Gratings of the Head. See Head-gratings
GRATUITOUS MONEY. A term officially used for bounty granted to volunteers in Lord Exmouth’s expedition against Algiers.
GRAVE, To. To clean a vessel’s bottom, and pay it over.
GRAVELIN. A small migratory fish, commonly reputed to be the spawn of the salmon.
GRAVELLED. Vexed, mortified.
GRAVING. The act of cleaning a ship’s bottom by burning off the impurities, and paying it over with tar or other substance, while she is laid aground during the recess of the tide. (See Breaming.)
GRAVING BEACH or Slip. A portion of the dockyard where ships were landed for a tide.
GRAVING-DOCK. An artificial receptacle used for the inspecting, repairing, and cleaning a vessel’s bottom. It is so contrived that after the ship is floated in, the water may run out with the fall of the tide, the shutting of the gates preventing its return.
GRAVITATION. The natural tendency or inclination of all bodies towards the centre of the earth; and which was established by Sir Isaac Newton, as the great law of nature.
GRAVITY, Centre of. The centre of gravity of a ship is that point about which all parts of the body, in any situation, balance each other. (See Specific Gravity.)
GRAWLS. The young salmon, probably the same as grilse.
GRAY-FISH, and Gray-lord. Two of the many names given to the Gadus carbonarius or coal-fish.
GRAYLE. Small sand. Also, an old term for thin gravel.
GRAYLING. A fresh-water fish of the Salmo tribe. (See Ombre.)
GRAYNING. A species of dace found on our northern coast.
GRAY-SCHOOL. A particular shoal of large salmon in the Solway about the middle of July.
GRAZE. The point at which a shot strikes and rebounds from earth or water.
GRAZING-FIRE. That which sweeps close to the surface it defends.
GREASY. Synonymous with dirty weather.
GREAT CIRCLE. One whose assumed plane passes through the centre of the sphere, dividing it equally.
GREAT-CIRCLE SAILING. Is a method for determining a series of points in an arc of a great circle between two points on the surface of the earth, for the purpose of directing a ship’s course as nearly as possible on such arc; that is, on the curve of shortest distance between the place from which she sets out, and that at which she is to arrive.
GREAT GUN. The general sea-term for cannons, or officers of great repute.
GREAT GUNS and Small-arms. The general armament of a ship. Also, a slang term for the blowing and raining of heavy weather.
GREAT-LINE FISHING. That carried on over the deeper banks of the ocean. (See Line-fishing.) It is more applicable to hand-fishing, as on the banks of Newfoundland, in depths over 60 fathoms.
GREAT OCEAN. The Pacific, so called from its superior extent.
GREAT SHAKES. See Shake.
GREAVES. Armour for the legs.
GRECALE. A north-eastern breeze off the coast of Sicily, Greece lying N.E.
GREEN. Raw and untutored; a metaphor from unripe fruit—thus Shakspeare makes Pandulph say:
“How green are you and fresh in this old world!”
GREEN-BONE. The trivial name of the viviparous blenny, or guffer, the backbone of which is green when boiled; also of the gar-fish.
GREEN-FISH. Cod, hake, haddock, herrings, &c., unsalted.
GREEN-HANDS. Those embarked for the first time, and consequently inexperienced.
GREEN-HORN. A lubberly, uninitiated fellow. A novice of marked gullibility.
GREENLAND DOVE. The puffinet; called scraber in the Hebrides; about the size of a pigeon.
GREENLAND WHALE. See Right Whale.
GREEN-MEN. The five supernumerary seamen who had not been before in the Arctic Seas, whom vessels in the whale-fishery were obliged to bear, to get the tonnage bounty.
GREEN SEA. A large body of water shipped on a vessel’s deck; it derives its name from the green colour of a sheet of water between the eye and the light when its mass is too large to be broken up into spray.
GREEN-SLAKE. The sea-weed otherwise called lettuce-laver (which see).
GREEN TURTLE. The common name for the edible turtle, which does not yield tortoise-shell.
GREENWICH STARS. Those used for lunar computations in the nautical ephemeris.
