. The angular fore-part of the rudder, in juxtaposition with the
stern-post. Also, the corresponding bevel of the stern-post. Also, the
bevelling of any piece of timber or plank to any required angle: as the
bearding of dead wood, clamps, &c.
BEARDING-LINE. In ship-building, is a curved line made by bearding the
dead-wood to the shape of the ship's body.
BEARERS. Pieces of plank placed on the bolts which are driven through
the standards or posts for the carpenters' stages to rest upon.
BEARING. An arc of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian
and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a
point on the compass, or resulting from finical proportion. There is the
_true_ or astronomical bearing, and the _magnetic_ bearing. It is also
the situation of any distant object, estimated with regard to the ship's
position; and in this sense the object must bear either ahead, astern,
abreast, on the bow, or on the quarter; if a ship sails with a side
wind, a distant object is said to bear to leeward or to windward, on the
lee quarter or bow, or on the weather quarter or bow.
BEARING BACKSTAYS AFT. To throw the breast backstays out of the
cross-tree horns or out-riggers and bear them aft. If not done, when
suddenly bracing up, the cross-tree horn is frequently sprung or broken
off.
BEARING BINNACLE. A small binnacle with a single compass, usually placed
before the other. In line-of-battle ships it is generally placed on the
fife-rail in the centre and foremost part of the poop.
BEARINGS. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-shear. The line of
flotation which is formed by the water upon her sides when she sits
upright with her provisions, stores, and ballast, on board in proper
trim.
BEARINGS, TO BRING TO HIS. Used in conversation for "to bring to
reason." To bring an unruly subject to his senses, to know he is under
control, to reduce to order.
BEAT. The verb means to excel, surpass, or overcome.
"And then their ships could only follow,
For we had beat them all dead hollow."
BEATEN BACK. Returning into port from stress of foul weather.
BEATING, OR TURNING TO WINDWARD. The operation of making progress by
alternate tacks at sea against the wind, in a zig-zag line, or
transverse courses; beating, however, is generally understood to be
turning to windward in a storm or fresh wind.
BEATING THE BOOBY. The beating of the hands from side to side in cold
weather to create artificial warmth.
BEATING WIND. That which requires the ship to make her way by tacks; a
baffling or contrary wind.
BEATSTER. One who _beats_ or mends the Yarmouth herring-nets.
BEAT TO ARMS. The signal by drum to summon the men to their quarters.
BEAT TO QUARTERS. The order for the drummer to summon every one to his
respective station.
BEAVER. A helmet in general, but particularly that part which lets down
to allow of the wearer's drinking.
BECALM, TO. To intercept the current of the wind in its passage to a
ship, by means of any contiguous object, as a high shore, some other
ship to windward, &c. At this time the sails remain in a sort of rest,
and consequently deprived of their power to govern the motion of the
ship. Thus one sail becalms another.
BECALMED. Implies that from the weather being calm, and not a breath of
wind blowing, the sails hang loose against the mast.
BECHE DE MER. _See_ TREPANG.
BECK [the Anglo-Saxon _becca_]. A small mountain-brook or rivulet,
common to all northern dialects. A Gaelic or Manx term for a thwart or
bench in the boat.
BECKET. A piece of rope placed so as to confine a spar or another rope;
anything used to keep loose ropes, tackles, or spars in a convenient
place; hence, beckets are either large hooks or short pieces of rope
with a knot at one end and an eye in the other; or formed like a
circular wreath for handles; as with cutlass hilts, boarding pikes,
tomahawks, &c.; or they are wooden brackets, and probably from a
corruption and misapplication of this last term arose the word becket,
which seems often to be confounded with bracket. Also, a grummet either
of rope or iron, fixed to the bottom of a block, for making fast the
standing end of the fall.
BECKET, THE TACKS AND SHEETS IN THE. The order to hang up the
weather-main and fore-sheet, and the lee-main and fore-tack, to the
small knot and eye becket on the foremost-main and fore-shrouds, when
the ship is close hauled, to prevent them from hanging in the water. A
kind of large cleat seized on a vessel's fore or main rigging for the
sheets and tacks to lie in when not required. Cant term for
pockets--"Hands out of beckets, sir."
