The Sailor's Word-Book Part 164

MEND SAILS, TO. To loose and skin them afresh on the yards.

MEND THE SERVICE. Put on more service to the cable, or any part of the rigging chafed.

MERCANTILE MARINE. _See_ MARINE.

MERCANTILE MARINE FUND. A public fund acc.u.mulated by fees payable to the Board of Trade on account of the merchant shipping.

MERCATOR'S CHART OR PROJECTION. Introduced by Gerard Mercator, _circa_ 1556: it is a projection of the surface of the earth in the plane, with all the meridians made parallel with each other, consequently the degrees of longitude all equal, the degrees of lat.i.tude increasing in a corresponding ratio towards the poles. This is the chart most commonly used in navigation; and its use appears to have obtained quickly, for in 1576, among the items of Martin Frobisher's outfit, we find, "For a greate Mappe Universall of Mercator, in prente, 1, 6_s._ 8_d._"

MERCATOR'S SAILING. Performed loxodromically, by means of Mercator's charts.

MERCHANTMAN. A trading vessel employed in importing and exporting goods to and from any quarter of the globe.

MERCHANT SERVICE. The mercantile marine.

MERCHANT-VENTURERS. A company of merchants who traded with Russia, Turkey, and other distant parts. In the _Affectionate Shepheard_, 1594, we find--

"Well is he tearm'd a merchant venturer, Since he doth venter lands, and goods, and all; When he doth travell for his traffique far, Little he knowes what fortune may befall."

MERCURIAL GAUGE. A curved tube partly filled with mercury, to show the pressure of steam in an engine.

MERCURY. One of the ancient inferior planets, and the nearest to the sun, as far as we yet know. (_See_ TRANSIT OF.) Also, a name for quicksilver; the fluid metal so useful in the construction of the marine barometer, thermometer, and artificial horizon.

MERE. An Anglo-Saxon word still in use, sometimes meaning a lake, and generally the sea itself.

MERIDIAN, OF THE EARTH. Is an imaginary great circle pa.s.sing through the zenith and the poles, and cutting the equator at right angles. When the sun is on the meridian of any place, it is mid-day there, and at all places situated under the same meridian.--_First meridian_ is that from which the longitude is reckoned. Magnetic meridian is not a great circle but a wavy line uniting those poles. In common acceptation, a meridian is any line supposed to be drawn from the north to the south pole; therefore a place being under the same meridian as another place, is either due north or south of it.--_Plane of the meridian_ is the plane of this great circle, and its intersection with the sensible horizon is called the _meridian line_.--The _meridian transit_ of a heavenly body is the act of pa.s.sing over the said plane, when it is either due north or south of the spectator.--_Ante meridiem_, or A.M., before noon.--_Post meridiem_, or P.M., after noon.

MERIDIAN ERROR. The deviation of a transit-instrument from the plane of the meridian at the horizon; it is also termed the _azim.u.t.h.al error_.

MERLON. That part of the parapet of a battery between two adjacent embrasures, 15 or 20 feet long in general.

MERMAID. A fabulous sea-creature of which the upper half was said to resemble a woman, the lower half a fish.

MERMAID'S GLOVE. The name of a peculiar sponge, _Spongia palmata_, abundant at Bermuda.

MERMAID'S PURSE. The oblong h.o.r.n.y cases with long filiform appendages developed from each of the four corners, found on the sea-sh.o.r.e, being the outer covering of the eggs of several species of rays and sharks.

Also, the hollow root of the sea-weed _Fucus polyschides_.

MERRY DANCERS. The glancings and coruscations of the _aurora borealis_, or northern lights.

MERRY MEN OF MAY. Dangerous currents formed by the ebb-tides.

MESON. A very old form of spelling _mizen_.

MESS. Any company of the officers or crew of a ship, who eat, drink, and a.s.sociate together. (_See_ NUMBER.) Also, the state of a ship in a sudden squall, when everything is let go and flying, and nothing hauled in.

MESS-DECK. The place where a ship's crew mess.

