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Read Ebook: The Sailor's Word-Book An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms including Some More Especially Military and Scientific but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers etc. by Smyth W H William Henry Belcher Edward Sir Editor
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Ebook has 7504 lines and 235895 words, and 151 pages
. A document which the master of a merchantman must deliver to the custom-house searcher, before he can clear outwards; it describes the vessel's destination, cargo, and all necessary particulars.
CONTINGENT. The quota of armed men, or pecuniary subsidy, which one state gives to another. Also, certain allowances made to commanding officers to defray necessary expenses.
CONTINUOUS SERVICE MEN. Those seamen who, having entered for a period, on being paid off, are permitted to have leave, and return to the flag-ship at the port for general service.
CONT-LINE. The space between the bilges of two casks stowed side by side.
CONTOUR. The sweep of a ship's shape.
CONTRABAND. The ship is involved in the legal fate of the cargo; the master should therefore be careful not to take any goods on board without all custom-house duties being paid up, and see that they be not prohibited by parliament or public proclamation. Contraband is simply defined, "merchandise forbidden by the law of nations to be supplied to an enemy;" but it affords fat dodges to the admiralty court sharks.
CONTRACT TICKET. A printed form of agreement with every passenger in a passenger-ship, prescribed by the legislature.
CONTRARY. The wind when opposed to a vessel's course.
"Cruel was the stately ship that bore her love from Mary, And cruel was the fair wind that wouldn't blow contrary."
CONTRAVALLATION, LINES OF. Continuous lines of intrenchment round the besieged fortress, and fronting towards it, to guard against any sorties from the place.
CONTRIBUTION. Money paid in order to save a place from being plundered by a hostile force. Also, a sum raised among merchants, where goods have been thrown overboard in stress of weather, towards the loss of the owners thereof.
CONTUMACY. The not appearing to the three calls of the admiralty court, after the allegation has been presented to the judge, with a schedule of expenses to be taxed, and an oath of their necessity.
CONVENIENT PORT. A general law-term in cases of capture, within a certain latitude of discretion; a place where a vessel can lie in safety, and holding ready communication with the tribunals which have to decide the question of capture.
CONVENTION. An agreement made between hostile troops, for the evacuation of a post, or the suspension of hostilities.
CONVERGENT. In geography, a stream which comes into another stream, but whose course is unknown, is simply a convergent.
CONVERSION. Reducing a vessel by a deck, thereby converting a line-of-battle ship into a frigate, or a crank three-decker into a good two-decker; or a serviceable vessel into a hulk, resembling a prison or dungeon, internally and externally, as much as possible.
CONVERSION OF STORES. Adapting the sails, ropes, or timbers from one purpose to another, with the least possible waste.
CONVICT-SHIP. A vessel appropriated to the convicts of a dockyard; also one hired to carry out convicts to their destination.
CONVOY. A fleet of merchant ships similarly bound, protected by an armed force. Also, the ship or ships appointed to conduct and defend them on their passage. Also, a guard of troops to escort a supply of stores to a detached force.
CONVOY-INSTRUCTIONS. The printed regulations supplied by the senior officer to each ship of the convoy.
CONVOY-LIST. A return of the merchantmen placed under the protection of men-of-war, for safe conduct to their destination.
COOKING A DAY'S WORK. To save the officer in charge. Reckoning too is cooked, as in a certain Antarctic discovery of land, which James Ross afterwards sailed over.
COOK-ROOM, OR COOK-HOUSE. The galley or caboose containing the cooking apparatus, and where victuals are dressed.
COOLIE, COULEY, KOULI, OR CHULIAH. A person who carries a load; a porter or day-labourer in India and China.
COOMINGS, OR COMBINGS. The rim of the hatchways.
COOM OF A WAVE. The comb or crest. The white summit when it breaks.
COON-TRAIE. A Manx and Erse term for the neap-tide.
COOP, OR FISH-COOP. A hollow vessel made with twigs, with which fish are taken in the Humber.
COOPER. A rating for a first-class petty officer, who repairs casks, &c.
COOT. A water-fowl common on lakes and rivers . The toes are long and not webbed, but bordered by a scalloped membrane. The name is sometimes used for the guillemot , and often applied to a stupid person.
COP, OR COPT. The top of a conical hill.
COPE. An old English word for cape.
COPERNICAN SYSTEM. The Pythagorean system of the universe, revived by Copernicus in the sixteenth century, and now confirmed; in which the sun occupies the central space, and the planets with their attendant satellites revolve about him.
COPILL. An old term for a variety of the coble.
COPING. In ship-building, turning the ends of iron lodging-knees, so that they may hook into the beams.
COPPER, TO. To cover the ship's bottom with prepared copper.
COPPERED, OR COPPER-BOTTOMED. Sheathed with thin sheets of copper, which prevents the teredo eating into the planks, or shell and weed accumulating on the surface, whereby a ship is retarded in her sailing.
COPPER-FASTENED. The bolts and other metal work in the bottom of ships, made of copper instead of iron, so that the vessel may afterwards be coppered without danger of its corroding the heads of the bolts by galvanic action, as ensues when copper and iron are in contact with sea-water.
COPPERS. The ship's boilers for cooking; the name is generally used, even where the apparatus may be made of iron.
COQUILLAGE. Shell-fish in general. It applies to anchorages where oysters abound, or where fish are plentiful, and shell-fish for bait easily obtainable. It is specially a term belonging to French and Spanish fishermen.
CORAL. A name applied to the hard calcareous support or skeleton of many species of marine zoophytes. The coral-producing animals abound chiefly in tropical seas, sometimes forming, by the aggregated growth of countless generations, reefs, barriers, and islands of vast extent. The "red coral" of the Mediterranean is highly prized for ornamental purposes.
CORALAN. A small open boat for the Mediterranean coral fishery.
CORBEILLE . Miner's basket; small gabion used temporarily for shelter to riflemen, and placed on the parapet, either to fire through, or for protection from a force placed on a higher level.
CORBILLARD A large boat of transport.
CORD. Small rope; that of an inch or less in circumference.
CORD OR CHURD OF WOOD; as firewood. A statute stack is 8 feet long, 4 feet broad, and 4 feet high.
CORDLIE. A name for the tunny fish.
CORDON. In fortification, the horizontal moulding of masonry along the top of the true escarp. Also, sometimes used for lines of circumvallation or blockade, or any connected chain of troops or even sentries. Also, the riband of an order of knighthood or honour, and hence used by the French as signifying a member thereof, as Cordon bleu, Knight of the order of the Holy Ghost, &c.
CORDOVAN. Leather made from seal-skin; the term is derived from the superior leather prepared at Cordova in Spain.
CORDUROY. Applied to roads formed in new settlements, of trees laid roughly on sleepers transverse to the direction of the road; as suddenly for artillery.
CORNED POWDER. Powder granulated from the mill-cakes and sifted.
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