The Sailor's Word-Book Part 77

DISGUISE. Ships in all times have been permitted to a.s.sume disguise to impose upon enemies, and obtain from countries in their possession commodities of which they stand in need.

DISH, TO. To supplant, ruin, or frustrate.

DISLODGE. To drive an enemy from any post or station.

DI-SLYNG. _See_ SLYNG.

DISMANTLED. The state of a ship unrigged, and all her stores, guns, &c., taken out, in readiness for her being laid up in ordinary, or going into dock, &c. &c. To dismantle a gun is to render it unfit for service. The same applies to a fort.

DISMASTED. State of a ship deprived of her masts, by gales or by design.

DISMISS. Pipe down the people. To dismiss a drill from parade is to break the ranks.

DISMISSION. A summary discharge from the service; which a court-martial is empowered to inflict on any officer convicted of a breach of special laws, though it cannot for minor offences which formerly carried death!

DISMOUNT, TO. To break the carriages of guns, and thereby render them unfit for service. Also, in gun exercise, to lift a gun from its carriage and deposit it elsewhere.

DISMOUNTED. The state of a cannon taken off a carriage, or when, by the enemy's shot, it is rendered unmanageable. Also, cavalry on foot acting as infantry.

DISOBEDIENCE. An infraction of the orders of a superior; punishable by a court-martial, according to the nature and degree of the offence.

DISORDER. The confusion occasioned by a heavy fire from an enemy.

DISORGANIZE, TO. To degrade a man-of-war to a privateer by irregularity.

DISPART, OR THROW OF THE SHOT. The difference between the semi-diameter of the base-ring at the breech of a gun, and that of the ring at the swell of the muzzle. On account of the dispart, the line of aim makes a small angle with the axis; so that the elevation of the latter above the horizon is greater than that of the line of aim: an allowance for the dispart is consequently necessary in determining the commencement of the graduations on the tangent scale, by which the required elevation is given to the gun.

DISPARTING A GUN. To bring the line of sight and line of metal to be parallel by setting up a mark on the muzzle-ring of a cannon, so that a sight-line, taken from the top of the base-ring behind the touch-hole, to the mark set near the muzzle, may be parallel to the axis of the bore. (_See_ GUN.)

DISPART-SIGHT. A gun-sight fixed on the top of the second reinforce-ring--about the middle of the piece--for point-blank or horizontal firing, to eliminate the difference of the diameters between the breech and the mouth of the cannon.

DISPATCH. All duty is required to be performed with diligence.

DISPATCHES. Not simply letters, but such doc.u.ments as demand every effort for their immediate delivery. "Charged with dispatches" overrides all signals of hindrance on a voyage.

DISPLACEMENT. The centre of gravity of the displacement relates to the part of the ship under water, considered as h.o.m.ogeneous. The weight of water which a vessel displaces when floating is the same as the weight of the ship. (_See_ CENTRE OF CAVITY.)

DISPOSED QUARTERS. The distribution when the camp is marked about a place besieged.

DISPOSITION. A draught representing the several timbers that compose a ship's frame properly disposed with respect to ports and other parts.

Also, the arrangement of a ship's company for watches, quarters, reefing, furling, and other duties. In a military sense it means the placing of a body of troops upon the most advantageous ground.

DISRANK, OR DISRATE. To degrade in rank or station.

DISREPAIR. A bar to any claim on account of sea-unworthiness in a warrantry.

DISTANCE. The run which a ship has made upon the log-board. In speaking of double stars, it is the s.p.a.ce separating the centres of the two stars, expressed in seconds of arc. (_See_ LUNAR DISTANCES.)

DISTILLING SEA-WATER. Apparatus for the conversion of sea-water into potable fresh water have long been invented, though little used; but of late the larger ships are effectively fitted with adaptations for the purpose.

DISTINCTION. Flags of distinction, badges, honourable note of superiority.

DISTINGUISHING PENDANT. In fleets and squadrons, instead of hoisting several flags to denote the number of the ship on the list of the Navy, pendants are used. Thus ten ships may be signalled separately. If more, then, as one answers, her pendant is hauled down, and then two pendants succeed. (_See_ SIGNALS.)

