G.
GAB. A notch on the eccentric rod of a steam-engine for fitting a pin in the gab-lever to break the connection with the slide-valves. (See Gabbe.)
GABARRE. Originally a river lighter; now a French store-ship.
GABART, or Gabbert. A flat vessel with a long hatchway, used in canals and rivers.
GABBE. An old but vulgar term for the mouth.—Gift of the gab, or glib-gabbet, facility and recklessness of assertion.
GABBOK. A voracious dog-fish which infests the herring fisheries in St. George’s Channel.
GABELLE [Fr.] An excise tribute.
GABERDINE. An old name for a loose felt cloak or mantle.
GABERT. A Scotch lighter. (See Gabart.)
GABIONADE. A parapet of gabions hastily thrown up.
GABIONS. Cylindrical baskets open at both ends, about 3 feet high and 2 feet in diameter, which, being placed on end and filled with earth, greatly facilitate the speedy formation of cover against an enemy’s fire. They are much used for revetments in field-works generally.
GABLE, or Gabulle. A term in early voyagers for cable. Thus,
“Softe, ser, seyd the gabulle-rope,
Methinke gode ale is in your tope.”
GABLICK, or Gafflock. An old term for a crow-bar.
GABY. A conceited simpleton.
GACHUPINS. The name given in South America to European Spaniards.
GAD. A goad; the point of a spear or pike.
GAD-YANG. A coasting vessel of Cochin-China.
GAFF. A spar used in ships to extend the heads of fore-and-aft sails which are not set on stays. The foremost end of the gaff is termed the jaw, the outer part is called the peak. The jaw forms a semicircle, and is secured in its position by a jaw-rope passing round the mast; on it are strung several small wooden balls called trucks, to lessen the friction on the mast when the sail is hoisting or lowering.—To blow the gaff, said of the revealing a plot or giving convicting evidence.
GAFF-HALLIARDS. See Halliards.
GAFF-HOOK. In fishing, a strong iron hook set on a handle, supplementing the powers of the line and fish-hook with heavy fish, in the same way that the landing-net does with those of moderate size.
GAFFLE. A lever or stirrup for bending a cross-bow.
GAFF-NET. A peculiar net for fishing.
GAFF-TOPSAIL. A light triangular or quadrilateral sail, the head being extended on a small gaff which hoists on the top-mast, and the foot on the lower gaff.
GAGE. The quantity of water a ship draws, or the depth she is immersed.
GAGE, Weather. When one ship is to windward of another she is said to have the weather-gage of her; or if in the opposite position, the lee-gage.
GAGE-COCKS. These are for ascertaining the height of the water in the boiler, by means of three or more pipes, having a cock to each.
GAINED DAY. The twenty-four hours, or day and night, gained by circumnavigating the globe to the eastward. It is the result of sailing in the same direction as the earth revolves, which shortens each day by four minutes for every degree sailed. In the Royal Navy this run gives an additional day’s pay to a ship’s crew.
GAIN THE WIND, To. To arrive on the weather-side of some other vessel in sight, when both are plying to windward.
GAIR-FISH. A name on our northern coasts for the porpoise.
GAIR-FOWL. A name of the great auk, Alca impennis. (See Auk.)
GAIRG. A Gaelic name for the cormorant.
GALAXY. A name of the Milky Way. (See Via Lactea.)
GALEAS. See Gallias.
GALE OF WIND. Implies what on shore is called a storm, more particularly termed a hard gale or strong gale; number of force, 10.—A stiff gale is the diminutive of the preceding, but stronger than a breeze.—A fresh gale is a still further diminutive, and not too strong for a ship to carry single-reefed top-sails when close-hauled.—A top-gallant gale, if a ship can carry her top-gallant sails.—To gale away, to go free.
GALEOPIS. An ancient war-ship with a prow resembling the beak of a sword-fish.
GALITA. See Guerite.
GALL. See Wind-gall.
GALLANTS. All flags borne on the mizen-mast were so designated.
GALLAN WHALE. The largest whale which visits the Hebrides.
GALLED. The result of friction, to prevent which it is usual to cover, with skins, mats, or canvas, the places most exposed to it. (See Service.)
GALLEON, or Galion. A name formerly given to ships of war furnished with three or four batteries of cannon. It is now retained only by the Spaniards, and applied to the largest size of their merchant ships employed in West India and Vera Cruz voyages. The Portuguese also have ships trading to India and the Brazils nearly resembling the galleons, and called caragues. (See Carack.)
GALLEOT, or Galliot. A small galley designed only for chase, generally carrying but one mast, with sixteen or twenty oars. All the seamen on board act as soldiers, and each has a musket by him ready for use on quitting his oar. Also, a Dutch or Flemish vessel for cargoes, with very rounded ribs and flattish bottom, with a mizen-mast stept far aft, carrying a square-mainsail and main-topsail, a fore-stay to the main-mast (there being no fore-mast), with fore-staysail and jibs. Some also call the bomb-ketches galliots. (See Scampavia.)
GALLERY. A balcony projecting from the admiral’s or captain’s cabin; it is usually decorated with a balustrade, and extends from one side of the ship to the other; the roof is formed by a sort of vault termed a cove, which is frequently ornamented with carving. (See Stern; also Quarter-gallery.)
GALLERY of a Mine. The passage of horizontal communication, as distinguished from the shaft or vertical descent, made underground by military miners to reach the required position, for lodging the charge, &c.; it averages 41⁄2 feet high by 3 feet wide.
