TRAN. A Norwegian word for fish-oil, adopted in our northern fisheries.

TRANKEH, or Trankies. A large boat of the Gulf of Persia.

TRANSFER. There can be no legal transfer of property captured at sea, without a legal condemnation in the admiralty court, and therefore the sale or occupancy of vessels and goods by pirates does not alter or extinguish the loser's right of property. Transfer is the legal state of a registered ship, or shares in her, to persons qualified to be owners of British ships. Also, the turning over men or companies from one ship to another.

TRANSHIPMENT OF TREASURE. Ships on a distant station receiving treasure for conveyance to some other man-of-war about to proceed to England, from another port on the same station. Both captains partake of the freight, relatively as to distance and deposit.

TRANSIRE. A custom-house document specifying the goods shipped by a coasting vessel, docketted with a sufferance for their discharge on arriving at the place of destination.

TRANSIT. The precise culmination of a heavenly body over the meridian of a place.

TRANSIT of Mercury or Venus. These planets being situated between the sun and the earth, occasionally appear to us to pass over his disc, from east to west.

TRANSIT INSTRUMENT. A telescope fitted with vertical wires, and revolving on an axis in the plane of the meridian, with which the time may be obtained by observing the passage of the stars and planets compared with their computed time.

TRANSITU. Goods of an enemy's colony surrendering between the time of sailing and capture do not change their hostile character in transitu; though the owners may have become British subjects by capitulation, upon the principle that the national character cannot be altered in transitu. (See Stoppage in Transitu.)

TRANSMISSION. The property in a merchantman, or a share therein, transmitted in consequence of the authenticated death, bankruptcy, or insolvency of any registered owner.

TRANSOM. The vane of a cross-staff, made to slide along it by means of a square socket; it may be set to any of the graduations.[694]

TRANSOM of a Gun-carriage. A cross piece of timber uniting the cheeks; generally between the trunnion-holes and the fore axle-tree.

TRANSOM-KNEES. Curved timbers, or pieces of iron, which bind and connect the ship's quarter to the transoms, being bolted to the latter, and to the after timbers. Knees which have one arm applied to either end of a transom, and the other running diagonally along, and bolted to the ship's side.

TRANSOMS. 'Thwart-ship pieces forming the buttocks of a ship, extended across the stern-post, to which they are bolted, and give her after-part the figure most suitable to the service for which she is intended. —Deck-transom. That on which all the lower deck planks are rabbeted. The first, second, third transoms, &c.

, are respectively below the preceding. —Helm-post transom. That which is at the head of the stern-post, and forms the upper part of the gun-room ports. —Wing-transom. The next below, and forming the lower part.

TRANSPORT. A private ship hired by government for carrying troops, stores, and munitions of war. The proportion of tonnage for troops embarked in transports is two tons per man.

TRANSPORTING. Moving a ship by means of hawsers only, from one part of a harbour to another.

TRANSPORTING-BLOCKS. Two snatch-blocks, fitted one on each side above the taffrail, to admit a hawser, when transporting a ship.

TRANSPORT OFFICE. Formerly a department under government directed by commissioners, who chartered vessels and appointed officers for conveying troops to or from this country: they were also to provide accommodation and provision for all prisoners of war, as well as to regulate their exchange by cartel, &c. Now under a naval director of transport.

TRANS-SHIP, To. To remove a cargo from one ship to another.

TRANSVERSE AXIS. The first or principal diameter of an ellipse; that which crosses it lengthwise. (See Major Axis.)

TRANSVERSE SECTION. A 'thwart-ship view of any part of a ship when cut by a plane at right angles to the keel.

TRANTER. One who carries fish for sale.

TRAP-CREEL. A basket for catching lobsters.

TRAPEZIUM. A quadrilateral figure that has only two of its four sides parallel.

TRAPEZOID, or Tablet. Has all its four sides and angles unequal, and no sides parallel.

TRAVADO, or Travat [from tornado]. A heavy squall, with sudden gusts of wind, lightning, and rain, on the coast of North America; like the African tornado, it commences with a black cloud in calm weather and a clear sky.

TRAVEL, To. For a thimble, block, &c., to run along on beams or ropes.

TRAVELLER. One or more iron thimbles with a rope spliced round them, sometimes forming a kind of tail, but more generally a species of grummet.—Traveller of boat's masts, jib-boom, &c. An iron ring fitted[695] so as to slip up and down a spar, to run in and out on a boom or gaff, for the purpose of extending or drawing in the outer corner or tack of the sail.

TRAVELLER-IRON. To a cutter's fore-sail, boom-mainsail, or spanker-boom; generally termed traveller horse. (See Horse.)

TRAVELLING-BACKSTAYS, are generally the breast-backstays, which set up with a runner purchase in the channels on the weather side; that to leeward is let go in stays. The traveller is a strong parrel-strop which passes round the mast, and through two thimbles of which the breast backstays reeve. As the yard is hoisted this slips up, but when a reef is taken in it is rode down by the feet of two men close to the tye-block, and thus supports the mast from the top-rim to the parrel.

TRAVELLING-GUYS. The jib traveller guys are seized on to the traveller, and are shortened in and set up when the jib is eased in.

TRAVELLING-MARTINGALE. A similar contrivance adapted to a martingale to support the jib-boom in that particular part where the jib-tack is fixed. (See Martingale.)