DISTRESS. A term used when a ship requires immediate a.s.sistance from unlooked-for damage or danger. (_See_ SIGNAL OF DISTRESS.)

DISTRICT ORDERS. Those issued by a general commanding a district.

DISTURBANCE. _See_ SPANISH DISTURBANCE.

DITCH. In fortification the excavation in front of the parapet of any work, ranging in width from a few feet in field fortification to thirty or forty yards in permanent works, having its steep side next the rampart called the escarp: the opposite one is the counterscarp. Its princ.i.p.al use is to secure the escarp as long as possible. There are wet ditches and dry ones, the former being less in favour than the latter, since a dry ditch so much facilitates sorties, counter-approaches, and the like. That kind which may be made wet or dry at pleasure is most useful.

DITTY-BAG. Derives its name from the _dittis_ or Manchester stuff of which it was once made. It is in use among seamen for holding their smaller necessaries. The ditty-bag of old, when a seaman prided himself on his rig, as the result of his own ability to fit himself from clue to earing, was a treasured article, probably worked in exquisite device by his lady-love. Well can we recollect the pride exhibited in its display when "on end clothes" was a joyful sound to the old pig-tailed tar.

DITTY-BOX. A small caddy for holding a seaman's stock of _valuables_.

DIURNAL ARC. That part of a circle, parallel to the equator, which is described by a celestial body from its rising to its setting.

DIURNAL PARALLAX. _See_ PARALLAX.

DIVE, TO. To descend or plunge voluntarily head-foremost under the water. To go off deck in the watch. A ship is said to be "_diving into it_" when she pitches heavily against a head-sea.

DIVER. One versed in the art of descending under water to considerable depths and abiding there a competent time for several purposes, as to recover wrecks of ships, fish for pearls, sponges, corals, &c. The diver is now a rating in H.M. ships; he may be of any rank of seaman, but he receives 1, 10_s._ 5_d._ per annum additional pay--one penny a-day for risking life! Also, a common web-footed sea-bird of the genus _Colymbus_.

DIVERGENT. A stream flowing laterally out of a river, contradistinguished from convergent.

DIVERSION. A manuvre to attract, wholly or partially, the enemy's attention away from some other part of the operations.

DIVIE-GOO. A northern term for the _Larus marinus_ or black-backed gull.

DIVINE SERVICE. Ordered by the articles of war, whenever the weather on a Sunday will allow of it.

DIVING-APPARATUS. Supplied to the flag-ship, and also a man with the t.i.tle of diver, to examine defects below water.

DIVING-BELL. Used in under-water operations for recovering treasure, raising ships, anchors, &c.

DIVING-DRESS. India-rubber habiliments, the head-piece is of light metal fitted with strong gla.s.s eyes, and an attached pliable pipe to maintain a supply of air. The shoes are weighted.

DIVISION. A select number of ships in a fleet or squadron of men-of-war, distinguished by a particular flag, pendant, or vane. A squadron may be ranged into two or three divisions, the commanding officer of which is always stationed in the centre. In a fleet the admiral divides it into three squadrons, each of which is commanded by an admiral, and is again divided into divisions; each squadron had its proper colours (now distinguishing mark) according to the rank of the admiral who commanded it, and each division its proper mast. The private ships carried pendants of the same colour with their respective squadrons at the masts of their particular divisions, so that the ships in the last division of the blue squadron carried a blue pendant at their main topgallant-mast head, the vane at the mizen. All these are superseded by the abolition of the Red and Blue. The St. George's white ensign flag and pendant alone are used.

DIVISIONS. The sub-cla.s.sification of a ship's company under the lieutenants. Also, a muster of the crew. Also, of an army, a force generally complete in itself, commanded by a major-general, of an average strength of eight or ten thousand men: it is itself composed of several brigades, each of which again is composed of several battalions, besides the complement of artillery, transport-corps, and generally also of cavalry, for the whole. Of a battalion, a term sometimes used in exercise, when the companies of a battalion have been equalized as to strength, for one of such companies.

DJERME. _See_ JERME.

DOA. A Persian trading vessel.

DOASTA. An inferior spirit, often drugged or doctored for unwary sailors in the pestiferous dens of filthy Calcutta and other sea-ports in India.