WABBLE, To [from the Teutonic wabelen]. To reel confusedly, as waves on a windy day in a tide-way. It is a well-known term among mechanics to express the irregular motion of engines or turning-lathes when loose in their bearings, or otherwise out of order. A badly stitched seam in a sail is wabbled. It is also applied to the undulation of the compass-card when the motion of the vessel is considerable and irregular.

WAD. A kind of plug, closely fitting the bore of a gun, which is rammed home over the shot to confine it to its place, and sometimes also between the shot and the cartridge: generally made of coiled junk, otherwise a rope grommet, &c.

WADE, To. An Anglo-Saxon word, meaning to pass through water without swimming. In the north, the sun was said to wade when covered by a dense atmosphere.

WAD-HOOK. An iron tool shaped like a double cork-screw on the end of a long staff, for withdrawing wads or charges from guns; called also a worm.

WADMAREL. A hairy, coarse, dark-coloured stuff of the north, once in great demand for making pea-jackets, pilot-coats, and the like.

WAFT [said to be from the Anglo-Saxon weft], more correctly written wheft. It is any flag or ensign, stopped together at the head and middle portions, slightly rolled up lengthwise, and hoisted at different positions at the after-part of a ship. Thus, at the ensign-staff, it signifies that a man has fallen overboard; if no ensign-staff exists, then half-way up the peak. At the peak, it signifies a wish to speak; at the mast-head, recalls boats; or as the commander-in-chief or particular captain may direct.[716]

WAFTORS. Certain officers formerly appointed to guard our coast fisheries. Also, swords blunted to exercise with.

WAGER POLICY. An engagement upon interest or no interest; the performance of the voyage in a reasonable time and manner, and not the bare existence of the ship or cargo, is the object of insurance.

WAGES OR PAY of the Royal Navy is settled by act of parliament. In the merchant service seamen are paid by the month, and receive their wages at the end of the voyage.

WAGES REMITTED FROM ABROAD. When a ship on a foreign station has been commissioned twelve calendar months, every petty officer, seaman, and marine serving on board, may remit the half of the pay due to them to a wife, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, or sister.

WAGGON. A place amidships, on the upper deck of guard-ships, assigned for the supernumeraries' hammocks.

WAGGONER. A name applied to an atlas of charts, from a work of this nature published at Leyden in 1583, by Jans Waghenaer.

WAIF. Goods found and not claimed; derelict. Also used for waft.

WAIST. That portion of the main deck of a ship of war, contained between the fore and main hatchways, or between the half-deck and galley.

WAIST-ANCHOR. An additional or spare anchor stowed before the chess-tree. (See Spare Anchor.)

WAIST-BOARDS. The berthing made to fit into a vessel's gangway on either side.

WAIST-CLOTHS. The painted canvas coverings of the hammocks which are stowed in the waist-nettings.

WAISTERS. Green hands, or worn seamen, in former times stationed in the waist in working the ship, as they had little else of duty but hoisting and swabbing the decks.

WAIST-NETTINGS. The hammock-nettings between the quarter-deck and forecastle.

WAIST-RAIL. The channel-rail or moulding of the ship's side.

WAIST-TREE. Another name for rough-tree (which see).

WAIVE, To. To give up the right to demand a court-martial, or to enforce forfeitures, by allowing people who have deserted, &c., to return to their duties.

WAIVING. The action of dispensing with salutes—by signal, by motion of the hand to guards, &c., and to vessels, which may be, in accordance with old custom, passing under the lee to be hailed and examined.

WAIVING AMAIN. A salutation of defiance, as by brandishing weapons, &c.

WAKE. The transient, generally smooth, track impressed on the surface-water by a ship's progress. Its bearing is usually observed by the compass to discover the angle of lee-way. A ship is said to be in the wake of another, when she follows her upon the same track. Two distant objects observed at sea are termed in the wake of each other, when the view of the[717] farthest off is intercepted by the one that is nearer.

(See Crossing a Ship's Wake.

WALE-REARED. Synonymous with wall-sided.

WALES. The thickest strakes of wrought stuff in a vessel. Strong planks extending all along the outward timbers on a ship's side, a little above her water-line; they are synonymous with bends (which see). The channel-wale is below the lower-deck ports, and the main-wale between the top of those ports and the sills of the upper-deck ports.

WALK AWAY! The order to step out briskly with a tackle fall, as in hoisting boats.

WALK BACK! A method in cases where a purchase must not be lowered by a round turn, as "Walk back the capstan;" the men controlling it by the bars and walking back as demanded.

WALKER'S KNOT. See Matthew Walker.

WALKING A PLANK. An obsolete method of destroying people in mutiny and piracy, under a plea of avoiding the penalty of murder. The victim is compelled to walk, pinioned and blindfolded, along a plank projecting over the ship's side, which, canting when overbalanced, heaves him into the sea. Also, for detecting whether a man is drunk, he is made to walk along a quarter-deck plank.

WALKING AWAY WITH THE ANCHOR. Said of a ship which is dragging, or shouldering, her anchor; or when, from fouling the stock or upper fluke, she trips the anchor out of the ground.

WALKING SPEAKING-TRUMPET. A midshipman repeating quarter-deck orders.

WALK SPANISH, To. To quit duty without leave; to desert.

WALK THE QUARTER-DECK, To. A phrase signifying to take the rank of an officer.

WALK THE WEATHER GANGWAY NETTING. A night punishment in a man-of-war for those of the watch who have missed their muster.

