FACE. The edge of a sharp instrument. Also, the word of command to soldiers, marines, and small-arm men, to turn upon the heel a quarter or half a circle round in the direction ordered.[285]

FACED. Turned up with facings on the cuffs and collars of uniforms and regimentals.

FACE OF A GUN. The surface of the metal at the extremity of the muzzle.

FACE-PIECE. A piece of elm tabled on to the knee of the head, in the fore-part, to assist the conversion of the main piece; and likewise to shorten the upper bolts, and prevent the cables from rubbing against them as the knee gets worn.

FACES OF A WORK. In fortification, are the two lines forming its most prominent salient angle.

FACHON. An Anglo-Norman term for a sword or falchion.

FACING. Letting one piece of timber into another with a rabbet to give additional strength or finish. Also, a movement for forming soldiers and small-arm men.—Facings. The front of regimentals and uniforms.

FACK. See Fake.

FACTOR. A commercial superintendent, or agent residing beyond sea, commissioned by merchants to buy or sell goods on their account by a letter of attorney.

FACTORAGE. A certain percentage paid to the factor by the merchant on all he buys or sells.

FACTORY. A place where a considerable number of factors reside; as Lisbon, Leghorn, Calcutta, &c. Factory comprehends the business of a firm or company, as that of the India Company at Canton, or the Hudson's Bay Fur Company in North America.

FACULÆ. Luminous streaks upon the disc of the sun, among which the maculæ, or dark spots, usually appear.

FADOME. The old form used for fathom (which see).

FAFF, To. To blow in flaws.

FAG, To. To tire.—A fag. A deputy labouring-man, or one who works hard for another.

FAG-END. Is the end of any rope. This term is also applied to the end of a rope when it has become untwisted.

FAGGOTS. Men who used to be hired to answer to names on the books, when the crew were mustered by the clerk of the cheque. Such cheating was once still more prevalent in the army.

FAGOT. A billet for stowing casks. A fascine (which see).

FAG-OUT, To. To wear out the end of a rope or end of canvas.

FAIK, or Falk. A name in the Hebrides for the sea-fowl razor-bill (Alca torda).

FAIR. A general term for the wind when favourable to a ship's course, in opposition to contrary or foul; fair is more comprehensive than large, since it includes about 16 points, whereas large is confined to the beam or quarter, that is, to a wind which crosses the keel at right angles, or obliquely from the stern, but never to one right astern. (See Large and Scant.)—Fair, in ship-building, denotes the evenness or regularity of a curve or line.—To fair, means to clip the timbers fair.[286]

FAIR-CURVE. In delineating ships, is a winding line whose shape is varied according to the part of the ship it is intended to describe. This curve is not answerable to any of the figures of conic sections, although it occasionally partakes of them all.

FAIRING. Sheering a ship in construction. Also, the draught of a ship. To run off a great number of different lines or curves, in order to ascertain the fairness in point of curvature of every part, and the beauty of the whole.

FAIR-LEAD. Is applied to ropes as suffering the least friction in a block, when they are said to lead fair.

FAIR-LEADER. A thimble or cringle to guide a rope. A strip of board with holes in it, for running-rigging to lead through, and be kept clear, so as to be easily distinguished at night.

FAIR-MAID. A west-country term for a dried pilchard.

FAIR-WAY. The navigable channel of a harbour for ships passing up or down; so that if any vessels are anchored therein, they are said to lie in the fair-way. (See Pilot's Fair-way.) Also, when the proper course is gained out of a channel.

FAIR-WEATHER. That to which a ship may carry the small sails.

FAKE. One of the circles or windings of a cable or hawser, as it lies disposed in a coil. (See Coiling.) The fakes are greater or smaller in proportion to the space which a cable is allowed to occupy.

FALCON. In early times a small cannon, having a length of about 7 feet, a diameter of bore of 3 inches, and throwing a ball of nearly 3 lbs. weight, with a point-blank range of 130 paces, and a random one of 1500.

FALCONET. A primitive cannon smaller than the falcon; it threw a ball of 11⁄2 lb.

FALK. See Fake.

FALL. A vertical descent of a river through a narrow rocky pass, or over a ledge, to the impediment of navigation. Also, the loose end of a tackle, or that part to which the power is applied in hoisting, and on which the people pull. Also, in ship-building, the descent of a deck from a fair-curve lengthwise, as frequently seen in merchantmen and yachts, to give height to the commander's cabin, and sometimes forward at the hawse-holes. Also, a large cutting down of timber.

Also, North American English for autumn, when the navigation of northern inland waters is about to close till the succeeding spring.

FALL, To. A town or fortress is said to fall when it is compelled to surrender to besiegers.

FALL ABOARD OF, To. To strike another vessel, or have a collision with it. Usually applied to the motion of a disabled ship coming in contact with another.

FALL! A FALL! The cry to denote that the harpoon has been effectively delivered into the body of a whale.

FALL ASTERN, To. To lessen a ship's way so as to allow another to get ahead of her. To be driven backwards.[287]

FALL BACK, To. To recede from any position previously occupied.

FALL CALM, To. Speaking of the weather, implies a total cessation of the wind.

FALL CLOUD. See Stratus.

FALL DOWN, To. To sail, drift, or be towed to some lower part nearer a river's mouth or opening.

