STEEP-TO. [Anglo-Saxon stéap.] Said of a bold shore, admitting of the largest vessels coming very close to the cliffs without touching the bottom. (See Bold-shore.)

STEEP-TUB. A large tub in which salt provisions are soaked previous to being cooked.

STEERAGE. The act of steering. (See Nice Steerage. ) Also, that part of the ship next below the quarter-deck, immediately before the bulk-head of the great cabin in most ships of war. The portion of the 'tween-decks just before the gun-room bulk-head.

In some ships the second-class passengers are called steerage passengers. The admiral's cabin on the middle deck of three-deckers has been called the steerage.

STEERAGE-WAY. When a vessel has sufficient motion in the water to admit of the helm being effective.

STEER HER COURSE, To. Going with the wind fair enough to lay her course.

STEERING [Anglo-Saxon stéoran]. The perfection of steering consists in a vigilant attention to the motion of the ship's head, so as to check every deviation from the line of her course in the first instant of its commencement, and in applying as little of the power of the helm as possible, for the action of the rudder checks a ship's speed.

STEERING-SAIL. An incorrect name for a studding-sail.

STEER LARGE, To. To go free, off the wind. Also, to steer loosely.

STEER SMALL, To. To steer well and within small compass, not dragging the tiller over from side to side.

STEERSMAN. The helmsman or timoneer; the latter from the French timon, helm.

STEEVING. Implies the bowsprit's angle from the horizon: formerly it stood at an angle of 70 to 80 degrees, and was indeed almost a bow mast or sprit. Also, the stowing of cotton, wool, or other cargo, in a merchantman's hold with a jack-screw.

STEM. The foremost piece uniting the bows of a ship; its lower end scarphs into the keel, and the bowsprit rests upon its upper end. The[655] outside of the stem is usually marked with a scale of feet and inches, answering to a perpendicular from the keel, in order to ascertain the ship's draught of water forward. —False stem. When a ship's stem is too flat, so that she cannot keep a wind well, a false stem, or gripe, is fayed on before the right one, which enables her to hold a better wind.

—From stem to stern, from one end of the ship to the other. —To stem, to make way against any obstacle. "She does not stem the tide," that is, she cannot make head against it for want of wind.

STEM-KNEE. In ship-building, the compass-timber which connects the keel with the stem. (See Dead-wood Knees.)

STEMSON. An arching piece of compass-timber, worked within the apron to reinforce the scarph thereof, in the same manner as the apron supports that of the stem. The upper end is carried as high as the upper deck, the lower being scarphed on to the kelson.

STEP. A large clamp of timber fixed on the kelson, and fitted to receive the tenoned heel of a mast. The steps of the main and fore masts of every ship rest upon the kelson; that of the mizen-mast sometimes rests upon the lower-deck beams.—To step a boat's mast. To erect and secure it in its step in readiness for setting sail.

STEP OF THE CAPSTAN. A solid block of wood fixed between two of the ship's beams to receive the iron spindle and heel of the capstan.

STEP OUT, To. To move along simultaneously and cheerfully with a tackle-fall, &c.

STEPPES. The specific application is to the vast level plains of South-east and Asiatic Russia, resembling the Landes of France. (See Landes.)

STEPPING. The sinking a rabbet in the dead-wood, wherein the heels of the timbers rest. (See Bearding-line.)

STEPS OF THE SIDE. Pieces of quartering nailed to the sides amidships, from the wale upwards; for the people ascending or descending the ship.

STERE'S-MAN. A pilot or steerer, from the Anglo-Saxon stéora.

STERE-TRE. An archaic word for rudder.

STERN. The after-part of a ship, ending in the taffarel above and the counters below.—By the stern. The condition of a vessel which draws more water abaft than forward.

STERNAGE. The after-part of a ship, and therefore Shakspeare's term is simple enough for any but commentators. Henry V.'s fleet is sailing away:—

STERN-ALL. A term amongst whalers, meaning to pull the boat stern foremost, to back off after having entered an iron (harpoon).

STERN-BOARD. This term is familiarly known to seamen as tacking[656] by misadventure in stays; or purposely, as a seamanlike measure, to effect the object. Thus a ship in a narrow channel is allowed to fly up head to wind until her stem nearly touches a weather danger; the head-yards are then quickly braced abox, and the helm shifted. Thus she makes stern-way until all the sails are full, when she is again skilfully brought to the wind before touching the danger under her lee. Generally speaking, however, it refers to bad seamanship.

STERN-CHASERS. The guns which fire directly aft.

STERN-DAVITS. Pieces of iron or timber projecting from the stern, with sheaves or blocks at their outer ends, for hoisting boats up to.

STERN-FAST. A rope used to confine the stern of a vessel to a wharf, &c.

STERN-FRAME. That strong and ornamental union based on the stern-post, transom, and fashion-pieces.

STERN-KNEE. Synonymous with stern-son (which see).

STERN-LADDER. Made of ropes with wooden steps, for getting in and out of the boats astern.

STERNMOST. Implies anything in the rear, or farthest astern, as opposed to headmost.

STERN-PORTS. The ports made between the stern-timbers.

STERN-POST. The opposite to the stem; scarphed into the keel, and suspending the rudder. In steam-ships, where a screw is fitted, it works between this and an after stern-post which carries the rudder.

STERN-SHEETS. That part of a boat between the stern and the aftmost thwart, furnished with seats for passengers.