GALLERY-LADDER. Synonymous with stern-ladder.
GALLEY. A low, flat-built vessel with one deck, and propelled by sails and oars, particularly in the Mediterranean. The largest sort, called galleasses, were formerly employed by the Venetians. They were about 160 feet long above, and 130 by the keel, 30 wide, and 20 length of stern-post. They were furnished with three masts and thirty banks of oars, each bank containing two oars, and every oar managed by half-a-dozen slaves, chained to them. There are also half-galleys and quarter-galleys, but found by experience to be of little utility except in fine weather. They generally hug the shore, only sometimes venturing out to sea for a summer cruise. Also, an open boat rowing six or eight oars, and used on the river Thames by custom-house officers, and formerly by press-gangs; hence the names “custom-house galley,” “press-galley,” &c. Also, a clincher-built fast rowing-boat, rather larger than a gig, appropriated in a man-of-war for the use of the captain. The galley or gally is also the name of the ship’s hearth or kitchen, being the place where the grates are put up and the victuals cooked. In small merchantmen it is called the caboose; and is generally abaft the forecastle or fore-part of the ship.
GALLEY-ARCHES. Spacious and well-built structures in many of the Mediterranean ports for the reception and security of galleys.
GALLEY-FOIST or Fust. The lord-mayor’s barge, and other vessels for holidays. (See Fust.)
GALLEY-GROWLERS. Idle grumblers and skulkers, from whom discontent and mutiny generally derive their origin. Hence, “galley-packets,” news before the mail arrives.
GALLEY-NOSE. The figure-head.
GALLEY-PACKET. An unfounded rumour. (See Galley-growlers.)
GALLEY-PEPPER. The soot or ashes which accidentally drop into victuals in cooking.
GALLEY-SLANG. The neological barbarisms foisted into sea-language.
GALLEY-SLAVE. A person condemned to work at the oar on board a galley, and chained to the deck.
GALLEY-STOKER. A lazy skulker.
GALLEY-TROUGH. See Gerletroch.
GALLIAS. A heavy, low-built vessel of burden. Not to be confounded with galley, for even Shakspeare, in the Taming of the Shrew, makes Tranio say:—
“My father hath no less
Than three great argosies; besides two galeasses,
And twelve tight galleys.”
GALLIED. The state of a whale when he is seriously alarmed.
GALLIGASKINS. Wide hose or breeches formerly worn by seamen also called petticoat-trousers. P. Penilesse, in his Supplication to the Divell, says: “Some gally gascoynes or shipman’s hose, like the Anabaptists,” &c.
GALLING-FIRE. A sustained discharge of cannon, or small arms, which by its execution greatly annoys the enemy.
GALLIVATS. Armed row-boats of India, smaller than a grab; generally 50 to 70 tons.
GALLOON. Gold lace. [Fr. galon; Sp. galon.]
GALLOPER. A small gun used by the Indians, easily drawn by one horse.
GALLOW-GLASSES. Formerly a heavy-armed body of foot; more recently applied to Irish infantry soldiers.
GALLOWS. The cross-pieces on the small bitts at the main and fore hatchways in flush-decked vessels, for stowing away the booms and spars over the boats; also termed gallowses, gallows-tops, gallows-bitts, and gallows-stanchions. The word is used colloquially for archness, as well as for notoriously bad characters.
GALLS. Veins of land through which the water oozes.
GALL-WIND. See Wind-gall.
GALLY-GUN. A kind of culverin.
GALOOT. An awkward soldier, from the Russian golut, or slave. A soubriquet for the young or “green” marine.
GALORE. Plenty, abundance.
GAMBISON. A quilted doublet formerly worn under armour, to prevent its chafing.
GAME-LEG. A lame limb, but not so bad as to unfit for duty.
GAMMON, To. To pass the lashings of the bowsprit.
GAMMONING. Seven or eight turns of a rope-lashing passed alternately over the bowsprit and through a large hole in the cut-water, the better to support the stays of the fore-mast; after all the turns are drawn as firm as possible, the two opposite are braced together under the bowsprit by a frapping. Gammoning lashing, fashion, &c., has a peculiar seamanlike meaning. The gammoning turns are passed from the standing part or bolt forward, over the bowsprit, aft through the knee forward, making a cross lashing. It was the essence of a seaman’s ability, and only forecastle men, under the boatswain, executed it. Now galvanized chain is more commonly used than rope for gammoning.
GAMMONING-HOLE. A mortise-opening cut through the knee of the head, between the cheeks, through which the gammoning is passed.
GAMMON-KNEE. A knee-timber fayed and bolted to the stem, a little below the bowsprit.
GAMMON-PLATE. An iron plate bolted to the stem of some vessels for the purpose of supporting the gammoning of the bowsprit.
GAMMON-SHACKLE. A sort of triangular ring formed on the end of a gammon-plate, for the gammoning lashing or chain to be made fast to.
GAND-FLOOK. A name of the saury-pike, Scomberesox saurus.
GANG. A detachment; being a selected number of a ship’s crew appointed on any particular service, and commanded by an officer suitable to the occasion.
GANG-BOARD. The narrow platform within the side next the gunwale, connecting the quarter-deck to the forecastle. Also, a plank with several cleats or steps nailed to it to prevent slipping, for the convenience of walking into or out of a boat upon the shore, where the water is shallow.