GREEP. The old orthography of gripe.
GREGO. A coarse Levantine jacket, with a hood. A cant term for a rough great-coat.
GRENADE. Now restricted to hand-grenade, weighing about 2 lbs., and the fuze being previously lit, is conveniently thrown by hand from the tops of ships on to an enemy’s deck, from the parapet into the ditch, or generally against an enemy otherwise difficult to reach. A number of grenades, moreover, being quilted together with their fuzes outwards, called a “bouquet,” is fired short distances with good effect from mortars in the latter stages of a siege.
GRENADIERS. Formerly the right company of each battalion, composed of the largest men, and originally equipped for using hand-grenades. Now-a-days the companies of a regiment are equalized in size and other matters; and the title in the British army remains only to the fine regiment of grenadier guards.
GRENADO. The old name for a live shell. Thuanus says that they were first used at the siege of Wacklindonck, near Gueldres; and that their inventor, in an experiment in Venice, occasioned the burning of two-thirds of that city.
GREVE. A low flat sandy shore; whence graving is derived.
GREY-FRIARS. A name given to the oxen of Tuscany, with which the Mediterranean fleet was supplied.
GREY-HEAD. A fish of the haddock kind, taken on the coast of Galloway.
GREYHOUND. A hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.
GRIAN. A Gaelic term for the bottom, whether of river, lake, or sea.
GRIBAN. A small two-masted vessel of Normandy.
GRID. The diminutive of gridiron.
GRIDIRON. A solid timber stage or frame, formed of cross-beams of wood, for receiving a ship with a falling tide, in order that her bottom may be examined. The Americans also use for a similar purpose an apparatus called a screw-dock, and another known as the hydraulic-dock.
GRIFFIN, or Griff. A name given to Europeans during the first year of their arrival in India; it has become a general term for an inexperienced youngster.
GRIG. Small eels.
GRILL, To. To broil on the bars of the galley-range, as implied by its French derivation.
GRILSE. One of the salmon tribe, generally considered to be a young salmon on the return from its first sojourn at the sea; though by some still supposed to be a distinct fish.
GRIN AND BEAR IT. The stoical resignation to unavoidable hardship, which, being heard on board ship by Lord Byron, produced the fine stanza in “Childe Harold,” commencing “Existence might be borne.”
GRIND. A half kink in a hempen cable.
GRIP. The Anglo-Saxon grep. The handle of a sword; also a small ditch or drain. To hold, as “the anchor grips.” Also, a peculiar groove in rifled ordnance.
GRIPE. Is generally formed by the scarph of the stem and keel. (See Fore-foot.) This is retained, or shaved away, according to the object of making the vessel hold a better wind, or have greater facility in wearing.—To gripe. To carry too much weather-helm. A vessel gripes when she tends to come up into the wind while sailing close-hauled. She gripes according to her trim. If it continues it is remedied by lightening forward, or making her draw deeper aft.
GRIPED-TO. The situation of a boat when secured by gripes.
GRIPES. A broad plait formed by an assemblage of ropes, woven and fitted with thimbles and laniards, used to steady the boats upon the deck of a ship at sea. The gripes are fastened at their ends to ring-bolts in the deck, on each side of the boat; whence, passing over her middle and extremities, they are set up by means of the laniards. Gripes for a quarter boat are similarly used.
GRITT. An east-country term for the sea-crab.
GROATS. An allowance for each man per mensem, assigned formerly to the chaplain for pay.
GROBMAN. A west-country term for a sea-bream about two-thirds grown.
GRODAN. A peculiar boat of the Orcades; also the Erse for a gurnard.
GROG. A drink issued in the navy, consisting of one part of spirits diluted with three of water; introduced in 1740 by Admiral Vernon, as a check to intoxication by mere rum, and said to have been named from his grogram coat. Pindar, however, alludes to the Cyclops diluting their beverage with ten waters. As the water on board, in olden times, became very unwholesome, it was necessary to mix it with spirits, but iron tanks have partly remedied this. The addition of sugar and lemon-juice now makes grog an agreeable anti-scorbutic.
