SALTPETRE. The neutral salt; also called _nitre_ (which see).
SALT-PITS. Reservoirs to contain sea-water for the purpose of making
salt.
SALUTE. A discharge of cannon or small arms, display of flags, or
cheering of men, in deference, by the ships of one nation to those of
another, or by ships of the same nation to a superior or an equal. Also,
the proper compliment paid by troops, on similar occasions, whether with
the sword, musket, or hand.
SALVAGE. Originally meant the thing or goods saved from wreck, fire, or
enemies. It now signifies an allowance made to those by whose means the
ship or goods have been saved. These cases, when fairly made out, are
received with the most liberal encouragement. Goods of British subjects,
retaken from the enemy, are restored to the owners, paying for salvage
one eighth of the value to ships-of-war; one-sixth to privateers. When a
ship is in danger of being stranded, justices of the peace are to
command the constables to assemble as many persons as are necessary to
preserve it; and on its being thus preserved, the persons assisting
therein shall, in thirty days after, be paid a reasonable reward for the
salvage; otherwise the ship or goods shall remain in the custody of the
officers of the customs as a security for the same.
SALVAGE LOSS. A term in marine insurance implying that the underwriters
are liable to pay the amount insured on the property lost in the ship,
but taking credit for what is saved.
SALVAGER. One employed on the sea-coast to look to the rights of
salvage, wreck, or waif.
SALVO. A discharge from several pieces simultaneously, as a salute.
SALVOR. The person claiming and receiving salvage for having saved a
ship and cargo, or any part thereof, from impending peril, or recovered
after actual loss.
SAMAKEEN. A Turkish coasting trader.
SAMBUCCO. A pinnace common among the Arabs on the east coast of Africa,
as at Mombaze, Melinda, &c. The name is remarkable, as Athenaeus
describes the musical instrument _sambuca_ as resembling a ship with a
ladder placed over it.
SAMPAAN, OR SAMPAN. A neatly-adjusted kind of hatch-boat, used by the
Chinese for passengers, and also as a dwelling for Tartar families, with
a comfortable cabin.
SAMPHIRE. _Crithmum maritimum_, a plant found on sea-shores and salt
marshes, which forms an excellent anti-scorbutic pickle.
SAMS-CHOO. A Chinese spirit distilled from rice; it is fiery, fetid, and
very injurious to European health.
SAMSON'S POST. A movable pillar which rests on its upper shoulder
against a beam, with the lower tenons into the deck, and standing at an
angle of 15 deg. forward. To this post, at 4 feet above the deck, a
leading or snatch-block is hooked, and any fore-and-aft purchase is led
by it across the deck to one similar, so that, from the starboard bow to
the starboard aft Samson-post, across to the port-post and forward, the
whole crew can apply their force for catting and fishing the anchor, or
hoisting in or out boats; top-tackle falls, &c., are usually so treated.
SANDAL. A long narrow Barbary boat, of from 15 to 50 tons; open, and
fitted with two masts.
SAND-BAGS. Small square cushions made of canvas and painted, for boats'
ballast. Also, bags containing about a cubical foot of earth or sand,
used for raising a parapet in haste, and making temporary loop-holes for
musketry; also, to repair any part beaten down or damaged by the enemy's
fire.
SAND AND CORAL BANK. An accumulation of sand and fragments of coral
above the surface of the sea, without any vegetation; when it becomes
verdant it is called a _key_ (which see).
SAND-DRIFTS. Hillocks of shifting sands, as on the deserts of Sahara,
&c.
SANDERLING. A small wading bird, _Calidris arenaria_.
SAND-HILLS. Mounds of sand thrown up on the sea-shore by winds and
eddies. They are mostly destitute of verdure.
SAND-HOPPER. A small creature (_Talitra_), resembling a shrimp, which
abounds on some beaches.
SAND-LAUNCE. _Ammodytes tobianus_, a small eel-like fish, which buries
itself in the sand.
SAND-PIPER. A name applied to many species of small wading birds found
on the sea-shore and banks of lakes and rivers, feeding on insects,
crustaceans, and worms.
SAND-SHOT. Those cast in moulds of sand, when economy is of more
importance than form or hardness; the small balls used in case, grape,
&c., are thus produced.
SAND-STRAKE. A name sometimes given to the garboard-strake.
SAND-WARPT. Left by the tide on a shoal. Also, striking on a shoal at
half-flood.
SANGAREE. A well known beverage in both the Indies, composed of port or
madeira, water, lime-juice, sugar, and nutmeg, with an occasional
corrective of spirits. The name is derived from its being blood-red.
Also, arrack-punch.
SANGIAC. A Turkish governor; the name is also applied to the banner
which he is authorized to display, and has been mistaken for St.
Jacques.
SAP. That peculiar method by which a besieger's zig-zag approaches are
continuously advanced in spite of the musketry of the defenders; gabions
are successively placed in position, filled, and covered with earth, by
men working from behind the last completed portion of the trench, the
head of which is protected by a moving defence called a _sap-roller_.
