inter-twisting one of the divisions of a rope, called a _strand_,
alternately round itself and through the _strands_ of the bolt-rope,
till it becomes three-fold, and assumes the shape of a wreath or ring.
See plate II. fig. 25, where a, b, represents part of the bolt-rope of a
sail; and c, the cringle.
The use of the cringle is generally to contain the end of some rope,
which is fastened thereto, for the purpose of drawing up the sail to its
yard, or of extending the skirts by the means of _bridles_ to stand upon
a side-wind. The word seems to be derived from _krinckelen_, (Belg.) to
run into twists.
CROSS-JACK, pronounced _crojeck_, a sail extended on the lower yard of
the _mizen_-mast, which is hence called the _cross-jack yard_, _vergue
seche_. This sail, however, has generally been found of little service,
and is therefore very seldom used.
CROSS PIECE, _rasteau_, a rail of timber extended over the _windlass_ of
a merchant-ship from the knight-heads to the belfry. It is stuck full of
wooden pins, which are used to fasten the running-rigging as occasion
requires. See the article WINDLASS.
CROSS-TREES, _barres de hune_, certain pieces of timber supported by the
_cheeks_ and tressel-trees, at the upper-ends of the lower-masts,
athwart which they are laid, to sustain the frame of the _top_.
CROTCHES, _fourcats_, (_croccia_, Ital.) a name given to those crooked
timbers that are placed upon the keel in the fore and hind-parts of a
ship, upon which the frame of her hull grows narrower below, as it
approaches the stern afore, and the stern-post abaft.
CROTCHES, _cornes_, are also certain pieces of wood or iron, whose upper
part opens into two horns or arms, like a half-moon. They are fixed in
different places of the ship, according to the uses for which they may
be designed, which is usually to support the spare-masts, yards, &c. The
iron crotches are exhibited in plate II. fig. 26.
CROW, an iron lever well known in mechanics, and furnished with a sharp
point at one end, and two claws at the other, as appears in fig. 27,
plate II.
This instrument is used for various purposes, by shipwrights and
mariners; as to remove pieces of timber, and other weighty bodies; and
to draw spike-nails, &c. as well as to manage the great guns, by moving
them into their ports, levelling or pointing them to a particular
object.
_To_ CROWD, _forcer de voiles_, (_cruth_, Sax.) to carry an
extraordinary force of sail upon a ship, in order to accelerate her
course on some important occasion, as in pursuit of, or flight from, an
enemy; to escape any immediate danger, &c.
CROW-FOOT, _trelingage_, a complication of small cords spreading out
from a long block, like the smaller parts which extend from the
back-bone of a herring. See plate II. fig. 27. It is used to suspend the
_awnings_; or to keep the _top-sails_ from striking violently and
fretting against the edges of the tops.
CROWNING, the finishing part of a knot made on the end of a rope. It is
performed by interweaving the ends of the different brands artfully
amongst each other, so as that they may not become loosened or
untwisted. The design of these knots is to keep the end of the rope fast
in some place assigned for it: they are more particularly useful in all
kinds of stoppers.
CRUISE, _campaigne_ (_croiser_, Fr.), a voyage or expedition in quest of
vessels or fleets of the enemy, which may be expected to sail through
any particular tract of the sea at a certain season of the year. The
region in which these cruises are performed, is usually termed the
rendezvous or cruising-latitude. When the ships employed for this
purpose, which are accordingly called cruisers, have arrived at their
destined station, they traverse the sea backward and forward, under an
easy sail, and within a limited space, conjectured to be nearly in the
tract of their expected adversaries.
CUDDY, _coqueron_, a sort of cabin, or cook-room, in the fore-part, or
near the stern, of a lighter or barge of burden.
CUNNING, _faire gouverner_, the art of directing the steersman to guide
the ship in her proper course: the officer who performs this duty is
either the pilot or quarter-master.
CURRENT, in navigation, _courans_, (_currens_, Lat.) a certain
progressive movement of the water of the sea, by which all bodies
floating therein are compelled to alter their course, or velocity, or
both, and submit to the laws imposed on them by the current.
In the sea, currents are either natural and general, as arising from the
diurnal rotation of the earth about its axis; or accidental and
particular, caused by the waters being driven against promontories, or
into gulfs and streights; where, wanting room to spread, they are driven
back, and thus disturb the ordinary flux of the sea.
