JAB, To. To pierce fish by prodding.

JABART. A northern term for a fish out of season.

JABB. A peculiar net used for catching the fry of the coal-fish.

JACK. In the British navy the jack is a small union flag, formed by the intersection of St. George's and St. Andrew's crosses (which see), usually displayed from a staff erected on the outer end of a ship's bowsprit. In merchant ships the union is bordered with white or red.

(See Union-jack. ) Also, a common term for the jack or cross-trees. Also, a young male pike, Esox lucius, under a foot in length. Also, a drinking vessel of half-pint contents. (See Black-jack.

)—Jack, or Jack Tar, a familiar term for a sailor. A fore-mast man and an able seaman. It was an early term for short coats, jackets, and a sort of coat-of-mail or defensive lorica, or upper garment.

JACK ADAMS. A stubborn fool.

JACK AFLOAT. A sailor. Euripides used almost the same term in floater, for a seaman.

JACKASSES. Heavy rough boats used in Newfoundland.

JACKASS PENGUIN. A bird, apt while on shore to throw its head backwards, and make a strange noise, somewhat resembling the braying of an ass.

JACK-BARREL. A minnow.

JACK-BLOCK. A block occasionally attached to the topgallant-tie, and through which the top-gallant top-rope is rove, to sway up or strike the yard.

JACK-BOOTS. Large coverings for the feet and legs, outside all, worn by fishermen.

JACK CROSS-TREES. Single iron cross-trees at the head of long topgallant-masts, to support royal and skysail masts.

JACKEE-JA. A Greenland canoe.

JACKET. A doublet; any kind of outer coat.—Cork jacket, is lined with cork in pieces, in order to give it buoyancy, and yet a degree of flexibility, that the activity of the wearer may not be impeded in swimming.[407]

JACKETS. The casings of the passages by which steam is delivered into the cylinders of steam-engines. They are non-conductors of heat to check its escape.

JACKETTING. A starting, or infliction of the rope's-end.

JACK-HERN. A name on our southern coasts for the heron.

JACKING. Taking the skin off a seal.

JACK IN OFFICE. An insolent fellow in authority.

JACK IN THE BASKET. A sort of wooden cap or basket on the top of a pole, to mark a sand-bank or hidden danger.

JACK IN THE BOX. A very handy engine, consisting of a large wooden male screw turning in a female one, which forms the upper part of a strong wooden box, shaped like the frustum of a pyramid. It is used by means of levers passing through holes in it as a press in packing, and for other purposes.

JACK IN THE BREAD-ROOM, or Jack in the Dust. The purser's steward's assistant in the bread and steward's room.

JACK-KNIFE. A horn-handled clasp-knife with a laniard, worn by seamen.

JACKMAN. A musketeer of former times, wearing a short mail jack or jacket.

JACK NASTY-FACE. A cook's assistant.

JACK OF DOVER. An old sea-dish, the composition of which is now lost. Chaucer's host in rallying the cook exclaims,

JACK O' LANTERN. The corpo santo, or St. Elmo's light, is sometimes so called.

JACK-PINS. A name applied to the fife-rail pins, also called Tack-pins.

JACK ROBINSON.—Before you could say Jack Robinson, is a very old expression for a short time,—

JACK'S ALIVE. A once popular sea-port dance.

JACK-SCREW. A small machine used to cant or lift weighty substances, and in stowing cotton or other elastic goods. It consists of a wooden frame containing cogged iron wheels of increasing powers. The outer one, which moves the rest, is put in motion by a winch on the outside, and is called either single or double, according to its increasing force. The pinions act upon an iron bar called the spear.

JACK-SHARK. A common sobriquet of the Squalus tribe.

JACK-SHARP. A small fresh-water fish, otherwise known as prickly-back.

JACK'S QUARTER-DECK. The deck elevation forward in some vessels, often called a top-gallant forecastle.

JACK-STAFF. A short staff raised at the bowsprit-cap, upon which the union-jack is hoisted.[408]

JACK-STAYS. Ropes, battens, or iron bars placed on a yard or spar and set taut, either for bending the head of a sail to, or acting as a traveller. Frequently resorted to for the staysails, square-sail yard, &c.

JACOB'S LADDER. The assemblage of shakes and short fractures, rising one above another, in a defective single-tree spar. Also, short ladders made with wooden steps and rope sides for ascending the rigging.

JACOB'S STAFF, or Cross-staff. A mathematical instrument to take altitudes, consisting of a brass circle, divided into four equal parts by two lines cutting each other in the centre; at each extremity of either line is fixed a sight perpendicularly over the lines, with holes below each slit for the better discovery of distant objects. The cross is mounted on a staff or stand for use. Sometimes, instead of four sights, there are eight.

JACULATOR. A fish whose chief sustenance is flies, which it secures by shooting a drop of water at them from its mouth.

JAG, To. To notch an edge irregularly.—Jagged, a term applied to denticulated edges, as in jagged bolts to prevent their coming out.

JAGARA, or Joggaree. A coarse brown sugar of India.

JAGS. Splinters to a shot-hole.

JAIL-BIRD. One who has been confined in prison, from the old term of cage for a prison; a felon absurdly (and injuriously to the country) sentenced to serve in the navy.

JALIAS. Small craft on the Arracan and Pegu coasts.

JAM, To. Anything being confined, so that it cannot be freed without trouble and force; the term is also applied to the act of confining it. To squeeze, to wedge, to press against. (See Jambing.)

JAMAICA DISCIPLINE. The buccaneer regulations respecting prize shares, insisting that all prizes be divided among the captors.

JAMBEAUX. Armour to protect the legs.

JAMBING, or Jamming. The act of inclosing any object between two bodies, so as to render it immovable while they continue in that position; usually applied to a running rope, when, from pressure, it cannot travel in the blocks; the opposite of rendering (which see).