GROG-BLOSSOM. A red confluence on the nose and face of an excessive drinker of ardent spirits; though sometimes resulting from other causes.
GROG-GROG. The soft cry of the solan goose.
GROGGY, or Groggified. Rendered stupid by drinking, or incapable of performing duty by illness; as also a ship when crank, and birds when crippled.
GROGRAM. From gros-grain. A coarse stuff of which boat-cloaks were made. From one which Admiral Vernon wore, came the term grog.
GROINING. A peculiar mode of submarine embankment; a quay run out transversely to the shore.
GROMAL. An old word for gromet, or apprentice.
GROMET. A boy of the crew of the ships formerly furnished by the Cinque Ports (a diminutive from the Teutonic grom, a youth); his duty was to keep ship in harbour. Now applied to the ship’s apprentices.
GROMMET, or Grummet. A ring formed of a single strand of rope, laid in three times round; used to fasten the upper edge of a sail to its stay in different places, and by means of which the sail is hoisted or lowered. Iron or wooden hanks have now been substituted. (See Hanks.) Grommets are also used with pins for large boats’ oars, instead of rowlocks, and for many other purposes.
GROMMET-WAD. A ring made of 11⁄2 or 2 inch rope, having attached to it two cross-pieces or diameters of the same material; it acts by the ends of these pieces biting on the interior of the bore of the gun.
GROOVE-ROLLERS. These are fixed in a groove of the tiller-sweep in large ships, to aid the tiller-ropes, and prevent friction.
GROPERS. The ships stationed in the Channel and North Sea.
GROPING. An old mode of catching trout by tickling them with the hands under rocks or banks. Shakspeare makes the clown in “Measure for Measure” say that Claudio’s offence was—
“Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.”
GROSETTA. A minute coin of Ragusa, somewhat less than a farthing.
GROUND, To. To take the bottom or shore; to be run aground through ignorance, violence, or accident.—To strike ground. To obtain soundings.
GROUNDAGE. A local duty charged on vessels coming to anchor in a port or standing in a roadstead, as anchorage.
GROUND-BAIT, or Groundling. A loach or loche.
GROUND-GRU. See Anchor-ice.
GROUND-GUDGEON. A little fish, the Cobitis barbatula.
GROUND-ICE. See Anchor-ice.
GROUNDING. The act of laying a ship on shore, in order to bream or repair her; it is also applied to runnings aground accidentally when under sail.
GROUND-PLOT. See Ichnography.
GROUND-SEA. The West Indian name for the swell called rollers, or in Jamaica the north sea. It occurs in a calm, and with no other indication of a previous gale; the sea rises in huge billows, dashes against the shore with roarings resembling thunder, probably due to the “northers,” which suddenly rage off the capes of Virginia, round to the Gulf of Mexico, and drive off the sea from America, affecting the Bahama Banks, but not reaching to Jamaica or Cuba. The rollers set in terrifically in the Gulf of California, causing vessels to founder or strike in 7 fathoms, and devastating the coast-line. H.M.S. Lily foundered off Tristan d’Acunha in similar weather. In all the latter cases no satisfactory cause is yet assigned. (See Roller.)
GROUND-STRAKE. A name sometimes used for garboard-strake.
GROUND-SWELL. A sudden swell preceding a gale, which rises along shore, often in fine weather, and when the sea beyond it is calm. (See Roller.)
GROUND-TACKLE. A general name given to all sorts of ropes and furniture which belong to the anchors, or which are employed in securing a ship in a road or harbour.
GROUND-TIER. The lowest water-casks in the hold before the introduction of iron tanks. It also implies anything else stowed there.
GROUND-TIMBERS. Those which lie on the keel, and are fastened to it with bolts through the kelson.
GROUND-WAYS. The large blocks and thick planks which support the cradle on which a ship is launched. Also, the foundation whereon a vessel is built.
GROUP. A set of islands not ranged in a row so as to form a chain, and the word is often used synonymously with cluster.
