GOOLE. An old term for a breach in a sea-bank.

GOOSANDER. The Mergus merganser, a northern sea-fowl, allied to the duck, with a straight, narrow, and serrated bill, hooked at the point.

GOOSE-NECK. A curved iron, fitted outside the after-chains to receive a spare spar, properly the swinging boom, a davit. Also, a sort of iron hook fitted on the inner end of a boom, and introduced into a clamp of iron or eye-bolt, which encircles the mast; or is fitted to some other place in the ship, so that it may be unhooked at pleasure. It is used for various purposes, especially for guest-warps and swinging booms of all descriptions.

GOOSE-WINGS of a Sail. The situation of a course when the buntlines and lee-clue are hauled up, and the weather-clue down. The clues, or lower corners of a ship's main-sail or fore-sail, when the middle part is furled or tied up to the yard. The term is also applied to the fore and main sails of a schooner or other two-masted fore-and-aft vessel; when running before the wind she has these sails set on opposite sides.

GOOSE WITHOUT GRAVY. A severe starting, so called because no blood followed its infliction.

GORAB. See Grab.

GORD. An archaism denoting a deep hole in a river.

GORES. Angular pieces of plank inserted to fill up a vessel's planking at any part requiring it. Also, the angles at one or both ends of such cloths as increase the breadth or depth of a sail. (See Goring-cloth.)

GORGE. The upper and narrowest part of a transverse valley, usually containing the upper bed of a torrent. Also, in fortification, a line joining the inner extremities of a work.

GORGE-HOOK. Two hooks separated by a piece of lead, for the taking of pike or other voracious fish.

GORGET. In former times, and still amongst some foreign troops, a gilt badge of a crescent shape, suspended from the neck, and hanging on the breast, worn by officers on duty.[345]

GORING, or Goring-cloth. That part of the skirts of a sail cut on the bias, where it gradually widens from the upper part down to the clues. (See Sail.)

GORMAW. A coast name for the cormorant.

GORSE. Heath or furze for breaming a vessel's bottom.

GO SLOW. The order to the engineer to cut off steam without stopping the play of the engine.

GOSSOON. A silly awkward lout.

GOTE. See Gutter.

GOUGING. In ship-building (see Snail-creeping). Also, a cruel practice in one or two American states, now extremely rare, in which a man's eye was squeezed out by his rival's thumb-nail, the fingers being entangled in the hair for the necessary purchase.

GOUGINGS. A synonym of gudgeons (which see).

GOUKMEY. One of the names in the north for the gray gurnard.

GOULET. Any narrow entrance to a creek or harbour, as the goletta at Tunis.

GOURIES. The garbage of salmon.

GOVERNMENT. Generally means the constitution of our country as exercised under the legislature of king or queen, lords, and commons.

GOVERNOR. An officer placed by royal commission in command of a fortress, town, or colony. Governors are also appointed to institutions, hospitals, and other establishments. Also, a revolving bifurcate pendulum, with two iron balls, whose centrifugal divergence equalizes the motion of the steam-engine.

GOW. An old northern term for the gull.

GOWDIE. The Callionymus lyra, dragonet, or chanticleer.

GOWK. The cuckoo; but also used for a stupid, good-natured fellow.

GOWK-STORM. Late vernal equinoctial gales contemporary with the gowk or cuckoo.

GOWT, or Gote. A limited passage for water.

GOYLIR. A small sea-bird held to precede a storm; hence seamen call them malifiges. Arctic gull.

GRAB. The large coasting vessel of India, generally with two masts, and of 150 to 300 tons.—To grab. In familiar language, to catch or snatch at anything with violence.

GRABBLE, To. To endeavour to hook a sunk article. To catch fish by hand in a brook.

GRAB SERVICE. Country vessels first employed by the Bombay government against the pirates; afterwards erected into the Bombay Marine.

GRACE. See Act of Grace.

GRADE. A degree of rank; a step in order or dignity.

GRAFTING. An ornamental weaving of fine yarns, &c., over the strop of a block; or applied to the tapered ends of the ropes, and termed pointing.

GRAIN of Timber. In a transverse section of a tree, two different[346] grains are seen: those running in a circular manner are called the silver grain; the others radiate, and are called bastard grain.—Grain is also a whirlwind not unfrequent in Normandy, mixed with rain, but seldom continues above a quarter of an hour. They may be foreseen, and while they last the sea is very turbulent; they may return several times in the same day, a dead calm succeeding.

GRAIN. In the grain of, is immediately preceding another ship in the same direction.—Bad-grain, a sea-lawyer; a nuisance.

GRAIN-CUT TIMBER. That which is cut athwart the grain when the grain of the wood does not partake of the shape required.

GRAINED POWDER. That corned or reduced into grains from the cakes, and distinguished from mealed powder, as employed in certain preparations.

GRAINS. A five-pronged fish-spear, grains signifying branches.

GRAIN UPSET. When a mast suffers by buckles, it is said to have its grain upset. A species of wrinkle on the soft outer grain which will be found corresponding to a defect on the other side. It is frequently produced by an injudicious setting up of the rigging.

GRAM. A species of pulse given to horses, sheep, and oxen in the East Indies, and supplied to ships for feeding live-stock.

GRAMPUS. A corruption of gran pisce. An animal of the cetacean or whale tribe, distinguished by the large pointed teeth with which both jaws are armed, and by the high falcate dorsal fin. It generally attains a length of 20 to 25 feet, and is very active and voracious.

GRAMPUS, Blowing the. Sluicing a person with water, especially practised on him who skulks or sleeps on his watch.

GRAND DIVISION. A division of a battalion composed of two companies, or ordinary divisions, in line.

