TOP-TACKLE PENDANT. The pendant used with the above. The top-mast is swayed up by a top-rope or hawser. The pendant, which is of better material, and hawser-laid, has an eye and thimble spliced in one end, and is pointed at the other. This pendant is barely long enough to[689] lower the top-mast temporarily in bad weather, and when the top-mast is high enough for fidding, the purchase is block and block, and cannot lift it higher.

(See Top-rope.

TOP THE GLIM, To. To snuff the candle.

TOP THE OFFICER, To. To arrogate superiority.

TOP-TIMBER BREADTH. The distance between the upper part of the same timber and the middle line.

TOP-TIMBER HOLLOW. A name sometimes given to the back sweep which forms the upper part of the top-timber.

TOP-TIMBERS. The first general tier which reach the top are called long top-timbers, and those below short top-timbers.

TOP YOUR BOOM. See Boom.

TOR. A high rock or peak: also a tower, thus retaining the same meaning it had, as torr, with the Anglo-Saxons.

TORMENTER. The large two-pronged iron fork used by the ship's cook, to fish out the cooked meat from the copper.

TORMENTUM. A pistol; a gun; a piece of ordnance.

TORNADO. A peculiar squall, accompanied with rain and lightning, similar in suddenness to the white squall of the West Indies, and experienced off the equatorial region of the west coast of Africa between December and June. It appears first as a small black spot in the east, and barely affords time to put the ship before the wind and clue up all. The wind veers round the compass, and lasts a very short time.

TORPEDO. A cartilaginous fish allied to the rays, furnished with electrical organs, by means of which it is able to give powerful shocks. Also, a contrivance for blowing up ships of war by means of a submerged apparatus.

TORRENT. A land flood rushing from mountainous tracts, often with destructive effect. It is produced by an accumulation of water from rains or the melting of snows.

TORSE. A coarse kind of hemp, better known as cordilla in commerce.

TORSION OF CABLES. All ropes formed by twisting have a contrary turn, and a disposition to kink from torsion.

TORSK. See Tusk.

TORTS. Private wrongs either to persons or property afloat. They are cognizable by the admiralty court, according to locality.

TORTUE DE MER. A turtle. Also a French gabarre, troop, or store ship, with very high 'tween decks.

TOSHING. A cant word for stealing copper sheathing from vessels' bottoms, or from dockyard stores.

TOSS IN YOUR OARS! The order to desist rowing, and throw the oars in out of the rowlocks.

TOSS THE OARS UP! Throw them up out of the rowlocks, and raise them perpendicularly an-end; the act is intended as a compliment to a superior officer rowing by. Also, the order to a boat's crew to get the oars ready for rowing, and to salute the officer on his entering the boat.[690]

TOSS UP THE BUNT, To. In furling a sail, to make its final package at the centre of the yard when in its skin.

TOT, or Tott. A drinking-cup somewhat smaller than the regulation half-pint, by which a surplus is left in the distribution of the regular allowance of grog, and awarded to the cook of each mess, for the day, for his trouble.

TOTAL LOSS. A term in marine insurance, implying that the underwriters are to pay the amount insured without salvage.

TOTE. An abbreviation of total.—To tote. To watch, to spy, or to carry, whence the very singular fish on the southern coasts of America, which carries small pebbles on its little sharp horns for making a nest is called the stone-toter.

TOTTY-LAND. Certain heights on the side of a hill [probably derived from the Anglo-Saxon totian, to elevate].

TOUCH. In ship-building, the broadest part of a plank worked top-and-butt. Also, the angles of the stern-timbers at the counters. Also, keeping touch is fulfilling the terms of an agreement—speaking of the faith between seamen and their employers.

TOUCH-AND-GO. Said of anything within an ace of ruin; as in rounding a ship very narrowly to escape rocks, &c., or when, under sail, she rubs against the ground with her keel, without much diminution of her velocity.

TOUCH-AND-TAKE. An old proverb which Nelson applied to a ship about to encounter her opponent. A Nelsonian maxim.

TOUCH-BOX. The receptacle for lighted tinder when match-locks were used.

TOUCH-HOLE. The small aperture at the end of a musket or pistol, by which the fire of the priming was communicated to the charge. In guns, called the vent.

TOUCHING. The state of a ship's sails when they first begin to lift or shiver with their edges in the direction of the wind. It is occasioned either by a change in the wind or in the ship's course. (See Full and By. )—Luff and touch her!

is the order to the helmsman to bring the vessel up, and see how near she will come to the wind, or to give facility for taking in a reef when about to lower the top-sails, or for deadening the ship's way.

TOUCHING AT. Stopping or anchoring at some intermediate port in the course of a voyage.

TOUCH OF THE TAR-BRUSH. A nautical phrase expressive of those officers who are seamen as well as quarter-deckers. Also said of a white person in whose ancestry there has been some admixture of one of the dark races.

TOUCH UP IN THE BUNT, To. To mend the sail on the yard; figuratively, to goad or remind forcibly.

TOUCH-WOOD. See Punk.

TOURNIQUET. Screw-bandages used for stopping the flow of blood.[691] They are distributed about the quarters before action, and a number of men are taught to apply them. A handkerchief and toggle, or stick of any kind, is sometimes substituted.

TOUT, To. An old term for looking out, or keeping a prying watch; whence the revenue cruisers and the customs officers were called touters. The name is also given to crimps.

