NEEDLE-FISH. The shorter pipe-fish, stang, or sting, _Sygnathus acus_.
NEEDLE-GUN. One wherein the ignition for the cartridge is produced by
the penetration of the detonating priming by a steel spike working in
the lock. It is the Prussian musket.
NEEDLES. Used by sail-makers, are _seaming_, _bolt-rope_, or _roping_
needles, all three-sided, and of very fine steel.--The _Needles_ of the
Isle of Wight are the result of cracks in the rocks, through which the
sea has worn its way, as also at Old Harry, Swanage Bay. As the chalk
formation stretches westward, the structure changes in hardness until at
Portland we meet with Portland stone. In California many of the needle
rocks are of volcanic origin; others again are basaltic columns.
NEGLECT. A charge not exceeding L3, from the wages of a seaman, in the
Complete Book, for any part of the ship's stores lost overboard, or
damaged, from his gross carelessness.
NEGLIGENCE. If agent or broker engages to do an act for another, and he
either wholly neglects it, or does it unskilfully, an action on the case
will lie against him.
NEGOTIATE, TO. The duty of a diplomatist; the last resource and best
argument being now 12-ton guns.
NEGRO-BOAT. _See_ ALMADIA.
NEGROHEAD. Hard-rolled tobacco.
NEGRO-HEADS. The brown loaves issued to ships in ordinary.
NELLY. _Diomedea spadicea_, a sea-bird of the family _Procellaridae_,
which follows in the wake of a ship when rounding the Cape of Good Hope:
it is very voracious of fat blubber.
NEPTUNE. A superior planet, recently discovered; it is the most distant
member of the solar system yet known, and was revealed by the effect
which its attraction had produced upon the movements of Uranus; this was
one of the most admirable solutions in modern mathematical science.
Neptune, so far as is yet known, has no satellites.
NEPTUNES. Large brass pans used in the Bight of Biafra for obtaining
salt.
NEPTUNE'S GOBLETS. The large cup-shaped sponges found in the eastern
seas; _Raphyrus patera_.
NEPTUNE'S SHEEP. Waves breaking into foam, called white horses.
NESS [Ang.-Sax. _naes_]. A projection of land, as Dungeness, Sheerness,
&c. It is common in other European languages, as the French _nez_,
Italian _naso_, Russian _noss_, Norwegian _naze_, &c. Our Dunnose is an
example.
NEST. _See_ CROW'S NEST.
NET. In commerce, is the weight of a commodity alone, without the
package.
NET AND COBLE. The means by which sasses or flood-gates are allowed in
fishings on navigable rivers.
NETTING. Network of rope or small line for the purpose of securing
hammocks, sails, &c.--_Boarding netting._ A stout netting formerly
extended fore and aft from the gunwale to a proper height up the
rigging. Its use was to prevent an enemy from jumping on
board.--_Splinter netting._ Is stretched from the main-mast aft to the
mizen-mast, in a horizontal position, about 12 feet above the
quarter-deck. It secures those engaged there from injury by the fall of
any objects from the mast-heads during an action:
"And has saved the lives of many men
Who have fallen from aloft."
NETTLES. Small line used for seizings, and for hammock-clues. (_See_
KNITTLE.)--_To nettle_, is to provoke.
NEUTRALS. Those who do not by treaty owe anything to either party in
war; for if they do they are confederates. They are not to interfere
between contending powers; and the right of security justifies a
belligerent in enforcing the conditions. They are not allowed to trade
from one port of the enemy to another, nor to be habitually employed in
his coasting trade. Indeed the simple conveyance of any article to the
opponent of the blockading squadron, at once settles the non-admission,
or even hovering.
NEVER SAY DIE! An expressive phrase, meaning do not despair, there is
hope yet.--_Nil desperandum!_ As Cowper says,
"Beware of desperate steps. The darkest day,
Wait till to-morrow, will have passed away."
NEW ACT. The going on shore without leave, and which though thus termed
new, is an old trick.
NEWCOME. An officer commencing his career. Any stranger or fresh hand
newly arrived.
NEWELL. An upright piece of timber to receive the tenon of the rails
that lead from the breast-hook to the gangway.
NEWGATE BIRDS. The men sent on board ship from prisons; but the term has
also been immemorially used, as applied to some of the _Dragon's_ men in
the voyage of Sir Thomas Roe to Surat, 1615.
