The Sailor's Word-Book Part 261

WIDE-GAB. A name of the _Lophius piscatorius_, toad-fish, or fis.h.i.+ng-frog.

WIDOWS' MEN. Imaginary sailors, formerly borne on the books as A.B.'s for wages in every s.h.i.+p in commission; they ceased with the consolidated pay at the close of the war. The inst.i.tution was dated 24 Geo. II. to meet widows' pensions; the amount of pay and provisions for two men in each hundred was paid over by the paymaster-general of the navy to the widows' fund.

WILD. A s.h.i.+p's motion when she steers badly, or is badly steered. A _wild roadstead_ implies one that is exposed to the wind and sea.

WILDFIRE. A pyrotechnical preparation burning with great fierceness, whether under water or not; it is a.n.a.logous to the ancient Greek fire, and is composed mainly of sulphur, naphtha, and pitch.

WILD-WIND. An old term for _whirlwind_.

WILL, WITH A. With all zeal and energy.

WILL. A term on our northern sh.o.r.es for a sea-gull.

WILLICK. A northern name for the _Fratercula arctica_, or puffin.

WILLIE-POURIT. A northern name for the seal.

WILLIWAW. A sort of whirlwind, occurring in Tierra del Fuego.

WILLOCK. A name for the guillemot, _Uria troile_.

WIMBLE. The borer of a carpenter's centre-bit.

WINCH [from the Anglo-Saxon _wince_]. A purchase formed by a shaft whose extremities rest in two channels placed horizontally or perpendicularly, and furnished with cranks, or clicks, and pauls. It is employed as a purchase by which a rope or tackle-fall may be more powerfully applied than when used singly. A small one with a fly-wheel is used for making ropes and spun-yarn. Also, a support to the windla.s.s ends. Also, the name of long iron handles by which the chain-pumps are worked. Also, a small cylindrical machine attached to masts or bitts in vessels, for the purpose of hoisting anything out of the hold, warping, &c.

WINCH-BITTS. The supports near their ends.

WIND [precisely the Anglo-Saxon word]. A stream or current of air which may be felt. The horizon being divided into 32 points (_see_ COMPa.s.s), the wind which blows from any of them has an a.s.signable name.

WINDAGE. The vacant s.p.a.ce left between a shot and the bore of the piece to which it belongs, generally expressed by the difference of their diameters; it is for facility of loading, but the smaller it is the better will be the performance of the gun.

WIND AND WATER LINE. That part of a s.h.i.+p lying at the surface of the water which is alternately wet and dry by the motion of the waves.

WIND A s.h.i.+P OR BOAT, TO. To change her position by bringing her stern round to the place where the head was. (_See_ WENDING.)

WIND AWAY, TO. To steer through narrow channels.

WIND-BANDS. Long clouds supposed to indicate bad weather.

WIND-BOUND. Detained at an anchorage by contrary winds.

WIND-FALL. A violent gust of wind rus.h.i.+ng from coast-ranges and mountains to the sea. Also, some piece of good luck, a turtle, fish, vegetables, or a prize.

WIND-GAGE. _See_ ANEMOMETER.

WIND-GALL. A luminous halo on the edge of a distant cloud, where there is rain, usually seen in the wind's eye, and looked upon as a sure precursor of stormy weather. Also, an atmospheric effect of prismatic colours, said likewise to indicate bad weather if seen to leeward.

WINDING A CALL. The act of blowing or piping on a boatswain's whistle, to communicate the necessary orders. (_See_ CALL.)

WINDING-TACKLE. A tackle formed of one fixed triple three-sheaved block, and one double or triple movable block. It is princ.i.p.ally used to hoist any weighty materials, as the cannon, into or out of a s.h.i.+p.

WINDING-TACKLE PENDANT. A strong rope made fast to the lower mast-head, and forming the support of the winding-tackle.

WIND IN THE TEETH. Dead against a s.h.i.+p.

WINDLa.s.s [from the Ang.-Sax. _windles_]. A machine erected in the fore-part of a s.h.i.+p which serves to ride by, as well as heave in the cable. It is composed of the carrick-heads or windla.s.s-heads, which are secured to all the deck-beams beneath, and backed by long sleeper knees on deck. The main-piece is whelped like the capstan, and suspended at its ends by powerful spindles falling into metal bearings in the carrick or windla.s.s heads. Amids.h.i.+ps it is supported by chocks, where it is also furnished with a course of windla.s.s-pawls, four taking at separate angles on a main ratchet, and bearing on one quadrant of the circ.u.mference. The cables have three turns round this main-piece (one cable on each side): holes are cut for the windla.s.s-bars in each eighth of the squared sides. The windla.s.s may be said also to be supported or reinforced by the pawl-bitts, two powerful bitt-heads at the centre.--_Spanish windla.s.s._ A machine formed of a handspike and a small lever, usually a tree-nail, or a tree-nail and a marline-spike, to set up the top-gallant rigging, heave in seizings, or for any other short steady purchase.