GROUPER. A variety of the snapper, which forms a staple article of food in the Bermudas, and in the West Indies generally.
GROWEN. See Grown-sea.
GROWING. Implies the direction of the cable from the ship towards the anchors; as, the cable grows on the starboard-bow, i.e. stretches out forwards towards the starboard or right side.
GROWING PAY. That which succeeds the dead-horse, or pay in prospect.
GROWLERS. Smart, but sometimes all-jaw seamen, who have seen some service, but indulge in invectives against restrictive regulations, rendering them undesirable men. There are also too many “civil growlers” of the same kidney.
GROWN-SEA. When the waves have felt the full influence of a gale.
GRUANE. The Erse term for the gills of a fish.
GRUB. A coarse but common term for provisions in general—
“In other words they toss’d the grub
Out of their own provision tub.”
GRUB-TRAP. A vulgarism for the mouth.
GRUFF-GOODS. An Indian return cargo consisting of raw materials—cotton, rice, pepper, sugar, hemp, saltpetre, &c.
GRUMBLER. A discontented yet often hard-working seaman. Also, the gurnard, a fish of the blenny kind, which makes a rumbling noise when struggling to disengage itself on reaching the surface.
GRUMMET. See Grommet.
GRUNTER. A name of the Pogonias of Cuvier (a fish also termed the banded drum and young sheepskin); and several other fish.
GRYPHON. An archaic term for the meteorological phenomenon now called typhoon. (See Typhoon.)
GUANO. The excrement of sea-birds, a valuable manure found in thick beds on certain islets on the coast of Peru, indeed, in all tropical climates. The transport of it occupies a number of vessels, called guaneros. It is of a dingy yellow colour, and offensive ammoniacal effluvium. Captain Shelvocke mentions it in 1720, having taken a small bark laden with it.
GUARA. The singular and ingenious rudder by which the rafts or balzas of Peru are enabled to work to windward. It consists of long boards between the beams, which are raised or sunk according to the required evolution. A device not unlike the sliding-keels or centre-boards lately introduced.
GUARANTEE. An undertaking to secure the performance of articles stipulated between any two parties. Also, the individual who so undertakes.
GUARD. The duty performed by a body of men stationed to watch and protect any post against surprise. A division of marines appointed to take the duty for a stated portion of time. “Guard, turn out!” the order to the marines on the captain’s approaching the ship. Also, the bow of a trigger and the hilt of a sword.
GUARDA-COSTA. Vessels of war of various sizes which formerly cruised against smugglers on the South American coasts.
GUARD-BOARDS. Synonymous with chain-wales.
GUARD-BOAT. A boat appointed to row the rounds amongst the ships of war in any harbour, &c., to observe that their officers keep a good look-out, calling to the guard-boat as she passes, and not suffering her crew to come on board without previously having communicated the watch-word of the night. Also, a boat employed to enforce the quarantine regulations.
GUARD-BOOK. Report of guard; a copy of which is delivered at the admiral’s office by the officer of the last guard. Also, a full set of his accounts kept by a warrant-officer for the purpose of passing them.
GUARD-FISH. A corruption of the word gar-fish.
GUARDIAN of the Cinque Ports. Otherwise lord warden (which see).
GUARD-IRONS. Curved bars of iron placed over the ornaments of a ship to defend them from damage.
GUARDO. A familiar term applied equally to a guard-ship or any person belonging to her. It implies “harbour-going;” an easy life.
GUARDO-MOVE. A trick upon a landsman, generally performed in a guard-ship.
GUARD-SHIP. A vessel of war appointed to superintend the marine affairs in a harbour, and to visit the ships which are not commissioned every night; she is also to receive seamen who are impressed in time of war. In the great ports she carries the flag of the commander-in-chief. Each ship takes the guard in turn at 9 A.M.; the vessel thus on duty hoists the union-jack at the mizen, and performs the duties afloat for twenty-four hours. The officer of the guard is accountable to the admiral for all transactions on the water during his guard.
GUBB, or Gubben. The Erse term for a young sea-gull.
