The Sailor's Word-Book Part 249

TRUE-HORIZON. _See_ HORIZON.

TRUE TIDE. Opposed to _cross-tide_ (which see).

TRUE WATER. The exact depth of soundings.

TRUFF. A west-country name for a trout.

TRUG. A rough basket for carrying chips of timber.

TRUGMAN. An early word for interpreter, being a corruption of dragoman; also called _trench-man_, but not _trencher-man_, as a worthy Mediterranean consul wrote it.

TRUMPETER. A petty officer and musician stationed on the p.o.o.p, to sound salutes and various evolutionary orders.

TRUNCHEON. A field-marshal's baton; also a constable's.

TRUNDLE-HEAD. The lower drumhead of a capstern, when it is double, and worked on one shaft both on an upper and lower deck.

TRUNDLE-SHOT. An iron bolt 16 or 18 inches long, with sharp points, and a ball of lead just inside each head.

TRUNK. (_See_ RUDDER-TRUNK.) Also, a large species of turtle. Also, a place for keeping fish in. Also, an iron hoop with a bag, used to catch crabs and lobsters.--_Fire-trunks._ Funnels fixed in fire-s.h.i.+ps under the shrouds, to convey the flames to the masts, rigging, and sails.

TRUNK-ENGINE. A direct-acting steam-engine, in which the end of the connecting-rod is attached to the bottom of a hollow trunk, pa.s.sing steam-tight through the cylinder cover.

TRUNK-FISH. A name of the _Ostracion_, a fish remarkable for having its body encased in an inflexible armour of hard octagonal plates, the fins, mouth, and gill-openings pa.s.sing through holes in this casing.

TRUNNION-RING. The ring round a cannon next before the trunnions, now disused.

TRUNNIONS. The arms, or two pieces of metal projecting from the opposite sides of a gun, by which it rests and swings upon its carriage, acting as an axis of elevation or depression. Also, pieces of well-seasoned wood, used in securing the s.h.i.+p's timbers.

TRUSS. The trusses or parrels of the lower yards serve to bind them to their masts and are bowsed taut when the yards are trimmed, in order to arrest motion and friction. But the introduction of an iron goose-neck, centering and securing the yard well free of the mast, very much supersedes the use of trusses.

TRUSS-HOOPS. Synonymous with clasp-hoops for masts or spars; they are open iron hoops, so made that their ends, being let into each other, may be well fastened by means of iron wedges or forelock keys.

TRUSS-PARREL. That part of a rope-truss which goes round the yard.

TRUSS-PENDANT. That part of a rope-truss into which the truss-tackle blocks are seized.

TRUSS-PIECES. The fillings in between the frame compartments of the riders, in diagonal trussing.

TRUSS-TACKLE. A gun-tackle purchase applied to the ends of the truss-pendants, to bowse them taut home to the mast.

TRUSS UP, TO. To brail up a sail suddenly; to toss up a bunt.

TRY, TO, OR LIE-TO, IN A GALE, is, by a judicious balance of canvas, to keep a s.h.i.+p's bow to the sea, and, with as much as she can safely show, prevent her rolling to windward in the trough of a sea. Close-hauled under all sail, a vessel gains head-way within six points of the wind; but in _trying_ she may come up to five and fall off to seven: so that a vessel does not hold her own. If the vessel be in proper trim, or properly stowed, she will naturally keep to the wind; but custom, and deficiency of seamanlike ability, have induced the lazy habit of las.h.i.+ng the helm a-lee.

TRY BACK FOR A BEND, TO. To pay back some of the bight of a cable, in order to have sufficient to form the bend.

TRY DOWN, TO. To boil out the oil from blubber at sea in whalers.

TRYING THE RANGE. A lubberly mode of estimating the distance of an enemy's s.h.i.+p or fort by firing a shot at it.

TRYSAIL. A reduced sail used by small craft in lieu of their main-sail during a storm. Also, a fore-and-aft sail, set with a boom and gaff, in s.h.i.+ps, synonymous with the spencers of brigs and schooners, and the spanker or driver of s.h.i.+ps. (_See_ STORM-TRYSAIL.)

TRYSAIL-MAST. A spar abaft the fore and main mast, for hoisting the trysail.

TRY-WORKS. Large copper boilers, for boiling the blubber in whalers.

TUB, GROG. A half-cask, set apart for mixing the daily allowance of spirit with water, lime-juice, and sugar, prior to its being served out to the s.h.i.+p's company.

TUB, MATCH. A conical tub used to guard the slow match in action. They were formerly about five-gallon capacity, the head being sunk about two inches, and four holes bored to insert slow matches. They are now almost disused, except to keep a light ready for signal purposes, as rockets, blue lights, &c., by night.

TUBES. _See_ CHAIN-PUMP.

TUBES, FOR GUNS. A kind of portable priming, for insertion into the vent,--of various patterns. (_See_ FRICTION-TUBE, QUILL-TUBES, &c.)

TUBS, TOPSAIL-HALLIARD. Circular framed racks in which the topsail-halliards are coiled clear for running, and are prevented from fouling by being sent adrift in a gale.

TUBULAR BOILERS. Those in which the flame and hot gases, after leaving the furnaces, pa.s.s through a great number of small iron or bra.s.s tubes surrounded by water, by which means these gases are made to impart some of their heat to the water before they escape; thus fuel is economized.

TUCK. The after-part of a s.h.i.+p, immediately under the stern or counter, where the ends of the bottom planks are collected and terminate by the tuck-rail. Thus the fir frigates of 1812-14 had flat, square transoms similar to boats, or heart-shaped. Hence our square-tucked frigates, brigs, &c.

TUG. A vessel for towing in and out of harbours and the like. (_See_ STEAM-TUG.)

TUG, TO [from the Anglo-Saxon _teogan_, to pull]. It now signifies to hang on the oars, and get but little or nothing ahead.

TUGG. A heavy sort of wain or cart, on which the s.h.i.+p-timber for naval a.r.s.enals was formerly conveyed from Suss.e.x.

TUMBLE IN. _See_ TUMBLING HOME.

TUMBLER. One of the numerous names for the porpoise, _Phocna communis_.

Also, a contrivance to avoid the necessity of having copper nailed on the mast to prevent a gaff from chafing it.

TUMBLE UP! A requisition of the boatswain's mates, &c., to quicken the hands after being piped up. The cry is well understood, though so contrary to the known tendency of gravitation.

TUMBLING HOME. The opposite of wall-sided, or flaring out. That part of a s.h.i.+p's side which curves inwardly above the extreme breadth. In all old sea-books this narrowing of a s.h.i.+p from the extreme breadth upwards is called housing in. (_See_ UPPER-WORKS.)

TUMBLING SEA. The increased rolling before a gale.

TUMBRIL. A covered cart for conveying ammunition and pioneers' tools.

TUM-TUM. A West India dish, consisting of boiled plantain beat into a paste and fried.

TUNGULA. A small boat in the Moluccas and Borneo.

TUNNY. A well-known large fish of the family _s...o...b..idae_. It forms an important branch of Mediterranean commerce.

TURBONADA. A roaring squall, or short hurricane, of frequent occurrence in the Pacific Ocean [a mimo-phonetic term adopted from the Spaniards].