BED. Flat thick pieces of wood, lodged under the quarters of casks
containing any liquid, and stowed in a ship's hold, in order to keep
them bilge-free; being steadied upon the beds by means of wedges called
quoins. The impression made by a ship's bottom on the mud on having been
left by an ebb-tide. The bite made in the ground by the fluke of an
anchor. A kind of false deck, or platform, placed on those decks where
the guns were too low for the ports.--_Bed of a gun-carriage_, or
_stool-bed_. The piece of wood between the cheeks or brackets which,
with the intervention of the quoin, supports the breech of the gun. It
is itself supported, forward, on the bed-bolt, and aft, generally with
the intervention of an elevating-screw, on the rear axle-tree.
BED OR BARREL SCREWS. A powerful machine for lifting large bodies, and
placed against the gripe of a ship to be launched for starting her.
BED-BOLT. A horizontal bolt passing through both brackets of a
gun-carriage near their centres, and on which the forward end of the
stool-bed rests.
BEDDING A CASK. Placing dunnage round it.
BEDLAMERS. Young Labrador seals, which set up a dismal cry when they
cannot escape their pursuers--and go madly after each other in the sea.
BED OF A MORTAR. The solid frame on which a mortar is mounted for
firing. For sea-service it is generally made of wood; for land-service,
of iron, except in the smaller natures. In mortar vessels as latterly
fitted, the bed traverses on a central pivot over a large table or
platform of wood, having under it massive india-rubber buffers, to
moderate the jar from the discharge.--_Bed of a river_, that part of the
channel of a stream over which the water generally flows, as also that
part of the basin of a sea or lake on which the water lies.
BED-OF-GUNS. A nautical phrase implying ordnance too heavy for a ship's
scantling, or a fort over-gunned.
BE-DUNDERED. Stupified with noise.
BEE. A ring or hoop of metal.--_Bees of the bowsprit._ (_See_
BEE-BLOCKS.)
BEE-BLOCKS. Pieces of hard wood bolted to the outer end of the bowsprit,
to reeve the fore-topmast stays through, the bolt, serving as a pin,
commonly called bees.
BEEF. A figurative term for strength.--_More beef!_ more men on.
BEEF-KID. A mess utensil for carrying meat from the coppers.
BEETLE. A shipwright's heavy mallet for driving the wedges called
reeming irons, so as to open the seams in order to caulk. (_See_
REEMING.)
BEETLE-HEAD. A large beetle, weighing 1000 lbs., swayed up by a
crabwinch to a height, and dropped by a pincer-shaped hook; it is used
in pile-driving.
BEFORE OR ABAFT THE BEAM. The bearing of any object which is before or
abaft a right line to the keel, at the midship section of a ship.
BEFORE THE MAST. The station of the working seamen, as distinguishing
them from the officers.
BEGGAR-BOLTS. A contemptuous term for the missiles which were thrown by
the galley-slaves at an approaching enemy.
BEHAVIOUR. The action and qualities of a ship under different impulses.
Seamen speak of the manner in which she behaves, as if she acted by her
own instinct.
BEIKAT. _See_ BYKAT.
BEILED. A sea-term in the old law-books, apparently for moored.
BEING. _See_ BING.
BELAY, TO. To fasten a rope when it has been sufficiently hauled upon,
by twining it several times round a cleat, belaying pin, or kevel,
without hitching or seizing; this is chiefly applied to the running
rigging, which needs to be so secured that it may be quickly let go in
case of a squall or change of wind; there being several other
expressions used for securing large ropes, as bitting, making fast,
stoppering, &c.--_Belay there_, stop! that is enough!--_Belay that
yarn_, we have had enough of it. Stand fast, secure all, when a hawser
has been sufficiently hauled. When the top-sails, or other sails have
been hoisted taut up, or "belay the main-tack," &c.
BELAYING PINS. Small wooden or iron cylinders, fixed in racks in
different parts of the ship, for belaying running ropes to.
