SHIPWRECK. The destruction of a vessel by her beating against rocks, the shore, &c.—too often including loss of life. In early times the seizure of goods, and even the murder of the mariners, was apt to be the consequence.

SHIPWRIGHT. A builder of ships. The art of bending planks by fire is attributed to Pyrrhon, the Lydian, who made boats of several configurations.

SHIPYARD. Synonymous with dockyard.

SHIVER. Synonymous with sheave.

SHIVERING. To trim a ship's yards so that the wind strikes on the edges or leaches of the sails, making them flutter in the wind. The same effect may be intentionally produced by means of the helm.

SHOAL. A danger formed by sunken rocks, on which the sea does not break; but generally applied to every place where the water is shallow, whatever be the ground. (See Flat Shoal, Shole, or Schole.) Also, denotes a great quantity of fishes swimming in company—squamosæ cohortes. Also, a vessel is said to shoalen, or shoal her water, when she comes from a greater into a less depth.

SHOALED-HARBOUR. That which is secured from the violence of the sea, by banks, bars, or shoals to sea-ward.

SHOD, or Shode. An anchor is said to be shod when, in breaking it from its bed, a quantity of clayey or oozy soil adheres to the fluke and shank.

SHOE. The iron arming to a handspike, polar-pile, &c.

SHOE OF THE ANCHOR. A flat block of hard wood, convex on the back, and having a hole sufficiently large to contain the bill of the anchor-fluke on the fore-side; used to prevent the anchor from tearing the planks on the ship's bow when fishing it, for which purpose the shoe slides up and down along the bow. Where vessels ease the anchor down to "a cock-bill," it is also sometimes used. —To shoe or clamp an anchor. To cover the palms with broad triangular pieces of thick plank, secured by iron hoops and nails.

Its use is to give the anchor a greater resisting surface when the mud is very soft. Also, for transporting on shore.

SHOE OF THE FORE-FOOT. See Fore-foot, Gripe, Horse.

SHOE-PIECE. A board placed under the heel of a spar, or other weighty mass, to save the deck. In some cases intended to slip with it.

SHOLES. See Sole.[620]

SHOOT, To. To move suddenly; as "the ballast shoots on one side. " Also, a ship shoots ahead in stays. Also, to push off in a boat from the shore into a current; to descend a rapid. The term is well used thus amongst the powerful rivers of N.

America, of which perhaps the finest example is given by the St. Lawrence at La Chine, there reported to rush in spring-time at the rate of 40 miles an hour.

SHOOT-FINGER. This was a term in use with the Anglo-Saxons from its necessity in archery, and is now called the trigger-finger from its equal importance in modern fire-arms. The mutilation of this member was always a most punishable offence; for which the laws of King Alfred inflicted a penalty of fifteen shillings, which at that time probably was a sum beyond the bowman's means.

SHOOTING-GLOVES. These were furnished to the navy when cross-bows, long-bows, and slur-bows were used.

SHOOTING OF NETS. The running out of nets in the water, as seins, drift-nets, herring-nets, &c.; but it does not apply to trawls.

SHOOTS, or Shuts. A large pipe or channel to lead away water, dirt, ballast, shot, &c., is called a shoot. The overfalls of a river, where the stream is narrowed by its banks, whether naturally or artificially, especially the arches of a bridge, constitute a shoot.

SHOOT THE COMPASS, To. To shoot wide of the mark.

SHOOT THE SUN, To. To take its meridional altitude; literally aiming at the reflected sun through the telescope of the instrument. "Have you obtained a shot?" applied to altitudes of the meridian, as for time, lunar distances, &c.

SHORE. A prop fixed under a ship's sides or bottom, to support her when laid aground or on the stocks. Shores are also termed legs when used by a cutter or yacht, to keep the vessel upright when the water leaves her. (See Legs. ) Also, the general name for the littoral of any country against which the waves impinge, while the word coast is applied to that part of the land which only lies contiguous to the sea.

—Bold shore. A coast which is steep-to, permitting the near approach of shipping without danger; it is used in contradistinction to a shelving-shore.

SHORE-ANCHOR. That which lies between the shore and the ship when moored.

SHORE-BOATS. Small boats or wherries plying for hire at sea-ports.

SHORE-CLEATS. Heavy cleats bolted on to the sides of vessels to support the shore-head, and sustain the ship upright.

SHORE-FAST. A hawser carried out to secure a vessel to a quay, mole, or anchor buried on shore.

SHORE REEF. The same as fringing reef.[621]

SHORT, Short stay, Short apeek. "Heave short," means to heave in the cable till it is nearly up and down, and would hold the vessel securely until she had set all common sail, and would not drag or upset the anchor. If, however, the wind be free, and the making sail unimportant, short would probably be short apeek, or up and down, the last move of weighing awaiting perhaps signal or permission to part.

SHORT ALLOWANCE. When the provisions will not last the period expected, they may be reduced in part, as two-thirds, half-allowance, &c., and thus short-allowance money becomes due, which is the nominal value of the provisions stopped, and paid in compensation.

SHORT BOARDS. Frequent tacking, where there is not room for long boards, or from some other cause, as weather or tide, it is required to work to windward on short tacks in a narrow space.

SHORTEN, To. Said of a ship's sails when requisite to reduce those that are set. And shorten in, when alluding to the anchor, by heaving in cable.

