The Sailor's Word-Book Part 201

RETINUE. Applied strictly to the admiral's suite or followers, though it means an accompanying train in general.

RETIRE. The old war-term for retreat. Thus Shakspeare makes Richard Plantagenet exclaim--

"Ne'er may he live to see a sunshine day, That cries Retire, if Warwick bid him stay."

RETIRED LIST. A roll whereon deserving officers are placed whose health, age, or want of interest justifies their retirement from active service.

RETIRED PAY. A graduated pension for retired officers; but the term is nearly synonymous with _half pay_.

RETRACTUS AQUae. An old law-term for the ebb or return of tide.

RETREAT. The order in which a fleet or squadron declines engagement. Or the retrograde movement of any body of men who retire from a hostile force. Also, that beat of drum about sunset which orders the guards and piquets to take up their night duties.

RETRENCHMENT. A defence with a ditch and breast-work behind another post or defence, whereby the besieger, on forcing the original work, is confronted by a fresh one.

RETROGRADATION. An apparent motion of the planets contrary to the order of the signs, and to their orbital march. The arc of retrogradation is the angular distance thus apparently traversed. Mars may be watched as an instance.

RETROGRADE MOTION. _See_ MOTION.

RETURN. A ship on a return voyage is not generally liable; but if she sailed on the outward voyage under false papers, the liability to confiscation continues.

RETURN A SALUTE, TO. Admirals are saluted, but return two guns less for each rank that the saluting officer is below the admiral.

RETURNS. All the various reports and statements required by officers in command to be made periodically. (_See_ SUPPLIES AND RETURNS.)

REVEILLE. The beat of drum at break of day, when night duties cease.

REVENUE. In cases of revenue proceedings, the law harshly provides that the _onus probandi_ is to be on the claimant, however injured.

REVENUE-CUTTERS. Sharp-built single-masted vessels armed, for the purpose of preventing smuggling, and enforcing the custom-house regulations. They are usually styled _revenue-cruisers_.

REVERSE. A change; a vicissitude. Also, the flank at the other extremity from the pivot of a division is termed the reverse flank.

REVETMENT. A sloping wall of brick-work, or any other attainable material, supporting the outer face of the rampart, and lining the side of the ditch.

REVIEW. The inspection of a fleet or army, or of any body of men under arms.

REVOLUTION, TIME OF. In relation to a planet or comet, this is the time occupied in completing a circuit round the sun, and is synonymous with _periodic time_.

RHE. A very old word signifying an overflow of water.

RHILAND-ROD. A Dutch measure of 12 English feet, formerly in use with us: it is more properly _Rhine-land rod_.

RHODIAN LAWS. A maritime code, a.s.serted, but without sufficient proof, to be the basis of the Roman sea-laws. The code published by Leunclavius and others, as a body of Rhodian laws, is a mere forgery of modern times.

RHODINGS. The bra.s.s cleats on which the axles of the pumps work.

RHOMBOID. An oblique parallelogram, having its opposite sides equal and parallel, but its angles not right angles.

RHOMBUS. A lozenge-shaped figure, having four equal sides, but its angles not right angles.

RHUMB, OR RHOMB. A vertical circle of any given place, or the intersection of a part of such a circle with the horizon. Rhumbs, therefore, coincide with points of the world, or of the horizon; and hence seamen distinguish the rhumbs by the same names as the points and winds, as marked on the fly or card of the compa.s.s. The _rhumb-line_, therefore, is a line prolonged from any point of the compa.s.s in a nautical chart, except the four cardinal points; or it is a line which a ship, keeping in the same collateral point or rhumb, describes throughout its whole course.

RHYDAL [from the Celtic _rhydle_]. A ford or channel joining lakes or broad waters.

RIBADOQUIN. A powerful cross-bow for throwing long darts. Also, an old piece of ordnance throwing a ball of one or two pounds.

RIBBANDS. In naval architecture, long narrow flexible pieces of fir nailed upon the outside of the ribs, from the stem to the stern-post of a ship, so as to encompa.s.s the body lengthways, and hold the timbers together while in frame.

RIBBING-NAILS. Similar to deck-nails, but not so fine; they have large round heads with rings, so as to prevent their heads from splitting the timbers, or being drawn through.

RIBBONS. The painted mouldings along a ship's side. Also, the tatters of a sail in blowing away.

RIBS. The frame timbers which rise from the bottom to the top of a ship's hull: the hull being as the body, the keel as the backbone, and the planking as the skin.

RIBS AND TRUCKS. Used figuratively for fragments.

RIBS OF A PARREL. An old species of parrel having alternate ribs and bull's-eyes; the ribs were pieces of wood, each about one foot in length, having two holes in them through which the two parts of the parrel-rope are reeved with a bull's-eye between; the inner smooth edge of the rib rests against, and slides readily up and down, the mast.

RICKERS. Lengths of stout poles cut up for the purpose of stowing flax, hemp, and the like. Spars supplied for boats' masts and yards, boat-hook staves, &c.

RICOCHET. The bound of a shot. _Ricochet fire_, that whereby, a less charge and a greater elevation being used, the shot or sh.e.l.l is made to just clear a parapet, and bound along the interior of a work.

RIDDLE. A sort of weir in rivers.--_To riddle._ To fire through and through a vessel, and reduce her to a sieve-like condition.

RIDE, TO. To ride at anchor. A vessel rides easily, apeak, athwart, head to wind, out a gale, open hawse, to the tide, to the wind, &c. A rope rides, as when round the capstan or windla.s.s the strain part overlies and jams the preceding turn.--_To ride between wind and tide._ Said of a ship at anchor when she is acted upon by wind and tide from different directions, and takes up a position which is the result of both forces.

RIDEAU. A rising ground running along a plain, nearly parallel to the works of a place, and therefore prejudicial.

RIDERS. Timbers laid as required, reaching from the keelson to the orlop-beams, to bind a ship and give additional strength. They are variously termed, as _lower futtock-riders_ and _middle futtock-riders_.

When a vessel is weak, or has broken her floors or timbers, riders are introduced to secure the ship, and enable her to reach a port where she can be properly repaired. Stringers are also used, but these run horizontally.--_Riders_ are also upper tiers of casks, or any stowed above the ground tier in the hold.

RIDING A PORT-LAST. With lower yards on the gunwales.

RIDING-BITTS. Those to which the cable is made fast.

RIDING-DOWN. The act of the men who throw their weight on the head of a sail to stretch it. Also, of the man who comes down a stay, &c., to tar it; or foots the bunt in.

RIDGE. Hydrographically means a long narrow stretch of shingle or rocks, near the surface of the sea, (_See_ REEF and SHALLOWS.) Geographically, the intersection of two opposite slopes, or a range of hills, or the highest line of mountains.

RIDGE-ROPES, are of various kinds. Thus the centre-rope of an awning, and those along the rigging to which it is stretched, the man-ropes to the bowsprit, safety lines from gun to gun in bad weather--all obtain this name.

RIFE. An old provincial term for a salt-water pond.

RIFLED ORDNANCE. That which is provided with spiral grooves in the interior of the bore, to give rotatory motion to the projectile, thereby much increasing its accuracy of flight, and permitting the use of elongated shot and sh.e.l.l.

RIFLE-PIT. Cover hastily thrown up by one or two skirmishers, but contributing, when a line of them is joined together, to form works sometimes of much importance.

RIG. Colloquially, mischievous frolic not carried to excess.