GRANDSIRE. The name of a four-oared boat which belonged to Peter the Great, now carefully preserved at St. Petersburg as the origin of the Russian fleet.

GRANNY'S BEND. The slippery hitch made by a lubber.

GRANNY'S KNOT. This is a term of derision when a reef-knot is crossed the wrong way, so as to be insecure. It is the natural knot tied by women or landsmen, and derided by seamen because it cannot be untied when it is jammed.

GRAPESHOT. A missile from guns intermediate between case-shot and solid shot, having much of the destructive spread of the former with somewhat of the range and penetrative force of the latter. A round of grapeshot consists of three tiers of cast-iron balls arranged, generally three in a tier, between four parallel iron discs connected together by a central wrought-iron pin. For carronades, the grape, not being liable to such a violent dispersive shock, they are simply packed in canisters with wooden bottoms.

GRAPNEL, or Grapling. A sort of small anchor for boats, having a ring at one end, and four palmed claws at the other.—Fire grapnel.[347] Resembling the former, but its flukes are furnished with strong fish-hook barbs on their points, usually fixed by a chain on the yard-arms of a ship, to grapple any adversary whom she intends to board, and particularly requisite in fire-ships. Also, used to grapple ships on fire, in order to tow them away from injuring other vessels.

GRAPNEL-ROPE. That which is bent to the grapnel by which a boat rides, now substituted by chain.

GRAPPLE, To. To hook with a grapnel; to lay hold of. First used by Duilius to prevent the escape of the Carthaginians.

GRASP. The handle of a sword, and of an oar. Also, the small of the butt of a musket.

GRASS. A term applied to vegetables in general. (See Feed of Grass.)

GRASS-COMBERS. A galley-term for all those landsmen who enter the naval service from farming counties. Lord Exmouth found many of them learn their duties easily, and turn out valuable seamen.

GRATING-DECK. A light movable deck, similar to the hatch-deck, but with open gratings.

GRATINGS. An open wood-work of cross battens and ledges forming cover for the hatchways, serving to give light and air to the lower decks. In nautical phrase, he "who can't see a hole through a grating" is excessively drunk.

GRATINGS OF THE HEAD. See Head-gratings.

GRATUITOUS MONEY. A term officially used for bounty granted to volunteers in Lord Exmouth's expedition against Algiers.

GRAVE, To. To clean a vessel's bottom, and pay it over.

GRAVELIN. A small migratory fish, commonly reputed to be the spawn of the salmon.

GRAVELLED. Vexed, mortified.

GRAVING. The act of cleaning a ship's bottom by burning off the impurities, and paying it over with tar or other substance, while she is laid aground during the recess of the tide. (See Breaming.)

GRAVING BEACH or Slip. A portion of the dockyard where ships were landed for a tide.

GRAVING-DOCK. An artificial receptacle used for the inspecting, repairing, and cleaning a vessel's bottom. It is so contrived that after the ship is floated in, the water may run out with the fall of the tide, the shutting of the gates preventing its return.

GRAVITATION. The natural tendency or inclination of all bodies towards the centre of the earth; and which was established by Sir Isaac Newton, as the great law of nature.

GRAVITY, Centre of. The centre of gravity of a ship is that point about which all parts of the body, in any situation, balance each other. (See Specific Gravity.)

GRAWLS. The young salmon, probably the same as grilse.

GRAY-FISH, and Gray-lord. Two of the many names given to the Gadus carbonarius or coal-fish.[348]

GRAYLE. Small sand. Also, an old term for thin gravel.

GRAYLING. A fresh-water fish of the Salmo tribe. (See Ombre.)

GRAYNING. A species of dace found on our northern coast.

GRAY-SCHOOL. A particular shoal of large salmon in the Solway about the middle of July.

GRAZE. The point at which a shot strikes and rebounds from earth or water.

GRAZING-FIRE. That which sweeps close to the surface it defends.

GREASY. Synonymous with dirty weather.

GREAT CIRCLE. One whose assumed plane passes through the centre of the sphere, dividing it equally.

GREAT-CIRCLE SAILING. Is a method for determining a series of points in an arc of a great circle between two points on the surface of the earth, for the purpose of directing a ship's course as nearly as possible on such arc; that is, on the curve of shortest distance between the place from which she sets out, and that at which she is to arrive.

GREAT GUN. The general sea-term for cannons, or officers of great repute.

GREAT GUNS and Small-arms. The general armament of a ship. Also, a slang term for the blowing and raining of heavy weather.

GREAT-LINE FISHING. That carried on over the deeper banks of the ocean. (See Line-fishing.) It is more applicable to hand-fishing, as on the banks of Newfoundland, in depths over 60 fathoms.

GREAT OCEAN. The Pacific, so called from its superior extent.

GREAT SHAKES. See Shake.

GREAVES. Armour for the legs.

GRECALE. A north-eastern breeze off the coast of Sicily, Greece lying N.E.

GREEN. Raw and untutored; a metaphor from unripe fruit—thus Shakspeare makes Pandulph say:

GREEN-BONE. The trivial name of the viviparous blenny, or guffer, the backbone of which is green when boiled; also of the gar-fish.

GREEN-FISH. Cod, hake, haddock, herrings, &c., unsalted.

GREEN-HANDS. Those embarked for the first time, and consequently inexperienced.

GREEN-HORN. A lubberly, uninitiated fellow. A novice of marked gullibility.

GREENLAND DOVE. The puffinet; called scraber in the Hebrides; about the size of a pigeon.

GREENLAND WHALE. See Right Whale.

GREEN-MEN. The five supernumerary seamen who had not been before in the Arctic Seas, whom vessels in the whale-fishery were obliged to bear, to get the tonnage bounty.