COOM OF A WAVE. The comb or crest. The white summit when it breaks.
COON-TRAIE. A Manx and Erse term for the neap-tide.
COOP, OR FISH-COOP. A hollow vessel made with twigs, with which fish are
taken in the Humber. (_See_ HEN-COOP.)
COOPER. A rating for a first-class petty officer, who repairs casks, &c.
COOT. A water-fowl common on lakes and rivers (_Fulica atra_). The toes
are long and not webbed, but bordered by a scalloped membrane. The name
is sometimes used for the guillemot (_Uria troile_), and often applied
to a stupid person.
COOTH. _See_ CUTH.
COP, OR COPT. The top of a conical hill.
COPE. An old English word for cape.
COPECK. _See_ KOPEK.
COPERNICAN SYSTEM. The Pythagorean system of the universe, revived by
Copernicus in the sixteenth century, and now confirmed; in which the sun
occupies the central space, and the planets with their attendant
satellites revolve about him.
COPILL. An old term for a variety of the coble.
COPING. In ship-building, turning the ends of iron lodging-knees, so
that they may hook into the beams.
COPPER, TO. To cover the ship's bottom with prepared copper.
COPPER-BOLTS. _See_ COPPER-FASTENED.
COPPERED, OR COPPER-BOTTOMED. Sheathed with thin sheets of copper, which
prevents the teredo eating into the planks, or shell and weed
accumulating on the surface, whereby a ship is retarded in her sailing.
COPPER-FASTENED. The bolts and other metal work in the bottom of ships,
made of copper instead of iron, so that the vessel may afterwards be
coppered without danger of its corroding the heads of the bolts by
galvanic action, as ensues when copper and iron are in contact with
sea-water.
COPPER-NAILS. These are chiefly used in boat-building, and for plank
nails in the vicinity of the binnacle, as iron affects the
compass-needle. They are not to be confounded with _composition nails_,
which are cast. (_See_ ROOF, OR ROVE and CLINCH.)
COPPERS. The ship's boilers for cooking; the name is generally used,
even where the apparatus may be made of iron.
COQUILLAGE. Shell-fish in general. It applies to anchorages where
oysters abound, or where fish are plentiful, and shell-fish for bait
easily obtainable. It is specially a term belonging to French and
Spanish fishermen.
CORAB. A sort of boat, otherwise called _coracle_.
CORACLE. An ancient British truckle or boat, constructed of wicker-work,
and still in use amongst Welsh fishermen and on the Irish lakes. It is
covered by skins, oil-cloth, &c., which are removed when out of use; it
is of an oval form; contains one man, who, on reaching the shore,
shoulders his coracle, deposits it in safety, and covers it with dried
rushes or heather. The Arctic _baidar_ is of similar construction. It is
probably of the like primitive fabric with the _cymba sutiles_ of
Herodotus.
CORACORA. _See_ KOROCORA.
CORAL. A name applied to the hard calcareous support or skeleton of many
species of marine zoophytes. The coral-producing animals abound chiefly
in tropical seas, sometimes forming, by the aggregated growth of
countless generations, reefs, barriers, and islands of vast extent. The
"red coral" (_Corallium rubrum_) of the Mediterranean is highly prized
for ornamental purposes.
CORALAN. A small open boat for the Mediterranean coral fishery.
CORAL-BAND. _See_ SAND AND CORAL BANK or ISLET.
CORBEILLE [Fr. basket]. Miner's basket; small gabion used temporarily
for shelter to riflemen, and placed on the parapet, either to fire
through, or for protection from a force placed on a higher level.
CORBILLARD [Fr.] A large boat of transport.
CORD. Small rope; that of an inch or less in circumference.
CORD OR CHURD OF WOOD; as firewood. A statute stack is 8 feet long, 4
feet broad, and 4 feet high.
CORDAGE. A general term for the running-rigging of a ship, as also for
rope of any size which is kept in reserve, and for all stuff to make
ropes.--_Cable-laid cordage._ Ropes, the three strands of which are
composed of three other strands, as are cables and cablets. (_See_
ROPE.)
CORDILLA. The coarse German hemp, otherwise called _torse_.
CORDLIE. A name for the tunny fish.
CORDON. In fortification, the horizontal moulding of masonry along the
top of the true escarp. Also, sometimes used for lines of
circumvallation or blockade, or any connected chain of troops or even
sentries. Also, the riband of an order of knighthood or honour, and
hence used by the French as signifying a member thereof, as Cordon
bleu, Knight of the order of the Holy Ghost, &c.
