The Sailor's Word-Book Part 70

CUTE. Sharp, crafty, apparently from _acute_; but some insist that it is the Anglo-Saxon word _cuth_, rather meaning certain, known, or familiar.

CUTH. A name given in Orkney and Shetland to the coal-fish, before it is fully grown; perhaps the same as _piltock_ (which see).

CUTLAS, OR COUTELAS. A sabre which was slightly curved, but recently applied to the small-handled swords supplied to the navy--the _cutlash_ of Jack. By Shakspeare called a curtle-axe; thus Rosalind, preparing to disguise herself as a man, is made to say,

"A gallant curtle-ax upon my thigh."

CUT-LINE. The s.p.a.ce between the bilges of two casks stowed end to end.

CUT OFF. A term used to denote a vessel's being seized by stratagem by the natives, and the crew being murdered. Also, to intercept a retreat.

CUT OF THE JIB. A phrase for the aspect of a vessel, or person.

CUT OUT, TO. To attack and carry a vessel by a boat force; one of the most dashing and desperate services practised by Nelson and Cochrane, of which latter that of cutting out the _Esmeralda_ at Callao stands unequalled.

CUTTER. A small single-masted, sharp-built broad vessel, commonly navigated in the English Channel, furnished with a straight running bowsprit, occasionally run in horizontally on the deck; except for which, and the largeness of the sails, they are rigged much like sloops.

Either clincher or carvel-built, no jib-stay, the jib hoisting and hanging by the halliards alone. She carries a fore-and-aft main-sail, gaff-topsail, stay-foresail, and jib. The name is derived from their fast sailing. The cutter (as H.M.S. _Dwarf_) has been made to set every sail, even royal studding-sails, sky-sc.r.a.pers, moon-rakers, star-gazers, water and below-water sails, that could be set by any vessel on one mast. One of the largest which has answered effectually, was the _Viper_, of 460 tons and 28 guns; this vessel was very useful during the American war, particularly by getting into Gibraltar at a critical period of the siege.

CUTTER-BRIG. A vessel with square sails, a fore-and-aft main-sail, and a jigger-mast with a smaller one. (_See_ KETCH.)

CUTTERS of a ship are broader for their length, deeper and shorter in proportion than the barge or pinnace; are fitter for sailing, and commonly employed in carrying light stores, pa.s.sengers, &c., to and from the ships; some are clench-built. They generally row ten oars; others of similar build only four, which last are termed jolly-boats. The cutters for ships of the line are carvel-built of 25 feet, and fit for anchor work.

CUTTER-STAY FASHION. The turning-in of a dead-eye with the end of the shroud down.

CUT THE CABLE, TO. A manuvre sometimes necessary for making a ship cast the right way, or when the anchor cannot be weighed.

CUTTIE. A name on our northern coasts for the black guillemot (_Uria grille_).

CUTTING. The adjusting of a cask or spar, or turning it round.

CUTTING A FEATHER. It is common when a ship has too broad a bow to say, "She will not cut a feather," meaning that she will not pa.s.s through the water so swift as to make less foam or froth.

CUTTING DOWN. Taking a deck off a ship; as ships of the line are converted into frigates, the _Royal Sovereign_ into a turret ship, &c.--_Cutting down_ is also a dangerous midshipman's trick, and sometimes practised by the men: it consists in cutting the laniard of a cot or hammock in which a person is then asleep, and letting him fall--_lumpus_--either by the head or the feet.

CUTTING-DOWN LINE. An elliptical curve line used by shipwrights in the delineation of ships; it determines the depth of all the floor timbers, and likewise the height of the dead-wood fore and aft. It is limited in the middle of the ship by the thickness of the floor timbers, and abaft by the breadth of the keelson, and must be carried up so high upon the stern as to leave sufficient substance for the breeches of the rising timbers.

CUTTING HIS PAINTER. Making off suddenly or clandestinely, or "departed this life."

CUTTING IN. Making the special directions for taking the blubber off a whale, which is flinched by taking off circularly ribbons of the skin with blubber attached; the animal being made to turn in the water as the purchases at the mast-heads heave it upwards.

CUTTING-OUT. A night-meal or forage in the officer's pantry.

CUTTING OUT OR IN. In polar phraseology, is performed by sawing ca.n.a.ls in a floe of ice, to enable a ship to regain open water.

CUTTING RIGGING. This includes the act of measuring it.

CUTTLE-FISH. A common marine animal of the genus _Sepia_, and cla.s.s _Cephalopoda_. It has ten tentacles or arms ranged around the mouth, two being of much greater length than the others. When in danger it ejects a black inky substance, darkening the water for some distance around. The oval internal calcareous sh.e.l.l, "cuttle-bone," often found lying on the beach, was formerly much used in pharmacy.

CUTTS. Flat-bottomed horse-ferry boats of a former day.

CUTTY-GUN. A northern term for a short pipe.

CUT-WATER. The foremost part of a vessel's prow, or the sharp part of the knee of a ship's head below the beak. It cuts or divides the water before reaching the bow, which would r.e.t.a.r.d progress. It is fayed to the fore-part of the main stem. (_See_ KNEE OF THE HEAD.)

CUVETTE, called also CUNETTE. A deeper trench cut along the middle of a dry moat; a ditch within a ditch, generally carried down till there be water to fill it.

CWM, OR COMB. A British word signifying an inlet, valley, or low place, where the hilly sides round together in a concave form; the sides of a _glyn_ being, on the contrary, convex.

CYCLE. A term generally applied to an interval of time in which the same phenomena recur.

CYCLE OF ECLIPSES. A period of about 6586 days, which is the time of a revolution of the moon's node; after the lapse of this period the eclipses recur in the same order as before, with few exceptions. This cycle was known to the ancients under the name of Saros.

CYCLOID. A geometrical curve of the higher kind.

CYCLONE. _See_ TYPHOON.

CYLINDER. The body of a pump; any tubular part of an engine.--_Charge cylinder_ of a gun, is the part which receives the powder and ball, the remaining portion being styled the _vacant cylinder_. Especially in marine steam-engines, the cylindrical metal tube, with a diameter proportionate to the power of the engine, of which it may be termed the chief part, since it contains the active steam. Also, a cartridge box for the service of artillery. (_See_ CARTRIDGE-BOX.)

CYLINDER-COVER. In the steam-engine, is a metal lid with a hole in the centre for the piston-rod to work through.

CYLINDER CROSS-HEAD. An adaptation on the top of the piston-rod, stretching out athwart the cylinder, from the ends of which the side-rods hang.

CYLINDER ESCAPE-VALVES. Small conical valves at each end of the cylinder, for the purpose of letting off any water that may collect above or below the piston.

CYLINDER POWDER. That made upon the improved method of charring the wood to be used as charcoal in iron cylinders. All British government gunpowder is now made thus.

CYPHERING. A term in carpentry. (_See_ SYPHERED.)

D.

D. In the _Complete Book_, D means dead or deserted; Dsq., discharged from the service, or into another ship.

DAB. The sea-flounder. An old general term for a pleuronect or flat fish of any kind, but usually appropriated to the _Platessa limanda_. The word is familiarly applied to one who is expert in anything.

DABBERLACK. A kind of long sea-weed on our northern coasts.

DAB-CHICK. The little grebe, _Podiceps minor_. A small diving bird common in lakes and rivers.

DACOITS. _See_ DEKOYTS.

DADd.i.c.k. A west-country term for rotten-wood, touch-wood, &c.

DAGEN. A peculiar dirk or poignard.

DAGGAR. An old term for a dog-fish.