JAMBS. Door-posts in general; but in particular thick broad pieces of oak, fixed up endways, between which the lights of the powder magazine are fitted.

JAMMED IN A CLINCH. The same as hard up in a clinch (which see).—Jammed in a clinch like Jackson, involved in difficulty of a secondary degree, as when Jackson, after feeding for a week in the bread-room, could not escape through the scuttle.

JANGADA. A sort of fishing float, or rather raft, composed of three or four long pieces of wood lashed together, used on the coasts of Peru and Brazil. The owner is called a jangadeira, but the term is evidently an application of jergado (which see).

JANGAR. A kind of pontoon constructed of two boats with a platform laid across them, used by the natives in the East Indies to convey horses, cattle, &c., across rivers.[409]

JANISSARY. A term derived from jeni cheri, meaning new soldiers, in the Turkish service.

JANTOOK, or Chuntock. A Chinese officer with vice-regal powers: he of Canton was called John Tuck by our seamen.

JANTY, or Jaunty. A vessel in showy condition; dressed in flags.

JAPANESE WHALE-BOAT. A long, open, and sharp rowing-boat of Japan.

JARGANEE. A Manx term for small worms on the sea-shore, and used as bait.

JARRING. The vibrations and tremblings occasioned in some steam-vessels by the machinery.

JAVA POT. A kind of sponge of the species Alcyonium.

JAVELS. An old term for dirty, idle fellows, wandering about quays and docks.

JAW. The inner, hollowed, semicircular end of a gaff or boom, which presses against the mast; the points of the jaw are called horns. Also, coarse and often petulant loquacity.—Long-jawed applies to a rope or cable, when by great strain it untwists, and exhibits one revolution where four were before; similar to long and short threads of the screw.

JAW-BREAKERS. Hard and infrequent words.

JAWING-TACKS. When a person speaks with vociferous fluency, he is said to have hauled his jawing-tacks on board.

JAW-ME-DOWN. An arrogant, overbearing, and unsound loud arguer.

JAW OF A BLOCK. The space in the shell where the sheave revolves.

JAW-ROPE. A line attached to the horns of the jaws to prevent the gaff from coming off the mast. It is usually furnished with bull's eyes (perforated balls) to make it shift easily up or down the mast.

JAYLS. The cracks and fissures of timber in seasoning.

JEER-BITTS. Those to which the jeers are fastened and belayed.

JEER-BLOCKS. Are twofold or threefold blocks, through which the jeer-falls are rove, and applied to hoist, suspend, or lower the main and fore yards.

JEER-CAPSTAN. One placed between the fore and main masts, serving to stretch a rope, heave upon the jeers, and take the viol to. Very seldom used. It is indeed deemed the spare capstan, and is frequently housed in by sheep-pens and fowl-racks.

JEERS. Answer the same purpose to the main-sail, fore-sail, and mizen, as halliards do to all inferior sails. The tye, a sort of runner, or thick rope, is the upper part of the jeers. Also, an assemblage of strong tackles by which the lower yards are hoisted up along the mast, or lowered down, as occasion requires; the former of which operations is called swaying, and the latter striking (both of which see).

JEFFERY'S GLUE. See Marine Glue.

JELBA. A large coasting-boat of the Red Sea.

JELLY-FISH. A common name for the Medusæ, soft gelatinous marine animals, belonging to the class Acalephæ.[410]

JEMMY. A finical fellow in the usual sense, but adopted as a nautical term by the mutineers of '97, to express the nobs, or heads of officers. Also, a handy crow-bar or lever.

JEMMY DUCKS. The ship's poulterer. A sobriquet which has universally obtained in a man-of-war.

JERBE. See Jelba.

JERGADO, or Gingado. An early term for a light skiff (circa 1550).

JERK. A sudden snatch or drawing pull; particularly applied to that given to the trigger of a lock. (See Saccade.)

JERKED BEEF. Charqui. Meat cured by drying in the open air, with or without salt. Also, the name of an American coin.

JERKIN. An old name for a coatee, or skirted jacket.

JERKING. A quick break in a heavy roll of the sea.

JERME. A trading vessel of Egypt.

JERQUER. A customs officer, whose duty is to examine the land-waiters' books, and check them.

JERQUING A VESSEL. A search performed by the jerquer of the customs, after a vessel is unloaded, to see that no unentered goods have been concealed.

JERSEY. Fine wool, formerly called gearnsey, ganzee, or guernsey.—Jersey frocks, woollen frocks supplied to seamen.

JETSAM, or Jetson. In legal parlance, is the place where goods thrown overboard sink, and remain under water. Also, the goods cast into the sea.

JETTISON, or Jetsen. The act of throwing goods overboard to lighten a ship in stress of weather. The loss forms a subject for general average.

JETTY, Jettee, or Jutty. A name given in the royal dockyards to that part of a wharf which projects beyond the rest, but more particularly the front of a wharf, the side of which forms one of the cheeks of a dry or wet dock. Such a projection, whether of wood or stone, from the outer end of a wharf, is called a jetty-head.

JEW-BALANCE. A Mediterranean name of the Zygæna malleus, or hammer-headed shark.

JEWEL. The starting of a wooden bridge. Also, the pivot of a watch-wheel.

JEWEL-BLOCKS. Are attached to eye-bolts on those yards where studding-sails are hoisted, and carry these sails to the extreme ends of the yards. When these jewel-blocks are removed, it is understood that there is no intention to proceed to sea, and vice versâ. The halliards, by which the studding-sails are hoisted, are passed through the jewel-block, whence, communicating with a block on the several mast-heads, they lead downwards to the top or decks, where they may be conveniently hoisted. (See Sail.)

JEWELS. See Jocalia.