ARENAL. In meteorology, a cloud of dust, often so thick as to prevent seeing a stone's-throw off. It is common in South America, being raised by the wind from adjoining shores. Also off the coast of Africa at the termination of the desert of Zahara.

ARENATION. The burying of scorbutic patients up to the neck in holes in a sandy beach, for cure; also spreading hot sand over a diseased person.

AREOMETER. An instrument for measuring the specific gravity of fluids.[51]

ARGIN. An old word for an embankment.

ARGO. A name famous from Jason's romantic expedition, but absurdly quoted as the first ship, for the fleets of Danaus and Minos are mentioned long before, and the Argo herself was chased by a squadron under Æetes.

ARGO NAVIS. The southern constellation of the Ship, containing 9 clusters, 3 nebulæ, 13 double and 540 single stars, of which about 64 are easily visible. As most of these were invisible to the Greeks, the name was probably given by the Egyptians.

ARGOL. The tartaric acid or lees adhering to the sides of wine-casks, particularly of port-wine; an article of commerce; supertartrate of potass.

ARGOLET. A light horseman of the middle ages.

ARGONAUTA. The paper-nautilus. The sail which it was supposed to spread to catch the wind, is merely a modified arm which invests the outer surface of the shell.

ARGONAUTS. A company of forty-four heroes who sailed in the Argo to obtain the golden fleece; an expedition which fixes one of the most memorable epochs in history. Also a Geographical Society instituted at Venice, to whom we owe the publication of all the charts, maps, and directories of Coronelli.

ARGOSY. A merchant ship or carrack of burden, principally of the Levant; the name is by some derived from Ragusa, but by others with more probability from the Argo. Shakspeare mentions "argosies with portly sail." Those of the Frescobaldi were the richest and most adventurous of those times.

ARGOZIN, or Argnesyn. The person whose office it was to attend to the shackles of the galley-slaves, over whom he had especial charge.

ARGUMENT. An astronomical quantity upon which an equation depends,—or any known number by which an unknown one proportional to the first may be found.

ARGUMENT OF LATITUDE. The distance of a celestial body from one of the nodes of its orbit, upon which the latitude depends.

ARIES. The most important point of departure in astronomy. A northern constellation forming the first of the twelve signs of the zodiac, into which the sun enters about the 20th of March. With Musca, Aries contains 22 nebulæ, 8 double and 148 single stars, but not above 50 are visible to the unassisted eye. The commencement of this sign, called the first point of Aries, is the origin from which the right ascensions of the heavenly bodies are reckoned upon the equator, and their longitudes upon the ecliptic.

ARIS. Sharp corner of stones in piers and docks.

ARIS PIECES. Those parts of a made mast which are under the hoops.[52]

ARITHMETIC. The art of computation by numbers; or that branch which considers their powers and properties.

ARK. The sacred and capacious vessel built by Noah for preservation against the flood. It was 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height; and of whatever materials it was constructed, it was pitched over or pay'd with bitumen. Ark is also the name of a mare's-tail cloud, or cirrhus, when it forms a streak across the sky.

ARLOUP. An archaism for the deck, now called orlop (which see).

ARM. A deep and comparatively narrow inlet of the sea. That part of an anchor on which the palm is shut. The extremity of the bibbs which support the trestle-trees. Each extremity or end of a yard, beam, or bracket.

—To arm, to fit, furnish, and provide for war; to cap and set a loadstone; to apply putty or tallow to the lower end of the lead previous to sounding, in order to draw up a specimen of the bottom. —To arm a shot, is to roll rope-yarns about a cross-bar-shot, in order to facilitate ramming it home, and also to prevent the ends catching any accidental inequalities in the bore.

ARMADA. A Spanish term signifying a royal fleet; it comes from the same root as army. The word armado is used by Shakspeare.

ARMADILLA. A squadron of guarda-costas, which formerly cruized on the coasts of South America, to prevent smuggling.

ARMADOR. A Spanish privateer.

ARMAMENT. A naval or military force equipped for an expedition. The arming of a vessel or place.

ARMAMENTA. The rigging and tackling of an ancient ship. It included shipmen and all the necessary furniture of war.

ARMATÆ. Ancient ships fitted with sails and oars, but which fought under the latter only.

ARM-CHEST. A portable locker on the upper deck or tops for holding arms, and affording a ready supply of cutlasses, pistols, muskets or other weapons.

ARMED. Completely equipped for war. —Armed at all points, covered with armour. —Armed "en flute," see Flute. —Armed mast, made of more than one tree.

—Armed ship, a vessel fitted out by merchants to annoy the enemy, and furnished with letters of marque, and bearing a commission from the Admiralty to carry on warlike proceedings.

ARMED STEM. See Beak.

ARMILLARY SPHERE. An instrument composed of various circles, to assist the student in gaining a knowledge of the arrangement and motions of the heavenly bodies. A brass armilla tolomæi was one of the instruments supplied to Martin Frobisher in 1576, price £4, 6s. 8d.

ARMING. A piece of tallow placed in the cavity and over the bottom[53] of a sounding lead, to which any objects at the bottom of the sea become attached, and are brought with the lead to the surface.

ARMINGS. Red dress cloths which were formerly hung fore and aft, outside the upper works on holidays; still used by foreigners. (See Top-armings.) It was also the name of a kind of boarding-net.

ARMIPOTENT. Powerful in war.

ARMISTICE. A cessation of arms for a given time; a short truce for the suspension of hostilities.

