BIRD-BOLT. A species of arrow, short and thick, used to kill birds
without piercing their skins.
BIRD'S-FOOT SEA-STAR. The _Palmipes membranaceus_, one of the
_Asterinidae_, with a flat thin pentagonal body, of a bright scarlet
colour.
BIRD'S NEST. A round top at a mast-head for a look-out station. A
smaller crow's nest. Chiefly used in whalers, where a constant look-out
is kept for whales. (_See_ EDIBLE BIRD'S NEST.)
BIREMIS. In Roman antiquity, a vessel with two rows of oars.
BIRLIN. A sort of small vessel or galley-boat of the Hebrides; it is
fitted with four to eight long oars, but is seldom furnished with sails.
BIRT. A kind of turbot.
BIRTH-MARKS. A ship must not be loaded above her birth-marks, for, says
a maritime proverb, a master must know the capacity of his vessel, as
well as a rider the strength of his horse.
BISCUIT [_i.e._ _bis coctus_, or Fr. _bis-cuit_]. Bread intended for
naval or military expeditions is now simply flour well kneaded, with the
least possible quantity of water, into flat cakes, and slowly baked.
Pliny calls it _panis nauticus_; and of the _panis militaris_, he says
that it was heavier by one-third than the grain from which it was made.
BISHOP. A name of the great northern diver (_Colymbus glacialis_).
BISMER. A name of the stickleback (_Gasterosteus spinachia_).
BIT. A West Indian silver coin, varying from 4_d._ to 6_d._ In America
it is 12-1/2 cents, and in the Spanish settlements is equal with the
real, or one-eighth of a dollar. It was, in fact, Spanish money cut into
bits, and known as "cut-money."
BITE. Is said of the anchor when it holds fast in the ground on reaching
it. Also, the hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to
be lifted. Also, to bite off the top of small-arm cartridges.
BITTER. Any turn of a cable about the bitts is called a bitter. Hence a
ship is "brought up to a bitter" when the cable is allowed to run out to
that stop.
BITTER-BUMP. A north-country name for the bittern.
BITTER-END. That part of the cable which is abaft the bitts, and
therefore within board when the ship rides at anchor. They say, "Bend to
the bitter-end" when they would have that end bent to the anchor, and
when a chain or rope is paid out to the bitter-end, no more remains to
be let go. The bitter-end is the clinching end--sometimes that end is
bent to the anchor, because it has never been used, and is more
trustworthy. The first 40 fathoms of a cable of 115 fathoms is generally
worn out when the inner end is comparatively new.
BITT-HEADS. The upright pieces of oak-timber let in and bolted to the
beams of two decks at least, and to which the cross-pieces are let on
and bolted. (_See_ BITTS.)
BITT-PINS. Similar to belaying-pins, but larger. Used to prevent the
cable from slipping off the cross-piece of the bitts, also to confine
the cable and messenger there, in heaving in the cable.
BITTS. A frame composed of two strong pieces of straight oak timber,
fixed upright in the fore-part of a ship, and bolted securely to the
beams, whereon to fasten the cables as she rides at anchor; in ships of
war there are usually two pairs of cable-bitts, and when they are both
used at once the cable is said to be double-bitted. Since the
introduction of chain-cables, bitts are coated with iron, and vary in
their shapes. There are several other smaller bitts; as, the
topsail-sheet bitts, paul-bitts, carrick-bitts, windlass-bitts,
winch-bitts, jear-bitts, riding-bitts, gallows-bitts, and fore-brace
bitts.
BITT-STOPPER. One rove through the knee of the bitts, which nips the
cable on the bight: it consists of four or five fathoms of rope tailed
out nipper fashion at one end, and clench-knotted at the other. The old
bitt-stopper, by its running loop on a standing end, bound the cable
down in a bight abaft the bitts--the tail twisted round the fore part
helped to draw it still closer. It is now disused--chain cables having
superseded hemp.
