The Sailor's Word-Book Part 137

JACK IN THE BREAD-ROOM, OR JACK IN THE DUST. The purser's steward's a.s.sistant in the bread and steward's room.

JACK-KNIFE. A horn-handled clasp-knife with a laniard, worn by seamen.

JACKMAN. A musketeer of former times, wearing a short mail jack or jacket.

JACK NASTY-FACE. A cook's a.s.sistant.

JACK OF DOVER. An old sea-dish, the composition of which is now lost.

Chaucer's host in rallying the cook exclaims,

"And many a _Jack of Dover_ hast thou sold, That hath been twies hot and twies cold."

JACK O' LANTERN. The _corpo santo_, or St. Elmo's light, is sometimes so called.

JACK-PINS. A name applied to the fife-rail pins, also called _Tack-pins_.

JACK ROBINSON.--_Before you could say Jack Robinson_, is a very old expression for a short time,--

"A warke it ys as easie to be doone, As tys to saye Jacke Robyson."

JACK'S ALIVE. A once popular sea-port dance.

JACK-SCREW. A small machine used to cant or lift weighty substances, and in stowing cotton or other elastic goods. It consists of a wooden frame containing cogged iron wheels of increasing powers. The outer one, which moves the rest, is put in motion by a winch on the outside, and is called either single or double, according to its increasing force. The pinions act upon an iron bar called the _spear_.

JACK-SHARK. A common sobriquet of the _Squalus_ tribe.

JACK-SHARP. A small fresh-water fish, otherwise known as _p.r.i.c.kly-back_.

JACK'S QUARTER-DECK. The deck elevation forward in some vessels, often called a top-gallant forecastle.

JACK-STAFF. A short staff raised at the bowsprit-cap, upon which the union-jack is hoisted.

JACK-STAYS. Ropes, battens, or iron bars placed on a yard or spar and set taut, either for bending the head of a sail to, or acting as a traveller. Frequently resorted to for the staysails, square-sail yard, &c.

JACOB'S LADDER. The a.s.semblage of shakes and short fractures, rising one above another, in a defective single-tree spar. Also, short ladders made with wooden steps and rope sides for ascending the rigging.

JACOB'S STAFF, OR CROSS-STAFF. A mathematical instrument to take alt.i.tudes, consisting of a bra.s.s circle, divided into four equal parts by two lines cutting each other in the centre; at each extremity of either line is fixed a sight perpendicularly over the lines, with holes below each slit for the better discovery of distant objects. The cross is mounted on a staff or stand for use. Sometimes, instead of four sights, there are eight.

JACULATOR. A fish whose chief sustenance is flies, which it secures by shooting a drop of water at them from its mouth.

JAG, TO. To notch an edge irregularly.--_Jagged_, a term applied to denticulated edges, as in jagged bolts to prevent their coming out.

JAGARA, OR JOGGAREE. A coa.r.s.e brown sugar of India.

JAGS. Splinters to a shot-hole.

JAIL-BIRD. One who has been confined in prison, from the old term of _cage_ for a prison; a felon absurdly (and injuriously to the country) sentenced to serve in the navy.

JALIAS. Small craft on the Arracan and Pegu coasts.

JAM, TO. Anything being confined, so that it cannot be freed without trouble and force; the term is also applied to the act of confining it.

To squeeze, to wedge, to press against. (_See_ JAMBING.)

JAMAICA DISCIPLINE. The buccaneer regulations respecting prize shares, insisting that all prizes be divided among the captors.

JAMBEAUX. Armour to protect the legs.

JAMBING, OR JAMMING. The act of inclosing any object between two bodies, so as to render it immovable while they continue in that position; usually applied to a running rope, when, from pressure, it cannot travel in the blocks; the opposite of _rendering_ (which see).

JAMBS. Door-posts in general; but in particular thick broad pieces of oak, fixed up endways, between which the lights of the powder magazine are fitted.

JAMMED IN A CLINCH. The same as _hard up in a clinch_ (which see).--_Jammed in a clinch like Jackson_, involved in difficulty of a secondary degree, as when Jackson, after feeding for a week in the bread-room, could not escape through the scuttle.

JANGADA. A sort of fishing float, or rather raft, composed of three or four long pieces of wood lashed together, used on the coasts of Peru and Brazil. The owner is called a _jangadeira_, but the term is evidently an application of _jergado_ (which see).

JANGAR. A kind of pontoon constructed of two boats with a platform laid across them, used by the natives in the East Indies to convey horses, cattle, &c., across rivers.

JANISSARY. A term derived from _jeni cheri_, meaning _new soldiers_, in the Turkish service.

JANTOOK, OR CHUNTOCK. A Chinese officer with vice-regal powers: he of Canton was called _John Tuck_ by our seamen.

JANTY, OR JAUNTY. A vessel in showy condition; dressed in flags.

j.a.pANESE WHALE-BOAT. A long, open, and sharp rowing-boat of j.a.pan.

JARGANEE. A Manx term for small worms on the sea-sh.o.r.e, and used as bait.

JARRING. The vibrations and tremblings occasioned in some steam-vessels by the machinery.

JAVA POT. A kind of sponge of the species _Alcyonium_.

JAVELS. An old term for dirty, idle fellows, wandering about quays and docks.

JAW. The inner, hollowed, semicircular end of a gaff or boom, which presses against the mast; the points of the jaw are called _horns_.

Also, coa.r.s.e and often petulant loquacity.--_Long-jawed_ applies to a rope or cable, when by great strain it untwists, and exhibits one revolution where four were before; similar to long and short threads of the screw.

JAW-BREAKERS. Hard and infrequent words.

JAWING-TACKS. When a person speaks with vociferous fluency, he is said to have hauled his jawing-tacks on board.

JAW-ME-DOWN. An arrogant, overbearing, and unsound loud arguer.

JAW OF A BLOCK. The s.p.a.ce in the sh.e.l.l where the sheave revolves.

JAW-ROPE. A line attached to the horns of the jaws to prevent the gaff from coming off the mast. It is usually furnished with bull's eyes (perforated b.a.l.l.s) to make it shift easily up or down the mast.

JAYLS. The cracks and fissures of timber in seasoning.