SKEET. A long scoop used to wet the sides of the ship, to prevent their
splitting by the heat of the sun. It is also employed in small vessels
for wetting the sails, to render them more efficacious in light breezes;
this in large ships is done by the fire engine.
SKEE-TACK. A northern name for the cuttle-fish.
SKEGG. A small and slender part of the keel of a ship, cut slanting, and
left a little without the stern-post; not much used now, owing to its
catching hawsers, and occasioning dead water. The after-part of the keel
itself is also called the skegg.
SKEGG-SHORES. Stout pieces of plank put up endways under the skegg of
the ship, to steady the after-part when in the act of being launched.
SKELDRYKE. An old term for a small passage-boat in the north.
SKELETON OF A REGIMENT. Its principal officers and staff.
SKELLY. The _Leuciscus cephalus_, or chub. In the northern lakes it is
often called the fresh-water herring.
SKELP, TO. To slap with the open hand: an old word, said to have been
imported from Iceland:--
"I canno' tell a';
Some gat a skelp, and some gat a claw."
SKENE, OR SKAIN. A crooked sword formerly used by the Irish.
SKENY. A northern term to express an insulated rock.
SKER, OR SKERRY. A flat insulated rock, but not subject to the
overflowing of the sea: thus we have "the Skerries" in Wales, the
Channel Islands, &c.
SKEW. Awry, oblique; as a skew bridge, skew angle, &c. Also, in
Cornwall, drizzling rain. Also, a rude-fashioned boat.
SKEWER-PIECES. When the salt meat is cut up on board ship by the petty
officers, the captain and lieutenants are permitted to select _whole_
pieces of 8 or 16 lbs., for which they are charged 2 or 4 lbs. extra.
The meat being then divided into messes, the remnants are cut into small
pieces termed skewer-pieces, and being free from bone, are charged _ad
lib._ to those who take them.
SKID-BEAMS. Raised stanchions in men-of-war over the main-deck, parallel
to the quarter-deck and forecastle beams, for stowing the boats and
booms upon.
SKIDDY-COCK. A west-country term for the water-rail.
SKIDER. A northern term for the skate.
SKIDS. Massive fenders; they consist of long compassing pieces of
timber, formed to answer the vertical curve of a ship's side, in order
to preserve it when weighty bodies are hoisted in or lowered against it.
They are mostly used in whalers. Boats are fitted with permanent
fenders, to prevent chafing and fretting. Also, beams resting on blocks,
on which small craft are built. Also, pieces of plank put under a
vessel's bottom, for launching her off when she has been hauled up or
driven ashore.
SKIFF. A familiar term for any small boat; but in particular, one
resembling a yawl, which is usually employed for passing rivers. Also, a
sailing vessel, with fore-and-aft main-sail, jib fore-sail, and jib:
differing from a sloop in setting the jib on a stay, which is eased in
by travellers. They have no top-mast, and the main-sail hauls out to the
taffrail, and traverses on a traveller iron horse like a cutter's
fore-sail.
SKILLET. A small pitch-pot or boiler with feet.
SKILLY. Poor broth, served to prisoners in hulks. Oatmeal and water in
which meat has been boiled. Hence, _skillygalee_, or burgoo, the drink
made with oatmeal and sugar, and served to seamen in lieu of cocoa as
late as 1814.
SKIN. This term is frequently used for the inside planking of a vessel,
the outside being the _case_.
SKIN OF A SAIL. The outside part when a sail is furled. To furl in a
clean skin, is the habit of a good seaman.--_To skin up a sail in the
bunt._ To make that part of the canvas which covers the sail, next the
mast when furled, smooth and neat, by turning the sail well up on the
yard.
SKIP-JACK. A dandified trifling officer; an upstart. Also, the
merry-thought of a fowl. Also, a small fish of the bonito kind, which
frequently jumps out of the water. A name applied also to small
porpoises.
SKIPPAGE. An archaism for tackle or ship furniture.
SKIPPER. The master of a merchant vessel. Also, a man-of-war's man's
constant appellation for his own captain. Also, the gandanock, or
saury-pike, _Esox saurus_.
SKIRLING. A fish taken on the Welsh coasts, and supposed to be the fry
of salmon.
SKIRMISH. An engagement of a light and irregular character, generally
for the purpose of gaining information or time, or of clearing the way
for more serious operations.
SKIRTS. The extreme edges of a plain, forest, shoal, &c.
SKIS-THURSDAY. "The Lady-day in Lent" of the Society of Shipwrights at
Newcastle, instituted in 1630.
SKIT. An aspersive inuendo or for fun.
SKIVER. A dirk to stab with.
SKOODRA. A Shetland name for the ling.
SKOOL. The cry along the coast when the herrings appear first for the
season: a corruption of _school_.
SKOORIE. A northern term for a full-grown coal-fish.
SKOTTEFER [Anglo-Sax. _scot_, an arrow or dart]. Formerly, an archer.
SKOUTHER. A northern name for the stinging jelly-fish.
SKOUTS. Guillemots or auks, so called in our northern islands from their
wary habits.
SKOW. A flat-bottomed boat of the northern German rivers.
SKRAE-FISH. Fish dried in the sun without being salted.
SKUA. A kind of sea-gull.
SKUNK-HEAD. An American coast-name for the pied duck.
SKURRIE. The shag, _Phalacrocorax graculus_. Applied to frightened
seals, &c.
SKY-GAZER. The ugly hare-lipped _Uranoscopus_, whose eyes are on the
crown of its head; the Italians call him _pesce-prete_, or priest-fish.
Also, a sail of very light duck, over which un-nameable sails have been
set, which defy classification.
SKY-LARKING. In olden times meant mounting to the mast-heads, and
sliding down the royal-stays or backstays for amusement; but of late the
term has denoted frolicsome mischief, which is not confined to boys,
unless three score and ten includes them.--_Skying_ is an old word for
shying or throwing.
SKYLIGHT. A framework in the deck to admit light vertically into the
cabin and gun-room.
SKYSAIL. A small light sail above the royal.
SKYSAIL-MAST. The pole or upper portion of a royal mast, when long
enough to serve for setting a skysail; otherwise a skysail-mast is a
separate spar, as _sliding gunter_ (which see).
SKY-SCRAPER. A triangular sail set above the skysail; if square it would
be a moonsail, and if set above that, a star-gazer, &c.