The Sailor's Word-Book Part 25

BAYLE. An old term for bucket.

BAYONET [Sp. _bayoneta_]. A pike-dagger to fit on the muzzle of a musket, so as not to interfere with its firing.

BAZAR, OR BAZAAR. A market or market-place. An oriental term.

BAZARAS. A large flat-bottomed pleasure-boat of the Ganges, moved with both sails and oars.

BEACH. A littoral margin, or line of coast along the sea-sh.o.r.e, composed of sand, gravel, shingle, broken sh.e.l.ls, or a mixture of them all: any gently sloping part of the coast alternately dry and covered by the tide. The same as _strand_.

BEACH, TO. Sudden landing--to run a boat on the sh.o.r.e, to land a person with intent to desert him--an old buccaneer custom. To land a boat on a beach before a dangerous sea, this demands practical skill, for which the Dover and Deal men are famed.

BEACH-COMBERS. Loiterers around a bay or harbour.

BEACH-COMBING. Loafing about a port to filch small things.

BEACH-FLEA. A small crustacean (_Talitra_) frequenting sandy sh.o.r.es.

BEACH-GRa.s.s. _Alga marina_ thrown up by the surf or tide.

BEACHING A VESSEL. _See under_ VOLUNTARY STRANDING. Also, the act of running a vessel up on the beach for various purposes where there is no other accommodation.

BEACH-MAN. A person on the coast of Africa who acts as interpreter to shipmasters, and a.s.sists them in conducting the trade.

BEACH-MASTER. A superior officer, captain, appointed to superintend disembarkation of an attacking force, who holds plenary powers, and generally leads the storming party. His acts when in the heat of action, if he summarily shoot a coward, are unquestioned--poor Falconer, to wit!

BEACH-MEN. A name applied to boatmen and those who land people through a heavy surf.

BEACH-RANGERS. Men hanging about sea-ports, who have been turned out of vessels for bad conduct.

BEACH-TRAMPERS. A name applied to the coast-guard.

BEACON. [Anglo-Saxon, _beacn_.] A post or stake erected over a shoal or sand-bank, as a warning to seamen to keep at a distance; also a signal-mark placed on the top of hills, eminences, or buildings near the sh.o.r.e for the safe guidance of shipping.

BEACONAGE. A payment levied for the maintenance of beacons.

BEAFT. Often used by east-country men for abaft.

BEAK, OR BEAK-HEAD. A piece of bra.s.s like a beak, fixed at the head of the ancient galleys, with which they pierced their enemies. Pisaeus is said to have first added the rostrum or beak-head. Later it was a small platform at the fore part of the upper deck, but the term is now applied to that part without the ship before the forecastle, or knee of the head, which is fastened to the stem and is supported by the main knee.

Latterly, to meet steam propulsion, the whole of this is enlarged, strengthened, and armed with iron plates, and thus the armed stem revives the ancient strategy in sea-fights. Shakspeare makes Ariel thus allude to the beak in the "Tempest:"--

"I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak, Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin, I flam'd amazement."

BEAKER. A flat drinking tumbler or cup, from the German _becher_. (_See_ BICKER.)

BEAK-HEAD BEAM. For this important timber _see_ CAT-BEAM.

BEAK-HEAD BULK-HEAD. The old termination aft of the s.p.a.ce called _beak-head_, which inclosed the fore part of the ship.

BEAL. A word of Gaelic derivation for an opening or narrow pa.s.s between two hills.

BEAM. A long double stratum of murky clouds generally observed over the surface of the Mediterranean previous to a violent storm or an earthquake. The French call it _trave_.

BEAM. (_See_ ABEAM.)--_Before the beam_ is an arc of the horizon, comprehended between a line that crosses the ship's length at right angles and some object at a distance before it; or between the line of the beam and that point of the compa.s.s which she stems. On the _weather_ or _lee_ beam is in a direction to windward or leeward at right angles with the keel.

BEAM-ARM. Synonymous with _crow-foot_ (which see).

BEAM-ENDS. A ship is said to be on her beam-ends when she has heeled over so much on one side that her beams approach to a vertical position; hence also a person lying down is metaphorically said to be on his beam-ends.

BEAM-FILLINGS. Short lengths of wood cut to fit in between the beams to complete the cargo of a timber ship.

BEAM-LINE. A line raised along the inside of the ship fore and aft, showing the upper sides of the beams at her side.

BEAM OF THE ANCHOR. Synonymous with _anchor-stock_.