GANG-CASKS. Small barrels used for bringing water on board in boats; somewhat larger than breakers, and usually containing 32 gallons.
GANGWAY. The platform on each side of the skid-beams leading from the quarter-deck to the forecastle, and peculiar to deep-waisted ships, for the convenience of walking expeditiously fore and aft; it is fenced on the outside by iron stanchions and ropes, or rails, and in vessels of war with a netting, in which part of the hammocks are stowed. In merchant ships it is frequently called the gang-board. Also, that part of a ship’s side, and opening in her bulwarks, by which persons enter and depart, provided with a sufficient number of steps or cleats, nailed upon the ship’s side, nearly as low as the surface of the water, and sometimes furnished with a railed accommodation-ladder projecting from the ship’s side, and secured by iron braces. Also, narrow passages left in the hold, when a ship is laden, in order to enter any particular place as occasion may require, or stop a leak. Also, it implies a thoroughfare of any kind.—To bring to the gangway, to punish a seaman by seizing him up to a grating, there to undergo flogging.
GANNERET. A sort of gull.
GANNET. The Sula bassana, or solan goose: a large sea bird of the family Pelecanidæ, common on the Scottish coasts.
GANNY-WEDGE. A thick wooden wedge, used in splitting timber.
GANTAN. An Indian commercial measure, of which 17 make a baruth.
GANT-LINE. Synonymous with girt-line (which see).
GANT-LOPE, or Gauntlope (commonly pronounced gantlet). A race which a criminal was sentenced to run, in the navy or army, for any heinous offence. The ship’s crew, or a certain division of soldiers, were disposed in two rows face to face, each provided with a knotted cord, or knittle, with which they severely struck the delinquent as he ran between them, stripped down to the waist. This was repeated according to the sentence, but seldom beyond three times, and constituted “running the gauntlet.”
GANTREE, or Gantril. A wooden stand for a barrel.
GANZEE. Corrupted from Guernsey. (See Jersey.)
GAP. A chasm in the land, which, when near, is useful as a landmark.
GAPE. The principal crevice or crack in shaken timber.—The seams gape, or let in water.
GARAVANCES. The old term for calavances (which see).
GARBEL. A word synonymous with garboard (which see).
GARBLING. The mixing of rubbish with a cargo stowed in bulk.
GARBOARD-STRAKE, or Sand-streak. The first range of planks laid upon a ship’s bottom, next the keel, into which it is rabbeted, and into the stem and stern-post at the ends.
GARDE-BRACE. Anglo-Norman for armour for the arm.
GARE. See Gair-fowl. Also, the Anglo-Saxon for ready. (See Yare.)
GARETTE. A watch-tower.
GARFANGLE. An archaic term for an eel-spear.
GAR-FISH. The Belone vulgaris, or bill-fish, the bones of which are green. Also called the guard-fish, but it is from the Anglo-Saxon gar, a weapon.
GARGANEY. The Querquedula circia, a small species of duck, allied to the teal.
GARLAND. A collar of ropes formerly wound round the head of the mast, to keep the shrouds from chafing. Also, a strap lashed to a spar when hoisting it in. Also, a large rope grommet, to place shot in on deck. Also, in shore-batteries, a band, whether of iron or stone, to retain shot together in their appointed place. Also, the ring in a target, in which the mark is set. Also, a wreath made by crossing three small hoops, and covering them with silk and ribbons, hoisted to the main-topgallant-stay of a ship on the day of the captain’s wedding; but on a seaman’s wedding, to the appropriate mast to which he is stationed. Also, a sort of cabbage-net, whose opening is extended by a hoop, and used by sailors to contain their day’s provisions, being hung up to the beams within their berth, safe from cats, rats, ants, and cockroaches.
GARNET. A sort of purchase fixed to the main-stay of a merchant-ship, and used for hoisting the cargo in and out at the time of loading or delivering her. A whip.—Clue-garnet. (See Clue and Clue-garnets.)
GARNEY. A term in the fisheries for the fins, sounds, and tongues of the cod-fish.
GARNISH. Profuse decoration of a ship’s head, stern, and quarters. Also money which pressed men in tenders and receiving ships exacted from each other, according to priority.
GARR. An oozy vegetable substance which grows on ships’ bottoms.
GARRET, or Garita. A watch-tower in a fortification; an old term.
GARRISON. A military force guarding a town or fortress; a term for the place itself; also for the state of guard there maintained.
GARRISON GUNS. These are more powerful than those intended for the field; and formerly nearly coincided with naval guns; but now, the introduction of armour-plating afloat leads to furnishing coast-batteries with the heaviest guns of all.
GARRISON ORDERS. Those given out by the commandant of a garrison.
GARROOKA. A fishing-craft of the Gulf of Persia.
GARTERS. A slang term for the ship’s irons or bilboes.
GARTHMAN. One who plies at a fish-garth, but is prohibited by statute from destroying the fry of fish.
GARVIE. A name on our northern shores for the sprat.
GASKET. A cord, or piece of plaited stuff, to secure furled sails to the yard, by wrapping it three or four times round both, the turns being at a competent distance from each other.—Bunt-gasket ties up the bunt of the sail, and should consequently be the strongest; it is sometimes made in a peculiar net form. In some ships they have given place to beckets.—Double gaskets. Passing additional frapping-lines round the yards in very stormy weather.—Quarter-gasket. Used only for large sails, and is fastened about half-way out upon the yard, which part is called the quarter.—Yard-arm gasket. Used for smaller sails; the end is made fast to the yard-arm, and serves to bind the sail as far as the quarter-gasket on large yards, but extends quite into the bunt of small sails.
