The Sailor's Word-Book Part 14

ARMAMENT. A naval or military force equipped for an expedition. The arming of a vessel or place.

ARMAMENTA. The rigging and tackling of an ancient ship. It included shipmen and all the necessary furniture of war.

ARMATae. Ancient ships fitted with sails and oars, but which fought under the latter only.

ARM-CHEST. A portable locker on the upper deck or tops for holding arms, and affording a ready supply of cutla.s.ses, pistols, muskets or other weapons.

ARMED. Completely equipped for war.--_Armed at all points_, covered with armour.--_Armed "en flute," see_ FLUTE.--_Armed mast_, made of more than one tree.--_Armed ship_, a vessel fitted out by merchants to annoy the enemy, and furnished with letters of marque, and bearing a commission from the Admiralty to carry on warlike proceedings.

ARMED STEM. _See_ BEAK.

ARMILLARY SPHERE. An instrument composed of various circles, to a.s.sist the student in gaining a knowledge of the arrangement and motions of the heavenly bodies. A bra.s.s _armilla tolomaei_ was one of the instruments supplied to Martin Frobisher in 1576, price 4, 6_s._ 8_d._

ARMING. A piece of tallow placed in the cavity and over the bottom of a sounding lead, to which any objects at the bottom of the sea become attached, and are brought with the lead to the surface.

ARMINGS. Red dress cloths which were formerly hung fore and aft, outside the upper works on holidays; still used by foreigners. (_See_ TOP-ARMINGS.) It was also the name of a kind of boarding-net.

ARMIPOTENT. Powerful in war.

ARMISTICE. A cessation of arms for a given time; a short truce for the suspension of hostilities.

ARMLET. A narrow inlet of the sea; a smaller branch than the arm. Also the name of a piece of armour for the arm, to protect it from the jar of the bow-string.

ARMOGAN. An old term for good opportunity or season for navigation, which, if neglected, was liable to costs of demurrage. It is a Mediterranean word for fine weather.

ARMORIC. The language of Brittany, Cornwall, and Wales: the word in its original signification meant _maritime_.

ARMOUR. A defensive habit to protect the wearer from his enemy; also defensive arms. In old statutes this is frequently called _harness_.

ARMOUR-CLAD. A ship of war fitted with iron plates on the outside to render her shot-proof.

ARMOURER. In a man-of-war, is a person appointed by warrant to keep the small arms in complete condition for service. As he is also the ship's blacksmith, a mate is allowed to a.s.sist at the forge.

ARMOURY. A place appropriated for the keeping of small arms.

ARM-RACK. A frame or fitting for the stowage of arms (usually vertical) out of harm's way, but in readiness for immediate use. In the conveyance of troops by sea arm-racks form a part of the proper accommodation.

ARMS. The munitions of war,--all kinds of weapons whether for offence or defence. Those in a ship are cannons, carronades, mortars, howitzers, muskets, pistols, tomahawks, cutla.s.ses, bayonets, and boarding-pikes.

ARMS OF A GREAT GUN. The trunnions.

ARMSTRONG GUN. Invented by Sir William Armstrong. In its most familiar form, a rifled breech-loading gun of wrought iron, constructed princ.i.p.ally of spirally coiled bars, and occasionally having an inner tube or core of steel; ranging in size from the smallest field-piece up to the 100 pounder; rifled with numerous shallow grooves, which are taken by the expansion of the leaden coating of its projectile. Late experiments however, connected with iron-plated ships are developing muzzle-loading Armstrong guns, constructed on somewhat similar principles, but with simpler rifling, ranging in size up to the 600 pounder weighing 23 tons.

ARMY. A large body of disciplined men, with appropriate subdivisions, commanded by a general. A fleet is sometimes called a naval army.--_Flying army_, a small body sent to hara.s.s a country, intercept convoys, and alarm the enemy.

ARMYE. A early term for a naval armament.

ARNOT. A northern name for the shrimp.

ARONDEL. A light and swift tartan: probably a corruption of _hirondelle_ (swallow).

