The Sailor's Word-Book Part 166

MIZEN MAST-HEAD. Rear-admirals carry their flag at their mizen.

MIZEN STAYSAIL. A fore-and-aft sail of various shapes set on the mizen stay.

MOAT. Synonymous with _ditch_ (which see).

MOBILIZATION. The organizing a body of men for active service. Also, a term in naval tactics, applied to the movement of fleets.

MOCCASIN. A slipper made of green hide, and worn in cases of necessity; a term derived from the North American Indians.

MODERATE BREEZE. When all the flying kites may be pleasantly carried.

MODERATE GALE. In which a ship carries double reefs in her top-sails.

MOHUR. A gold coin in the East Indies, value 30_s._ to 32_s._

MOIDORE. A Portuguese gold coin, the sterling value of which is 1, 7_s._

MOINEAU. A little flat bastion formerly raised before a curtain, otherwise too long.

MOIST DAUGHTERS. Spenser's term for the Hyades, a group of seven stars in the head of the Bull.

MOKES. The meshes of a fishing-net.

MOLE. A long pier of ma.s.sy masonry, covering the entrance of a harbour.

Also applied to the harbours formed by them, as those of Genoa, Ma.r.s.eilles, Naples, &c.

MOLLY-MAWK. A bird which follows in the wake of a ship rounding the Cape. It is a small kind of albatross.

MOMENTUM. Is the product of a weight multiplied by its velocity; that is, in marine dynamics, by its distance from a point determined as the centre of momentum; or from a line called the axis of the momentum.

MONERES, OR MONOCRATA. Galleys with only one rank of oars.

MONEY-BOUND. A phrase expressive of such pa.s.sengers as are detained on board till a remittance arrives for paying the pa.s.sage made.

MONGER. A trader. (_See_ MONKEY.)

MONITION. Legal notice or warning.

MONITOR. A very shallow, semi-submerged, heavily-armoured steamer, carrying on her open deck either one or two plated revolving turrets, each containing either one or two enormous guns: originally designed by Ericson in the United States during the recent war, to combine the maximum of gun power with the minimum of exposure; they have been very formidable in sheltered and intricate waters, but it remains yet to be shown that they would be effective on the open sea.

MONKEY. A machine composed of a long pig of iron, traversing in a groove, which is raised by a pulley, and let fall suddenly on the head of large bolts for driving them. A larger kind is used in _pile-driving_. Also, a kind of wooden kid for grog. Also, in Queen Elizabeth's reign, a small trading vessel. Also, pa.s.sion; as a man's "monkey is up." Also, a machine with which the _hercules_ facilitates the welding of anchors.

MONKEY-BLOCK. A small single block strapped with a swivel. Also, those nailed on the topsail-yards of some merchantmen, to lead the buntlines through.

MONKEY-BOAT. A half-decked boat above-bridge on the Thames.

MONKEY-JACKET. A warm jacket for night-watches, &c.

MONKEY-PUMP. Straws or quills for sucking the liquid from a cask, through a gimlet-hole made for the purpose--a practice as old as the time of Xenophon, who describes this mode of drinking from the prize jars of Armenia.

MONKEY-SPARS. Reduced masts and yards for a vessel devoted to the instruction and exercise of boys.

MONKEY-TAIL. A lever for training a carronade.

MONK-FISH. The _Squatina angelus_. (_See_ DEVIL-FISH.)

MONK'S SEAM. That made after sewing the edges of sails together, one over the other, by st.i.tching through the centre of the seam. Also, the fash left at the junction of the moulds when a ball is cast.

MONMOUTH CAP. A flat worsted cap formerly worn by soldiers and sailors.

In the old play _Eastward Ho_, it is said, "Hurl away a dozen of Monmouth caps or so, in sea ceremony to your bon voyage."

MONOXYLON [Gr.] Boats in the Ionian Isles propelled with one oar.

MONSOON [from the Persian _monsum_, season]. The periodical winds in certain lat.i.tudes of India and the Indian Ocean. They continue five or six months from one direction, and then alter their course, and blow (after the tempestuous tumult of their shifting has subsided) during an equal s.p.a.ce of time from an opposite point of the compa.s.s, with the same uniformity. They are caused by the unequal heating of land and water, and occur in the tropics, where the "trade" would constantly blow if it were not for the presence of land. (_See_ WINDS.) The south-west monsoon is called by the Arabs _khumseen_, denoting fifty, as they suppose it to precede the overflowing of the Nile by fifty days. (_See_ KAMSIN.)

MONTE PAGNOTE. In former days an eminence out of cannon shot of operations, where spectators were not exposed to danger.

MONTERO. A military cap and hood formerly worn in camp.

MONTHLY ALLOWANCE. A sum paid monthly to warrant and petty officers not allowed to draw bills; and to seamen, marines, and boys serving on board. Wages are now paid regularly.

MONTHLY NOTES. _See_ ALLOTMENT.

MOON. Our satellite; she performs her revolution in 27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes. (_See_ FULL MOON and NEW MOON.) A hazy or pale colour of the moon, revealing the state of our atmosphere, is supposed to forebode rain, and a red or copper colour to forebode wind.

MOON-BLINK. A temporary evening blindness occasioned by sleeping in the moonshine in tropical climates; it is technically designated _nyctalopia_.

MOON-CULMINATORS. Certain stars near the same parallel of declination as the moon, and not differing greatly from her in right ascension, given in the Ephemeris as proper objects for comparison with her, to determine the longitudes of places.

MOONEY. Not quite intoxicated, but unfitted for duty.

MOON IN DISTANCE. When the angle between her and the sun, or a star, admits of measurement for lunar observation.

MOONISH. Variable, as with Shakspeare's Rosalind.

MOON-RAKERS. Sails above the skysails. They are usually designated moon-sails.

MOON-SHEERED. A ship the upper works of which rise very high, fore and aft.

MOONSHINE. Illicit hollands, schiedam, and indeed smuggling in general; excused as a _matter of moonshine_. A mere nothing.

MOON-STRUCK. An influence imputed to the moon in the tropics, by which fish, particularly of the _s...o...b..r_ cla.s.s, though recently taken, become intenerated, and even spoiled; while some attribute poisonous qualities to them in this state. Human beings are also said to be injured by sleeping in the moon's rays.

MOOR. An upland swamp, boggy, with fresh water. Also, an open common.

MOOR, TO. To secure a ship with anchors, or to confine her in a particular station by two chains or cables, either fastened to the mooring chains or to the bottom; a ship is moored when she rides by two anchors.

MOOR A CABLE EACH WAY, TO. Is dropping one anchor, veering out two cables' lengths, and letting go another anchor from the opposite bow; the first is then hove in to one cable, or less according to circ.u.mstances, while the latter is veered out as much, whereby the ship rides between the two anchors, equally distant from both. This is usually practised in a tide-way, in such manner that the ship rides by one during the flood, and by the other during the ebb.