—Slop-room. Devoted to slop-clothing. —Spirit-room. A secure space in the after-part of a ship's hold, for the stores of wine, brandy, &c. —Steward's-room.

The office devoted to the purser's steward of former times, now paymaster's steward, whence he issues most of the light provisions to the ship's company. —Ward-room. A room over the gun-room in ships of the line, where the lieutenants and other principal officers sleep and mess. The term sea-room is applied when a ship obtains a good offing, is clear of the coast dangers, and is free to stand on a long course without nearing danger.

ROOM, Roomer, or Going room. The old term for going large, or from, the wind. (See Lask and Large.) It is mentioned by Bourne in 1578.

ROOMING. An old word to signify running to leeward.—To go room. To bear down.

ROOST. A phrase applied to races of strong and furious tides, which set in between the Orkney and Shetland Islands, as those of Sumburgh and the Start.

ROPE. Is composed of hemp, hide, wire, or other stuff, spun into yarns and strands, which twisted together forms the desired cordage. The word is very old, being the actual representative of the Anglo-Saxon ráp.—To rope a sail. To sew the bolt-rope round its edges, to strengthen it and prevent it from rending.

ROPE-BANDS. Small plaited lines rove through the eyelet holes with a running eye, by which the head of a sail, after the earings are secured, is brought to the yard or jack-stay.

ROPE-HOUSE. A long building in a dockyard, where ropes are made.

ROPE-LADDER. Such as hangs over the stern, to enable men to go into boats, &c.

ROPE-MAKER. A first-class petty officer in the navy.

ROPE OF SAND. A term borrowed from a Greek proverb signifying attempting impossibilities; without cohesion. Said of people who ought, but will not combine to effect a necessary object.

ROPES. A general name given to all the cordage above one inch in circumference used in rigging a ship; but the name is severally applied to the awning, bell, boat, bolt, breast, bucket, buoy, davit, entering, grapnel, guest or guist, guy, heel, keel, man, parral, passing, ring, rudder, slip, swab, tiller, top, and yard: all which see under their respective heads. Ropes are of several descriptions, viz. :—Cable-laid, consists of three[580] strands of already formed hawser-laid or twisted left-hand, laid up into one opposite making nine strands. —Hawser-laid, is merely three strands of simple yarns twisted right, but laid up left.

—Four-strand is similarly laid with four strands, and a core scarcely twisted. —Sash-line is plaited and used for signal halliards. —Rope-yarn is understood to be the selected serviceable yarns from condemned rope, and is worked into twice-laid. The refuse, again, into rumbowline for temporary purposes, not demanding strength.

ROPES, High. On the high ropes. To be ceremonious, upstart, invested with brief authority.

ROPE'S END. The termination of a fall, and should be pointed or whipped. Formerly much used for illegal punishment.

ROPE-YARN. The smallest and simplest part of any rope, being one of the large threads of hemp or other stuff, several of which being twisted together form a strand.

ROPING-NEEDLES. Those used for roping, being strong accordingly.

RORQUAL, or Furrowed Whale. A name of Scandinavian origin applied to the fin-back whales, distinguished from the right whales by the small size of their heads, shortness of their whalebone, the presence of a dorsal fin, and of a series of conspicuous longitudinal folds or furrows in the skin of the throat and chest.

ROSE, or Strainer. A plate of copper or lead perforated with small holes, placed on the heel of a pump to prevent choking substances from being sucked in. Roses are also nailed, for the like purpose, upon the holes which are made on a steamer's bottom for the admission of water to the boilers and condensers.

ROSE-LASHING. This lashing is middled, and passed opposite ways; when finished, the ends appear as if coiled round the crossings.

ROSINA. A Tuscan gold coin, value 17s. 1d. sterling.

ROSS. A term from the Celtic, signifying a promontory.

ROSTER, or Rollster. A list for routine on any particular duty. (See Rollster.)

ROSTRAL-CROWN. The naval crown anciently awarded to the individual who first boarded an enemy's ship.

ROSTRUM. A prow; also a stand for a public speaker.

ROTATION. The motion of a body about its axis.

ROTHER. This lineal descendant of the Anglo-Saxon róter is still in use for rudder (which see).

ROTTEN ROW. A line of old ships-in-ordinary in routine order.

ROUBLE. See Ruble.

ROUGH BOOKS. Those in which the warrant officers make their immediate entries of expenditure.

ROUGH-KNOTS, or Rough Nauts. Unsophisticated seamen.

ROUGH MUSIC. Rolling shot about on the lower deck, and other discordant noises, when seamen are discontented, but without being mutinous.[581]

ROUGH-SPARS. Cut timber before being worked into masts, &c.

ROUGH-TREE. An unfinished spar: also a name given in merchant ships to any mast, or other spar above the ship's side; it is, however, with more propriety applied to any, mast, &c., which, remaining rough and unfinished, is placed in that situation.

ROUGH-TREE TIMBER. Upright pieces of timber placed at intervals along the side of a vessel, to support the rough-tree. They are also called stanchions.

ROUND. To bear round up. To go before the wind.—To round a point, is to steer clear of and go round it.

ROUND-AFT. The outward curve or segment of a circle, that the stern partakes of from the wing transom upwards.

ROUND AND GRAPE. A phrase used when a gun is charged at close quarters with round shot, grape, and canister; termed a belly-full.

ROUND DOZEN. A punishment term for thirteen lashes.

