F.
FACE. The edge of a sharp instrument. Also, the word of command to soldiers, marines, and small-arm men, to turn upon the heel a quarter or half a circle round in the direction ordered.
FACED. Turned up with facings on the cuffs and collars of uniforms and regimentals.
FACE OF A GUN. The surface of the metal at the extremity of the muzzle.
FACE-PIECE. A piece of elm tabled on to the knee of the head, in the fore-part, to assist the conversion of the main piece; and likewise to shorten the upper bolts, and prevent the cables from rubbing against them as the knee gets worn.
FACES OF A WORK. In fortification, are the two lines forming its most prominent salient angle.
FACHON. An Anglo-Norman term for a sword or falchion.
FACING. Letting one piece of timber into another with a rabbet to give additional strength or finish. Also, a movement for forming soldiers and small-arm men.—Facings. The front of regimentals and uniforms.
FACK. See Fake.
FACTOR. A commercial superintendent, or agent residing beyond sea, commissioned by merchants to buy or sell goods on their account by a letter of attorney.
FACTORAGE. A certain percentage paid to the factor by the merchant on all he buys or sells.
FACTORY. A place where a considerable number of factors reside; as Lisbon, Leghorn, Calcutta, &c. Factory comprehends the business of a firm or company, as that of the India Company at Canton, or the Hudson’s Bay Fur Company in North America.
FACULÆ. Luminous streaks upon the disc of the sun, among which the maculæ, or dark spots, usually appear.
FADOME. The old form used for fathom (which see).
FAFF, To. To blow in flaws.
FAG, To. To tire.—A fag. A deputy labouring-man, or one who works hard for another.
FAG-END. Is the end of any rope. This term is also applied to the end of a rope when it has become untwisted.
FAGGOTS. Men who used to be hired to answer to names on the books, when the crew were mustered by the clerk of the cheque. Such cheating was once still more prevalent in the army.
FAGOT. A billet for stowing casks. A fascine (which see).
FAG-OUT, To. To wear out the end of a rope or end of canvas.
FAIK, or Falk. A name in the Hebrides for the sea-fowl razor-bill (Alca torda).
FAIR. A general term for the wind when favourable to a ship’s course, in opposition to contrary or foul; fair is more comprehensive than large, since it includes about 16 points, whereas large is confined to the beam or quarter, that is, to a wind which crosses the keel at right angles, or obliquely from the stern, but never to one right astern. (See Large and Scant.)—Fair, in ship-building, denotes the evenness or regularity of a curve or line.—To fair, means to clip the timbers fair.
FAIR-CURVE. In delineating ships, is a winding line whose shape is varied according to the part of the ship it is intended to describe. This curve is not answerable to any of the figures of conic sections, although it occasionally partakes of them all.
FAIRING. Sheering a ship in construction. Also, the draught of a ship. To run off a great number of different lines or curves, in order to ascertain the fairness in point of curvature of every part, and the beauty of the whole.
FAIR-LEAD. Is applied to ropes as suffering the least friction in a block, when they are said to lead fair.
FAIR-LEADER. A thimble or cringle to guide a rope. A strip of board with holes in it, for running-rigging to lead through, and be kept clear, so as to be easily distinguished at night.
FAIR-MAID. A west-country term for a dried pilchard.
FAIR-WAY. The navigable channel of a harbour for ships passing up or down; so that if any vessels are anchored therein, they are said to lie in the fair-way. (See Pilot’s Fair-way.) Also, when the proper course is gained out of a channel.
FAIR-WEATHER. That to which a ship may carry the small sails.
FAKE. One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies disposed in a coil. (See Coiling.) The fakes are greater or smaller in proportion to the space which a cable is allowed to occupy.
FALCON. In early times a small cannon, having a length of about 7 feet, a diameter of bore of 3 inches, and throwing a ball of nearly 3 lbs. weight, with a point-blank range of 130 paces, and a random one of 1500.
FALCONET. A primitive cannon smaller than the falcon; it threw a ball of 11⁄2 lb.
FALK. See Fake.
FALL. A vertical descent of a river through a narrow rocky pass, or over a ledge, to the impediment of navigation. Also, the loose end of a tackle, or that part to which the power is applied in hoisting, and on which the people pull. Also, in ship-building, the descent of a deck from a fair-curve lengthwise, as frequently seen in merchantmen and yachts, to give height to the commander’s cabin, and sometimes forward at the hawse-holes. Also, a large cutting down of timber. Also, North American English for autumn, when the navigation of northern inland waters is about to close till the succeeding spring.