MESSENGER. A large cable-laid rope, used to unmoor or heave up the anchor of a ship, by the aid of the capstan. This is done by binding a part of the messenger to the cable by which the ship rides, in several places, with pliant nippers, and by winding another part of it about the capstan. The messenger has an eye-splice at each end, through which several turns of a strong lashing are pa.s.sed, forming an endless rope.

So that by putting on fresh nippers forward, and taking them off as they are hove aft, the capstan may be kept constantly going, and the cable is walked in without stopping. (_See_ VIOL.) A superior plan is now adopted, in which the messenger, consisting of a pitch chain which has a double and single link alternately, works in iron spurs fastened above the lower rim of the capstan. This avoids the trouble of shifting or fleeting the messenger while heaving in. Again, the cable itself is commonly brought to the capstan.--_Light forward the messenger!_ is the order to pull the slack of it towards the hawse holes, on the slack or opposite side, so as to be ready to fasten upon the cable which is being hove in, as it comes off the manger-roller at the bows.

MESSENGERS. Boys appointed to carry orders from the quarter-deck. In some ships they wore winged caps of the Mercury type.

MESS-KID. A wooden tub for holding cooked victuals or cocoa.

MESSMATE. A companion of the same mess-table, hence comrades in many ways; whence the _saw_: "Messmate before a shipmate, shipmate before a stranger, stranger before a dog."

MESS-TRAPS. The kids, crockery, bowls, spoons, and other articles of mess service.

META-CENTRE. That point in a ship where a vertical line drawn from the centre of cavity cuts a line perpendicular to the keel, pa.s.sing through the centre of gravity. As this depends upon the situation of the centre of cavity, the meta-centre is often called the _shifting-centre_. Safety requires this point to be above the centre of gravity.

METAL. A word comprehending the great guns, or ordnance generally, of a ship or battery.

METEINGS. The measurement and estimate of timber.

METEOR. _See_ COMPASANT, WATER-SPOUT, &c.

METEORITES. Meteoric stones which fall from the atmosphere, composed of earthy and metallic substances, in which iron, nickel, &c., enter largely.

METEOROLOGIC TELEGRAPHY. The sending of telegrams to various stations at home and abroad, with the object of improving the science of meteorology, and issuing storm warnings, &c.

METONIC CYCLE. A cycle of 19 years, which contains 235 lunations, and results in a correspondence of the solar and lunar years. The discovery of this astronomical period may be safely a.s.signed to Meton in 432 B.C.

MEW [Anglo-Saxon _maew_]. A name for the sea-gull.

MIASMA. An impure effluvium in the air--proceeding from marshes or moist ground acted upon by solar heat--by which malaria fevers, particularly intermittents, are produced.

MICROMETER. An instrument used to measure small angles, diameters, and distances of heavenly bodies.

MID. The intermediate or middle part of anything. Also, _per contractionem_, a midshipman.

MID-CHANNEL. Implies half way across any river, channel, &c.

MIDDLE BAND. One of the bands of a sail, to give additional strength.

MIDDLE-LAt.i.tUDE SAILING. A method of converting departure in difference of longitude, and _vice versa_, by using the middle lat.i.tude instead of the meridional parts, as in Mercator's sailing.

MIDDLE-TIMBER. That timber in the stern which is placed amidships.

MIDDLE-TOPSAIL. A deep-roached sail, set in some schooners and sloops on the heel of their top-masts between the top and the cap. A modification of this, under the name of a lower top-sail, is now very common in double-topsail-yarded ships. (Cunningham's top-sails.)

MIDDLE-WALES. The three or four thick strakes worked along each side between the lower and middle-deck-ports in three-deckers.

MIDDLE-WATCH. The portion of the crew on deck-duty from midnight to 4 A.M.

MIDDLE-WATCHER. The slight meal s.n.a.t.c.hed by officers of the middle-watch about five bells (or 230 A.M.)

MIDDLING A SAIL. Arranging it for bending to the yard.