A TRANSLATION OF THE PHRASES AND TERMS OF ART IN THE FRENCH MARINE. (continued 3)
Reading edition
Jetter à la Mer, to throw overboard.
Mettre à la Mer, or faire voiles, to put to sea, or set sail.
Tenir la Mer, to keep the sea, or hold out in the offing.
Tirer à la Mer. See Bouter au large.
Recevoir un coup de Mer, to ship a sea.
MERLIN, marline, or merline.
MERLINER une voile, to marle a sail to the foot-rope.
Arbre de MESTRE, the main-mast of a row-galley.
METTRE à bord, to bring, or carry aboard.
Mettre à la voile, to get under sail, to set sail.
Mettre un navire en rade, to carry a ship into any road.
Mettre à terre, to carry, or put ashore, to disembark.
Mettre la grande voile à l’échelle, to get the main-tack down with a passaree.
Mettre les basses voiles sur les cargues, to haul up the courses in the brails.
Mettre les voiles dedans, Mettre à sec, ou Mettre à mâts & à cordes, to take in, furl, or hand all the sails.
Mettre le linguet, to paul the capstern, or put in the paul.
Mettre un matelot à terre, to set ashore one of the crew, to turn adrift or maroon a sailor.
Mettre un ancre en place, to stow an anchor on the bow.
MEURTRIERES, ou Jalousies, the loop-holes in a ship’s sides or bulk-heads, through which they can fire musquetry on the enemy.
MI-mat. See Hunier.
MINOT, boute-dehors, defense, the davit of a ship: also a fire-boom.
MINUTE, a nautical, or astronomical mile.
MIRE & coins de Mire, the coins, or aiming wedges of a cannon.
Prendre sa Mire, to take aim with a cannon, to level, or point a cannon, or other fire-arm, to its object.
MIRER, to loom, or appear indistinctly, as the land under a cloud on the sea-coast.
MIROIR. See Ecusson.
MISAINE, the fore-mast.
Misaine, or voile de Misaine, the fore-sail.
MITRAILLES, langrage shot, or small pieces of iron, or old nails, with which cannon are sometimes charged in a sea-fight.
MODELE. See Gabarit.
MOIS de gages, the monthly pay, or wages of a sailor.
MOLE de port, a pier, or mole-head, raised across the mouth of a harbour, to break off the force of the sea.
MOLER en pouppe, ou poger, to bear away and bring the wind aft, in the dialect of Provence and Italy.
MOLLIR, une corde, to slacken, douse, or ease off a taught rope.
MONSON, or Mouson, a monsoon, or trade-wind of India.
MONTANS de poulaine, the timbers of the head, or upright rails, which are usually ornamented with sculpture.
Montans de voute, the stern-timbers.
Le MONTANT de l’eau, or le flot, flowing water, the flood tide.
MONTÉ, mounted, or equipped with a certain number of guns, or men; as,
Vaisseau Monté de 50 ou 60 canons, a ship mounting 50 or 60 guns.
Vaisseau Monté de trois cent hommes, a ship manned with three hundred hands, or whose complement consists of three hundred.
Monter le gouvernail, to hang the rudder.
Monter au vent, to spring the luff, or haul the wind.
MONTURE, the arming a ship for war, or mounting her with cannon, and other fire-arms, and manning her.
MOQUE, a heart, or dead-eye of a stay.
Moque de civadiere, a sprit-sail-sheet block.
Moque de trélingage, the dead-eye of a crow-foot.
MORDRE, to bite, or hold fast; understood of the claw or flook of an anchor which is sunk in the ground.
MORNE, a name given in America to a cape or promontory.
MORTAISE, a hole or mortise, cut to receive the end of a piece of timber, called the tenant or tenon.
Mortaise de gouvernail, the hole in the rudder-head which contains the tiller.
Mortaise de poulie, the channel, or vacant space in a block formed to contain the sheave.
Mortaise du mât de hune, the fid-hole of a top-mast.
MORTE-d’eau, or Morte-eau, nip tides, or neap-tides; also dead low water.
MORTIER, a mortar, employed to throw bombs or carcases from a ketch.
MOUFFLE de poulie, the shell of a block. See Arcasse.
MOUILLAGE, anchoring-ground.
Mauvais Mouillage, foul ground, bad anchor-ground, or foul bottom.
MOUILLE, let go the anchor! the order to let the anchor fall from the cat-head to the bottom.
Bien-Mouillé, well moored, or moored in a good birth and anchor-ground.
Vaisseau Mouillé à un ancre de flot, & un ancre de jussant, a ship moored with one anchor to the flood, and another to the ebb.
Vaisseau Mouillé entre vent & marée, a ship moored between wind and tide.
MOUILLER, or Mouiller l’ancre, to let go the anchor, to come to an anchor, or simply, to anchor.
Mouiller à la voile, to let go the anchor whilst the sails are yet abroad.
Mouiller en croupiére, to moor with a spring upon the cable, in order to cannonade a fort, &c.
Mouiller en patte d’oie, to moor with three anchors a-head, equally distant from each other, and appearing like the foot of a goose.
Mouiller l’ancre de touei, to moor with the boat, or to carry out an anchor.
Mouiller les voiles, to wet the sails; a practice usual in light winds.
Mouiller par la quille, an ironical expression to signify that a ship is fast a-ground: Our seamen then say, every nail in her bottom is an anchor.
MOULINET, a small windlass, as that of a long-boat, or lanch.
Moulinet à bittord, a spun-yarn-winch.
MOURGON, a diver, in the dialect of Provence. See Plongeur.
MOUSSE, garçon be bord, a ship-boy; one of the prentices, or officers servants.
MOUTONNER, to foam; expressed of the waves in a tempest or turbulent sea.
MOYEN-parallel, the middle latitude in navigation, or the parallel that holds the middle place between the latitude departed from, and the latitude arrived in.
MULET, a sort of Portuguese vessel with three masts, and lateen sails.
MUNITIONAIRE, an agent-victualler, or a contractor for sea provisions.
Commis du Munitionaire. See Commis.
N.
NACELLE, a skiff, or small boat, without masts or sails, used to pass a river.
NAGE, the row-lock of a boat. See also Autarelle.
Nage à bord, come aboard with the boat! the order given to the rowers in the longboat, to bring her aboard, or along-side.
Nage à faire abattre, pull to leeward! the order to the rowers in a boat, to tow the ship’s head to leeward.
Nage au vent, pull to windward, or tow the ship to windward!
Nage de force, pull chearly in the boat! hooroa in the boat!
Nage qui est paré, pull with the oars that are shipped.
Nage sec, row dry! the order to row without wetting the passengers.
Nage stribord, & scie bas-bord, pull the starboard-oars, and hold water with the larboard oars! the order given to turn the boat with her head to the left.
Nager, Ramer, or Voguer, to row, or pull with the oars, in a boat or small vessel.
Nager à sec, to touch the shore with the oars in rowing.
Nager tant d’avirons par bande, to row so many oars on a side.
Nager de bout, to row standing, or with the face towards the boat’s head.
Nager en arriere, to back a-stern with the oars.
Nager la chaloupe à bord, to row the long-boat aboard.
NATES, mats used to line the sail-room, bread-room, or the hold when a ship is laden with corn, to preserve the contents.
NAVETTE, a small Indian vessel.
NAUFRAGE, shipwreck.
Naufragé, shipwrecked.
NAVIGABLE, navigable, capable of navigation.
NAVIGATEUR, a mariner, or seaman.
NAVIGATION, the theory and practice of navigation.
Navigation impropre, coasting, or sailing along shore.
Navigation propre, the art of sailing by the laws of trigonometry. See Pilotage.
NAVIGER, to sail, or direct a ship’s course at sea.
Naviger par terre, or dans le terre, to be ashore by the dead-reckoning; to be a-head of the ship by estimation.
Naviger par un grand cercle, to sail upon the arch of a great circle.
NAVIRE, a ship. See also Vaisseau.
Beau Navire en rade, a good roader.
NEUVE, a sort of small flight, used by the Dutch in the herring-fishery, and resembling a buss. See Buche.
NEZ, the nose, beak, or head of a ship.
NOCHER, a name formerly given to a pilot.
NOCTURLABE, a nocturnal.
NOIALE. See Toile.
NOIÉ, an epithet which answers to clouded, or indistinct; being expressed of an horizon, when it cannot be discovered by an observer, when taking an altitude.
NOIRCIR, to blacken, or daub with a mixture of tar and lamp-black; as the wales and black-strakes of a ship, the yards, cutwater, &c.
NOLIS, or Nolissement, a name given in Provence and the Levant to the freight or cargo of a ship.
NON-vue, no sight of, out of sight; a phrase which implies the fog or haze of the weather, that prevents a ship from discovering contiguous objects, as the shore, rocks, &c.
NORD, the north, or north point.
Nord-est, the north-east.
Nord-est quart à l’est, north-east by east.
Nord-ester, to vary towards the east; expressed of the east-variation of the compass.
Nord-ouester, to decline towards the west; spoken also of the magnetical needle.
NOYALE. See Noiale.
NOYÉ. See Noié.
NUAISON, a trade-wind, or the period of a monsoon.
O.
OCCIDENT, or Ouest, the west.
OCEAN, a name generally given in France, to the Western, or Atlantic Ocean.
OCTANT, the octant, or quadrant invented by Hadley.
OEIL, Yeux, ou Trous, the holes in the clews of a sprit-sail to let out the water which falls into its cavity when the ship pitches.
Oeil de bœuf. See Yeux.
Oeil de bouc, a water-gall, or weather-gall.
Oeil de pie, or Yeux de pie, the eye-let holes wrought in the reef of a sail, through which the points are reeved.
Oeil de roue, the hole in the truck, or wheel of a gun-carriage, through which the axle passes.
OEILLET, an eye-splice on the end of any rope.
Oeillet d’étai, the eye of a stay which goes over the mast-head.
OEILLETS de la tournevire, the eyes in the two ends of a voyal, which are lashed together with a laniard when the voyal is brought to the capstern.
OEILS, the eyes, or hauses of a ship. See Ecubiers.
OEUVRE-mortes, the dead-work of a ship, or all that part which is above water, comprehending the fore-castle, quarter deck, and poop.
Oeuvre vives, the quick-work, or all that part of a ship which is under water.
OEUVRES de marée, the graving, calking, or repairing a ship’s bottom, when, having been laid on the ground, the tide has ebbed from her, so as to leave the bottom dry.
OFFICIERS bleu. See Bleu.
Officiers-généraux, the general officers in the French navy, as the admirals, vice-admirals, rear admirals, and commodores.
Officiers de port, the officers of a dock-yard, appointed to see that the shipping are properly moored, masted, rigged, repaired, calked, and otherwise equipped with whatever is necessary, according to their destination.
Officiers de santé, officers who superintend the affairs of the quarantine in a port.
Officiers-majors, the superior, or commissioned officers in a ship of war, as the captain, lieutenants, and ensign.
Officiers-mariniers, the mechanical or warrant-officers in a ship of war, of which the principal are, the master, boatswain, gunner, carpenter, and sail-maker; as distinguished from the military officers, called Officiers-majors. See the preceding article.
O! du navire, hola! hoa the ship, a hoay! the manner of hailing or calling to a ship whose name is not known.
O! du Soleil Royal hola! hoa, the Royal Sun ahoay!
O! d’en haut, yoa-hoa, aloft there! mast-head there! &c. the cry from the deck to those who are aloft, to attend to some order.
O! hisse, O! hale, O! saille, O! ride, the method of singing out, as a signal to hoist, haul, or rouse together, on a tackle or rope.