GUBBER. One who gathers oakum, driftwood, &c., along a beach. The word also means black mud.
GUDDLE, To. To catch fish with the hands by groping along a stream’s bank.
GUDGE, To. To poke or prod for fish under stones and banks of a river.
GUDGEON. The Gobio fluviatilis, a well-known river-fish, 6 or 7 inches in length.
GUDGEONS. The metal braces with eyes bolted upon the stern-post for the pintles of the rudder to work in, as upon hinges. Also, the notches made in the carrick-bitts for receiving the metal bushes wherein the spindle of a windlass works.
GUEBRES. Fire-worshippers. (See Parsees.)
GUERDON. A reward or recompense for good service.
GUERILLA. Originally an irregular warfare, but now used mostly for the irresponsible kind of partisan who carries it on.
GUERITE, or Galita. In fortification, a projecting turret on the top of the escarp, whence a sentry may observe the outside of the rampart.
GUERNSEY-FROCK. See Jersey.
GUESS-WARP, or Guest-rope. A rope carried to a distant object, in order to warp a vessel towards it, or to make fast a boat. (See Chest-rope.)
GUESTLINGS. The name of certain meetings held at the Cinque Ports.
GUEST-WARP BOOM. A swinging spar (lower studding-boom) rigged from the ship’s side with a warp for boats to ride by.
GUFFER. A British sea-fish of the blenny tribe, common under stones at low-water mark, remarkable as being ovo-viviparous.
GUIDE. See Floor-guide.
GUIDE-RODS. The regulators of the cross-head of an engine’s air-pump.
GUIDES. Men supposed to know the country and its roads employed to direct a body of men on their march. The French and Belgians have “corps de guides.”
GUIDON. The swallow-tailed silk flag in use by dragoon regiments, instead of a standard. Also, the sergeant bearing the same.
GUIDOR. A name in our old statutes synonymous with conder (which see).
GUILLEM. A sea-fowl. (See Lavy.)
GUILLEMOT. A web-footed diving sea-bird allied to the auks.
GUIMAD. A small fish of the river Dee.
GUINEA-BOAT. A fast-rowing galley, of former times, expressly built for smuggling gold across the Channel, in use at Deal.
GUINEAMAN. A negro slave-ship.
GUINEA-PIGS. The younger midshipmen of an Indiaman.
GUIST. The same as guess or guest (which see).
GULDEN. A name for a water-fowl.
GULF, or Gulph. A capacious bay, and sometimes taking the name of a sea when it is very extensive; such are the Euxine or Black Sea, otherwise called the Gulf of Constantinople; the Adriatic Sea, called also the Gulf of Venice; the Mediterranean is itself a prodigious specimen. A gulf is, strictly speaking, distinguished from a sea in being smaller, and from a bay in being larger and deeper than it is broad. It is observed that the sea is always most dangerous near gulfs, from the currents being penned up by the shores.
GULF-STREAM. Is especially referable to that of Mexico, the waters of which flow in a warm stream at various velocities over the banks between Cuba and America, past the Bermudas, touch the tail of the great bank of Newfoundland, and thence in a sweep to Europe, part going north, and the other southerly down to the tropics again.
GULF-WEED. The Fucus natans, considered to belong to the Gulf Stream, and found floating in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. Many small crustacea live amongst it, and assume its bright orange-yellow hue.
GUL-GUL. A sort of chunam or cement made of pounded sea-shells mixed with oil, which hardens like a stone, and is put over a ship’s bottom in India, so that worms cannot penetrate even when the copper is off.
GULL. A well-known sea-bird of the genus Larus; there are many species. Also, a large trout in the north. The name is, moreover, familiarly used for a lout easily deceived or cheated; thus Butler in Hudibras—
“The paltry story is untrue,
And forg’d to cheat such gulls as you.”
It is also applied to the washing away of earth by the violent flowing of water; the origin perhaps of the Kentish gull-stream.
GULLET. A small stream in a water-worn course.
GULL-SHARPER. One who preys upon Johnny Raws.
GULLY. The channels worn on the face of mountains by heavy rains. Also, a rivulet which empties itself into the sea.