NEW MOON. The moon is said to be new when she is in conjunction with the
sun, or between that luminary and the earth.
NEWS. "Do you hear the news?" A formula used in turning up the relief
watch.
NICE STEERAGE. That which is required in tide-ways and intricate
channels, chasing or chased.
NIDGET. A coward. A term used in old times for those who refused to join
the royal standard.
NIGHT-CAP. Warm grog taken just before turning in.
NIGHTINGALES. _See_ SPITHEAD NIGHTINGALES.
NIGHT ORDER-BOOK. A document of some moment, as it contains the
captain's behests about change of course, &c., and ought to be legibly
written.
NIGHT-WALKER. A fish of a reddish colour, about the size of a haddock,
so named by Cook's people from the greatest number being caught in the
night; probably red-snapper.
NIGHT WARD. The night-watch.
NILL. Scales of hot iron at the armourer's forge. Also, the stars of
rockets.
NIMBUS. Ragged and hanging clouds resolving into rain. (_See_
CUMULO-CIRRO-STRATUS.)
NINE-PIN BLOCK. A block in that form, mostly used for a _fair-leader_
under the cross-pieces of the forecastle and quarter-deck bitts.
NINES, TO THE. An expression to denote complete.
NINGIM. A corruption of _ginseng_ (which see).
NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic
parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite
edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the
place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing. Also, _Nip in the
hawse_; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service
into the hawse.
NIPCHEESE. The sailor's name for a purser's steward.
NIPPER. The armourer's pincers or tongs. Also, a hammock with so little
bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.
NIPPERING. Fastening nippers by taking turns crosswise between the parts
to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. These
are called racking-turns.
NIPPER-MEN. Foretop-men employed to bind the nippers about the cables
and messenger, and to whom the boys return them when they are taken off.
NIPPERS. Are formed of clean, unchafed yarns, drawn from condemned rope,
unlaid. The yarns are stretched either over two bolts, or cleats, and a
fair strain brought on each part. They are then "marled" from end to
end, and used in various ways, viz. to bind the messenger to the cable,
and to form slings for wet spars, &c. The nipper is passed at the
manger-board, the fore-end pressing itself against the cable; after
passing it round cable and messenger spirally, the end is passed twice
round the messenger, and a foretop-man holds the end until it reaches
the fore-hatchway, when a maintop-man takes it up, and at the
main-hatchway it is taken off, a boy carrying it forward ready coiled
for further use.--_Selvagee nippers_ are used when from a very great
strain the common nippers are not found sufficiently secure; selvagees
are then put on, and held fast by means of tree-nails. (_See_ SELVAGEE
and TREE-NAILS.)--_Buoy and nipper._ Burt's patent for sounding. By this
contrivance any amount of line is loosely veered. So long as the lead
descends, the line runs through the nipper attached to a canvas inflated
buoy. The instant it is checked or the lead touches bottom, the back
strain nips the line, and indicates the vertical depth that the lead has
descended.
NIPPLE. In ship-building. Another name for _knuckle_ (which see). Also,
the nipple of a gun or musket lock; the perforated projection which
receives the percussion-cap.
NISSAK. The Shetland name for a small porpoise.
NITRE. _Potassae nitras_, a salt formed by the union of nitric acid with
potash; the main agent in gunpowder.
NITTY. A troublesome noise; a squabble.
NOAH'S ARK. Certain clouds elliptically parted, considered a sign of
fine weather after rain.
NOB. The head; therefore applied to a person in a high station of life.
(_See_ KNOB.)
NOCK. The forward upper end of a sail that sets with a boom. Also, a
term used for _notch_.
NOCTURNAL, NOCTURLABIUM. An instrument chiefly used at sea, to take the
altitude or depression of some of the stars about the pole, in order to
find the latitude and the hour of the night.
NOCTURNAL ARC. That part of a circle, parallel to the equator, which is
described by a celestial object, between its setting and rising.
NODDY. The _Sterna solida_, a dark web-footed sea-bird, common about the
West Indies. Also, a simpleton; so used by Shakspeare in the _Two
Gentlemen of Verona_.
NODES. Those points in the orbit of a planet or comet where it
intersects the ecliptic. The ascending node is the point where it
passes from the south to the north side of the ecliptic; the descending
node is the opposite point, where the latitude changes from north to
south. (_See_ LINE OF NODES.)
