GUARD-BOAT. A boat appointed to row the rounds amongst the ships of war in any harbour, &c., to observe that their officers keep a good look-out, calling to the guard-boat as she passes, and not suffering her crew to come on board without previously having communicated the watch-word of the night. Also, a boat employed to enforce the quarantine regulations.

GUARD-BOOK. Report of guard; a copy of which is delivered at the admiral's office by the officer of the last guard. Also, a full set of his accounts kept by a warrant-officer for the purpose of passing them.

GUARD-FISH. A corruption of the word gar-fish.

GUARDIAN of the Cinque Ports. Otherwise lord warden (which see).

GUARD-IRONS. Curved bars of iron placed over the ornaments of a ship to defend them from damage.

GUARDO. A familiar term applied equally to a guard-ship or any person belonging to her. It implies "harbour-going;" an easy life.

GUARDO-MOVE. A trick upon a landsman, generally performed in a guard-ship.

GUARD-SHIP. A vessel of war appointed to superintend the marine affairs in a harbour, and to visit the ships which are not commissioned every night; she is also to receive seamen who are impressed in time of war. In the great ports she carries the flag of the commander-in-chief. Each ship takes the guard in turn at 9 A. M.

; the vessel thus on duty hoists the union-jack at the mizen, and performs the duties afloat for twenty-four hours. The officer of the guard is accountable to the admiral for all transactions on the water during his guard.

GUBB, or Gubben. The Erse term for a young sea-gull.[354]

GUBBER. One who gathers oakum, driftwood, &c., along a beach. The word also means black mud.

GUDDLE, To. To catch fish with the hands by groping along a stream's bank.

GUDGE, To. To poke or prod for fish under stones and banks of a river.

GUDGEON. The Gobio fluviatilis, a well-known river-fish, 6 or 7 inches in length.

GUDGEONS. The metal braces with eyes bolted upon the stern-post for the pintles of the rudder to work in, as upon hinges. Also, the notches made in the carrick-bitts for receiving the metal bushes wherein the spindle of a windlass works.

GUEBRES. Fire-worshippers. (See Parsees.)

GUERDON. A reward or recompense for good service.

GUERILLA. Originally an irregular warfare, but now used mostly for the irresponsible kind of partisan who carries it on.

GUERITE, or Galita. In fortification, a projecting turret on the top of the escarp, whence a sentry may observe the outside of the rampart.

GUERNSEY-FROCK. See Jersey.

GUESS-WARP, or Guest-rope. A rope carried to a distant object, in order to warp a vessel towards it, or to make fast a boat. (See Chest-rope.)

GUESTLINGS. The name of certain meetings held at the Cinque Ports.

GUEST-WARP BOOM. A swinging spar (lower studding-boom) rigged from the ship's side with a warp for boats to ride by.

GUFFER. A British sea-fish of the blenny tribe, common under stones at low-water mark, remarkable as being ovo-viviparous.

GUIDE. See Floor-guide.

GUIDE-RODS. The regulators of the cross-head of an engine's air-pump.

GUIDES. Men supposed to know the country and its roads employed to direct a body of men on their march. The French and Belgians have "corps de guides."

GUIDON. The swallow-tailed silk flag in use by dragoon regiments, instead of a standard. Also, the sergeant bearing the same.

GUIDOR. A name in our old statutes synonymous with conder (which see).

GUILLEM. A sea-fowl. (See Lavy.)

GUILLEMOT. A web-footed diving sea-bird allied to the auks.

GUIMAD. A small fish of the river Dee.

GUINEA-BOAT. A fast-rowing galley, of former times, expressly built for smuggling gold across the Channel, in use at Deal.

GUINEAMAN. A negro slave-ship.

GUINEA-PIGS. The younger midshipmen of an Indiaman.

GUIST. The same as guess or guest (which see).

GULDEN. A name for a water-fowl.

GULF, or Gulph. A capacious bay, and sometimes taking the name of a sea when it is very extensive; such are the Euxine or Black Sea, otherwise called the Gulf of Constantinople; the Adriatic Sea, called also the Gulf[355] of Venice; the Mediterranean is itself a prodigious specimen. A gulf is, strictly speaking, distinguished from a sea in being smaller, and from a bay in being larger and deeper than it is broad. It is observed that the sea is always most dangerous near gulfs, from the currents being penned up by the shores.

GULF-STREAM. Is especially referable to that of Mexico, the waters of which flow in a warm stream at various velocities over the banks between Cuba and America, past the Bermudas, touch the tail of the great bank of Newfoundland, and thence in a sweep to Europe, part going north, and the other southerly down to the tropics again.

GULF-WEED. The Fucus natans, considered to belong to the Gulf Stream, and found floating in the Sargasso Sea in the North Atlantic. Many small crustacea live amongst it, and assume its bright orange-yellow hue.

GUL-GUL. A sort of chunam or cement made of pounded sea-shells mixed with oil, which hardens like a stone, and is put over a ship's bottom in India, so that worms cannot penetrate even when the copper is off.

GULL. A well-known sea-bird of the genus Larus; there are many species. Also, a large trout in the north. The name is, moreover, familiarly used for a lout easily deceived or cheated; thus Butler in Hudibras—

It is also applied to the washing away of earth by the violent flowing of water; the origin perhaps of the Kentish gull-stream.

GULLET. A small stream in a water-worn course.

GULL-SHARPER. One who preys upon Johnny Raws.

GULLY. The channels worn on the face of mountains by heavy rains. Also, a rivulet which empties itself into the sea.