BELEAGUER. To invest or closely surround an enemy's post, in such manner
as to prevent all relief or communication.
BELFRY. An ornamental frame or shelter, under which the ship's bell is
suspended.
BELL. _Strike the bell._ The order to strike the clapper against the
bell as many times as there are half hours of the watch elapsed; hence
we say it is two bells, three bells, &c., meaning there are two or three
half-hours past. The watch of four hours is eight bells.
BELLA STELLA. A name used by old seamen for the cross-staff.
BELLATRIX. {g} Orionis.
BELL-BUOY. A large can-buoy on which is placed, in wicker-work, a bell,
which is sounded by the heaving and setting of the sea.
BELLIGERENT. An epithet applied to any country which is in a state of
warfare.
BELLOWS. An old hand at the bellows. A colloquialism for a man up to his
duty. "A fresh hand at the _bellows_" is said when a gale increases.
BELL-ROPE. A short rope spliced round a thimble in the eye of the
bell-crank, with a double wall-knot crowned at its end.
BELLS. _See_ WATCH.
BELL-TOP. A name applied to the top of a quarter-gallery, when the upper
stool is hollowed away, or made like a rim.
BELL-WARE. A name of the _Zostera marina_ (which see).
BELLY. The swell of a sail. The inner or hollow part of compass timber;
the outside is called the _back_. To belly a sail is to inflate or fill
it with the wind, so as to give a taut leech.--_Bellying canvas_ is
generally applied to a vessel going free, as when the belly and foot
reefs which will not stand on a wind, are shaken out.--_Bellying to the
breeze_, the sails filling or being inflated by the wind.--_Bellying to
leeward_, when too much sail is injudiciously carried.
BELLY-BAND. A strip of canvas, half way between the close-reef and the
foot of square sails, to strengthen them. Also applied to an army
officer's sash.
BELLY-GUY. A tackle applied half-way up sheers, or long spars that
require support in the middle. Frequently applied to masts that have
been crippled by injudiciously setting up the rigging too taut.
BELLY-MAT. _See_ PAUNCH-MAT.
BELLY-STAY. Used half-mast down when a mast requires support; as
belly-guy, above.
BELOW. The opposite of _on_ or _'pon deck_. Generally used to
distinguish the watch on deck, and those off the watch.
BELT. A metaphorical term in geography for long and proportionally
narrow encircling strips of land having any particular feature; as a
belt of sand, a belt of hills, &c. It is, in use, nearly synonymous with
zone. Also, to beat with a colt or rope's end.
BELTING. A beating; formerly given by a belt.
BELTS. The dusky streaks crossing the surface of the planet Jupiter, and
supposed to be openings in his atmosphere.
BENCHES OF BOATS. The seats in the after-part whereon the passengers
sit; properly stern-sheets, the others are athwarts, whereon the rowers
sit.
BEND, TO. To fasten one rope to another, or to an anchor. The term is
also applied to any sudden or remarkable change in the direction of a
river, and is then synonymous with bight or loop.--_Bend a sail_ is to
extend or make it fast to its proper yard or stay. (_See_ GRANNY'S
BEND.) Also, _bend to your oars_, throw them well forward.
BEND. The chock of the bowsprit.
BENDER. A contrivance to bend small cross-bows, formerly used in the
navy. Also, "look out for a _bender_," or "strike out for a bend,"
applied to coiling the hempen cables.
BENDING ROPES, is to join them together with a bowline knot, and then
make their own ends fast upon themselves; not so secure as splicing, but
sooner done, and readiest, when it is designed to take them asunder
again. There are several bends, as _Carrick-bend_, _hawser-bend_,
_sheet-bend_, _bowline-bend_, &c.
BENDING THE CABLE. The operation of clinching, or tying the cable to the
ring of its anchor. The term is still used for shackling chain-cables to
their anchors.
BEND-MOULD. A mould made to form the futtocks in the square body,
assisted by the _rising-square_ and _floor-hollow_.
