The Sailor's Word-Book Part 105

FRET, TO. To chafe.

FRET OF WIND. A squally flaw.

FRETTUM, OR Fr.e.c.t.u.m. The freight of a ship, or freight-money.

FRETUM BRITANNIc.u.m. A term used in our ancient writings for the Straits of Dover.

FRIAR-SKATE. The _Raia oxyrinchus_, or sharp-nosed ray.

FRICTION-ROLLER. A cylinder of hard wood, or metal, with a concave surface, revolving on an axis, used to lessen the friction of a rope which is pa.s.sed over it. Friction-rollers are a late improvement in the sheaves of blocks, &c., by which the pin is relieved of friction by three rollers in the coak, placed equilaterally.

FRICTION-TUBE. The means of firing a gun most in favour at present in the British service; ignition is caused by the friction on sudden withdrawal of a small horizontal metal bar from the detonating priming in the head of the tube.

FRIDAY. The _dies infaustus_, on which old seamen were desirous of not getting under weigh, as ill-omened.

FRIEZE-PANEL. The lower part of a gun-port.

FRIEZING. The ornamental carving or painting above the drift-rails, and likewise round the stern or the bow.

FRIGATE. In the Royal Navy, the next cla.s.s vessel to a ship of the line; formerly a light nimble ship built for the purpose of sailing swiftly.

The name was early known in the Mediterranean, and applied to a long kind of vessel, navigated in that sea, with sails and oars. The English were the first who appeared on the ocean with these ships, and equipped them for war as well as for commerce. These vessels mounted from 28 to 60 guns, and made excellent cruisers. Frigate is now apocryphal, being carried up to 7000 tons. The _donkey-frigate_ was a late invention to serve patronage, and sprigs of certain houses were educated in them.

They carried 28 guns, carronades, and were about 600 tons burden, commanded by captains who sometimes found a commander in a sloop which could blow him out of water.--_Frigate_ is also the familiar name of the membranous zoophyte, _Physalia pelagica_, or Portuguese man-of-war.

FRIGATE-BIRD. _Tachypetes aquila_, a sea-bird generally seen in the tropics. It seems to live on the wing, is partially web-footed, and only visits the land at breeding time.

FRIGATE-BUILT. The disposition of the decks of such merchant ships as have a descent of some steps from the quarter-deck and forecastle into the waist, in contradistinction to those whose decks are on a continued line for the whole length of the ship, which are called galley-built.

(_See_ DECKS.)

FRIGATOON. A Venetian vessel, commonly used in the Adriatic, built with a square stern, and with only a main-mast, jigger mizen-mast, and bowsprit. Also applied to a ship sloop-of-war.

FRINGING REEFS. Narrow fringes of coral formation, at a greater or less distance from the sh.o.r.e, according to the slopes of the land.

FRISKING. The wind freshening.

FRITH. Derived from _fretum maris_, a narrow strait: an arm of the sea into which a river flows. Synonymous with _firth_ (which see).

FRITTERS. Tendinous fibres of the whale's blubber, running in various directions, and connecting the cellular substance which contains the oil. They are what remains after the oil has been _tried_ out, and are used as fuel to _try_ out the next whale.

FROG. An old term for a seaman's coat or frock.

FROG-BELT. A _baldrick_ (which see).

FROG-FISH. _See_ FISHING-FROG.

FROG-LANDERS. Dutchmen in colloquial language.

FROG-PIKE. A female pike, so called from its period of sp.a.w.ning being late, contemporary with the frogs.

FRONT. The foremost rank of a battalion, squadron, file, or other body of men.--_To front_, to face.

FRONTAGE. The length or face of a wharf.

FRONTIER. The limits or borders of a country.

FRONT OF FORTIFICATION. The whole system of works included between the salient angles, or the capitals prolonged, of any two neighbouring bastions.

FROSTED STEEL. The damasked sword-blades.

FROST-FISH. A small fish, called also _tommy-cod_; in North America they are taken in large quant.i.ties in the depth of winter by fishing through holes cut in the ice.

FROST-RIME. _See_ FROST-SMOKE.

FROST-SMOKE. A thick mist in high lat.i.tudes, arising from the surface of the sea when exposed to a temperature much below freezing; when the vapours as they rise are condensed either into a thick fog, or, with the thermometer about zero, hug the water in eddying white wreaths. The latter beautiful form is called in North America a "barber," probably from its resemblance to soap-suds.

FROTH. _See_ FOAM.

F.R.S. The sigla denoting a Fellow of the Royal Society.

FRUMENTARIae. The ancient vessels which supplied the Roman markets with corn.

FRUSH. A northern term for wood that is apt to splinter and break.

FRY. Young fishes.

FUCUS MAXIMUS. An enormous sea-weed, growing abundantly round the coasts of Tristan d'Acunha, and perhaps the most exuberant of the vegetable tribe. Said to rise from a depth of many fathoms, and to spread over a surface of several hundred feet, it being very tenacious.

FUDDLED. Not quite drunk, but unfit for duty.

FUELL. An old nautical word signifying an opening between two headlands, having no bottom in sight.

FU-FU. A well-known sea-dish of barley and treacle, in merchant ships.

FUGITIVES OVER THE SEA. By old statutes, now obsolete, to depart this realm without the king's license incurred forfeiture of goods; and masters of ships carrying such persons beyond seas, forfeited their vessels.

FUGLEMAN, or more properly FLUGELMAN. A corporal, or active adept, who exhibits the time for each motion at the word of command, to enable soldiers, marines, and small-arm men to act simultaneously.

FULCRUM. The prop or support of a lever in lifting or removing a heavy body.

FULL. The state of the sails when the wind fills them so as to carry the vessel ahead.

FULL AND BY. Sailing close-hauled on a wind; when a ship is as close as she will lie to the wind, without suffering the sails to shiver; hence _keep her full_ is the order to the helmsman not to incline too much to windward, and thereby shake the sails, which would r.e.t.a.r.d the ship's velocity.

FULL BASTION. In fortification, is a bastion whereof the terreplein, or terrace in rear of the parapet, is extended at nearly the same level over the whole of its interior s.p.a.ce.

FULL-BOTTOMED. An epithet to signify such vessels as are designed to carry large cargoes.

FULL DRIVE. Fully direct; impetuous violence.