FALL, To. A town or fortress is said to fall when it is compelled to surrender to besiegers.
FALL ABOARD OF, To. To strike another vessel, or have a collision with it. Usually applied to the motion of a disabled ship coming in contact with another.
FALL! A FALL! The cry to denote that the harpoon has been effectively delivered into the body of a whale.
FALL ASTERN, To. To lessen a ship’s way so as to allow another to get ahead of her. To be driven backwards.
FALL BACK, To. To recede from any position previously occupied.
FALL CALM, To. Speaking of the weather, implies a total cessation of the wind.
FALL CLOUD. See Stratus.
FALL DOWN, To. To sail, drift, or be towed to some lower part nearer a river’s mouth or opening.
FALLEN-STAR. A name for the jelly-fish or medusa, frequently thrown ashore in summer and autumn.
FALL FOUL OF, To. To reprimand severely. (See Fall aboard of.)
FALL IN, To. The order to form, or take assigned places in ranks. (See Assembly.)
FALLING GLASS. When the mercury of the barometer is sinking in the tube.
FALLING HOME. When the top-sides are inclined within the perpendicular; opposite of wall-sided. (See Tumbling Home.)
FALLING OFF. The opposite of griping, or coming up to the wind; it is the movement or direction of the ship’s head to leeward of the point whither it was lately directed, particularly when she sails near the wind, or lies by. Also, the angle contained between her nearest approach to the direction of the wind, and her furthest declination from it when trying.
FALLING OUT. When the top-sides project beyond a perpendicular, as in flaring.
FALLING STARS. Meteors which have very much the appearance of real stars. They were falsely regarded as foreboders of wind, as Seneca in Hippolytus, “Ocior cursum rapiente flamma stella cum ventis agitata longos porrigit ignes.” Some are earthy, others metallic.
FALLING TIDE, or Ebb of Tide. This phrase, implying a previous flow of tide towards high-water, requires here only a partial explanation: the sea, after swelling for about six hours, and thus entering the mouths of rivers, and rising along the sea-shore more or less, according to the moon’s age and other circumstances, rests for a quarter of an hour, and then retreats or ebbs during the next six hours. After a similar pause the phenomenon recommences,—occupying altogether about twelve hours and fifty minutes. A table of the daily time of high-water at each port is requisite for the shipping. There are curious variations to this law, as when strong rivers rise and fall, and yet do not admit salt water. Their currents, indeed, of fresh water, are found far off the land, as in the Tiber, and off several in the West Indies, South America, &c. (See Tide.)
FALL IN WITH, To. To meet, when speaking of a ship; to discover, when speaking of the land.
FALL OF TIDE. An ebb.
FALL OUT, To. To increase in breadth. Among soldiers and small-arm men, to quit the ranks of a company.
FALLS. When a ship is not flush, this is the term given to those risings of some parts of her decks (which she may have) more than others.
FALL-WIND. A sudden gust.
FALMADAIR. An old word signifying rudder, or a pilot.
FALSE ALARM. See Alarm.
FALSE ATTACK. A feigned assault, made to induce a diversion or distraction of the enemy’s forces, in order that the true object elsewhere may be carried.
FALSE COLOURS. To sail under false colours and chase is an allowable stratagem of war, but firing under them is not permitted by the maritime law of England.
FALSE FIRE, Blue Flames. A composition of combustibles filled into a wooden tube, which, upon being set fire to, burns with a light blue flame from a half to several minutes. They are principally used as night-signals, but often to deceive an enemy.
FALSE KEEL. A kind of supplemental or additional keel secured under the main one, to protect it should the ship happen to strike the ground.
FALSE KELSON, or Kelson Rider. A piece of timber wrought longitudinally above the main kelson.
FALSE MUSTER. An incorrect statement of the crew on the ship’s books, which if proved subjects the captain to cashiering.
FALSE PAPERS. Frequently carried by slavers and smugglers.
FALSE POST. See False Stern-post.
FALSE RAIL. A thin plank fayed at the head-rails as a strengthener.
FALSE STEM. A hard timber fayed to the fore-part of the main stem, its tail covering the fore-end of the keel. (See Cut-water.)
FALSE STERN. An additional stern fixed on the main one, to increase the length and improve the appearance of a vessel.
FALSE STERN-POST. A piece bolted to the after-edge of the main stern-post to improve steerage, and protect it should the ship tail aground.
FAMILY-HEAD. When the stem was surmounted with several full-length figures, as was the custom many years ago.