STERN-SON. A knee-piece of oak-timber, worked on the after dead-wood; the fore-end is scarphed into the kelson, and the after-side fayed into the throats of the transoms.

STERN-WALK. The old galleries formerly used to line-of-battle ships.

STERN-WAY. The movement by which a ship goes stern foremost. The opposite of head-way.

STEVEDORE, or Stivadore. A stower; one employed in the hold in loading and unloading merchant vessels.

STEWARD. There are several persons under this appellation in most ships, according to their size, appointed to the charge of the sea-stores of the various grades. The paymaster's steward has most to do, having to serve the crew, and therefore has assistants, distinguished by the sobriquet of Jack-o'-the-dust, &c. In large passenger ships which do not carry a purser, part of his duties devolves upon the captain's steward. In smaller merchant ships the special duties of the steward are not heavy, so that he assists in the working of the ship, and in tacking; his station is, ex officio, the main-sheet.

STICHLING. A grown perch, thus described by old Palsgrave: "Styckelyng, a maner of fysshe."

STICKLEBACK. A very small fish, armed with sharp spines on its back.

STICKS. A familiar phrase for masts.

STIFF. Stable or steady; the opposite to crank; a quality by which a[657] ship stands up to her canvas, and carries enough sail without heeling over too much.

STIFF BOTTOM. A clayey bottom.

STIFF BREEZE. One in which a ship may carry a press of sail, when a little more would endanger the spars.

STIFFENING ORDER. A custom-house warrant for making a provision in the shipping of goods, before the whole inward cargo is discharged, to prevent the vessel getting too light.

STILL WATER. Another name for slack-tide; it is also used for water under the lee of headlands, or where there is neither tide nor current.

STING-RAY. A fish, Trygon pastinaca, which wounds with a serrate bone, lying in a sheath on the upper side of its tail; the wound is painful, as all fish-wounds are, but not truly poisonous, and the smart is limited by superstition to the next tide.

STINK-BALLS. A pyrotechnical preparation of pitch, rosin, nitre, gunpowder, colophony, assafœtida, and other offensive and suffocating ingredients, formerly used for throwing on to an enemy's decks at close quarters, and still in use with Eastern pirates, in earthen jars or stink-pots.

STIPULATION. A process in the instance-court of the admiralty, which is conventional when it regards a vessel or cargo, but prætorian and judicial in proceedings against a person.

STIREMANNUS. The term in Domesday Book for the pilot of a ship or steersman.

STIRRUP. An iron or copper plate that turns upwards on each side of a ship's keel and dead-wood at the fore-foot, or at her skegg, and bolts through all: it is a strengthener, but not always necessary.

STIRRUPS. Ropes with eyes at their ends, through which the foot-ropes are rove, and by which they are supported; the ends are nailed to the yards, and steady the men when reefing or furling sails.

STIVER. A very small Dutch coin. "Not worth a stiver" is a colloquialism to express a person's poverty.

STOACH-WAY. The streamlet or channel which runs through the silt or sand at low-water in tidal ports; a term principally used on our southern shores.

STOAKED. The limber-holes impeded or choked, so that the water cannot come to the pump-well.

STOCADO. A neat thrust in fencing.

STOCCADE. A defensive work, constructed of stout timber or trunks of trees securely planted together. Originally written stockade.

STOCKADE. Now spelled stoccade.

STOCK AND FLUKE. The whole of anything.

STOCK-FISH. Ling and haddock when sun-dried, without salt, were called stock-fish, and used in the navy, but are now discontinued, from being thought to promote the scurvy.

STOCK OF AN ANCHOR. A cross-beam of wood, or bar of iron, secured to the upper end of the shank at right angles with the flukes; by its[658] means the anchor is canted with one fluke down, and made to hook the ground.—Stock of a gun, musket, or pistol, is the wooden part to which the barrel is fitted, for the convenience of handling and firing it. Stock is also applied to stores laid in for a voyage, as sea-stock, live-stock, &c.—To stock to, in stowing an anchor, is, by means of a tackle upon the upper end of the stock, to bowse it into a perpendicular direction, which tackle is hence denominated the stock-tackle.

STOCKS. A frame of blocks and shores whereon to build shipping. It has a gradual declivity towards the water.

STOER-MACKEREL. A name for the young tunny-fish.

STOITING. An east-country term for the jumping of fishes above the surface of the water.

STOKE, To. To frequent the galley in a man-of-war, or to trim fires.

STOKE-HOLE. A scuttle in the deck of a steamer to admit fuel for the engine. Also, the space for the men to stand in, to feed and trim the fires.

STOKER, or Fireman. The man who attends to feed and trim the fires for the boilers in a steam-vessel.

STOMACH-PIECE. See Apron.

STONACRE. A sloop-rigged boat employed to carry stone on the Severn.

STONE. The old term for a gun-flint.

STONE-BOW. A cross-bow for shooting stones.

STOOL. A minor channel abaft the main channels, for the dead-eyes of the backstays. (See Backstay-stools.)

STOOLS. Chocks introduced under the lowest transoms of a ship's stern-frame, to which the lower ends of the fashion-pieces are fastened; they form the securities of the quarter-galleries. Also, the thick pieces of plank, fayed together edgeways, and bolted to the sides of the ship for backstays. Also, the ornamental block for the poop-lantern to stand upon.