The Sailor's Word-Book Part 115

GRAZE. The point at which a shot strikes and rebounds from earth or water.

GRAZING-FIRE. That which sweeps close to the surface it defends.

GREASY. Synonymous with dirty weather.

GREAT CIRCLE. One whose a.s.sumed plane pa.s.ses through the centre of the sphere, dividing it equally.

GREAT-CIRCLE SAILING. Is a method for determining a series of points in an arc of a great circle between two points on the surface of the earth, for the purpose of directing a ship's course as nearly as possible on such arc; that is, on the curve of shortest distance between the place from which she sets out, and that at which she is to arrive.

GREAT GUN. The general sea-term for cannons, or officers of great repute.

GREAT GUNS AND SMALL-ARMS. The general armament of a ship. Also, a slang term for the blowing and raining of heavy weather.

GREAT-LINE FISHING. That carried on over the deeper banks of the ocean.

(_See_ LINE-FISHING.) It is more applicable to hand-fishing, as on the banks of Newfoundland, in depths over 60 fathoms.

GREAT OCEAN. The Pacific, so called from its superior extent.

GREAT SHAKES. _See_ SHAKE.

GREAVES. Armour for the legs.

GRECALE. A north-eastern breeze off the coast of Sicily, _Greece_ lying N.E.

GREEN. Raw and untutored; a metaphor from unripe fruit--thus Shakspeare makes Pandulph say:

"How green are you and fresh in this old world!"

GREEN-BONE. The trivial name of the viviparous blenny, or guffer, the backbone of which is green when boiled; also of the gar-fish.

GREEN-FISH. Cod, hake, haddock, herrings, &c., unsalted.

GREEN-HANDS. Those embarked for the first time, and consequently inexperienced.

GREEN-HORN. A lubberly, uninitiated fellow. A novice of marked gullibility.

GREENLAND DOVE. The puffinet; called _scraber_ in the Hebrides; about the size of a pigeon.

GREENLAND WHALE. _See_ RIGHT WHALE.

GREEN-MEN. The five supernumerary seamen who had not been before in the Arctic Seas, whom vessels in the whale-fishery were obliged to bear, to get the tonnage bounty.

GREEN SEA. A large body of water shipped on a vessel's deck; it derives its name from the green colour of a sheet of water between the eye and the light when its ma.s.s is too large to be broken up into spray.

GREEN-SLAKE. The sea-weed otherwise called _lettuce-laver_ (which see).

GREEN TURTLE. The common name for the edible turtle, which does not yield tortoise-sh.e.l.l.

GREENWICH STARS. Those used for lunar computations in the nautical ephemeris.

GREEP. The old orthography of _gripe_.

GREGO. A coa.r.s.e Levantine jacket, with a hood. A cant term for a rough great-coat.

GRENADE. Now restricted to hand-grenade, weighing about 2 lbs., and the fuze being previously lit, is conveniently thrown by hand from the tops of ships on to an enemy's deck, from the parapet into the ditch, or generally against an enemy otherwise difficult to reach. A number of grenades, moreover, being quilted together with their fuzes outwards, called a "bouquet," is fired short distances with good effect from mortars in the latter stages of a siege.

GRENADIERS. Formerly the right company of each battalion, composed of the largest men, and originally equipped for using hand-grenades.

Now-a-days the companies of a regiment are equalized in size and other matters; and the t.i.tle in the British army remains only to the fine regiment of grenadier guards.

GRENADO. The old name for a live sh.e.l.l. Thua.n.u.s says that they were first used at the siege of Wacklindonck, near Gueldres; and that their inventor, in an experiment in Venice, occasioned the burning of two-thirds of that city.

GREVE. A low flat sandy sh.o.r.e; whence _graving_ is derived.

GREY-FRIARS. A name given to the oxen of Tuscany, with which the Mediterranean fleet was supplied.

GREY-HEAD. A fish of the haddock kind, taken on the coast of Galloway.

GREYHOUND. A hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.

GRIAN. A Gaelic term for the bottom, whether of river, lake, or sea.

GRIBAN. A small two-masted vessel of Normandy.

GRID. The diminutive of _gridiron_.

GRIDIRON. A solid timber stage or frame, formed of cross-beams of wood, for receiving a ship with a falling tide, in order that her bottom may be examined. The Americans also use for a similar purpose an apparatus called a _screw-dock_, and another known as the _hydraulic-dock_.

GRIFFIN, OR GRIFF. A name given to Europeans during the first year of their arrival in India; it has become a general term for an inexperienced youngster.

GRIG. Small eels.

GRILL, TO. To broil on the bars of the galley-range, as implied by its French derivation.

GRILSE. One of the salmon tribe, generally considered to be a young salmon on the return from its first sojourn at the sea; though by some still supposed to be a distinct fish.

GRIN AND BEAR IT. The stoical resignation to unavoidable hardship, which, being heard on board ship by Lord Byron, produced the fine stanza in "Childe Harold," commencing "Existence might be borne."

GRIND. A half kink in a hempen cable.

GRIP. The Anglo-Saxon _grep_. The handle of a sword; also a small ditch or drain. To hold, as "the anchor grips." Also, a peculiar groove in rifled ordnance.

GRIPE. Is generally formed by the scarph of the stem and keel. (_See_ FORE-FOOT.) This is retained, or shaved away, according to the object of making the vessel hold a better wind, or have greater facility in wearing.--_To gripe._ To carry too much weather-helm. A vessel gripes when she tends to come up into the wind while sailing close-hauled. She gripes according to her trim. If it continues it is remedied by lightening forward, or making her draw deeper aft.

GRIPED-TO. The situation of a boat when secured by gripes.

GRIPES. A broad plait formed by an a.s.semblage of ropes, woven and fitted with thimbles and laniards, used to steady the boats upon the deck of a ship at sea. The gripes are fastened at their ends to ring-bolts in the deck, on each side of the boat; whence, pa.s.sing over her middle and extremities, they are set up by means of the laniards. Gripes for a quarter boat are similarly used.

GRITT. An east-country term for the sea-crab.