ADMIRALTY COURT. The constitution of this court relatively to the legislative power of the king in council, is analogous to that of the courts of common law relatively to the parliament of the kingdom. —High Court of Admiralty, a supreme court of law, in which the authority of the lord high-admiral is ostensibly exercised in his judicial capacity for the trial of maritime causes of a civil nature. Although termed the High Court of Admiralty, more properly this is the Court of Vice-Admiralty, and relates solely to civil and military matters of the sea, and sea boundaries, prizes, collisions, vessels or goods cast on the shore where the vice-admirals have civil jurisdiction, but no naval power, as the lord-lieutenants of counties are named in their patents "vice-admirals of the same;" in like manner all governors of colonies. All cases in connection are tried by the Admiralty Court in London, or by our "courts of vice-admiralty and prize jurisdictions abroad.

" Admirable as some of the decisions of this expensive tribunal have been, it has all the powers of the Inquisition in its practice,[21] and has thereby been an instrument of persecution to some innocent navigators, while it has befriended notorious villains. Besides this we have the Admiralty Court of Oyer and Terminer, for the trial of all murders, piracies, or criminal acts which occur within the limits of the country, on the coast-lines, at sea, or wherever the admiralty jurisdiction extends—the deck of a British ship included.

ADMIRALTY MIDSHIPMAN. Formerly one who, having served the appointed time, and passed his examination for lieutenant, was appointed to a ship by the admiralty, and thus named in contradistinction to those who used to be rated by the captain; he generally had precedence for promotion to "acting orders."

ADONIS. An anguilliform fish, about six inches long: it is of a golden colour, with a greenish tint, and has a white line from its very small gills to the tail.

ADORNINGS. The carved work on the quarter and stern-galleries of men-of-war.

ADOWN. The bawl of privateersmen for the crew of a captured vessel to go below. Saxon, adoun.

ADREAMT. Dozing; the sensation so often combatted with towards the end of a first or a middle watch, it being the state, as an old author has it, "between sleeping and waking."

ADRENT, or Adreynte. An old term for drowned.

ADRIFT. Floating at random; the state of a boat or vessel broken from her moorings, and driven to and fro without control by the winds and waves. Cast loose; cut adrift.

ADSCRIPTS. Sometimes used for the tangents of arcs.

AD VALOREM. Duties levied on commercial goods, according to their value.

ADVANCE, To. An old word, meaning to raise to honour.

ADVANCED POST. A spot of ground seized by a party to secure their front. A piquet or outpost.

ADVANCED SQUADRON. One on the look-out. —Advance, or vanguard, that division of a force which is next the enemy, or which marches before a body. —Advance fosse, a ditch of water round the esplanade or glacis of a fortification. —Advance!

the order to marines and small-arm men to move forward.

ADVANCE-LIST. The register by which two months' wages to the crew are paid, on first commission, and a quarter's to officers.

ADVANCEMENT. Promotion to higher rank.

ADVANCE MONEY. In men-of-war and most merchant ships the advance of two months' wages is given to the crew, previous to going to sea; the clearing off of which is called working up the dead horse.[22]

ADVANCE NOTE. A document issued by owners of a ship or their agents, promising to pay a seaman, or to his order, a sum of money in part of his wages, within a certain number of days after he has sailed in the ship. Advance notes are quite negotiable before a seaman has taken his departure.

ADVANTAGE, or Vantage-ground. That which gives superiority of attack on, or defence against, an enemy; affording means of annoyance or resistance.

ADVENTURE. An enterprise in which something is left to hazard.—A bill of adventure is one signed by the merchant, by which he takes the chances of the voyage.

ADVERSARY. Generally applied to an enemy, but strictly an opponent in single combat.

ADVERSE. The opposite of favourable; as, an adverse wind.

ADVICE-BOAT. A small fast-sailing vessel in advance of a fleet, employed to carry intelligence with all possible despatch. They were first used in 1692, to gain tidings of what was transacting in Brest, previous to the battle of La Hogue.

ADVOCATE GENERAL. An officer of the High Court of Admiralty, whose duty it is to appear for the lord high-admiral in that court, the court of delegates, or any other wherein his rights are concerned.—Judge-advocate of the navy, a law officer appointed to watch over and direct proceedings connected with courts-martial.—Deputy judge-advocate, an appointment made by the sudden selection of some secretary, or captain's clerk, to perform the duty at a court-martial (where no legal person is empowered), utterly ignorant of the law or the customs of the naval service.

ADZE, or Addice. A cutting tool of the axe kind, for dubbing flat and circular work, much used by shipwrights, especially by the Parsee builders in India, with whom it serves for axe, plane, and chisel. It is a curious fact that from the polar regions to the equator, and southerly throughout Polynesia, this instrument and its peculiar adaptations, whether made of iron, basalt, nephrite, &c., all preserve the same idea or identity of conception.

ÆINAUTÆ. Senators of Miletus, who held their deliberations on board ship.

ÆRATÆ. Ancient ships fitted with brazen prows.

AEROLITES. One of the many names given to those solid masses or stones which occasionally fall from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The assumption of their periodicity cannot, as yet, be considered as confirmed.

AEROLOGY. The rational doctrine or science of the air and its phenomena.[23]

AEROMANCY. Formerly the art of divining by the air, but now used for foretelling the changes in the weather, either by experience or by instruments.

AEROMETRY. The science of measuring the air, its powers, pressure, and properties.