FAMLAGH. The Erse or Manx term for oar or ore weed, wrack, or manure of sea-weed.
FANAL [Fr.] A lighthouse.
FANCY-LINE. A line rove through a block at the jaws of a gaff, used as a down-haul. Also, a line used for cross-hauling the lee topping-lift. Also, a cord laid up neatly for sashed cabin-windows. Sometimes used for tracing-line.
FANE. An old term for weather-cock: “a fayne of a schipe.” (See Vane.)
FANG, To. To pour water into a pump in order to fetch it, when otherwise the boxes do not hold the water left on them.
FANGS. The valves of the pump-boxes.
FANIONS. Small flags used in surveying stations, named after the bannerets carried by horse brigades, and corrupted from the Italian word gonfalone, a standard.
FANNAG-VARRY. The Erse term for a shag or cormorant, still in use on our north-western shores, and in the Isle of Man.
FANNING. The technical phrase for breadthening the after-part of the tops. Also, widening in general.
FANNING-BREEZE. One so gentle that the sail alternately swells and collapses.
FANTODS. A name given to the fidgets of officers, who are styled jib-and-staysail Jacks.
FARDAGE. Dunnage; when a ship is laden in bulk.
FARE [Anglo-Saxon, fara]. A voyage or passage by water, or the money paid for such passage. Also, a fishing season for cod; and likewise the cargo of the fishing vessel. (See How Fare Ye?)
FARE-CROFTS. The vessels that formerly plied between England and France.
FARRANE. The Erse term for a gentle breeze, still used on our north-western shores.
FARTHEL. An old word for furling sails. Also, a burden, according to Shakspeare in Hamlet; and a weight, agreeably to the depositions of the “Portingalls” before Sir Francis Drake, in re the great carrack’s cargo in 1592; there were “ijc fardells of synamon:” of this famous prize the queen reserved to herself the lion’s share.
FASCINES. Faggots of brush or other small wood, varying according to the object in view and the material available, from about 6 to 9 inches in diameter, and from 6 to 18 feet in length, firmly bound with withes at about every 18 inches. They are of vast use in military field-engineering.
FASH. An irregular seam. The mark left by the moulds upon cast bullets. (Short for fashion—ship-fashion, soldier-fashion.)
FASHION-PIECES. The fashion of the after-part of a ship, in the plane of projection. They are the hindmost timbers in the run of a ship, which terminate the breadth, and form the shape of the stern; they are united to the stern-post, and to the end of the wing-transom by a rabbet.
FASKIDAR. A name of the Cataractes parasiticus, or Arctic gull.
FAST. A rope, cablet, or chain by which a vessel is secured to a wharf; and termed bow, head, breast, quarter, or stern fasts, as the case may be.
FAST AGROUND. Immovable, or high and dry.
FAST AND LOOSE. An uncertain and shuffling conduct.
FASTENINGS. “Let go the fasts!” throw off the ropes from the bollards or cleats. Also used for the bolts, &c., which hold together the different parts of a ship.
FASTNESS. A strong post, fortified by nature and art.
FAST SAILER. A ship which, in nautical parlance, “has legs.”
FAST STAYING. Quick in going about.
FAT, or Broad. If the tressing in or tuck of a ship’s quarter under water hangs deep, or is overfull, they say she has a fat quarter.
FATHER. The dockyard name given to the person who constructs a ship of the navy.
FATHER-LASHER. A name of the scorpius or scorpion, Cottus scorpius, a fish about 9 inches long, common near rocky coasts.
FATHOM [Anglo-Saxon, fædm]. The space of both arms extended. A measure of 6 feet, used in the length of cables, rigging, &c., and to divide the lead (or sounding) lines, for showing the depth of water.—To fathom, is to ascertain the depth of water by sounding. To conjecture an intention.
FATHOM-WOOD. Slab and other offal of timber, sold at the yards, by fathom lots: cubic measurement.
FATIGUE-PARTY. A party of soldiers told off to any labour-duty not strictly professional.
FAULCON. A small cannon. (See Falcon.)
FAUN. Anglo-Norman for a flood-gate or water-gate.
FAUSSEBRAYE. In fortification, a kind of counterguard or low rampart, intended to protect the lower part of the main escarp behind it from being breached, but considered in modern times to do more harm than good to the defence.
