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From Complete Book of The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.
By Unknown Author
HOYSE. The old word for hoist.
HUBBLE-BUBBLE. An eastern pipe for smoking tobacco through water, which makes a bubbling noise.
HUDDOCK. The cabin of a keel or coal-barge.
HUDDUM. The old northern term for a kind of whale.
HUER. A man posted on an elevation near the sea, who, by concerted signals, directs the fishermen when a shoal of fish is in sight. Synonymous with conder (which see). Also, the hot fountains in the sea near Iceland, where many of them issue from the land.
HUFFED. Chagrined, offended, often needlessly.
HUFFLER. One who carries off fresh provisions to a ship; a Kentish term.
HUG, To.—To hug the land, to sail as near it as possible, the land however being to windward.—To hug the wind, to keep the ship as close-hauled to the wind as possible.
HUGGER-MUGGER. In its Shakspearian bearing may have meant secretly, or in a clandestine manner, but its nautical application is to express anything out of order or done in a slovenly way.
HUISSIERS. The flat-bottomed transports in which horses were embarked in the Crusades.
HULCOCK. A northern name for the Squalus galeus, or smooth hound-fish.
HULK. Is generally applied to a vessel condemned as unfit for the risks of the sea, and used as a store-vessel and housing for crews while refitting the vessels they belong to. There are also hulks for convicts, and for masting, as sheer-hulk. (See Sheers.)
HULL. The Gothic hulga meant a husk or external covering, and hence the body of a ship, independent of masts, yards, sails, rigging, and other furniture, is so called.—To hull, signifies to hit with shot; to drive to and fro without rudder, sail, or oar; as Milton—
—To strike hull in a storm, is to take in her sails and lash the helm on the lee side of the ship, which is termed to lie a-hull.
HULL-DOWN. Is said of a ship when at such a distance that, from the convexity of the globe, only her masts and sails are to be seen.
HULLING. Lying in wait at sea without any sails set. Also, to hit with shot.
HULLOCK of a Sail. A small part lowered in a gale.
HULL-TO. The situation of a ship when she is lying a-hull, or with all her sails furled.
HULLY. A long wicker-trap used for catching eels.[396]
HUMBER-KEEL. A particular clincher-built craft used on the Humber.
HUMLA-BAND. A northern term for the grommet to an oar-pin or thole.
HUMMOCK. A hill with a rounded summit or conical eminence on the sea-coast. When in pairs they are termed paps by navigators (which see).
HUMMOCKS OF ICE. Protuberant lumps of ice thrown up by some pressure upon a field or floe, or any other frozen plane. The pieces which rise when large fragments come in contact, and bits of pack are frozen together and covered with snow.
HUMMUMS. From the Arabic word hammam, a bagnio or bath.
HUMP-BACKED WHALE. A species of whalebone whale, the Megaptera longimana, which attains to 45 or 50 feet in length, and is distinguished by its low rounded dorsal fin.
HURD. The strand of a rope.
HURDICES. Ramparts, scaffolds, fortifications, &c.
HURDIGERS. Particular artificers employed in constructing the castles in our early ships.
HURLEBLAST. An archaic term for hurricane.
HURRICANE. See Typhoon.
HURRICANE-DECK. A light deck over the saloon of some steamers.
HURRICANE-HOUSE. Any building run up for temporary purposes; the name is occasionally given to the round-house on a vessel's deck.
HURRICANO. Shakspeare evidently makes King Lear use this word as a water-spout.
HURRY. A staith or wharf where coals are shipped in the north.
HURST. Anglo-Saxon to express a wood.
HURT. A wound or injury for which a compensation can be claimed.
HURTLE, To. To send bodily on by a swell or wind.
HUSBAND, or Ship's Husband. An agent appointed by deed, executed by all the owners, with power to advance and lend, to make all payments, to receive the prices of freights, and to retain all claims. But this office gives him no authority to insure or to borrow money; and he is to render a full account to his employers.
HUSH. A name of the lump-fish, denoting the female.
HUSSAR, or Huzzar. A Hungarian term signifying "twentieth," as the first hussars were formed by selecting from various regiments the ablest man in every twenty; now generally a light-cavalry soldier equipped somewhat after the original Hungarian fashion.
HUT. The same as barrack (which see).
HUTT. The breech-pin of a gun.
HUZZA! This was originally the hudsa, or cry, of the Hungarian light horse, but is now also the national shout of the English in joy and triumph.
HUZ-ZIF. A general corruption of housewife. A very useful contrivance for holding needles and thread, and the like.[397]
HYDRAULIC DOCK. See Caisson.