“Currents are various, and directed towards different parts of the
ocean, of which some are constant, and others periodical. The most
extraordinary current of the sea is that by which part of the Atlantic
or African ocean moves about Guinea from Cape Verd towards the curvature
or bay of Africa, which they call Fernando Poo, viz. from west to east,
contrary to the general motion. And such is the force of this current,
that when ships approach too near the shore, it carries them violently
towards that bay, and deceives the mariners in their reckoning.
“There is a great variety of shifting currents, which do not last, but
return at certain periods; and these do, most of them, depend upon, and
follow the anniversary winds or monsoons, which by blowing in one place
may cause a current in another[8].” _Varenius._
In the streights of Gibraltar the currents almost constantly drive to
the eastward, and carry ships into the Mediterranean: they are also
found to drive the same way into St. George’s-channel.
The setting, or progressive motion of the current, may be either quite
down to the bottom, or to a certain determinate depth.
As the knowledge of the direction and velocity of currents is a very
material article in navigation, it is highly necessary to discover both,
in order to ascertain the ship’s situation and course with as much
accuracy as possible. The most successful method which has been hitherto
attempted by mariners for this purpose, is as follows. A common iron
pot, which may contain four or five gallons, is suspended by a small
rope fastened to its ears or handles, so as to hang directly upright, as
when placed upon the fire. This rope, which may be from 70 to 100
fathoms in length, being prepared for the experiment, is coiled in the
boat, which is hoisted out of the ship at a proper opportunity, when
there is little or no wind to ruffle the surface of the sea. The pot
being then thrown overboard into the water, and immediately sinking, the
line is slackened till about seventy or eighty fathoms run out, after
which the line is fastened to the boat’s stem, by which she is
accordingly restrained, and rides as at anchor. The velocity of the
current is then easily tried by the _log_ and half-minute glass, the
usual method of discovering the rate of a ship’s sailing at sea. The
course of the stream is next obtained by means of the compass provided
for this operation.
Having thus found the setting and drift of the current, it remains to
apply this experiment to the purposes of navigation. If the ship sails
along the direction of the current, then the motion of the ship is
increased by as much as is the drift or velocity of the current.
If a current sets directly against the ship’s course, then her motion is
retarded in proportion to the strength of the current. Hence it is
plain,
1. If the velocity of the current be less than that of the ship, then
the ship will advance so much as is the difference of these velocities.
2. If the velocity of the current be more than that of the ship, then
will the ship fall as much _astern_ as is the difference of these
velocities.
3. If the velocity of the current be equal to that of the ship, then
will the ship stand still, the one velocity destroying the other.
If the current thwarts the course of a ship, it not only diminishes or
increases her velocity, but gives her a new direction, compounded of the
course she steers, and the setting of the current, as appears by the
following
LEMMA.
[Illustration]
If a body at A be impelled by two forces at the same time, the one in
the direction A B, carrying it from A to B in a certain space of time,
and the other in the direction A D, pushing it from A to D in the same
time; complete the parallelogram ABCD, and draw the diagonal A C: then
the body at A, (which let us suppose a ship agitated by the wind and
current; A B, being the line along which she advances as impressed by
the wind, and A D the line upon which she is driven by the current) will
move along the diagonal A C, and will be in the point C, at the end of
the time in which it would have moved along A D or AB, as impelled by
either of those forces (the wind or current) separately.
CUTTER, _bateau_, a small vessel commonly navigated in the channel of
England; it is furnished with one mast, and rigged as a _sloop_.
Many of these vessels are used on an illicit trade, and others employed
by the government to seize them; the latter of which are either under
the direction of the Admiralty or Custom-house. See a representation of
a cutter of this sort in the plate referred to from the article VESSEL.
CUTTER is also a small boat used by ships of war. See BOAT.
CUTTING-DOWN LINE, a curved line used by shipwrights in the delineation
of ships: it determines the thickness of all the floor timbers, and
likewise the height of the _dead-wood_, _afore_ and _abaft_. It is
limited in the middle of the ship by the thickness of the floor-timber,
and abaft by the breadth of the _kelson_; and must be carried up so high
upon the stem, as to leave sufficient substance for the breeches of the
rising timbers. _Murray’s Ship-building._
CUT-WATER, the foremost part of a ship’s prow, formed of an assemblage
of several pieces of timber, to render it broad at the upper-part, where
it projects forward from the stem to open the column of water as the
ship sails along, and also to make her keep to windward better, when she
is close-hauled. It is otherwise called the knee of the head. See the
article STEM; as also the several parts of it represented in plate I.
