HARPOON, or Harpago. A spear or javelin with a barbed point, used to strike whales and other fish. The harpoon is furnished with a long shank, and has at one end a broad and flat triangular head, sharpened at both edges so as to penetrate the whale with facility, but blunt behind to prevent its cutting out. To the other end a fore-ganger is bent, to which is fastened a long cord called the whale-line, which lies carefully coiled in the boat in such a manner as to run out without being interrupted or entangled. Several coils, each 130 fathoms of whale-line (soft laid and of clean silky fibre) are in readiness; the instant the whale is struck the men cant the oars, so that the roll may not immerse them in the water.

The line, which has a turn round the bollard, flies like lightning, and is intensely watched. One man pours water on the smoking bollard, another is ready with a sharp axe to cut, and the others see that the lines run free. Seven or eight coils have been run out before the whale "sounds," or strikes bottom, when he rises again to breathe, and probably gets a similar dose. —Gun harpoon. A weapon used for the same purpose as the preceding, but it is fired out of a gun, instead of being thrown by hand; it is made entirely of steel, and has a chain or long shackle attached to it, to which the whale-line is fastened.

Greener's harpoon-gun is a kind of wall-piece fixed in a crutch, which steps into the bow-bollard of the whale-boat. The harpoon projects about four inches beyond the muzzle. It consists of its barbed point attached to a long link, with a solid button at its opposite end to fit the gun; on one rod of this link is a ring which runs to the muzzle, and is there attached to the whale-line by a thong of seal or walrus hide, wet. The gun being fired, the harpoon is projected, the ring sliding up to the button, when the line follows. Some of these harpoons or other engines have grenades—glass globules with prussic acid or other chemicals—which sicken the whale instantly, and little trouble ensues.

HARPOONER, Harponeer, or Harpineer. The expert bowman in a whale-boat, whose duty it is to throw or fire the harpoon.

HARP-SEAL. The Phoca grœnlandica, a species of seal from the Arctic seas; so called from the form of a dark-brown mark upon its back.

HARQUEBUSS, or Arquebuss. Something larger than a musket. Sometimes called caliver. (See Arquebuss.)

HARR, or Harl. A sea-storm, from a northern term for snarling, in allusion to the noise. Also, a cold thick mist or fog in easterly winds; the haar.

HARRY-BANNINGS. A north-country name for sticklebacks.

HARRY-NET. A net with such small meshes, and so formed, as to take even the young and small fish.

HARVEST-MOON. The full moon nearest the autumnal equinox, when for several successive evenings she rises at the same hour; and this name is given in consequence of the supposed advantage of the additional length of moonlight to agriculture.

HASEGA. A corruption of asseguay (which see).

HASK. An archaism for a fish-basket.

HASLAR HAGS. The nurses of the naval hospital Haslar.

HASLAR HOSPITAL. A fine establishment near Gosport, for the reception and cure of the sick and wounded of the Royal Navy.

HASP. A semicircular clamp turning in an eye-bolt in the stem-head of a sloop or boat, and fastened by a forelock in order to secure the bowsprit down to the bows. (See Span-shackle.)

HASTAN. The Manx or Erse term for a large eel or conger.

HASTY-PUDDING. A batter made of flour or oatmeal stirred in boiling water, and eaten with treacle or sugar at sea. This dish is not altogether to be despised in need, although Lord Dorset—the sailor poet—speaks of it disparagingly:

HATCH. A half-door. A contrivance for trapping salmon. (See Heck.)

HATCH-BARS. To secure the hatches; are padlocked and sealed.

HATCH-BOAT. A sort of small vessel known as a pilot-boat, having a deck composed almost entirely of hatches.

HATCH-DECK. Gun brigs had hatches instead of lower decks.

HATCHELLING. The combing and preparing hemp for rope-making.

HATCHES. Flood-gates set in a river to stop the current of water. Also, coverings of grating, or close hatches to seal the holds.—To lie under hatches, stowed in the hold. Terms used figuratively for being in distress and death.

HATCHET-FASHION. Cutting at the heads of antagonists, instead of thrusting.

HATCH-RINGS. Rings to lift the hatches by, or replace them.

HATCHWAY. A square or oblong opening in the middle of the deck[371] of a ship, of which there are generally three—the fore, main, and after—affording passages up and down from one deck to another, and again descending into the hold. The coverings over these openings are called hatches. Goods of bulk are let down into the hold by the hatchways. To lay anything in the hatchway, is to put it so that the hatches cannot be approached or opened.

The hatches of a smaller kind are distinguished by the name of scuttles.

HATCHWAY-NETTINGS. Nettings sometimes placed over the hatchways instead of gratings, for security and circulation of air. They arrest the fall of any one from a deck above.

HATCHWAY-SCREENS. Pieces of fear-nought, or thick woollen cloth, put round the hatchways of a man-of-war in time of action, to screen the passages to the magazine.

HATCHWAY-STOPPERS. Those for a hempen cable are fitted as a ring-stopper, only a larger rope. They are rove through a hole on each side of the coamings, in the corner of the hatchway; and both tails, made selvagee-fashion, are dogged along the cable. When a chain-cable is used, the stopper works from a beam on the lower deck.

HAT-MONEY. A word sometimes used for primage, or the trifling payment received by the master of a ship for care of goods.

HAUBERK. See Auberk.

HAUGH. Flat or marshy ground by the side of a river.