OINT, stuff, tallow, or such like material, used to pay the masts, tyes of the top-sail-yards, &c.
OLOFÉE, the act of spring the luff, or of hauling close upon a wind.
ORAGE. See Tempete.
ORDRE de bataille, the line or order of battle in a naval engagement.
Ordre de marche, the order of sailing.
Ordre de retraite, the order of retreat.
ORDRES des vaisseaux, the classes into which each rate of ships is subdivided, in the French navy. See Rang.
OREILLE de lievre, a three-sided, or triangular sail; as the stay-sails.
OREILLES de l’ancre, the broad parts of the fluke of an anchor.
ORGANEAU, the ring of an anchor. See Arganeau.
ORGUES, an organ, or machine, sometimes used in a sea-fight by privateers: it contains several barrels of musketoons, or small-arms, fixed upon one stock, so as to be all fired together.
ORIENTER les voiles, to trim the sails, or place them in the most advantageous manner, to receive the wind, and accelerate the ship’s course.
ORIN, the buoy-rope of an anchor.
ORSE, the larboard-side, in the dialect of Provence. Also the order to luff.
ORSER, to row against the wind, or row head-to-wind. This is likewise the language of the gallies.
ORTODROMIE, a course which lies upon a meridian or parallel.
OSSEC, the water-way, or well-room of a boat.
OSSIERES. See Haussieres.
OUAGE, the track or wake of a ship. See Houaiche.
Tirer en OUAICHE, to take a ship in tow a-stern when she is disabled.
Trainer un pavillon ennemi en Ouaiche, to drag the colours or ensign of an enemy after the ship, so as to sweep the water therewith, as a sign of victory.
OVERLANDRES, small vessels navigated on the Rhine and Meuse.
OUEST, or Occident, the west point of the compass or horizon.
OUEST-nord-ouest, &c. See Rose de vents.
OURAGAN, an hurricane.
OUVERT, etre ouvert, to have any object open in sailing past it; or to be opposite to any place, as a road, the entrance of a harbour, or river, &c.
OUVERTURE, an opening, or valley between two hills, beheld from the sea, and serving frequently as a land-mark.
OUVRIERS, the artificers, &c. in a dock-yard; or riggers of a ship.
OUVRIR, to open, or discover two objects separately at sea, when sailing at some distance from them.
P.
PACFI, ou Pafi, le grand Pacfi, the main-course, or main-sail.
Le petit Pacfi, ou Pacfi de bourcet, the fore-course or fore-sail.
Etre aux deux PACFIS, to be under the courses.
PACIFIER, to become calm; also to fall, or grow smooth, when spoken of the sea.
PAGAIE, the paddle of a canoe.
PAGE de la chambre du capitaine, the cabin-boy.
PAGES. See Mousses & garçons.
PAILLES de bittes, long iron bolts thrust into holes in the bits, to keep the cable from starting off.
PAILLOT, the steward-room in a row-galley.
PAIS somme, a shoal or shallow.
PALAMANTE, a general name given to the oars of a row-galley; which are forty feet and six inches in length.
PALAN, a tackle of any kind. See Itaque and Garant.
Palan à caliorne, a three-fold tackle. See Caliorne.
Palan à candelette. See Candelette.
Palan d’amure, a tack-tackle.
Palan d’etai, a stay-tackle.
Palan de misaine, the fore-tackle.
Grand Palan, the main tackle.
PALANQUE, the order to hoist, bowce, or set taught upon a tackle.
PALANQUER, to hoist, or bowce upon a tackle.
PALANQUIN, a jigger-tackle, tail-tackle, or burton.
PALANQUINS de ris, the reef-tackles.
Palanquins simples de racage, the nave-lines.
PALANS de bout, the sprit-sail haliards.
Palans de canon. See Drosse de canon, & Palan de retraite.
Palans de retraite, the relieving tackle, &c. of the ordnance.
PALARDEAUX, plugs made to stop holes in any part of a ship; as hause-plugs, shot-plugs, &c.
PALE, or Palme, the blade or wash of an oar.
PALÉAGE, the act of discharging any thing with shovels, baskets, &c. as corn, salt, or such like material; for which employment the ship’s crew can demand no additional pay. See also Maneage.
En PANNE, lying-by, or lying-to with some of the sails aback.
Mettre en Panne, to lay a ship to, or turn the head to windward, in order to lie by with some of the sails laid to the mast.
PANNEAU, a scuttle, or cover of any hatchway in the deck.
Panneau à boîte, the cover of a scuttle, with a border round its edge.
Panneau à vassole, a great hatch, without a border.
Le grand Panneau, the main hatch.
PANTAQUIERES, or Pantocheres, the cat-harpings, and crane lines of the shrouds.
En PANTENNE, fluttering or shivering in great disorder; expressed of the sails, when out of trim, in a storm.
Amener les voiles en Pantenne, to haul down the sails with the utmost expedition; as in a squall of wind.
PANTOIRES, pendants on the mast-heads or yard-arms, wherein to hook preventer-shrouds, or yard-tackles.
PAPIERS & enseignemens, the papers of a ship, comprehending the bills of lading, manifest, coquets, &c.
PAQUE-BOT, or Paquet-bot, a packet-boat, or packet-vessel; as those which pass between Dover and Calais, &c.
Faire la PARADE, to dress a ship, or to adorn her with a number of flags, pendants, and other colours, which are displayed from different parts of the masts, yards, and rigging.
PARADIS, or Bassin, the basin of a dock, or an inner harbour.
PARAGE, a space of the sea appointed to cruise, or rendezvous in; also a part of the sea near any coast.
Vaisseau mouillé en Parage, a ship anchored in an open road, or in the offing.
PARC, an inclosure for containing the magazines and store-houses in a royal dock-yard.
Parc dans un vaisseau, a cot or pen, wherein cattle are inclosed in a ship.
PARCLOSSES, limber-boards.
PARCOURIR les coutures, to survey or examine the seams of a ship’s sides or decks, and caulk where it is found necessary.
PARÉ, ready, clear, or prepared for any thing.
Pare à virer, see all clear to go about! the order to prepare for tacking.
PAREAU, or Parre, a sort of large bark in the Indies, whose head and stern are exactly alike, so that the rudder may be hung at either end.
PARER un cap, to double a cape. See Doubler.
Parer un ancre, to prepare the anchor for letting it go.
Se Parer, to clear for action, to prepare for battle.
PARFUMER un vaisseau, to smoke a ship, and sluice her with vinegar between decks, in order to purify her, and expel the putrified air.
PARQUET, a shot-locker on the deck; also a place where shot are kept on a gun-wharf. See Epitié.
PARTAGER le vent, to share the wind with some other ship, or hold way with her, without gaining or losing ground, or without weathering, or falling to leeward.
PARTANCE, the time of departing, or sailing from a place; also a place from whence a ship departs.
Coup de Partance, a signal-gun for sailing.
Banniere de Partance, the signal displayed for sailing.
PAS, a strait or narrow channel, as
Pas de Calais, the Streights of Dover.
PASSAGERS, the passengers of a ship.
PASSE, a canal, channel, or small streight.
Passe-port, a sea-pass or passport. See Congé.
PASSER, to perish, or be lost at sea; as by over-setting, or foundering.
Passer au vent d’un vaisseau, to pass to windward, or gain the wind of another ship.
Passer sous le beaupré, to pass under the bowsprit. This phrase, which is usual amongst English as well as French seamen, implies to go a-head of, or before a ship, and cross her course.
Passe-vogue, the effort of rowing briskly, or very hard.
Passe-volant, a false muster on the ship’s books; also a wooden gun, which may terrify a ship at a distance. See Fausses-Lances.
PATACHE, an armed tender, or vessel which attends a ship of war or fleet; also a packet-boat.
Patache d’avis, an advice-boat. See Frégate d’avis.
PATARAS, a preventer-shroud; also a spare-shroud, to be hooked on occasionally.
PATARASSE, a calking iron.
PATRON, the master or commander of a merchant-ship, or boat, in the dialect of Provence.
Patron de chaloupe, the cockswain, or coxen, of a long-boat.
PATTE d’oie. See Mouiller en patte d’oie.
Pattes d’ancre, the flukes of an anchor.
PATTES d’anspects, the claws of a gunner’s handspike.
Pattes de bouline, the bowline bridles.
Pattes de voiles, the tabling of the sails at their edges or bolt-ropes.
PAVESADE, a quarter-cloth, or waist-cloth. See Bastingage.
PAVILLON, the flag of a ship. Also a general name for colours.
Pavillon de beaupré, the jack.
Pavillon de chaloupe, the flag carried in a barge or long-boat, when a superior officer is aboard.
Pavillon de combat, the signal for engagement.
Pavillon de conseil, the signal for a general council.
Pavillon de pouppe, or enseigne de pouppe, a ship’s ensign.
Pavillon en Berne. See Berne.
Baton de Pavillon, the ensign staff, flag-staff, or jack-staff.
Vaisseau Pavillon, or simply, Pavillon, the flag-ship.
Amener le Pavillon, to strike the flag or colours.
Etre sous un tel Pavillon, to be under such a flag, or commanding officer.
Faire Pavillon blanc, to display a flag of truce.
PAUMET, a sail-maker’s palm.
PAVOIS, or rather Pavesade. See Pavesade and Bastingage.
PAVOISER, to spread the waist-cloths.
PAUSES, a sort of long and wide boats used to embark merchandise at Archangel, in Moscovy.
PECHER un ancre, to hook, and heave up from the bottom, another anchor, with that of the ship, when several anchors lie near to each other, as in a common road.
PEDAGNE, or Pedagnon, the stretchers of a row-galley. See also Banquettes.
PELLES, corn shovels, or ballast-shovels, used in trimming a ship’s hold.
PENDANT, or Flamme. See Flamme.
PENDEUR, or Pendour, the pendant of any tackle, runner, &c.
PENDOUR de caliorne, the winding tackle-pendant.
PENDOURS de balancines, the spans of the lifts.
Pendours de bras, the brace-pendants at the yard-arms.
PENES, pitch-mops. See Baton à vadel.
PENNE, the peek of a mizen, or lateen sail.
PENTURE, a googing, or the eye of a clamp, fitted to receive a goose-neck, or some bolt of iron which turns therein like a pivot in its socket.
PENTURES de gouvernail, the googings of the rudder. See Ferrure de gouvernail.
PEOTE, a light nimble Venetian wherry, used frequently as an advice-boat, to carry expresses.
PERCEINTES. See Préceintes.
PERCEUR, a person who bores the holes for the tree-nails, or bolts, in a ship’s-side.
PERROQUET, a top gallant-sail.
Mettre les PERROQUETS en banniere, to let fly the top-gallant sheets, as a particular signal to some ship in company.
Perroquets volans, flying-top-gallant-sails.
PERRUCHE, the mizen-top-gallant-sail.
PERTUIS, a dam, or channel of water, confined by a sluice.
PERTUISANE, a sort of pike or halbert, used to defend a ship from being boarded.
PESER, to hang upon, or haul downward on any rope over-head.
Peser sur un levier, to heave, or purchase with a handspike.
PHAIOFNÉE, a sort of Japonese barge, or yacht, to carry the nobility, &c.
PHARE, or tour à feu, a watch-tower, or light-house on the sea-coast.
PIC à pic sur son ancre, close a peek upon the anchor.
PIECE, a cannon. See Canon.
Piece de charpente, a general name for any pieces of timber properly hewed, to be used in the construction of a ship.
PIECES de chasse, the chase-guns, or head-chases.
PIED de vent, a clear spot of the sky, appearing under a cloud to windward.
Pied-marin, sea shoes; expressed of a man who has got sea-legs, or who treads sure and firm at sea, as being accustomed thereto.
