The Sailor's Word-Book Part 27

BELL-WARE. A name of the _Zostera marina_ (which see).

BELLY. The swell of a sail. The inner or hollow part of compa.s.s timber; the outside is called the _back_. To belly a sail is to inflate or fill it with the wind, so as to give a taut leech.--_Bellying canvas_ is generally applied to a vessel going free, as when the belly and foot reefs which will not stand on a wind, are shaken out.--_Bellying to the breeze_, the sails filling or being inflated by the wind.--_Bellying to leeward_, when too much sail is injudiciously carried.

BELLY-BAND. A strip of canvas, half way between the close-reef and the foot of square sails, to strengthen them. Also applied to an army officer's sash.

BELLY-GUY. A tackle applied half-way up sheers, or long spars that require support in the middle. Frequently applied to masts that have been crippled by injudiciously setting up the rigging too taut.

BELLY-MAT. _See_ PAUNCH-MAT.

BELLY-STAY. Used half-mast down when a mast requires support; as belly-guy, above.

BELOW. The opposite of _on_ or _'pon deck_. Generally used to distinguish the watch on deck, and those off the watch.

BELT. A metaphorical term in geography for long and proportionally narrow encircling strips of land having any particular feature; as a belt of sand, a belt of hills, &c. It is, in use, nearly synonymous with zone. Also, to beat with a colt or rope's end.

BELTING. A beating; formerly given by a belt.

BELTS. The dusky streaks crossing the surface of the planet Jupiter, and supposed to be openings in his atmosphere.

BENCHES OF BOATS. The seats in the after-part whereon the pa.s.sengers sit; properly stern-sheets, the others are athwarts, whereon the rowers sit.

BEND, TO. To fasten one rope to another, or to an anchor. The term is also applied to any sudden or remarkable change in the direction of a river, and is then synonymous with bight or loop.--_Bend a sail_ is to extend or make it fast to its proper yard or stay. (_See_ GRANNY'S BEND.) Also, _bend to your oars_, throw them well forward.

BEND. The chock of the bowsprit.

BENDER. A contrivance to bend small cross-bows, formerly used in the navy. Also, "look out for a _bender_," or "strike out for a bend,"

applied to coiling the hempen cables.

BENDING ROPES, is to join them together with a bowline knot, and then make their own ends fast upon themselves; not so secure as splicing, but sooner done, and readiest, when it is designed to take them asunder again. There are several bends, as _Carrick-bend_, _hawser-bend_, _sheet-bend_, _bowline-bend_, &c.

BENDING THE CABLE. The operation of clinching, or tying the cable to the ring of its anchor. The term is still used for shackling chain-cables to their anchors.

BEND-MOULD. A mould made to form the futtocks in the square body, a.s.sisted by the _rising-square_ and _floor-hollow_.

BEND ON THE TACK. In hoisting signals, that piece of rope called the distant line--which keeps the flags so far asunder that they are not confused. Also, in setting free sails, the studding-sail tack, &c.

BEND-ROLL. A rest formerly used for a heavy musket.

BENDS. The thickest and strongest planks on the outward part of a ship's side, between the plank-streaks on which men set their feet in climbing up. They are more properly called wales, or wails. They are reckoned from the water, and are distinguished by the t.i.tles of _first_, _second_, or _third bend_. They are the chief strength of a ship's sides, and have the beams, knees, and foot-hooks bolted to them. Bends are also the frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the side, individualized by each particular station. That at the broadest part of the ship is denominated the _midship-bend_ or _dead-flat_.

BE-NEAPED. The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height of spring-tides. (_See_ NEAPED.)

BENGAL LIGHT. _See_ BLUE LIGHT.

BENJY. A low-crowned straw-hat, with a very broad brim.

BENK. A north-country term for a low bank, or ledge of rock; probably the origin of _bunk_, or sleeping-places in merchant vessels. (_See_ BUNK.)

BENN. A small kind of salmon; the earliest in the Solway Frith.

