The Sailor's Word-Book Part 207

RUNE [from the Teutonic _rennen_, to flow]. A water-course.

RUNGS. The same as the floor or ground timbers, and whose ends are the rung-heads. Also, a spoke, and the step or round of a ladder.

RUNLET. A measure of wine, oil, &c., containing eighteen gallons and a half.

RUN-MONEY. The money paid for apprehending a deserter, and charged against his wages. Also, the sum given to seamen for bringing a ship home from the West Indies, or other places, in time of war. Coasters are sometimes paid by the run instead of by the month.

RUNNER-PURCHASE. The addition of a tackle to a single rope, then termed a pendant, pa.s.sing through a block applied to the object to be moved; as it might be the laniard of a shroud, the end of the runner pendant being fast to some secure fixed object; as in backstays, &c.

RUNNERS. Ships which risk every impediment as to privateers or blockade, to get a profitable market.

RUNNERS OF FOREIGN GOODS. Organized smugglers.

RUNNING AGREEMENT. In the case of foreign-going ships making voyages averaging less than six months in duration, running agreements can legally be made with the crew to extend over two or more voyages.

RUNNING-BLOCKS. Those which are made fast to the running rigging or tackles.

RUNNING BOWLINE-KNOT. Is made by taking the end round the standing part, and making a bowline upon its own part.

RUNNING BOWSPRIT. One which is used in revenue cutters and smacks; it can be reefed by sliding in, and has fid holes for that purpose. (_See_ SLOOP.)

RUNNING-DOWN CLAUSE. A special admission into policies of marine insurance, to include the risk of loss or damage in consequence of the collision of the ship insured with other vessels.

RUNNING-DOWN THE PORT. A method practised in the ruder state of navigation, when the longitude was very doubtful, by sailing into its parallel of lat.i.tude, and then working for it on its parallel.

RUNNING FOUL. A vessel, by accident or bad steerage, falling in contact with another under sail. (_See_ ATHWART HAWSE.) The law and custom of the sea requires that the ship on the port tack shall bear up and give way to that on the starboard tack. Foreigners observe this general custom. Steamers however are always bound to give way to vessels under canvas, having the power to alter course without altering sails, or endangering the vessel.

RUNNING GOODS. Landing a cargo of contraband articles.

RUNNING OUT, AND RUNNING IN, THE LOWER DECK GUNS. The old practice of morning and evening evolutions in a line-of-battle ship, wind and weather permitting.

RUNNING PART OF A TACKLE. Synonymous with the fall, or that part on which the man power is applied to produce the intended effect.

RUNNING THE GANTLET. _See_ GANT-LOPE (p.r.o.nounced _gantlet_).

RUN OUT A WARP, TO. To carry a hawser out from the ship by a boat, and fasten it to some distant place to remove the ship towards that place, or to keep her steady whilst her anchors are lifted, &c.

RUPEE. The well-known coin of the East Indies. There are gold rupees of nearly 30 shillings in value; but the current rupee is of silver, varying a little from 2 shillings, according to its being named Bombay, Arcot, or Sicca.

RUSPONE. A gold Tuscan coin of the value of 1, 8_s._ 7_d._ sterling.

RUT OF THE SEA. The point of impact where it dashes against anything.

RUT OF THE Sh.o.r.e. The sea breaking along the coast.

RUTTER, OR ROUTIER. The old word for an outline chart for ships' tracks [from _route_]. It was also applied to a journal or log-book; or to a set of sailing instructions, as a directory.

RYDE. A small stream.

RYNE. An Anglo-Saxon word still in use for a water-course, or streamlet which rises high with floods.

S.

S. A bent iron, called a crooked catch, or pot-hook, in anchors, &c.

SABANDER. The familiar of _shah-bander_, an eastern t.i.tle for captain or governor of a port.

SABATINES. Steel coverings for the feet; sometimes slippers or clogs.

SABRE. A sword with a broad and rather heavy blade, thick at the back, and curved towards the point, intended for cutting more than for thrusting.

SABRETACHE. A flat leathern case or pocket suspended at the left side of a cavalry officer's sword-belt.

SACCADE. The sudden jerk of the sails in light winds and a heavy swell.

SACCOLEVA, OR SACOLEGE. A Levantine small craft of great sheer, carrying a sail with an enormous sprit, so called.

SACK, TO [from the Anglo-Saxon _saec_]. To pillage a place which has been taken by storm.

SACKS OF COALS. The seaman's name for the black _Magellanic clouds_, or patches of deep blue sky in the milky-way near the south pole.

SADDLE HILL. A high land visible from the coast, having a centre less elevated than its ends, somewhat like a riding-saddle.

SADDLES. Chocks of notched wood embracing spars, to support others attached to them; thus we have a saddle-crutch for the main or driver boom on the taffarel; another on the bowsprit to support the heel of the jib-boom.

SAFE-CONDUCT. A security pa.s.sport granted to an enemy for his safe entry and pa.s.sage through the realm.

SAFEGUARD. Protection given to secure a people from oppression in time of trouble.

SAFETY-KEEL. A construction of keel for further security, by Oliver Lang.

SAFETY-PIN. To secure the head of the capstan-bar.

SAFETY-VALVE. A conical valve on the top of the steam-chest, communicating with the boiler of a steam-engine, and opening outwardly; it is so adapted and loaded, that when the steam in the boiler exceeds its proper pressure, it raises the valve, and escapes by a pipe called the waste steam-pipe.

SAGG, TO. To bend or give way from heavy weight; to press down towards the middle; the opposite of _hogging_. In _Macbeth_ the word is figuratively applied--

"The mind I sway by, and the heart I bear, Shall never sagg with doubt, nor shake with fear."

SAGGING TO LEEWARD. To drift off bodily to leeward. The movement by which a ship makes a considerable lee-way.

SAGITTA. One of the ancient northern constellations.

SAGITTARII. The name in our records for some small vessels with oars and sails, used in the twelfth century.