E. The second class of rating on Lloyd's books for the comparative excellence of merchant ships. (See A.)

EAGER. See Eagre.

EAGLE. The insignia of the Romans, borrowed also by moderns, as Frederic of Prussia and Napoleon. Also, a gold coin of the United States, of the value of five dollars, or £1, 0s. 10d. sterling, at the average rate of exchange.

EAGLE, or Spread-eagle. A punishment inflicted by seizing the offender by his arms and legs to the shrouds, and there leaving him for a specified time.

EAGRE, or Hygre. The reciprocation of the freshes of various rivers, as for instance the Severn, with the flowing tide, sometimes presenting a formidable surge. The name seems to be from the Anglo-Saxon eágor, water, or Ægir, the Scandinavian god of the sea. (See Bore and Hygre.)

EAR. A west-country term for a place where hatches prevent the influx of the tide.

EARING-CRINGLE, at the Head of a Sail. In sail-making it is an eye spliced in the bolt-rope, to which the much smaller head-rope is attached. The earings are hauled out, or lashed to cleats on the yards passing through the head corners or cringles of the sails.

EARINGS. Certain small ropes employed to fasten the upper corners of a sail to its yard, for which purpose one end of the earing is passed through itself; and the other end is passed five or six times round the yard-arm, and through the cringle; the two first turns, which are intended to stretch the head of the sail tight along the yard, are passed beyond[271] the lift and rigging on the yard-arm, and are called outer turns, while the rest, which draw it close up to the yard, and are passed within the lift, &c., are called inner turns. Below the above are the reef-earings, which are used to reef the sail when the reef-tackles have stretched it to take off the strain.

EARNE. See Erne.

EARNEST. A sum paid in advance to secure a seaman's service.

EARS. In artillery the lugs or ear-shaped rings fashioned on the larger bombs or mortar-shells for their convenient handling with shell-hooks. The irregularity of surface caused by the ears is intended to be modified in future construction by the substitution of lewis-holes (which see).

EAR-SHOT. The distance or range of hearing.

EARS OF A BOAT. The knee-pieces at the fore-part on the outside at the height of the gunwale.

EARS OF A PUMP. The support of the bolt for the handle or break.

EARTH. One of the primary planets, and the third in order from the sun.

EARTH-BAGS. See Sand-bags.

EAR-WIGGING. Feeding an officer's ear with scandal against an absent individual.

EASE, To Stand at. To remain at rest.

EASE AWAY! To slacken out a rope or tackle-fall.

EASE HER! In a steamer, is the command to reduce the speed of the engine, preparatory to "stop her," or before reversing for "turn astern."

EASE OFF! Ease off handsomely, or Ease away there! To slacken out a rope or tackle-fall carefully.

EASE THE HELM! An order often given in a vessel close-hauled, to put the helm down a few spokes in a head sea, with the idea that if the ship's way be deadened by her coming close to the wind she will not strike the opposing sea with so much force. It is thought by some that extreme rolling as well as pitching are checked by shifting the helm quickly, thereby changing the direction of the ship's head, and what is technically called "giving her something else to do."

EASE UP, To. To come up handsomely with a tackle-fall.

EAST. From the Anglo-Saxon, y'st. One of the cardinal points of the compass. Where the sun rises due east, it makes equal days and nights, as on the equator.

EAST-COUNTRY. A term applied to the regions bordering on the Baltic.

EAST-COUNTRY SHIPS. The same as easterlings.

EASTERLINGS. Traders of the Baltic Sea. Also, natives of the Hanse Towns, or of the east country.

EASTERN AMPLITUDE. An arc of the horizon, intercepted between the point of the sun's rising and the east point of the magnetic compass.

EAST INDIA HOY. A sloop formerly expressly licensed for carrying stores to the E. I. Company's ships.[272]

EASTING. The course made good, or gained, to the eastward.

EASTINTUS. From the Saxon, east-tyn, an easterly coast or country. Leg. Edward I.

EAST WIND. This, in the British seas, is generally attended with a hazy atmosphere, and is so ungenial as to countenance the couplet—

EASY. Lower gently. A ship not labouring in a sea. —Taking it easy. Neglecting the duty.

"Not so violent.

EASY DRAUGHT. The same as light draught of water (which see).

EASY ROLL. A vessel is said to "roll deep but easy" when she moves slowly, and not with quick jerks.

EATING THE WIND OUT OF A VESSEL. Applies to very keen seamanship, by which the vessel, from a close study of her capabilities, steals to windward of her opponent. This to be done effectually demands very peculiar trim to carry weather helm to a nicety.

EAVER. A provincial term for the direction of the wind. A quarter of the heavens.

EBB. The lineal descendant of the Anglo-Saxon ep-flod, meaning the falling reflux of the tide, or its return back from the highest of the flood, full sea, or high water. Also termed sæ-æbbung, sea-ebbing, by our progenitors.

EBB, Line of. The sea-line of beach left dry by the tide.

EBBER, or Ebber-shore. From the Anglo-Saxon signifying shallow.

EBB-TIDE. The receding or running out of the sea, in contradistinction to flood.

EBONY. A sobriquet for a negro.

ECHELON. [Fr.] Expressing the field-exercise of soldiers, when the divisions are placed in a situation resembling the steps of a ladder, whence the name.

ECHINUS. A word lugged in to signify the sweep of the tiller. (See Sea-egg.)

