NAB. The bolt-toe, or cock of a gun-lock.
NABB. A cant term for the head. Also, a protuberance on the rocky summit
of a hill; a rocky ledge below water.
NACA, OR NACELLE. A French boat without mast or sail, used as early as
the twelfth century.
NACRE. The mother-of-pearl which lines some shells, both univalve and
bivalve.
NACTA. A small transport vessel of early times.
NADIR. The lower pole of the rational horizon, the other being the
zenith.
NAID. A northern term for a lamprey, or large eel.
NAIL, TO. Is colloquially used for binding a person to a bargain. In
weighing articles of food, a nail is 8 lbs.
NAILING A GUN. Synonymous with _cloying_ or _spiking_. When necessary to
abandon cannon, or when the enemy's artillery, though seized, cannot be
taken away, it is proper to spike it, which is done by driving a steel
or other spike into the vent. The best method sometimes to render a gun
serviceable again is to drill a new vent. (_See_ SPIKING.)
NAILS OF SORTS. Nails used in carpentry under the denominations of 4, 6,
8, 10, 24, 30, and 40 penny-nails, all of different lengths.
NAKE! The old word to unsheath swords, or make them naked.
NAKED. State of a ship's bottom without sheathing. Also, a place without
means of defence.
NAKHADAH, OR NACODAH. An Arab sea-captain.
NAME. The name of a merchant ship, as well as the port to which she
belongs, must be painted in a conspicuous manner on her stern. If
changed, she must be registered _de novo_, and the old certificate
cancelled.
NAME-BOARD. The arch-board, or part whereon the ship's name and port are
painted.
NAME-BOOK. The Anglo-Saxon _nom-boc_, a mustering list.
NANCY. An east-country term for a small lobster.
NANCY DAWSON. A popular air by which seamen were summoned to grog.
NANKIN. A light fawn-coloured or white cotton cloth, almost exclusively
worn at one time in our ships on the India station. It was supplied from
China, but is now manufactured in England, Malta, and the United States.
NANT. A brook, or small river, on the coasts of Wales.
NAPHTHA. A very inflammable, fiercely burning fluid, which oozes from
the ground or rock in many different localities, and may be obtained by
the distillation of coal, cannel, and other substances. It is nearly
related to _petroleum_ (which see), and is used for lighting,
combustible, and various other purposes.
NAPIER'S BONES. Small rods, arranged by Lord Napier to expedite
arithmetical calculations. In _Hudibras_:
"A moon-dial, with Napier's bones,
And several constellation stones."
NARKE. A ray of very wonderful electric powers.
NARROWING OF THE FLOOR-SWEEP. For this peculiar curve, _see_ HALF-BREADTH
OF THE RISING.
NARROWS. The most confined part of a channel between two lands, or any
contracted part of a navigable river.
NARWHAL. The _Monodon monoceros_, an animal of the cetacean order, found
in the Arctic seas, and distinguished by the single long pointed tusk
projecting straight forward from its upper jaw, whence it is also termed
sea-unicorn.
NATURAL FORTIFICATION. Those obstacles, in the form or nature of the
country, which impede the approaches of an enemy.
NATURAL MOTION. A term applied to the descending parabolic curve of a
shot or shell in falling.
NAUFRAGIATE, TO. An old expression, meaning to suffer shipwreck. It
occurs in Lithgow's _Pilgrime's Farewell_, 1618.
NAULAGE. A freight or fare.
NAUMACHIA. An artificial piece of water whereon the ancient Romans
represented a sea-fight, supposed to have originated in the first Punic
war.
NAUROPOMETER. An instrument for measuring the amount of a ship's heel or
inclination at sea.
NAUSCOPY. The tact of discovering ships or land at considerable
distances.
NAUTICAL. Relating to navigation, sailors, or maritime affairs in
general.
NAUTICAL ALMANAC. A book of the first necessity to navigators. (_See_
EPHEMERIS.)
NAUTICAL ASSESSORS. Persons of nautical experience appointed to assist
the judge of the admiralty and other courts in technical difficulties.