BEND ON THE TACK. In hoisting signals, that piece of rope called the
distant line--which keeps the flags so far asunder that they are not
confused. Also, in setting free sails, the studding-sail tack, &c.
BEND-ROLL. A rest formerly used for a heavy musket.
BENDS. The thickest and strongest planks on the outward part of a ship's
side, between the plank-streaks on which men set their feet in climbing
up. They are more properly called wales, or wails. They are reckoned
from the water, and are distinguished by the titles of _first_,
_second_, or _third bend_. They are the chief strength of a ship's
sides, and have the beams, knees, and foot-hooks bolted to them. Bends
are also the frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to
the top of the side, individualized by each particular station. That at
the broadest part of the ship is denominated the _midship-bend_ or
_dead-flat_.
BE-NEAPED. The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height
of spring-tides. (_See_ NEAPED.)
BENGAL LIGHT. _See_ BLUE LIGHT.
BENJY. A low-crowned straw-hat, with a very broad brim.
BENK. A north-country term for a low bank, or ledge of rock; probably
the origin of _bunk_, or sleeping-places in merchant vessels. (_See_
BUNK.)
BENN. A small kind of salmon; the earliest in the Solway Frith.
BENT. The trivial name of the _Arundo arenaria_, or coarse unprofitable
grass growing on the sea-shore.
BENTINCK-BOOM. That which stretches the foot of the fore-sail in many
small square-rigged merchantmen; particularly used in whalers among the
ice, with a reefed fore-sail to see clearly ahead. The tack and sheet
are thus dispensed with, a spar with tackle amidships brings the leeches
taut on a wind. It is principally worked by its bowline.
BENTINCKS. Triangular courses, so named after Captain Bentinck, by whom
they were invented, but which have since been superseded by storm
staysails. They are still used by the Americans as trysails.
BENTINCK-SHROUDS. Formerly used; extending from the weather-futtock
staves to the opposite lee-channels.
BENT ON A SPLICE. Going to be married.
BERG. A word adopted from the German, and applied to the features of
land distinguished as steppes, banquettes, shelves, terraces, and
parallel roads. (_See_ ICEBERG.)
BERGLE. A northern name for the wrasse.
BERM. In fortification, a narrow space of level ground, averaging about
a foot and a half in width, generally left between the foot of the
exterior slope of the parapet and the top of the escarp; in permanent
fortification its principal purpose is to retain the earth of the
parapet, which, when the latter is deformed by fire or by weather, would
otherwise fall into the ditch; in field fortification it also serves to
protect the escarp from the pressure of a too imminent parapet.
BERMUDA SAILS. _See_ 'MUDIAN.
BERMUDA SQUALL. A sudden and strong wintry tempest experienced in the
Atlantic Ocean, near the Bermudas; it is preceded by heavy clouds,
thunder, and lightning. It belongs to the Gulf Stream, and is felt,
throughout its course, up to the banks of Newfoundland.
BERMUDIANS. Three-masted schooners, built at Bermuda during the war of
1814; they went through the waves without rising to them, and
consequently were too ticklish for northern stations.
BERNAK. The barnacle goose (_Anser bernicla_).
BERSIS. A species of cannon formerly much used at sea.
BERTH. The station in which a ship rides at anchor, either alone, or in
a fleet; as, she lies in a good berth, _i.e._ in good anchoring ground,
well sheltered from the wind and sea, and at a proper distance from the
shore and other vessels.--_Snug berth_, a place, situation, or
establishment. A sleeping berth.--_To berth a vessel_, is to fix upon,
and put her into the place she is to occupy.--_To berth a ship's
company_, to allot to each man the space in which his hammock is to be
hung, giving the customary 14 inches in width.--_To give a berth_, to
keep clear of, as to give a point of land a wide berth, is to keep at a
due distance from it.
BERTH. The room or apartment where any number of the officers, or ship's
company, mess and reside; in a ship of war there is commonly one of
these between every two guns as the mess-places of the crew.
BERTH AND SPACE. In ship-building, the distance from the moulding edge
of one timber to the moulding edge of the next timber. Same as room and
space, or timber and space.
