L. The three L's were formerly vaunted by seamen who despised the use of nautical astronomy; viz. lead, latitude, and look-out, all of them admirable in their way. Dr. or Captain Halley added the fourth L—the greatly desired longitude.

LAAS. An obsolete term for an illegal net or snare.

LABARUM. A standard in early days.

LABBER, To. To struggle in water, as a fish when caught. To splash.

LABOUR. In the relative mechanical efforts of the human body labouring in various posture, 6821⁄3 have been given for the rowing effort, 476 for the effort at a winch, and 2091⁄3 for the effort at a pump.

LABOURING. The act of a ship's working, pitching, or rolling heavily,[428] in a turbulent sea, by which the masts, and even the hull, are greatly endangered.

LABOURSOME. Said of a ship which is subject to roll and pitch violently in a heavy sea, either from some defect in her construction, or improper stowage of her hold.

LACE, To. To apply a bonnet by lacing it to a sail. Also, to beat or punish with a rattan or rope's-end. Also, the trimmings of uniforms.

LACHES. In law, loose practice, or where parties let matters sleep for above seven years, when by applying to the admiralty court they might have compelled the production of an account.

LACING. Rope or cord used to lace a sail to a gaff, or a bonnet to a sail. Also, one of the principal pieces that compose the knee of the head, running up as high as the top of the hair-bracket. Also, a piece of compass or knee timber, fayed to the back of the figure-head and the knee of the head, and bolted to each.

LACUSTRINE. Belonging or referring to a lake.

LADDER. The accommodation ladder is a sort of light staircase occasionally fixed on the gangway. It is furnished with rails and man-ropes; the lower end of it is kept at a proper distance from the ship's side by iron bars or braces to render it more convenient. (See Gangway. )—Forecastle-ladder and hold-ladder, for getting into or out of those parts of a ship.

—Jacob's ladder, abaft top-gallant masts, where no ratlines are provided. —Quarter or stern ladders. Two ladders of rope, suspended from the right and left side of a ship's stern, whereby to get into the boats which are moored astern.

LADDER-WAYS. The hatchways, scuttles or other openings in the decks, wherein the ladders are placed.

LADE. Anglo-Saxon lædan, to pour out. The mouth of a channel or drain. To lade a boat, is to throw water out.

LADE-GORN, or Lade-pail. A bucket with a long handle to lade water with.

LADEN. The state of a ship when charged with materials equal to her capacity. If the goods be heavy, her burden is determined by weight; but if light, she carries as much as she can conveniently stow. A ton in measure is estimated at 2000 lbs. in weight; a vessel of 200 tons ought therefore to carry a weight equal to 400,000 lbs.

; but if she cannot float high enough with as great a quantity of it as her hold will contain, then a diminution of it becomes necessary. Vessels carry heavy goods by the ton of 20 cwt. , but lighter goods by a ton of cubic feet, which varies according to the custom of the port; in London it is 40, in India from 50 to 52, depending on the goods. Vessels can carry (not safely) twice their tonnage.

LADEN IN BULK. A cargo neither in casks, bales, nor cases, but lying loose in the hold, only defended from wet by mats and dunnage. Such are usually cargoes of salt, corn, &c.

LADIA. An unwieldy boat in Russia, for transporting the produce of the interior.[429]

LADIE'S LADDER. Shrouds rattled too closely.

LADING. A vessel's cargo.

LADLE, for a Gun. An instrument for charging with loose powder; formed of a cylindrical sheet of copper-tube fitted to the end of a long staff.—Paying-ladle. An iron ladle with a long channelled spout opposite to the handle; it is used to pour melted pitch into the seams.

LADRON. A term for thief, adopted from the Spanish.

LADRONE SHIP. Literally a pirate, but it is the usual epithet applied by the Chinese to a man-of-war.

LADY OF THE GUN-ROOM. A gunner's mate, who takes charge of the after-scuttle, where gunners' stores are kept.

LAGAN, or Lagam. Anglo-Saxon liggan. A term in derelict law for goods which are sunk, with a buoy attached, that they may be recovered. Also, things found at the bottom of the sea. Ponderous articles which sink with the ship in wreck.

LAGGERS. On canals, men who lie on their backs on the top of the lading, and pushing against the bridges and tunnels pass the boats through. Also, a transported convict; a lazy fellow.—To lag. To loiter.

LAGGIN. The end of the stave outside a cask or tub.

LAGOON. An inland broad expanse of salt water, usually shallow, and connected with the sea by one or more channels, or washes over the reef.

LAGOON ISLANDS. Those produced by coral animals; they are of various shapes, belted with coral, frequently with channels by which ships may enter, and lie safely inside. They are often studded with the cocoa-nut palm. (See Atolls.)

LAGUNES. The shallows which extend round Venice; their depth between the city and the mainland is 3 to 6 feet in general; they are occasioned by the quantities of sand carried down by the rivers which descend from the Alps, and fall into the Adriatic along its north-western shores.

LAG-WOOD. The larger sticks from the head of an oak-tree when felled.

LAID. A fisherman's name for the pollack. Also, a term in rope-making, the twist being the lay; single-laid, is one strand; hawser-laid, three strands twisted into a rope; cablet-laid, three ropes laid together; this is also termed water-laid.

LAID ABACK. See Aback.

LAID TO. A term used sometimes for hove to, but when a vessel lays to the sails are kept full. As in a gale of wind, under staysails, or close reefs, &c.

LAID UP. A vessel dismantled and moored in a harbour, either for want of employment, or as unfit for further service.