GULLY SQUALL. Well known off tropical America in the Pacific, particularly abreast of the lakes of Leon, Nicaragua, &c. Monte Desolado gusts have dismantled many stout ships.

GULPIN. An awkward soldier; a weak credulous fellow [from the Gaelic golben, a novice].

GUM. "Shaking the gum out of a sail" is said of the effect of bad weather on new canvas.

GUMPUS. A fish, called also numscull, for allowing itself to be guddled.

GUN. The usual service name for a cannon (which see); it was originally called great gun, to distinguish it from the small or hand guns, muskets, blunderbusses, &c. The general construction for guns of cast metal is fairly represented by the old rule that the circumference at the breech ought to measure eleven calibres, at the trunnions nine, and at the muzzle seven, for iron; and in each instance two calibres less for brass guns. But the introduction of wrought-iron guns, built up with outer jackets of metal shrunk on one above another, is developing other names and proportions in the new artillery. (See Built-up Guns.

) The weight of these latter, though differently disposed, and required not so much for strength as for[356] modifying the recoil or shock to the carriage on discharge, is not very much less, proportionally, for heavy guns of full power, than that of the old ones, being about 11⁄4 cwt. of gun for every 1 lb. of shot; for light guns for field purposes it is about 3⁄4 cwt. for every 1 lb. of shot.

Guns are generally designated from the weight of the shot they discharge, though some few natures, introduced principally for firing shells, were distinguished by the diameter of their bore in inches; with the larger guns of the new system, in addition to this diameter, the weight in tons is also specified. —Gun, in north-country cant, meant a large flagon of ale, and son of a gun was a jovial toper: the term, owed its derivation to lads born under the breast of the lower-deck guns in olden times, when women were allowed to accompany their husbands. Even in 1820 the best petty officers were allowed this indulgence, about one to every hundred men. Gunners also, who superintended the youngsters, took their wives, and many living admirals can revert to kindness experienced from them. These "sons of a gun" were tars, and no mistake.

—Morning gun, a signal fired by an admiral or commodore at day-break every morning for the drums or bugles to sound the reveillé. A gun of like name and nature is generally in use in fortresses; as is also the evening gun, fired by an admiral or commodore at 9 P. M. in summer, and 8 P. M.

in winter, every night, on which the drums or bugles sound the retreat.

GUN AND HEAD MONEY. Given to the captors of an enemy's ship of war destroyed, or deserted, in fight. It was formerly assumed to be about £1000 per gun.

GUNBOAT. A light-draught boat fitted to carry one or more cannon in the bow, so as to cannonade an enemy while she is end-on. They are principally useful in fine weather, to cover the landing of troops, or such other occasions. They were formerly impelled by sails and sweeps but now by steam-power, which has generally increased their size, and much developed their importance. According to Froissart, cannon were fired from boats in the fourteenth century.

GUN-CHAMBERS. In early artillery, a movable chamber with a handle, like a paterero, used in loading at the breech. In more recent times the name has been used for the small portable mortars for firing salutes in the parks.

GUN-COTTON. An explosive compound, having some advantages over gunpowder, but so irregular hitherto in its action that it is at present used only for mining purposes. It consists of ordinary cotton treated with nitric and sulphuric acid and water, and has been named by chemists "pyroxylin," "nitro-cellulose," &c.

GUN-DECK. See Decks.

GUN-FIRE. The morning or evening guns, familiarly termed "the admiral falling down the hatchway."

GUN-GEAR. Everything pertaining to its handling.

GUN-HARPOON. See Harpoon.

GUN-LADLE. See Ladle.[357]

GUN-LOD. A vessel filled with combustibles, but rather for explosion than as a fire-ship.

GUN-METAL. The alloy from which brass guns are cast consists of 100 parts of copper to 10 of tin, retaining much of the tenacity of the former, and much harder than either of the components; but the late improved working of wrought-iron and steel has nearly superseded its application to guns.

GUNNADE. A short 32-pounder gun of 6 feet, introduced in 1814; afterwards termed the shell-gun.

GUNNEL. See Gunwale.

GUNNELL. A spotted ribbon-bodied fish, living under stones and among rocks.

GUNNER, of a Ship of War. A warrant-officer appointed to take charge of the ammunition and artillery on board; to keep the latter properly fitted, and to instruct the sailors in the exercise of the cannon. The warrant of chief-gunner is now given to first-class gunners. —Quarter-gunners. Men formerly placed under the direction of the gunner, one quarter-gunner being allowed to every four guns.

In the army, gunner is the proper title of a private soldier of the Royal Artillery, with the exception of those styled drivers.

GUNNER-FLOOK. A name among our northern fishermen for the Pleuronectes maximus, or turbot.

GUNNER'S DAUGHTER. The name of the gun to which boys were married, or lashed, to be punished.

GUNNER'S HANDSPIKE. Is shorter and flatter than the ordinary handspike, and is shod with iron at the point, so that it bites with greater certainty against the trucks of guns.

GUNNER'S MATE. A petty officer appointed to assist the gunner.

GUNNER'S PIECE. In destroying and bursting guns, means a fragment of the breech, which generally flies upward.

GUNNER'S QUADRANT. See Quadrant.

GUNNER'S TAILOR. An old rating for the man who made the cartridge-bags.

GUNNER'S YEOMAN. See Yeoman.

GUNNERY. The art of charging, pointing, firing, and managing artillery of all kinds.

GUNNERY-LIEUTENANT. "One who, having obtained a warrant from a gunnery ship, is eligible to large ships to assist specially in supervising the gunnery duties; he draws increased pay."