BITT THE CABLE, TO. To put it round the bitts, in order to fasten it, or
slacken it out gradually, which last is called veering away.
BIVOUAC. The resting for the night in the open-air by an armed party,
instead of encamping.
BIZE. A piercing cold wind from the frozen summits of the Pyrenees.
BLACKAMOOR. A thoroughly black negro.
BLACK-BIRD CATCHING. The slave-trade.
BLACK-BIRDS. A slang term on the coast of Africa for a cargo of slaves.
BLACK-BOOK OF THE ADMIRALTY. An imaginary record of offences. Also, a
document of great authority in naval law, as it contains the ancient
admiralty statutes and ordinances.
BLACK-FISH. A common name applied by sailors to many different species
of cetaceans. The animal so called in the south seas belongs to the
genus _Globiocephalus_. It is from 15 to 20 feet long, and occurs in
countless shoals.
BLACK-FISHER. A water-poacher: one who kills salmon in close-time.
BLACK-FISHING. The illegally taking of salmon, under night, by means of
torches and spears with barbed prongs.
BLACK-HEAD. The pewitt-gull (_Larus ridibundus_).
BLACK-HOLE. A place of solitary confinement for soldiers, and tried in
some large ships.
BLACK-INDIES. Newcastle, Sunderland, and Shields.
BLACKING. For the ship's bends and yards. A good mixture is made of
coal-tar, vegetable-tar, and salt-water, boiled together, and laid on
hot.
BLACKING DOWN. The tarring and blacking of rigging; or the operation of
blacking the ship's sides with tar or mineral blacking.
BLACK-JACK. The ensign of a pirate. Also, a capacious tin can for beer,
which was formerly made of waxed leather. In 1630 Taylor wrote--
"Nor or of blacke-jacks at gentle buttry-bars,
Whose liquor oftentimes breeds household wars."
BLACK-LIST. A record of misdemeanours impolitically kept by some
officers for their private use--the very essence of private tyranny, now
forbidden.
BLACK-LOCK. A trout thought to be peculiar to Lough Melvin, on the west
of Ireland.
BLACK SHIPS. The name by which the English builders designate those
constructed of teak in India.
BLACK SOUTH-EASTER. The well-known violent wind at the Cape of Good
Hope, in which the vapoury clouds called the Devil's Table-cloth appear
on Table Mountain.
BLACK SQUALL. This squall, although generally ascribed to the West
Indies, as well as the white squall, may be principally ascribed to a
peculiar heated state of the atmosphere near land. As blackey, when
interrogated about weather, generally observes, "Massa, look to
leeward," it may be easily understood that it is the condensed air
repelled by a colder medium to leeward, and driven back with condensed
electricity and danger. So it is sudden to Johnny Newcomes, who lose
sails, spars, and ships, by capsizing.
BLACK'S THE WHITE OF MY EYE. When Jack avers that no one can say this or
that of him. It is an indignant expression of innocence of a charge.
BLACK-STRAKE. The range of plank immediately above the wales in a ship's
side; they are always covered with a mixture of tar and lamp-black,
which not only preserves them from the heat of the sun and the weather,
but forms an agreeable variety with the painted or varnished parts above
them. Vessels with no ports have frequently two such strakes--one above,
the other below the wales, the latter being also called the diminishing
strake.
BLACK-STRAP. The dark country wines of the Mediterranean. Also, bad
port, such as was served for the sick in former times.
BLACK-TANG. The sea-weed _Fucus vesicolosus_, or tangle.
BLACKWALL-HITCH. A sort of tackle-hook guy, made by putting the bight of
a rope over the back of the hook, and there jamming it by the standing
part. A mode of hooking on the bare end of a rope where no length
remains to make a cat's-paw.
BLACK WHALE. The name by which the right whale of the south seas
(_Balaena australis_) is often known to whalemen.
BLAD. A term on our northern coasts for a squall with rain.