PIECES _of the_ HULL.
D.
Davit, _minot_, a long beam of timber, represented by a, a, plate II.
fig. 28, and used as a crane, whereby to hoist the flukes of the anchor
to the top of the _bow_, without injuring the planks of the ship’s side
as it ascends; an operation which by mariners is called fishing the
anchor. The anchors being situated on both the bows, the davit may be
occasionally shifted so as to project over either side of the ship,
according to the position of that anchor on which it is to be employed.
The inner-end of the davit is secured by being thrust into a square ring
of iron b, which is bolted to the deck, and fore-locked under the beams.
This ring, which is called the span-shackle, exhibited at large by fig.
34, is fixed exactly in the middle of the deck, and close behind the
fore-mast. Upon the outer-end of the davit is hung a large block c,
through which a strong rope traverses, called the fish-pendant d, to
whose foremost end is fitted a large iron hook e, and to its after end a
tackle or complication of pullies f, the former of which is called the
fish-hook, and the latter the fish-tackle.
The davit therefore, according to the sea-phrase, is employed to _fish
the anchor_, which being previously _catted_, the fish-hook is fastened
upon its flukes; and the effort of the tackle, being transmitted to the
hook by means of the fish-pendant, draws up that part of the anchor
sufficiently high upon the bow to fasten it, which is done by the
_Shank-painter_. See that article.
There is also a davit of a smaller kind, occasionally fixed in the
longboat, and employed to weigh the anchor therein.
DAY’S-WORK, _cinglage_, the reckoning or account of the ship’s course,
during twenty-four hours, or between noon and noon, according to the
rules of trigonometry. See DEAD-RECKONING.
DEAD-EYE, _cap de mouton_, a sort of round, flattish, wooden block, see
fig. 30, plate II. It is usually encircled with the end of a rope, or
with an iron band, fig. 31, _b_, and pierced with three holes through
the flat, in order to receive the rope called a _laniard c_, which
corresponding with three holes in another dead-eye _a_, creates a
purchase employed for various uses, but chiefly to extend the _shrouds_
and _stays_, otherwise called the standing-rigging.
In order to form this purchase, one of the dead-eyes is fastened in the
lower-end of each shroud, and the opposite one in the upper-link of each
_chain_ on the ship’s side, which is made round to receive and encompass
the hollowed outer-edge of the dead-eye. After this the laniard is
passed alternately through the holes in the upper and lower dead-eyes
till it becomes six-fold; and is then drawn tight by the application of
mechanical powers. The general disposition of the dead eyes in their
channels is represented in the Elevation, plate I. In merchant-ships
they are generally fitted with iron plates in the room of chains. These
last are exhibited in fig. 16, plate II.
The dead-eyes used for the stays, _moques_, have only one hole, which,
however, is large enough to receive ten or twelve turns of the laniard:
these are generally termed _hearts_, and are expressed by fig. 32.
There are also dead-eyes of another form, employed for the _crow-feet_,
_moques de trelingage_. These are long cylindrical blocks, fig. 33, with
a number of small holes in them, to receive the legs or lines of which
the crow-foot, fig. 28, is composed.
DEAD-LIGHTS, certain wooden ports which are made to fasten into the
cabin-windows, to prevent the waves from gushing into the ship in a high
sea. As they are made exactly to fit the windows, and are strong enough
to resist the waves, they are always fixed in, on the approach of a
storm, and the glass frames taken out, which might other wise be
shattered to pieces by the surges, and suffer great quantities of water
to enter the vessel.
DEAD-RECKONING, in navigation, _estime_, the judgment or estimation
which is made of the place where a ship is situated, without any
observation of the heavenly bodies. It is discovered by keeping an
account of the distance she has run by the _log_, and of her course
steered by the _compass_; and by rectifying these data by the usual
allowances for _drift_, _lee-way_, &c. according to the ship’s known
trim. This reckoning, however, is always to be corrected, as often as
any good observation of the sun can be obtained.
