The Sailor's Word-Book Part 111

GIB. A forelock.

GIBB. The beak, or hooked upper lip of a male salmon.

GIBBOUS. The form of a planet's disc exceeding a semicircle, but less than a circle.

GIB-FISH. A northern name for the male of the salmon.

GIBRALTAR GYN. Originally devised there for working guns under a low roof. (_See_ GYN.)

GIDDACK. A name on our northern coasts for the sand-launce or sand-eel, _Ammodytes tobia.n.u.s_.

GIFFOOT. A Jewish corruption of the Spanish spoken at Gibraltar and the sea-ports.

GIFT-ROPE [synonymous with _guest-rope_]. A rope for boats at the guest-warp boom.

GIG. A light narrow galley or ship's boat, clincher-built, and adapted for expedition either by rowing or sailing; the latter ticklish at times.

GILDEE. A name in the Scottish isles for the _Morhua barbata_, or whiting pout.

GILGUY. A guy for tracing up, or bearing a boom or derrick. Often applied to inefficient guys.

GILL. A ravine down the surface of a cliff; a rivulet through a ravine.

The name is often applied also to the valley itself.

GILLER. A horse-hair fishing line.

GILLS. Small hackles for drying hemp.

GILPY. Between a man and boy.

GILSE. A common misnomer of _grilse_ (which see).

GILT. A cant, but old term for money, on which Shakspeare (_Henry V._ act ii. scene 1) committed a well-known pun--

"Have for the gilt of France (O guilt indeed!)"

GILT-HEAD, OR GILT-POLL. The _Sparus aurata_, a fish of the European and American seas, with a golden mark between the eyes. (_See_ SEDOW.)

GIMBALS. The two concentric bra.s.s rings, having their axles at right angles, by which a sea-compa.s.s is suspended in its box, so as to counteract the effect of the ship's motion. (_See_ COMPa.s.s.) Also used for the chronometers.

GIMBLETING. The action of turning the anchor round on its fluke, so that the motion of the stock appears similar to that of the handle of a gimlet when it is employed to bore a hole. To turn anything round on its end.

GIMLET-EYE. A penetrating gaze, which sees through a deal plank.

GIMMART. _See_ GYMMYRT.

GIMMEL. Any disposition of rings, as links, device of machinery. (_See_ GIMBALS.)

GIN. A small iron cruciform frame, having a swivel-hook, furnished with an iron sheave, to serve as a pulley for the use of chain in discharging cargo and other purposes.

GINGADO. _See_ JERGADO.

GINGAL. A long barrelled fire-arm, throwing a ball of from 1/4 to 1/2 lb., used throughout the East, especially in China; made to load at the breach with a movable chamber. (_See also_ JINGAL.)

GINGERBREAD-HATCHES. Luxurious quarters--

"Gingerbread-hatches on sh.o.r.e."

GINGERBREAD WORK. Profusely carved decorations of a ship.

GINGERLY. Spruce and smart, but somewhat affected in movement.

GINNELIN. Catching fish by the hand; tickling them.

GINNERS, OR GINNLES. The gills of fish.

GINSENG. A Chinese root, formerly highly prized for its restorative virtues, and greatly valued among the items of a cargo. It is now almost out of the _Materia Medica_.

GIP, TO. To take the entrails out of fishes.

GIRANDOLE. Any whirling fire-work.

GIRD, TO. To bind; used formerly for striking a blow.

GIRDLE. An additional planking over the wales or bends. Also, a frapping for girding a ship.

GIRT. The situation of a ship which is moored so taut by her cables, extending from the hawse to two distant anchors, as to be prevented from swinging to the wind or tide. The ship thus circ.u.mstanced endeavours to swing, but her side bears upon one of the cables, which catches on her heel, and interrupts her in the act of traversing. In this position she must ride with her broadside or stern to the wind or current, till one or both of the cables are slackened, so as to sink under the keel; after which the ship will readily yield to the effort of the wind or current, and turn her head thither. (_See_ RIDE.)

GIRT-LINE. A whip purchase, consisting of a rope pa.s.sing through a single block on the head of a lower mast to hoist up the rigging thereof, and the persons employed to place it; the girt-line is therefore the first rope employed to rig a ship. (Sometimes mis-called _gant-line_.)

GISARMS. An archaic term for a halbert or hand-axe.

GIVE A SPELL. To intermit or relieve work. (_See_ SPELL.)

GIVE CHASE, TO. To make sail in pursuit of a stranger.

GIVE HER SO AND SO. The direction of the officer of the watch to the midshipman, reporting the rate of sailing by the log, and which requires correction in the judgment of that officer, from winds, &c., before marking on the log-board.

GIVE HER SHEET. The order to ease off; give her rope.

GIVE WAY. The order to a boat's crew to renew rowing, or to increase their exertions if they were already rowing. To hang on the oars.

GIVE WAY TOGETHER. So that the oars may all dip and rise together, whereby the force is concentrated.

GIVE WAY WITH A WILL. Pull heartily together.

GIVING. The surging of a seizing; new rope stretching to the strain.