GULLY SQUALL. Well known off tropical America in the Pacific, particularly abreast of the lakes of Leon, Nicaragua, &c. Monte Desolado gusts have dismantled many stout ships.
GULPIN. An awkward soldier; a weak credulous fellow [from the Gaelic golben, a novice].
GUM. “Shaking the gum out of a sail” is said of the effect of bad weather on new canvas.
GUMPUS. A fish, called also numscull, for allowing itself to be guddled.
GUN. The usual service name for a cannon (which see); it was originally called great gun, to distinguish it from the small or hand guns, muskets, blunderbusses, &c. The general construction for guns of cast metal is fairly represented by the old rule that the circumference at the breech ought to measure eleven calibres, at the trunnions nine, and at the muzzle seven, for iron; and in each instance two calibres less for brass guns. But the introduction of wrought-iron guns, built up with outer jackets of metal shrunk on one above another, is developing other names and proportions in the new artillery. (See Built-up Guns.) The weight of these latter, though differently disposed, and required not so much for strength as for modifying the recoil or shock to the carriage on discharge, is not very much less, proportionally, for heavy guns of full power, than that of the old ones, being about 11⁄4 cwt. of gun for every 1 lb. of shot; for light guns for field purposes it is about 3⁄4 cwt. for every 1 lb. of shot. Guns are generally designated from the weight of the shot they discharge, though some few natures, introduced principally for firing shells, were distinguished by the diameter of their bore in inches; with the larger guns of the new system, in addition to this diameter, the weight in tons is also specified.—Gun, in north-country cant, meant a large flagon of ale, and son of a gun was a jovial toper: the term, owed its derivation to lads born under the breast of the lower-deck guns in olden times, when women were allowed to accompany their husbands. Even in 1820 the best petty officers were allowed this indulgence, about one to every hundred men. Gunners also, who superintended the youngsters, took their wives, and many living admirals can revert to kindness experienced from them. These “sons of a gun” were tars, and no mistake.—Morning gun, a signal fired by an admiral or commodore at day-break every morning for the drums or bugles to sound the reveillé. A gun of like name and nature is generally in use in fortresses; as is also the evening gun, fired by an admiral or commodore at 9 P.M. in summer, and 8 P.M. in winter, every night, on which the drums or bugles sound the retreat.
GUN AND HEAD MONEY. Given to the captors of an enemy’s ship of war destroyed, or deserted, in fight. It was formerly assumed to be about £1000 per gun.
GUNBOAT. A light-draught boat fitted to carry one or more cannon in the bow, so as to cannonade an enemy while she is end-on. They are principally useful in fine weather, to cover the landing of troops, or such other occasions. They were formerly impelled by sails and sweeps but now by steam-power, which has generally increased their size, and much developed their importance. According to Froissart, cannon were fired from boats in the fourteenth century.
GUN-CHAMBERS. In early artillery, a movable chamber with a handle, like a paterero, used in loading at the breech. In more recent times the name has been used for the small portable mortars for firing salutes in the parks.
GUN-COTTON. An explosive compound, having some advantages over gunpowder, but so irregular hitherto in its action that it is at present used only for mining purposes. It consists of ordinary cotton treated with nitric and sulphuric acid and water, and has been named by chemists “pyroxylin,” “nitro-cellulose,” &c.
GUN-DECK. See Decks.
GUN-FIRE. The morning or evening guns, familiarly termed “the admiral falling down the hatchway.”
GUN-GEAR. Everything pertaining to its handling.
GUN-HARPOON. See Harpoon.
GUN-LADLE. See Ladle.
GUN-LOD. A vessel filled with combustibles, but rather for explosion than as a fire-ship.
GUN-METAL. The alloy from which brass guns are cast consists of 100 parts of copper to 10 of tin, retaining much of the tenacity of the former, and much harder than either of the components; but the late improved working of wrought-iron and steel has nearly superseded its application to guns.
GUNNADE. A short 32-pounder gun of 6 feet, introduced in 1814; afterwards termed the shell-gun.