FAVOUR, To. To be careful of; also to be fair for.—“Favour her” is purely a seaman’s term; as when it blows in squalls, and the vessel is going rap-full, with a stiff weather-helm and bow-seas, “favour her boy” is “ease the helm, let the sails lift, and head the sea.” So, in hauling in a rope, favour means to trust to the men’s force and elasticity, and not part the rope by taking a turn on a cleat, making a dead nip. A thorough seaman “favours” his spars and rigging, and sails his ship economically as well as expeditiously.
FAY, To. To fit any two pieces of wood, so as to join close and fair together; the plank is said to fay to the timbers, when it lies so close to them that there shall be no perceptible space between them.
FAY FENA. A kind of Japanese galley, of 30 oars.
FEALTY. Loyalty and due devotion to the queen’s service.
FEARN. A small windlass for a lighter.
FEAR-NOUGHT. Stout felt woollen cloth, used for port-linings, hatchway fire-screens, &c. The same as dread-nought.
FEATHER. (See Swine’s or Swedish Feather.) It is used variously. (See also Full Feather and White Feather.)
FEATHER, To Cut a. When a ship has so sharp a bow that she makes the spray feather in cleaving it.
FEATHER AN OAR, To. In rowing, is to turn the blade horizontally, with the top aft, as it comes out of the water. This lessens the resistance of the air upon it.
FEATHER-EDGED. A term used by shipwrights for such planks as are thicker on one edge than the other.
FEATHERING-PADDLES. (Morgan’s patent.)
FEATHER-SPRAY. Such as is observed at the cut-water of fast steamers, forming a pair of wing feathers.
FEATHER-STAR. The Comatula rosacea, one of the most beautiful of British star-fishes.
FEAZE, To. To untwist, to unlay ropes; to teaze, to convert it into oakum.
FEAZINGS. The fagging out or unravelling of an unwhipped rope.
FECKET. A Guernsey frock.
FECKLESS. Weak and silly.
FEEDER. A small river falling into a large one, or into a dock or float. Feeders, in pilot slang, are the passing spurts of rain which feed a gale.
FEEDING-GALE. A storm which is on the increase, sometimes getting worse at each succeeding squall. When a gale freshens after rain, it is said to have fed the gale.
FEEDING-PART OF A TACKLE. That running through the sheaves, in opposition to the standing part.
FEED OF GRASS. A supply of any kind of vegetables.
FEED-PUMP. The contrivance by which the boilers of a steamer are supplied with water from the hot-well, while the engines are at work.
FEED-WATER. In steamers, the water which supplies the boiler.
FEEL THE HELM, To. To have good steerage way, carrying taut weather-helm, which gives command of steerage. Also said of a ship when she has gained head-way after standing still, and begins to obey the helm.
FEINT. A mock assault, generally made to conceal a true one.
FELL, To. To cut down timber. To knock down by a heavy blow. Fell is the Anglo-Saxon for a skin or hide.
FELL-HEAD. The top of a mountain not distinguished by a peak.
FELL IN WITH. Met by chance.
FELLOES [from felly]. The arch-pieces which form the rim or circumference of the wheel, into which the spokes and handles are fitted.
FELLOW. A sailor’s soubriquet for himself; he will ask if you “have anything for a fellow to do?”
FELLS. Upland levels and mountainous tracts.
FELT. Stuff made of wool and hair. Patent felt is saturated with tar, and used to place inside the doubling or sheathing of a vessel’s bottom. Employed also in covering the boilers and cylinders of steam-engines.
FELUCCA. (See Luntra.) A little vessel with six or eight oars, frequent in the Mediterranean; its helm may be applied in the head or stern, as occasion requires. Also, a narrow decked galley-built vessel in great use there, of one or two masts, and some have a small mizen; they carry lateen sails.
FEN. Low tracts inundated by the tides, capable, when in a dry state, of bearing the weight of cattle grazing upon them; differing therein from bog or quagmire. When well drained, they form some of the best land in the country.
FENCE. A palisade. Also, the arm of the hammer-spring of a gun-lock.
FENCIBLES. Bodies of men raised for limited service, and for a definite period. In rank they are junior to the line and royal marines, but senior to yeomanry or volunteers.
FENCING. The art of using the small-sword with skill and address.
FEND. An aphæresis from defend; to ward off.
FEND OR FENDER BOLTS. Made with long and thick heads, struck into the outermost bends or wales of a ship, to save her sides from hurts and bruises.
FENDER-PILES. In a dock, &c.
FENDERS. Two pieces of oak-plank fayed edgeways against the top-sides, abreast the main hatchway, to prevent the sides being chafed by the hoisting of things on board. They are not wanted where the yard-tackles are constantly used. Also, pieces of old cable, or other materials, hung over the side to prevent it from chafing against a wharf; as also to preserve a small vessel from being damaged by a large one. The fenders of a boat are usually made of canvas, stuffed, and neatly painted.