NAUTICAL ASTRONOMY. That part of the celestial science which treats of
the planets and stars so far as relates to the purposes of navigation.
NAUTICAL DAY. This day commences at noon, twelve hours before the civil
day, and ends at noon of the day following. (_See_ DAY.)
NAUTICAL MILE (MEAN) = 6075.6 feet.
NAUTICAL STARS. About 72 of the brightest, which have been selected for
determining the latitude or the longitude, by lunar distances, and
inserted, corrected to the year, in the Nautical Ephemeris.
NAUTICAL TABLES. Those especially computed for resolution of matters
dependent on nautical astronomy, and navigation generally.
NAUTICUM F[OE]NUS. Marine usury; bottomry.
NAUTILUS. The pearly nautilus, _N. pompilius_, is a marine animal,
belonging to the same class (_Cephalopoda_) as the cuttle-fish, but
protected by a beautiful, chambered, discoid shell. The paper-nautilus
(_Argonauta argo_) belongs to a different family of the same class, and
has a simple, delicate, boat-like shell.
NAVAL. Of or belonging to a ship, or, as now commonly adopted, to the
royal navy; hence, naval stores, naval officers, &c.
NAVAL ARCHITECTURE. The construction, or art and science, of building
ships.
NAVAL ARMAMENT. A fleet or squadron of ships of war, fitted out for a
particular service.
NAVAL CADET. _See_ CADET.
NAVAL HOSPITALS. Greenwich is styled by eminence _the Royal Hospital_,
yet the naval medical establishments in England and the colonies are
all royal. At home they are Haslar, Plymouth, Yarmouth, Haulbowline,
Chatham, and Woolwich; abroad, Malta, Jamaica, Halifax, Bermuda, Cape of
Good Hope, and Hong Kong. Besides these useful hospitals, there are
other stations of relief around the coasts.
NAVAL OFFICER. One belonging to the royal navy. Also, the person in
charge of the stores in a royal dockyard abroad.
NAVAL RESERVE. A body of volunteers, consisting of coasters and able
merchant seamen, who are drilled for serving on board our ships of war
in case of need. They receive a fixed rate of compensation, become
entitled to a pension, and enjoy other privileges. They are largely
officered from their own body.
NAVAL SCIENCE. A knowledge of the theory of ship-building, seamanship,
navigation, nautical astronomy, and tactics.
NAVAL STORES. All those particulars which are made use of, not only in
the royal navy, but in every other kind of navigation. There are various
statutes against stealing or embezzling them.
NAVAL STORE-SHIP. A government vessel, appropriated to carrying stores
and munitions of war to different stations.
NAVAL TACTICS. The warlike evolutions of fleets, including such
man[oe]uvres as may be judged most suitable for attack, defence, or
retreat, with precision. The science of tactics happens never to have
proceeded from naval men. Thus Pere la Hoste among the French, and a
lawyer among the English, are the prime authorities. Moreover, it is a
fact well known to those who served half a century back, when Lord
Keith, Sir P. Durham, Sir P. Malcolm, and B. Hallowell practised their
squadrons, that questions remained in dispute and undecided for at least
sixteen years.
NAVE-HOLE. The hole in the centre of a gun-truck for receiving the end
of the axle-tree.
NAVEL HOODS. Those hoods wrought above and below the hawse-holes,
outside a ship, where there are no cheeks to support a bolster.
NAVEL LAVER. The sea-weed _Ulva umbilicus_.
NAVEL LINE. _See_ LINE.
NAVIGABLE. Any channel capable of being passed by ships or boats.
NAVIGANT. An old word for sailor.
NAVIGATION. The art of conducting vessels on the sea, not only by the
peculiar knowledge of seamanship in all its intricate details, but also
by such a knowledge of the higher branches of nautical astronomy as
enables the commander to hit his port, after a long succession of bad
weather, and an absence of three or four months from all land. Any man
without science may navigate the entire canals of Great Britain, but may
be unable to pass from Plymouth to Guernsey.
NAVIGATION ACTS. Various statutes by which the legislature of Great
Britain has in a certain degree restricted the intercourse of foreign
vessels with her own ports, or those of her dependent possessions; the
object being to promote the increase of British shipping.