GAS-PIPE. A term jocularly applied to the newly-introduced breech-loading rifle.
GAT. A swashway, or channel amongst shoals.
GATE. The old name for landing-places, as Dowgate and Billingsgate; also in cliffs, as Kingsgate, Margate, and Ramsgate; those in Greece and in Italy are called scala. Also, a flood, sluice, or water gate.
GATE, or Sea-gate. When two ships are thrown on board one another by a wave, they are said to be in a sea-gate.
GATHER AFT A SHEET, To. To pull it in, by hauling in slack.
GATHER WAY, To. To begin to feel the impulse of the wind on the sails, so as to obey the helm.
GATH-LINN. A name of the north polar star; two Gaelic words, signifying ray and moisture, in allusion to its subdued brightness.
GATT. A gate or channel, a term used on the Flemish coast and in the Baltic. The Hellegat of New York has become Hell Gate.
GAUB-LINE. A rope leading from the martingale in-board. The same as back-rope.
GAUGE. See Gage.
GAUGE. An instrument for measuring shot, wads, &c. For round shot there are two kinds, viz. the high gauge, a cylinder through which the shot must pass; and the low gauge, a ring through which it must not pass.
GAUGE-COCKS. A neat apparatus for ascertaining the height of the water in a steamer’s boiler.
GAUGE-ROD. A graduated iron for sounding the pump-well.
GAUGNET. The Sygnathus acus, sea-needle, or pipe-fish.
GAUNTLET. (See Girt-line.) Also, a rope round the ship to the lower yard-arms, for drying scrubbed hammocks. Of old the term denoted the armed knight’s iron glove. (See Gant-lope, for running the gauntlet.)
GAUNTREE. The stand for a water or beer cask.
GAUNTS. The great crested grebe in Lincolnshire.
GAUT, or Ghaut. In the East Indies, a landing-place; and also a chain of hills, as the Western Gauts, on the Mysore coast.
GAVELOCK. An iron crow. Of old, a pike; thus in Arthur and Merlin—
“Gavelokes also thicke flowe
So gnattes, ichil avowe.”
GAVER. A Cornish name for the sea cray-fish.
GAW. A southern term for a boat-pole.
GAWDNIE. The dragonet, or yellow gurnard; Callionymus lyra.
GAW-GAW. A lubberly simpleton.
GAWKY. A half-witted, awkward youth. Also, the shell called horse-cockle.
GAWLIN. A small sea-fowl which the natives of the Western Isles of Scotland trust in, as a prognosticator of the weather.
GAWN-TREE. See Gantree.
GAWPUS. A stupid, idle fellow.
GAWRIE. A name for the red gurnard; Trigla cuculus.
GAZONS [Fr.] Sods of earth or turf, cut in wedge-shaped form, to line the parapet and face the outside of works.
GAZZETTA. The name of a small coin in the Adriatic and Levant. It was the price of the first Venetian newspaper, and thereby gave the name to those publications. In the Greek islands the word is used for ancient coins.
G.C.B. The initials for Grand Cross of the most honourable and Military Order of the Bath.
GEAR [the Anglo-Saxon geara, clothing]. A general name for the rigging of any particular spar or sail; and in or out of gear implies anything being fit or unfit for use.
GEARING. A complication of wheels and pinions, or of shafts and pulleys, &c.
GEARS. See Jeers.
GEE, To. To suit or fit; as, “that will just gee.”
GELLYWATTE. An old term for a captain’s boat, the original of jolly-boat. (See Captain Downton’s voyage to India in 1614, where “she was sent to take soundings within the sands.”)
GENERAL. The commander of an army: the military rank corresponding to the naval one of admiral. The title includes all officers above colonels, ascending with qualifying prefixes, as brigadier-general, major-general, lieutenant-general, to general, above which is nothing save the exceptional rank of field-marshal and of captain-general or commander-in-chief of the land forces of the United Kingdom.
GENERAL AVERAGE. A claim made upon the owners of a ship and her cargo, when the property of one or more has been sacrificed for the good of the whole.
GENERAL BREEZO. See Breezo.
GENERALISSIMO. The supreme commander of a combined force, or of several armies in the field.
GENERAL OFFICERS. All those above the rank of a colonel.
GENERAL ORDERS. The orders issued by the commander-in-chief of the forces.
GENERAL SHIP. Where persons unconnected with each other load goods on board, in contradistinction to a chartered ship.
GENEVA PRINT. An allusion to the spirituous liquor so called,—
“And if you meet
An officer preaching of sobriety,
Unless he read it in Geneva print,
Lay him by the heels.”
—Massinger.
GENOUILLERE [Fr.] That part of a battery which remains above the platform, and under the gun after the opening of the embrasure. Of course a knee-step.
GENTLE. A maggot or grub used as a bait by anglers.
GENTLE GALE. In which a ship carries royals and flying-kites; force 4.
GENTLEMEN. The messmates of the gun-room or cockpit—as mates, midshipmen, clerks, and cadets.
GEOCENTRIC. As viewed from the centre of the earth.
GEO-GRAFFY. A beverage made by seamen of burnt biscuit boiled in water.
GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION. See Position, Geographical.
