MOOR, To. To secure a ship with anchors, or to confine her in a particular station by two chains or cables, either fastened to the mooring chains or to the bottom; a ship is moored when she rides by two anchors.

MOOR A CABLE EACH WAY, To. Is dropping one anchor, veering out two cables' lengths, and letting go another anchor from the opposite bow; the first is then hove in to one cable, or less according to circumstances, while the latter is veered out as much, whereby the ship rides between the two anchors, equally distant from both. This is usually practised in a tide-way, in such manner that the ship rides by one during the flood, and by the other during the ebb.

MOOR ACROSS, To. To lay out one of the anchors across stream.

MOOR ALONG, To. To anchor in a river with a hawser on shore to steady her.

MOOR-GALLOP. A west-country term for a sudden squall coming across the moors.

MOORING-BRIDLE. The fasts attached to moorings, one taken into each hawse-hole, or bridle-port.

MOORING-CHOCKS. Large pieces of hard wood with a hole in the centre, shod with iron collars, and fastened between two stanchions in large ships, for the moorings to pass through.

MOORING POSTS OR PALLS. Strong upright posts fixed into the ground, for securing vessels to the landing-place by hawsers or chains. Also, strong pieces of oak inserted into the deck of a large ship for fastening the moorings to when alongside a quay.

MOORING-RINGS. Iron swivel rings fixed on piers or buoys, &c., for securing vessels to.

MOORINGS. Indicated by buoys to which ships are fastened; they are attached by bridles to heavy anchors and cables laid down in the most convenient parts of rivers and harbours. They are termed "swinging," or "all fours," depending on whether the ship is secured by the bow only, or by bow and stern. By their means many more ships are secured in a certain space than would be possible if they used their own anchors.

MOOR QUARTER-SHOT, To. To moor quartering, between the two ways of across and along.

MOOR THE BOAT, To. To fasten her with two ropes, so that the one shall counteract the other, and keep her in a steady position.

MOOR WITH A SPRING ON THE CABLE, To. See Spring.

MOOTER. A spike, bolt, tree-nail.

MOOTING. In ship-building, making a tree-nail exactly cylindrical to a given size or diameter, called the moot.

MOP. A young whiting.

MOPPAT. An early name for the sponge of a cannon.

MOPUSSES. A cant term for money in general.

MORASS. Nearly the same thing as a marsh or swamp. In tropical regions they are often overflowed with salt water, yet covered with mangrove and many aquatic plants.[485]

MORGLAY. A great sword, alluded to formerly.

MORION. An ancient steel casque or helmet, without beaver or visor. According to Chaucer it was of more uses than one:—

MORNING GUN. The gun fired from the admiral's or senior officer's ship, to announce day-break, which is answered by the muskets of the sentries in the other ships.

MORNING STAR. An offensive weapon of the mediæval times, consisting of a staff, to which was attached an iron ball covered with spikes. Also, the planet which is near the meridian at day-dawn.

MORNING WATCH. Those of the crew on watch from 4 to 8 A.M.

MORRA. An ancient game still played in Italy with extraordinary zest, by two persons raising the right hand, and suddenly and contemporaneously throwing it down with only some of the fingers extended, when the aim is to guess what they unitedly amount to. Also, a term for a headland or promontory on the coasts of Chili and Peru. Also, a round tower or fort, as at Havana [from the Spanish morro, round].

MORRIS-PIKE. A formidable Moorish weapon, the precursor of the boarding-pike.

MORSE. See Walrus.

MORSING POWDER. An old term for priming powder.

MORTAR. A short piece of ordnance used for throwing shells, so that they may fall nearly vertical; they thus acquire force for breaking through roofs, decks, &c. It is fired at a fixed angle of elevation, generally at 45°, the charge of powder varying according to the range required.

MORTAR-BED and Bed-beams. See Bomb-beds, &c.

MORTAR-VESSEL. See Bomb-vessel.

MORTGAGE. A registered ship, or share therein, which has been made a security for a money-loan, or other valuable consideration, is termed a mortgage in the Merchant Shipping Act.

MORTICE. A morticed block is one made out of a single block of wood, chiselled for one or more sheaves; in distinction from a made block. The chisel used for morticing is peculiar to that purpose.

MORUACH. A peculiar seal, which has been frequently mistaken on our northern shores for a mermaid.

MOSES. A flat-bottomed boat used in the West Indies for bringing off hogsheads of sugar; it is termed single or double, according to its size.

MOSES' LAW. The term among pirates for inflicting thirty-nine lashes on the bare back—forty save one.

MOSQUITO. A term applied to a gnat-like species of stinging insects, found chiefly in low marshy places and the neighbourhood of rivers.

MOSQUITO FLEET. An assemblage of small craft.

MOSQUITO NET. A light curtain spread over a cot or bed in warm climates, to protect the sleeper from mosquitoes.

MOSS-BONKER. The name given by American fishermen to the hard-head (which see).[486]

MOTHER CARY'S CHICKEN. The stormy petrel, Procellaria pelagica.

MOTHER CARY'S GOOSE. The name given by Captain Cook's people to an oceanic brown bird, Procellaria gigantea, which Pernety calls Quebranta huesos (bone-breaker).

MOTHER-OF-PEARL. The iridescent nacreous inner layer of several species of shells, especially the "pearl-oyster" (Meleagrina margaritifera).

MOTHERY [probably from the Dutch mœder, mud]. Thick and mouldy; generally applied to decomposing liquors.