TRAVERSE. Denotes the several courses a ship makes under the changes of wind or manœuvres. It is self-evident that if she steered a course there would be no traverse. But her course being north, and the wind from the north, it is evident she could have but two courses open to her, E. N.

E. , or W. N. W. The reduction of the distances run on each course, corrected for variation and lee-way, constitutes the traverse table, from which the reckoning is deduced each day up to noon.

From this zig-zag set of lines we have the term Tom Cox's traverse (which see). Also, in fortification, a mound, often of parapet form, raised to cover from enfilade or reverse fire. Also, to traverse a gun or mortar. To alter its direction from right to left, or vice versâ, with handspikes, tackles, &c.

TRAVERSE A YARD, To. To get it fore and aft.

TRAVERSE-BOARD. A thin circular piece of board, marked with all the points of the compass, and having eight holes bored in each, and eight small pegs hanging from the centre of the board. It is used to determine the different courses run by a ship during a watch, by sticking one peg into the point on which the ship has run each half hour. It is useful in light and variable winds.

TRAVERSE-HORSE. See Jack-stays.

TRAVERSE QUESTIONS. Cross examinations at a court-martial.

TRAVERSE SAILING. Resolving a traverse is merely a general term for the determination of a single course equivalent to a series of successive courses steered, whatever be the manner of finding the lengths of the lines forming the triangles.

TRAVERSE-TABLE. A table which gives the difference of latitude and departure corresponding to a certain course and distance, and vice versâ. It is generally calculated to every quarter of a point or degree, and up to a distance of 300 miles.

TRAVERSE-WIND. A wind which sets right in to any harbour, and prevents the departure of vessels.[696]

TRAVERSIER. A small fishing vessel on the coast of Rochelle.

TRAVERSUM. A archaic term for a ferry.

TRAWL. A strong net or bag dragged along the bottom of fishing-banks, by means of a rope, a beam, and a pair of iron trawl-heads.

TRAYERES. An archaic term for a sort of long-boat.

TREADING A SEAM, or Dancing Pedro-pee. See Pedro-a-pied.

TREAD OF A SHIP OR KEEL. The length of her keel.

TREAD WATER, To. The practice in swimming by which the body is sustained upright, and the head kept above the surface.

TREBLE-BLOCK. One fitted with three sheaves or rollers.

TREBLING. Planking thrice around a whaler's bows in order the more effectually to withstand the pressure of the ice.

TREBUCHET. An engine of old to cast stones and batter walls.

TRECK-SCHUYT. A canal boat in Holland for carrying goods and passengers.

TREEING. In the Arctic regions, refraction sometimes causes the ice to resemble a huge wall, which is considered an indication of open water in that quarter.

TREE-NAILS. Long cylindrical oak or other hard wood pins, driven through the planks and timbers of a vessel to connect her various parts.

TREE-NAIL WEDGE. A cross is cut in the tree-nail end, and wedges driven in, caulked; or sometimes a wedge is driven into its inner end, and the tree-nail is thus secured.

TREES OF A SHIP. The chess-trees, the cross-trees, the rough-trees, the trestle-trees, and the waste-trees.

TRELAWNEY. A poor mess composed of barley-meal, water, and salt.

TRENCHES. The earthworks by which a besieger approaches a fortified place; generally half sunk in the ground, the other half formed by the excavated earth thrown, as a parapet, to the front.

TRENCHMAN. See Trugman.

TRENCH THE BALLAST, To. To divide the ballast in a ship's hold to get at a leak, or to trim and stow it.

TREND, To. To bend or incline, speaking of a coast; as, "The land trends to the south-west." Also, the course of a current or stream.

TREND of an Anchor. The lower end of the shank, where it thickens towards the arms, usually at one-third from the crown. In round terms, it is the same distance on the shank from the throat that the arm measures from the throat to the bill.

TRENNEL. See Tree-nails.

TREPANG. An eastern name for the Holothuria, or bêche-de-mer, frequently called the sea-slug; used as an article of food by the Chinese.

TRESTLE-TREES. Two strong bars of timber fixed horizontally fore-and-aft on each side of the lower mast-head, to support the top-mast, the lower cross-trees, and top; smaller trestle-trees are fitted on a topmast-head to support the topgallant-mast and top-mast cross-trees.[697]

TRIANGLE, or Trigon. A geometrical figure consisting of three sides and as many angles. Also, a machine formed by spars for lifting weights, water-casks, &c. Also, a stage hung round a mast, to scrape, paint, or grease it.

TRIANGULUM. One of the ancient northern constellations.

TRIATIC STAY. A rope secured at each end of the heads of the fore and main masts, with thimbles spliced in its bight to hook the stay-tackles to. This term applies also to the jumper-stay, extending in schooners from the mainmast-head to the foremast-head, clearing the end of the fore gaff.

TRIBUTARY. Any stream, large or small, which directly or indirectly joins another stream.

TRICE, To. To haul or lift up by means of a lashing or line.

TRICE UP—LIE OUT! The order to lift the studding-sail boom-ends while the top-men move out on the yards, preparatory to reefing or furling.

TRICING BATTENS. Those used for the hammocks, or tricing up the bags between the beams on the lower-deck.

TRICING-LINE. A small cord, generally passing through a block or thimble, and used to hoist up any object to render it less inconvenient; such are the tricing-lines of the yard-tackle, &c.

TRICK. The time allotted to a man on duty at the helm. The same as spell.

TRICKER. An old spelling for the trigger of a gun.

TRIE. An old word for trim.—Out of trie, crank.