FEND OFF, To. In order to avoid violent contact, is, by the application of a spar, junk, rattans, &c., to prevent one vessel running against another, or against a wharf, &c. Fend off, with the boat-hook or stretchers in a boat.—Fend the boat, keep her from beating against the ship’s side.
FERNAN BAG. A small ditty-bag, often worn by sailors, for holding tobacco and other things. They have applied the term to the pouches in monkeys’ cheeks, where they carry spare food.
FERRARA. A species of broadsword, named after the famous Spanish sword-smith, Andrea Ferrara.
FERRIAGE. An old right of the admiralty over all rivers between the sea and the first bridges.
FERRY. A passage across a river or branch of the sea by boat.
FERRY-BOATS. Vessels or wherries duly licensed for conveying passengers across a river or creek.
FETCH, To. To reach, or arrive at; as, “we shall fetch to windward of the lighthouse this tack.”
FETCH HEAD-WAY or Stern-way. Said of a vessel gathering motion ahead or astern.
FETCHING THE PUMP. Pouring water into the upper part in order to expel the air contained between the lower box and that of the pump-spear. (See Pump.)
FETCH OF A BAY or Gulf. The whole stretch from head to head, or point to point.
FETCH WAY, To. Said of a gun, or anything which escapes from its place by the vessel’s motion at sea.
FETTLE, To. To fit, repair, or put in order. Also, a threat.
FEU-DE-JOIE. A salute fired by musketry on occasions of public rejoicing, so that it should pass from man to man rapidly and steadily, down one rank and up the other, giving one long continuous sound.
FEZ. A red cloth skull-cap, worn by the people of Fez and Morocco, and in general use amongst Mediterranean sailors.
F.G. The initials on a powder cask, denote fine grain.
FICHANT. In fortification, said of flanking fire which impinges on the face it defends; that is, of a line of defence where the angle of defence is less than a right angle.
FID. A square bar of wood or iron, with a shoulder at one end, used to support the weight of the top-mast when erected at the head of the lower mast, by passing through a mortise or hole at the lower end of the former, and resting its ends on the trestle-trees, which are sustained by the head of the latter; the fid, therefore, must be withdrawn every time the mast is lowered; the topgallant-mast is retained at the head of the top-mast in the same manner. There is also a patent screw fid, which can be removed after hauling taut the mast rope, without having first to lift the mast. (See Mast.) A fid is also a conical pin of hard wood, of any size from 10 inches downwards, tapering to a point, used to open the strands of a rope in splicing: of these some are large, for splicing cables, and some small, for the bolt-ropes of sails, &c. Fid is improperly applied to metal of the same shape; they are then termed marling-spikes (called stabbers by sail-makers—which see). Also, the piece of oakum with which the vent of a gun is plugged. Some call it the vent-plug (which see). Also, colloquially used for a quid or chew of tobacco, or a small but thick piece of anything, as of meat in clumsy carving.
FIDDED. When a mast has been swayed high enough the fid is then inserted, and the mast-rope relieved of the weight.
FIDDLE. A contrivance to prevent things from rolling off the table in bad weather. It takes its name from its resemblance to a fiddle, being made of small cords passed through wooden bridges, and hauled very taut.
FIDDLE-BLOCK. A long shell, having one sheave over the other, and the lower smaller than the upper (see Long-tackles), in contradistinction to double blocks, which also have two sheaves, but one abreast of the other. They lie flatter and more snugly to the yards, and are chiefly used for lower-yard tackles.
FIDDLE-FISH. A name of the king-crab (Limulus polyphemus), from its supposed resemblance to that instrument.
FIDDLE-HEAD. When there is no figure; this means that the termination of the head is formed by a scroll turning aft or inward like a violin: in contradistinction to the scroll-head (which see).
FIDE JUSSORS. Bail sureties in the instance court of the admiralty.
FIDLER. A small crab, with one large claw and a very small one. It burrows on drowned lands.
FIDLER’S GREEN. A sort of sensual Elysium, where sailors are represented as enjoying, for “a full due,” those amenities for which Wapping, Castle Rag, and the back of Portsmouth Point were once noted.
FIELD. The country in which military operations are being carried on; the scene of a conflict.—Taking the field, quitting cantonments, and going on active service.
