The Sailor's Word-Book Part 31

BLETHERING. Talking idle nonsense; insolent prate.

BLIND. A name on the west coast of Scotland for the pogge, or miller's thumb (_Cottus cataphractus_).

BLIND. Everything that covers besiegers from the enemy. (_See_ ORILLON.)

BLINDAGE. A temporary wooden shelter faced with earth, both in siege works and in fortified places, against splinters of sh.e.l.ls and the like.

BLIND-BUCKLERS. Those fitted for the hawse-holes, which have no aperture for the cable, and therefore used at sea to prevent the water coming in.

BLIND-HARBOUR. One, the entrance of which is so shut in as not readily to be perceived.

BLIND-ROCK. One lying just under the surface of the water, so as not to be visible in calms.

BLIND-Sh.e.l.l. One which, from accident or bad fuze, has fallen without exploding, or one purposely filled with lead, as at the siege of Cadiz.

Also used at night filled with fuze composition, and enlarged fuze-hole, to indicate the range.

BLIND-STAKES. A sort of river-weir.

BLINK OF THE ICE. A bright appearance or looming (the iceberg reflected in the atmosphere above it), often a.s.suming an arched form; so called by the Greenlanders, and by which reflection they always know when they are approaching ice long before they see it. In Greenland blink means iceberg.

BLIRT. A gust of wind and rain.

BLOAT, TO. To dry by smoke; a method latterly applied almost exclusively to cure herrings or bloaters.--_Bloated_ is also applied to any half-dried fish.

BLOCCO. Paper and hair used in paying a vessel's bottom.

BLOCK. (In mechanics termed a pulley.) Blocks are flattish oval pieces of wood, with sheaves in them, for all the running ropes to run in. They are used for various purposes in a ship, either to increase the mechanical power of the ropes, or to arrange the ends of them in certain places on the deck, that they may be readily found when wanted; they are consequently of various sizes and powers, and obtain various names, according to their form or situation, thus:--A single block contains only one sheave or wheel. A double block has two sheaves. A treble or threefold block, three, and so on. A long-tackle or fiddle-block has two sheaves--one below the other, like a fiddle. Cistern or sister block for top-sail lifts and reef tackles. Every block is composed of three, and generally four, parts:--(1.) The sh.e.l.l, or outside wooden part. (2.) The sheave, or wheel, on which the rope runs. (3.) The pin, or axle, on which the sheave turns. (4.) The strop, or part by which the block is made fast to any particular station, and is usually made either of rope or of iron. Blocks are named and distinguished by the ropes which they carry, and the uses they serve for, as bowlines, braces, clue-lines, halliards, &c. &c. They are either _made_ or _morticed_ (which see).

BLOCK. The large piece of elm out of which the figure is carved at the head of the ship.

BLOCKADE. The investment of a town or fortress by sea and land; shutting up all the avenues, so that it can receive no relief.--_To blockade a port_ is to prevent any communication therewith by sea, and cut off supplies, in order to compel a surrender when the provisions and ammunition are exhausted.--_To raise a blockade_ is to discontinue it.--Blockade is violated by egress as well as by ingress. Warning on the spot is sufficient notice of a blockade _de facto_. Declaration is useless without actual investment. If a ship break a blockade, though she escape the blockading force, she is, if taken in any part of her future voyage, captured _in delicto_, and subject to confiscation. The absence of the blockading force removes liability, and _might_ (in such cases) overrules _right_.

BLOCK AND BLOCK. The situation of a tackle when the blocks are drawn close together, so that the mechanical power becomes arrested until the tackle is again overhauled by drawing the blocks asunder. Synonymous with chock-a-block.

BLOCKHOUSE. A small work, generally built of logs, to protect adjacent ports. Blockhouses were primarily constructed in our American colonies, because they could be immediately built from the heavy timber felled to clear away the spot, and open the lines of fire. The ends were simply crossed alternately and pinned. Two such structures, with a s.p.a.ce of 6 feet for clay, formed, on an elevated position, a very formidable casemated work. The slanting overhanging roof furnished excellent cover in lieu of loop-holes for musketry.

