The Sailor's Word-Book Part 202

RIG, TO. To fit the shrouds, stays, braces, and running-rigging to their respective masts, yards, and sails. Colloquially, it means to dress.--_To rig in a boom_, is to draw it in.--_To rig out a boom_, is to run it out from a yard, in order to extend the foot of a sail upon it, as with studding-sail booms, &c.

RIGEL. _Orionis_, one of the bright stars in Orion.

RIGGED. Completely equipped.

RIGGERS. Men employed on board ships to fit the standing and running rigging, or to dismantle them. The riggers in the naval yards, who rig ships previous to their being commissioned, are under the master-attendant, and perform all anchor, mooring, and harbour duties also.

RIGGING. A general name given to all the ropes or chains employed to support the masts, and arrange the sails according to the direction of the wind. Those are termed "standing" which are comparative fixtures, and support the masts, &c.; and those "running," which are in constant use, to trim the yards, and make or shorten sail, &c.

RIGGING-LOFT. A long room or gallery in a dockyard, where rigging is fitted by stretching, serving, splicing, seizing, &c., to be in readiness for the ship.

RIGGING-MATS. Those which are seized upon a vessel's standing rigging, to prevent its being chafed.

RIGGING OUT. A term for outfitting. Also, a word used familiarly to express clothing of ship or tar.

RIGGING-STOPPER. _See_ STOPPER OF THE CABLE.

RIGHT. As to direction, fully or directly; thus, right ahead, or right away, &c.

RIGHT ANGLE. An angle formed by a line rising or falling perpendicularly upon another, and measuring 90, or the quadrant of a circle.

RIGHT-ANGLED TRIANGLE. That which has one right angle.

RIGHT ASCENSION. An arc of the equator between the first point of Aries, and the hour circle which pa.s.ses through any planet or star; or that point of the equinoctial, which comes to the meridian with any heavenly object, and is therefore similar to terrestrial longitude.

RIGHT ATHWART. Square, or at right angles with the keel.

RIGHT AWAY! It is a habit of seamen answering when a sail is discovered from the mast-head; "Right away on the beam, sir," or "on the bow," &c.

RIGHT-HAND ROPE. That which is laid up and twisted with the sun, that is to the right hand; the term is opposed to _water-laid rope_, which is left-handed.

RIGHTING. The act of a ship recovering her upright position after she has been laid upon a careen, which is effected by casting loose the careening tackles, and, if necessary, heaving upon the relieving tackles. A ship is also said _to right_ at sea, when she rises with her masts erect, after having been listed over on one side by grounding, or force of wind.

RIGHT THE HELM! The order to put it amidships, that is, in a line with the keel.

RIGHT ON END. In a continuous line; as the masts should be.

RIGHT SAILING. Running a course on one of the four cardinal points, so as to alter only a ship's lat.i.tude, or longitude.

RIGHT UP AND DOWN. Said in a dead calm, when the wind is no way at all.

Or, in anchor work, when the cable is in that condition, the boatswain calls, "Up and down, sir," whereupon "Thick and dry (nippers) for weighing" are ordered.

RIGHT WAY. When the ship's head casts in the desired direction. Also, when she swings clear at single anchor.

RIGHT WHALE. A name applied to the whale with a very large head and no dorsal fin, which yields the whalebone and train-oil of commerce, in opposition to the fin-backs or rorquals, which are scarcely worth catching. There are several species found both in the Arctic and Southern seas, but never within the tropics.

RIG OF A SHIP. The disposition of the masts, cut of sails, &c., whether square or fore-and-aft rigs. In fact, the rig denotes the character of the vessel.

RIG THE CAPSTAN, TO. To fix the bars in the drumhead in readiness for heaving; not forgetting to pin and swift. (_See_ CAPSTAN.)

RIG THE GRATINGS. Prepare them for punishment.

RILE. An old corruption of _rail_. To ruffle the temper; to vex.

RILL. A very small run of fresh water, less than a rivulet.

RIM, OR BRIM. A name given to the circular edge of a top. (_See_ TOP.)

RIM-BASE. The shoulder on the stock of a musket.

RIME. h.o.a.r-frost; condensed vapour.

RIMER. A palisade in fortification; but for its naval application, _see_ REEMING. Also, a tool for enlarging holes in metal plates, &c.

RIMS. Those pieces which form the quarter-galleries between the stools.

Also, the cast-iron frame in which the dropping pauls of a capstan traverse, and bring up the capstan.

RING. A commercial measure of staves, or wood prepared for casks, and containing four shocks. Also, the iron ring to which the cable is bent to the anchor in the summit of the shank.

RING-BOLT. An iron bolt with an eye at one end, wherein is fitted a circular ring. They are more particularly used for managing cannon, and are for this purpose fixed on each side of the port-holes. They are driven through the plank and the corresponding timber, and retained in this position by a clinching ring.

RING-DOGS. Iron implements for hauling timber along: made by connecting two common dogs by a ring through the eyes. When united with cordage they form a _sling-dog_ (which see).

RING-ROPES. Ropes rove through the ring of the anchor, to haul the cable through it, in order to bend or make it fast in bad weather; they are first rove through the ring, and then through the hawse-holes, when the end of the cable is secured to them.

RINGS. The annual circular layers in timber. Also, grommets, or circles of metal for lifting things by hand, or securing the points of bolts, &c., as hatch or port rings.

RING-STOPPER. A long piece of rope secured to an after ring-bolt, and the loop embracing the cable through the next, and others in succession nip the cable home to each ring-bolt in succession. It is a precaution in veering cable in bad weather.

RING-TAIL. A kind of studding-sail hoisted beyond the after edge of those sails which are extended by a gaff and a boom over the stern. The two lower corners of this sail are stretched to a boom, called a _ring-tail boom_, which rigs in and out upon the main or driver boom.

RINK. A s.p.a.ce of ice devoted to certain recreations, as a skating or a curling rink: generally roofed in from the snow in Canada.

RIONNACK. A name of the horse-mackerel among the Scottish islands.

RIP. A pannier or basket used for carrying fish.--_To rip_, to strip off a ship's planks.

RIPARIA. A law-term for the water running between the banks of a river.

RIPARY. Inhabiting the sea-sh.o.r.e.

RIPE [from the Latin, _ripa_]. The banks of a tide-river, and the sea-sh.o.r.e: a term in use on our southern coasts.

RIPPERS, OR RIPIERS. Men from the sea-sh.o.r.es, who sell fish to the inland towns and villages.

RIPPING-IRON. A caulker's tool for tearing oak.u.m out of a seam, or stripping copper or sheathing from a ship's bottom. (_See_ REEMING.)

RIPPLE. The small waves raised on the surface of the water by the pa.s.sage of a slight breeze, or current, caused by foul bottom.