FIELD-ALLOWANCE. A small extra payment made to officers, and sometimes to privates, on active service in the field, to compensate partly the enhanced price of all necessaries.
FIELD-ARTILLERY. Light ordnance fitted for travel as to be applicable to the active operations of the field. The term generally includes the officers, men, and horses, also the service. According to the present excellent establishment of rifled field-guns for the British service, the Armstrong 12-pounder represents the average type.
FIELD-DAY. A day of exercise and evolutions.
FIELD-FORTIFICATION. Is the constructing of works intended to strengthen the position of forces operating in the field; works of that temporary and limited quality which may be easily formed with the means at hand.
FIELD-GLASS. A telescope, frequently so termed. Also, the binocular or opera-glass, used for field-work, night-work, and at races.
FIELD-GUN. See Field-artillery.
FIELD-ICE. A sheet of smooth frozen water of a general thickness, and of an extent too large for its boundaries to be seen over from a ship’s mast-head. Field-ice may be all adrift, but yet pressed together, and when any masses detach, as they suddenly do, they are termed floes. They as suddenly become pressed home again and cause nips. (See Nip.)
FIELD-MARSHAL. The highest rank in the British army.
FIELD-OFFICERS. The colonel, lieutenant-colonels, and majors of a regiment; so called because, not having the common duties in quarters, they are mostly seen when the troops are in the field.
FIELD OF VIEW. That space which is visible in a telescope at one view, and which diminishes under augmenting eye-pieces.
FIELD-PIECES. Light guns proper to be taken into field operations; one or more of them is now carried by all ships of war for land service.
FIELD-WORKS. The constructions of field-fortification (which see).
FIERY-FLAW, or Fire-flaire. A northern designation of the sting-ray (Raia pastinaca).
FIFE-RAILS. Those forming the upper fence of the bulwarks on each side of the quarter-deck and poop in men-of-war. Also, the rail round the main-mast, and encircling both it and the pumps, furnished with belaying pins for the running rigging, though now obsolete under the iron rule.
FIFER AND FIDLER. Two very important aids in eliciting exact discipline; for hoisting, warping, and heaving at the capstan in proper time; rated a second-class petty officer styled “musician,” pay £30, 8s. per annum.
FIGALA. An East Indian craft with one mast, generally rowed with paddles.
FIGGER. The soubriquet of a Smyrna trader.
FIGGIE-DOWDIE. A west-country pudding, made with raisins, and much in vogue at sea among the Cornish and Devon men. Cant west-country term for plum-pudding—figs and dough.
FIGHT, Sea. See Battle, Engagement, Exercise, &c.
FIGHTING-LANTERNS. Kept in their respective fire-buckets at quarters, in readiness for night action only. There is usually one attached to each gun; the bucket is fragile, but intended to screen the light, and furnished with a fire-lanyard.
FIGHTING-SAILS. Those to which a ship is reduced when going into action; formerly implying the courses and top-sails only.
FIGHTING-WATER. Casks filled and placed on the decks, expressly for use in action. When the head was broken in, vinegar was added to prevent too much being taken by one man.
FIGHTS. Waste-cloths formerly hung about a ship, to conceal the men from the enemy. Shakspeare, who knew everything, makes Pistol bombastically exclaim—
“Clap on more sails: pursue, up with your fights.”
Close fights, synonymous with close quarters.
FIGURE. The principal piece of carved work or ornament at the head of a ship, whether scroll, billet, or figure-head.
FIGURE-HEAD. A carved bust or full-length figure over the cut-water of a ship; the remains of an ancient superstition. The Carthaginians carried small images to sea to protect their ships, as the Roman Catholics do still. The sign or head of St. Paul’s ship was Castor and Pollux.
FIGURE OF EIGHT. A knot made by passing the end of a rope over and round the standing part, up over its own part, and down through the bight.
FIGURE OF THE EARTH. The form of our globe, which is that of an oblate spheroid with an ellipticity of about 1⁄299.
FIKE. See Fyke.
FILADIERE. A small flat-bottomed boat of the Garonne.
FILE. Originally a string of soldiers one behind the other, though in the present formation of British troops, the length of the string has been reduced to two.
FILE. An old file. A somewhat contemptuous epithet for a deep and cunning, but humorous person.
FILE OFF, To. To march off to a flank by files, or with a very small front.