WINDLa.s.s-BITTS. _See_ CARRICK-BITTS.

WINDLa.s.s-CHOCKS. Those pieces of oak or elm fastened inside the bows of small craft, to support the ends of the windla.s.s.

WINDLa.s.s-ENDS. Two pieces which continue the windla.s.s outside the bitt-heads.

WINDLa.s.s-LINING. Pieces of hard wood fitted round the main-piece of a windla.s.s to prevent chafing, and also to enable the cable to hold on more firmly.

WINDLESTRAY. A sort of bent or seaside gra.s.s.

WINDLIPPER. The first effects of a breeze of wind on smooth water, before waves are raised.

WIND-RODE. A s.h.i.+p is wind-rode when the wind overcomes an opposite tidal force, and she rides head to wind.

WINDS. _Local_ or _peculiar_.--_Trade-winds_ occur within and beyond the tropical parallels. They are pretty regular in the North Atlantic, as far as 5 N., where calms may be expected, or the south-east trade may reach across, depending on the season; but when near land they yield to the _land and sea breezes_. Thus at 10 N. the land-breeze will be at E.

from 11 P.M. until 6 A.M., then calm intervenes up to 10 A.M., when the sea-breeze sets in, probably W., and blows home fresh. Yet at 20 miles off sh.o.r.e the trade-wind may blow pretty strong from N.E. or E.N.E.--The _harmattan_ is a sudden dry wind blowing off the coast of Africa, so charged with almost impalpable dust that the sun is obscured. It sucks up all moisture, cracks furniture and earthenware, and prostrates animal nature. The rigging of vessels becomes a dirty brown, and the dust adhering to the blacking cannot be removed.--The _tornado_ lasts for a short time, but is of great force during its continuance.--The _northers_ in the Gulf of Mexico, or off the Heads of Virginia, are not only very heavy gales, but are attended with severe cold. On a December day, off Galveston, the temperature in a calm was at sunset 86. The norther came on about midnight, and at 8 A.M. the temperature had fallen to 12, and icicles were hanging from the eaves of the houses. The _Tiempo di Vendavales_, or southers of Western America, is an opposite, blowing heavily home to the coast. The _taifung_ of China, or typhoon of the Indian seas, is indeed precisely similar to the hurricane of the West Indies.

WIND-SAIL. A funnel of canvas employed to ventilate a s.h.i.+p by conveying a stream of fresh air down to the lower decks. It is suspended by a whip through the hatchways, and kept open by means of hoops; the upper part is also open on one side, and guyed to the wind. s.h.i.+ps of war in hot climates have generally three or four of these wind-sails.

WIND-TAUT. A vessel at anchor, heeling over to the force of the wind.

WIND-TIGHT. A cask or vessel to contain water is said to be wind-tight and water-tight.

WINDWARD. The weather-side; that on which the wind blows; the opposite of _leeward_ (which see). Old sailors exhort their neophytes to throw nothing over the weather-side except ashes or hot water: a hint not mistakable.

WINDWARD SAILING, OR TURNING TO WINDWARD. That mode of navigating a s.h.i.+p in which she endeavours to gain a position situated in the direction whence the wind is blowing. In this case progress is made by frequent tacking, and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g sail as near as possible to the wind.

WINDWARD SET. The reverse of _leeward set_.

WINDWARD TIDE. _See_ WEATHER-TIDE.

WINE OF HEIGHT. A former perquisite of seamen on getting safely through a particular navigation.

WING. The projecting part of a steamer's deck before and abaft each of the paddle-boxes, bounded by the _wing-wale_.

WING-AND-WING. A s.h.i.+p coming before the wind with studding-sails on both sides; also said of fore-and-aft vessels, when they are going with the wind right aft, the fore-sail boomed out on one side, and the main-sail on the other.

WINGERS. Small casks stowed close to the side in a s.h.i.+p's hold, where the large casks would cause too great a rising in that part of the tier.

WINGS. Those parts of the hold and orlop-deck which are nearest to the sides. This term is particularly used in the stowage of the several materials contained in the hold, and between the cable-tiers and the s.h.i.+p's sides. In s.h.i.+ps of war they are usually kept clear, that the carpenter and his crew may have access round the s.h.i.+p to stop shot-holes in time of action. Also, the skirts or extremities of a fleet, when ranged in a line abreast, or when forming two sides of a triangle. It is usual to extend the wings of a fleet in the daytime, in order to discover any enemy that may fall in their track; they are, however, generally summoned by signal to form close order before night. In military parlance, the right and left divisions of a force, whether these leave a centre division between them or not.--_Wing-transom._ The uppermost transom in the stern-frame, to which the heels of the counter-timbers are let on and bolted.