BERTH-DECK. The 'tween decks.
BERTHER. He who assigns places for the respective hammocks to hang in.
BERTHING. The rising or working up of the planks of a ship's sides; as
berthing up a bulk-head, or bringing up in general. Berthing also
denotes the planking outside, above the sheer-strake, and is called the
berthing of the quarter-deck, of the poop, or of the forecastle, as the
case may be.
BERTHING OF THE HEAD. _See_ HEAD-BOARDS.
BERVIE. A haddock split and half-dried.
BERWICK SMACK. The old and well-found packets of former days, until
superseded by steamers. (_See_ BARRACK SMACK.)
BESET IN ICE. Surrounded with ice, and no opening for advance or
retreat, so as to be obliged to remain immovable.
BESIEGE, TO. To endeavour to gain possession of a fortified place
defended by an enemy, by directing against it a connected series of
offensive military operations.
BESSY-LORCH. A northern name of the _Gobio fluviatilis_ or gudgeon.
BEST BOWER. _See_ BOWER-ANCHORS.
BETELGUESE. The lucida of Orion, {a} Orionis, and a standard Greenwich
star of the first magnitude.
BETHEL. _See_ FLOATING BETHEL.
BETTY MARTIN. _See_ MARTIN.
BETWEEN DECKS. The space contained between any two whole decks of a
ship.
BETWIXT WIND AND WATER. About the line of load immersion of the ship's
hull; or that part of the vessel which is at the surface of the water.
BEVEL. An instrument by which bevelling angles are taken. Also a sloped
surface.
BEVELLING. Any alteration from a square in hewing timber, as taken by
the bevel, bevelling rule, or bevelling boards.--_A standing bevelling_
is that made without, or outside a square; an _under-bevelling_ within;
and the angle is optionally acute or obtuse. In ship-building, it is the
art of hewing a timber with a proper and regular curve, according to a
mould which is laid on one side of its surface.
BEVELLING-BOARD. A piece of board on which the bevellings or angles of
the timbers are described.
BEVERAGE. A West India drink, made of sugar-cane juice and water.
BEWPAR. The old name for buntin, still used in navy office documents.
BEWTER. A northern name for the black-wak, or bittern.
BEZANT. An early gold coin, so called from having been first coined at
Byzantium.
BIBBS. Pieces of timber bolted to the hounds of a mast, to support the
trestle-trees.
BIBLE. A hand-axe. Also, a squared piece of freestone to grind the deck
with sand in cleaning it; a small holy-stone, so called from seamen
using them kneeling.
BIBLE-PRESS. A hand rolling-board for cartridges, rocket, and port-fire
cases.
BICKER, OR BEAKER. A flat bowl or basin for containing liquors, formerly
made of wood, but in later times of other substances. Thus Butler:
"And into pikes, and musqueteers,
Stamp beakers, cups, and porringers."
BID-HOOK. A small kind of boat-hook.
BIEL-BRIEF. The bottomry contract in Denmark, Sweden, and the north of
Germany.
BIERLING. An old name for a small galley.
BIFURCATE. A river is said to bifurcate, or to form a fork, when it
divides into two distinct branches, as at the heads of deltas and in
fluvial basins.
BIGHT. A substantive made from the preterperfect tense of _bend_. The
space lying between two promontories or headlands, being wider and
smaller than a gulf, but larger than a bay. It is also used generally
for any coast-bend or indentation, and is mostly held as a synonym of
shallow bay.
BIGHT. The loop of a rope when it is folded, in contradistinction to the
end; as, her anchor hooked the bight of our cable, _i.e._ caught any
part of it between the ends. The bight of his cable has swept our
anchor, _i.e._ the bight of the cable of another ship as she ranged
about has entangled itself about the flukes of our anchor. Any part of
the chord or curvature of a rope between the ends may be called a bight.
BIG-WIGS. A cant term for the higher officers.
BILANCELLA. A destructive mode of fishing in the Mediterranean, by means
of two vessels towing a large net stretched between them.