PIÉDROITS, the Samson’s posts, erected in the hold from the kelson to the lower-deck hatchways, and notched with steps.
PIERRIER, a petrero, or small cannon, sometimes used in sea-fights, and generally charged with musquet-shot, or swivel balls.
PIÉTER le gouvernail, to mark the stern-post with feet, in order to discover how many feet of water the ship draws abaft.
PILIERS de bittes, the bitts of a ship.
PILLAGE, the plunder taken from any enemy after engagement.
PILON, or petit écore, a shore which is steep to, and but little raised above the sea.
PILOTAGE, the navigating, conducting, or steering of a ship.
PILOTE, a sea-pilot, or the conductor of a ship’s course by the art of navigation; also the master of a ship. See Hauturier.
Pilote côtier, or Pilote de havre, a coasting, or harbour pilot. See Lamaneur.
Pilote hardie, a daring or enterprising pilot.
PILOTER, to pilot a ship into, or out of, a harbour or river.
PINASSE, a square-sterned vessel, called in England a bark.
Pinasse de Biscaye, a Biscayan barca-longo.
PINCEAU à goudronner, a tar-brush.
PINCES de bois, a sort of curved handspikes. See Renard.
PINCER le vent. See Aller au plus pres.
PINNULE, the sight vanes of any instrument, for observing or setting a distant object at sea.
PINQUE, a pink, or narrow-sterned ship, with a flat floor.
PIPRIS, a sort of canoe used by the negroes in Guinea, and the Cape de Verds.
PIRATE, a pirate, or free-booter; see also Corsaire.
PIRATER, to rob at sea; to infest or scour the sea as a pirate.
PIROGUE, an American canoe.
PISTON, the spear-box of a pump.
PITONS à boucles. See Cheville à boucles.
PIVOT, an iron point which turns in a socket; as the foot of the capstern.
PIVOT de boussoule, the brass center-pin of the compass.
PLAGE, a shallow or flat shore, without any capes or head-lands to form a road or place of safety for shipping at anchor.
PLAIN, a flat, or shoal; whence,
Aller au Plain, to run ashore.
PLANCHE, the gang-board of a boat.
Mets la Planche, the order to put out the gang-board from the boat’s stern to the shore, to walk out upon.
PLAQUES de plomb, sheet lead, used for several purposes aboard-ship.
PLAT de la varangue, the flat or horizontal part of a floor-timber.
Plat de l’equipage, or un Plat des matelots, a mess or company of seven sailors who eat together. The word literally signifies a bowl or platter, in which the whole mess eat at the same time.
Plat des malades, the sick mess, under the care of the surgeon.
Plat-bord, the gunnel, or gun-wale of a ship.
Plat-bord also means wash-board or weather-board.
Plat-bord a l’eau, gunnel-in, or gunnel-to; expressed of a ship that inclines so much to one side, as to make the gunnel touch the surface of the water by crowding sail in a fresh wind.
PLATE-bands d’assuts, the clamps of a gun-carriage, which are used to confine the trunnions therein.
Plate-forme de l’éperon, the platform or grating within the rails of the head.
PLATE-formes, an assemblage of oak-planks, forming a part of the deck, near the side of a ship of war, whereon the cannons rest.
PLATINES de lumiere, the aprons of the cannons.
PLI de cables, a fake of the cable.
Filer un Pli de cable, to veer away one fake of the cable.
Vaisseau qui Plie le côté, a crank ship.
PLIER, to bend or supple the planks of a ship by heat and moisture.
Plier le côté, to lie over in the water, to heel extremely when under sail.
Plier le pavillon, Plier les voiles, to gather up the fly of the ensign, or furl the sails.
PLOC, the hair and tar put between the bottom planks of a ship and the sheathing, to fill up the interval, and preserve the bottom from the worms.
PLOCQUER, to apply the sheathing-hair to the ship’s bottom.
PLOMBER un navire, to try whether a ship is upright, or to what side she heels, by a plumb-line and level.
PLONGEUR, a diver, whose employment it is to bring any thing up from the bottom, as spunges, coral, &c.
PLONGER, to duck, or immerse any thing in the water; also to plunge or dive into the water, &c.
PLUMET de pilote, or panon, a feather-vane, or dog-vane.
POGE, ou POUGE, the order to put the helm a-weather, in order to fill the sails, or bear away. This is the language of Provence. See Arrive-tout.
POINT, a ship’s place, as pricked upon a nautical chart.
Point d’une voile, the clew of a sail.
POINTAGE de la carte, the pricking of a course and distance upon the chart, to discover the ship’s place.
POINTE, a point of land projecting into the sea; a low-cape, or promontory.
Pointe de l’éperon, the beak of a prow, or cut-water.
Pointe du compas, a point of the magnetical compass.
Pointe du nord, ou du sud, &c. the north or south point.
POINTER, to direct or point a gun to its object.
Pointer à couler bas, to point a gun so as to sink a ship.
Pointer à démater, to point a gun so as to dismast a ship.
Pointer à donner dans le bois, to level the cannon so as to hull a ship, or strike the hull.
Pointer la carte, to prick the chart. See Pointage.
POINTURE, the balance of a sail, or that part which is fastened by balancing it in a storm; as the peek of the mizen, &c.
POITRINE de gabords, the filling, or convexity of a ship’s bottom, as approaching the mid-ships from the stem and stern-post.
POLACRE, a polacre, or ship so called.
Police d’assurance, a policy of insurance.
Police de chargement. See Connoissement.
POMMES, the trucks, or acorns placed on the flag-staffs, or spindles of the mast-head.
Pommes de girouettes, the acorns placed over the vanes.
Pommes de raque, or de racage, see Raque.
POMME de pavillon, the truck placed on the top of the flag-staff, or ensign-staff.
POMOYER, to under-run a cable with the long-boat.
POMPE, the pump of a ship.
Affranchir, ou franchir la Pompe, to free the ship, by discharging more water with the pumps than has entered by the leaks. See Affranchir.
A la Pompe, pump ship! the order to pump out the water from a ship’s bottom.
Charger la Pompe, to fetch the pump.
Etre à une, ou à deux Pompes, to have one or both pumps constantly employed to free the ship.
La Pompe est engorgée, the pump is choaked or foul.
La Pompe est éventée, the pump blows, or is split so as to be rendered unserviceable.
La Pompe est haute, ou la Pompe est franche, the pump sucks, or is dry.
La Pompe est prise, the pump is fetched.
La Pompe se décharge, the pump has lost water. See Décharge.
Pompe à la Vénitienne, a Venetian pump.
Pompe de mer. See Trompe.
POMPE-en bon etat, Pompe libre, a good pump, or pump in good trim.
Pompes à roue & à chaines, chain pumps.
Pompes du maître-valet, hand-pumps, used for water casks, oil-casks, wine-casks, &c.
PONENT, the west, in the language of Provence: also a name given to the Western Ocean.
PONT, the deck of a ship.
Pont à caillebotis, ou à treilles, a grating-deck.
Pont coupé, a deck open in the middle, as in some small vessels that have only part of a deck towards the stem and stern.
Pont courant devant arriere, a deck flush fore and aft.
Pont de cordes, a sort of netting to cover a ship’s waist, and prevent the impression of boarders.
Pont volant, a spar-deck, or platform.
Faux-Pont, the orlop deck.
Premier-Pont, or franc-tillac, the lower, or gun-deck.
Second Pont, the middle-deck of a ship with three decks, or the upper deck of one with two decks.
Troisieme-Pont, the upper-deck of a ship with three decks.
PONTÉ, decked, or furnished with a deck; as opposed to undecked or open.
PONTON, a pontoon, for careening or delivering ships; also a sort of bridge of boats, composed of two punts, with planks laid between them; likewise a ferry-boat.
PONTONAGE, the hire of a ferry-boat or ponton.
PONTONNIER, the master of a ponton, or lighterman.
PORQUES, riders.
Porques acculées, the after floor-riders.
Porques de fond, floor-riders.
Allonges de Porques, futtock-riders.
PORT, a haven, port, or harbour.
Port-brute, ou havre brute, a natural harbour, or port formed by nature.
Port de vaisseau, the burthen or tonnage of a ship.
PORT de barre, an harbour with a bar, that can only be passed at, or near high-water.
Port d’entrée, or Porte de tout marée. See Havre.
Avoir un Port sous le vent, to have a harbour to leeward, or under the lee.
Fermer le Ports, ou Ports fermés, to lay an embargo upon all the shipping of a harbour. See Arret.
PORTAGE, the space or room in a ship’s hold allowed to any officer, &c. to contain his venture, or private trade.
PORTE-bossoir. See Sou-barbe.
Porte d’écluse, the flood-gates of a sluice.
Porte gargousse. See Lanterne à gargousse.
Porte-haubans, ou ecotards, the channels, or chain-wales of a ship.
PORTELOTS, the thick stuff which encircles the side of a lighter under the gunnel.
Porte-plein les voiles, or simply, Porte-plein! keep full! the order to the man who steers, to keep the sails full, and prevent them from shivering in the wind.
Porte-vergues, or rather herpes, the rails of the head, reaching from the cat-head towards the cut-water. See Herpes.
Porte-voix, a speaking-trumpet.
PORTER, to sail, or conduit a ship.
Porter à route, to stand onward, upon the course.
Porter au sûd, &c. to stand to the southward, &c.
PORTEREAU, the flood-gate of a sluice.
POSTE, the quarters where the men are stationed in time of battle.
POSTILLON, an express-boat, or post-boat.
POT à brai, a pitch-pot.
Pot-à-feu, a fire-pot, or stink-pot.
Pot de pompe, the lower pump-box. See also Chopinette.
POTENCE de brinquebale, the cheeks of the pump.
POUDRIER, an half-hour watch-glass.
POUGER, or moler en pouppe, to bear up, in the dialect of Provence.
POULAINE, eperon, the knee of the head, or cutwater.
POULAINES, the props which support a ship’s stem, when she is on the stocks.
POULIE, a block of any kind to reeve a running rope through.
Poulie coupée, or à dents, a snatch block. See also Galoche.
Poulie détropée, a block shaken out of its strop.
Poulie de grand drisse, one of the main jear blocks.
Poulie de guinderesse, a top-block.
Poulie de palan, a tackle-block.
Poulie d’itague du grand hunier, the main-top-sail tye-block.
Poulie double, a double block.
Poulie simple, a single block.
POULIES de caliornes, winding tackle-blocks, or blocks furnished with three sheaves.
Poulies de drisse de misaine, the fore jear-blocks.
Poulies d’écoutes de hune, top-sail-sheet-blocks, fitted also to contain the lower-lifts.
Poulies de retour d’écoutes de hune, the quarter-blocks for the top-sail sheets.
POUPPE, the after-parts of a ship, both above and below. See Arcasse, Arriere, Dunette, &c.
Vaisseau à Pouppe quarrée, a square-sterned ship; such as are all ships of war.
Mettre vent en Pouppe, to bear away before the wind.
Mouiller en Pouppe, to moor by the stern, or get out an anchor a-stern.
Vent en Pouppe, a stern-wind, or wind right aft.
POUSSE-barre! heave chearly! heave heartily! the order or exhortation to those who heave at the capstern, to push forcibly on the bars.
Pousse-pied, or Accon, a small boat used to catch shell-fish, &c. See Accon.
PRAME, a pram, lighter, or barge of burden.
PRATIQUE, in a naval sense, implies free intercourse or communication with the natives of a country, after having performed quarantine.
PRÉCEINTES, the wales of a ship.
PRÉLART, or Prélat, a tarpauling.
PRENDRE chasse. See Chasser.
