The Sailor's Word-Book Part 63

CONVERGENT. In geography, a stream which comes into another stream, but whose course is unknown, is simply a convergent.

CONVERSION. Reducing a vessel by a deck, thereby converting a line-of-battle ship into a frigate, or a crank three-decker into a good two-decker; or a serviceable vessel into a hulk, resembling a prison or dungeon, internally and externally, as much as possible.

CONVERSION OF STORES. Adapting the sails, ropes, or timbers from one purpose to another, with the least possible waste.

CONVEXITY. The curved limb of the moon; an outward curve.

CONVICT-SHIP. A vessel appropriated to the convicts of a dockyard; also one hired to carry out convicts to their destination.

CONVOY. A fleet of merchant ships similarly bound, protected by an armed force. Also, the ship or ships appointed to conduct and defend them on their pa.s.sage. Also, a guard of troops to escort a supply of stores to a detached force.

CONVOY-INSTRUCTIONS. The printed regulations supplied by the senior officer to each ship of the convoy.

CONVOY-LIST. A return of the merchantmen placed under the protection of men-of-war, for safe conduct to their destination.

COOK. A man of each mess who is caterer for the day, and answerable too, wherefore he is allowed the surplus grog, termed _plush_ (which see). The cook, _par excellence_, in the navy, was a man of importance, responsible for the proper cooking of the food, yet not overboiling the meat to extract the fat--his perquisite. The coppers were closely inspected daily by the captain, and if they soiled a cambric handkerchief the cook's allowance was stopped. Now, the ship's cook is a first-cla.s.s petty officer, and cannot be punished as heretofore. In a merchantman the cook is, _ex officio_, the hero of the fore-sheet, as the steward is of the main one.

COOKING A DAY'S WORK. To save the officer in charge. Reckoning too is cooked, as in a certain Antarctic discovery of land, which James Ross afterwards sailed over.

COOK-ROOM, OR COOK-HOUSE. The galley or caboose containing the cooking apparatus, and where victuals are dressed.

COOLIE, COULEY, KOULI, OR CHULIAH. A person who carries a load; a porter or day-labourer in India and China.

COOMB. The Anglo-Saxon _comb_; a low place inclosed with hills; a valley. (_See_ CWM.)

COOMINGS, OR COMBINGS. The rim of the hatchways. (_See_ COAMINGS.)

COOM OF A WAVE. The comb or crest. The white summit when it breaks.

c.o.o.n-TRAIE. A Manx and Erse term for the neap-tide.

COOP, OR FISH-COOP. A hollow vessel made with twigs, with which fish are taken in the Humber. (_See_ HEN-COOP.)

COOPER. A rating for a first-cla.s.s petty officer, who repairs casks, &c.

COOT. A water-fowl common on lakes and rivers (_Fulica atra_). The toes are long and not webbed, but bordered by a scalloped membrane. The name is sometimes used for the guillemot (_Uria troile_), and often applied to a stupid person.

COOTH. _See_ CUTH.

COP, OR COPT. The top of a conical hill.

COPE. An old English word for cape.

COPECK. _See_ KOPEK.

COPERNICAN SYSTEM. The Pythagorean system of the universe, revived by Copernicus in the sixteenth century, and now confirmed; in which the sun occupies the central s.p.a.ce, and the planets with their attendant satellites revolve about him.

COPILL. An old term for a variety of the coble.

COPING. In ship-building, turning the ends of iron lodging-knees, so that they may hook into the beams.

COPPER, TO. To cover the ship's bottom with prepared copper.

COPPER-BOLTS. _See_ COPPER-FASTENED.

COPPERED, OR COPPER-BOTTOMED. Sheathed with thin sheets of copper, which prevents the teredo eating into the planks, or sh.e.l.l and weed acc.u.mulating on the surface, whereby a ship is r.e.t.a.r.ded in her sailing.

COPPER-FASTENED. The bolts and other metal work in the bottom of ships, made of copper instead of iron, so that the vessel may afterwards be coppered without danger of its corroding the heads of the bolts by galvanic action, as ensues when copper and iron are in contact with sea-water.

COPPER-NAILS. These are chiefly used in boat-building, and for plank nails in the vicinity of the binnacle, as iron affects the compa.s.s-needle. They are not to be confounded with _composition nails_, which are cast. (_See_ ROOF, OR ROVE and CLINCH.)

COPPERS. The ship's boilers for cooking; the name is generally used, even where the apparatus may be made of iron.

COQUILLAGE. Sh.e.l.l-fish in general. It applies to anchorages where oysters abound, or where fish are plentiful, and sh.e.l.l-fish for bait easily obtainable. It is specially a term belonging to French and Spanish fishermen.

CORAB. A sort of boat, otherwise called _coracle_.

CORACLE. An ancient British truckle or boat, constructed of wicker-work, and still in use amongst Welsh fishermen and on the Irish lakes. It is covered by skins, oil-cloth, &c., which are removed when out of use; it is of an oval form; contains one man, who, on reaching the sh.o.r.e, shoulders his coracle, deposits it in safety, and covers it with dried rushes or heather. The Arctic _baidar_ is of similar construction. It is probably of the like primitive fabric with the _cymba sutiles_ of Herodotus.

CORACORA. _See_ KOROCORA.

CORAL. A name applied to the hard calcareous support or skeleton of many species of marine zoophytes. The coral-producing animals abound chiefly in tropical seas, sometimes forming, by the aggregated growth of countless generations, reefs, barriers, and islands of vast extent. The "red coral" (_Corallium rubrum_) of the Mediterranean is highly prized for ornamental purposes.

CORALAN. A small open boat for the Mediterranean coral fishery.

CORAL-BAND. _See_ SAND AND CORAL BANK or ISLET.

CORBEILLE [Fr. basket]. Miner's basket; small gabion used temporarily for shelter to riflemen, and placed on the parapet, either to fire through, or for protection from a force placed on a higher level.

CORBILLARD [Fr.] A large boat of transport.

CORD. Small rope; that of an inch or less in circ.u.mference.

CORD OR CHURD OF WOOD; as firewood. A statute stack is 8 feet long, 4 feet broad, and 4 feet high.

CORDAGE. A general term for the running-rigging of a ship, as also for rope of any size which is kept in reserve, and for all stuff to make ropes.--_Cable-laid cordage._ Ropes, the three strands of which are composed of three other strands, as are cables and cablets. (_See_ ROPE.)

CORDILLA. The coa.r.s.e German hemp, otherwise called _torse_.

CORDLIE. A name for the tunny fish.

CORDON. In fortification, the horizontal moulding of masonry along the top of the true escarp. Also, sometimes used for lines of circ.u.mvallation or blockade, or any connected chain of troops or even sentries. Also, the riband of an order of knighthood or honour, and hence used by the French as signifying a member thereof, as Cordon bleu, Knight of the order of the Holy Ghost, &c.

CORDOVAN. Leather made from seal-skin; the term is derived from the superior leather prepared at Cordova in Spain.

CORDUROY. Applied to roads formed in new settlements, of trees laid roughly on sleepers transverse to the direction of the road; as suddenly for artillery.

CORKIR, OR CUDBEAR. The _Lecanora tartarea_, a lichen producing a purple dye, growing on the stones of the Western Isles, and in Norway.