ÆSTIVAL. Belonging to summer; the solstitial point whereby the sun's ascent above the equator is determined.

ÆSTUARY. See Estuary.

ÆWUL. An Anglo-Saxon term for a twig basket for catching fish.

AFEARD. This is a very common expression for afraid, and though thought low, is a true archaism of our language, as seen in Chaucer, Shakspeare, and Ben Jonson. Major Moor terms it an old and good word.

AFER. The south-west wind of the Latins, and used by some of the early voyagers.

AFFAIR. An indecisive engagement; a duel.

AFFECTED. An algebraic term for an equation in which the unknown quantity rises to two or more several powers.

AFFECTIONATE FRIENDS. An official inconsistent subscription, even to letters of reproof and imprest, used by the former Board of Commissioners of the Navy to such officers as were not of noble families or bore titles; the only British board that ever made so mean a distinction, equally kind with the regrets of the clergy on burning a heretic, or those of Walton in cutting a live fish tenderly. It was probably adopted from James, Duke of York, who, when lord high-admiral, always so subscribed his official letters. It is said that this practice was discontinued in consequence of a distinguished naval captain—a knight—adding, "your affectionate friend. " He was thereupon desired to "discontinue such an expression," when he replied, "I am, gentlemen, no longer your affectionate friend, J.

Phillimore.

AFFIDAVIT. A declaration upon oath, weakened in importance by its too frequent administration at custom-houses, lazarettos, &c. Declarations are now substituted in the case of naval officers.

AFFIRMATIVE. The positive sign or quantity in algebra; also signal flag or pendant by which a request or order is answered.

AFFLUENT. A stream flowing directly into another stream; a more specific term than tributary.

AFFORCIAMENT. An old term for a fortress or stronghold.

AFFREIGHTMENT. A contract for the letting the vessel, or a part of her for freight. (See Contract of Affreightment.)

AFLOAT. Borne up and supported by the water; buoyed clear of the ground; also used for being on board ship.[24]

AFORE. A Saxon word opposed to abaft, and signifying that part of the ship which lies forward or near the stem. It also means farther forward; as, the galley is afore the bitts.—Afore, the same as before the mast.—Afore the beam, all the field of view from amidship in a right angle to the ship's keel to the horizon forward.

AFORE THE MAST. See Before the Mast.

AFOUNDRIT. An archaism of sunk or foundered.

AFRAID. One of the most reproachful sea-epithets, as not only conveying the meaning being struck with fear, but also implies rank cowardice. (See Afeard.)

AFT—a Saxon word contradistinctive of fore, and an abbreviation of abaft—the hinder part of the ship, or that nearest the stern.—Right aft is in a direct line with the keel from the stern.—To haul aft a sheet is to pull on the rope which brings the clue or corner of the sails more in the direction of the stern.—The mast rakes aft when it inclines towards the stern.

AFT-CASTLE. An elevation on the after-part of our ships of war, opposed to forecastle, for the purpose of fighting.

AFTER. A comparative adjective, applied to any object in the hind part of a ship or boat; as, the after-cabin, the after-hatchway, &c.—After sails, yards, and braces—those attached to the main and mizen masts. Opposed to fore.

AFTER-BODY. That part of the ship's hull which is abaft the midships or dead-flat, as seen from astern. The term is, however, more particularly used in expressing the figure or shape of that part of the ship. (See Dead-flat.)

AFTER-CLAP. Whatever disagreeable occurrence takes place after the consequences of the cause were thought at an end; a principal application being when a ship, supposed to have struck, opens her fire again. This is a very old English word, alluding to unexpected events happening after the seeming end of an affair; thus Spenser, in "Mother Hubbard's Tale"—

AFTER-END. The stern of a ship, or anything in her which has that end towards the stern.

AFTER-FACE. See Back of the Post.

AFTER-GUARD. The men who are stationed on the quarter-deck and poop, to work the after-sails. It was generally composed of ordinary seamen and landsmen, constituting with waisters the largest part of the crew, on whom the principal drudgery of the ship devolved. At present the crews of ships-of-war are composed chiefly of able and ordinary seamen—landsmen are omitted.[25]

AFTER-LADDER leads to captain's and officers' quarters, and only used by officers.

AFTERMOST. The last objects in a ship, reckoned from forwards; as, the aftermost mast, aftermost guns, &c.

AFTERNOON-WATCH. The men on deck-duty from noon till 4 P.M.

AFTER-ORDERS. Those which are given out after the regular issue of the daily orders.

AFTER-PART. The locality towards the stern, from dead-flat; as, in the after-part of the fore-hold.

AFTER-PEAK. The contracted part of a vessel's hold, which lies in the run, or aftermost portion of the hold, in contradistinction to fore-peak. Both are the sharp ends of the ship.

AFTER-RAKE. That part of the hull which overhangs the after-end of keel.

AFTER-SAILS. All those on the after-masts, as well as on the stays between the main and mizen masts. Their effect is to balance the head-sails, in the manner that a weather-cock or vane is moved, of which the main-mast must be considered the pivot or centre. The reverse of head-sails. "Square the after-yards," refers to the yards on the main and mizen masts.

AFTER-TIMBERS. All those timbers abaft the midship section or bearing part of a vessel.

AFTMOST. The same as aftermost.

AFTWARD. In the direction of the stern.

AGA. A superior Turkish officer.