The Sailor's Word-Book. W. H. Smyth
Islands.
BROKE-UP. Said of a gale of wind passing away; or a ship which has gone to pieces on a reef, &c.
BROND. An old spelling of brand, a sword.
BRONGIE. A name given to the cormorant in the Shetland Islands.
BROOD. Oysters of about two years old, which are dredged up at sea, for placing on the oyster-beds.
BROOD-HEN STAR. The cluster of the Pleiades.
BROOK, or Brooklet. Streams of fresh or salt water, less than a rivulet, creeping through narrow and shallow passages. The clouds brook-up, when they draw together and threaten rain.
BROOM. A besom at the mast-head signifies that the ship is to be sold: derived probably from the old practice of displaying boughs at shops and taverns. Also, a sort of spartium, of which ropes are made.
BROOMING. See Breaming.
BROTHER-OFFICERS. Those of the same ship or regiment.
BROTH OF A BOY. An excellent, though roystering fellow.
BROUGHT BY THE LEE. See Bring by the Lee.
BROUGHT-TO. A chase made to stop, and heave-to. Also, the cable is brought-to when fastened to the messenger by nippers. The messenger is brought to the capstan, or the cable to the windlass.
BROUGHT TO HIS BEARINGS. Reduced to obedience.
BROUGHT TO THE GANGWAY. Punished.
BROW. An inclined plane of planks, on one or both sides of a ship, to communicate internally; a stage-gangway for the accommodation of the shipwrights, in conveying plank, timber, and weighty articles on board. Also, the face of a rising ground. An old term for a gang-board.
BROWN BESS. A nickname for the old government regulation bronzed musket, although till recently it was brightly burnished.
BROWN BILL. The old weapon of the English infantry: hence, perhaps the expression "Brown Bess" for a musket.
BROWN GEORGE. A hard and coarse biscuit.
BROWNIE. The Polar bear, so called by the whalers. It is also a northern term for goblin.
BROWN JANET. A cant phrase for a knapsack.
BROWN-PAPER WARRANT. See Warrant.
BROWSE. A light kind of dunnage.
BRUISE-WATER. A ship with very bluff bows, built more for carrying than sailing.
BRUISING WATER. Pitching heavily to a head-sea, and making but little head-way.
BRUN-SWYNE. An early name for a seal.
BRUSH. A move; a skirmish.
BRYDPORT. An old word signifying cable. The best hemp grew at Bridport, in Dorsetshire; and there was a statute, that the cables and hawsers for the Royal Navy were to be made thereabouts.
BUB. A liquor or drink. Bub and grub meaning inversely meat and drink.
BUBBLE. Another term for spirit-level, used for astronomical instruments.
BUBBLER. A fish found in the waters of the Ohio, thus named from the bubbling noise it makes.
BUCCANEER. A name given to certain piratical rovers, of various European nations, who formerly infested the coasts of Spanish America. They were originally inoffensive settlers in Hispaniola, but were inhumanly driven from their habitations by the jealous policy of the Spaniards; whence originated their implacable hatred to that nation. Also, a large musketoon, about 8 feet in length, so called from having been used by those marauders.
BUCENTAUR. A large and splendid galley of the doge of Venice, in which he received the great lords and persons of quality who went there, accompanied by the ambassadors and councillors of state, and all the senators seated on benches by him. The same vessel served also in the magnificent ceremony on Ascension-day, when the doge threw a ring into the sea to espouse it, and to denote his dominion over the Gulf of Venice.
BUCHAN BOILERS. The heavy breaking billows among the rocks on the coast of Buchan.
BUCHT. A Shetland term for lines of 55 fathoms.
BUCK, To. To wash a sail.
BUCKALL. An earthen wine-cup used in the sea-ports of Portugal, Spain, and Italy. [From bocale, It.]
BUCKER. A name for the grampus in the Hebrides. It is also applied, on some of our northern coasts, to the porpoise.
BUCKET. A small globe of hoops, covered with canvas, used as a recall for the boats of whalers.
BUCKET-ROPE. That which is tied to a bucket for drawing water up from alongside.
BUCKETS. Are made either of canvas, of leather, or of wood; the latter are used principally for washing the decks, and therefore answer the purposes of pails.
BUCKET-VALVE. In a steamer's engine, is a flat metal plate filling up the passage between the air-pump and the condenser, and acted upon by both in admitting or repressing the passage of water.
BUCKHORN. Whitings, haddocks, thorn-backs, gurnet, and other fish, cleaned, gently salted, and dried in the sun.
BUCKIE. A northern name for the whelk.
BUCKIE-INGRAM. A name for the hermit-crab.
BUCKIE-PRINS. A northern designation for a periwinkle.
BUCKLE. A mast buckles when it suffers by compression, so that the fibre takes a sinuous form, and the grain is upset. Also, in Polar regions, the bending or arching of the ice upwards, preceding a nip.
BUCKLERS. Two blocks of wood fitted together to stop the hawse-holes, leaving only sufficient space between them for the cable to pass, and thereby preventing the ship taking in much water in a heavy head-sea. They are either riding or blind bucklers (which see).
BUCKRA. A term for white man, used by the blacks in the West Indies, Southern States of America, and the African coast.
BUCK-WEEL. A bow-net for fish.
BUDE. An old name for the biscuit-weevil.
BUDGE-BARREL. A small cask with copper and wooden hoops, and one head formed by a leather hose or bag, drawing close by a string, for carrying powder in safety from sparks. In heraldry, the common bucket is called a water bouget or budget.
BUDGEROW. A cabined passage-boat of the Ganges and Hooghly.
BUFFET A BILLOW, To. To work against wind and tide.
BUG. An old term for a vessel more remarkable in size than efficiency. Thus, when Drake fell upon Cadiz, his sailors regarded the huge galleys opposed to them as mere "great bugges."
BUGALILO. A large trading-boat of the Gulf of Persia; the buglo of our seamen.
BUGAZEENS. An old commercial term for calicoes.
BUILD. A vessel's form or construction.
BUILD A CHAPEL, To. To turn a ship suddenly by negligent steerage.
BUILDER'S CERTIFICATE. A necessary document in admiralty courts, containing a true account of a ship's denomination, tonnage, trim, where built, and for whom.
BUILDING. The work of constructing ships, as distinguished from naval architecture, which may rather be considered as the art or theory of delineating ships on a plane. The pieces by which this complicated machine is framed, are joined together in various places by scarfing, rabbeting, tenanting, and scoring.
BUILT. A prefix to denote the construction of a vessel, as carvel or clinker-built, bluff-built, frigate-built, sharp-built, &c.; English, French, or American built, &c.
BUILT-BLOCK.