The Sailor's Word-Book Part 45

CaeSAR'S PENNY. The tip given by a recruiting sergeant.

CAFFILA. _See_ KAFILA.

CAGE. An iron cage formed of hoops on the top of a pole, and filled with combustibles to blaze for two hours. It is lighted one hour before high-water, and marks an intricate channel navigable for the period it burns; much used formerly by fishermen.

CAGE-WROCK. An old term for a ship's upper works.

CAIQUE, OR KAIQUE. A small Levantine vessel. Also, a graceful skiff seen in perfection at Constantinople, where it almost monopolizes the boat traffic. It is fast, but crank, being so narrow that the oars or sculls have their looms enlarged into ball-shaped ma.s.ses to counter-balance their out-board length. It has borne for ages the wave-line now brought out in England as the highest result of marine architecture. It may have from one to ten or twelve rowers.

CAIRBAN. A name in the Hebrides for the basking-shark.

CAIRN. Piles of stones used as marks in surveying.

CAISSON, OR CAISSOON. An adopted term for a sort of float sunk to a required depth by letting water into it, when it is hauled under the ship's bottom, receives her steadily, and on pumping out the water floats her. These were long used in Holland, afterwards at Venice, and in Russia, where they were known as _camels_ (which see). Caisson is also a vessel fitted with valves, to act instead of gates for a dry dock. Used also in _pontoons_ (which see).

CAKE-ICE. Ice formed in the early part of the season.

CALABASH. _Cucurbita_, a gourd abundant within the tropics, furnishing drinking and washing utensils. At Tahiti and the Sandwich Islands they attain a diameter of 2 feet. There is also a calabash-tree, the fruit not exceeding the size of oranges.

CALABa.s.s. An early kind of light musket with a wheel-lock. Bourne mentions it in 1578.

CALALOO. A dish of fish and vegetables.

CALAMUS. _See_ RATTAN.

CALANCA. A creek or cove on Italian and Spanish coasts.

CALAVANCES [_Phaseolus vulgaris._ _Haricot_, Fr.] Small beans sometimes used for soup, instead of pease.

CALCULATE, TO. This word, though disrated from respectability by American misuse, signified to foretell or prophesy; it is thus used by Shakspeare in the first act of "Julius Caesar." To calculate the ship's position, either from astronomical observations or rate of the log.

CALENDAR. A distribution of time. (_See_ ALMANAC.)

CALENDAR-TIME. On which officers' bills are drawn.

CALF. A word generally applied to the young of marine mammalia, as the whale.--_Calf_, in the Arctic regions, a ma.s.s of floe ice breaking from under a floe, which when disengaged rises with violence to the surface of the water; it differs from a tongue, which is the same body kept fixed beneath the main floe. The iceberg is formed by the repeated freezing of thawed snow running down over the slopes, until at length the wave from beneath and weight above causes it to break off and fall into the sea, or, as termed in Greenland, to calve. Thus, berg, is fresh-water ice, the work of years. The floe, is salt water frozen suddenly each winter, and dissolving in the summer.

CALF, OR CALVA. A Norwegian name, also used in the Hebrides, for islets lying off islands, and bearing a similar relation to them in size that a calf does to a cow. As the Calf at Mull and the Calf of Man.

CALFAT. The old word for caulking. [_Calfater_, Fr.; probably from _cale_, wedge, and _faire_, to make.] To wedge up an opening with any soft material, as oak.u.m. [_Calafatear_, Sp.]

CALIBER, OR CALIBRE. The diameter of the bore of a gun, cannon, shot, or bullet. A ship's caliber means the known weight her armament represents.

CALIPASH. The upper sh.e.l.l of a turtle.

CALIPEE. The under sh.e.l.l of a turtle.

CALIVER. A hand-gun or arquebuss; probably the old name of the matchlock or carabine, precursors of the modern fire-lock, or Enfield rifle. (_See_ CALABa.s.s.)

CALL. A peculiar silver pipe or whistle, used by the boatswain and his mates to attract attention, and summon the sailors to their meals or duties by various strains, each of them appropriated to some particular purpose, such as hoisting, heaving, lowering, veering away, belaying, letting go a tackle-fall, sweeping, &c. This piping is as attentively observed by sailors, as the bugle or beat of drum is obeyed by soldiers.

The c.o.xswains of the boats of French ships of war are supplied with calls to "in bow oar," or "of all," "oars," &c.

CALLIPERS. Bow-legged compa.s.ses, used to measure the girth of timber, the external diameter of masts, shot, and other circular or cylindrical substances. Also, an instrument with a sliding leg, used for measuring the packages const.i.tuting a ship's cargo, which is paid for by its cubical contents.

CALL THE WATCH. This is done every four hours, except at the dog-watches, to relieve those on deck, also by pipe. "All the watch," or all the starboard, or the port, first, second, third, or fourth watches.

CALM. There being no wind stirring it is designated flat, dead, or stark, under each of which the surface of the sea is unruffled.

CALM LAt.i.tUDES. That tropical tract of ocean which lies between the north-east and south-east trade-winds; its situation varies several degrees, depending upon the season of the year. The term is also applied to a part of the sea on the Polar side of the trades, between them and the westerly winds.

CALVERED SALMON. Salmon prepared in a peculiar manner in early times.

CALVE'S TONGUE. A sort of moulding usually made at the caps and bases of round pillars, to taper or hance the round part to the square.

CAMBER. The part of a dockyard where cambering is performed, and timber kept. Also, a small dock in the royal yards, for the convenience of loading and discharging timber. Also, anything that curves upwards.--_To camber_, to curve ship-planks.

CAMBER-KEELED. Keel slightly arched upwards in the middle of the length, but not actually hogged.

CAMBOOSE. A form of _caboose_ (which see).

CAMELS. All large ships are built, at St. Petersburg, in a dockyard off the Granite Quay, where the water is shallow; therefore a number of camels or caissons are kept at Cronstadt, for the purpose of carrying them down the river. Camels are hollow cases of wood, constructed in two halves, so as to embrace the keel, and lay hold of the hull of a ship on both sides. They are first filled with water and sunk, in order to be fixed on. The water is then pumped out, when the vessel gradually rises, and the process is continued until the ship is enabled to pa.s.s over the shoal. Similar camels were used at Rotterdam about 1690.

CAME-TO. Brought to an anchor.

CAMFER. _See_ CHAMFER.

CAMISADO. A sudden surprise or a.s.sault of the enemy.

CAMOCK. A very early term for crooked timber.

CAMP. The whole extent of ground on which an army pitches its tents and lodges. (_See_ DECAMP.)

CAMP, OR CAMP-OUT, TO. In American travel, to rest for the night without a standing roof; whether under a light tent, a screen of boughs, or any makeshift that the neighbourhood may afford.

CAMPAIGN. A series of connected operations by an army in the field, unbroken by its retiring into quarters.

CAMPAIGNER. A veteran soldier.

CAMP-EQUIPAGE. _See_ EQUIPAGE.

CAMPER. _See_ KEMP.

CAMPESON. _See_ GAMBISON.

CAMP-FIGHT. _See_ ACRE.

CAN. A tin vessel used by sailors to drink out of.