GEORGIUM SIDUS. The planet discovered by Sir W. Herschel was so named at first; but astronomers adopted Uranus instead, as safer to keep in the neutral ground of mythology.
GERLETROCH. The Salmo alpinus, red char, or galley-trough.
GERRACK. A coal-fish in its first year.
GERRET. A samlet or parr.
GERRICK. A Cornish name for a sea-pike.
GERRON. A cant name for the sea-trout.
GESERNE. Anglo-Norman for battle-axe.
GESTLING. A meeting of the members of the Cinque Ports at Romney.
GET AFLOAT. Pulling out a grounded boat.
GET-A-PULL. The order to haul in more of a rope or tackle.
GHAUT. See Gaut.
GHEE. The substitute for butter served out to ships’ companies on the Indian station.
GHOST. A false image in the lens of an instrument.
GHRIME-SAIL. The old term for a smoke-sail.
GIB. A forelock.
GIBB. The beak, or hooked upper lip of a male salmon.
GIBBOUS. The form of a planet’s disc exceeding a semicircle, but less than a circle.
GIB-FISH. A northern name for the male of the salmon.
GIBRALTAR GYN. Originally devised there for working guns under a low roof. (See Gyn.)
GIDDACK. A name on our northern coasts for the sand-launce or sand-eel, Ammodytes tobianus.
GIFFOOT. A Jewish corruption of the Spanish spoken at Gibraltar and the sea-ports.
GIFT-ROPE [synonymous with guest-rope]. A rope for boats at the guest-warp boom.
GIG. A light narrow galley or ship’s boat, clincher-built, and adapted for expedition either by rowing or sailing; the latter ticklish at times.
GILDEE. A name in the Scottish isles for the Morhua barbata, or whiting pout.
GILGUY. A guy for tracing up, or bearing a boom or derrick. Often applied to inefficient guys.
GILL. A ravine down the surface of a cliff; a rivulet through a ravine. The name is often applied also to the valley itself.
GILLER. A horse-hair fishing line.
GILLS. Small hackles for drying hemp.
GILPY. Between a man and boy.
GILSE. A common misnomer of grilse (which see).
GILT. A cant, but old term for money, on which Shakspeare (Henry V. act ii. scene 1) committed a well-known pun—
“Have for the gilt of France (O guilt indeed!)”
GILT-HEAD, or Gilt-poll. The Sparus aurata, a fish of the European and American seas, with a golden mark between the eyes. (See Sedow.)
GIMBALS. The two concentric brass rings, having their axles at right angles, by which a sea-compass is suspended in its box, so as to counteract the effect of the ship’s motion. (See Compass.) Also used for the chronometers.
GIMBLETING. The action of turning the anchor round on its fluke, so that the motion of the stock appears similar to that of the handle of a gimlet when it is employed to bore a hole. To turn anything round on its end.
GIMLET-EYE. A penetrating gaze, which sees through a deal plank.
GIMMART. See Gymmyrt.
GIMMEL. Any disposition of rings, as links, device of machinery. (See Gimbals.)
GIN. A small iron cruciform frame, having a swivel-hook, furnished with an iron sheave, to serve as a pulley for the use of chain in discharging cargo and other purposes.
GINGADO. See Jergado.
GINGAL. A long barrelled fire-arm, throwing a ball of from 1⁄4 to 1⁄2 lb., used throughout the East, especially in China; made to load at the breach with a movable chamber. (See also Jingal.)
GINGERBREAD-HATCHES. Luxurious quarters—
“Gingerbread-hatches on shore.”
GINGERBREAD WORK. Profusely carved decorations of a ship.
GINGERLY. Spruce and smart, but somewhat affected in movement.
GINNELIN. Catching fish by the hand; tickling them.
GINNERS, or Ginnles. The gills of fish.
GINSENG. A Chinese root, formerly highly prized for its restorative virtues, and greatly valued among the items of a cargo. It is now almost out of the Materia Medica.
GIP, To. To take the entrails out of fishes.
GIRANDOLE. Any whirling fire-work.
GIRD, To. To bind; used formerly for striking a blow.
GIRDLE. An additional planking over the wales or bends. Also, a frapping for girding a ship.
GIRT. The situation of a ship which is moored so taut by her cables, extending from the hawse to two distant anchors, as to be prevented from swinging to the wind or tide. The ship thus circumstanced endeavours to swing, but her side bears upon one of the cables, which catches on her heel, and interrupts her in the act of traversing. In this position she must ride with her broadside or stern to the wind or current, till one or both of the cables are slackened, so as to sink under the keel; after which the ship will readily yield to the effort of the wind or current, and turn her head thither. (See Ride.)
GIRT-LINE. A whip purchase, consisting of a rope passing through a single block on the head of a lower mast to hoist up the rigging thereof, and the persons employed to place it; the girt-line is therefore the first rope employed to rig a ship. (Sometimes mis-called gant-line.)
GISARMS. An archaic term for a halbert or hand-axe.
GIVE A SPELL. To intermit or relieve work. (See Spell.)
GIVE CHASE, To. To make sail in pursuit of a stranger.
GIVE HER SO AND SO. The direction of the officer of the watch to the midshipman, reporting the rate of sailing by the log, and which requires correction in the judgment of that officer, from winds, &c., before marking on the log-board.
GIVE HER SHEET. The order to ease off; give her rope.
