The Sailor's Word-Book Part 37

BOX THE COMPa.s.s, TO. Not only to repeat the names of the thirty-two points in order and backwards, but also to be able to answer any and all questions respecting its divisions.

BOYART. An old term for a hoy.

BOYAUX. The zig-zags or tortuous trenches in the approach of a besieger.

BOYER. A sloop of Flemish construction, with a raised work at each end.

BRAB. The sheaf of the young leaves of the Palmyra palm (and also of the cocoa-nut), from which sinnet or plait for hats is made.

BRAB-TREE. The Palmyra palm.

BRACE. The braces are ropes belonging to all the yards of a s.h.i.+p; two to each yard, rove through blocks that are stropped to the yards, or fastened to pendants, seized to the yard-arms. Their use is either to square or traverse the yards horizontally; hence, _to brace the yard_, is to bring it to either side by means of the braces. In s.h.i.+p-building, braces are plates of iron, copper, or mixed metal, which are used to bind efficiently a weakness in a vessel; as also to receive the pintles by which the rudder is hung.

BRACE ABACK. To brace the yards in, so as to lay the sails aback.--_To brace about_, to turn the yards round for the contrary tack, or in consequence of a change of wind.--_To brace abox_, a manuvre to insure casting the right way, by bracing the head-yards flat aback (not square).--_To brace by_, to brace the yards in contrary directions to each other on the different masts, to effect the stopping of the vessel.

(_See_ COUNTER-BRACE.)--_To brace in_, to lay the yard less oblique, as for a free wind, or nearly square.--_To brace round_, synonymous with brace about.--_To brace sharp_, to cause the yards to have the smallest possible angle with the keel, for the s.h.i.+p to have head-way: deemed generally to form an angle of 20 with the keel.--_To brace to_, is to check or ease off the lee braces, and round in the weather ones, to a.s.sist in the manuvre of tacking or wearing.--_To brace up_, or _brace sharp up_, to lay the yards more obliquely fore and aft, by easing off the weather-braces and hauling in the lee ones, which enables a s.h.i.+p to lie as close to the wind as possible.

BRACE OF SHAKES. A moment: taken from the flapping of a sail. I will be with you before it shakes thrice.

BRACE PENDANTS. Are lengths of rope, or now more generally chain, into which the yard-arm brace-blocks are spliced. They are used in the merchant service to save rope, to give the blocks more freedom for slewing to their work, but chiefly because when the brace is let go, the falling chain will overhaul it, making it easier to haul in the other brace.

BRACE UP AND HAUL AFT! The order usually given after being hove-to, with fore or main top-sail square or aback, and jib-sheet flowing, _i.e._ haul aft jib-sheet, brace up the yards which had been squared, for the purpose of heaving to.

BRACK. The Manx or Gaelic name for mackerel.

BRACKETS. Short crooked timbers resembling knees, fixed in the frame of a s.h.i.+p's head to support the gratings; they likewise served to support and ornament the gallery. Also, the two vertical side-pieces of the carriage of any piece of ordnance, which support it by the trunnions.

Called also cheeks. Also, triangular supports to miscellaneous things.

BRACKISH. Water not fresh; from the Icelandic _breke_, the sea.

BRADS. Small nails.

BRAE. A declivity or precipice.

BRAGGIR. The name given in the Western Islands of Scotland to the broad leaves growing on the top of the _Alga marina_, or sea-gra.s.s.

BRAILS. Ropes pa.s.sing through leading blocks on the hoops of the mizen-mast and gaff, and fastened to the outermost leech of the sail, in different places, to truss it close up as occasion requires; all trysails and several of the staysails also have brails.

BRAIL UP! The order to pull upon the brails, and thereby spill and haul in the sail. The mizen, or spanker, or driver, or any of the gaff-sails, as they may be termed, when brailed up, are deemed furled; unless it blows hard, when they are farther secured by gaskets.