BEAMS. Strong transverse pieces of timber stretching across the ship from one side to the other, to support the decks and retain the sides at their proper distance, with which they are firmly connected by means of strong knees, and sometimes of standards. They are sustained at each end by thick stringers on the ship's side, called shelf-pieces, upon which they rest. The main-beam is next abaft the main-mast, which is stepped between two beams with transverse supports termed partners; the foremost of these is generally termed the main-beam, or the after-beam of the main-hatchway. The greatest beam of all is called the midship-beam.

BEAN-COD. A small fishing-vessel, or pilot-boat, common on the sea-coasts and in the rivers of Spain and Portugal; extremely sharp forward, having its stem bent inward above in a considerable curve; it is commonly navigated with a large lateen sail, which extends the whole length of the deck, and sometimes of an out-rigger over the stern, and is accordingly well fitted to ply to windward. They frequently set as many as twenty different sails, alow and aloft, by every possible contrivance, so as to puzzle seamen who are not familiar with the rig.

BEAR. A large block of stone, matted, loaded with shot, and fitted with ropes, by which it is roused or pulled to and fro to grind the decks withal. Also, a coir-mat filled with sand similarly used.

BEAR, THE CONSTELLATIONS OF THE. Ursa Major and Minor, most important to seamen, as instantly indicating by the pointers and pole-star the true north at night, much more correctly than any compa.s.s bearing.

BEAR, TO. The direction of an object from the viewer; it is used in the following different phrases: The land's end bore E.N.E.; _i.e._ it was seen from the ship in a line with the E.N.E. point of the compa.s.s. We bore down upon the enemy; _i.e._ having the advantage of the wind, or being to windward, we approached the enemy by sailing large, or from the wind. When a ship that was to windward comes under another ship's stern, and so gives her the wind, she is said to bear under the lee; often as a mark of respect. She bears in with the land, is said of a ship when she runs towards the sh.o.r.e. We bore off the land; _i.e._ we increased our distance from the land.--_To bear down_ upon a ship, is to approach her from the windward.--_To bear ordnance_, to carry her guns well.--_To bear sail_, stiff under canvas.--_To bear up_, to put the helm up, and keep a vessel off her course, letting her recede from the wind and move to leeward; this is synonymous with _to bear away_, but is applied to the ship instead of the helm.--_Bear up_, one who has duly served for a commission, but from want of interest bears up broken-hearted and accepts an inferior warrant, or quits the profession, seeking some less important vocation; some middies have borne up and yet become bishops, lord-chancellors, judges, surgeons, &c.--_To bear up round_, is to put a ship right before the wind.--_To bring a cannon to bear_, signifies that it now lies right with the mark.--_To bear off from_, and _in with_ the land, signifies standing off or going towards the coast.

BEAR A BOB, OR A FIST. Jocular for "lend a hand."

BEAR A HAND. Hasten.

BEARD. The silky filaments or byssus by which some testacea adhere to rocks. Of an oyster, the gills.

BEARDIE. A northern name of the three-spined stickleback.

BEARDING. The angular fore-part of the rudder, in juxtaposition with the stern-post. Also, the corresponding bevel of the stern-post. Also, the bevelling of any piece of timber or plank to any required angle: as the bearding of dead wood, clamps, &c.

BEARDING-LINE. In ship-building, is a curved line made by bearding the dead-wood to the shape of the ship's body.

BEARERS. Pieces of plank placed on the bolts which are driven through the standards or posts for the carpenters' stages to rest upon.

BEARING. An arc of the horizon intercepted between the nearest meridian and any distant object, either discovered by the eye and referred to a point on the compa.s.s, or resulting from finical proportion. There is the _true_ or astronomical bearing, and the _magnetic_ bearing. It is also the situation of any distant object, estimated with regard to the ship's position; and in this sense the object must bear either ahead, astern, abreast, on the bow, or on the quarter; if a ship sails with a side wind, a distant object is said to bear to leeward or to windward, on the lee quarter or bow, or on the weather quarter or bow.

BEARING BACKSTAYS AFT. To throw the breast backstays out of the cross-tree horns or out-riggers and bear them aft. If not done, when suddenly bracing up, the cross-tree horn is frequently sprung or broken off.

BEARING BINNACLE. A small binnacle with a single compa.s.s, usually placed before the other. In line-of-battle ships it is generally placed on the fife-rail in the centre and foremost part of the p.o.o.p.

BEARINGS. The widest part of a vessel below the plank-shear. The line of flotation which is formed by the water upon her sides when she sits upright with her provisions, stores, and ballast, on board in proper trim.

BEARINGS, TO BRING TO HIS. Used in conversation for "to bring to reason." To bring an unruly subject to his senses, to know he is under control, to reduce to order.

BEAT. The verb means to excel, surpa.s.s, or overcome.