ARMLET. A narrow inlet of the sea; a smaller branch than the arm. Also the name of a piece of armour for the arm, to protect it from the jar of the bow-string.

ARMOGAN. An old term for good opportunity or season for navigation, which, if neglected, was liable to costs of demurrage. It is a Mediterranean word for fine weather.

ARMORIC. The language of Brittany, Cornwall, and Wales: the word in its original signification meant maritime.

ARMOUR. A defensive habit to protect the wearer from his enemy; also defensive arms. In old statutes this is frequently called harness.

ARMOUR-CLAD. A ship of war fitted with iron plates on the outside to render her shot-proof.

ARMOURER. In a man-of-war, is a person appointed by warrant to keep the small arms in complete condition for service. As he is also the ship's blacksmith, a mate is allowed to assist at the forge.

ARMOURY. A place appropriated for the keeping of small arms.

ARM-RACK. A frame or fitting for the stowage of arms (usually vertical) out of harm's way, but in readiness for immediate use. In the conveyance of troops by sea arm-racks form a part of the proper accommodation.

ARMS. The munitions of war,—all kinds of weapons whether for offence or defence. Those in a ship are cannons, carronades, mortars, howitzers, muskets, pistols, tomahawks, cutlasses, bayonets, and boarding-pikes.

ARMS of a great Gun. The trunnions.

ARMSTRONG GUN. Invented by Sir William Armstrong. In its most familiar form, a rifled breech-loading gun of wrought iron, constructed principally of spirally coiled bars, and occasionally having an inner tube or core of steel; ranging in size from the smallest field-piece up to the 100 pounder; rifled with numerous shallow grooves, which are taken by the expansion of the leaden coating of its projectile. Late experiments however, connected with iron-plated ships are developing muzzle-loading Armstrong guns, constructed on somewhat similar principles, but with simpler rifling, ranging in size up to the 600 pounder weighing 23 tons.[54]

ARMY. A large body of disciplined men, with appropriate subdivisions, commanded by a general. A fleet is sometimes called a naval army.—Flying army, a small body sent to harass a country, intercept convoys, and alarm the enemy.

ARMYE. A early term for a naval armament.

ARNOT. A northern name for the shrimp.

ARONDEL. A light and swift tartan: probably a corruption of hirondelle (swallow).

ARPENT. A French measure of land, equal to 100 square rods or perches, each of 18 feet. It is about 1⁄7th less than the English acre.

ARQUEBUSS. A word sometimes used for carbine, but formerly meant a garrison-piece, carrying a ball of 31⁄2 ounces; it was generally placed in loop-holes. (See Hagbut.)

ARRACK. An Indian term for all ardent liquors, but that which we designate thus is obtained by the fermentation of toddy (a juice procured from palm-trees), of rice, and of sugar. In Turkey arrack is extracted from vine-stalks taken out of wine-presses.

ARRAIER. The officer who formerly had the care of the men's armour, and whose business it was to see them duly accoutred.

ARRAY. The order of battle.—To array. To equip, dress, or arm for battle.

ARREARS. The difference between the full pay of a commissioned officer, and what he is empowered to draw for till his accounts are passed.

ARREST. The suspension of an officer's duty, and restraint of his person, previous to trying him by a court martial. Seamen in Her Majesty's service cannot be arrested for debts under twenty pounds, and that contracted before they entered the navy. Yet it is held in law, that this affords no exemption from arrests either in civil or criminal suits.

ARRIBA. [Sp. pronounced arriva]. Aloft, quickly.—Agir contre son gré, montar arriba, to mount aloft, which has passed into seamen's lingo as areevo, up, aloft, quickly:—mount areevo, or go on deck.

ARRIBAR, To. To land, to attain the bank, to arrive.

ARRIVE, To. In the most nautical sense, is to come to any place by water, to reach the shore.

ARROBA. A Portuguese commercial weight of 32 lbs. Also, a Spanish general wine measure of 41⁄4 English gallons. The lesser arroba, used for oil, is only 31⁄3 English gallons. A Spanish weight of 25 lbs.

avoirdupois; one-fourth of a quintal. Also, a rough country cart in Southern Russia.

ARROW. A missive weapon of offence, and whether ancient or modern, in the rudest form among savages or refined by art, is always[55] a slender stick, armed at one end, and occasionally feathered at the other. The natives of Tropical Africa feather the metal barb.

ARROW. In fortification, a work placed at the salient angles of the glacis, communicating with the covert way.—Broad arrow. The royal mark for stores of every kind. (See Broad Arrow.)

ARSENAL. A repository of the munitions of war. Some combine both magazines of naval and military stores, and docks for the construction and repair of ships.

ARSHEEN. A Russian measure of 2 feet 4 in. = 2·333—also Chinese, four of which make 3 yards English.

ART. A spelling of airt (which see). Also, practice as distinguished from theory.

ARTEMON. The main-sail of ancient ships.

ARTHUR. A well-known sea game, alluded to by Grose, Smollet, and other writers.

ARTICLES. The express stipulations to which seamen bind themselves by signature, on joining a merchant ship.

ARTICLES OF WAR. A code of rules and orders based on the act of parliament for the regulation and government of Her Majesty's ships, vessels, and forces by sea: and as they are frequently read to all hands, no individual can plead ignorance of them. It is now termed the New Naval Code.—The articles of war for the land forces have a similar foundation and relation to their service; the act in this case, however, is passed annually, the army itself having, in law, no more than one year's permanence unless so periodically renewed by act of parliament.