NAVIGATOR. A person skilled in the art of navigation. In old times, the
ship's _artist_. Also, one who plies merely on canals. Also, the _navvy_
who works on embankments, cuttings, &c.
NAVITHALAMUS. A word in Law-Latin signifying a yacht.
NAVVIES. The vigorous labourers employed in cutting canals, railroads,
or river works in temporary gangs.
NAVY. Any assembly of ships, whether for commerce or war. More
particularly the vessels of war which, belonging to the government of
any state, constitute its maritime force. The Royal Navy of Great
Britain is conducted under the direction of the lords-commissioners for
executing the office of lord high-admiral, and by the following
principal officers under them:--the controller of the navy, controlling
dockyards, building, &c., with his staff; the accountant-general,
store-keeper general, and controller of victualling. These several lords
meet as a board at Somerset House on special days to give the affairs
the force of the board of admiralty.
NAVY AGENTS. Selected mercantile houses, about fourteen, who manage the
affairs of officers' pay, prizes, &c., for which the law authorizes a
certain percentage. They hold powers of attorney to watch the interests
of their clients.
NAVY BILLS. Bills of removal, transfer, &c., are not negotiable, nor can
they be made other use of.
NAVY BOARD. The commissioners of the navy collectively considered, but
long since abolished.
NAVY TRANSPORT. _See_ TRANSPORT.
NAVY-YARD. A royal arsenal for the navy.
NAY-WORD. The old term for the watch-word, parole, or countersign.
NAZE. _See_ NESS.
NEALED. _See_ ARMING.
NEALED-TO. A shore, with deep soundings close in.
NEAPED. The situation of a ship which, within a bar-harbour, is left
aground on the spring-tides so that she cannot go to sea or be floated
off till the return of the next spring-tides.
NEAP-TIDES. A term from the Ang.-Sax. _nepflods_. They are but medium
tides, in respect to their opposites, the springs, being neither so
high, so low, nor so rapid. The phenomenon is owing to the attractions
of the sun and moon then partly counteracting each other.
NEAR, AND NO NEAR. Synonymous terms used as a warning to the helmsman
when too near the wind, not to come closer to it, but to keep the
weather-helm in hand.
NEAT. _See_ NET, as commercial weight.
NEB. This word, the Ang.-Sax. _nebb_, face as well as nose, is sometimes
used for _ness_ (which see). Also, a bird's beak.
NEBULA. An old term for a cluster of stars looking like a cloudy spot
till separated by telescopic power; but the term is also now correctly
applied to masses of nebulous matter only.
NECESSARIES. Minor articles of clothing or equipment, prescribed by
regulation, but provided by the men out of their own pay.
NECESSARY MONEY. An extra allowance formerly allowed to pursers for the
coals, wood, turnery-ware, candles, and other necessaries provided by
them.
NECESSITY. If a ship be compelled by necessity to change the order of
the places to which she is insured, this is not deemed deviation, and
the underwriters are still liable.
NECK. The elbow or part connecting the blade and socket of a bayonet.
_Goose-neck_, at the ends of booms, to connect them with the sides, or
at the yard-arm for the studding-sail boom-iron.
NECK OF A GUN. The narrow part where the chase meets the swell of the
muzzle.
NECKED. Tree-nails are said to be necked where they are cracked, bent,
or nipped between the outside skin and the timbers of a vessel, whether
from bad driving or severe straining.
NECKING. A small neat moulding at the foot of the taffrail over the
light.
NECKLACE. A ring of wads placed round a gun, as sometimes practised, for
readiness and stowage. Also, a strop round a lower mast carrying
leading-blocks. Also, the chain necklace, to which the futtock-shrouds
are secured in some vessels.
NECK OF LAND. Dividing two portions of water, or it may be the neck of a
peninsula.
NECK OF THE CASCABLE. The part between the swell of the breech of a gun
and the button. Its narrowest part within the button.
NECKUR. A Scandinavian sea-sprite, whence some derive our "Old Nick" in
preference to St. Nicholas, the modern patron of sailors.