HYDRAULIC PRESS. The simple yet powerful water-press invented by Bramah, without which it would have been a puzzle to float the enormous Great Eastern.
HYDRAULIC PURCHASE. A machine for drawing up vessels on a slip, in which the pumping of water is used to multiply the force applied.
HYDRAULICS. See Hydrology.
HYDROGRAPHER. One who surveys coasts, &c., and constructs true maps and charts founded on astronomical observations. The hydrographer to the admiralty presides over the hydrographical office.
HYDROGRAPHICAL CHARTS or Maps. Usually called sea-charts, are projections of some part of the sea and its neighbouring coast for the use of navigation, and therefore the depth of water and nature of the bottom are minutely noted.
HYDROGRAPHICAL OFFICE. A department of the admiralty where the labours of the marine surveyors of the Royal Navy are collected and published.
HYDROGRAPHY. The science of marine surveying, requiring the principal points to be astronomically fixed.
HYDROLOGY. That part of physics which explains the properties of water, and is usually divided into hydrostatics and hydraulics. The former treats of weighing water and fluids in general, and of ascertaining their specific gravities; the latter shows the manner of conveying water from one place to another.
HYDROMETER. An instrument constructed to measure the specific gravities of fluids. That used at sea for testing the amount of salt in the water is a glass tube containing a scale, the bottom of the tube swelling out into two bulbs, of which the lower is laden with shot, which causes the instrument to float perpendicularly, and as it displaces its own weight of water, of course it sinks deeper as the water is lighter, which is recorded by the scale.
HYGRE. (See Bore and Eagre.) An effect of counter-currents.
HYGROMETER. An instrument for ascertaining the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere.
HYPERBOLA. One of the conic sections formed by cutting a cone by a plane which is so inclined to the axis, that when produced it cuts also the opposite cone, or the cone which is the continuation of the former, on the opposite side of the vertex.
HYPOTHECA. A mortgage. In the civil law, was where the thing pledged remained with the debtor.
HYPOTHECATION. An authority to the master, amounting almost to a power of the absolute disposal of the ship in a foreign country; he may hypothecate not only the hull, but his freight and cargo, for necessary and urgent repairs.
HYTHE. A pier or wharf to lade or unlade wares at [from the Anglo-Saxon hyd, coast or haven].
[398]
H., Part 9
HOYSE. The old word for hoist.
HUBBLE-BUBBLE. An eastern pipe for smoking tobacco through water, which makes a bubbling noise.
HUDDOCK. The cabin of a keel or coal-barge.
HUDDUM. The old northern term for a kind of whale.
HUER. A man posted on an elevation near the sea, who, by concerted signals, directs the fishermen when a shoal of fish is in sight. Synonymous with conder (which see). Also, the hot fountains in the sea near Iceland, where many of them issue from the land.
HUFFED. Chagrined, offended, often needlessly.
HUFFLER. One who carries off fresh provisions to a ship; a Kentish term.
HUG, To.—To hug the land, to sail as near it as possible, the land however being to windward.—To hug the wind, to keep the ship as close-hauled to the wind as possible.
HUGGER-MUGGER. In its Shakspearian bearing may have meant secretly, or in a clandestine manner, but its nautical application is to express anything out of order or done in a slovenly way.
HUISSIERS. The flat-bottomed transports in which horses were embarked in the Crusades.
HULCOCK. A northern name for the Squalus galeus, or smooth hound-fish.
HULK. Is generally applied to a vessel condemned as unfit for the risks of the sea, and used as a store-vessel and housing for crews while refitting the vessels they belong to. There are also hulks for convicts, and for masting, as sheer-hulk. (See Sheers.)
HULL. The Gothic hulga meant a husk or external covering, and hence the body of a ship, independent of masts, yards, sails, rigging, and other furniture, is so called.—To hull, signifies to hit with shot; to drive to and fro without rudder, sail, or oar; as Milton—
—To strike hull in a storm, is to take in her sails and lash the helm on the lee side of the ship, which is termed to lie a-hull.
HULL-DOWN. Is said of a ship when at such a distance that, from the convexity of the globe, only her masts and sails are to be seen.
HULLING. Lying in wait at sea without any sails set. Also, to hit with shot.
HULLOCK of a Sail. A small part lowered in a gale.
HULL-TO. The situation of a ship when she is lying a-hull, or with all her sails furled.
HULLY. A long wicker-trap used for catching eels.[396]
HUMBER-KEEL. A particular clincher-built craft used on the Humber.
HUMLA-BAND. A northern term for the grommet to an oar-pin or thole.