ECLIPSE. An obscuration of a heavenly body by the interposition of another, or during its passage through the shadow of a larger body. An eclipse of the sun is caused by the dark body of the moon passing between it and the earth. When the moon's diameter exceeds the sun's, and their centres nearly coincide, a total eclipse of the sun takes place; but if the moon's diameter be less, then the eclipse is annular.

ECLIPTIC. The great circle of the heavens which the sun appears to us to describe in the course of a year, in consequence of the earth's motion round that luminary. It is inclined to the equinoctial at an angle of nearly 23° 28′, called the obliquity of the ecliptic, and cuts it in two points diametrically opposite to each other, called the equinoctial points. The time when the sun enters each of these points (which occurs about the 20th of March and 23d of September, respectively) is termed the equinox, day and night being then equal; at these periods, especially about the[273] time of the vernal equinox, storms, called the equinoctial gales, are prevalent in many parts of the globe. The two points of the ecliptic, which are each 90° distant from the equinoctial points, are called the solstitial points.

That great circle which passes through the equinoctial points and the poles of the earth, is called the equinoctial colure; and that which passes through the solstitial points and the poles of the earth, the solstitial colure.

ECLIPTIC CONJUNCTION. Is the moon in conjunction with the sun at the time of new moon, both luminaries having then the same longitude, or right ascension.

ECLIPTIC LIMITS. Certain limits of latitude within which eclipses take place, and beyond which they cannot occur.

ECONOMY. A term expressive of the system and internal arrangement pursued in a ship.

EDDY. Sometimes used for the dead-water under a ship's counter. Also, the water that by some interruption in its course, runs contrary to the direction of the tide or current, and appears like the motion of a whirlpool. Eddies in the sea not unfrequently extend their influence to a great distance, and are then merely regarded as contrary or revolving currents. It is the back-curl of the water to fill a space or vacuum formed sometimes by the faulty build of a vessel, having the after-body fuller than the fore, which therefore impedes her motion.

It also occurs immediately after a tide passes a strait, where the volume of water spreads suddenly out, and curves back to the edges. The Chinese pilots call eddies, chow-chow water.

EDDY-TIDE. When the water runs back from some obstacle to the free passage of the stream.

EDDY-WIND. That which is beat back, or returns, from a sail, bluff hill, or anything which impedes its passage; in other words, whenever the edges or veins of two currents of air, coming from opposite directions, meet, they form an eddy, or whirlwind (which see). They are felt generally near high coasts intersected by ravines. The eddy-wind of a sail escaping, in a curve, makes the sail abaft shiver.

EDGE AWAY, To. To decline gradually from the course which the ship formerly steered, by sailing larger, or more off, or more away from before the wind than she had done before.

EDGE DOWN, To. To approach any object in an oblique direction.

EDGING OF PLANK. Sawing or hewing it narrower.

EDUCTION PIPE. A pipe leading from the bottom of a steam-cylinder to the upper part of the condenser in a steam-engine.

EEAST. The Erse term for a fish, still used in the Isle of Man.

EEKING. See Ekeing.

EEL. A well-known fish (Anguilla vulgaris), of elongated form, common in rivers and estuaries, and esteemed for food.

EELER. An adept at knowing the haunts and habits of eels, and the methods of taking them.[274]

EEL-FARES. A fry or brood of eels.

EEL-GRASS. A name for the sea-wrack (Zostera marina); it is thrown ashore by the sea in large quantities.

EEL-POUT. A name for the burbot (Molva lota), a fresh-water fish.

EEL-SKUYT. See Dutch Eel-skuyt.

EEL-SPEAR. A sort of trident with ten points for catching eels, called in Lincolnshire an eel-stang.

EFFECTIVE. Efficient, fit for service; it also means the being present and at duty.

EFFECTS. Personal property; sale of effects; or the auction of the property of deceased officers and seamen:

EFFLUENT, or Divergent, applied to any stream which runs out of a lake, or out of another river. All tributaries are affluents.

EGG, To. To instigate, incite, provoke, to urge on: from the Anglo-Saxon eggion.

EGGS. These nutritious articles of food might be used longer at sea than is usual. The shell of the egg abounds with small pores, through which the aqueous part of the albumen constantly exhales, and the egg in consequence daily becomes lighter, and approaches its decomposition. Reaumur varnished them all over, and thus preserved eggs fresh for two years; then carefully removing the varnish, he found that such eggs were still capable of producing chickens. Some employ, with the same intention, lard or other fatty substance for closing the pores, and others simply immerse the egg for an instant in boiling water, by which its albumen is in part coagulated, and the power of exhalation thereby checked.

Eggs packed in lime-water suffered to drain, have after three years' absence in the West Indies been found good; this does not destroy vitality.

EGMONT, or Port Egmont Fowls. The large Antarctic gulls with dark-brown plumage, called shoemakers.

EGRESS. At a transit of an inferior planet over the sun, this term means the passing off of the planet from his disc.

EGYPTIAN HERRING. A northern coast name for the gowdanook, saury-pike, or Scomberesox saurus.

EIDER DUCK. The Somateria mollissima. A large species of duck, inhabiting the coasts of the northern seas. The down of the breast, with which it lines its nest, is particularly valuable on account of its softness and lightness.

EIGHEN. The index of the early quadrant.

EILET-HOLE [Fr. œillet]. Refer to Eyelet-holes.