The Sailor's Word-Book Part 131

HORSE-POTATOES. The old word for yams.

HORSE-POWER. A comparative estimate of the capacity of steam-engines, by a.s.suming a certain average effective pressure of steam, and a certain average linear velocity of the piston. The pressure multiplied by the velocity gives the effective force of the engine exerted through a given number of feet per minute; and since the force called a horse-power means 33,000 lbs. acting thus one foot per minute, it follows that the nominal power of the engine will be found by dividing the effective force exerted by the piston, multiplied by the number of feet per minute through which it acts by 33,000.

HORSES. Blocks in whalers for cutting blubber on. (_See_ WHITE-HORSE.)

HORSE-SHOE. In old fortification, a low work of this plan sometimes thrown up in ditches.

HORSE-SHOE CLAMP. The iron or copper straps so shaped, used as the fastenings which connect the gripe with the fore-foot at the scarph of the keel and stem.

HORSE-SHOE HINGES. Those by which side-scuttles or ventilators to the cabins are hung.

HORSE-SHOE RACK. A sweep curving from the bitt-heads abaft the main-mast carrying a set of nine-pin swivel-blocks as the fair leaders of the light running gear, staysail, halliards, &c.

HORSE-TONGUE. A name applied to a kind of sole.

HORSE-UP. _See_ HORSING-IRON.

HORSING-IRON. An iron fixed in a withy handle, sometimes only lashed to a stick or tree-nail, and used with a beetle by caulkers.--_To horse-up_, or harden in the oak.u.m of a vessel's seams.

HOSE (for watering, &c.) An elastic pipe.

HOSE-FISH. A name for a kind of cuttle-fish.

HOSPITAL. A place appointed for the reception of sick and wounded men, with a regular medical establishment. (_See_ NAVAL HOSPITALS.)

HOSPITAL-s.h.i.+P. A vessel fitted to receive the sick, either remaining in port, or accompanying a fleet, as circ.u.mstance demands. She carries the chief surgeons, &c. The _Dreadnought_, off Greenwich, is a free hospital-s.h.i.+p for seamen of all nations.

HOSTAGE. A person given up to an enemy as a pledge or security for the performance of the articles of a treaty.

HOSTILE CHARACTER is legally const.i.tuted by having landed in an enemy's territory, and by residing there, temporary absence being immaterial; by permanent trade with an enemy; and by sailing under an enemy's flag.

HOST-MEN. An ancient guild or fraternity at Newcastle, to whom we are indebted for the valuable sea-coal trade. (_See_ HOASTMEN.)

HOT COPPERS. Dry fauces; morning thirst, but generally applied to those who were drinking hard over-night.

HOT-PRESS. When the press-gangs were instructed, on imminent emergency, to impress seamen, regardless of the protections.

HOT-SHOT. b.a.l.l.s made red-hot in a furnace. Amongst the savages in Bergou, the women are in the rear of the combatants, and they heat the heads of the spears, exchanging them for such as are cooled in the fight.

HOT-WELL. In a steamer, a reservoir from whence to feed the boiler with the warm water received out of the condenser; it also forms part of the discharge pa.s.sage from the air-pump into the sea.

HOUND-FISH. The old Anglo-Saxon term for dog-fish--_hund-fisc_.

HOUNDS. Those projections at the mast-head serving as supports for the trestle-trees of large and rigging of smaller masts to rest upon. With lower masts they are termed _cheeks_.

HOUNSID. A rope bound round with service.

HOUR-ANGLE. The angular distance of a heavenly body east or west of the meridian.

HOUR-GLa.s.s. The sand-gla.s.s: a measure of the hour.

HOUSE, TO. To enter within board. To house a topgallant-mast, is to lower it so as to prevent the rigging resting or chafing on the cap, and securing its heel to the mast below it. This admits of double-reefed top-sails being set beneath.

HOUSE-BOAT. One with a cabin; a _coche d'eau_.

HOUSED. The situation of the great guns upon the lower gun-decks when they are run in clear of the port, and secured. The breech being let down, the muzzle rests against the side above the port; they are then secured by their tackles, muzzle-las.h.i.+ngs, and breechings. Over the muzzle of every gun are two strong eye-bolts for the muzzle-las.h.i.+ngs, which are 3-1/2-inch rope. When this operation is well performed, no accident is feared, as every act is one of mechanical skill. A gun is sometimes housed fore and aft to make room, as in the cabin, &c. s.h.i.+ps in ordinary, not in commission, are housed over by a substantial roofing.

HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. A designation of the horse and foot guards, who enjoy many immunities and privileges for attending the sovereign.

HOUSEWIFE. _See_ HUZ-ZIF.

HOUSING, OR HOUSE-LINE. A small line formed of three fine strands, smaller than rope yarn; princ.i.p.ally used for seizings of the block-strops, fastening the clues of sails to their bolt-ropes, and other purposes. (_See_ MARLINE, TWINE.)

HOUSING-IN. After a s.h.i.+p in building is past the breadth of her bearing, and that she is brought in too narrow to her upper works, she is said to be _housed in_, or pinched. (_See_ TUMBLING HOME.)

HOUSING OF A LOWER MAST. That part of a mast which is below deck to the step in the kelson; of a bowsprit, the portion within the _knight-heads_.

HOUSING-RINGS. Ring-bolts over the lower deck-ports, through the beam-clamps, to which the muzzle-las.h.i.+ngs of the guns are pa.s.sed when housed.

HOUVARI. A strong land wind of the West Indies, accompanied with rain, thunder, and lightning.

HOUZING. A northern term for lading water.

HOVE DOWN, properly _hove out_ or _careened_. The situation of a s.h.i.+p when heeled or placed thus for repairs.--_Hove off_, when removed from the ground.--_Hove up_, when brought into the slips or docks by cradles on the gridiron, &c.

HOVE-IN-SIGHT. The anchor in view. Also, a sail just discovered.

HOVE-IN-STAYS. The position of a s.h.i.+p in the act of going about.

HOVE KEEL OUT. Hove so completely over the beam-ends that the keel is above the water.

HOVELLERS. A Cinque-Port term for pilots and their boatmen; but colloquially, it is also applied to st.u.r.dy vagrants who infest the sea-coast in bad weather, in expectation of wreck and plunder.

HOVERING, AND HOVERING ACTS. Said of smugglers of old.

HOVE-SHORT. The s.h.i.+p with her cable hove taut towards her anchor, when the sails are usually loosed and braced for canting; sheeted home.--_Hove well short_, the position of the s.h.i.+p when she is drawn by the capstan nearly over her anchor.

HOVE-TO. From the act of heaving-to; the motion of the s.h.i.+p stopped. It is curious to observe that seamen have retained an old word which has otherwise been long disused. It occurs in Grafton's _Chronicle_, where the mayor and aldermen of London, in 1256, understanding that Henry III.

was coming to Westminster from Windsor, went to Knightsbridge, "and _hoved_ there to salute the king."

HOW. An ancient term for the carina or hold of a s.h.i.+p.

HOWE, HOE, OR HOO. A knoll, mound, or elevated hillock.

HOW FARE YE? Are you all hearty? are you working together? a good old sea phrase not yet lost.

HOWITZER. A piece of ordnance specially designed for the horizontal firing of sh.e.l.ls, being shorter and much lighter than any gun of the same calibre. The rifled gun, however, throwing a sh.e.l.l of the same capacity from a smaller bore, and with much greater power, is superseding it for general purposes.