Prendre hauteur, to take the altitude of the sun, or a star. See Hauteur.
Prendre les amures, to get aboard the tacks. See Amurer.
Prendre terre. See Terre & terrir.
Prendre vent devant, to be taken with the wind a-head.
Prendre un bosse, to make sail, or clap on the stopper.
Prendre un ris, to take in a reef.
PRENEUR, vaisseau Preneur, the vessel that has taken a prize.
PRES & plein, full and by! the order to the steersman to keep the ship close to the wind, without shaking.
PRESENTER le grande bouline, to snatch the main-bowline, or put it into the snatch-block.
Presenter au vent, to sail as the ship stems, without making lee-way.
PRESSER, to press, or constrain into small compass; as cotton, wool, or such like material.
PRETER le coté, to range abreast of a ship, in order to give her the broadside. See Effacer.
PREVOT général de la marine, a provost marshal of the marine, or officer whose duty resembles that of the judge-advocate of naval courts-martial.
Prevot marinier, the swabber of a ship, who also chastises the criminals, as being usually the most abandoned of the crew: this part of his duty is performed in English ships by the boatswain.
PRIME d’assurance, insurance paid by the merchant for insuring the ship’s cargo.
PRISE, a prize, or ship taken from the enemy at sea.
PROFIT, avantureux, the interest acquired by bottomry. See Bomerie.
PROFONTIÉ, a ship that draws much water, or takes a large volume of water to float her.
PROLONGER un navire, to lay a ship along-side of some other.
PROMONTOIRE, a cape, head-land, or fore-land.
PROUE, the prow of a ship, see Avant.
Donner la Proue, to appoint the course, or rendezvous of the gallies.
PROVISIONS, a general name for the provisions, and the warlike stores, or ammunition of a ship.
PUCHOT. See Trompe.
PUISER, to leak, or make water at sea.
Puiser pour le bord, to ship seas, or take in water, either over the gunnel, or at the ports in the side.
PUITS. See Archipompe.
PUY, a great depth of the sea on a level bottom.
Q.
QUAI, a wharf or key on the side of a harbour or river.
Amarré à Quai, rangé à Quai, moored along-side of the key or wharf.
QUAIAGE, wharfage.
QUAICHE, a ketch, or ship so called.
QUARANTAINE, quarantine.
Faire Quarantaine, to perform quarantine.
QUARANTENIER, a rope of the size of a rattling-line, used as a lashing, &c.
QUARRÉ de reduction, see Quartier de reduction.
Quarré naval, the naval square, a scheme drawn on a ship’s quarter-deck, to represent the division of a fleet into three columns, and exhibit the station of each particular ship in the order of sailing; it is used to direct and regulate the movements of each ship with regard to the rest, and preserve the whole fleet in uniformity.
QUART de rond, saloire, tamisaille, the transom, upon which the tiller traverses in the gun-room. See Traverse.
Quart, the watch kept aboard ship, comprehending the time of its continuance, and the people employed to keep it.
Quart bon, or bon Quart, keep a good look out afore! look well out afore there!
Quart du jour, the day-watch.
Prendre le Quart, to set the watch.
Au Quart, au Quart! the watch, hoay! the starboard watch, hoay! the manner of calling the watch to relief.
Faire bon Quart sur la hune, to keep a good look-out in the tops.
Le premier Quart, or Quart de tribord, the starboard-watch. See Tribordais.
Second Quart, or Quart de bas-bord, the larboard-watch. See Basbordais.
QUARTS de vent, the quarter-points of the compass, or those which lie on each side of the cardinal and intermediate points, and are distinguished in English by the word by; as N by E, N E by N, &c.
QUARTIER Anglois, or Quart de nonante, a Davies’s quadrant.
Quartier de reduction, a sinical quadrant, used by the French pilots in working their days works, to discover the ship’s place.
Quartier-maître, an officer resembling the boatswain’s mate of an English ship.
Vent de Quartier, ou vent largue, a large, or quartering wind.
QUERAT, the planks of a ship’s bottom, comprehended between the keel and the wales.
QUETE, the rake of a ship abaft, or the rake of the stern-post.
QUEUE d’une armée navale, the rear of a fleet of ships of war.
Queue de rat, tapering to the end; expressed of such ropes as are pointed, or tapering towards the end, as the tacks, &c.
QUILLE, the keel of a ship.
Quille-fausse. See Fausse-quille.
QUINTAL, an hundred weight.
R.
RABANER, to fit a sail with rope-bands and earings, ready for bending to its yard.
RABANS, a general name given to earings, gaskets, knittles, and rope-bands.
Rabans d’avuste, a sort of braided knittles, like those formed to point a rope.
Rabans de ferlage, the gaskets employed to furl the sails to their yards.
Rabans de pavillon, the rope-band of a flag or ensign.
Rabans de pointure, the head-earings, or reef-earings of a sail.
Rabans de têtiere, the rope-bands of any sail.
RABATTUES, the intervals between the drift-rails of a ship; this term is peculiar to ship-wrights.
RABLES, the floor-timbers of a boat.
RABLURE, the rabbit or channel cut in the keel, stem, and stern-post, to receive the edges of the garboard-streaks, and the ends of the planks afore and abaft.
RACAGE, a parrel with ribs and trucks.
RACAMBEAU, a traveller, or small iron ring, which sometimes encircles the mast of a long-boat, serving as a parrel to the yard or gaff.
RACCOMMODER, to repair or refit a ship’s rigging. See Radouber.
RACHE de goudron, the dregs of bad tar.
RACLE, or Gratoir, a scraper, used to clean a ship’s side, deck, or bottom.
Racle-double, a two-edged, or double scraper.
Racle-grande, a large scraper, used to clean the ship’s bottom under water.
Racle-petite, or petit Racle, a small scraper, employed to scrape the planks, &c. above the water.
RACLER, to scrape the sides, &c. of a ship.
RADE, a road, or road-stead.
Rade foraine, a free road, or road where ships of all nations are permitted to anchor.
RADEAU, a raft.
RADER, to arrive in a road.
RADOUB, the repair of a ship in a dock-yard, &c. or the employment of the artificers to close the breaches in her hull with planks, timber, or sheet-lead; as also to stop the leaks by calking, and pay the bottom with stuff.
RADOUBER, to repair a ship, or give her a repair.
RAFFALES, or Raffals, sudden and violent squalls of wind.
RAFRAICHIR le canon, to cool or refresh a cannon in battle, as with a wet-spunge, sometimes dipped in vinegar.
Rafraichir la fourrure, to freshen the hause.
Le vent se Rafraichir, the wind freshens, or increases.
RAFRAICHISSEMENT, a supply of fresh provisions of all species.
RAISONNER à la patache, or à la chaloupe, to render an account of a voyage to a visiting boat, when arrived near any port, in order to obtain permission to enter the harbour.
RALINGUER, Mettre en Ralingue, or tenir en Ralingue, to shiver a sail in the wind. See Fasier.
RALINGUES, the bolt-ropes of a sail.
Mets en Ralingue, or fais Ralinguer! luff her up in the wind, shake her up in the wind, let the sails touch! the order to the helmsman to steer the ship so as to let the sails shake with their edges to the wind.
RALLIER un navire au vent, to bring a ship to the wind after having yawed to leeward.
Se Rallier, to approach any object at sea.
RAMBADES, two posts or platforms in the fore-part of a galley, whereon the musketeers stand to fire.
RAMBERGE, a sort of packet-boat, advice-boat, or tender.
RAME, an oar.
Plat, or pale de la Rame, the blade, or wash of an oar.
RAMER. See Nager.
RAMEUR, a rower.
RANG, the rate of ships of war. As the division of the French navy into classes or orders differs from the arrangement of the English fleet, it appears necessary to mark that difference in this place.
The principal French ships of war are divided into three rates, each of which is subdivided into two orders. All the inferior ships, which are not comprehended in those rates and orders, are called frégates and corvettes. See Frégate, &c.
A ship of the first order, of the first rate, carries from 110 to 120 guns.
Ships of the second order, of the first rate, carry from 110 to 90 guns.
Ships of the first order, of the second rate, carry from 90 to 74 guns upon three decks.
Ships of the second order, of the second rate, carry from 74 to 60 guns upon two decks, with the quarter-deck and fore-castle.
Ships of the first order, of the third rate, carry from 60 to 50 guns upon two decks, &c.
Ships of the second order, of the third rate, which are now generally called frégates, carry from 50 to 46 guns upon two decks, &c.
The frégates from 46 to 32 guns, have sometimes two tiers of cannon complete; but all those from 36 to 20, have in general but one tier of cannon, the rest being carried on the quarter-deck and fore-castle.
Rang de rameurs, a bank of rowers, or bank of oars.
RANGER la côte, or Ranger la terre, to coast, or range along-shore.
Ranger le vent, to claw the wind, or haul close to the wind.
Le vent se Range de l’avant, the wind hauls forward; the wind heads us, or takes us a-head.
RANGUE! stretch along, or, clap on here many hands! the order to the sailors to range themselves along, to haul upon any rope, tackle, &c.
RAPIDE, a fresh in a river.
RAQUE, a general name for trucks, but particularly the trucks of a parrel. See also Pomme de Racage.
Raque de haubans, a truck lashed to the shrouds, through which a running rope is reeved.
Raque encouchée, a truck encircled with a notch, to receive the spun-yarn by which it fastened to a shroud, stay, or back-stay.
Raque gougée, a truck hollowed on one side, so as to enclose the rope to which it is fastened.
Raqué, chafed, or rubbed, expressed of a cable, or other rope, which is galled on the outside for want of service.
RAQUER, to fret, chafe, or rub.
RARRIVÉE, the movement of coming to, after having fallen off, when a ship is lying-by or trying.
RAS, a small vessel or boat without a deck.
Ras à l’eau, a low-built vessel, or one which carries her guns very little above the surface of the water.
Ras de courant. See Rat.
RASE, a composition of pitch and tar, used to pay a ship’s seams.
RASER un vaisseau, to cut down a ship, or take off part of her upper-works, as the poop, quarter-deck, or fore-castle, in order to lighten her, when she becomes weak.
RASTEAU, or Ratelier, the rack or range of blocks sometimes placed on each side of the gammoning of a ship’s bowsprit.
RASTEAUX, or Rateaux, the cleats nailed on the middle of a yard, to confine the parrels, and tye, or jear-blocks, &c.
Rasteaux, or Rateliers à chevillots, ranges, or cross-pieces, fastened to the shrouds, or otherwise, in which pins are fixed to belay the running-rigging.
Rat, a shipwright’s floating stage, used for repairing or calking a ship’s bottom, &c.
Rat, or Ras, a race, or dangerous whirlpool; as the Race of Portland, &c.
Rat. See Couet à queue de rat.
RATION, the allowance of bread, flesh, wine, pulse, &c. distributed to the different messes in a ship.
Ration double, a double allowance, given on any particular occasion of rejoicing.
Ration et demie, the allowance of a sea-officer in the French fleet.
RAVALEMENT, a platform on the poop of some ships, where the marines stand to discharge their small-arms.
REALE, the royal-galley, a name given to the principal galley of a kingdom. See Galere réale.
REBANDER, a phrase amongst the common sailors, signifying to carry over to the other side of the ship.
Rebander à l’autre bord, to stand upon the other tack, to steer a different course.
REBORDER, to fall aboard or along-side of a ship a second time.
RECHANGE, a general name for the stores of a ship; or the spare rigging, sails, &c. which are in reserve to supply the place of what may be lost or disabled.
RECLAMPER, to fish a mast or yard when it happens to be sprung.
