The Sailor's Word-Book Part 85

"When the wind is in the east, 'Tis good for neither man nor beast."

EASY. Lower gently. A ship not labouring in a sea.--_Taking it easy._ Neglecting the duty. "Not so violent."

EASY DRAUGHT. The same as _light draught of water_ (which see).

EASY ROLL. A vessel is said to "roll deep but easy" when she moves slowly, and not with quick jerks.

EATING THE WIND OUT OF A VESSEL. Applies to very keen seamanship, by which the vessel, from a close study of her capabilities, steals to windward of her opponent. This to be done effectually demands very peculiar trim to carry weather helm to a nicety.

EAVER. A provincial term for the direction of the wind. A quarter of the heavens.

EBB. The lineal descendant of the Anglo-Saxon _ep-flod_, meaning the falling reflux of the tide, or its return back from the highest of the flood, full sea, or high water. Also termed _sae-aebbung_, sea-ebbing, by our progenitors.

EBB, LINE OF. The sea-line of beach left dry by the tide.

EBBER, OR EBBER-Sh.o.r.e. From the Anglo-Saxon signifying shallow.

EBB-TIDE. The receding or running out of the sea, in contradistinction to flood.

EBONY. A sobriquet for a negro.

ECHELON. [Fr.] Expressing the field-exercise of soldiers, when the divisions are placed in a situation resembling the steps of a ladder, whence the name.

ECHINUS. A word lugged in to signify the sweep of the tiller. (_See_ SEA-EGG.)

ECLIPSE. An obscuration of a heavenly body by the interposition of another, or during its pa.s.sage through the shadow of a larger body. An _eclipse of the sun_ is caused by the dark body of the moon pa.s.sing between it and the earth. When the moon's diameter exceeds the sun's, and their centres nearly coincide, a _total eclipse_ of the sun takes place; but if the moon's diameter be less, then the eclipse is _annular_.

ECLIPTIC. The great circle of the heavens which the sun appears to us to describe in the course of a year, in consequence of the earth's motion round that luminary. It is inclined to the equinoctial at an angle of nearly 23 28', called the obliquity of the ecliptic, and cuts it in two points diametrically opposite to each other, called the equinoctial points. The time when the sun enters each of these points (which occurs about the 20th of March and 23d of September, respectively) is termed the equinox, day and night being then equal; at these periods, especially about the time of the vernal equinox, storms, called the equinoctial gales, are prevalent in many parts of the globe. The two points of the ecliptic, which are each 90 distant from the equinoctial points, are called the solst.i.tial points. That great circle which pa.s.ses through the equinoctial points and the poles of the earth, is called the equinoctial colure; and that which pa.s.ses through the solst.i.tial points and the poles of the earth, the solst.i.tial colure.

ECLIPTIC CONJUNCTION. Is the moon in conjunction with the sun at the time of new moon, both luminaries having then the same longitude, or right ascension.

ECLIPTIC LIMITS. Certain limits of lat.i.tude within which eclipses take place, and beyond which they cannot occur.

ECONOMY. A term expressive of the system and internal arrangement pursued in a ship.

EDDY. Sometimes used for the dead-water under a ship's counter. Also, the water that by some interruption in its course, runs contrary to the direction of the tide or current, and appears like the motion of a whirlpool. Eddies in the sea not unfrequently extend their influence to a great distance, and are then merely regarded as contrary or revolving currents. It is the back-curl of the water to fill a s.p.a.ce or vacuum formed sometimes by the faulty build of a vessel, having the after-body fuller than the fore, which therefore impedes her motion. It also occurs immediately after a tide pa.s.ses a strait, where the volume of water spreads suddenly out, and curves back to the edges. The Chinese pilots call eddies, chow-chow water.

EDDY-TIDE. When the water runs back from some obstacle to the free pa.s.sage of the stream.