GUNNEL. See Gunwale.
GUNNELL. A spotted ribbon-bodied fish, living under stones and among rocks.
GUNNER, of a Ship of War. A warrant-officer appointed to take charge of the ammunition and artillery on board; to keep the latter properly fitted, and to instruct the sailors in the exercise of the cannon. The warrant of chief-gunner is now given to first-class gunners.—Quarter-gunners. Men formerly placed under the direction of the gunner, one quarter-gunner being allowed to every four guns. In the army, gunner is the proper title of a private soldier of the Royal Artillery, with the exception of those styled drivers.
GUNNER-FLOOK. A name among our northern fishermen for the Pleuronectes maximus, or turbot.
GUNNER’S DAUGHTER. The name of the gun to which boys were married, or lashed, to be punished.
GUNNER’S HANDSPIKE. Is shorter and flatter than the ordinary handspike, and is shod with iron at the point, so that it bites with greater certainty against the trucks of guns.
GUNNER’S MATE. A petty officer appointed to assist the gunner.
GUNNER’S PIECE. In destroying and bursting guns, means a fragment of the breech, which generally flies upward.
GUNNER’S QUADRANT. See Quadrant.
GUNNER’S TAILOR. An old rating for the man who made the cartridge-bags.
GUNNER’S YEOMAN. See Yeoman.
GUNNERY. The art of charging, pointing, firing, and managing artillery of all kinds.
GUNNERY-LIEUTENANT. “One who, having obtained a warrant from a gunnery ship, is eligible to large ships to assist specially in supervising the gunnery duties; he draws increased pay.”
GUNNERY-SHIP. A ship fitted for training men in the practice of charging, pointing, and firing guns and mortars for the Royal Navy. (See Seamen-gunners.)
GUNNING. An old term for shooting; it is now adopted by the Americans. After the wreck of the Wager, on hearing the pistols fired at Cozens, “it was rainy weather, and not fit for gunning, so that we could not imagine the meaning of it.”—Gunning a ship. Fitting her with ordnance.—Gunning, in mining, is when the blast explodes and does not rend the mass.—Gunning, signals enforced by guns.
GUNNING-BOAT, or Gunning-shout. A light and narrow boat in which the fen-men pursue the flocks of wild-fowl.
GUNNY. Sackcloth or coarse canvas, made of fibres used in India, chiefly of jute.
GUNNY-BAGS. The sacks used on the India station for holding rice, biscuit, &c.; often as sand-bags in fortification.
GUN-PENDULUM. See Ballistic Pendulum.
GUN-PORTS. See Ports.
GUNPOWDER. The well-known explosive composition which, for its regularity of effect and convenience in manufacture and use, is still preferred for general purposes to all the new and more violent but more capricious agents. In England it is composed of 75 parts saltpetre to 10 sulphur and 15 charcoal; these proportions are varied slightly in different countries. The ingredients are mixed together with great mechanical nicety, and the compound is then pressed and granulated. On the application of fire it is converted into gas with vast explosive power, but subject to tolerably well-known laws.
GUN-ROOM. A compartment on the after-end of the lower gun-deck of large ships of war, partly occupied by the junior officers; but in smaller vessels it is below the gun-deck, and the mess-room of the lieutenants.
GUNROOM-PORTS. In frigates, stern-ports cut through the gun-room.
GUN-SEARCHER. An iron instrument with several sharp-pointed prongs and a wooden handle: it is used to find whether the bore is honey-combed.
GUN-SHOT. Formerly, the distance up to which a gun would throw a shot direct to its mark, without added elevation; as the “line of metal” (which see) was generally used in laying, this range was about 800 yards. But now that ranges are so greatly increased, with but slight additions to the elevation, the term will include the distances of ordinary “horizontal fire” (which see); as between ships, with rifled guns, it will not quite reach two miles: though when the mark is large, as a town or dockyard, it is still within long range at five miles’ distance.
GUN-SIGHT. See Dispart, or Sights.
GUN-SLINGS. Long rope grommets used for hoisting in and mounting them.
