The Seaman's Friend Part 13

CARRY-AWAY. To break a spar, or part a rope.

CAST. To pay a vessel's head off, in getting under way, on the tack she is to sail upon.

CAT. The tackle used to hoist the anchor up to the cat-head.

_Cat-block_, the block of this tackle.

CAT-HARPIN. An iron leg used to confine the upper part of the rigging to the mast.

CAT-HEAD. Large timbers projecting from the vessel's side, to which the anchor is raised and secured.

CAT'S-PAW. A kind of hitch made in a rope. (See PLATE 5 and page 50.) A light current of air seen on the surface of the water during a calm.

CAULK. To fill the seams of a vessel with oak.u.m.

CAVIL. (See KEVEL.)

CEILING. The inside planking of a vessel.

CHAFE. To rub the surface of a rope or spar.

_Chafing-gear_ is the stuff put upon the rigging and spars to prevent their chafing.

CHAINS. (See PLATE 1.) Strong links or plates of iron, the lower ends of which are bolted through the ship's side to the timbers. Their upper ends are secured to the bottom of the dead-eyes in the channels. Also, used familiarly for the CHANNELS, which see. The chain cable of a vessel is called familiarly her _chain_.

_Rudder-chains_ lead from the outer and upper end of the rudder to the quarters. They are hung slack.

CHAIN-PLATES. Plates of iron bolted to the side of a ship, to which the chains and dead-eyes of the lower rigging are connected.

CHANNELS. Broad pieces of plank bolted edgewise to the outside of a vessel. Used for spreading the lower rigging. (See CHAINS.)

CHAPELLING. Wearing a ship round, when taken aback, without bracing the head yards. (See page 80.)

CHECK. A term sometimes used for slacking off a little on a brace, and then belaying it.

CHEEKS. The projections on each side of a mast, upon which the trestle-trees rest. The sides of the sh.e.l.l of a block.

CHEERLY! Quickly, with a will.

CHESS-TREES. Pieces of oak, fitted to the sides of a vessel, abaft the fore chains, with a sheave in them, to board the main tack to. Now out of use.

CHIMES. The ends of the staves of a cask, where they come out beyond the head of the cask.

CHINSE. To thrust oak.u.m into seams with a small iron.

CHOCK. A wedge used to secure anything with, or for anything to rest upon. The long boat rests upon two large _chocks_, when it is stowed.

_Chock-a-block._ When the lower block of a tackle is run close up to the upper one, so that you can hoist no higher. This is also called hoisting up _two-blocks_.

CISTERN. An apartment in the hold of a vessel, having a pipe leading out through the side, with a c.o.c.k, by which water may be let into her.

CLAMPS. Thick planks on the inside of vessels, to support the ends of beams. Also, crooked plates of iron fore-locked upon the trunnions of cannon. Any plate of iron made to turn, open, and shut so as to confine a spar or boom, as, a studdingsail boom, or a boat's mast.

CLASP-HOOK. (See CLOVE-HOOK.)

CLEAT. A piece of wood used in different parts of a vessel to belay ropes to.

CLEW. The lower corner of square sails, and the after corner of a fore-and-aft sail.

_To clew up_, is to haul up the clew of a sail.

CLEW-GARNET. A rope that hauls up the clew of a foresail or mainsail in a square-rigged vessel.

CLEWLINE. A rope that hauls up the clew of a square sail. The clew-garnet is the clewline of a course.

CLINCH. A half-hitch, stopped to its own part.

CLOSE-HAULED. Applied to a vessel which is sailing with her yards braced up so as to get as much as possible to windward. The same as _on a taut bowline_, _full and by_, _on the wind_, &c.

CLOVE-HITCH. Two half-hitches round a spar or other rope. (See PLATE 5 and page 48.)

CLOVE-HOOK. An iron clasp, in two parts, moving upon the same pivot, and overlapping one another. Used for bending chain sheets to the clews of sails.

CLUB-HAUL. To bring a vessel's head round on the other tack, by letting go the lee anchor and cutting or slipping the cable. (See page 76.)

CLUBBING. Drifting down a current with an anchor out. (See page 77.)

COAKING. Uniting pieces of spar by means of tabular projections, formed by cutting away the solid of one piece into a hollow, so as to make a projection in the other, in such a manner that they may correctly fit, the b.u.t.ts preventing the pieces from drawing asunder.

_Coaks_ are fitted into the beams and knees of vessels to prevent their drawing.

COAL TAR. Tar made from bituminous coal.

COAMINGS. Raised work round the hatches, to prevent water going down into the hold.

COAT. _Mast-Coat_ is a piece of canva.s.s, tarred or painted, placed round a mast or bowsprit, where it enters the deck.

c.o.c.k-BILL. To c.o.c.k-bill a yard or anchor. (See A-c.o.c.k-BILL.)

c.o.c.k-PIT. An apartment in a vessel of war, used by the surgeon during an action.

CODLINE. An eighteen thread line.

c.o.xSWAIN. (p.r.o.nounced _c.o.x'n_.) The person who steers a boat and has charge of her.

COIL. To lay a rope up in a ring, with one turn or fake over another.

_A coil_ is a quant.i.ty of rope laid up in that manner.