BILANCIIS DEFERENDIS. A writ directed to a corporation, for the carrying
of weights to such a haven, there to weigh the wool that persons, by our
ancient laws, were licensed to transport.
BILANDER. A small merchant vessel with two masts, particularly
distinguished from other vessels with two masts by the form of her
main-sail, which is bent to the whole length of her yard, hanging fore
and aft, and inclined to the horizon at an angle of about 45 deg. Few
vessels are now rigged in this manner, and the name is rather
indiscriminately used.
BILBO. An old term for a flexible kind of cutlass, from Bilbao, where
the best Spanish sword-blades were made. Shakspeare humorously describes
Falstaff in the buck-basket, like a good bilbo, coiled hilt to point.
BILBOES. Long bars or bolts, on which iron shackles slid, with a padlock
at the end; used to confine the legs of prisoners in a manner similar to
the punishment of the stocks. The offender was condemned to irons, more
or less ponderous according to the nature of the offence of which he was
guilty. Several of them are yet to be seen in the Tower of London, taken
in the Spanish Armada. Shakspeare mentions Hamlet thinking of a kind of
fighting,
"That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes."
BILCOCK. The northern name for the water-rail.
BILGE, OR BULGE. That part of the floor in a ship--on either side of the
keel--which approaches nearer to a horizontal than to a perpendicular
direction, and begins to round upwards. It is where the floors and
second futtocks unite, and upon which the ship would rest if laid on
the ground; hence, when a ship receives a fracture in this part, she is
said to be bilged or bulged.--_Bilge_ is also the largest circumference
of a cask, or that which extends round by the bung-hole.
BILGE-BLOCKS. _See_ SLIDING BILGE-BLOCKS.
BILGE-COADS. In launching a ship, same with sliding-planks.
BILGE-FEVER. The illness occasioned by a foul hold.
BILGE-FREE. A cask so stowed as to rest entirely on its beds, keeping
the lower part of the bilge at least the thickness of the hand clear of
the bottom of the ship, or other place on which it is stowed.
BILGE-KEELS. Used for vessels of very light draught and flattish
bottoms, to make them hold a better wind, also to support them upright
when grounded. The _Warrior_ and other iron-clads are fitted with
bilge-keels.
BILGE-KEELSONS. These are fitted inside of the bilge, to afford strength
where iron, ores, and other heavy cargo are shipped. Otherwise they are
the same as sister-keelsons.
BILGE-PIECES. Synonymous with _bilge-keels_.
BILGE-PLANKS. Certain thick strengthenings on the inner and outer lines
of the bilge, to secure the _shiftings_ as well as bilge-keels.
BILGE-PUMP. A small pump used for carrying off the water which may lodge
about the lee-bilge, so as not to be under the action of the main pumps.
In a steamer it is worked by a single link off one of the levers.
BILGE-TREES. Another name for bilge-coads.
BILGE-WATER. The rain or sea-water which occasionally enters a vessel,
and running down to her floor, remains in the bilge of the ship till
pumped out, by reason of her flat bottom, which prevents it from going
to the well of the pump; it is always (especially if the ship does not
leak) of a dirty colour and disgusting penetrating smell. It seems to
have been a sad nuisance in early voyages; and in the earliest
sea-ballad known (_temp._ Hen. VI.) it is thus grumbled at:--
"A sak of strawe were there ryght good,
For som must lyg theym in theyr hood,
I had as lefe be in the wood
W'out mete or drynk.
For when that we shall go to bedde,
The pumpe was nygh our bedde's hedde;
A man were as good to be dede
As smell thereof ye stynk."
The mixture of tar-water and the drainings of sugar cargo is about the
worst perfume known.
BILL. A weapon or implement of war, a pike or halbert of the English
infantry. It was formerly carried by sentinels, whence Shakspeare
humorously made Dogberry tell the sleepy watchmen to have a care that
their bills be not stolen. Also, the point or tapered extremity of the
fluke at the arm of an anchor. Also a point of land, of which a familiar
instance may be cited in the Bill of Portland.