GIVE WAY. The order to a boat’s crew to renew rowing, or to increase their exertions if they were already rowing. To hang on the oars.
GIVE WAY TOGETHER. So that the oars may all dip and rise together, whereby the force is concentrated.
GIVE WAY WITH A WILL. Pull heartily together.
GIVING. The surging of a seizing; new rope stretching to the strain.
GLACIS. In fortification, that smooth earthen slope outside the ditch which descends to the country, affording a secure parapet to the covered way, and exposing always a convenient surface to the fire of the place.
GLADENE. A very early designation of the sea-onion.
GLAIRE. A broadsword or falchion fixed on a pike.
GLANCE. (See Northern-glance.) Also, a name for anthracite coal.
GLASAG. The Gaelic name of an edible sea-weed of our northern isles.
GLASS. The usual appellation for a telescope (see the old sea song of Lord Howard’s capture of Barton the pirate). Also, the familiar term for a barometer. Glass is also used in the plural to denote time-glass on the duration of any action; as, they fought yard-arm and yard-arm three glasses, i.e. three half-hours.—To flog or sweat the half-hour glass. To turn the sand-glass before the sand has quite run out, and thus gaining a few minutes in each half-hour, make the watch too short.—Half-minute and quarter-minute glasses, used to ascertain the rate of the ship’s velocity measured by the log; they should be occasionally compared with a good stop watch.—Night-glass. A telescope adapted for viewing objects at night.
GLASS CLEAR? Is the sand out of the upper part? asked previously to turning it, on throwing the log.
GLASSOK. A coast name for the say, seath, or coal-fish.
GLAVE. A light hand-dart. Also, a sword-blade fixed on the end of a pole.
GLAYMORE. A two-handed sword. (See Claymore.)
GLAZED POWDER. Gunpowder of which the grains, by friction against one another in a barrel worked for the purpose, have acquired a fine polish, sometimes promoted by a minute application of black-lead; reputed to be very slightly weaker than the original, and somewhat less liable to deterioration.
GLEN. An Anglo-Saxon term denoting a dale or deep valley; still in use for a ravine.
GLENT, To. To turn aside or quit the original direction, as a shot does from accidentally impinging on a hard substance.
GLIB-GABBET. Smooth and ready speech.
GLIM. A light; familiarly used for the eyes.—Dowse the glim, put out the light.
GLOAMING. The twilight. Also, a gloomy dull state of sky.
GLOBE RANGERS. A soubriquet for the royal marines.
GLOBULAR SAILING. A general designation for all the methods on which the rules of computation are founded, on the hypothesis that the earth is a sphere; including great circle sailing.
GLOG. The Manx or Erse term which denotes the swell or rolling of the sea after a storm.
GLOOM-STOVE. Formerly for drying powder, at a temperature of about 140°; being an iron vessel in a room heated from outside, but steam-pipes are now substituted.
GLOOT. See Galoot.
GLOWER, To. To stare or look intently.
GLUE. See Marine Glue.
GLUM. As applied to the weather, overcast and gloomy. Socially, it is a grievous look.
GLUT. A piece of wood applied as a fulcrum to a lever power. Also, a bit of canvas sewed into the centre of a sail near the head, with an eyelet-hole in the middle for the bunt-jigger or becket to go through. Glut used to prevent slipping, as sand and nippers glut the messenger; the fall of a tackle drawn across the sheaves, by which it is choked or glutted; junks of rope interposed between the messenger and the whelps of the capstan.
GLYN. A deep valley with convex sides. (See Cwm.)
GNARLED. Knotty; said of timber.
GNARRE. An old term for a hard knot in a tree; hence Shakspeare’s “unwedgeable and gnarled oak.”
GNOLL. A round hillock. (See Knoll.)
GNOMON. The hand; style of a dial.
GO! A word sometimes given when all is ready for the launch of a vessel from the stocks.
GO AHEAD! or Go on! The order to the engineer in a steamer.
GO ASHORE, To. To land on leave.
GO ASHORES. The seamen’s best dress.
GOBARTO. A large and ravenous fish of our early voyagers, probably a shark.
GOBBAG. A Gaelic name for the dog-fish.
GOB-DOO. A Manx term for a mussel.
GOBISSON. Gambesson; quilted dress worn under the habergeon.
GOBLACHAN. A Gaelic name for the parr or samlet.
GOB-LINE. See Gaub-line.
GOBON. An old English name for the whiting.
GOB-STICK. A horn or wooden spoon.
GO BY. Stratagem.—To give her the go by, is to escape by deceiving.
GOBY. A name of the gudgeon (which see). It was erroneously applied to white-bait.
GOD. We retain the Anglo-Saxon word to designate the Almighty; signifying good, to do good, doing good, and to benefit; terms such as our classic borrowings cannot pretend to.
GODENDA. An offensive weapon of our early times, being a poleaxe with a spike at its end.
GO DOWN. The name given to store-houses and magazines in the East Indies.
GODSEND. An unexpected relief or prize; but wreckers denote by the term vessels and goods driven on shore.
GOE. A creek, smaller than a voe.
GOELETTE [Fr.] A schooner. Also, a sloop-of-war.
GOGAR. A serrated worm used in the north for fishing-bait.
GOGLET. An earthen vase or bottle for holding water.
GOILLEAR. The Gaelic for a sea-bird of the Hebrides, said to come ashore only in January.
GOING ABOUT. Tacking ship.
