The Sailor's Word-Book Part 134

IMPORT, IMPORTATION, AND IMPORTER, being exactly the reverse of _export_, _exportation_, and _exporter_, refer to those terms, and take the opposite meaning. To import is therefore to bring commodities into a country for the purpose of traffic.

IMPOSSIBLE. A hateful word, generally supplanted among good seamen by "we'll try." A thing which is impossible in law, is p.r.o.nounced to be all one with a thing impossible in nature.

IMPOST. The tax received for such foreign merchandises as are brought into any haven within a prince's dominions.

IMPREGNABLE. Said of a fortress or position supposed to be proof against any attack.

IMPRESS, TO. To compel to serve.

IMPRESSION. The effect produced upon any s.h.i.+p, place, or body of troops, by a hostile attack.

IMPRESSMENT. The system and act of pressing seamen, and compelling them--under plea of state necessity--to serve in our men-of-war.

IMPREST. Charge on the pay of an officer.

IMPREST-MONEY. That paid on the enlistment of soldiers.

IN. The state of any sails in a s.h.i.+p when they are furled or stowed, in opposition to _out_, which implies that they are set, or extended to a.s.sist the s.h.i.+p's course. Hence, _in_ is also used as an order to shorten sail, as "In topgallant-sails." It was moreover an old word for embanking and inclosing; thus Sir Nicholas L'Estrange (_Harleian MS.

6395_) speaks of him who had "the patent for _inning_ the salt marshes."

IN AND OUT. A term sometimes used for the scantling of timbers, the moulding way, and particularly for those bolts that are driven into the hanging and lodging knees, drawn through the s.h.i.+p's sides, and termed _in-and-out bolts_.

IN-BOARD. Within the s.h.i.+p; the opposite of _out-board_.

IN-BOATS! The order to hoist the boats in-board.

IN-BOW! The order to the bowman to throw in his oar, and prepare his boat-hook, previous to getting alongside.

INCH. The smallest lineal measure to which a name is given; but it has many subdivisions. Also, a general name for a small coast islet on the northern sh.o.r.es, from the old Gaelic word.

INCIDENCE, ANGLE OF. That which the direction of a ray of light, &c., makes at the point where it strikes with a line drawn perpendicularly to the surface of that body.

INCLINATION. In geometry, is the mutual tendency of two lines or planes towards each other, so as to form an angle.

INCLINATION OF AN ORBIT. The angle which the path of a comet or planet makes with the plane of the ecliptic.

INCLINATORY NEEDLE. An old term for the _dipping-needle_ (which see).

INCLINOMETER. An invention by Wales in Cook's second voyage, where particulars are given.

INCOMPETENCY, OR INSUFFICIENCY, OF A MERCHANTMAN'S CREW. A bar to any claim on warrantry; as it is an implied condition in the sea-worthiness of a s.h.i.+p, that at sailing she must have a master of competent skill, and a crew sufficient to navigate her on the voyage.

INDEMNIFICATION. A stipulated compensation for damage done.

INDEMNITY. Amnesty; security against punishment.

INDENTED LINE. In fortification, a connected line of works composed of faces which offer a continued series of alternate salient and re-entering angles. It is conveniently applied on the banks of a river entering a town, and was to be seen on the James river in Virginia, near Richmond, in 1864.

INDENTED PARAPET. One of which the interior slope is indented with a series of vertical cavities, enabling the men stationed within them to fire across the proper front.

INDENTING FOR STORES. An indispensable duty to show that every article has been actually received.

INDENTURES, PAIR OF. A term for _charter-party_.

INDEX. The flat bar which carries the nonius scale and index-gla.s.s of a quadrant, octant, quintant, or s.e.xtant.

INDEX-ERROR. The reading of the verniers of the above-named instruments.

It is the correction to be applied to the + or - reading of a vernier when the horizon and index-gla.s.ses are parallel.

INDEX-GLa.s.s. A plane speculum, or mirror of quick-silvered gla.s.s, which moves with the index, and is designed to reflect the image of the sun or other object upon the horizon gla.s.s, whence it is again reflected to the eye of the observer.

INDEX-ROD. A graduated indicator.

INDIAMAN. A term occasionally applied to any s.h.i.+p in the East India trade, but in strict parlance the large s.h.i.+ps formerly officered by the East India Company for that trade, and generally armed.

INDIAN INK. Properly Chinese; compounded of a peculiar lamp-black and gum.

INDIAN OCEAN. The great Oriental Ocean.

INDRAUGHT. A particular flowing of the ocean towards any contracting part of a coast or coasts, as that which sets from the Atlantic into the Straits of Gibraltar, and on other coasts of Europe and Africa. It usually applies to a strong current, apt to engender a sort of vortex.

INDUCED MAGNETISM. The magnetic action of the earth, whereby every particle of soft iron in certain positions is converted into a magnet.

INDULTO. The duty formerly exacted by the crown of Spain upon colonial commodities.

INEQUALITY, SECULAR. A small irregularity in the motions of planets, which becomes important only after a long lapse of years. The _great inequality_ of Jupiter and Saturn is a variation of their orbital positions, caused by the disturbing action of one planet on the other.

INERTIA. The pa.s.sive principle by which bodies persist in a state of motion or rest, and resist as much as they are resisted. (_See_ VIS INERTIae.)

INFANTRY. Foot soldiers of the regular army; so called throughout Europe after the original Spanish "infanteria," or troops of the infanta or queen of Spain, who first developed on a large scale the importance of the arm.

INFERIOR CONJUNCTION. Mercury or Venus is said to be in inferior conjunction, when it is situated in the same longitude as the sun, and between that luminary and the earth.

INFERIOR PLANETS. This name, the opposite of superior, is applied to Mercury and Venus, because they revolve in orbits interior to the earth's path.

INFORMATION. In admiralty courts, implies a clause introduced into a citation, intimating that in the event of a party cited not appearing, the court will proceed in his absence.

INGS. An old word said to be left here by the Danes; it signifies low grounds or springy meadows near a river, or creek, liable to occasional overflowings.

IN-HAULER. The rope used for hauling in the clue of a boom-sail, or jib-traveller: it is the reverse of _out-hauler_.

INITIAL VELOCITY. The velocity of a projectile at the moment of discharge from a gun.

INJECTION-PIPE. This is fixed in the interior of a marine steam-engine, is fitted with a c.o.c.k, and communicates with the water outside: it is for the purpose of playing into the condenser while the engine is working, and creating a vacuum.

INLAND SEA. Mediterranean. Implies a very large gulf surrounded by land, except at the communication with the ocean, as the Baltic, Red, and Mediterranean Seas.

INLAND TRADE. That which is wholly managed at home, and the term is in contradistinction to commerce. In China it is applied to ca.n.a.l-trade.