BILLAT. A name on the coast of Yorkshire for the piltock or coal-fish,
when it is a year old.
BILL-BOARDS. Doubling under the fore-channels to the water-line, to
protect the planking from the bill of the anchor.
BILLET. The allowance to landlords for quartering men in the royal
service; the lodging-money charged by consuls for the same.
BILLET-HEAD. A carved prow bending in and out, contrariwise to the
fiddle-head (scroll-head). Also, a round piece of wood fixed in the bow
or stern of a whale-boat, about which the line is veered when the whale
is struck. Synonymous with bollard.
BILLET-WOOD. Small wood mostly used for dunnage in stowing ships'
cargoes, also for fuel, usually sold by the fathom; it is 3 feet 4
inches long, and 7-1/2 inches in compass.
BILL-FISH. _See_ GAR-FISH.
BILL-HOOK. A species of hatchet used in wooding a ship, similar to that
used by hedgers.
BILL OF EXCHANGE. A means of remitting money from one country to
another. The receiver must present it for acceptance to the parties on
whom it is drawn without loss of time, he may then claim the money after
the date specified on the bill has elapsed.
BILL OF FREEDOM. A full pass for a neutral in time of war.
BILL OF HEALTH. A certificate properly authenticated by the consul, or
other proper authority at any port, that the ship comes from a place
where no contagious disorder prevails, and that none of the crew, at the
time of her departure, were infected with any such distemper. Such
constitutes a _clean_ bill of health, in contradistinction to a _foul_
bill.
BILL OF LADING. A memorandum by which the master of a ship acknowledges
the receipt of the goods specified therein, and promises to deliver
them, in like good condition, to the consignee, or his order. It differs
from a charter-party insomuch as it is given only for a single article
or more, laden amongst the sundries of a ship's cargo.
BILL OF SALE. A written document by which the property of a vessel, or
shares thereof, are transferred to a purchaser.
BILL OF SIGHT, OR OF VIEW. A warrant for a custom-house officer to
examine goods which had been shipped for foreign parts, but not sold
there.
BILL OF STORE. A kind of license, or custom-house permission, for
re-importing unsold goods from foreign ports duty free, within a
specified limit of time.
BILLOWS. The surges of the sea, or waves raised by the wind; a term more
in use among poets than seamen.
BILLS. The ends of compass or knee timber.
BILLY BOY OR BOAT. A Humber or east-coast boat, of river-barge build,
and a trysail; a bluff-bowed north-country trader, or large one-masted
vessel of burden.
BINARY SYSTEM. When two stars forming a double-star are found to revolve
about each other.
BIND. A quantity of eels, containing 10 sticks of 25 each.
BINDINGS. In ship-building, a general name for the beams, knees, clamps,
water-ways, transoms, and other connecting parts of a ship or vessel.
BINDING-STRAKES. Thick planks on the decks, in midships, between the
hatchways. Also the principal strakes of plank in a vessel, especially
the sheer-strake and wales, which are bolted to the knees and
shelf-pieces.
BING. A heap; an old north-country word for the sea-shore, and sometimes
spelled _being_.
BINGE, TO. To rinse, or bull, a cask.
BINGID. An old term for locker.
BINK. _See_ BENK.
BINN. A sort of large locker, with a lid on the top, for containing a
vessel's stores: bread-binn, sail-binn, flour-binn, &c.
BINNACLE (formerly BITTACLE). It appears evidently to be derived from
the French term _habittacle_, a small habitation, which is now used for
the same purpose by the seamen of that nation. The binnacle is a wooden
case or box, which contains the compass, and a light to illuminate the
compass at night; there are usually three binnacles on the deck of a
ship-of-war, two near the helm being designed for the man who steers,
weather and lee, and the other amidships, 10 or 12 feet before these,
where the quarter-master, who conns the ship, stands when _steering_, or
going with a free wind. (_See_ CONN.)
BINNACLE-LIGHT. The lamp throwing light upon the compass-card.
BINOCLE. A small binocular or two-eyed telescope.