CORDOVAN. Leather made from seal-skin; the term is derived from the
superior leather prepared at Cordova in Spain.
CORDUROY. Applied to roads formed in new settlements, of trees laid
roughly on sleepers transverse to the direction of the road; as suddenly
for artillery.
CORKIR, OR CUDBEAR. The _Lecanora tartarea_, a lichen producing a purple
dye, growing on the stones of the Western Isles, and in Norway.
CORMORANT. A well-known sea-bird (_Phalacrocorax carbo_) of the family
_Pelecanidae_.
CORN, TO. A remainder of the Anglo-Saxon _ge-cyrned_, salted. To
preserve meat for a time by salting it slightly.
CORNED. Slightly intoxicated. In Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, mention
is made of "corny ale."
CORNED POWDER. Powder granulated from the mill-cakes and sifted.
CORNET. A commissioned officer who carries the colours belonging to a
cavalry troop, equivalent to an ensign in the infantry; the junior
subaltern rank in the horse.
CORNISH RING. The astragal of the muzzle or neck of a gun; it is the
next ring from the mouth backwards. (Now disused.)
CORN-SALAD. A species of Valerianella. The top-leaves are used for
salad, a good anti-scorbutic with vinegar.
CORNS OF POWDER. The small grains that gunpowder consists of. The powder
reduced for fire-works, quill-tubes, &c.; sometimes by alcohol.
COROMONTINES. A peculiar race of negroes, brought from the interior of
Africa, and sold; but so ferocious as to be greatly dreaded in the West
Indies.
CORONA. In timber, consists of rows of microscopic cylinders, situated
between the wood and the pith; it is that part from which all the
branches take their rise, and from it all the wood-threads
grow.--_Corona_ astronomically means the luminous ring or glory which
surrounds the sun or moon during an eclipse, or the intervention of a
thin cloud. They are generally faintly coloured at their edges.
Frequently when there is a halo encircling the moon, there is a small
corona more immediately around it. Coronae, as well as halos, have been
observed to prognosticate rain, hail, or snow, being the result of snow
or dense vapours nearer the earth, through which the object becomes
hazy.
CORONER. An important officer. Seamen should understand that his duties
embrace all acts within a line drawn from one headland to another; or
within the body of the county. His duty is to investigate, on the part
of the crown, all accidents, deaths, wrecks, &c.; and his warrant is not
to be contemned or avoided.
COROUSE. The ancient weapon invented by Duilius for boarding. An attempt
was made in 1798 to re-introduce it in French privateers.
COROWNEL. The old word for colonel.
CORPHOUN. An out-of-the-way name for a herring.
CORPORAL, SHIP'S. In a ship of war was, under the master-at-arms,
employed to teach the sailors the use of small arms; to attend at the
gangways when entering ports, and see that no spirituous liquors were
brought on board without leave. Also, to extinguish the fire and candles
at eight o'clock in winter, and nine o'clock in summer, when the evening
gun was fired; and to see that there were no lights below, but such as
were under the charge of the proper sentinels. In the marines or army in
general the corporal is a non-commissioned officer next below the
sergeant in the scale of authority. The ship's corporal of the present
day is the superior of the first-class working petty officers, and
solely attends to police matters under the master-at-arms or
superintendent-in-chief.
CORPORAL OATH. So called because the witness when he swears lays his
right hand on the holy evangelists, or New Testament.
CORPOSANT. [_Corpo santo_, Ital.] _See_ COMPASANT.
CORPS. Any body of troops acting under one commander.
CORPSE. Jack's term for the party of marines embarked; the corps.
CORRECTIONS. Reductions of observations of the sun, moon, or stars.
CORRIDOR. _See_ COVERT-WAY.
CORRYNE POWDER. Corn-powder, a fine kind of gunpowder.
CORSAIR. A name commonly given to the piratical cruisers of Barbary, who
frequently plundered the merchant ships indiscriminately.
CORSELET. The old name for a piece of armour used to cover the body of a
fighting-man.
CORTEGE. The official staff, civil or military.
CORUSCATIONS. Atmospheric flashes of light, as in auroras.
CORVETTES. Flush-decked ships, equipped with one tier of guns: fine
vessels for warm climates, from admitting a free circulation of air. The
Bermuda-built corvettes were deemed superior vessels, swift, weatherly,
"lie to" well, and carry sail in a stiff breeze. The cedar of which they
are chiefly built is very buoyant, but also brittle.
CORVORANT. An old mode of spelling _cormorant_.