The Seaman's Friend Part 21

_Spring-a-luff!_ _Keep your luff!_ &c. Orders to luff. Also, the roundest part of a vessel's bow. Also, the forward leech of fore-and-aft sails.

LUFF-TACKLE. A purchase composed of a double and single block. (See page 54.)

_Luff-upon-luff._ A luff tackle applied to the fall of another.

LUGGER. A small vessel carrying lug-sails.

_Lug-sail._ A sail used in boats and small vessels, bent to a yard which hangs obliquely to the mast.

LURCH. The sudden rolling of a vessel to one side.

LYING-TO. (See LIE-TO.)

MADE. A _made mast_ or _block_ is one composed of different pieces. A s.h.i.+p's lower mast is a made spar, her topmast is a whole spar.

MALL, or MAUL. (p.r.o.nounced _mawl_.) A heavy iron hammer used in driving bolts. (See TOP-MAUL.)

MALLET. A small maul, made of wood; as, _caulking-mallet_; also, _serving-mallet_, used in putting service on a rope.

MANGER. A coaming just within the hawse hole. Not much in use.

MAN-ROPES. Ropes used in going up and down a vessel's side.

MARL. To wind or twist a small line or rope round another.

MARLINE. (p.r.o.nounced _mar-lin_.) Small two-stranded stuff, used for marling. A finer kind of spunyarn.

MARLING-HITCH. A kind of hitch used in marling.

MARLINGSPIKE. An iron pin, sharpened at one end, and having a hole in the other for a lanyard. Used both as a fid and a heaver.

MARRY. To join ropes together by a worming over both.

MARTINGALE. A short, perpendicular spar, under the bowsprit-end, used for guying down the head-stays. (See DOLPHIN-STRIKER.)

MAST. A spar set upright from the deck, to support rigging, yards and sails. Masts are whole or _made_.

MAT. Made of strands of old rope, and used to prevent chafing.

MATE. An officer under the master.

MAUL. (See MALL.)

MEND. _To mend service_, is to add more to it.

MESHES. The places between the lines of a netting.

MESS. Any number of men who eat or lodge together.

MESSENGER. A rope used for heaving in a cable by the capstan.

MIDs.h.i.+PS. The timbers at the broadest part of the vessel. (See AMIDs.h.i.+PS.)

MISS-STAYS. To fail of going about from one tack to another. (See page 74.)

MIZZEN-MAST. The aftermost mast of a s.h.i.+p. (See PLATE 1.) The spanker is sometimes called the _mizzen_.

MONKEY BLOCK. A small single block strapped with a swivel.

MOON-SAIL. A small sail sometimes carried in light winds, above a sky sail.

MOOR. To secure by two anchors. (See page 88.)

MORTICE. A _morticed block_ is one made out of a whole block of wood with a hole cut in it for the sheave; in distinction from a _made block_. (See page 53.)

MOULDS. The patterns by which the frames of a vessel are worked out.

MOUSE. To put turns of rope yarn or spunyarn round the end of a hook and its standing part, when it is hooked to anything, so as to prevent its slipping out.

MOUSING. A knot or puddening, made of yarns, and placed on the outside of a rope.

m.u.f.fLE. Oars are m.u.f.fled by putting mats or canva.s.s round their looms in the row-locks.

MUNIONS. The pieces that separate the lights in the galleries.

NAVAL HOODS, or HAWSE BOLSTERS. Plank above and below the hawse-holes.

NEAP TIDES. Low tides, coming at the middle of the moon's second and fourth quarters. (See SPRING TIDES.)

NEAPED, or BENEAPED. The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height of the spring tides.

NEAR. Close to wind. "Near!" the order to the helmsman when he is too near the wind.

NETTING. Network of rope or small lines. Used for stowing away sails or hammocks.

NETTLES. (See KNITTLES.)

NINEPIN BLOCK. A block in the form of a ninepin, used for a _fair-leader_ in the rail.

NIP. A short turn in a rope.

NIPPERS. A number of yarns marled together, used to secure a cable to the messenger.

NOCK. The forward upper end of a sail that sets with a boom.

NUN-BUOY. A buoy tapering at each end.