BLOCK-MAKER. A manufacturer of blocks.

BLOCKS. The several transverse pieces or logs of timber, piled in plane, on which a ship is built, or to place her on for repair: they consist of solid pieces of oak laid on the ground-ways.

BLOCKS, FIXED. _See_ FIXED BLOCKS.

BLOOD-SUCKERS. Lazy fellows, who, by skulking, throw their proportion of labour on the shoulders of their shipmates.

b.l.o.o.d.y FLAG. A large red flag.

BLOOM. A peculiar warm blast of wind; a term used in iron-foundries.

BLORE. An old word for a stiff gale.

BLOUT. A northern term for the sudden breaking-up of a storm. Blout has been misused for blirt.

BLOW. Applied to the breathing of whales and other cetaceans. The expired air from the lungs being highly charged with moisture, which condenses at the temperature of the atmosphere, appears like a column of steam.

BLOW. A gale of wind.

BLOWE. A very old English word for scold or revile, still in use, as when a man receives a good blowing-up.

BLOW-HOLES. The nostrils of the cetaceans, situated on the highest part of the head. In the whalebone whales they form two longitudinal slits, placed side by side. In the porpoises, grampuses, &c., they are united into a single crescentic opening.

BLOW HOME. The wind does not cease or moderate till it comes past that place, blowing continuously over the land and sea with equal velocity.

In a naval sense, it does not blow home when a sea-wind is interrupted by a mountainous range along sh.o.r.e.

BLOWING GREAT GUNS AND SMALL ARMS. Heavy gales; a hurricane.

BLOWING HARD. Said of the wind when it is strong and steady.

BLOWING THE GRAMPUS. Throwing water over a sleeper on watch.

BLOWING WEATHER. A nautical term for a continuance of strong gales.

(_See_ GALE.)

BLOWN COD. A split cod, half dried by exposure to the wind. _Blown_ is also frequently applied to bloated herrings, when only partly cured.

Also, a cod-fish rises to the surface, and is easily taken, if blown. By being hauled nearly up, and the hook breaking, it loses the power for some time of contracting the air-bladder, and thus dies head out of water.

BLOWN ITSELF OUT. Said of a falling gale of wind.

BLOW OFF, TO. To clear up in the clouds.

BLOW-OFF-PIPE, in a steamer, is a pipe at the foot of each boiler, communicating with the sea, and furnished with a c.o.c.k to open and shut it.--_Blowing-off_ is the act or operation of using the blow-off-pipe to cleanse a marine steam-engine of its brine deposit; also, to clear the boilers of water, to lighten a ship if grounded.

BLOW-OUT. Extravagant feasting regardless of consequences.

BLOW OVER, (IT WILL). Said of a gale which is expected to pa.s.s away quickly.

BLOW-PIPE. An engine of offence used by the Araucanians and Borneans, and with the latter termed _sumpitan_: the poisoned arrow, _sumpit_, will wound at the distance of 140 or more yards. The arrow is forced through (like boys' pea-shooters) by the forcible and sudden exertion of the lungs. A wafer can be hit at 30 yards to a certainty, and small birds are unerringly stunned at 30 yards by pellets of clay.

BLOW THE GAFF. To reveal a secret; to expose or inform against a person.

BLOW-THROUGH VALVE. A valve admitting steam into the condenser, in order to clear it of air and water before starting the engine.

BLOW UP, TO. To abuse angrily.

BLOW-VALVE. A valve by which the first vacuum necessary for starting a steam-engine is produced.

BLUBBER. The layer of fat in whales between the skin and the flesh, which is flinched or peeled off, and boiled for oil, varying from 10 to 20 inches in thickness. (_See_ SEA-BLUBBER.)

BLUBBER FORKS AND CHOPPERS. The implements with which blubber is "made off," or cut for stowing away.