DEAD-RISING, or RISING-LINE _of the floor_, _fleurs_, those parts of a
ship’s floor, or bottom, throughout her whole length, where the
floor-timber is terminated upon the lower futtock. See the article NAVAL
ARCHITECTURE.
DEAD-WATER, _remoux_ the eddy of water which appears like little
whirl-pools, closing in with the ship’s stern as she sails through it.
DEAD-WOOD, _contre-quille_, a name given by shipwrights to certain
blocks of timber laid upon the keel, particularly at the extremities
afore and abaft, where these pieces are placed one upon another to a
considerable height, because the ship is there so narrow as not to admit
of the two half timbers, which are therefore scored into this dead wood,
where the angle of the floor-timbers gradually diminishes, as
approaching the stem and stern-post. See the article NAVAL ARCHITECTURE.
In the fore-part of the ship, the dead-wood generally extends from the
stemson, upon which it is scarfed to the loof-frame; and in the
after-end from the stern-post, where it is confined by the knee, to the
after-ballance-frame. It is connected to the keel by strong spike-nails.
Those pieces are represented by e e, PIECES _of the_ HULL, plate I.
The dead-wood afore and abaft is equal in depth to two-thirds of the
depth of the keel, and as broad as can be procured, so as not to exceed
the breadth of the keel.
DEAD-WORK, all that part of a ship which is above water when she is
laden. See the article UPPER-WORK.
DECKS, _ponts_, (_decken_, Dan. to cover) the planked floors of a ship,
which connect the sides together, and serve as different platforms to
support the artillery, and lodge the men, as also to preserve the cargo
from the sea in merchant-vessels.
As all ships are broader at the lower-deck than on the next above it,
and as the cannon thereof are always heaviest, it is necessary that the
frame of it should be much stronger than that of the others; and, for
the same reason, the second or middle deck ought to be stronger than the
upper deck, or forecastle.
Ships of the first and second rates are furnished with three whole
decks, reaching from the stem to the stern, besides a forecastle and a
quarterdeck, which extends from the stern to the main-mast, between
which and the fore-castle, a vacancy is left in the middle, opening to
the upper-deck, and forming what is called the _waist_. There is yet
another deck above the hinder or aftmost part of the quarter-deck,
called the poop, which also serves as a roof for the captain’s cabin or
couch.
The inferior ships of the line of battle are equipped with two decks and
a half, and frigates, sloops, &c. with one gun-deck and a half, with a
spar deck below to lodge the crew.
The decks are formed and sustained by the beams, the clamps, the
water-ways, the carlings, the ledges, the knees, and two rows of small
pillars, called stanchions, &c. See those articles.
That the figure of a deck, together with its corresponding parts, may be
more clearly understood, we have exhibited a plan of the lower-deck of a
74 gun-ship in plate III. And as both sides of the deck are exactly
similar, the pieces by which it is supported appear on one side, and on
the other side the planks or floor of which it is composed, as laid up
on those pieces.
EXPLANATION of the figures represented in the Deck, plate III.
A, the principal, or main hatch-way.
B, the stern-post.
C, the stem.
D, the beams, composed of three pieces, as exhibited by D, in one of
which the dotted lines shew the arrangement of one of the beams under
the other side of the deck.
E, part of the vertical or hanging knees. See also _e_, fig. 16, in the
same plate.
[Illustration:
PLATE III. _To Face DECK._
]
F, the horizontal or lodging knees, which fasten the beams to the sides.
G, the carlings, ranging fore and aft, from one beam to another.
H, the gun-ports.
I, the pump-dales, being large wooden tubes which return the water from
the pumps into the sea.
K, the spurs of the beams; being curved pieces of timber serving as
half-beams to support the decks, where a whole beam cannot be placed on
account of the hatch-ways.
L, the deck-transom, which is bolted by the middle to the stern-post,
and whose ends rest upon the fashion-pieces.
M, the bulk-head or partition, which encloses the manger, and prevents
the water which enters at the hause-holes from running aft between
decks.
N N, the fore hatch-way.
O O, the after hatch-way.
P, the drum-head of the gear cap-stern.
P p, the drum-head of the main capstern.
Q, one of the lower transom-knees.
R, one of the breast-hooks under the gun-deck.
S, the breast-hook of the gun-deck.
T T, the station of the chain-pumps.
V, the breadth and thickness of the timbers at the height of the
gun-deck.
U U, scuttles leading to the gunner’s store-room, and bread-room.