BRAKE. The handle or lever by which a common s.h.i.+p-pump is usually worked. It operates by means of two iron bolts, one thrust through the inner hole of it, which bolted through forms the lever axis in the iron crutch of the pump, and serves as the fulcrum for the brake, supporting it between the cheeks. The other bolt connects the extremity of the brake to the pump-spear, which draws up the spear box or piston, charged with the water in the tube; derived from _brachium_, an arm or lever.

Also, used to check the speed of machinery by frictional force pressing on the circ.u.mference of the largest wheel acted on by leverage of the brake.

BRAN, TO. To go on; to lie under a floe edge, in foggy weather, in a boat in Arctic seas, to watch the approach of whales.

BRANCH. The diploma of those pilots who have pa.s.sed at the Trinity House, as competent to navigate vessels in particular places. The word branch is also metaphorically used for river divergents, but its application to affluents is improper. Any branch or ramification, as in estuaries, where they traverse, river-like, miles of territory, in labyrinthine mazes.

BRANCH-PILOT. One approved by the Trinity House, and holding a branch, for a particular navigation.

BRAND. The Anglo-Saxon for a burnished sword. A burned device or character, especially that of the broad arrow on government stores, to deface or erase which is felony.

BRANDED TICKET. A discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is written, and the reason he is turned out of the service. In the army, deserters are branded with D; also B for bad character. In the navy, a corner of the ticket is cut off.

BRANDLING. A supposed fry of the salmon species, found on the north of England coasts. Also, the angler's dew-worm.

BRANDY-p.a.w.nEE. A cant term for brandy and water in India.

BRANLAIG. The Manx or Gaelic term for a cove or creek on a sh.o.r.e between rocks.

BRANLIE, OR BRANLIN. A northern name for the samlet or par.

BRAN-NEW. Quite new: said of a sail which has never been bent.

BRASH. Small fragments of crushed ice, collected by wind or currents, near the sh.o.r.e; or such that the s.h.i.+p can easily force through.

BRa.s.s. Impudent a.s.surance.

BRa.s.sARTS. Pieces between the elbow and the top of the shoulder in ancient armour.

BRa.s.sER. A defensive bit of armour for the arm.

BRAT. A northern name for a turbot.

BRAVE. This word was not only used to express courage by our early seamen, but was also applied to strength; as, "we had a brave wind."

BRAWET. A kind of eel in the north.

BRAY, TO. To beat and bruise in a mortar.

BREACH. Formerly, what is made by the breaking in of the sea, now applied also to the openings or gaps made in the works of fortified places battered by an enemy's cannon. Also, an old term for a heavy surf or broken water on a sea-coast; by some called _brist_.

BREACHING. The act of leaping out of the water; applied to whales.

BREACH OF THE SEA. Waves breaking over the hull of a vessel in bad weather, or when stranded.--_A clear breach_ implies the waves rolling clean over without breaking. Shakspeare in "Twelfth Night" uses the term for the breaking of the waves.--_Clean-breach_, when masts and every object on deck is swept away.

BREACHY. Brackish, as applied to water, probably originating in the sea breaking in.

BREAD. The usual name given to biscuit.

BREAD-BARGE. The tray in which biscuit is handed round.

BREAD-FRUIT (_Artocarpus incisa_). This most useful tree has a wide range of growth, but the seedless variety produced in Tahiti and some of the South Sea Islands is superior to others; it has an historical interest from its connection with the voyage of the _Bounty_ in 1787.

BREAD-ROOM. The lowest and aftermost part of the orlop deck, where the biscuit is kept, separated by a bulk-head from the rest; but any place parted off from below deck for containing the bread is so designated.

BREAD-ROOM JACK. The purser's steward's help.

BREADTH. The measure of a vessel from side to side in any particular place athwart-s.h.i.+ps. (_See_ STRAIGHT OF BREADTH, HEIGHT OF BREADTH, TOP-TIMBER BREADTH, &c.)--_Breadth of beam_, extreme breadth of a s.h.i.+p.