"A mackerel sky and mares' tails
Make lofty ships carry low sails."
LOG-BOARD. Two boards shutting together like a book, and divided into
several columns, in which to record, through the hours of the day and
night, the direction of the wind and the course of the ship, with all
the material occurrences, together with the latitude by observation.
From this table the officers work the ship's way, and compile their
journals. The whole being written by the mate of the watch with chalk,
is rubbed out every day at noon. Now a slate is more generally used.
LOG-BOOK. Mostly called the log, is a journal into which the log-board
is daily transcribed, together with any other circumstance deserving
notice. The intermediate divisions or watches are usually signed by the
commanding officer. It is also divided into _harbour-log_ and _sea-log_.