FALLEN-STAR. A name for the jelly-fish or medusa, frequently thrown ashore in summer and autumn.

FALL FOUL OF, To. To reprimand severely. (See Fall aboard of.)

FALL IN, To. The order to form, or take assigned places in ranks. (See Assembly.)

FALLING GLASS. When the mercury of the barometer is sinking in the tube.

FALLING HOME. When the top-sides are inclined within the perpendicular; opposite of wall-sided. (See Tumbling Home.)

FALLING OFF. The opposite of griping, or coming up to the wind; it is the movement or direction of the ship's head to leeward of the point whither it was lately directed, particularly when she sails near the wind, or lies by. Also, the angle contained between her nearest approach to the direction of the wind, and her furthest declination from it when trying.

FALLING OUT. When the top-sides project beyond a perpendicular, as in flaring.

FALLING STARS. Meteors which have very much the appearance of real stars. They were falsely regarded as foreboders of wind, as Seneca in Hippolytus, "Ocior cursum rapiente flamma stella cum ventis agitata longos porrigit ignes." Some are earthy, others metallic.

FALLING TIDE, or Ebb of Tide. This phrase, implying a previous flow of tide towards high-water, requires here only a partial explanation: the sea, after swelling for about six hours, and thus entering the mouths of rivers, and rising along the sea-shore more or less, according to the moon's age and other circumstances, rests for a quarter of an hour, and then retreats or ebbs during the next six hours. After a similar pause the phenomenon recommences,—occupying altogether about twelve hours and fifty minutes. A table of the daily time of high-water at each port is requisite for the shipping. There are curious variations to this law, as when strong rivers rise and fall, and yet do not admit salt water.

Their currents, indeed, of fresh water, are found far off the land, as in the Tiber, and off several in the West Indies, South America, &c. (See Tide.

FALL IN WITH, To. To meet, when speaking of a ship; to discover, when speaking of the land.

FALL OF TIDE. An ebb.

FALL OUT, To. To increase in breadth. Among soldiers and small-arm men, to quit the ranks of a company.

FALLS. When a ship is not flush, this is the term given to those risings of some parts of her decks (which she may have) more than others.[288]

FALL-WIND. A sudden gust.

FALMADAIR. An old word signifying rudder, or a pilot.

FALSE ALARM. See Alarm.

FALSE ATTACK. A feigned assault, made to induce a diversion or distraction of the enemy's forces, in order that the true object elsewhere may be carried.

FALSE COLOURS. To sail under false colours and chase is an allowable stratagem of war, but firing under them is not permitted by the maritime law of England.

FALSE FIRE, Blue Flames. A composition of combustibles filled into a wooden tube, which, upon being set fire to, burns with a light blue flame from a half to several minutes. They are principally used as night-signals, but often to deceive an enemy.

FALSE KEEL. A kind of supplemental or additional keel secured under the main one, to protect it should the ship happen to strike the ground.

FALSE KELSON, or Kelson Rider. A piece of timber wrought longitudinally above the main kelson.

FALSE MUSTER. An incorrect statement of the crew on the ship's books, which if proved subjects the captain to cashiering.

FALSE PAPERS. Frequently carried by slavers and smugglers.

FALSE POST. See False Stern-post.

FALSE RAIL. A thin plank fayed at the head-rails as a strengthener.

FALSE STEM. A hard timber fayed to the fore-part of the main stem, its tail covering the fore-end of the keel. (See Cut-water.)

FALSE STERN. An additional stern fixed on the main one, to increase the length and improve the appearance of a vessel.

FALSE STERN-POST. A piece bolted to the after-edge of the main stern-post to improve steerage, and protect it should the ship tail aground.

FAMILY-HEAD. When the stem was surmounted with several full-length figures, as was the custom many years ago.

FAMLAGH. The Erse or Manx term for oar or ore weed, wrack, or manure of sea-weed.

FANAL [Fr.] A lighthouse.

FANCY-LINE. A line rove through a block at the jaws of a gaff, used as a down-haul. Also, a line used for cross-hauling the lee topping-lift. Also, a cord laid up neatly for sashed cabin-windows. Sometimes used for tracing-line.

FANE. An old term for weather-cock: "a fayne of a schipe." (See Vane.)

FANG, To. To pour water into a pump in order to fetch it, when otherwise the boxes do not hold the water left on them.

FANGS. The valves of the pump-boxes.

FANIONS. Small flags used in surveying stations, named after the bannerets carried by horse brigades, and corrupted from the Italian word gonfalone, a standard.

FANNAG-VARRY. The Erse term for a shag or cormorant, still in use on our north-western shores, and in the Isle of Man.[289]

FANNING. The technical phrase for breadthening the after-part of the tops. Also, widening in general.

FANNING-BREEZE. One so gentle that the sail alternately swells and collapses.

FANTODS. A name given to the fidgets of officers, who are styled jib-and-staysail Jacks.

FARDAGE. Dunnage; when a ship is laden in bulk.

FARE [Anglo-Saxon, fara]. A voyage or passage by water, or the money paid for such passage. Also, a fishing season for cod; and likewise the cargo of the fishing vessel. (See How Fare Ye?)

FARE-CROFTS. The vessels that formerly plied between England and France.

FARRANE. The Erse term for a gentle breeze, still used on our north-western shores.