FILL, To. To brace the yards so that the wind strikes the after side of the sails, and advances the ship in her course, after the sails had been shivering, or braced aback. A ship may be forced backward or forward, or made to remain in her place, with the same wind, by “backing, filling,” or shivering the sails. (See Brace, Back, and Shiver.) Colliers generally tide it, “backing and filling” down the Thames until they gain the reaches, where there is room for tacking, or the wind is fair enough for them to lay their course.—An idle skulker, a fellow who loiters, trying to avoid being seen by the officer of the watch, is said to be “backing and filling;” otherwise, doing nothing creditably.
FILL AND STAND ON. A signal made after “lying by” to direct the fleet to resume their course.
FILLER. A filling piece in a made mast.
FILLET. An ornamental moulding. Rings on the muzzle and cascabel of guns.
FILLET-HORSE. The horse employed in the shafts of the limbers.
FILLING. In ship-carpentry, wood fitted on a timber or elsewhere to make up a defect in the moulding way. This name is sometimes given to a chock.
FILLING A SHIP’S BOTTOM. Implies covering the bottom of a ship with broad-headed nails, so as to give her a sheathing of iron, to prevent the worms getting into the wood; sheathing with copper is found superior, but the former plan is still used for piles in salt-water.
FILLING IN. The replacing a ship’s vacant planks opened for ventilation, when preparing her, from ordinary, for sea.
FILLING POWDER. Taking gunpowder from the casks to fill cartridges, when lights and fires should be extinguished.
FILLING ROOM. Formerly a small place parted off and lined with lead, in a man-of-war magazine, wherein powder may be started loosely, in order to fill cartridges.
FILLINGS. Fir fayed in between the chocks of the head, and wherever solidity is required, as making the curve fair for the mouldings between the edges of the fish-front and the sides of the mast, or making the spaces between the ribs and timbers of a vessel’s frame solid.
FILLING-TIMBERS. Blocks of wood introduced in all well-built vessels between the frames, where the bilge-water may wash.
FILLING-TRANSOM, is just above the deck-transom, securing the ends of the gun-deck plank and lower-transoms.
FILL THE MAIN-YARD. An order well understood to mean, fill the main-topsail, after it has been aback, or the ship hove-to.
FILTER. A strainer to free water from its impurities, usually termed by seamen drip-stone (which see).
FILUM AQUÆ. The thread or middle of any river or stream which divides countries, manors, &c.—File du mer, the high tide of the sea.
FIMBLE HEMP; female hemp, is that which is chiefly used for domestic purposes, and therefore falls to the care of the women, as carl or male hemp, which produces the flower, does to the maker of cordage.
“Wife, pluck fro thy seed hemp, the fimble hemp clean,
This looketh more yellow, the other more green;
Use this one for thy spinning, leave Michael the t’other,
For shoe-thread and halter, for rope and such other.”
—Tusser.
FIN [Anglo-Saxon, Finn]. A native of Finland; those are Fins who live by fishing. We use the whole for a part, and thus lose the clue which the Fin affords of a race of fishermen.
FIN-BACK. See Finner.
FIND, To. To provide with or furnish.
FINDING. The verdict of a court-martial.
FINDON HADDOCK. The Finnan Haddie, a species of haddock cured by smoke-drying at Montrose and Aberdeen.
FINE. A term of comparison, as fine ship, &c., or lean (which see). Also, see Fyen.
FINE BREEZES. Said of the wind when the flying-kites may be carried, but requiring a sharp look-out.
FINISHINGS. The carved ornaments of the quarter-galleries: upper and lower, as above or below the stools.
FINNER. Whales of the genus Balænoptera are so termed, being distinguished from the right whales by the possession of a small triangular adipose dorsal fin. There are several species, some of which grow to a greater length than any other animals of the order, viz. 80 or perhaps 90 feet. They are very active and difficult to harpoon, yield comparatively little oil, and their baleen, or “whalebone,” is almost worthless; consequently, they suffer much less than the right whales from the persecutions of the whalers. The finner, or great black fish, is feared by whalers in general. It is vicious, and can only be attacked by large boats in shallow water, as at the Bermudas, where the whale-boats are about 50 or 60 feet long, and 12 feet beam. The fish yields one barrel of oil for every foot in length beyond thirty. (See Razor-back and Rorqual.)
FINNIE. A northern name for salmon under a year old.
FINNOCK. A white kind of small salmon taken on the west coast of Scotland.
FINTRUM SPELDIN. A small dried haddock.
FIN-WHALE. See Finner.
FIORD. A Norwegian pilot term for good channels among islets, and deep inlets of the sea.
FIRBOME. An old term for a beacon, and appears thus in the Promptorium Parvulorum.
FIR-BUILT. Constructed of fir.