TOW, To. To draw or drag a ship or boat by means of a rope attached to another vessel or boat, which advances by steam-power, rowing, or sailing. The Roman method, as appears by the triumphal arch at Orange, was by a rope fastened to a pulley at the top of the mast. They also fastened a rope to the head of a boat, and led it over men's shoulders, as practised on our canals at the present day.

TOWAGE. The towing of a vessel through the water. Also, the money given for being towed. Vessels thus relieved give claim for salvage service.

TOW-BLOWEN. A term on our eastern coasts for a blown herring.

TOWEL. A word very absurdly introduced into marine law. "If a mariner," says Molloy, "shall commit a fault, and the master shall lift up the towel three times before any mariner, and he shall not submit, the master at the next place of land may discharge him." Some think that this refers to an oaken stick, but it is no doubt corrupted from the oster la touaille, or turning a delinquent out of his mess, of the laws of Oleron.

TOWING-BRIDLE. A stout chain with a hook at each end for attaching a tow-rope to; also, a large towing-hook in the bight of the chain.

TOWING-HOOK. See Towing-bridle.

TOWING OVERBOARD. Drawing anything after a ship or boat when she is sailing or rowing. As a manœuvre to deceive an enemy, and induce him to chase, it was common to tow a sail astern by a hawser, at the same time keeping the three masts in line, so as to deceive the chaser as to distance.

TOWING-PATH. The hauling-way along a canal or artificial harbour.

TOWING-POST. A substantial timber fixed through the deck of a steam-tug for making the tow-rope fast to. Also, a similar post in canal barges to keep the tow-line up clear of the path.

TOW-LINE [Anglo-Saxon toh-line]. A small hawser or warp used to move a ship from one part of a harbour or road to another by means of boats, steamers, kedges, &c.

TOWN-MAJOR. An officer in a garrison specially supervising the detail of the guards, and of other local current duties.

T-PLATES. Iron plates in the form of the letter T placed under the channels to add strength.

TRABACCOLO. An Adriatic trading craft.

TRABALEO. Ancient coasting vessels.

TRABARIÆ. Ancient canoes, made of hollowed trees, capable of carrying two or three men.

TRACE. In fortification, the horizontal disposition of the works; also, a plan of the same.[692]

TRACK-BOAT [from the Dutch treck-schuyt]. A vessel used on a canal or narrow stream.

TRACKING. Hauling any vessel or floating body along a canal or river by a rope dragged along the bank by men or horses.

TRACK OF A SHIP. The line of a ship's course through the water. (See Wake.)

TRADE. Implies the constant destination of any particular merchant vessels, as the Lisbon trade, West India trade, &c.

TRADER. A vessel employed regularly in any particular branch of commerce, whether sea-borne or coasting, British or foreign.

TRADE-ROOM. A part of the steerage of a Yankee notion-trader where light goods and samples of the cargo are kept for general business.

TRADE-WINDS. Currents of air moving from about the 30th degree of latitude towards the equator. The diurnal motion of the earth makes them incline from the eastward, so that in the northern hemisphere they are from the N. E. , and in the southern hemisphere from the S.

E. Their geographical position in latitude varies with the declination of the sun. In some parts of the world, as the Bay of Bengal and China Sea, the action of the sun on the neighbouring land has the power of reversing the trades; the winds are there called monsoons.

TRADING-VESSEL. See Trader.

TRAIL A PIKE, To. To hold the spear end in the right hand, and the butt trailed behind the bearer.

TRAIL-BOARDS. A carved board on each side of the stem, reaching from it to the figure, or to the brackets. The carved work between the cheek-knees of the head at the heel of the figure.

TRAIN OR TRAIL OF ARTILLERY. A certain number of pieces of ordnance, completely mounted and fitted with appurtenances and retinue of attendants, ready to follow in rear of an army, &c. (See Battering Guns.) Also, the hinder part of a gun-carriage.—Train also signifies a line of gunpowder or other combustible material forming a communication with any body intended to be set on fire or exploded.

TRAINING-LEVEL. A gravitating instrument for the same purpose as the training-pendulum.

TRAINING-PENDULUM. An improved pendulum to facilitate the accurate elevation and depression of guns on board ship, by means of coloured spirits or quicksilver confined in a tube.

TRAINING-SHIP for the Merchant Service. A vessel properly equipped with instructors and means to rear able-bodied lads for the merchant service.

TRAINING-SHIP for Naval Cadets. H. M. S. Britannia, commanded by a captain and complement of officers for the primary training of naval cadets.

They are nominated by the first lord, examined as to ability and constitution, and entered on trial. If they pass a pretty rigid examination, they are nominated to ships; but if they fail, they are not admitted into the navy. Great interest is required for a nomination.

TRAIN-TACKLE. A tackle which is during action hooked to an eye-bolt in the train of a gun-carriage, and to a ring-bolt in the deck; its use is to prevent the gun from running out of the port whilst loading, and for running it in when fired.

TRAJECTORY. An astronomical term for the orbital curve described by a planet or comet, now seldom used in that science, but generally employed for the path described by a shot or shell.

TRAMMEL. A large drag-net for the cod fishery.

TRAMONTANA. The north wind in general in the Mediterranean, but also denoting a peculiar cold and blighting wind, very hurtful in the Archipelago.