CLOSE HARBOUR. That is one gained by labour from the element, formed by encircling a portion of water with walls and quays, except at the entrance, or by excavating the land adjacent to the sea or river, and then letting in the water.

CLOSE-HAULED. The general arrangement or trim of a ship's sails when she endeavours to progress in the nearest direction possible contrary to the wind; in this manner of sailing the keel of square-rigged vessels commonly makes an angle of six points with the line of the wind, but cutters, luggers, and other fore-and-aft rigged vessels will sail even nearer. This point of sailing is synonymous with on a taut bowline and on a wind.

CLOSE PACK. The ice floes so jammed together that boring is impossible, and present efforts useless. (See Pack-ice.)

CLOSE-PORTS. Those which lie up rivers; a term in contradistinction to out-ports.[193]

CLOSE-QUARTERS, or Close-fights. Certain strong bulk-heads or barriers of wood, formerly stretching across a merchant ship in several places; they were used for retreat and shelter when a ship was boarded by an adversary, and were therefore fitted with loop-holes. Powder-chests were also fixed upon the deck, containing missiles which might be fired from the close quarters upon the boarders. The old slave-ships were thus fitted in case of the negroes rising, and flat-headed nails were cast along the deck to prevent their walking with naked feet. In the navy, yard-arm and yard-arm, sides touching.

CLOSE-REEFED. The last reefs of the top-sails, or other sails set, being taken in.

CLOSE-SIGHT. The notch in the base-ring of a cannon, to place the eye in a line with the top-sight.

CLOSE THE WIND, To. To haul to it.—Close upon a tack or bowline, or close by a wind, is when the wind is on either bow, and the tacks or bowlines are hauled forwards that they may take the wind to make the best of their way.—Close to the wind, when her head is just so near the wind as to fill the sails without shaking them.

CLOSE WITH THE LAND, To. To approach near to it.

CLOSH [from the Danish klos]. A sobriquet for east-country seamen.

CLOTHED. A mast is said to be clothed when the sail is so long as to reach the deck-gratings. Also, well clothed with canvas; sails well cut, well set, and plenty of them.

CLOTHES-LINES. A complete system of parallel lines, hoisted between the main and mizen masts twice a week to dry the washed clothes of the seamen.

CLOTHING. The rigging of the bowsprit.—Clothing the bowsprit is rigging it. Also, the purser's slops for the men.

CLOTH IN THE WIND. Too near to the wind, and sails shivering. Also, groggy.

CLOTHS. In a sail, are the breadths of canvas in its whole width. When a ship has broad sails they say she spreads much cloth.

CLOTTING. A west-country method of catching eels with worsted thread.

CLOUD. A collection of vapours suspended in the atmosphere. Also, under a cloud of canvas.

CLOUGH. A word derived from the verb to cleave, and signifying a narrow valley between two hills. (See Cleugh.) Also, in commerce, an allowance on the turn of the beam in weighing.

CLOUT. From the Teutonic kotzen, a blow. Also, a gore of blood.

CLOUT-NAILS [Fr. clouter]. To stud with nails, as ships' bottoms and piles were before the introduction of sheet copper.

CLOUTS. Thin plates of iron nailed on that part of the axle-tree of a[194] gun-carriage that comes through the nave, and through which the linch-pin goes.

CLOVE-HITCH. A knot or noose by which one rope is fastened to another. (See Hitch.) Two half hitches round a spar or rope.

CLOVE-HOOK. Synonymous with clasp-hook.

CLOVES. Planks made by cleaving. Certain weights for wool, butter, &c. Also, long spike-nails [derived from clou, Fr.]

CLOW. A kind of sluice in which the aperture is regulated by a board sliding in a frame and groove.

CLOY, To. To drive an iron spike by main force into the vent or touch-hole of a gun, which renders it unserviceable till the spike be either worked out, or a new vent drilled. (See Nailing and Spiking.)

CLUBBED. A fashion which obtained in the time of pig-tails of doubling them up while at sea.

CLUBBING. Drifting down a current with an anchor out.

CLUBBING A FLEET. Manœuvring so as to place the first division on the windward side.

CLUBBOCK. The spotted blenny or gunnel (Gunnellus vulgaris).

CLUB-HAUL, To. A method of tacking a ship by letting go the lee-anchor as soon as the wind is out of the sails, which brings her head to wind, and as soon as she pays off, the cable is cut and the sails trimmed; this is never had recourse to but in perilous situations, and when it is expected that the ship would otherwise miss stays. The most gallant example was performed by Captain Hayes in H. M. S.

Magnificent, 74, in Basque Roads, in 1814, when with lower-yards and top-masts struck, he escaped between two reefs from the enemy at Oleron. He bore the name of Magnificent Hayes to the day of his death, for the style in which he executed it.

CLUB-LAW. The rule of violence and strength.

CLUE. Of a square sail, either of the lower corners reaching down to where the tacks and sheets are made fast to it; and is that part which comes goring out from the square of the sail.

CLUE-GARNETS. A sort of tackle rove through a garnet block, attached to the clues of the main and fore sails to haul up and truss them to the yard; which is termed clueing up those sails as for goose-wings, or for furling. (See Block.)

