The Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence Part 18

SHIP. See "Vessel."

SLIP. See "Cable."

SLOOP. See "Vessel."

SPARS. A spar is a long piece of timber, cylindrical, tapering, in masts, towards one end, and in yards towards both. Spars serve for spreading the several sails of a vessel.

The names of spars vary with their use and position. Chiefly, for ships of war, they divide into masts, yards, and booms.

A mast is an upright, and is in three connected pieces: the lower mast, the topmast, and the top-gallant-mast. Most ships of war had three such masts: fore, near the bow; main, near the centre; mizzen, near the stern.

The bowsprit is also a mast; not upright, but projecting straight ahead from the bow, approaching horizontal, but inclining upwards.

Like the masts, it has three divisions: the lower, or bowsprit proper, the jib-boom, and the flying-jib-boom.

Across the masts, horizontal, are the yards, four in number, lower, topsail, topgallant, and royal. Yards are further designated by the name of the mast to which each belongs; e.g., foreyard, main topsail yard, mizzen topgallant yard, main royal yard.

The bowsprit formerly had one yard, called the spritsail yard. This has disappeared. Otherwise it serves to spread the three-cornered sails called jibs. These sails were useful for turning a vessel, because their projection before the centre gave them great leverage.

Fore and aft vessels had no yards. See "Sails."

SPRING. See p. 65, note.

SQUARE-RIGGED. See "Sails" and "Spars."

STAND, to. Used, nautically, to express movement and direction, e.g., "to stand toward the enemy," "to stand out of harbor," "to stand down," "to stand south." The underlying idea seems to be that of sustained, decided movement.

STARBOARD. TO the right hand, or on the right side, of a vessel, looking from aft forward. Opposite to Port.

STEER, to. To control the course by the use of the helm and rudder.

STERN. The extreme rear, or after, part of a vessel.

STRATEGY. That department of the Art of War which decides the distribution and movements of armies, or of fleets, with reference to the objects of a campaign as a whole.

STRIKE, to. Applied to the flag. To haul down the flag in token of surrender.

TACK. A vessel is on the starboard tack, or port tack, according as the wind comes from the starboard or port hand. See p. 84, note.

TACK, to. When a vessel is close-hauled, with the wind on one side, to tack is to turn round towards the wind, in order to be again close-hauled, with the wind on the other side.

To wear is to attain the same object by turning away from the wind.

Wearing is surer than tacking, but loses ground to leeward.

To tack, or wear, _in succession_, the leading vessel tacks, and those which follow tack, each, as it arrives at the same point; the order thus remaining the same. To tack, or wear _together_, all tack at the same moment, which reverses the order.

TACTICS. That department of the Art of War which decides the disposition and movements of an army, or of a fleet, on a particular field of battle, in presence of an enemy.

TIDAL CURRENTS.

Ebb tide, the outflow of the water due to the tides.

Flood tide, the inflow of the water due to the tides.

Lee tide, the set of the current to leeward.

Weather tide, the set of the current to windward.

TIDE. The rise and fall of the water of the oceans under the influence of the moon. Used customarily, but inaccurately, to express the currents produced by the changes of level.

High tide, or high water, the two highest levels of the day.

Low tide, or low water, the two lowest.

Neap tide: the least rise and fall during the lunar month.

Spring tide: the greatest rise and fall during the same, being soon after full and change of moon.

TRADE, the. A term applied to a body of merchant vessels, to or from a particular destination.

TRADE WIND. A wind which blows uniformly from the same general direction throughout a fixed period. In the West Indies, from the northeast the year round. See also "Monsoon."

VEER. See "Cable."

VESSEL. A general term for all constructions intended to float upon and move through the water. Specific definitions applicable to this book:

Ship, a square-rigged vessel with three masts.

Brig, a square-rigged vessel with two masts.

Schooner, a fore and aft rigged vessel with two or more masts.

Sloop, a fore and aft rigged vessel with one mast. See pp. 9, 15, 17.

VESSELS OF WAR. Ship of the Line. A ship with three or more tiers of guns, of which two are on covered decks; that is, have a deck above them. See "Line of Battle Ship."

Frigate. A ship with one tier of guns on a covered deck.

Sloop of War. A ship, the guns of which are not covered, being on the upper (spar) deck.

Sloops of war were sometimes brigs, but then were usually so styled.

WAKE. The track left by a vessel's pa.s.sage through the water. "In the wake of": directly astern of.

WAY. Movement through the water. "To get underway": to pa.s.s from stand-still to movement.