SHORT-HANDED. A deficient complement of men, or short-handed by many being on the sick-list.

SHORT-LINKED CHAIN. A cable without studs, and therefore with shorter links than those of stud-chains; such are slings and chains generally used in rigging bobstays, anchor-work, &c. Cables only have studs.

SHORT-SEA. A confused cross sea where the waves assume a jerking rippling action, and set home to the bows or sides; especially tiresome to boats, hampering the oars, and tumbling in-board. Also, a race.

SHORT-SERVICE. Chafing geer put on a hemp cable for a short range.

SHORT-SHEETS. Belong to shifting sails, such as studding-sails, &c.

SHORT-TACKS. See Short Boards.

SHORT-TIME OR SAND GLASS. One of 14 seconds, used in heaving the log when the ship is going fast.

SHOT. All sorts of missiles to be discharged from fire-arms, those for great guns being mainly of iron; for small-arms, of lead. When used without prefix, the term generally means the solid shot only, as fired for a heavy blow, or for penetration. Also, a synonym of scot, a reckoning at an inn, and has immemorially been thus understood. Ben Jonson's rules are

Also, a lot or quantity. Also, the particular spot where fishermen take a draught with their nets, and also the draught of fishes made by a net. Also, the sternmost division of a fishing-boat. Also, arrows, darts, or anything that was shot. Also, a kind of trout.

Also, a foot-soldier who carried a fire-lock. —To be shot of, signifies to get rid of, turned out. —To shot the guns. In active service the guns were generally loaded, but not shotted, as, from corrosion, it was found difficult to draw the shot; and the working and concussion not unfrequently started it, and consequently, if the gun was fired before re-driving it "home," it was in danger of bursting.

SHOT-LOCKER. A compartment built up in the hold to contain the shot.

SHOT-NET. A mackerel-net.

SHOT-PLUGS. Tapered cones to stop any sized shot-hole.

SHOT-RACKS. Wooden frames fixed at convenient distances to contain shot. There are also, of recent introduction, iron rods so fitted as to confine the shot.

SHOTTEN-HERRING. A gutted herring dried for keeping. Metaphorically, a term of contempt for a lean lazy fellow.

SHOULDER of a Bastion. The part of it adjacent to the junction of a face with a flank. The angle of the shoulder is that formed by these two lines.

SHOULDER ARMS! The military word of command to carry the musket vertically at the side of the body, and resting against the hollow of the shoulder; on the left side with the long rifle, on the right with the short.

SHOULDER-OF-MUTTON SAIL. A kind of triangular sail of peculiar form, used mostly in boats. It is very handy and safe, particularly as a mizen. It is the Bermuda or 'Mugian rig.

SHOULDER THE ANCHOR. When a seaman forgets his craft, and gives his ship too little cable to ride by, she may be thrown across tide, lift or shoulder her anchor, and drift off.

SHOUT. A light and nearly flat-bottomed boat used in our eastern fens for shooting wild-duck. (See Gunning-boat.)

SHOUTE-MEN. The old name for the lightermen of the Thames.

SHOVEL. A copper implement for removing a cartridge from a gun without injuring it. Formerly used, and as late as 1816 by the Turks, to convey the powder into the chamber without using cartridges: also used to withdraw shot where windage was large. (See Ladle.)

SHOVELL, or Shoveller. Spatula clypeata, a species of duck with a broad bill. Formerly written schevelard. Also applied to a hoverer or smuggler.

SHOVE OFF! The order to the bowman to put the boat's head off with his boat-hook.

SHOW A LEG! An exclamation from the boatswain's mate, or master-at-arms, for people to show that they are awake on being called. Often "Show a leg, and turn out."

SHRAB. A vile drugged drink prepared for seamen who frequent the filthy purlieus of Calcutta. (See Doasta.)

SHRAPNEL SHELL. Invented by General Shrapnel to produce, at a long range, the effect of common case; whence they have been also called spherical case. They have a thickness of only one-tenth of their diameter; so that, on the action of the fuse, they are opened by a very small bursting charge, and allow the bullets with which they are filled to proceed with much the same direction and velocity that the shell had at the moment of explosion. They require, however, extremely nice management.[623]

SHRIMP. The small crustacean Crangon vulgaris, well known as an article of food.

SHROUD-KNOT. See Knot.

SHROUD-LAID. The combination in the larger cordage, also known as hawser-laid.

SHROUD-ROPE. A finer quality of hawser-laid rope than is commonly used for other purposes. It is also termed purchase-rope; but four-stranded rope is frequently used for standing rigging. All the strands are finer, of better hemp, and pass the gauge. Thus the patent shroud-laid rope, made from clean Petersburgh hemp, was found to break at a strain between 63⁄4 and 71⁄4 cwt.

per inch of girth in inches squared. Thus a patent rope of 5 inches would require 175 cwt. Common rope, 25 threads in each strand, broke with 5 cwt. per inch, and fell off at 130 threads to 4 cwt. per inch.

SHROUDS. The lower and upper standing-rigging. They are always divided into pairs or couples; that is to say, one piece of rope is doubled, and the parts fastened together at a small distance from the middle, so as to leave a sort of noose or collar to fix upon the mast-head; the ends have each a dead-eye turned in, by which they are set up by laniards to the channel. (See Chains and Dead-eye. )—Bentinck-shrouds.