HAUL, To. An expression peculiar to seamen, implying to pull or bowse at a single rope, without the assistance of blocks or other mechanical powers upon it; as "haul in," "haul down," "haul up," "haul aft," "haul together." (See Bowse, Hoist, and Rouse.) A vessel hauls her wind by trimming the yards and sails so as to lie nearer to, or close to the wind, and by the power of the rudder shaping her course accordingly.

HAUL ABOARD THE FORE AND MAIN TACKS. This is to haul them forward, and down to the chess-trees on the weather-side.

HAUL AFT A SHEET. To pull it in more towards the stern, so as to trim the sail nearer to the wind.

HAULAGE. A traction-way.

HAUL-BOWLINGS. The old name for the able-bodied seamen.

HAUL HER WIND. Said of a vessel when she comes close upon the wind.—Haul your wind, or haul to the wind, signifies that the ship's head is to be brought nearer to the wind—a very usual phrase when she has been going free.

HAUL IN, To. To sail close to the wind, in order to approach nearer to an object.

HAULING DOWN VACANCY. The colloquialism expressive of the promotion of a flag-lieutenant and midshipman on an admiral's hauling down his flag.

HAULING-LINE. A line made fast to any object, to be hauled nearer or on board, as a hawser, a spar, &c.

HAULING SHARP. Going upon half allowance of food.[372]

HAUL MY WIND. An expression when an individual is going upon a new line of action. To avoid a quarrel or difficulty.

HAUL OF ALL! An order to brace round all the yards at once—a manœuvre sometimes used in tacking, or on a sudden change of wind; it requires a strong crew.

HAUL OFF, To. To sail closer to the wind, in order to get further from any object.

HAUL OUT TO LEEWARD! In reefing top-sails, the cry when the weather earing is passed.

HAUL ROUND. Said when the wind is gradually shifting towards any particular point of the compass. Edging round a danger.

HAULS AFT, or Veers aft. Said of the wind when it draws astern.

HAULSER. The old orthography for hawser.

HAULS FORWARD. Said of the wind when it draws before the beam.

HAUL UNDER THE CHAINS. This is a phrase signifying a ship's working and straining on the masts and shrouds, so as to make the seams open and shut as she rolls.

HAULYARDS. See Halliards.

HAUNCES. The breakings of the rudder abaft.

HAUNCH. A sudden fall or break, as from the drifts forward and aft to the waist. The same as hance.

HAVEN [Anglo-Saxon, hæfen]. A safe refuge from the violence of wind and sea; much the same as harbour, though of less importance. A good anchorage rather than place of perfect shelter. Milford Haven is an exception.

HAVENET. This word has appeared in vocabularies as a small haven.

HAVEN-SCREAMER. The sea-gull, called hæfen by the Anglo-Saxons.

HAVERSACK. A coarse linen bag with a strap fitting over the shoulder worn by soldiers or small-arm men in marching order, for carrying their provision, instead of the knapsack.

HAVILLER. See Huffler.

HAVOC. Formerly a war cry, and the signal for indiscriminate slaughter. Thus Shakspeare,

HAWK'S-BILL. Chelone imbricata, a well-known turtle frequenting the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, so named from having a small mouth like the beak of a hawk; it produces the tortoise-shell of commerce. The flesh is indifferent, but the eggs very good.

HAWSE. This is a term of great meaning. Strictly, it is that part of a vessel's bow where holes are cut for her cables to pass through. It is also generally understood to imply the situation of the cables before the ship's stem, when she is moored with two anchors out from forward, one on the starboard, and the other on the port bow. It also denotes any small distance between her head and the anchors employed to ride her, as "he has anchored in our hawse," "the brig fell athwart our hawse," &c.

Also, said of a vessel a little in advance of the stem; as, she sails athwart[373] hawse, or has anchored in the hawse. If a vessel drives at her anchors into the hawse of another she is said to "foul the hawse" of the vessel riding there; hence the threat of a man-of-war's-man, "If you foul my hawse, I'll cut your cable," no merchant vessel being allowed to approach a ship-of-war within certain limits, and never to make fast to the government buoys. —A bold hawse is when the holes are high above the water. "Freshen hawse," or "veer out more cable," is said when part of the cable that lies in the hawse is fretted or chafed, and more should be veered out, so that another part of it may rest in the hawse. "Freshen hawse" also means, clap a service on or round the cable in the hawses to prevent it from fretting; hemp cables only are rounded or cackled.

Also, a dram after fatiguing duty. "Clearing hawse," is untwisting or disentangling two cables that come through different holes, and make a foul hawse.

HAWSE-BAGS. Canvas bags filled with oakum, used in heavy seas to stop the hawse-holes and prevent the water coming in.

HAWSE-BLOCKS. Bucklers, or pieces of wood made to fit over the hawse-holes when at sea, to back the hawse-plugs.

HAWSE-BOLSTERS. Planks above and below the hawse-holes. Also, pieces of canvas stuffed with oakum and roped round, for plugging when the cables are bent.

HAWSE-BOX, or Naval Hood. Pieces of plank bolted outside round each of the hawse-holes, to support the projecting part of the hawse-pipe.

HAWSE-BUCKLERS. Plugs of wood to fit the hawse-holes, and hatches to bolt over, to keep the sea from spurting in.

HAWSE-FALLEN. To ride hawse-fallen, is when the water breaks into the hawse in a rough sea, driving all before it.

HAWSE-FULL. Riding hawse-full; pitching bows under.