The Sailor's Word-Book Part 222

SILT-GROUNDS. Deep-water banks off Jamaica, where _silt-snappers_ are fished for.

SILT-UP, TO. To be choked with mud or sand, so as to obstruct vessels.

SILVER-CaeDUA. A statute term for wood under twenty years' growth.

SILVER-OAR. One of the badges of the civil court afloat, conferring the power to arrest for debt if not less than 20.

SILVER-THAW. The term for ice falling in large flakes from the sails and rigging, consequent on a frost followed suddenly by a thaw.

SIMOOM. The Arabian name for the _sirocco_ (which see). The simoom, sirocco, samiel, and kamsin seem to be modifications of the same wind from the desert.

SIMULATION. The vice of counterfeiting illness or defect, for the purpose of being invalided.

SINE. A right sine in geometry, is a right line drawn from one end of an arc perpendicularly upon the radius from the centre to the other end of the arc; or it is half the chord of twice the arc.

SINET. An old Chaucerian term for zenith.

SINGING. The chaunt by which the leadsman in the chains proclaims his soundings at each cast:--

"To heave the lead the seaman sprung, And to the pilot cheerly sung, By the deep--nine."

SINGLE, TO. To unreeve the running part of top-sail sheets, &c., to let them run freely, or for harbour duty.

SINGLE-ACTION ENGINE. _See_ ATMOSPHERIC STEAM-ENGINE.

SINGLE ANCHOR. A ship unmoored, having hove up one bower, rides by the other.

SING SMALL. To make a bullying boaster _sing small_, by lowering his arrogance.

SINICAL QUADRANT. _See_ QUADRANT.

SINNET. _See_ SENNIT.

SIR. Once a scholastic t.i.tle applied to priests and curates; now to knights. "Aye, aye, sir," is the well-known answer from seamen, denoting 'cuteness, combined with good humour and obedience.

SIRIUS. The princ.i.p.al star, a, of the constellation Canis Major, and the brightest in the heavens; the dog-star.

SIROCCO. An oppressively hot parching wind from the deserts of Africa, which in the southern part of Italy and Sicily comes from the south-east; it sometimes commences faintly about the summer solstice.

SISERARA, OR SURSERARA. A tremendous blow; or a violent rebuke.

SISSOO. An Indian timber much used in the construction of country ships.

SISTER OR CISTERN BLOCK. A turned cylindrical block having two sheave-holes, one above the other. It fits in between the first pair of top-mast shrouds on each side, and is secured by seizings below the cat-harpings. The topsail-lift reeves through the lower, and the reef-tackle pendant through the upper.

SISTER-KEELSONS. Square timbers extending along the floors, by the main keelson, leaving sufficient s.p.a.ce on each side for the limbers. (_See_ SIDE-KEELSONS.)

SISTROID ANGLE. One like a sistrum, the Egyptian musical instrument.

SITCH. A little current of water, generally dry in summer.

SIX-UPON-FOUR. Reduced allowance; four rations allotted to six men.

SIX-WATER GROG. Given as a punishment for neglect or drunkenness, instead of the usual _four-water_, which is one part rum, and four parts water, lime-juice, and sugar.

SIZE, TO. To range soldiers, marines, and small-arm men, so that the tallest may be on the flanks of a party.

SIZE-FISH. A whale, of which the whalebone blades are six feet or upwards in length; the harpooner gets a bonus for striking a "size-fish."

SIZES. A corruption for _six-upon-four_ (which see).

SKARKALLA. An old machine for catching fish.

SKART. A name of the cormorant in the Hebrides.

SKATE. A well-known cartilaginous fish of the ray family, _Raia batis_.

SKATE-LURKER. A cant word for a begging impostor dressed as a sailor.

SKEDADDLE, TO. To stray wilfully from a watering or a working party. An archaism retained by the Americans.

SKEDDAN. The Manx or Erse term for herrings.

SKEEL. A cylindrical wooden bucket. A large water-kid.

SKEER, OR SCAR. A place where c.o.c.kles are gathered. (_See_ SCAR.)

SKEET. A long scoop used to wet the sides of the ship, to prevent their splitting by the heat of the sun. It is also employed in small vessels for wetting the sails, to render them more efficacious in light breezes; this in large ships is done by the fire engine.

SKEE-TACK. A northern name for the cuttle-fish.

SKEGG. A small and slender part of the keel of a ship, cut slanting, and left a little without the stern-post; not much used now, owing to its catching hawsers, and occasioning dead water. The after-part of the keel itself is also called the skegg.

SKEGG-Sh.o.r.eS. Stout pieces of plank put up endways under the skegg of the ship, to steady the after-part when in the act of being launched.

SKELDRYKE. An old term for a small pa.s.sage-boat in the north.

SKELETON OF A REGIMENT. Its princ.i.p.al officers and staff.

SKELLY. The _Leuciscus cephalus_, or chub. In the northern lakes it is often called the fresh-water herring.

SKELP, TO. To slap with the open hand: an old word, said to have been imported from Iceland:--

"I canno' tell a'; Some gat a skelp, and some gat a claw."

SKENE, OR SKAIN. A crooked sword formerly used by the Irish.

SKENY. A northern term to express an insulated rock.