EDDY-WIND. That which is beat back, or returns, from a sail, bluff hill, or anything which impedes its pa.s.sage; in other words, whenever the edges or veins of two currents of air, coming from opposite directions, meet, they form an eddy, or _whirlwind_ (which see). They are felt generally near high coasts intersected by ravines. The eddy-wind of a sail escaping, in a curve, makes the sail abaft shiver.

EDGE AWAY, TO. To decline gradually from the course which the ship formerly steered, by sailing larger, or more off, or more away from before the wind than she had done before.

EDGE DOWN, TO. To approach any object in an oblique direction.

EDGING OF PLANK. Sawing or hewing it narrower.

EDUCTION PIPE. A pipe leading from the bottom of a steam-cylinder to the upper part of the condenser in a steam-engine.

EEAST. The Erse term for a fish, still used in the Isle of Man.

EEKING. _See_ EKEING.

EEL. A well-known fish (_Anguilla vulgaris_), of elongated form, common in rivers and estuaries, and esteemed for food.

EELER. An adept at knowing the haunts and habits of eels, and the methods of taking them.

EEL-FARES. A fry or brood of eels.

EEL-GRa.s.s. A name for the sea-wrack (_Zostera marina_); it is thrown ash.o.r.e by the sea in large quant.i.ties.

EEL-POUT. A name for the burbot (_Molva lota_), a fresh-water fish.

EEL-SKUYT. _See_ DUTCH EEL-SKUYT.

EEL-SPEAR. A sort of trident with ten points for catching eels, called in Lincolnshire an _eel-stang_.

EFFECTIVE. Efficient, fit for service; it also means the being present and at duty.

EFFECTS. Personal property; sale of effects; or the auction of the property of deceased officers and seamen:

"The _effects_ of that sail Will be a sale of _effects_."

EFFLUENT, OR DIVERGENT, applied to any stream which runs out of a lake, or out of another river. All tributaries are affluents.

EGG, TO. To instigate, incite, provoke, to urge on: from the Anglo-Saxon _eggion_.

EGGS. These nutritious articles of food might be used longer at sea than is usual. The sh.e.l.l of the egg abounds with small pores, through which the aqueous part of the alb.u.men constantly exhales, and the egg in consequence daily becomes lighter, and approaches its decomposition.

Reaumur varnished them all over, and thus preserved eggs fresh for two years; then carefully removing the varnish, he found that such eggs were still capable of producing chickens. Some employ, with the same intention, lard or other fatty substance for closing the pores, and others simply immerse the egg for an instant in boiling water, by which its alb.u.men is in part coagulated, and the power of exhalation thereby checked. Eggs packed in lime-water suffered to drain, have after three years' absence in the West Indies been found good; this does not destroy vitality.

EGMONT, OR PORT EGMONT FOWLS. The large Antarctic gulls with dark-brown plumage, called _shoemakers_.

EGRESS. At a transit of an inferior planet over the sun, this term means the pa.s.sing off of the planet from his disc.

EGYPTIAN HERRING. A northern coast name for the gowdanook, saury-pike, or _s...o...b..resox saurus_.

EIDER DUCK. The _Somateria mollissima_. A large species of duck, inhabiting the coasts of the northern seas. The down of the breast, with which it lines its nest, is particularly valuable on account of its softness and lightness.

EIGHEN. The index of the early quadrant.

EILET-HOLE [Fr. _illet_]. _Refer to_ EYELET-HOLES.

EJECTAMENTA MARIS. Sea products thrown on the beach, whence they become droits of admiralty. (_See_ JETSAM.)

EKE, TO. [Anglo-Saxon _eacan_, to prolong.] To make anything go far by reduction and moderation, as in shortening the allowance of provisions on a voyage unexpectedly tedious.

EKEING. A piece of wood fitted, by scarphing or b.u.t.ting, to make good a deficiency in length, as the end of a knee and the like. The _ekeing_ is also the carved work under the lower part of the quarter-piece, at the aft part of the quarter-gallery.