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From Complete Book of The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.
By Unknown Author
WORD. The watch-word; the parole and countersign, which, being issued to the authorized persons at guard-mounting, become a test whereby spies or strangers are detected.
WORK, To. Said of a ship when she strains in a tempestuous sea, so as to loosen her joints.
WORK ABACK. This is said of a steam-engine if reversed, to propel the vessel astern.
WORK A SHIP, To. To adapt the sails to the force and direction of the wind.
WORK DOUBLE-TIDES, To. Implying that the work of three days is done in two, or at least two tides' work in twenty-four hours.
WORKING A DAY'S WORK. Reducing the dead-reckoning and meridian altitudes to noon of each day.[738]
WORKING A LUNAR. Reducing the observations of the sun and moon, or moon and stars, in order to find the longitude. Also, a phrase used when a man sleeps during a conversation.
WORKING AN OBSERVATION. Reducing the altitudes or distances of heavenly bodies by calculation.
WORKING PARTIES. Gangs of hands employed on special duties out of the ship or dockyard.
WORKING TO WINDWARD. Sailing against the wind by alternate tacks. (See Beating.)
WORKING UP. The keeping men at work on needless matters, beyond the usual hours, for punishment.
WORKS. All fortificational constructions, whether permanent, field, or makeshifts of the moment; from the most solid bastion to the rudest rifle-pit.
WORK UP JUNK, To. To draw yarns from old cables, &c., and therewith to make foxes, points, gaskets, sinnet, or spun-yarn.
WORM. An iron tool shaped like a double cork-screw on the end of a long staff, for withdrawing charges, ignited remains of cartridges, &c. , from fire-arms. Called also a wad-hook in artillery. (See also Teredo Navalis.
)—To worm. The act of passing a rope spirally between the lays of a cable; a smaller rope is wormed with spun-yarn. Worming is generally resorted to as a preparative for serving. (See Link Worming.
WORM-EATEN, or Wormed. The state of a plank or of a ship's bottom when perforated by a particular kind of boring mollusk, Teredo navalis, which abounds in the tropics.
WORMS. Timber is preserved against worms by several coats of common whale-oil, or by the patents of Payne, Sir W. Burnett, Kyan, and others.
WRACK. The English name for the fucus; the sea-weed used for the manufacture of kelp, and in some places artificially grown for that purpose.
WRACK-RIDER. A species of brandling faintly barred on both sides.
WRAIN-BOLT. A ring-bolt with two or more forelock-holes in it, occasionally to belay or make fast towards the middle. It is used, with the wrain-staff in the ring, for setting-to the planks.
WRAIN-STAFF. A stout billet of tough wood, tapered at its ends, so as to go into the ring of the wrain-bolt, to make the necessary setts for bringing-to the planks or thick stuff to the timber.
WRASSE. The Crenilabrus tinca, a sea-fish, sometimes called old-wife.
WRECK. The destruction of a ship by stress of weather, rocks, &c. ; also the ruins of the ship after such accidents; also the goods and fragments which drive on shore after a ship is stranded. It is said that the term is derived from the sea-weed called wrack, denoting all that the sea washes on shore as it does this weed. A ship cast on shore is no wreck, in law, when any domestic animal has escaped with life in her.
The custody of the cargo or goods belongs to the deputy of the vice-admiral, and they are restored to the proprietors without any fees or salvage, but what the labour of those who saved them may reasonably deserve.
WRECKAGE. Spars, rigging, or goods floating about after a wreck.
WRECKERS. A name which includes both meritorious salvors of ships in distress, and the felonious brutes who merely hasten to wrecks for plunder. One of our British colonies deemed it so entirely a legal procedure to make a wreck of or cripple a vessel on the reef, that a naval officer was threatened with legal proceedings by a lawyer whom he prevented from carrying out his practice afloat.
WRECK-FREE. Is to be exempt from the forfeiture of shipwrecked goods and vessels: a privilege which Edward I. granted by charter to the barons of the Cinque Ports.
WRIGHT'S SAILING. Synonymous with Mercator's sailing.
WRING A MAST, To. To bend, cripple, or strain it out of its natural position by setting the shrouds up too taut. The phrase, to wring, is also applied to a capstan when by an undue strain the component parts of the wood become deranged, and are thereby disunited. The head of a mast is frequently wrung by bracing up the lower yards beyond the dictates of sound judgment.
WRONG, To. To out-sail a vessel by becalming her sails is said to wrong her.
WRONG WAY. When the ship casts in the opposite direction to that desired. Also, a ship swinging in a tide's way, out of the direction which would keep her hawse clear.
WRUNG-HEADS. An old term for that part of a ship near the floor-heads and second futtock-heels, which, when she lies aground, bears the greatest strain.