WALL. A bank of earth to restrain the current and overflowing of water. (See Sea-bank.)

WALL-KNOT, or Wale-knot. A particular sort of large knot raised upon the end of a rope, by untwisting the strands, and passing them among each other.

WALL-PIECE. A very heavy powerful musket, for use in fortified places.

WALL-SIDED. The sides of a ship continuing nearly perpendicular down to the surface of the water, like a wall. It is the mean between tumbling home and flaring out.

WALRUS [Dan. hval-ros]. The Trichecus rosmarus, a large amphibious marine animal, allied to the seals, found in the Arctic regions. Its upper canines are developed into large descending tusks, of considerable value as ivory. It is also called morse, sea-horse, and sea-cow.

This animal furnished Cook, as well as our latest Arctic voyagers, with[718] Arctic beef. The skin is of the utmost importance to the Esquimaux, as well as to the Russians of Siberia, &c.

WALT. An old word, synonymous with crank; or tottering, like a sprung spar.

WANE. In timber, an imperfection implying a want of squareness at one or more of its corners; under this deficiency it is termed wane-wood.

WANE-CLOUD. See Cirro-stratus.

WANGAN. A boat, in Maine, for carrying provisions.

WANY. Said of timber when spoiled by wet.

WAPP, OR WHAP. A name formerly given to any short pendant and thimble, through which running-rigging was led. Also, a rope wherewith rigging was set taut with wall-knots, one end being fast to the shroud, and the other brought to the laniard. But any shroud-stopper is a wapp.

WAR. A contest between princes or states, which, not being determinable otherwise, is referred to the decision of the sword. It may exist without a declaration on either side, and is either civil, defensive, or offensive.

WAR-CAPERER. A privateer.

WARDEN. See Lord Warden.

WARD-ROOM. The commissioned officers' mess-cabin, on the main-deck in ships of the line.

WARD-ROOM OFFICERS. Those who mess in the ward-room, namely: the commander, lieutenants, master, chaplain, surgeon, paymaster, marine-officers, and assistant-surgeons.

WARE, To. See Veer.

WAREHOUSING SYSTEM. The use of bonding places under charge of officers of the customs, in which goods may be deposited, without any duty upon them being exacted, until they be cleared for home use, or for exportation.

WAR ESTABLISHMENT. Increased force of men and means.

WARM-SIDED. Mounting heavy metal, whether a ship or a fort.

WARNER. A sentinel formerly posted on the heights near sea-ports to give notice of the approach of vessels. Also, beacons, posts, buoys, lights, &c., warning vessels of danger by day as well as by night.

WARNING-SIGNAL. Hoisted to warn vessels not to pass a bar. Also, to warrant higher pay to watermen plying between Portsmouth and Spithead, &c., according to severity of weather.

WARP. A rope or light hawser, employed occasionally to transport a ship from one place to another in a port, road, or river. Also, an east-coast term for four herrings. Also, land between the sea-banks and the sea. —Warp of lower rigging.

A term used in the rigging-loft, as, before cutting out a gang of rigging, it is warped. Also, to form the warp of spun-yarn in making sword-mats for the rigging-gripes, slings, &c. —To warp. To move a vessel from one place to another by warps, which are attached to buoys, to other ships, to anchors, or to certain fixed objects on shore. Also, to flood the lands near rivers in Yorkshire.

WARPING AND FRAMING THE TIMBERS. Putting in the beam-knees, coamings, &c., and dividing the spaces between the beams for fitting the carlines.

WARPING-BLOCK. A block made of ash or elm, used in rope-making for warping off yarn.

WARRANT. A writ of authority, inferior to a commission; in former days it was the name given to the deed conferring power on those officers appointed by the navy board, while those granted by the admiralty were styled commissions. Also, a document, under proper authority, for the assembling of a court-martial, punishment, execution, &c. Also, a tabulated regulation for cutting standing and running rigging, as well as for supply of general stores, as warranted by the admiralty. —Brown-paper warrants.

Those given by a captain, and which he can cancel.

WARRANT-OFFICER. Generally one holding his situation from particular boards, or persons authorized by the sovereign to grant it. In the royal navy it was an officer holding a warrant from the navy board, as the master, surgeon, purser, boatswain, gunner, carpenter, &c. In the year 1831, when the commissioners of the navy, or navy board, were abolished, all these powers reverted to the admiralty, but the commissions and warrants remain in effect the same.

WARRANTY. The contract of marine insurance, expressing a certain condition on the part of the insured, upon which the contract is to take effect; it is always a part of the written policy, and must appear on the face of it. In this it differs from representation (which see).

WARREN-HEAD. A northern term for a dam across a river.

WAR-SCOT. A contribution for the supply of arms and armour, in the time of the Saxons.

WAR-SHIP. Any ship equipped for offence and defence; whereas man-of-war generally signifies a vessel belonging to the royal navy.

WARTAKE. An archaic term for a rope-fast, or spring. In that early sea-song (temp. Henry VI.) which is in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, the skipper of the ship carrying a cargo of "pylgryms" exclaims, "Hale in the wartake!"

WARTH. An old word signifying a ford. Also, a flat meadow close to a stream.

WASH. An accumulation of silt in estuaries. Also, a surface covered by floods. Also, a shallow inlet or gulf: the east-country term for the sea-shore. Also, the blade of an oar.

Also, a wooden measure of two-thirds of a bushel, by which small shell-fish are sold at Billingsgate, equal to ten strikes of oysters. —Wash, or a-wash. Even with the water's edge.