LAKE. A large inland expanse of water, with or without communication with the sea. A lake, strictly considered, has no visible affluent or effluent; but many of the loughs of Ireland, and lochs of Scotland, partake of the nature of havens or gulfs. Moreover, some lakes have affluents without outlets, and others have an outlet without any visible affluent; therein differing from lagoons and ponds. The water of lakes entirely[430] encompassed by land is sometimes salt; that communicating with the sea by means of rivers is fresh.

LAKE-LAWYER. A voracious fish in the lakes of America, called also the mud-fish.

LAMANTIN. A name used by the early voyagers for the manatee.

LAMB'S-WOOL SKY. A collection of white orbicular masses of cloud.

LAMBUSTING. A starting with a rope's-end.

LAMPER-EEL. A common corruption of lamprey.

LAMPREY. An eel-like cyclostomous fish, belonging to the genus Petromyzon. There are several species, some marine, others fluviatile.

LAMPRON. The old name for the lamprey.

LAMP-SHELLS. A name applied to the Terebratulæ of zoologists.

LANCE-KNIGHT. A foot-soldier of old.

LANCEPESADO. From Ital. lancia spezzata, or broken lance; originally a soldier who, having broken his lance on the enemy, and lost his horse in fight, was entertained as a volunteer till he could remount himself; hence lance-corporal, one doing corporal's duty, on the pay of a private.

LANCHANG. A Malay proa, carrying twenty-five or thirty men.

LAND. In a general sense denotes terra firma, as distinguished from sea; but, also, land-laid, or to lay the land, is just to lose sight of it. —Land-locked is when land lies all round the ship. —Land is shut in, signifies that another point of land hides that from which the ship came. —The ship lies land to, implies so far from shore that it can only just be discerned.

—To set the land, is to see by compass how it bears. —To make the land. To sight it after an absence. —To land on deck. A nautical anomaly, meaning to lower casks or weighty goods on deck from the tackles.

LAND-BLINK. On Arctic voyages, a peculiar atmospheric brightness on approaching land covered with snow; usually more yellow than ice-blink.

LAND-BREEZE. A current of air which, in the temperate zones, and still more within the tropics, regularly sets from the land towards the sea during the night, and this even on opposite points of the coast. It results from land losing its heat quicker than water; hence the air above it becomes heavier, and rushes towards the sea to establish equilibrium.

LANDES. The heathy track between Bordeaux and the Basses Pyrénées; but also denoting uncultivated or unreclaimable spots.

LAND-FALL. Making the land. "A good land-fall" signifies making the land at or near the place to which the course was intended, while "a bad land-fall" implies the contrary.

LAND-FEATHER. A sea-cove.

LAND HO! The cry when land is first seen.

LAND-ICE. Flat ice connected with the shore, within which there is no channel.

LANDING-STRAKE. In boats, the upper strake of plank but one.

LANDING-SURVEYOR. The custom-house officer who appoints and superintends the landing-waiters.[431]

LANDING-WAITERS. Persons appointed from the custom-house to inspect goods discharged from foreign parts.

LAND-LOUPER. [Dutch.] Meaning he who flies from this country for crime or debt, but not to be confounded with land-lubber (which see).

LAND-LUBBER. A useless longshorer; a vagrant stroller. Applied by sailors to the mass of landsmen, especially those without employment.

LANDMARK. Any steeple, tree, windmill, or other object, serving to guide the seaman into port, or through a channel.

LAND-SHARKS. Crimps, pettifogging attorneys, slopmongers, and the canaille infesting the slums of sea-port towns.

LAND-SLIP. The fall of a quantity of land from a cliff or declivity; the land sliding away so as often to carry trees with it still standing upright.

LANDSMEN. The rating formerly of those on board a ship who had never been at sea, and who were usually stationed among the waisters or after-guard. Some of those used to small craft are more ready about the decks than in going aloft. The rating is now Second-class Ordinary.

LAND-TURN. A wind that blows in the night, at certain times, in most hot countries.

LAND-WAITERS. See Landing-waiters.

LANE. "Make a lane there!" An order for men to open a passage and allow a person to pass through.

LANE or Vein of Ice. A narrow channel between two fields. Any open cracks or separations of floe offering navigation.

LANGREL, or Langrage. A villanous kind of shot, consisting of various fragments of iron bound together, so as to fit the bore of the cannon from which it is to be discharged. It is seldom used but by privateers.

LANGUET. A small slip of metal on the hilt of a sword, which overhangs the scabbard; the ear of a sword.

LANIARD, or Lanniers. A short piece of rope or line made fast to anything to secure it, or as a handle. Such are the laniards of the gun-locks, of the gun-ports, of the buoy, of the cat-hook, &c. The principal laniards are those which secure the shrouds and stays, termed laniards of lower, top-mast, or other rigging. (See Dead-eye and Heart.)

LANTCHA. A large Malay craft of the Indian Archipelago.

LANTERN. Ships of war had formerly three poop-lanterns, and one in the main-top, to designate the admiral's ship; also deck-lanterns, fighting-lanterns, magazine-lanterns, &c. The signal-lanterns are peculiar. The great ship lantern, hanging to the poop, appears on the Trajan Column.

LANTERN-BRACES. Iron bars to secure the lanterns.

LANTERN-FISH. A west-country name for the smooth sole.

LANTIONE. A Chinese rowing-boat.

LANYARDS. See Laniard.

LAP-JOINTED. The plates of an iron vessel overlapping each other, as in clincher work.

LAPLAND WITCHES. People in Lapland who profess to sell fair winds, thus retaining a remnant of ancient classical superstition.[432]