W., Part 6
WORD. The watch-word; the parole and countersign, which, being issued to the authorized persons at guard-mounting, become a test whereby spies or strangers are detected.
WORK, To. Said of a ship when she strains in a tempestuous sea, so as to loosen her joints.
WORK ABACK. This is said of a steam-engine if reversed, to propel the vessel astern.
WORK A SHIP, To. To adapt the sails to the force and direction of the wind.
WORK DOUBLE-TIDES, To. Implying that the work of three days is done in two, or at least two tides' work in twenty-four hours.
WORKING A DAY'S WORK. Reducing the dead-reckoning and meridian altitudes to noon of each day.[738]
WORKING A LUNAR. Reducing the observations of the sun and moon, or moon and stars, in order to find the longitude. Also, a phrase used when a man sleeps during a conversation.
WORKING AN OBSERVATION. Reducing the altitudes or distances of heavenly bodies by calculation.
WORKING PARTIES. Gangs of hands employed on special duties out of the ship or dockyard.
WORKING TO WINDWARD. Sailing against the wind by alternate tacks. (See Beating.)
WORKING UP. The keeping men at work on needless matters, beyond the usual hours, for punishment.
WORKS. All fortificational constructions, whether permanent, field, or makeshifts of the moment; from the most solid bastion to the rudest rifle-pit.
WORK UP JUNK, To. To draw yarns from old cables, &c., and therewith to make foxes, points, gaskets, sinnet, or spun-yarn.
WORM. An iron tool shaped like a double cork-screw on the end of a long staff, for withdrawing charges, ignited remains of cartridges, &c. , from fire-arms. Called also a wad-hook in artillery. (See also Teredo Navalis.
)—To worm. The act of passing a rope spirally between the lays of a cable; a smaller rope is wormed with spun-yarn. Worming is generally resorted to as a preparative for serving. (See Link Worming.
WORM-EATEN, or Wormed. The state of a plank or of a ship's bottom when perforated by a particular kind of boring mollusk, Teredo navalis, which abounds in the tropics.
WORMS. Timber is preserved against worms by several coats of common whale-oil, or by the patents of Payne, Sir W. Burnett, Kyan, and others.
WRACK. The English name for the fucus; the sea-weed used for the manufacture of kelp, and in some places artificially grown for that purpose.
WRACK-RIDER. A species of brandling faintly barred on both sides.
WRAIN-BOLT. A ring-bolt with two or more forelock-holes in it, occasionally to belay or make fast towards the middle. It is used, with the wrain-staff in the ring, for setting-to the planks.
WRAIN-STAFF. A stout billet of tough wood, tapered at its ends, so as to go into the ring of the wrain-bolt, to make the necessary setts for bringing-to the planks or thick stuff to the timber.
WRASSE. The Crenilabrus tinca, a sea-fish, sometimes called old-wife.
WRECK. The destruction of a ship by stress of weather, rocks, &c. ; also the ruins of the ship after such accidents; also the goods and fragments which drive on shore after a ship is stranded. It is said that the term is derived from the sea-weed called wrack, denoting all that the sea washes on shore as it does this weed. A ship cast on shore is no wreck, in law, when any domestic animal has escaped with life in her.
The custody of the cargo or goods belongs to the deputy of the vice-admiral, and they are restored to the proprietors without any fees or salvage, but what the labour of those who saved them may reasonably deserve.
WRECKAGE. Spars, rigging, or goods floating about after a wreck.
WRECKERS. A name which includes both meritorious salvors of ships in distress, and the felonious brutes who merely hasten to wrecks for plunder. One of our British colonies deemed it so entirely a legal procedure to make a wreck of or cripple a vessel on the reef, that a naval officer was threatened with legal proceedings by a lawyer whom he prevented from carrying out his practice afloat.
WRECK-FREE. Is to be exempt from the forfeiture of shipwrecked goods and vessels: a privilege which Edward I. granted by charter to the barons of the Cinque Ports.
WRIGHT'S SAILING. Synonymous with Mercator's sailing.
WRING A MAST, To. To bend, cripple, or strain it out of its natural position by setting the shrouds up too taut. The phrase, to wring, is also applied to a capstan when by an undue strain the component parts of the wood become deranged, and are thereby disunited. The head of a mast is frequently wrung by bracing up the lower yards beyond the dictates of sound judgment.
WRONG, To. To out-sail a vessel by becalming her sails is said to wrong her.
WRONG WAY. When the ship casts in the opposite direction to that desired. Also, a ship swinging in a tide's way, out of the direction which would keep her hawse clear.
WRUNG-HEADS. An old term for that part of a ship near the floor-heads and second futtock-heels, which, when she lies aground, bears the greatest strain.