ARPENT. A French measure of land, equal to 100 square rods or perches, each of 18 feet. It is about 1/7th less than the English acre.

ARQUEBUSS. A word sometimes used for carbine, but formerly meant a garrison-piece, carrying a ball of 3-1/2 ounces; it was generally placed in loop-holes. (_See_ HAGBUT.)

ARRACK. An Indian term for all ardent liquors, but that which we designate thus is obtained by the fermentation of toddy (a juice procured from palm-trees), of rice, and of sugar. In Turkey arrack is extracted from vine-stalks taken out of wine-presses.

ARRAIER. The officer who formerly had the care of the men's armour, and whose business it was to see them duly accoutred.

ARRAY. The order of battle.--_To array._ To equip, dress, or arm for battle.

ARREARS. The difference between the full pay of a commissioned officer, and what he is empowered to draw for till his accounts are pa.s.sed.

ARREST. The suspension of an officer's duty, and restraint of his person, previous to trying him by a court martial. Seamen in Her Majesty's service cannot be _arrested_ for debts under twenty pounds, and that contracted before they entered the navy. Yet it is held in law, that this affords no exemption from _arrests_ either in civil or criminal suits.

ARRIBA. [Sp. p.r.o.nounced _arriva_]. Aloft, quickly.--_Agir contre son gre, montar arriba_, to mount aloft, which has pa.s.sed into seamen's lingo as _areevo_, up, aloft, quickly:--mount _areevo_, or go on deck.

ARRIBAR, TO. To land, to attain the bank, to arrive.

ARRIVE, TO. In the most nautical sense, is to come to any place by water, to reach the sh.o.r.e.

ARROBA. A Portuguese commercial weight of 32 lbs. Also, a Spanish general wine measure of 4-1/4 English gallons. The lesser _arroba_, used for oil, is only 3-1/3 English gallons. A Spanish weight of 25 lbs.

avoirdupois; one-fourth of a quintal. Also, a rough country cart in Southern Russia.

ARROW. A missive weapon of offence, and whether ancient or modern, in the rudest form among savages or refined by art, is always a slender stick, armed at one end, and occasionally feathered at the other. The natives of Tropical Africa feather the metal barb.

ARROW. In fortification, a work placed at the salient angles of the glacis, communicating with the covert way.--_Broad arrow._ The royal mark for stores of every kind. (_See_ BROAD ARROW.)

a.r.s.eNAL. A repository of the munitions of war. Some combine both magazines of naval and military stores, and docks for the construction and repair of ships.

ARSHEEN. A Russian measure of 2 feet 4 in. = 2333--also Chinese, four of which make 3 yards English.

ART. A spelling of _airt_ (which see). Also, practice as distinguished from theory.

ARTEMON. The main-sail of ancient ships.

ARTHUR. A well-known sea game, alluded to by Grose, Smollet, and other writers.

ARTICLES. The express stipulations to which seamen bind themselves by signature, on joining a merchant ship.

ARTICLES OF WAR. A code of rules and orders based on the act of parliament for the regulation and government of Her Majesty's ships, vessels, and forces by sea: and as they are frequently read to all hands, no individual can plead ignorance of them. It is now termed the New Naval Code.--The _articles of war_ for the land forces have a similar foundation and relation to their service; the act in this case, however, is pa.s.sed annually, the army itself having, in law, no more than one year's permanence unless so periodically renewed by act of parliament.

ARTIFICER. One who works by hand in wood or metal; generally termed an _idler on board_, from his not keeping night-watch, and only appearing on deck duty when the hands are turned up.

ARTIFICIAL EYE. An eye worked in the end of rope, which is neater but not so strong as a spliced eye.

ARTIFICIAL HORIZON. An artificial means of catching the alt.i.tude of a celestial body when the sea horizon is obscured by fog, darkness, or the intervention of land; a simple one is still the greatest desideratum of navigators. Also a trough filled with pure mercury, used on land, wherein the double alt.i.tude of a celestial body is reflected.