NOG. A tree-nail driven through the heels of the shores, to secure them.
NOGGIN. A small cup or spirit-measure, holding about 1/4 of a pint.
NOGGING. The act of securing the shores by tree-nails. Also, warming
beer at the galley-fire.
NO HIGHER! _See_ NEAR.
NO-HOWISH. Qualmy; feeling an approaching ailment without being able to
describe the symptoms.
NO-MAN'S LAND. A space in midships between the after-part of the belfry
and the fore-part of a boat when it is stowed upon the booms, as is
often done in a deep-waisted vessel; this space is used to contain any
blocks, ropes, tackles, &c., which may be necessary on the forecastle,
and probably derives its name from being neither on the starboard nor
port side, neither in the waist, nor on the forecastle.
NONAGESIMAL DEGREE. The point of the ecliptic which is at the greatest
altitude above the horizon.
NON-COMBATANTS. A term applied erroneously to the purser, master
surgeon, &c., of a man-of-war, for all men on board may be called on,
more or less, to fight.
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. In familiar parlance, _non-coms._ are the
sergeants, corporals, and others, appointed under special regulations,
by the orders of the commanding officer.
NON-CONDENSING ENGINE. A high-pressure steam-engine.
NONIUS SCALE, OR VERNIER. That fixed to the oblong opening near the
lower end of the index-bar of a sextant or quadrant; it divides degrees
into minutes, and these again into parts of seconds.
NO! NO! The answer to the night-hail by which it is known that a
midshipman or warrant officer is in the boat hailed.
NON-RECOIL. This was effected by securing the breeching while the gun
was run out: often practised in small vessels.
NOOK. A small indentation of the land; a little cove in the inner parts
of bays and harbours.
NOOK-SHOTTEN. A Shakspearian expression for a coast indented with bays;
as in _Henry V._ Bourbon speaks contemptuously of "that nook-shotten
isle of Albion."
NOON. Mid-day.
NOOSE. A slip or running knot.
NORE. The old word for north. Also, a canal or channel.
NORIE'S EPITOME. A treatise on navigation not to be easily cast aside.
NORLAND. Of, or belonging to, the north land.
NORMAL LEVEL OF A BAROMETER. A term reckoned synonymous with _par-line_
(which see).
NORMAN. A short wooden bar thrust into one of the holes of the windlass
or capstan in a merchantman, whereon to veer a rope or fasten the cable,
if there be little strain upon it. Also fixed through the head of the
rudder, in some ships, to prevent the loss of the rudder. Also, a pin
placed in the bitt-cross-piece to confine the cable from falling off.
NORRIE, AND TAMMIE NORRIE. The Scotch name for the puffin.
NORTH. From the Anglo-Saxon _nord_.
NORTH-AWAY YAWL. The old term for _Norway yawl_ (which see).
NORTH-EAST PASSAGE. To the Pacific, or round the north of Europe, has
been divided into three parts, thus: 1. From Archangel to the river
Lena; 2. from the Lena, round Tschukotskoi-ness to Kamtschatka; and 3.
from Kamtschatka to Japan. They have been accomplished at various times,
but not successively.
NORTHERN DIVER. The _Colymbus glacialis_, a large diving-bird.
NORTHERN-GLANCE. The old sea-name of the _aurora borealis_ (which see).
NORTHERN LIGHTS. _See_ NORTHERN-GLANCE.
NORTHERS. Those winds so well known to all seamen who have frequented
the West Indies, and which are preceded by the appearance of a vast
quantity of fine cobwebs or gossamer in the atmosphere, which clings to
all parts of a vessel's rigging, thus serving as a warning of an
approaching gale. Northers alternate with the seasons in the Gulf of
Mexico, the Florida Channel, Jamaica, Cuba, &c. Their cold is intense.
NORTH FOLLOWING. For this and _north preceding_, _see_ QUADRANT.
NORTH PASSAGE TO THE INDIES. The grand object of our maritime
expeditions at a remote period, prosecuted with a boldness, dexterity,
and perseverance which, although since equalled in the same pursuit,
have not yet been surpassed:--
"I will undertake
To find the north passage to the Indies sooner,
Than plough with your proud heifer."--_Massinger._