FIRE! The order to put the match to the priming, or pull the trigger of a cannon or other fire-arm so as to discharge it. The act of discharging ordnance.
FIRE, Loss by. Is within the policy of insurance, whether it be by accident, or by the fault of the master or mariners. Also, if a ship be ordered by a state to be burnt to prevent infection, or if she be burnt to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy.
FIRE-AND-LIGHTS. Nickname of the master-at-arms.
FIRE-ARMS. Every description of arms that discharge missiles by gunpowder, from the heaviest cannon to a pistol.
FIRE-ARROWS. Missiles in olden times carrying combustibles; much used in the sea-fights of the middle ages.
FIRE-AWAY. Go on with your remarks.
FIRE-BALL. In meteorology, a beautiful phenomenon seen at times, the origin of which is as yet imperfectly accounted for. It is also the popular name for aërolites in general, because in their descent they appear to be burning.
FIRE-BALLS. Are used for destroying vessels run aground, and firing buildings. They are made of a composition of meal-powder, sulphur, saltpetre, and pitch, moulded into a mass with suet and tow.
FIRE-BARE. An old term from the Anglo-Saxon for beacon.
FIRE-BARS. The range fronting a steam-boiler.
FIRE-BILL. The distribution of the officers and crew in case of the alarm of fire, a calamity requiring judicious conduct.
FIRE-BOOMS. Long spars swung out from a ship’s side to prevent the approach of fire-ships, fire-stages, or vessels accidentally on fire.
FIRE-BOX. A space crossing the whole front of the boiler over the furnace doors, opposite the smoke-box.
FIRE-BUCKETS. Canvas, leather, or wood buckets for quarters, each fitted with a sinnet laniard of regulated length, for reaching the water from the lower yards. (See Firemen.)
FIRE-DOOR. An access to the fire-place of an engine.
FIRE-DRAKE. A meteor, or the Corpo Santo. Also, a peculiar fire-work, which Shakspeare in Henry VIII. thus mentions: “That fire-drake did I hit three times on the head, and three times was his nose discharged against me; he stands there like a mortar-piece to blow us.”
FIRE-EATER. One notoriously fond of being in action; much humbled by iron-clads.
FIRE-FLAUGHTS. The aurora borealis, or northern lights.
FIRE-HEARTH. The security base of the galley-range and all its conveniences.
FIRE-HEARTH-CARLINE. The timber let in under the beams on which the fire-hearth stands, with pillars underneath, and chocks thereon.
FIRE-HOOPS. A combustible invented by the knights of Malta to throw among their besiegers, and afterwards used in boarding Turkish galleys.
FIRE-LOCK. Formerly the common name for a musket; the fire-arm carried by a foot-soldier, marine, or small-arm man, until the general introduction of rifles. It carried a ball of about an ounce in weight.
FIREMEN. A first and second man is stationed to each gun, in readiness for active duty. The firemen, when called with the first and second division of boarders, were an effective force. If for duty aloft, each bucket had a lanyard which reached from the main-yard to the sea, so as to keep the lower sails well wet. The ship’s engine was also manned by the second division of boarders, while the first division and carpenters cut away obstacles. (For firemen in a steamer, see Stoker.)
FIRE-RAFTS. Timber constructions bearing combustible matters, used by the Chinese to destroy an enemy’s vessel.
FIRE-RAILS. See Rails.
FIRE-ROLL. A peculiar beat of the drum to order people to their stations on an alarm of fire. Summons to quarters.
FIRE-SCREENS. Pieces of fear-nought, a thick woollen felt put round the hatchways in action.
FIRE-SHIP. A vessel filled with combustible materials, and fitted with grappling-irons, to hook and set fire to the enemy’s ships. Notwithstanding what is said respecting the siege of Tyre, perhaps the practice of using regular fire-ships ought to be dated from the destruction of the fleet of Basilicus by the victorious Genseric near Carthage.
FIRE-SWAB. The bunch of rope-yarns sometimes secured to the tompion, saturated with water to cool the gun in action, and swab up any grains of powder.
FIRE-WORKS. See Pyrotechny.
FIRING-PARTY. A detachment of soldiers, marines, or small-arm men selected to fire over the grave of an individual buried with military honours.
FIRMAUN. A Turkish passport.
FIRST. The appellation of the senior lieutenant; also, senior lieutenant of marines, and first captain of a gun.
FIRST FUTTOCKS. Timbers in the frame of a ship which come down between the floor-timbers almost to the keel on each side.
FIRST POINT OF ARIES. See Aries.