CLUE-LINES. Are for the same purpose as clue-garnets, only that the latter term is solely appropriated to the courses, while the word clue-line is applied to those ropes on all the other square sails; they come down from the quarters of the yards to the clues, or lower corners of the sails, and by which the sails are hauled or clued up for furling.

CLUE OF A HAMMOCK. The combination of small lines by which it is suspended, being formed of knittles, grommets, and laniards;[195] they are termed double or single clues, according as there are one or two at each end. Latterly iron grommets or rings were introduced, but did not afford the required spread, and in some cases triangular irons, or span-shackles were substituted, called Spanish clues, formed by fixing the knittles at equal distances upon a piece of rope instead of a grommet, which having an eye spliced, and a laniard placed at each end, extends the hammock in the same way as a double clue. —From clue to earing. A phrase implying from the bottom to the top, or synonymous with "from top to toe.

" Or literally the diagonal of a square sail. Also, every portion, as in shifting dress; removing every article. Also, cleaning a ship from clue to earing; every crevice. —A clue up. A case of despair.

In readiness for death.

CLUE-ROPE. In large sails, the eye or loop at the clues is made of a rope larger than the bolt-rope into which it is spliced.

CLUE UP! The order to clue up the square sails.

CLUMP. A circular plantation of trees.

CLUMP-BLOCKS. Those that are made thicker or stronger than ordinary blocks. (See Block, Tack-and-Sheet.)

CLUSTER. See Group.

CLUTCH. The oyster spawn adhering to stones, oyster shells, &c.

CLUTCH. Forked stanchions of iron or wood. The same as crutch, clutch, or clamp block. (See Snatch-block.)

CLUTTERY. Weather inclining to stormy.

COACH, or Couch. A sort of chamber or apartment in a large ship of war, just before the great cabin. The floor of it is formed by the aftmost part of the quarter-deck, and the roof of it by the poop: it is generally the habitation of the flag-captain.

COACH-HORSES. The crew of the state barge; usually fifteen selected men, to support the captain in any daring exploits.

COACH-WHIP. The pendant.

COAD. In ship-building, the fayed piece called bilge-keel.

COAK. A small perforated triangular bit of brass inserted into the middle of the shiver (now called sheave) of a block, to keep it from splitting and galling by the pin, whereon it turns. Called also bush, cock or cogg, and dowel.

COAKING. Uniting pieces of spar by means of tabular projections formed by cutting away the solid of one piece into a hollow, so as to make a projection in the other fit in correctly, the butts preventing the pieces from drawing asunder. Coaks, or dowels, are fitted into the beams and knees of vessels, to prevent their slipping.

COAL-FISH. The Gadus carbonarius. Called gerrack in its first year, cuth or queth in its second, sayth in its third, lythe in its fourth, and colmie in its fifth, when it is full grown.[196]

COALING. Taking in a supply of coals for a cruise or voyage.

COALS. To be hauled over the coals, is to be brought to strict account.

COAL-SACKS. An early name of some dark patches of sky in the Milky Way, nearly void of stars visible to the naked eye. The largest patch is near the Southern Cross, and called the Black Magellanic Cloud.

COAL-SAY. The coal-fish.

COAL-TAR. Tar extracted from bituminous coal.

COAL-TRIMMER. One employed in a steamer to stow and trim the fuel. This duty and that of the stoker are generally combined.

COAMING-CARLINGS. Those timbers that inclose the mortar-beds of bomb-vessels, and which are called carlings, because they are shifted occasionally. Short beams where a hatchway is cut.

COAMINGS of the Hatches or Gratings. Certain raised work rather higher than the decks, about the edges of the hatch-openings of a ship, to prevent the water on deck from running down. Loop-holes were made in the coamings for firing muskets from below, in order to clear the deck of an enemy when a ship is boarded. There is a rabbet in their inside upper edge, to receive the hatches or gratings.

COAST. The sea-shore and the adjoining country; in fact, the sea-front of the land. (See Shore.)

COAST-BLOCKADE. A body of men formerly under the jurisdiction of the Customs, termed Preventive Service, offering a disposable force in emergency; but which has been turned over to the control of the Admiralty, and now become the Coast-guard, over which a commodore, as controller-general, presides. (See Fencibles.)

COASTER. See Coasting.

COASTING, or To Coast along. The act of making a progress along the sea-coast of any country, for which purpose it is necessary to observe the time and direction of the tide, to know the reigning winds, the roads and havens, the different depths of water, and the qualities of the ground. As these vessels are not fitted for distant sea voyages, they are termed coasters.

COASTING PILOT. A pilot who has become sufficiently acquainted with the nature of any particular coast, to conduct a ship or fleet from one part of it to another; but only within his limits. He may be superseded by the first branch-pilot he meets after passing his bounds.

COASTING TRADE. The commerce of one port of the United Kingdom with another port thereof. A trade confined by law to British ships and vessels.

COAST-WAITER. Custom-house superintendents of the landing and shipping of goods coastways.

COAST-WARNING. Synonymous with storm-signal; formerly fire-beacons were used to give warning of the approach of an enemy.[197]