RECONNOITRE un vaisseau, to approach a ship, in order to discover her strength, and of what nation she is.
Reconnoitre une terre, to survey or observe the situation of a coast attentively.
RECOURIR les coutures, to run over the seams of a ship in calking; to calk them lightly and expeditiously.
Recourir sur une manœuvre, to under-run a rope or cable.
Faire Recourir l’ecoute, la bouline, le couet de revers, to haul in the slack of the lee-tack or bowline, or of the weather-sheet.
RECOUVRE! rouse-in, or haul aboard!
RECOUVRER, to rouse-in, or haul any rope into the ship, when it hangs slack in the water, or otherwise.
RECOUX. See Reprise.
RECUL du canon, the recoil of a cannon.
REFAIT, squared, or prepared for use; expressed of a piece of timber hewn to its proper form and size.
REFLUX de la mer, the ebb-tide. See Flux.
REFOULER, to stem the tide, or to sail against it.
La mer REFOULE, the tide ebbs; the water falls.
REFOULOIR, the rammer of a great gun, called also Fouloir.
Refouloir de cordes, a rope rammer.
Se REFRANCHIR, to be freed by the pumps, or to have the quantity of water in a ship’s hold diminished by pumping.
REFREIN, the repetition of the dashing and breaking against rocks, &c. expressed of the waves upon a sea-shore.
REFUSER, to fall off again, when in stays; expressed of a ship that will not go about, or stay; as,
Le vaisseau a REFUSÉ, the ship will not come to the wind, or will not stay.
REGATES, a course or race of boats in the great canal of Venice.
RELACHER, to bear away for, or put into a harbour, under the lee.
RELACHE, the harbour where a ship has taken refuge or shelter, as from a contrary wind.
RELAIS. See Laisses.
RELEVEMENT, the sheer of a ship’s deck, or the rising of the deck afore and abaft.
RELEVER, to put a ship afloat, after she had lain a-ground for some time; also to right a ship after she had lain upon a careen.
Relever l’ancre, to weigh the anchor again, and change its situation.
Relever le quart, or le timonnier, to relieve the steersman or the watch.
Relever les branles, to lash up the hammocks, in order to make a clear passage between-decks.
Relever un côte, to draw the plan or chart of a coast.
Relever un vaisseau, to steer by the compass, or shape the course by the compass.
REMÉDIER à des voies d’eau, to stop or stanch the leaks.
REMOLE, a dangerous whirlpool.
REMONTER, to sail up a river, as from the sea.
REMORQUER, to tow a ship by a boat, or other vessel with oars.
REMOULAT, a person who has charge of the oars in a row-galley.
REMOUX, the eddy, or dead water, left behind a ship’s stern when she is under sail.
RENARD, a sort of handspike, or lever, with an iron claw, used to remove large pieces of timber in a dock-yard, &c.
Renard is also a traverse-board.
RENCONTRE! shift the helm, or shift over the helm! the order to the steersman, to meet the ship, right the helm, or put it towards the side opposite to where it was before, in order to check the ship’s sheer.
RENDEZ-VOUS, the rendezvous, or place of destination of a fleet of ships.
RENDRE le bord, to anchor, or come to an anchor in some road or harbour.
RENTRÉE. See Retrecissement.
RENVERSEMENT, the shifting a cargo from one ship to another.
Charger par Renversement, to change or remove the cargo out of one ship into some other.
REPOUSSOIR, a driving-bolt, used by ship-wrights to knock out another from its station.
REPRENDRE une manœuvre, to sheep-shank, or shorten a rope.
REPRISE, a retaken ship.
RÉSINE, resin, used in paying a ship’s bottom or sides.
RESSAC, the shock or breaking of a wave upon the shore, and its retreat into the sea.
RESSIF, or Recif, a reef, or ridge of rocks under water.
RESTAUR, the restoration, or loss made good by an insurer.
RESTER, to bear upon any point of the compass; as, un vaisseau nous Reste au sud, a ship bears south of us, &c.
RETENUE, fastened, or hardened home in its place; expressed of a piece of timber in ship-building; as,
Piece de bois qui a sa Retenue, a piece of wood which is firmly wedged into its place, as by rabbiting, tenanting, &c.
Corde de Retenue, a tackle-fall. See also Cord de retenue & Attrape.
RETORSOIR, a spun-yarn winch. See Moulinet.
RETOUR de marée, the turn of the tide, or the beginning of the ebb.
RETRAITE de pirates, a nest of pirates, a harbour of free-booters.
RETRAITES de hune, or cargues de hune, the clue-lines, bunt-lines, and reef-tackles of the top-sails.
RETRANCHEMENT, a temporary or occasional apartment formed in a ship, besides her ordinary cabins.
RÉTRECISSEMENTS des gabaris, the tumbling-home of the top-timbers, where a ship grows narrower above her breadth. See Revers.
REVENTER, to fill the sails again; to brace about, and fill.
REVERS, a general name for those pieces of timber whose convexity lies inward in a ship’s bottom or sides; as,
Allonges de Revers, the top timbers.
Genoux de Revers, the lower futtocks in the fore and after parts of the ship.
Manœuvres de Revers, the ropes which are out of use while they lie on the lee-side, as the lee-bowline, lee-tacks, &c.
REVIREMENT, the act of going about, by tacking or veering.
Revirement par la tête, ou par la queue, to tack a fleet or squadron of ships of war by the van or rear, so that the foremost ships or the aftmost ships go about first, to preserve the order of the line.
REVIRER, to put about; to change the course of a ship.
Revirer dans l’eaux d’un navire, to tack in a ship’s wake, and stand on the same course, a-stern of her.
REVOLIN, a sudden gust of wind, which blows off the shore, as by rebound from the adjacent hills.
RIBORD, the second plank, or streak of planks, on a ship’s bottom, counting from the keel. See Gabord.
RIBORDAGE, the damage due from one ship to another which has sustained any hurt from the misconduct or neglect of the former, as established by merchants.
RIDE, a laniard.
RIDER, to haul taught, or pull strait.
Rider la voile. See Ris.
RIDES de haubans, the laniards of the shrouds.
Rides d’etai, the laniards of the stays.
Longue RIME, or donne longue Rime! row a long stroke! the order to the rowers to pull with a long sweep.
Bon Rime! the order to the strokesman of the boat, or he who rows the after oar, to give a good stroke, for the rest to follow.
RINGEOT, or Brion, the fore-foot. See Brion.
RIS, the reef of a sail.
Prendre le Ris, to reef a sail, or take in a reef.
RISSONS, grapplings, with four claws, used as anchors in a galley.
RIVAGE, the banks of a river, or the sea-shore, upon which the tide ebbs and flows between high and low-water mark.
RIVER un clou, to rivet a nail.
ROC d’issas, or Bloc d’assas. See Sep de drisse.
ROCHER, Roc, or Roche, a rock, or key; a ridge, or reef of rocks in the sea, or on the coast.
ROCHES cachées, lurking rocks, or rocks under water.
RODE de pouppe, & Rode de proue, the stern-post, or stem of a galley.
ROINETTE, a marking-iron, to mark timber, or the casks which are shipped for a voyage.
RONDEUR, the curve, sweep, or compass of a piece of timber used in ship-building.
RONGÉ, worm-eaten; expressed of a ship’s bottom, when it is much injured by the worms in a southern voyage.
ROSE de vents, or Rose de compas, the card or face of a sea-compass.
ROSTER, to woold a mast, yard, or boom.
ROSTURES, the wooldings of a mast, &c.
ROUANE de pompe, a great pump-borer; whence,
ROUANER une pompe, to enlarge the bore or channel of a ship’s pump.
ROUCHE d’un vaisseau, the hull of a ship, without masts or rigging.
ROUER une manœuvre, to coil a rope.
Rouer à tour, to coil a rope with the sun, i. e. according to the course of the sun in north-latitude.
Rouer à contre, to coil a rope against the sun.
ROUES d’affut de canon, the trucks of a gun-carriage.
ROUET de poulie, the sheave of a block.
Rouet de poulie de chaloupe, the sheave of a long-boat’s davit; also the sheave on the top of her stern-post, or stem for weighing an anchor.
ROULEAU, a roller, or cylindrical piece of wood placed under any weighty body, in order to move it with greater facility by means of handspikes, &c.
ROULER, to roll tumultuously; expressed of the waves of a swelling sea.
ROULIS d’un vaisseau, the rolling motion of a ship. See Tangage.
ROUTE, the course, or way of a ship; also the place of her destination.
Route fausse, or fausse-route, the errors of a course, or the deviations from the right course, occasioned by the lee-way, drift, currents, chasing, &c.
A la Route! steer the course! the order to the helmsman to keep the ship steddy in her course.
Porter à Route, or faire droit Route, to make a strait course; to sail onward, without touching at any port in the passage.
ROUTIER, a book, or collection of charts, bearings, distances, soundings, and perspective views of the coasts of any country.
RUBORD, or Ribord. See Ribord.
RUM, or Reun. See Cale.
Donner Rum à une roche. See Faire honneur.
RUMB de vent, a point of the compass. See Air de vent, & Rose de vents.
S.
SABLE, a watch-glass of any measure of time. See also Horloge.
Sable mouvant, a quick-sand or shifting-sand.
SABORD, a gun-port in the ship’s side; whence,
Fermer les Sabords, to let fall, or shut in the port lids.
Faux-Sabord, a false port painted on a ship’s side, and corresponding to a wooden gun, both which are calculated to deceive an enemy in time of war.
SABORDS pour le lest, ballast-ports.
SACHETS de mítrailles, grape-shot, or partridge-shot.
SAFRAN de gouvernail, the after-piece of a rudder, used to augment its breadth.
Safran de l’étrave, an additional piece of timber fayed on the fore part of the cutwater, to enlarge it, immediately above the fore-foot, and enable the ship to hold the wind better.
Saille! a manner of shouting amongst the sailors, as a signal to pull or heave all at once.
SAIN, clear, safe, or clean; as,
Côte-Sain, a clean bottom, or clear coast, which has no rocks or sands near it.
SAINT aubinet. See Saint Aubinet.
SAINTE-barbe, or chambre des canonniers, the gun-room of a vessel of war.
SAIQUE, a sort of Grecian or Turkish ketch.
SAISINE, a seising or lashing of any kind.
Saisine de beaupré, or Liure, the gammoning of the bowsprit. See Liure.
SAISER, to seize or fasten any rope with a lashing, &c. See Amarrer.
SALE, foul; an epithet given to a coast full of dangerous rocks, shallows, and breakers.
Vaisseaux SALES, foul-ships, or shipping with foul bottoms.
SALUER, to salute, or do homage at sea, by offering a salute.
Saluer à boulet, a salute fired with shot, being an homage paid only to the king.
Saluer de la mousqueterie, to salute by firing a volley of small-arms.
Saluer de la voix, to salute with three chears, &c.
Saluer des voiles, to salute by lowering the sails.
Saluer du canon, to fire a salute of canon.
Saluer du pavillon, to salute, by striking or hauling-in the colours.
SALUT, a salute offered at sea by firing guns, &c.
Rendre le Salut, to return the salute.
SAMEQUIN, a sort of Turkish merchant-ship.
SAMOREUX, a very long and flat-bottomed lumber-barge or lighter, for carrying masts and long planks on the Rhine, &c.
Navire qui a SANCI sous ses amarres, a ship which has foundered at her anchors.
SANCIR, to sink, or founder at sea.
SANDALE, a sort of lighter used in the Levant.
SANGLES, mats, or small panches formed of spun-yarn.
SAPINETTES, barnicles, a sort of shell-fish, that adhere to a ship’s bottom which has been long at sea. See Cravan.