GOING FREE. When the bowlines are slackened, or sailing with the wind abeam.
GOING LARGE. Sailing off the wind.
GOING THROUGH THE FLEET. A cruel punishment, long happily abolished. The victim was sentenced to receive a certain portion of the flogging alongside the various ships, towed in a launch by a boat supplied from each vessel, the drummers beating the rogue’s march.
GOLDENEY. A name for the yellow gurnard among the northern fishermen.
GOLD FISH. The trivial name of the Cyprinus auratus, one of the most superb of the finny tribe. It was originally brought from China, but is now generally naturalized in Europe.
GOLD MOHUR. A well known current coin in the East Indies, varying a little in value at each presidency, but averaging fifteen rupees, or thirty shillings.
GOLE. An old northern word for a stream or sluice.
GOLLETTE. The shirt of mail formerly worn by foot soldiers. Also, a French sloop-of-war, spelled goëlette.
GOMER. A particular form of chamber in ordnance, consisting in a conical narrowing of the bore towards its inner end. It was first devised for the service of mortars, and named after the inventor, Gomer, in the late wars.
GOMERE [Fr.] The cable of a galley.
GONDOLA. A light pleasure-barge universally used on the canals of Venice, generally propelled by one man standing on the stern with one powerful oar, though the larger kinds have more rowers. The middle-sized gondolas are upwards of 30 feet long and 4 broad, with a well furnished cabin amidships, though exclusively black as restricted by law. They always rise at each end to a very sharp point of about the height of a man’s breast. The stem is always surmounted by the ferro, a bright iron beak or cleaver of one uniform shape, seemingly derived from the ancient Romans, being the “rostrisque tridentibus” of Virgil, as may be seen in many of Hadrian’s large brass medals. The form of the gondola in the water is traced back till its origin is lost in antiquity, yet (like that of the Turkish caïques) embodies the principles of the wave-line theory, the latest effort of modern ship-building science. Also, a passage-boat of six or eight oars, used on other parts of the coast of Italy.
GONDOLIER. A man who works or navigates a gondola.
GONE. Carried away. “The hawser or cable is gone;” parted, broken.
GONE-GOOSE. A ship deserted or given up in despair (in extremis).
GONFANON [Fr.] Formerly a cavalry banneret; corrupted from the gonfalone of the Italians.
GONG. A kind of Chinese cymbal, with a powerful and sonorous tone produced by the vibrations of its metal, consisting mainly of copper and tutenag or zinc; it is used by some vessels instead of a bell. A companion of Sir James Lancaster in 1605 irreverently states that it makes “a most hellish sound.”
GONGA. A general name for a river in India, whence comes Ganges.
GOOD-AT-ALL-POINTS. Practical in every particular.
GOOD-CONDUCT BADGE. Marked by a chevron on the lower part of the sleeve, granted by the admiralty, and carrying a slight increase of pay, to petty officers, seamen, and marines. One of a similar nature is in use in the army.
GOOD MEN. The designation of the able, hard-working, and willing seamen.
GOOD SHOALING. An approach to the shore by very gradual soundings.
GOOLE. An old term for a breach in a sea-bank.
GOOSANDER. The Mergus merganser, a northern sea-fowl, allied to the duck, with a straight, narrow, and serrated bill, hooked at the point.
GOOSE-NECK. A curved iron, fitted outside the after-chains to receive a spare spar, properly the swinging boom, a davit. Also, a sort of iron hook fitted on the inner end of a boom, and introduced into a clamp of iron or eye-bolt, which encircles the mast; or is fitted to some other place in the ship, so that it may be unhooked at pleasure. It is used for various purposes, especially for guest-warps and swinging booms of all descriptions.
GOOSE-WINGS of a Sail. The situation of a course when the buntlines and lee-clue are hauled up, and the weather-clue down. The clues, or lower corners of a ship’s main-sail or fore-sail, when the middle part is furled or tied up to the yard. The term is also applied to the fore and main sails of a schooner or other two-masted fore-and-aft vessel; when running before the wind she has these sails set on opposite sides.
GOOSE WITHOUT GRAVY. A severe starting, so called because no blood followed its infliction.
GORAB. See Grab.
GORD. An archaism denoting a deep hole in a river.
GORES. Angular pieces of plank inserted to fill up a vessel’s planking at any part requiring it. Also, the angles at one or both ends of such cloths as increase the breadth or depth of a sail. (See Goring-cloth.)
GORGE. The upper and narrowest part of a transverse valley, usually containing the upper bed of a torrent. Also, in fortification, a line joining the inner extremities of a work.
GORGE-HOOK. Two hooks separated by a piece of lead, for the taking of pike or other voracious fish.
GORGET. In former times, and still amongst some foreign troops, a gilt badge of a crescent shape, suspended from the neck, and hanging on the breast, worn by officers on duty.
GORING, or Goring-cloth. That part of the skirts of a sail cut on the bias, where it gradually widens from the upper part down to the clues. (See Sail.)
GORMAW. A coast name for the cormorant.
GORSE. Heath or furze for breaming a vessel’s bottom.
GO SLOW. The order to the engineer to cut off steam without stopping the play of the engine.
GOSSOON. A silly awkward lout.
GOTE. See Gutter.
GOUGING. In ship-building (see Snail-creeping). Also, a cruel practice in one or two American states, now extremely rare, in which a man’s eye was squeezed out by his rival’s thumb-nail, the fingers being entangled in the hair for the necessary purchase.