BENT. The trivial name of the _Arundo arenaria_, or coa.r.s.e unprofitable gra.s.s growing on the sea-sh.o.r.e.

BENTINCK-BOOM. That which stretches the foot of the fore-sail in many small square-rigged merchantmen; particularly used in whalers among the ice, with a reefed fore-sail to see clearly ahead. The tack and sheet are thus dispensed with, a spar with tackle amidships brings the leeches taut on a wind. It is princ.i.p.ally worked by its bowline.

BENTINCKS. Triangular courses, so named after Captain Bentinck, by whom they were invented, but which have since been superseded by storm staysails. They are still used by the Americans as trysails.

BENTINCK-SHROUDS. Formerly used; extending from the weather-futtock staves to the opposite lee-channels.

BENT ON A SPLICE. Going to be married.

BERG. A word adopted from the German, and applied to the features of land distinguished as steppes, banquettes, shelves, terraces, and parallel roads. (_See_ ICEBERG.)

BERGLE. A northern name for the wra.s.se.

BERM. In fortification, a narrow s.p.a.ce of level ground, averaging about a foot and a half in width, generally left between the foot of the exterior slope of the parapet and the top of the escarp; in permanent fortification its princ.i.p.al purpose is to retain the earth of the parapet, which, when the latter is deformed by fire or by weather, would otherwise fall into the ditch; in field fortification it also serves to protect the escarp from the pressure of a too imminent parapet.

BERMUDA SAILS. _See_ 'MUDIAN.

BERMUDA SQUALL. A sudden and strong wintry tempest experienced in the Atlantic Ocean, near the Bermudas; it is preceded by heavy clouds, thunder, and lightning. It belongs to the Gulf Stream, and is felt, throughout its course, up to the banks of Newfoundland.

BERMUDIANS. Three-masted schooners, built at Bermuda during the war of 1814; they went through the waves without rising to them, and consequently were too ticklish for northern stations.

BERNAK. The barnacle goose (_Anser bernicla_).

BERSIS. A species of cannon formerly much used at sea.

BERTH. The station in which a ship rides at anchor, either alone, or in a fleet; as, she lies in a good berth, _i.e._ in good anchoring ground, well sheltered from the wind and sea, and at a proper distance from the sh.o.r.e and other vessels.--_Snug berth_, a place, situation, or establishment. A sleeping berth.--_To berth a vessel_, is to fix upon, and put her into the place she is to occupy.--_To berth a ship's company_, to allot to each man the s.p.a.ce in which his hammock is to be hung, giving the customary 14 inches in width.--_To give a berth_, to keep clear of, as to give a point of land a wide berth, is to keep at a due distance from it.

BERTH. The room or apartment where any number of the officers, or ship's company, mess and reside; in a ship of war there is commonly one of these between every two guns as the mess-places of the crew.

BERTH AND s.p.a.cE. In ship-building, the distance from the moulding edge of one timber to the moulding edge of the next timber. Same as room and s.p.a.ce, or timber and s.p.a.ce.

BERTH-DECK. The 'tween decks.

BERTHER. He who a.s.signs places for the respective hammocks to hang in.

BERTHING. The rising or working up of the planks of a ship's sides; as berthing up a bulk-head, or bringing up in general. Berthing also denotes the planking outside, above the sheer-strake, and is called the berthing of the quarter-deck, of the p.o.o.p, or of the forecastle, as the case may be.

BERTHING OF THE HEAD. _See_ HEAD-BOARDS.

BERVIE. A haddock split and half-dried.

BERWICK SMACK. The old and well-found packets of former days, until superseded by steamers. (_See_ BARRACK SMACK.)

BESET IN ICE. Surrounded with ice, and no opening for advance or retreat, so as to be obliged to remain immovable.

BESIEGE, TO. To endeavour to gain possession of a fortified place defended by an enemy, by directing against it a connected series of offensive military operations.

BESSY-LORCH. A northern name of the _Gobio fluviatilis_ or gudgeon.