The Sailor's Word-Book Part 108

GALLANTS. All flags borne on the mizen-mast were so designated.

GALLAN WHALE. The largest whale which visits the Hebrides.

GALLED. The result of friction, to prevent which it is usual to cover, with skins, mats, or canvas, the places most exposed to it. (_See_ SERVICE.)

GALLEON, OR GALION. A name formerly given to ships of war furnished with three or four batteries of cannon. It is now retained only by the Spaniards, and applied to the largest size of their merchant ships employed in West India and Vera Cruz voyages. The Portuguese also have ships trading to India and the Brazils nearly resembling the galleons, and called caragues. (_See_ CARACK.)

GALLEOT, OR GALLIOT. A small galley designed only for chase, generally carrying but one mast, with sixteen or twenty oars. All the seamen on board act as soldiers, and each has a musket by him ready for use on quitting his oar. Also, a Dutch or Flemish vessel for cargoes, with very rounded ribs and flattish bottom, with a mizen-mast stept far aft, carrying a square-mainsail and main-topsail, a fore-stay to the main-mast (there being no fore-mast), with fore-staysail and jibs. Some also call the bomb-ketches galliots. (_See_ SCAMPAVIA.)

GALLERY. A balcony projecting from the admiral's or captain's cabin; it is usually decorated with a bal.u.s.trade, and extends from one side of the ship to the other; the roof is formed by a sort of vault termed a cove, which is frequently ornamented with carving. (_See_ STERN; also QUARTER-GALLERY.)

GALLERY OF A MINE. The pa.s.sage of horizontal communication, as distinguished from the shaft or vertical descent, made underground by military miners to reach the required position, for lodging the charge, &c.; it averages 4-1/2 feet high by 3 feet wide.

GALLERY-LADDER. Synonymous with _stern-ladder_.

GALLEY. A low, flat-built vessel with one deck, and propelled by sails and oars, particularly in the Mediterranean. The largest sort, called gallea.s.ses, were formerly employed by the Venetians. They were about 160 feet long above, and 130 by the keel, 30 wide, and 20 length of stern-post. They were furnished with three masts and thirty banks of oars, each bank containing two oars, and every oar managed by half-a-dozen slaves, chained to them. There are also _half-galleys_ and _quarter-galleys_, but found by experience to be of little utility except in fine weather. They generally hug the sh.o.r.e, only sometimes venturing out to sea for a summer cruise. Also, an open boat rowing six or eight oars, and used on the river Thames by custom-house officers, and formerly by press-gangs; hence the names "custom-house galley,"

"press-galley," &c. Also, a clincher-built fast rowing-boat, rather larger than a gig, appropriated in a man-of-war for the use of the captain. The _galley_ or _gally_ is also the name of the ship's hearth or kitchen, being the place where the grates are put up and the victuals cooked. In small merchantmen it is called the caboose; and is generally abaft the forecastle or fore-part of the ship.

GALLEY-ARCHES. s.p.a.cious and well-built structures in many of the Mediterranean ports for the reception and security of galleys.

GALLEY-FOIST OR FUST. The lord-mayor's barge, and other vessels for holidays. (_See_ FUST.)

GALLEY-GROWLERS. Idle grumblers and skulkers, from whom discontent and mutiny generally derive their origin. Hence, "galley-packets," news before the mail arrives.

GALLEY-NOSE. The figure-head.

GALLEY-PACKET. An unfounded rumour. (_See_ GALLEY-GROWLERS.)

GALLEY-PEPPER. The soot or ashes which accidentally drop into victuals in cooking.

GALLEY-SLANG. The neological barbarisms foisted into sea-language.

GALLEY-SLAVE. A person condemned to work at the oar on board a galley, and chained to the deck.

GALLEY-STOKER. A lazy skulker.

GALLEY-TROUGH. _See_ GERLETROCH.

GALLIAS. A heavy, low-built vessel of burden. Not to be confounded with galley, for even Shakspeare, in the _Taming of the Shrew_, makes Tranio say:--

"My father hath no less Than three great argosies; besides two galea.s.ses, And twelve tight galleys."

GALLIED. The state of a whale when he is seriously alarmed.