SARANGOUSTI, a sort of gum, used instead of pitch to pay the seams of a ship in the East-Indies.
SART, sea-weed, wreck, or tangles; the alga-marina.
SARTIE, the rigging of a ship, in the dialect of Provence.
SASSES, buckets to draw water, for washing the decks, &c.
SAUGUE, a fishing-boat of Provence.
SAUSISSON, the trough, or sausage, filled with powder, which communicates the flame from the train to the fire-pots or powder-barrels in a fire-ship.
SAUT, a water-fall in a river, which renders it unnavigable in that part.
Donner un Saut à la bouline, to check the bowline.
SAUTE, an expression of command, which answers to away up, or away out to such a place! &c. as, Saute sur la beaupré! away out on the bowsprit! &c. Saute sur la vergue! go up to the yard, or out upon the yard, &c.
SAUTER, to veer, or shift suddenly; expressed of a wind when it changes to another point of the compass.
SAUVAGE, or Sauvement, salvage, the payment of salvage.
SAUVE-gardes, the ridge-ropes which extend the nettings of a ship’s head.
Sauve-gardes, or tire-veilles, the horses, or man-ropes of the bow-sprit.
Sauve-gardes de gouvernail, the rudder-pendants, with their chains.
Sauve-rabans, the puddenings of the yards, which preserve the rope-bands from being galled by the top-sail sheets.
SAUVEURS, persons employed in recovering any stores, rigging, &c. from a wreck on the sea coast.
SCIER à culer, to back a-stern with the oars; to row stern foremost.
Scier sur le fer, to support the cable of a galley by rowing with the oars, when she is at anchor in a storm, and in danger of driving ashore.
Mettre à Scier, ou mettre à culer, to back the sails, or to lay them aback, so as to make the ship fall astern.
SCIE-babord, pull the larboard-oars, or pull to starboard!
Scie-tribord, pull the starboard oars, or pull to port!
SCITIE, or Satie, a particular kind of Italian bark with two masts.
SCORBUT, or Scurbot, the scurvy, a well known marine distemper.
SCOUE, the extremity of a floor timber, where it is joined to the lower futtock.
SCUTE, a skiff, or small boat, belonging to a ship.
SEC, dry aground; the situation of a ship laid ashore to be repaired, &c.
A Sec, or à mâts & à cordes, a-hull, or under bare poles. See Mettre à sec.
SECOND, or vaisseau Second. See Matelot.
SECRET d’un canon, the train of a piece of ordnance, which communicates with the touch-hole.
Secret d’un brulot, that part of the train where the match or fuse is laid by the captain in a fire-ship, as ready for inflammation.
SEILLURE. See Sillage.
SEIN, a small bay or gulf with a narrow entrance: also a Sein, or capacious fishing-net of a particular construction, used on the sea-coast.
Sein d’un voile, the bight, cavity, or belly of a sail.
SEJOUR, the space of time that a ship remains in any port at which she touches in the course of a voyage.
SELLE de calfat, a calking-box, which contains the instruments and materials used in calking a ship.
SEMAQUE, or Semale, a smack or fishing sloop.
SEMELLES, or Derives, lee-boards.
SENAU, a snow; also a small Flemish vessel rigged like a smack.
SENTINELLE de chaloupe, the keeper of the long-boat.
SEP de drisse, the knights, or knight-heads of the jears, with their sheaves: these machines are now entirely disused in English ships of war.
SERGENT, a wraining bolt, to bend a ship’s planks into their places. See Antoit.
SERRAGE, ou Serres de vaisseau, a general name for those planks of a ship which are called thick-stuff by our ship-wrights.
Faux Serrage, loose planks, laid occasionally as a platform in a ship’s floor when she has no ceiling.
SERRE-bauquieres, thick stuff placed under the clamps, upon which the ends of the beams rest.
Serre-bosse, the shank-painter of the anchor.
Serre-goutieres, the water-ways of a ship.
Serrer de voiles, to shorten sail.
Serrer la file, to close or contract the line of battle, by making the ships draw nearer to each other.
Serrer le vent, to haul the wind; to haul upon a bowline.
Serrer les voiles, to furl, or hand the sails. See Ferler.
Faire SERVIR, to fill the sails after they had been shivering or laid a-back for some time.
SEUILLETS de sabords, the port-fells, or lower part of the gun-ports.
Hauteur des Seuillets, the height of the port-fells from the deck immediately beneath them.
SIAMPAN, a small coasting-vessel of China, with one sail, and two, four, or six oars; extremely light and swift.
SIFFLEMENT, the whistling of a shot as it flies through the air when discharged from a cannon.
SIFFLET, a boatswains call.
SIGNAL, a general or particular signal used at sea.
SILLAGE, or l’eau d’un vaisseau, the track or wake of a ship; the trace which she leaves behind her on the surface of the sea.
Doubler le Sillage d’un vaisseau, to sail with twice the velocity of another ship; or, according to the sea-phrase, to sail two feet to her one,
SILLER, to run a-head; to have head-way through the sea, &c.
SIMAISE, or rather Cimaise, a wave or ogee in the sculpture of the ship’s mouldings.
SINGE, a sort of gin, or machine, with a roller or winch in the middle, which is turned by handspikes: and used to discharge goods from a boat or small vessel.
SINGLER. See Cingler.
SITUATION d’une terre, the bearings and distances of a coast.
SLEE, a sort of sledge or cradle, laid under a ship’s bottom in Holland, &c. when she is to be drawn ashore to be repaired or graved,
SOLDATS de marine, marines, or marine forces.
Soldats-gardiens, a division of marines stationed at a royal dock-yard.
SOLE, the bottom of a vessel which has no keel, as punts, horse-ferry-boats, and some barges of burthen.
Le Soleil a baissé, the sun has fallen, or, has past the meridian; an expression used when observing its altitude at noon.
Le Soleil a passe le vent, the sun has overtaken the wind: i. e. the wind being south, the sun, by passing from south to S S W, is said to have passed the wind. Hence they say, in a contrary sense, Le vent a passé le Soleil.
Le Soleil chasse le vent, the sun chases the wind; a phrase which implies the change of the wind from the east to the west, by the southern board, before sun-set.
Le Soleil chasse avec le vent, the wind keeps pace with the sun; an expression that denotes the change of the wind according to the course and progress of the sun.
Le Soleil monte encore, the sun continues to rise.
Le Soleil ne fait rien, the sun stands still. Both these last phrases are peculiar to the operation of taking the meridian altitude.
SOLES, a name given to the bottom or transoms of a gun-carriage.
SOMBRER sous voiles, to overset in a squall of wind.
SOMMAILE, a bank or shoal. See Basse.
SOMME, to deepen; as,
La mer a Sommé, the water deepens as the ship advances.
SONDE, or plomb de sonde, the sounding-lead; also the soundings, i. e. the sand, gravel, &c. that sticks to the bottom of the lead at the time of sounding.
Aller à la Sonde, Aller la Sonde à la main, to sail by the hand-lead, or by sounding the depth of the water with a hand lead as the ship advances.
SONDER, to sound; to heave the hand-lead, or deep-sea-lead.
Sonder la pompe, to sound the pump.
SONNER le quart, to ring the bell at the close of the night-watch.
Sonner pour le pompe, to strike the bell for pumping the ship, as at every hour, or half hour.
SONETTE, an engine somewhat resembling a gin, and used for driving piles.
SORTIR du port, to depart from a harbour; to sail out or put to sea.
Sortir le boute-feu à la main, to set sail with the match in hand: expressed of a port whose entrance or opening is so commodiously situated, that a ship may sail from it with any wind, and be ready for engagement immediately after her departure.
SOU, or rather Fond, the bottom, or ground, at the depth of any part of the sea. See also Fond.
SOUABRE. See Fauber.
SOU-barbe, a bracket or knee, usually ornamented with sculpture, and placed under the cat-head to support it.
SOUBERME, a fresh, or torrent increased by the freshes of a river.
SOUFFLAGE, the doubling of a ship, or covering her side with new wales and planks. See Souffler.
Soufflage is also the new planking of a ship, or giving her a new skin, after the old planks are ripped off.
Souffler, to double a ship with new planks and wales, so as to stiffen her when she is built too crank; or to prevent or diminish the efforts of an enemy’s cannon.
Souffler les canons, to scale the great guns, or cleanse them by blowing a little powder from them.
SOULIE, the bed of a ship, or the impression she has left in the mud on shore, after having lain aground during the ebb-tide.
SOULIER, the shoe of an anchor.
SOUN, or Tsoun, a large flat-bottomed ship, navigated on the rivers of China.
SOUQUE! hang, or swing upon! a phrase among the common sailors, spoken of a rope which they are pulling.
SOURCE du vent, the point of the compass in which the wind sits.
SOURDRE, to rise up, or brew; expressed of a cloud or squall issuing from the horizon towards the zenith.
Sourdre au vent, to hold a good wind, to claw or eat to windward.
SOUS-argousin, an officer in the gallies, who assists the argousin in his duty. See Argousin.
SOUS-barbe. See Sou-barbe.
Sous-barbes, short props or shoars, placed under the stem while the ship is yet on the stocks.
Sous-barque, the upper-streak of a lighter, or the streak which lies close under the gunnel.
Sous-comite, an officer in the gallies, who assists and relieves the Comite; which see.
Sous-fréter, to under-freight a ship, or hire her out to a second person, after having contracted for her freight to a first.
SOUTE, a store-room in the orlop of a ship, of which there are several; as,
Soute au biscuit, the bread-room; Soute aux poudres, the magazines, &c.
SOUTENIR, to support under the lee; expressed of a current which acts upon the lee-side of a ship, and counter-ballances the lee-way, when she is close-hauled, so as to keep her in the right course without falling to leeward.
Soutenir chasse. See Soutenir Chasse.
Se Soutenir, to bear up against a scant-wind or current, without being driven much to leeward or down the stream.
SPARIES. See Choses de la mer.
SQUELETTE, the carcase or skeleton of a ship; or the ribs, with the keel, stem, and stern-post, after the planks are ripped off.
STAMENAIS, or rather Genoux, the lower-futtocks.
STRAPONTIN, a sort of hammock, used in hot climates to sleep in.
STRIBORD, or Tribord, the starboard-side of a ship.
Avoir l’amure à Stribord, to have the starboard-tacks aboard, or to sail upon the starboard-tack.
SUAGE, a coat of tallow, soap, sulphur, &c. with which the bottom of a ship is payed, to enable her to sail smoothly through the water.
SUD, the south, or south-point. See Rose de vents.
Etre au Sud de la ligne, to be in south-latitude, or to the southward of the equinoctial line.
SUPANNE, or etre en Panne. See Panne.
SUPER, to stop or close accidentally; expressed of a leak which is choaked, or filled with sea-weed, or such like material, that may have entered with the water.
SURCHARGER, to overload a ship.
SURJOUAILLÉ, or Surjaulé, foul of the anchor-stock; expressed of the cable.
Le cable est Surjaulé, the anchor is foul, having a turn of its cable under the stock.
SURLIER, to woold. See also Roster.
SURVENTE, a hard gale of wind, a tempest.
SURVENTER, to over-blow, or blow a storm.
SUSAIN, or SUSIN, a name sometimes given to the quarter-deck. See Gaillard.
SUSPENTES, vulgarly called Surpentes, the main and fore-tackle pendants.
SYRTES, shifting-sands, quick-sands, or shelves.
T.
TABERNACLE, or Tendelet, a place under the awning of a row-galley, where the captain sits to give his orders.
TABLEAU, the compartment, whereon the name is engraved or painted on the stern of a Dutch flight. See Ecusson.