Its progress is necessarily slow and arduous. There is also the _flying
sap_, used at greater distances, and by night, when a line of gabions is
planted and filled by a line of men working simultaneously; and the
_double sap_, used when zig-zags are no longer efficient, consisting of
two contiguous single saps, back to back, carried direct towards the
place, with frequent returns, which form traverses against enfilade; the
_half-double sap_ has its reverse side less complete than the last.
SARABAND. A forecastle dance, borrowed from the Moors of Africa.
SARACEN. A term applied in the middle ages indiscriminately to all
Pagans and Mahometans.
SARDINE. _Engraulis meletta_, a fish closely allied to the anchovy;
found in the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
SARGASSO. _Fucus natans_, or gulf-weed, the sea-weed always to be found
floating in large quantities in that part of the Atlantic south of the
Azores, which is not subject to currents, and which is called the
Sargasso Sea.
SARKELLUS. An unlawful net or engine for destroying fish. (_Inquisit.
Justic. anno 1254._)
SAROS. _See_ CYCLE OF ECLIPSES.
SARRAZINE. A rough portcullis.
SARRE. An early name for a long gun, but of smaller dimensions than a
bombard.
SASH. A useful mark of distinction worn by infantry and marine officers;
it is made of crimson silk, and intended as a waist-band, but latterly
thrown over the left shoulder and across the body. Also, now worn by the
naval equerries to the queen. Serjeants of infantry wear it of the same
colour in cotton.
SASSE. A kind of weir with flood-gate, or a navigable sluice.
SATELLITES. Secondary planets or moons, which revolve about some of the
primary planets. The moon is a satellite to the earth.
SATURN. One of the ancient superior planets remarkable for the luminous
rings with which his globe is surrounded, and for his being accompanied
by no fewer than eight moons.
SAUCER, OR SPINDLE OF THE CAPSTAN. A socket of iron let into a wooden
stock or standard, called the step, resting upon, and bolted to, the
beams. Its use is to receive the spindle or foot on which the capstan
rests and turns round.
SAUCER-HEADED BOLTS. Those with very flat heads.
SAUCISSON, OR SAUCISSE. A word formerly used for the _powder-hose_, a
linen tube containing the train of powder to a mine or fire-ship, the
slow match being attached to the extremity to afford time for the
parties to reach positions of safety.
SAUCISSONS. Faggots, differing from fascines only in that they are
longer, and made of stouter branches of trees or underwood.
SAUVE-TETE. _See_ SPLINTER-NETTING.
SAVANNAH [Sp. _Sabana_]. A name given to the wonderfully fertile natural
meadows of tropical America; the vast plains clear of wood, and covered
in general with waving herbage, in the interior of North America, are
called _prairies_ (which see).
SAVE-ALL, OR WATER-SAIL. A small sail sometimes set under the foot of a
lower studding-sail.
SAW-BILL. A name for the goosander, _Mergus merganser_.
SAW-BONES. A sobriquet for the surgeon and his assistants.
SAW-FISH. A species of shark (_Pristis antiquorum_) with the bones of
the face produced into a long flat rostrum, with a row of pointed teeth
placed along each edge.
SAY-NAY. A Lancashire name for a lamprey.
SAYTH. A coal-fish in its third year.
SCAFFLING. A northern term for an eel.
SCALA. Ports and landing-places in the Levant, so named from the old
custom of placing a ladder to a boat to land from. Gang-boards are now
used for that purpose.
SCALDINGS! Notice to get out of the way; it is used when a man with a
load wishes to pass, and would lead those in his way to think that he
was carrying hot water.
SCALE. An old word for commercial emporium, derived from _scala_. Also,
the graduated divisions by which the proportions of a chart or plan are
regulated. Also, the common measures of the sheer-draught, &c. (_See_
GUNTER'S LINE.)
SCALENE TRIANGLE. That which has all three sides unequal.
SCALING. The act of cleaning the inside of a ship's cannon by the
explosion of a reduced quantity of powder. Also, attacking a place by
getting over its defences.
SCALING-LADDERS. Those made in lengths which may be carried easily, and
quickly fitted together to any length required.
SCAMPAVIA. A fast rowing war boat of Naples and Sicily; in 1814-15 they
ranged to 150 feet, pulled by forty sweeps or oars, each man having his
bunk under his sweep. They were rigged with one huge lateen at one-third
from the stem; no forward bulwark or stem above deck; a long brass
6-pounder gun worked before the mast, only two feet above water; the
jib, set on a gaff-like boom, veered abeam when firing the gun. Abaft a
lateen mizen with top-sail, &c.
SCANT. A term applied to the wind when it heads a ship off, so that she
will barely lay her course when the yards are very sharp up.
SCANTLING. The dimensions of a timber when reduced to its standard size.
SCAR. In hydrography applies to a cliff; whence are derived the names
Scarborough, Scarnose, &c. Also, to rocks bare only at low water, as on
the coasts of Lancashire. Also, beds of gravel or stone in estuaries.
SCARBRO' WARNING. Letting anything go by the run, without due notice.
Heywood in his account of Stafford's surprise of Scarborough castle, in
1557, says:--
"This term _Scarborow warning_ grew (some say),
By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare,
Who that was met, but suspected in that way,
Straight he was truss't, whatever he were."