GUN-STONES. An old term for cannon-balls, from stones having been first supplied to the ordnance and used for that purpose. Shakspeare makes Henry V. tell the French ambassadors that their master’s tennis-balls shall be changed to gun-stones. This term was retained for a bullet, after the introduction of iron shot.
GUN-TACKLE PURCHASE. A tackle composed of a rope rove through two single blocks, the standing part being made fast to the strop of one of the blocks. It multiplies the power applied threefold.
GUNTEN. A boat of burden in the Moluccas.
GUNTER’S LINE. Called also the line of numbers, and the line of lines, is placed upon scales and sectors, and named from its inventor, Edmund Gunter. It is a logarithmic scale of proportionals, wherein the distance between each division is equal to the number of mean proportionals contained between the two terms, in such parts as the distance between 1 and 10 is 10,000, &c.
GUNTER’S QUADRANT. A kind of stereographic projection on the plane of the equinoctial; the eye is supposed in one of the poles, so that the tropic, ecliptic, and horizon form the arches of the circles, but the hour-circles are all curves, drawn by means of several altitudes of the sun, for some particular latitude, for every day in the year. The use of this instrument is to find the hour of the day, the sun’s azimuth, and other common problems of the globe; as also to take the altitude of an object in degrees.
GUNWALE, or Gunnel. Nearly synonymous with plank-sheer (which see); but its strict application is that horizontal plank which covers the heads of the timbers between the main and fore drifts. The gunwale of a boat is a piece of timber going round the upper sheer-strake as a binder for its top-work.—Gunwale-to. Vessels heeling over, so that the gunwale is even with the water. When a boat sails with a free wind, and rolls each side, or gunwale, to the water’s edge, she rolls gunwale-to.
GURGE. A gulf or whirlpool.
GURNARD. A fish of the genus Trigla, so called from its peculiar grunt when removed from the water. Falstaff uses the term “soused gurnet” in a most contemptuous view, owing to its poorness; and its head being all skin and bone gave rise to the saying that the flesh on a gurnard’s head is rank poison.
GURNET-PENDANT. A rope, the thimble of which is hooked to the quarter-tackle of the main-yard; it is led through a hole in the deck, for the purpose of raising the breech of a gun, when hoisting in, to the level required to place it on its carriage.
GUSSOCK. An east-country term for a strong and sudden gust of wind.
GUST, or Gush. A sudden violent wind experienced near mountainous lands; it is of short duration, and generally succeeded by fine breezes.
GUT. A somewhat coarse term for the main part of a strait or channel, as the Gut of Gibraltar, Gut of Canso.
GUTTER [Anglo-Saxon géotan, to pour out or shed]. A ditch, sluice, or gote.
GUTTER-LEDGE. A cross-bar laid along the middle of a large hatchway in some vessels, to support the covers and enable them the better to sustain any weighty body.
GUY. A rope used to steady a weighty body from swinging against the ship’s side while it is hoisting or lowering, particularly when, there is a high sea. Also, a rope extended from the head of sheers, and made fast at a distance on each side to steady them. The jib-boom is supported by its guys. Also, the name of a tackle used to confine a boom forward, when a vessel is going large, and so prevent the sail from gybing, which would endanger the springing of the boom, or perhaps the upsetting of the vessel. Also, a large slack rope, extending from the head of the main-mast to the head of the fore-mast, and sustaining a temporary tackle to load or unload a ship with.
GYBING. Another form for jibing (which see).
GYE. A west-country term for a salt-water ditch.
GYMMYRT. The Erse or Manx for rowing with oars.
GYMNOTUS ELECTRICUS. An eel from the Surinam river, several feet in length, which inflicts electrical shocks.
GYN. A three-legged machine fitted with a windlass, heaving in the fall from a purchase-block at the summit, much used on shore for mounting and dismounting guns, driving piles, &c. (See Gibraltar Gyn.)
GYP. A strong gasp for breath, like a fish just taken out of the water.
GYVER. An old term for blocks or pulleys.
GYVES. Fetters; the old word for handcuffs.