MOTION. Change of place; it is termed direct, in the sky, when it is in the direction of the earth's annual revolution; retrograde, when it proceeds contrary to these conditions; by sidereal is meant the motion of a body with respect to the fixed stars. —Tropical motion is the movement of a body in respect to the equinox or tropic, which has itself a slow motion among the stars, as shown under precession. (See Proper Motion. )—Motion, in mechanics, is either simple or compound, as one or more powers are used.

The momentum of a moving body, or quantity of motion, arises from its velocity multiplied into the quantity of matter it contains.

MOTION, Centre of. That point of a body which remains at rest whilst all the other parts are in motion about it: as the mathematical centre of a revolving sphere.

MOTOR. The prime mover in machinery.

MOULDED. The size of the timber, the way the mould is laid; cut to the mould.

MOULDED BREADTH. The measure of beam from outside to outside of the timbers, without the thickness of the plank.

MOULDING DIMENSION. In ship-building, implies the depth or thickness of any piece of timber.

MOULDING EDGE. That edge of a timber to which, in shaping it, the mould is applied.

MOULDINGS of a Gun. The several rings and ornaments.

MOULD-LOFT. A long building, on the floor of which the intended vessel is laid off from the several draughts in full dimensions.

MOULDS. In naval architecture, are thin flexible pieces of board used on the mould-loft floors as patterns.

MOUNT, or Mountain. An Anglo-Saxon term still in use, usually held to mean eminences above 1000 feet in height. In a fort it means the cavalier (which see).

MOUNT, To. When said of a ship-of-war, implies the number of guns she carries.—To mount, in a military sense, is also to furnish with horses.

MOUNT A GUN, To. To place it on its carriage.

MOUNT AREEVO! [Sp. montar arriba]. Mount aloft; jump up quickly.

MOUNTEBANK. The Gammarus arcticus, or arctic shrimp.

MOURNING. A ship is in mourning with her, ensign and pennant half-mast, her yards topped awry, or apeek, or alternately topped an-end. If the sides are painted blue instead of white, it denotes deep mourning;[487] this latter, however, is only done on the ship where the admiral or captain was borne, and in the case of merchant ships on the death of the owner.

MOUSE. A kind of ball or knob, wrought on the collars of stays by means of spun-yarn, higher parcelling, &c. The mouse prevents the running eye from slipping. (See Puddening. ) Also, a match used in firing a mine.

Also, a mark made upon braces and other ropes, to show their squaring or tallying home. —To mouse a hook, to put a turn or two of rope-yarn round the point of a tackle-hook and its neck to prevent its unhooking. —To raise a mouse, to strike a blow which produces a lump.

MOUTH [the Anglo-Saxon muda]. The embouchure opening of a port or outlet of a river, as Yarmouth, Tynemouth, Exmouth, &c.

MOVE OFF, To. To defile.

MOVER. Synonymous with motor.

MOVING SANDS. Synonymous with quicksands.

MOWELL. The old English name for mullet.

MOYAN. A species of early artillery.

MOYLE, To. To defile; an old term.

MUCK. See Amok.

MUD-DRAGS. Implements and machines for clearing rivers and docks.

MUD OR BALLAST DREDGER. A vessel of 300 tons or more, fitted with steam-engine beams and metal buckets. By this powerful machine for cutting or scraping, loose gravel banks, &c., are removed from the entrances to docks and rivers.

MUD-FISH. The Lepidosiren, a very remarkable fish of the Gambia and other African rivers.

MUD-HOLE. An orifice with steam-tight doors in a marine engine, through which the deposit is removed from the boilers.

'MUDIAN, 'Mugian, or Bermudian. A boat special to the Bermuda Islands, usually decked, with the exception of a hatch; from two to twenty tons burden; it is short, of good beam, and great draft of water abaft, the stem and keel forming a curved line. It carries an immense quantity of iron, or even lead, ballast. Besides a long main and short jib-boom, it has a long, tapering, raking mast, stepped just over the fore-foot, generally unsupported by shrouds or stays; on it a jib-headed main-sail is hoisted to a height of twice, and sometimes three times, the length of the keel. This sail is triangular, stretched at its foot by a long boom.

The only other sail is a small fore-sail or jib. They claim to be the fastest craft in the world for working to windward in smooth water, it being recorded of one that she made five miles dead to windward in the hour during a race; and though they may be laid over until they fill with water, they will not capsize.

MUD-LANDS. The extensive marshes left dry by the retiring tide in estuaries and river mouths.

MUD-LARKS. People who grovel about bays and harbours at low water for anything they can find.[488]

MUD-LIGHTER. Large heavy punts which receive the mud or other matter from a dredging vessel. It is the Marie Salope of the French. (See Hopper-punt.)

MUD-PATTENS. Broad clogs used for crossing mud-lands in the south of England by those who take sea-fowl.

MUD-SHORES. Are not unfrequent on an open coast. The most remarkable instance, perhaps, is that of the Guiana; the mud brought down by the river being thrown up by the current, and silted, with belts of mangroves in patches.

MUFFLED DRUM. The sound is thus damped at funerals: passing the spare cord, which is made of drummer's plait (to carry the drum over the shoulder), twice through the snares or cords which cross the lower diameter of the drum.

MUFFLE THE OARS, To. To put some matting or canvas round the loom when rowing, to prevent its making a noise against the tholes, or in the rowlocks. For this service thole-pins are best. In war time, rowing guard near the ships or batteries of the enemy, or cutting out, many a pea-jacket has been sacrificed for this purpose. Whale-boats have their oars muffled to prevent frightening the whales.