INTACT. Unhurt; undamaged.
INTENSITY OF LIGHT. The degree of brightness of a planet or comet,
expressed as a number varying with the distance of the body from the sun
and earth.
INTERCALARY. Any period of time interpolated in the calendar for the
purpose of accommodating the mode of reckoning with the course of the
sun.
INTEREST POLICY. _See_ POLICY.
INTERLOPER. A smuggling or forced trade vessel. As a nautical phrase it
was generally applied to the "letters of marque" on the coasts of South
America, or a cruiser off her admiral's limits (poaching).
INTERMEDIATE SHAFT. In a steamer, is the iron crank common to both
engines.
INTERNAL CONTACT. This, in a transit of Mercury or Venus across the
solar disc, occurs when the planet is just within the sun's margin.
INTERNAL PLANKING. This is termed _ceiling_ of the ship.
INTERNAL SAFETY-VALVE. A valve opening from the outside of a steamer's
boiler, in order to allow air to enter the boiler when the pressure
becomes too weak within.
INTERROGATORIES. The practice in the prize court is, on the breaking out
of a war, to prepare standing commissions for the examination of
witnesses, to which certain interrogatories are annexed; to these the
examination is confined. Private interrogatories are inadmissible as
evidence.
INTERSECTION. The point in which one line crosses another.
INTERTROPICAL. The space included between the tropics on each side of
the equator, making a zone of nearly 47 deg.
INTERVAL. In military affairs, the lateral space between works or bodies
of troops, as distinguished from distance, which is the depth or
measurement in a direction from front to rear.
IN THE WIND. The state of a vessel when thrown with her head into the
wind, but not quite _all in the wind_ (_see_ ALL). It is figuratively
used for being nearly intoxicated.
INTRENCHMENT. Any work made to fortify a post against an enemy, but
usually implying a ditch or trench, with a parapet.
INUNDATIONS. In ancient Egypt officers estimated the case of sufferers
from the inundations of the Nile. The changes of property in Bengal, by
alluvion, are equally attended to. _Inundation_ is also a method of
impeding the approach of an enemy, by damming up the course of a brook
or river, so as to intercept the water, and set the neighbourhood
afloat. In Egypt the plan was diametrically opposite; for by flooding
Lake Mareotis, our gunboats were enabled greatly to annoy the French
garrison at Alexandria.
INVALID. A maimed or sick soldier or sailor.--_To invalid_ is to cause
to retire from active service from inability.
INVER. A Gaelic name, still retained in Scotland, for the month of a
river.
INVESTMENT. The first process of a siege, in taking measures to seize
all the avenues, blocking up the garrison, and preventing relief getting
into the place before the arrival of the main army with the siege-train.
INVINCIBLE. A name boastfully applied both to naval and military forces,
which have nevertheless been utterly vanquished.
INVOICE. An account from a merchant to his factor, containing the
particulars and prices of each parcel of goods in the cargo, with the
amount of the freight, duties, and other charges thereon.
INWARD. The opposite of _outward_ (which see).
INWARD CHARGES. Pilotage and other expenses incurred in entering any
port.
IODINE. A substance chiefly obtained from kelp or sea-weed, extensively
employed in medicine and the arts. Its vapour has a beautiful violet
colour.
IRIS EARS. A name applied to the shells of the Haliotis--a univalve
mollusc found clinging like limpets to rocks; very abundant in Guernsey.
IRISH HORSE. Old salt beef: hence the sailor's address to his salt
beef--
"Salt horse, salt horse, what brought you here?
You've carried turf for many a year.
From Dublin quay to Ballyack
You've carried turf upon your back," &c.
IRISH PENNANTS. Rope-yarns hanging about on the rigging. Loose
reef-points or gaskets flying about, or fag-ends of ropes.
IRON-BOUND. A coast where the shores are composed of rocks which mostly
rise perpendicularly from the sea, and have no anchorage near to them,
therefore dangerous for vessels to borrow upon.
IRON-BOUND BLOCKS. Those which are fitted with iron strops.
IRON-CLAD, CASED, COATED, OR PLATED VESSEL. One covered entirely, or in
special parts, with iron plates intended to resist ordinary missiles.
Where parts only are so protected, of course it may be done more
effectually.
IRON GARTERS. A cant word for bilboes, or fetters.
IRON-HORSE. The iron rail of the head; the horse of the fore-sheet or
boom-sheet traveller.
IRON-PLATED SHIPS. _See_ ARMOUR-CLAD.
IRONS. A ship is said to be in irons when, by mismanagement, she is
permitted to come up in the wind and lose her _way_; so that, having no
steerage, she must either be boxed off on the former tack, or fall off
on the other; for she will not cast one way or the other, without
bracing in the yards. Also, _bilboes_ (which see). Also, the tools used
by the caulkers for driving oakum into the seams. (_See also_
BOOM-IRONS.)
IRON-SICK. The condition of vessels when the iron work becomes loose in
the timbers from corrosion by gallic acid, and the speeks or sheathing
nails are eaten away by rust.
IRON-SIDES. Formerly a sobriquet for favourite veteran men-of-war, but
latterly applied to iron and iron-clad ships.
IRON WEDGES. Tapered iron wedges on the well-known mechanical principle,
for splitting out blocks and for other similar purposes.
IRON-WORK. A general name for all pieces of iron, of whatever figure or
size, which are used in the construction and equipment of ships.
IRREGULAR BASTION. One whose opposite faces or flanks do not correspond;
this, as well as the constant irregularity of most real fortification,
is generally the result of the local features of the neighbourhood.
ISLAND. May be simply described as a tract of land entirely surrounded
with water; but the whole continuous land of the Old World forms one
island, and the New World another; while canals across the isthmuses of
Suez and Panama would make each into two. The term properly only applies
to smaller portions of land; and Australia, Madagascar, Borneo, and
Britain are among the larger examples. Their materials and form are
equally various, and so is their origin; some having evidently been
upheaved by volcanic eruption, others are the result of accretion, and
still more revealing by their strata that they were formerly attached to
a neighbouring land. The sudden emergence of Sabrina, in the Atlantic,
has occasioned wonder in our own day. So has that of Graham's Island,
near the south coast of Sicily; and the Archipelago is daily at work.
ISLAND HARBOUR. That which is protected from the violence of the sea by
one or more islands or islets screening its mouth.
ISLAND OF ICE. A name given to a great quantity of ice collected into
one solid mass and floating upon the sea; they are often met with on the
coasts of Spitzbergen, to the great danger of the shipping employed in
the Greenland fishery.
ISLE. A colloquial abbreviation of _island_.
ISLE OF WIGHT PARSON. A cormorant.
ISLET, OR ISLOT. Smaller than an island, yet larger than a key; an
insular spot about a couple of miles in circuit.
ISOSCELES. A triangle with only two of its sides equal.
ISSUE. The act of dispensing slops, tobacco, beds, &c., to the ship's
company; a distribution.
ISSUE-BOOK. That which contains the record of issues to the crew, and
the charges made against them.
ISTHMUS. A narrow neck of land which joins a peninsula to its continent,
or two islands together, or two peninsulas, without reference to size.
The Isthmus of Suez alone prevents Africa from being an island, as that
of Darien connects the two Americas.
IURRAM. A Gaelic word signifying a boat-song, intended to regulate the
strokes of the oars. Also, a song sung during any kind of work.
IVIGAR. A name in our northern isles for the sea-urchin, _Echinus
marinus_.
IVORY GULL, OR SNOW-BIRD. The _Larus eburneus_ of Arctic seas. It has a
yellowish beak, jet black legs, and plumage of a dazzling white.