HUMMOCK. A hill with a rounded summit or conical eminence on the sea-coast. When in pairs they are termed paps by navigators (which see).
HUMMOCKS OF ICE. Protuberant lumps of ice thrown up by some pressure upon a field or floe, or any other frozen plane. The pieces which rise when large fragments come in contact, and bits of pack are frozen together and covered with snow.
HUMMUMS. From the Arabic word hammam, a bagnio or bath.
HUMP-BACKED WHALE. A species of whalebone whale, the Megaptera longimana, which attains to 45 or 50 feet in length, and is distinguished by its low rounded dorsal fin.
HURD. The strand of a rope.
HURDICES. Ramparts, scaffolds, fortifications, &c.
HURDIGERS. Particular artificers employed in constructing the castles in our early ships.
HURLEBLAST. An archaic term for hurricane.
HURRICANE. See Typhoon.
HURRICANE-DECK. A light deck over the saloon of some steamers.
HURRICANE-HOUSE. Any building run up for temporary purposes; the name is occasionally given to the round-house on a vessel's deck.
HURRICANO. Shakspeare evidently makes King Lear use this word as a water-spout.
HURRY. A staith or wharf where coals are shipped in the north.
HURST. Anglo-Saxon to express a wood.
HURT. A wound or injury for which a compensation can be claimed.
HURTLE, To. To send bodily on by a swell or wind.
HUSBAND, or Ship's Husband. An agent appointed by deed, executed by all the owners, with power to advance and lend, to make all payments, to receive the prices of freights, and to retain all claims. But this office gives him no authority to insure or to borrow money; and he is to render a full account to his employers.
HUSH. A name of the lump-fish, denoting the female.
HUSSAR, or Huzzar. A Hungarian term signifying "twentieth," as the first hussars were formed by selecting from various regiments the ablest man in every twenty; now generally a light-cavalry soldier equipped somewhat after the original Hungarian fashion.
HUT. The same as barrack (which see).
HUTT. The breech-pin of a gun.
HUZZA! This was originally the hudsa, or cry, of the Hungarian light horse, but is now also the national shout of the English in joy and triumph.
HUZ-ZIF. A general corruption of housewife. A very useful contrivance for holding needles and thread, and the like.[397]
HYDRAULIC DOCK. See Caisson.
HYDRAULIC PRESS. The simple yet powerful water-press invented by Bramah, without which it would have been a puzzle to float the enormous Great Eastern.
HYDRAULIC PURCHASE. A machine for drawing up vessels on a slip, in which the pumping of water is used to multiply the force applied.
HYDRAULICS. See Hydrology.
HYDROGRAPHER. One who surveys coasts, &c., and constructs true maps and charts founded on astronomical observations. The hydrographer to the admiralty presides over the hydrographical office.
HYDROGRAPHICAL CHARTS or Maps. Usually called sea-charts, are projections of some part of the sea and its neighbouring coast for the use of navigation, and therefore the depth of water and nature of the bottom are minutely noted.
HYDROGRAPHICAL OFFICE. A department of the admiralty where the labours of the marine surveyors of the Royal Navy are collected and published.
HYDROGRAPHY. The science of marine surveying, requiring the principal points to be astronomically fixed.
HYDROLOGY. That part of physics which explains the properties of water, and is usually divided into hydrostatics and hydraulics. The former treats of weighing water and fluids in general, and of ascertaining their specific gravities; the latter shows the manner of conveying water from one place to another.
HYDROMETER. An instrument constructed to measure the specific gravities of fluids. That used at sea for testing the amount of salt in the water is a glass tube containing a scale, the bottom of the tube swelling out into two bulbs, of which the lower is laden with shot, which causes the instrument to float perpendicularly, and as it displaces its own weight of water, of course it sinks deeper as the water is lighter, which is recorded by the scale.
HYGRE. (See Bore and Eagre.) An effect of counter-currents.
HYGROMETER. An instrument for ascertaining the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere.
HYPERBOLA. One of the conic sections formed by cutting a cone by a plane which is so inclined to the axis, that when produced it cuts also the opposite cone, or the cone which is the continuation of the former, on the opposite side of the vertex.
HYPOTHECA. A mortgage. In the civil law, was where the thing pledged remained with the debtor.
HYPOTHECATION. An authority to the master, amounting almost to a power of the absolute disposal of the ship in a foreign country; he may hypothecate not only the hull, but his freight and cargo, for necessary and urgent repairs.
HYTHE. A pier or wharf to lade or unlade wares at [from the Anglo-Saxon hyd, coast or haven].
[398]