ROUND-HOUSE. A name given in East Indiamen and other large merchant ships, to square cabins built on the after-part of the quarter-deck, and having the poop for its roof; such an apartment is frequently called the coach in ships of war. Round, because one can walk round it. In some trading vessels the round-house is built on the deck, generally abaft the main-mast.

ROUND-IN, To. To haul in on a fall; the act of pulling upon any slack rope which passes through one or more blocks in a direction nearly horizontal, and is particularly applied to the braces, as "Round-in the weather-braces." It is apparently derived from the circular motion of the rope about the sheave or pulley, through which it passes.

ROUNDING. A service wrapped round a spar or hawser. Also, old ropes wound firmly and closely about the layers of that part of a cable which lies in the hawse, or athwart the stem, &c. It is used to prevent the cable from being chafed. (See Keckling and Service.)

ROUNDING-UP. Is to haul through the slack of a tackle which hangs in a perpendicular direction, without sustaining or hoisting any weighty body.

ROUNDLY. Quickly.

ROUND-RIBBED. A vessel of burden with very little run, and a flattish bottom, the ribs sometimes almost joining the keel horizontally.

ROUND ROBBIN [from the French ruban rond]. A mode of signing names in a circular form, after a complaint or remonstrance, so that no one can tell who signed first.

ROUNDS. General discharges of the guns. Cartridges are usually reckoned by rounds, including all the artillery to be used; as, fifty rounds of ammunition. Also, going round to inspect sentinels. The general visiting of the decks made by officers, to see that all is going on right.

Also, the steps of a ladder.

ROUND SEAM. The edges or selvedges sewed together, without lapping.

ROUND SEIZING. This is made by a series of turns, with the end passed through the riders, and made fast snugly.[582] In applying this the rope does not cross, but both parts are brought close together, and the seizing crossed.

ROUND SHOT. The cast-iron balls fitting the bores of their respective guns, as distinguished from grape or other shot.

ROUNDS OF THE GALLEY. The opposite of what is termed Coventry; for it is figurative of a man incurring the expressed scorn of his shipmates.

ROUND SPLICE. One which hardly shows itself, from the neatness of the rope and the skill of the splicer. Properly a long splice.

ROUND STERN. The segmental stern, the bottom and wales of which are wrought quite aft, and unite in the stern-post: it is now used in our navy, thus securing an after battery for the ship. It had long obtained in the Danish marine.

ROUND THE FLEET. A diabolical punishment, by which a man, lashed to a frame on a long-boat, was towed alongside of every ship in a fleet, to receive a certain number of lashes by sentence of court-martial.

ROUND-TO, To. To bring to, or haul to the wind by means of the helm. To go round, is to tack or wear.

ROUND-TOP. A name which has obtained for modern tops, from the shape of the ancient ones. (See Top.)

ROUND-TURN in the Hawse. A term implying the situation of the two cables of a ship, which, when moored, has swung the wrong way three times successively; if after this she come round till her head is directed the same way as at first, this makes a round turn and elbow. A round turn is also the passing a rope completely round a timber-head, or any proper thing, in order to hold on. (See Holding-on. ) Also, to pass a rope over a belaying pin.

Also, the bending of any timber or plank upwards, but especially the beams which support the deck, and curve upwards towards the middle of the deck. This is for the purpose of strength, and for the convenience of the run of water to the scuppers. —To round up a fall or tackle, is to gather in the slack; the reverse of overhaul.

ROUND UP OF THE TRANSOMS. That segment of a circle to which they are sided, or of beams to which they are moulded.

ROUNDURE. An old English word for circle.

ROUSE, To. To man-handle. "Rouse in the cable," haul it in, and make it taut.

ROUSE AND BIT. The order to turn out of the hammocks.

ROUST. A word used in the north of Scotland to signify a tumultuous current or tide, occasioned by the meeting of rapid waters. (See Roost.)

ROUT. The confusion and disorder created in any body of men when defeated and dispersed.

ROUTE. The order for the movement of a body of men, specifying its various stages and dates of march.

ROUTINE. Unchanging adherence to official system, which, if carried too far in matters of service, often bars celerity, spirit, and consequently success.[583]

ROVE. A rope when passed through a block or sheave-hole.

ROVENS. A corruption of rope-bands (which see). Also, the ravellings of canvas or buntin.

ROVER. A pirate or freebooter. (See Pirate.) Also, a kind of piratical galley of the Barbary States.

ROVING COMMISSION. An authority granted by the Admiralty to a select officer in command of a vessel, to cruise wherever he may see fit. [From the Anglo-Saxon ròwen.]

ROW, To. To propel a boat or vessel by oars or sweeps, which are managed in a direction nearly horizontal. (See Oar.)

ROW DRY! The order to those who row, not to splash water into the boat.

ROWED OF ALL! The orders for the rowers to cease, and toss their oars into the boat simultaneously, in naval style.

ROW IN THE SAME BOAT, To. To be of similar principles.

ROWL. The iron or wooden shiver, or wheel, for a whip-tackle.

ROWLE. A light crane, formerly much used in clearing boats and holds.

ROWLOCKS. Those spaces in the gunwale, or upper edge of a boat's side, wherein the oars work in the act of rowing.

ROW-PORTS. Certain scuttles or square holes, formerly cut through the sides of the smaller vessels of war, near the surface of the water, for the purpose of rowing them along in a calm or light wind, by heavy sweeps, each worked by several men. (See Sweeps.)