TABLETTE, the rising-staff; a form, or scale, used by shipwrights when erecting the frames of the timbers.
TABOURIN, the fore-castle of a galley, with the space underneath it, where the artillery are loaded and fired. See Covert de l’iscosele.
TAILLE-mer, or gorgere, the lower part of a ship’s cut-water, or of the prow in a galley.
TAILLES de fond, & Tailles de point. See Cargues fond, & Cargues-point.
TAINS. See Tins.
TALINGUER, or Etalinguer, to bend the cable to the anchor-ring.
TALLARD, a space between the coursiere, or middle gangway, and the gunnel, in a galley, where the slaves are placed to row their oars.
TALON de la quille, the after-end of the keel, into which the foot of the stern-post is tenanted: this is also called a ship’s heel.
Talon de rode, the heel of the stern, or stern-post of a row-galley. See Rode.
Couper en Talus, to hew a plank shelving, or with a slanting edge.
TAMBOUR, a drum; also the drummer, or person who beats it.
Tambour d’eperon, the doubling of the cut-water, or the planks nailed on the outside of it, to defend it from the assaults of the waves.
TAMISAILLE, or Tamise, the transom, upon which the tiller traverses in a ship’s gun-room.
TAMPONS, wooden shot-plugs, employed to fill up the holes made in a ship’s side by the cannon balls of an enemy: also plates of iron, copper, or lead, used for the same purpose.
Tampons, or Tapons de canon, the tompions of the great guns.
Tampons, or Tapons d’ecubiers, hause-plugs.
TANGAGE, the act of pitching, or plunging with the fore and after ends of a ship.
TANGUER, to pitch or plunge deep in the water forward.
TANGUEURS, or Gabariers, lightermen.
TAPABOR, a sea-cap, a sailor’s cap or bonnet.
TAPEÇU, a sort of ring-tail, water-sail, or driver.
TAPONS de canon, &c. See Tampons.
TAQUETS, a general name for the larger cleats, or kevels, whereon the running-ropes are belayed.
TAQUET à cornes, a large cleat, which is nailed or lashed by the middle to a mast, plank, shroud, &c. and having two branches or arms, whereby to fasten a rope so as to be cast off suddenly when necessary.
Taquet à gueule, ou à dent, a hollow or notched cleat, nailed at the two ends; these are chiefly used to fasten casks, or other weighty bodies, to the decks or sides of the ship.
Taquet de fer, a wraining-bol. See Antoit.
Taquet de mât de chaloupe, a small cleat, whereon the tack of a long-boat’s main-sail is fastened.
Taquets d’amure, the chess-trees. See also Dogue d’amure.
Taquets de bittes. See Courbes de bittes.
Taquets de cabestan, the whelps of the capstern. See Fuseaux.
Taquets d’echelle, the steps which are nailed on the gangway, whereby to ascend or descend the ship’s side.
Taquets d’écoutes, the kevels or great cleats, whereon the tacks and sheets of the courses are belayed.
Taquets de hune à l’Angloise, the cheeks of the bow sprit.
Taquets de mâts, the belaying-cleats of the lower-masts, which are usually furnished with several pins to fasten different running ropes.
Taquets de ponton, large hollow cleats fixed on the side of a pontoon, or sheer-hulk, to fasten the pendant of the relieving-tackle.
Taquets de potence, the cheeks of a common sea-pump. See Potence.
Taquets simples, cleats which are formed nearly in the manner of a wedge or quoin; they are usually nailed to the deck or sides, to support or wedge up any weighty body.
TARRIERE, an augre, or auger, used by shipwrights to bore the planks and timbers, in order to fasten them together with bolts and tree-nails.
TARTANE, a tartane, or small vessel, usual in the Mediterranean.
TEMPETE, a tempest, or violent storm.
TEMS, a general term for weather.
Tems affiné, fine weather, clear weather, or a clear sky. See Affine.
Tems à perroquet, a top-gallant gale, top-gallant weather.
Tems de mer, or gros Tems, tempestuous weather.
Tems embrumé, a fog; foggy weather.
TENAILLE, a wooden engine formed like a pair of pincers, and employed to confine the planks of a ship in their places, till they can be nailed or bolted to the timbers.
TENDELET, the tilt of a boat; also the awning or canopy in the after part of a galley.
TENIR au vent, to keep the wind; to sail close upon a wind.
Tenir bon, to stop or cease from any exercise or labour in a ship.
Tenir la mer, to keep the sea; to keep out in the offing. See Tenir la Mer.
Tenir le balant d’une manœuvre, to make fast the bight of a rope when it hangs slack.
Tenir le largue, to sail large, or with a large wind.
Tenir le lit du vent, to have the wind right an end, or right in one’s teeth.
Tenir le lof. See Lof & Olofée.
Tenir le vent. See Aller au plus pres.
Tenir sous voiles, to get under sail; to set sail ready for putting to sea.
Tenir un bras, to brace, or haul in the brace of, a yard.
Tenir une manœuvre, to make fast, or belay a rope.
Tenir, or voir une terre. See Ouvrir.
TENON, a tenant, or end of a piece of timber let into a mortise.
Tenon à queüe d’aronde, a pivot, or tenant, formed like the spindle of a capstern.
Tenon de l’étambot, the tenant on the heel of the stern-post which is let into the keel.
Tenon de mât. See Thon de mât.
TENONS de l’ancre, the nuts of an anchor.
TENUE, the gripe or hold which an anchor has of the ground where it is sunk. See Fond de bon tenue.
TERMES, the quarter-pieces of a ship, by which the side is terminated abaft.
TERRE de beurre, cape fly-away, a cant phrase applied to any illusive appearance of land in the horizontal clouds, after sun-set or before sun-rise.
Terre défigurée, land which cannot be easily distinguished at sea, on account of the clouds which rest upon it.
Terre fine, land which may be distinctly beheld from the sea.
Terre grosse, or grosse terre, high land on, or near, the sea-shore.
Terre hachée, a coast with an opening between two mountains.
Terre maritime, the sea-coast, or sea-shore.
Terre Méditerranée, an inland country.
Terre qui asseche. See Assecher.
Terre qui fuit, double-land, or land shut in behind a cape or promontory.
Terre qui se donne la main, land open to the sea, or accessible to shipping.
Terres basses, low flat lands on the sea coast.
Terres hautes, high land on the sea shore; a bold, or iron bound coast.
Aller Terre à terre. See Aller.
Dans la Terre, or Dans les Terres, in-land; up in the country.
Mangé par la Terre, land-locked; shut-in by the land.
Prendre Terre, to arrive at the land.
Tout à Terre, close in shore.
Terre-neuvier, a Newfoundland cod-fisher.
TERRIR, to come to anchor; to arrive at the land after a long cruise.
TERTRE, an hommock, or hillock, rising on a level shore, and seen from the sea.
TESSEAUX. See Barres de hune.
TETE de l’ancre, the cross of the anchor, where the shank terminates upon the arms.
Tete de more. See Chouquet.
Tete de cabestan, the drum-head of the capstern.
Tete de potence de pompes, the cheeks of the pump which support the brake.
Tete du vent, the rising, or springing up of a breeze.
Faire Tete, to hold well by the moorings; to be well moored.
TETIERE, the head of a sail.
THON de mât, the mast-head, or the space comprehended between the cap of the lower-mast and the tressel-trees beneath it: and so of the top-mast.
TIERS point, a triangular sail, as a lateen, or stay-sail. See Lateen.
TILLAC. See Pont.
Franc-Tillac, or rather premier-pont, the gun-deck, or lower-deck.
Faux-Tillac, the orlop. See Faux-pont, and Faux-baux.
TILLE, the cuddy, or cabin of a lighter, or other undecked vessel; also the place where the helmsman stands in a Dutch flight.
TIMON, or rather Barre de gouvernail, the tiller.
TIMONNIER, the helmsman, or steersman.
TINS, the blocks upon which the keel and floor-timbers of a ship are laid while she is building.
TIRANT d’eau, d’un vaisseau, the draught of water of a ship, or the depth of water which she draws to float her.
TIRE! the order to the boat’s crew to row hard, or forcibly a-head.
Tire du vent, or Tire-avant, pull away; pull a head chearly!
Tire-soin, the worm used to draw the charge of a cannon.
TIRER tant de pieds d’eau, to draw so many feet of water, in order to float. See Tirant d’eau.
Tirer à la mer, to stretch out to sea.
Tire-veilles, the man ropes, or entering-ropes of the side.
Tire-veille de beaupré. See Sauve-garde.
TOILE noyale, canvass, or duck, employed to make sails; sail-cloth.
TOILES de sabords, port-sails. See Voiles à lest.
TOISER, to measure by the fathom. See Brasse.
TOLETS, or Escomes. See Escomes.
TOMBER, as a sea-term, implies to lean or incline; also to cease, or fail; as,
Tomber sous le vent, to fall to leeward.
Tomber sur un vaisseau, to fall aboard a ship to the leeward.
Le vent a Tombé, the wind is spent, or decayed; it has become calm.
Le Mât TOMBE en arriere, the mail hangs, or rakes aft.
TONIES, a sort of Indian boats which are usually lashed together in couples, in order to carry sail the better. The two thus paired are called Catapanel.
TONNE, a can-buoy, placed over a shoal, rock, or sand, in a channel; also the nun-buoy of a ship.
TONNES, are also barrels fitted to cover the mast-head when it is unrigged, to preserve it from rain.
TONNEAU futaille, a tun, or tun weight, containing 2000lb. also a general name for all sorts of large casks, containing a measure equal to that weight.
TONNELIER, the cooper of a ship, who has the charge of all the provision-casks to keep them in proper repair.
TONTURE, the sheet of the wales and decks of a ship.
Tonture des baux, the round-up, or convexity of a ship’s beams.
TORDES. See Sauve-rabans.
TORON. See Touron.
TORTUE de mer, a sort of transport-ship, formed with a high deck, for the convenience of carrying troops, passengers, and their effects, between decks.
TOSTE de chaloupe, the thwarts, banks, or seats of a boat, whereon the rowers sit to manage their oars.
TOUAGE, the warping a ship from place to place; also towing. See Remorquer.
TOUCHE, the priming wire, or priming-iron of a cannon. See Dégorgeoir.
TOUCHER terre, or, simply Toucher, to run a-ground, or strike against a rock, shore, or sand-bank.
Toucher à une côte, ou à une port, to touch at any coast or harbour.
Toucher un compas, to touch the needle of a compass with a magnet.
TOUÉE, a name given to two or three hawsers bent upon an end, i. e. fastened at the end of each other, and to an anchor a-head, so as to ride a ship with more security.
TOUER, to warp a ship from one place to another in a harbour.
TOUR à feu, a light-house. See Phare.
Tour de bitte au cable, a turn of the cable about the bits; the bitting of a cable.
Tour de cable, a foul hawse; a turn or elbow in the hawse. See Cable and Croix.
Tour-et-choque, a weather-bit of the cable, or a turn and half-turn about the bits.
Tour marine, a watch-tower, or block-house, on the sea-coast.
Tour de cable autour du virevaut, the turns of the cable round the windlass; the act of passing it about the windlass.
TOURBILLON, a whirlwind upon the sea.
TOURET. See Tolets & echome.
TOURILLONS, the trunnions of any piece of ordnance.
TOURMENTE, a tempest, or great storm. See Tempete.
TOURMENTER, when expressed of a ship, implies to labour or strain violently; when spoken of timber, it denotes to warp or twist.
TOURMENTIN, a name sometimes given to the sprit-sail top-sail. See Perroquet de beaupré.
TOURNANT de mer, a whirlpool, or dangerous race in the sea.