GALLIGASKINS. Wide hose or breeches formerly worn by seamen also called _petticoat-trousers_. P. Penilesse, in his _Supplication to the Divell_, says: "Some gally gascoynes or shipman's hose, like the Anabaptists,"

&c.

GALLING-FIRE. A sustained discharge of cannon, or small arms, which by its execution greatly annoys the enemy.

GALLIVATS. Armed row-boats of India, smaller than a grab; generally 50 to 70 tons.

GALLOON. Gold lace. [Fr. _galon_; Sp. _galon_.]

GALLOPER. A small gun used by the Indians, easily drawn by one horse.

GALLOW-GLa.s.sES. Formerly a heavy-armed body of foot; more recently applied to Irish infantry soldiers.

GALLOWS. The cross-pieces on the small bitts at the main and fore hatchways in flush-decked vessels, for stowing away the booms and spars over the boats; also termed _gallowses_, _gallows-tops_, _gallows-bitts_, and _gallows-stanchions_. The word is used colloquially for archness, as well as for notoriously bad characters.

GALLS. Veins of land through which the water oozes.

GALL-WIND. _See_ WIND-GALL.

GALLY-GUN. A kind of culverin.

GALOOT. An awkward soldier, from the Russian _golut_, or slave. A soubriquet for the young or "green" marine.

GALORE. Plenty, abundance.

GAMBISON. A quilted doublet formerly worn under armour, to prevent its chafing.

GAME-LEG. A lame limb, but not so bad as to unfit for duty.

GAMMON, TO. To pa.s.s the lashings of the bowsprit.

GAMMONING. Seven or eight turns of a rope-lashing pa.s.sed alternately over the bowsprit and through a large hole in the cut-water, the better to support the stays of the fore-mast; after all the turns are drawn as firm as possible, the two opposite are braced together under the bowsprit by a frapping. Gammoning lashing, fashion, &c., has a peculiar seamanlike meaning. The gammoning turns are pa.s.sed from the standing part or bolt forward, over the bowsprit, aft through the knee forward, making a cross lashing. It was the essence of a seaman's ability, and only forecastle men, under the boatswain, executed it. Now galvanized chain is more commonly used than rope for gammoning.

GAMMONING-HOLE. A mortise-opening cut through the knee of the head, between the cheeks, through which the gammoning is pa.s.sed.

GAMMON-KNEE. A knee-timber fayed and bolted to the stem, a little below the bowsprit.

GAMMON-PLATE. An iron plate bolted to the stem of some vessels for the purpose of supporting the gammoning of the bowsprit.

GAMMON-SHACKLE. A sort of triangular ring formed on the end of a gammon-plate, for the gammoning lashing or chain to be made fast to.

GAND-FLOOK. A name of the saury-pike, _s...o...b..resox saurus_.

GANG. A detachment; being a selected number of a ship's crew appointed on any particular service, and commanded by an officer suitable to the occasion.

GANG-BOARD. The narrow platform within the side next the gunwale, connecting the quarter-deck to the forecastle. Also, a plank with several cleats or steps nailed to it to prevent slipping, for the convenience of walking into or out of a boat upon the sh.o.r.e, where the water is shallow.

GANG-CASKS. Small barrels used for bringing water on board in boats; somewhat larger than _breakers_, and usually containing 32 gallons.

GANGWAY. The platform on each side of the skid-beams leading from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, and peculiar to deep-waisted ships, for the convenience of walking expeditiously fore and aft; it is fenced on the outside by iron stanchions and ropes, or rails, and in vessels of war with a netting, in which part of the hammocks are stowed. In merchant ships it is frequently called the gang-board. Also, that part of a ship's side, and opening in her bulwarks, by which persons enter and depart, provided with a sufficient number of steps or cleats, nailed upon the ship's side, nearly as low as the surface of the water, and sometimes furnished with a railed accommodation-ladder projecting from the ship's side, and secured by iron braces. Also, narrow pa.s.sages left in the hold, when a ship is laden, in order to enter any particular place as occasion may require, or stop a leak. Also, it implies a thoroughfare of any kind.--_To bring to the gangway_, to punish a seaman by seizing him up to a grating, there to undergo flogging.

GANNERET. A sort of gull.

GANNET. The _Sula ba.s.sana_, or solan goose: a large sea bird of the family _Pelecanidae_, common on the Scottish coasts.