GOUGINGS. A synonym of gudgeons (which see).
GOUKMEY. One of the names in the north for the gray gurnard.
GOULET. Any narrow entrance to a creek or harbour, as the goletta at Tunis.
GOURIES. The garbage of salmon.
GOVERNMENT. Generally means the constitution of our country as exercised under the legislature of king or queen, lords, and commons.
GOVERNOR. An officer placed by royal commission in command of a fortress, town, or colony. Governors are also appointed to institutions, hospitals, and other establishments. Also, a revolving bifurcate pendulum, with two iron balls, whose centrifugal divergence equalizes the motion of the steam-engine.
GOW. An old northern term for the gull.
GOWDIE. The Callionymus lyra, dragonet, or chanticleer.
GOWK. The cuckoo; but also used for a stupid, good-natured fellow.
GOWK-STORM. Late vernal equinoctial gales contemporary with the gowk or cuckoo.
GOWT, or Gote. A limited passage for water.
GOYLIR. A small sea-bird held to precede a storm; hence seamen call them malifiges. Arctic gull.
GRAB. The large coasting vessel of India, generally with two masts, and of 150 to 300 tons.—To grab. In familiar language, to catch or snatch at anything with violence.
GRABBLE, To. To endeavour to hook a sunk article. To catch fish by hand in a brook.
GRAB SERVICE. Country vessels first employed by the Bombay government against the pirates; afterwards erected into the Bombay Marine.
GRACE. See Act of Grace.
GRADE. A degree of rank; a step in order or dignity.
GRAFTING. An ornamental weaving of fine yarns, &c., over the strop of a block; or applied to the tapered ends of the ropes, and termed pointing.
GRAIN of Timber. In a transverse section of a tree, two different grains are seen: those running in a circular manner are called the silver grain; the others radiate, and are called bastard grain.—Grain is also a whirlwind not unfrequent in Normandy, mixed with rain, but seldom continues above a quarter of an hour. They may be foreseen, and while they last the sea is very turbulent; they may return several times in the same day, a dead calm succeeding.
GRAIN. In the grain of, is immediately preceding another ship in the same direction.—Bad-grain, a sea-lawyer; a nuisance.
GRAIN-CUT TIMBER. That which is cut athwart the grain when the grain of the wood does not partake of the shape required.
GRAINED POWDER. That corned or reduced into grains from the cakes, and distinguished from mealed powder, as employed in certain preparations.
GRAINS. A five-pronged fish-spear, grains signifying branches.
GRAIN UPSET. When a mast suffers by buckles, it is said to have its grain upset. A species of wrinkle on the soft outer grain which will be found corresponding to a defect on the other side. It is frequently produced by an injudicious setting up of the rigging.
GRAM. A species of pulse given to horses, sheep, and oxen in the East Indies, and supplied to ships for feeding live-stock.
GRAMPUS. A corruption of gran pisce. An animal of the cetacean or whale tribe, distinguished by the large pointed teeth with which both jaws are armed, and by the high falcate dorsal fin. It generally attains a length of 20 to 25 feet, and is very active and voracious.
GRAMPUS, Blowing the. Sluicing a person with water, especially practised on him who skulks or sleeps on his watch.
GRAND DIVISION. A division of a battalion composed of two companies, or ordinary divisions, in line.
GRANDSIRE. The name of a four-oared boat which belonged to Peter the Great, now carefully preserved at St. Petersburg as the origin of the Russian fleet.
GRANNY’S BEND. The slippery hitch made by a lubber.
GRANNY’S KNOT. This is a term of derision when a reef-knot is crossed the wrong way, so as to be insecure. It is the natural knot tied by women or landsmen, and derided by seamen because it cannot be untied when it is jammed.
GRAPESHOT. A missile from guns intermediate between case-shot and solid shot, having much of the destructive spread of the former with somewhat of the range and penetrative force of the latter. A round of grapeshot consists of three tiers of cast-iron balls arranged, generally three in a tier, between four parallel iron discs connected together by a central wrought-iron pin. For carronades, the grape, not being liable to such a violent dispersive shock, they are simply packed in canisters with wooden bottoms.
GRAPNEL, or Grapling. A sort of small anchor for boats, having a ring at one end, and four palmed claws at the other.—Fire grapnel. Resembling the former, but its flukes are furnished with strong fish-hook barbs on their points, usually fixed by a chain on the yard-arms of a ship, to grapple any adversary whom she intends to board, and particularly requisite in fire-ships. Also, used to grapple ships on fire, in order to tow them away from injuring other vessels.
GRAPNEL-ROPE. That which is bent to the grapnel by which a boat rides, now substituted by chain.
GRAPPLE, To. To hook with a grapnel; to lay hold of. First used by Duilius to prevent the escape of the Carthaginians.
GRASP. The handle of a sword, and of an oar. Also, the small of the butt of a musket.
GRASS. A term applied to vegetables in general. (See Feed of Grass.)
GRASS-COMBERS. A galley-term for all those landsmen who enter the naval service from farming counties. Lord Exmouth found many of them learn their duties easily, and turn out valuable seamen.
GRATING-DECK. A light movable deck, similar to the hatch-deck, but with open gratings.
GRATINGS. An open wood-work of cross battens and ledges forming cover for the hatchways, serving to give light and air to the lower decks. In nautical phrase, he “who can’t see a hole through a grating” is excessively drunk.