Tournant, is also a stake or post sunk into the angles of a canal, for the convenience of warping vessels up or down.
TOURNER le bord. See Virer.
Tourner sur son ancre, to pass round the anchor; understood of a ship that, riding by a single anchor, has probably encircled the place where it lies, so as to have swept it with her cable, and made a foul anchor.
TOURNEVIRE, the voyal of the cable. See Cabestan.
TOURON, the strand of a rope, composed of a certain number of rope-yarns.
TOUT le mond haut! all hands, hoay! all hands upon deck hoay! a cry, or order of the boatswain, to summons all the sailors upon the upper-deck.
Tout le monde bas, sit down close, all hands! the order to the ship’s crew to lie snug upon deck or below, so as not to retard the ship’s course by their motion upon deck, nor be discovered by the enemy, of whom they are in chase.
TRAIN de bateaux, a train of boats in tow.
Train de bois, or Flote, a raft, or float of timber.
A la TRAINE, towing overboard; expressed of any thing towed in the sea by a rope when the ship is advancing, to wash it; or, if salt provisions, to freshen it.
TRAINÉE, a train of gun-powder.
TRAIT de compas, or Trait de vent. See Rumb.
Voile à Trait quarré, a square sail; such are the courses, top-sails, &c. of a ship.
TRAITE, the trade or commerce carried on between shipping and the inhabitants of any country where they arrive.
TRAMONTANE, the north-wind, in the dialect of the Mediterranean.
TRAPE, or Attrape, a tackle-fall. See Corde de retenue.
TRAVADE, a tornado, or thunder-gust; as those on the coast of Africa.
TRAVAILLER, when applied to a ship, is to roll or pitch heavily, as in a high sea; also to swell tumultuously, as the waves themselves. See Rolis.
TRAVAILLEURS, the ordinary, or labourers, &c. employed to assist in fitting out shipping.
TRAVERS, in a naval sense, generally denotes athwart, abreast of, or along side of: it is also applied to any piece of timber which is laid across others and scored into them.
Se mettre par le Travers, or Passer par le Travers de Torbay, to cross or stand athwart Torbay, &c.
Le vaisseau est moüillé par nôtre Travers, the ship has come-to, abreast of us.
La marée vient par le Travers du vaisseau, the tide takes the ship athwart, or on the broad-side.
Mouillee par le Travers de Belleisle, at anchor off Belleisle.
TRAVERSÉE, a passage from one port to another; an outward or homeward bound voyage.
TRAVERSE misaine! flat-in the fore-sheet! flat-in forward! the order to pull the lower-corners of the head-sails in towards the ship, in order to make her fall off when the sails shiver in the wind.
TRAVERSER, to become abreast of, to sheer along-side of.
Traverser l’ancre, to get the anchor up along the bow, in order to stow it parallel to the gunnel.
Traverser la lame, to head the sea; to sail against the setting of the sea,
TRAVERSIER, a small fishing vessel on the coast of Rochelle,
Traversier de chaloupe, the fore-beam or fore thwart of a long-boat.
Traversier de port, a wind that sets right into any harbour, so as to prevent the departure of a ship from it.
Mettre la misaine au Traversier, to bring the fore-tack to the cat-head; as when the wind is large.
TRAVERSIN. See Tamisaille.
Traversin d’écoutilles, a guttur-ledge, or cross-piece of a hatchway.
Traversin d’élinguet, the beam into which the pauls of the capstern are bolted.
Traversin de herpes, a ship’s davit; see also Minot.
Traversin des bittes, the cross-piece of the bits.
Traversin du chateau d’avant, the cross-piece of the fore-castle, which contains the kevels and cleats for belaying ropes.
Traversin des affuts, the transoms of the gun-carriages.
Traversins de taquets, the step or piece of timber in which the feet of the main and fore-sheet kevels are lodged.
TRÉLINGAGE, a crow-foot. See Marticles.
Trélingage des étais sous les hunes, the crow-feet of the tops.
Trélingage des haubans, the cat-harpings of the shrouds.
TRÉLINGUER, to reeve a crow-foot, or form any thing similar thereto, as the clue of a hammock, &c.
TRÉMUE, a trunk, or sloping passage formed in some merchant-ships for the cables, from the top of the fore-castle downward to the hause, and covered with a small grating.
Tremue is also a hood, or companion, placed over the comeings of the hatches in merchant-ships, to keep the steerage warm, and prevent the rain or sea-water from falling into it.
TREOU, a square-sail, used to scud under in a storm, in small vessels, particularly sloops, tartans, galleys, &c.
TRÉPORT, or allonge de pouppe, a stern-timber, whose lower end corresponds with the top of the stern-post.
TRÉSORIER général de la marine, an officer whose duty resembles that of our treasurer of the navy.
TRESSE de meche, a twill formed of three matches turned round each other, to fire a cannon with more certainty and expedition.
TRESSES, a sort of knittles frequently used as seizings.
TRÉVIER, or Maître-voiler, the master sail-master of a ship.
TREUIL, a roller or winch of several kinds.
TRÉVIRER. See Chavirer.
TRIANGLE, a stage hung over a ship’s side, to calk the seams, or pay the planks: also a machine composed of three capstern-bars, whose ends are tied together, so as to form a triangle, to enclose any mast, along which it may be hoisted or lowered, to scrape the mast, or pay it with turpentine, resin, tallow, &c.
TRIBORD, the starboard side of the ship. See also Stribord.
TRIBORDAIS, starbowlines; a cant term for the starboard-watch.
TRIÉRARQUE, an officer formerly appointed to furnish a ship with soldiers, rowers, arms, and provisions.
TRINGLE, a thin lath, used occasionally to fill up the edges of a gun-port, deadlight, &c. and make it tight, so as to exclude the wind or water.
Tringle is also a batten of wood about two feet long, nailed against the butts or joints of a boat’s planks, to strengthen them.
TRINGLER, to mark timber with a chalked or red line, in order to hew or bevel it to the exact form and scantlings.
TRINQUET, the fore-mast of a row-galley.
TRINQUETTE, a triangular fore-sail, as that of a sloop, and such vessels.
TRISSE de beaupré, the standing-lifts of the sprit-sail yard.
TRISSE de racage. See Drosse de racage.
TROMPE, or pompe de mer, a water-spout.
TROMPETTE marine, a speaking-trumpet used at sea.
TROUS d’amure de misaine. See Boute-de-lof.
TROSSE de racage, a small tackle, formerly used as a nave-line.
TROUS d’écoutes, the sheave-holes, which are cut obliquely through a ship’s side, wherein the main and fore-sheets are reeved.
Trous de la civadiere. See Oeil.
TUGUE. See Teugue.
TUTELLE, the tutelary saint represented on the stern of a ship, and to whose protection she is consigned.
V.
VADROUILLE, a brush used to pay a ship’s bottom with tallow or stuff.
VA et vient, a span or rope extended from one place to another, whereon to draw any thing along by the means of a traveller.
VAGANS, vagrants or hovellers, who infest the sea-coast in a tempest, in expectation of plunder from some shipwrecked vessel. See Debris.
VAGUES, the waves or surges of the sea. See Lames.
VAIGRER, to fix on the planks and thick-stuff of a ship’s cieling to the timbers.
VAIGRES, ou serres, a general name for the clamps and thick-stuff used in the cieling of a ship; as,
Vaigres de fond, the thick-stuff placed next to the keel.
Vaigres d’empature, the thick-stuff placed between the floor-heads and the vaigres de fond.
Vaigres de pont, the clamps which support the ends of the beams.
Vaigres des fleurs, the thick stuff placed opposite to the floor-heads.
VAISSEAU, a ship, or large vessel of war or burthen.
Vaisseau à la bande, a ship lying along, or heeling gunnel-to, under a weight of sail in a fresh wind: this is frequently called lying down on the beam-ends, or broadside.
Vaisseau à l’ancre, a ship at anchor.
Vaisseau à son poste, a ship in her station, as appointed by the commanding officer.
Vaisseau beau de combat, a roomy ship, advantageously built for battle, as carrying her lower tier high above the water, and having a good height between-decks.
Vaisseau corsaire. See Corsaire.
Vaisseau démarré, a ship unmoored, or whose anchors are weighed; also a ship broke adrift from her moorings.
Vaisseau gondolé, a ship built with a great sheer.
Vaisseau qui a le côté droit comme un mur, a wall-sided ship.
Vaisseau qui a la côté foible, a streight-sheered ship.
Vaisseau qui a le côté fort, a round-sided ship.
Vaisseau qui-cargue, a crank ship.
Vaisseau qui charge à fret, a laden or loaded ship. See Fret.
Vaisseau qui se manie bien, a good working ship; a ship that is easily managed and steered.
Vaisseau qui se port bien à la mer, a good sea-boat.
Vaisseau ralongé, a lengthened ship.
Vaisseau de bas-bord, a low-built vessel navigated with sails and oars, as the gallies in the Mediterranean.
Vaisseau de haut-bord, a general name for large ships.
VALANCINE. See Balancine.
VALETS d’artillerie, the boys which attend the great guns in a sea-fight, &c.
VALTURE, the lashing of the sheers; or a rope employed to lash two masts together in any particular place, when they are to be used as sheers.
VARANGUAIS. See Marticles.
VARANGUES, a general name for the floor-timbers; as,
Varangues acculées, the crotches or floor-timbers afore and abaft.
Varangues demi-acculées, the floor-timbers placed between the varangues acculées and the
Varangues plates, or Varangues de fond, the flat floor-timbers placed in the middle or broadest part of a ship’s floor.
VARECH, sea-wreck. Also the wreck of a ship. See Choses de la mer.
VARIATION, the variation of the compass. See Declinaison.
Variation vaut la rout, the variation is on the weather-side, or opposite the lee-way.
VASART, oozy, or slimy, expressed of a particular bottom or soundings at sea. See Fond.
VASSOLES, laths or battens placed between the ledges of the gratings.
VEGRES. See Vaigres.
VEILLE la drisse! stand by the haliards! the order to have the top-sail-haliards ready to lower in case of a squall.
Veille l’écoute de hune! stand by the top sail sheets!
Veille les huniers. See Veille la drisse.
VEILLER, to watch, attend, or take care of any thing; as,
Il faut Veiller les mâts, & non le côté, we must look to the masts, and not to the side; expressed of a ship, whose masts being good, will rather overset her, than be carried away. When the anchor is a cockbill, and ready to let go, they say, Ancre est à la Veille; and when the buoy floats over the anchor to shew its place, it is called bouée à la Veille.
VENT, the wind.
Vent alizé, a trade-wind, or monsoon.
Vent arriere, a wind right aft or astern.
Vent d’amont, a land-wind, or land breeze.
Vent d’aval, a foul wind which blows from the sea, &c.
Vent de bouline, a scant-wind, on which the ship cannot lie her course without being close-hauled.
Vent de quartier, a quarterly, or quartering wind[61].
Vent en pouppe. See Vent arriere.
Vent en pouppe, largue la soute; large wind, large allowance; an expression used by seamen on the commencement of a fair wind, after they had been put to short allowance in consequence of foul winds.
Le Vent en pouppe fait trouver la mer unie, a stern wind brings an easy sea; expressed of a ship when sailing afore the wind, in which situation she will be less strained by the agitation of the sea, than when she lies in the trough or hollow of it, side-ways.
Vent largue, a large wind.
Vent routier, a wind which serves to go and come upon the same line; such is the wind upon the beam.
Vents variables, variable winds, or such as are without the tropics.
Vent à pic, the wind is right down; a witticism amongst sailors, to signify that there is a total cessation of wind, at which time the vanes hang right downward, instead of blowing out.