W, the station of the fore-mast.
X, the station of the main-mast.
Y, the station of the mizen-mast.
Z, the ring-bolts of the decks, used to retain the cannon whilst
charging.
a, a, the ring-bolts of the sides, whereon the tackles are hooked that
secure the cannon at sea.
c a a d, the water-ways, through which the scupper-holes are pierced, to
carry the water off from the deck into the sea.
b, b, plan of the foremost and aftmost cable-bits, with their
crosspieces g, g, and their standards e, e.
Thus we have represented on one side, all the pieces which sustain the
deck with its cannon; and on the other side, the deck itself, with a
tier of 32 pounders planted in battery thereon. In order also to shew
the use of the breeching and train-tackle, one of the guns is drawn in
as ready for charging. See the articles BREECHING and CANNON.
The number of beams, by which the decks of ships are supported, is often
very different, according to the practice of different countries; the
strength of the timber of which the beams are framed; and the services
for which the ship is calculated.
As the deck which contains the train of a fire-ship is furnished with an
equipage peculiar to itself, the whole apparatus is particularly
described in the article FIRE-SHIP.
_Flush_-DECK, or DECK-_Flush fore and aft_, implies a continued floor
laid from stem to stern, upon one line, without any steps or intervals.
_Half_-DECK, _corps de garde_, a space under the quarter-deck of a ship
of war, contained between the foremost bulk-head of the _steerage_, and
the fore-part of the quarter-deck.
In the colliers of Northumberland the steerage itself is called the
half-deck, and is usually the habitation of the ship’s crew.
DECOY, a stratagem employed by a small ship of war to betray a vessel of
inferior force into an incautious pursuit, till she has drawn her within
the range of her cannon, or what is called within gun-shot.
It is usually performed by painting the stern and sides in such a manner
as to disguise the ship, and represent her either much smaller, and of
inferior force, or as a friend to the hostile vessel, which she
endeavours to ensnare, by assuming the emblems and ornaments of the
nation to which the stranger is supposed to belong. When she has thus
provoked the adversary to chase, in hope of acquiring a prize, she
continues the decoy by spreading a great sail, as endeavouring to
escape, at the same time that her course is considerably retarded by an
artful alteration, of her _trim_ till the enemy approaches.
Decoying is also performed to elude the chace of a ship of superior
force in a dark night, by throwing out a lighted cask of pitch into the
sea, which will burn for a considerable time, and misguide the enemy.
Immediately after the cask is thrown out, the ship changes her course,
and may easily escape if at any tolerable distance from the foe.
DEEP-WAISTED, _encastillé_, the distinguishing fabric of a ship’s decks,
when the quarter-deck and fore-castle are elevated from four to six feet
above the level of the upper-deck, so as to leave a vacant space, called
the waiste, on the middle of the upper-deck. See the article WAISTE.
DEMURRAGE, an allowance given to the commander of a trading ship by the
merchants, for having detained him longer in port than the time
previously appointed for his departure.
DEPARTURE, in navigation, the distance between any two places lying on
the same parallel, counted in miles of the equator; or the distance of
one place from the meridian of another, counted on the parallel passing
over that place. See NAVIGATION.
DEPTH _of a sail_, _chute_, the extent of any square or oblong sail from
the head-rope to the foot-rope; or the length of the after-leech of any
boom-sail or stay-sail. See the article SAIL.
DETACHMENT _of a fleet or squadron_, a certain number of ships chosen by
an admiral or commodore from the rest of the fleet, charged to execute
some particular service.
DIFFERENCE _of latitude_, in navigation, the difference between any two
places lying on the same meridian; or the distance between the parallels
of latitude of any two places, expressed in miles of the equator.
DINNAGE, see the article DUNNAGE.
DISABLED, _desemparé_, the state of a ship when, by the loss of her
masts, sails, yards, or rigging; by springing a leak, or receiving some
fracture in her hull, or other disaster; she is rendered incapable of
prosecuting her voyage without great difficulty and danger.
_To_ DISCHARGE, (_decharger_, Fr.) when applied to a ship, signifies to
unlade her, or take out her stores, ammunition, artillery, &c. When
expressed of the officers or crew, it implies to disband them from
immediate service.
DISMASTED, _dematé_, the state of a ship which has lost her masts by
boisterous weather, engagement, or other misfortune.