_Meaning of "Log-ship."_--If you have a spare corner, can you grant it
to me for the origin of a word which describes an article used in every
sailing and steam vessel in the world, and yet perhaps not one sailor in
a thousand knows whence it is derived. I allude to the word "log-ship,"
the name of the little wooden float (quadrant-shaped) by which, with a
line attached, the vessel's speed is ascertained. Before the invention
of the line with "knots" on it, a "chip," or floating-scrap, was thrown
overboard forward, and the "master," or whoever it might be, walked aft
at the rate which the vessel passed the "chip," judging of his pace from
experience. Hence the term "log-ship," or "chip," which is its true
name.