The Sailor's Word-Book Part 18

AWK. _See_ AUK.

AWKWARD SQUAD. A division formed of those men who are backward in gaining dexterity. (_See_ SQUAD.)

AWL. A tool of a carpenter, sail-maker, and cobbler.

AWME. A tierce of 39 gallons. A Dutch liquid measure.

AWNING. A cover or canvas canopy suspended by a crow-foot and spread over a ship, boat, or other vessel, to protect the decks and crew from the sun and weather. (_See_ EUPHROE.) Also that part of the p.o.o.p-deck which is continued forward beyond the bulk-head of the cabin.

AWNING-ROPES. The ridge and side ropes for securing the awning.

AXE. A large flat edge-tool, for tr.i.m.m.i.n.g and reducing timber. Also an Anglo-Saxon word for _ask_, which seamen still adhere to, and it is difficult to say why a word should be thought improper which has descended from our earliest poets; it may have become obsolete, but without absolutely being vulgar or incorrect.

AXIOM. A self-evident truth or proposition, that cannot be made plainer by demonstration.

AXIS. The imaginary line upon which a planet revolves, the extremities of which are termed the poles,--therefore a line joining the north and south poles. The real or imaginary line that pa.s.ses through the centre of any cylindrical or spherical body on which it may revolve. Also a right line proceeding from the vertex of a cone to the middle of its base. Also, an imaginary right line pa.s.sing through the middle of a ship perpendicularly to its base, and equally distant from its sides;--an imaginary line pa.s.sing through the centre of a gun's bore, parallel with its position.--_Axis of a telescope._ (_See_ COLLIMATION, LINE OF.)

AXLE-TREES. The two cross-pieces of a gun-carriage, fixed across and under the fore and hinder parts of the cheeks. The cylindrical iron which goes through the wheel of the chain-pump, and bears the weight of it.

AYE, AYE, SIR. A prompt reply on receiving an order. Also the answer on comprehending an order. _Aye-aye_, the answer to a sentinel's hail, from a boat which has a commissioned officer on board below the rank of captain. The name of the ship in reply from the boat indicates the presence of a captain. The word "flag," indicates the presence of an admiral.

AYLET. The sea-swallow.

AYONT. Beyond.

AYR. An open sea-beach, and also a bank of sand. (_See_ AIRE.) The mediaeval term for _oar_.

AYT. _See_ EYGHT.

AZIMUTH. A word borrowed from the Arabic. The complement of the amplitude, or an arc between the meridian of a place and any given vertical line.

AZIm.u.t.h.aL ERROR. _See_ MERIDIAN ERROR.

AZIMUTH CIRCLES. _See_ VERTICAL CIRCLES.

AZIMUTH COMPa.s.s. A superior graduated compa.s.s for ascertaining the amount of magnetic variation, by amplitude or azimuth, when the sun is from 8 to 15 high, either after its rising or before its setting.

(_See_ MAGNETIC AZIMUTH.) It is fitted with vertical sight vanes for the purpose of observing objects elevated above the horizon.

AZOGUE. [Sp.] Quicksilver.

AZOGUES. Spanish ships fitted expressly for carrying quicksilver.

AZUMBRE. A Spanish wine-measure, eight of which make an arroba.

AZURE. The deep blue colour of the sky, when perfectly cloudless.

B.

BAARD. A mediaeval transport.

BAARE-Y-LANE. The Manx or Gaelic term for high-water.

BAAS. An old term for the skipper of a Dutch trader.

BAB. The Arabic for _mouth_ or _gate_; especially used by seamen for the entrance of the Red Sea, _Bab-el-mandeb_.

BABBING. An east-country method of catching crabs, by enticing them to the surface of the water with baited lines, and then taking them with a landing net.

BABBLING. The sound made by shallow rivers flowing over stony beds.

BAC. A large flat-bottomed French ferry-boat. In local names it denotes a ferry or place of boating.

BACALLAO [Sp.] A name given to Newfoundland and its adjacent islands, whence the epithet is also applied to the cod-fish salted there.

BACCHI. Two ancient warlike machines; the one resembled a battering-ram, the other cast out fire.

BACK. _To back an anchor._ To carry a small anchor ahead of the one by which the ship rides, to partake of the strain, and check the latter from coming home.--_To back a ship at anchor._ For this purpose the mizen top-sail is generally used; a hawser should be kept ready to wind her, and if the wind falls she must be hove apeak.--_To back and fill._ To get to windward in very narrow channels, by a series of smart alternate boards and backing, with weather tides.--_To back a sail._ To brace its yard so that the wind may blow directly on the front of the sail, and thus r.e.t.a.r.d the ship's course. A sailing vessel is backed by means of the sails, a steamer by reversing the paddles or screw-propeller.--_To back astern._ To impel the water with the oars contrary to the usual mode, or towards the head of the boat, so that she shall recede.--_To back the larboard_ or _starboard oars_. To back with the right or left oars only, so as to round suddenly.--_To back out._ (_See Back a Sail._) The term is also familiarly used for retreating out of a difficulty.--_To back a rope or chain_, is to put on a preventer when it is thought likely to break from age or extra strain.--_To back water._ To impel a boat astern, so as to recede in a direction opposite to the former course.--_Backing the worming._ The act of pa.s.sing small yarn in the holidays, or crevices left between the worming and edges of the rope, to prevent the admission of wet, or to render all parts of equal diameter, so that the service may be smooth.--_Wind backing._ The wind is said to back when it changes contrary to its usual circuit. In the northern hemisphere on the polar side of the trades, the wind usually changes from east, by the south, to west, and so on to north. In the same lat.i.tudes in the southern hemisphere the reverse usually takes place. When it backs, it is generally supposed to be a sign of a freshening breeze.

BACK. The outside or convex part of compa.s.s-timber. Also a wharf.

BACK, OF A SHIP. The keel and kelson are figuratively thus termed.

BACK, OF THE POST. An additional timber bolted to the after-part of the stern-post, and forming its after-face.

BACK-BOARD. A board across the stern sheets of a boat to support the back of pa.s.sengers; and also to form the _box_ in which the c.o.xswain sits.

BACK-CUTTING. When the water-level is such that the excavation of a ca.n.a.l, or other channel, does not furnish earth enough for its own banks, recourse is had to _back-cutting_, or the nearest earth behind the base of the banks.

BACK-FRAME. A vertical wheel for turning the three whirlers of a small rope-machine.

BACK-HER. The order, in steam-navigation, directing the engineer to reverse the movement of the cranks and urge the vessel astern.

BACKING. The timber behind the armour-plates of a ship.

BACK-O'-BEYOND. Said of an unknown distance.

BACK OFF ALL. The order when the harpooner has thrown his harpoon into the whale. Also, to back off a sudden danger.

BACK-ROPE. The rope-pendant, or small chain for staying the dolphin-striker. Also a piece long enough to reach from the cat-block to the stem, and up to the forecastle, to haul the cat-block forward to hook the ring of the anchor--similarly also for hooking the fish-tackle.

(_See_ GAUB-LINE.)

BACKS. The outermost boards of a sawn tree.

BACK-STAFF. A name formerly given to a peculiar sea-quadrant, because the back of the observer was turned towards the sun at the time of observing its zenith distance. The inventor was Captain Davis, the Welsh navigator, about 1590. It consists of a graduated arc of 30 united to a centre by two radii, with a second arc of smaller radius, but measuring 6 on the side of it. To the first arc a vane is attached for sight,--to the second one for shade,--and at the vertex the horizontal vane has a slit in it.