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From Complete Book of The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.
By Unknown Author
NECKUR. A Scandinavian sea-sprite, whence some derive our "Old Nick" in preference to St. Nicholas, the modern patron of sailors.
NEEDLE. The Ang.-Sax. nædl. (See also Magnetic Needle.)
NEEDLE-FISH. The shorter pipe-fish, stang, or sting, Sygnathus acus.
NEEDLE-GUN. One wherein the ignition for the cartridge is produced by the penetration of the detonating priming by a steel spike working in the lock. It is the Prussian musket.
NEEDLES. Used by sail-makers, are seaming, bolt-rope, or roping needles, all three-sided, and of very fine steel.—The Needles of the Isle of Wight are the result of cracks in the rocks, through which the sea has worn its way, as also at Old Harry, Swanage Bay. As the chalk formation stretches westward, the structure changes in hardness until at Portland we meet with Portland stone. In California many of the needle rocks are of volcanic origin; others again are basaltic columns.
NEGLECT. A charge not exceeding £3, from the wages of a seaman, in the Complete Book, for any part of the ship's stores lost overboard, or damaged, from his gross carelessness.
NEGLIGENCE. If agent or broker engages to do an act for another, and he either wholly neglects it, or does it unskilfully, an action on the case will lie against him.[496]
NEGOTIATE, To. The duty of a diplomatist; the last resource and best argument being now 12-ton guns.
NEGRO-BOAT. See Almadia.
NEGROHEAD. Hard-rolled tobacco.
NEGRO-HEADS. The brown loaves issued to ships in ordinary.
NELLY. Diomedea spadicea, a sea-bird of the family Procellaridæ, which follows in the wake of a ship when rounding the Cape of Good Hope: it is very voracious of fat blubber.
NEPTUNE. A superior planet, recently discovered; it is the most distant member of the solar system yet known, and was revealed by the effect which its attraction had produced upon the movements of Uranus; this was one of the most admirable solutions in modern mathematical science. Neptune, so far as is yet known, has no satellites.
NEPTUNES. Large brass pans used in the Bight of Biafra for obtaining salt.
NEPTUNE'S GOBLETS. The large cup-shaped sponges found in the eastern seas; Raphyrus patera.
NEPTUNE'S SHEEP. Waves breaking into foam, called white horses.
NESS [Ang. -Sax. næs]. A projection of land, as Dungeness, Sheerness, &c. It is common in other European languages, as the French nez, Italian naso, Russian noss, Norwegian naze, &c.
Our Dunnose is an example.
NEST. See Crow's Nest.
NET. In commerce, is the weight of a commodity alone, without the package.
NET AND COBLE. The means by which sasses or flood-gates are allowed in fishings on navigable rivers.
NETTING. Network of rope or small line for the purpose of securing hammocks, sails, &c. —Boarding netting. A stout netting formerly extended fore and aft from the gunwale to a proper height up the rigging. Its use was to prevent an enemy from jumping on board.
—Splinter netting. Is stretched from the main-mast aft to the mizen-mast, in a horizontal position, about 12 feet above the quarter-deck.
NETTLES. Small line used for seizings, and for hammock-clues. (See Knittle.)—To nettle, is to provoke.
NEUTRALS. Those who do not by treaty owe anything to either party in war; for if they do they are confederates. They are not to interfere between contending powers; and the right of security justifies a belligerent in enforcing the conditions. They are not allowed to trade from one port of the enemy to another, nor to be habitually employed in his coasting trade. Indeed the simple conveyance of any article to the opponent of the blockading squadron, at once settles the non-admission, or even hovering.[497]
NEVER SAY DIE! An expressive phrase, meaning do not despair, there is hope yet.—Nil desperandum! As Cowper says,
NEW ACT. The going on shore without leave, and which though thus termed new, is an old trick.
NEWCOME. An officer commencing his career. Any stranger or fresh hand newly arrived.
NEWELL. An upright piece of timber to receive the tenon of the rails that lead from the breast-hook to the gangway.
NEWGATE BIRDS. The men sent on board ship from prisons; but the term has also been immemorially used, as applied to some of the Dragon's men in the voyage of Sir Thomas Roe to Surat, 1615.
NEW MOON. The moon is said to be new when she is in conjunction with the sun, or between that luminary and the earth.
NEWS. "Do you hear the news?" A formula used in turning up the relief watch.
NICE STEERAGE. That which is required in tide-ways and intricate channels, chasing or chased.
NIDGET. A coward. A term used in old times for those who refused to join the royal standard.
NIGHT-CAP. Warm grog taken just before turning in.
NIGHTINGALES. See Spithead Nightingales.
NIGHT ORDER-BOOK. A document of some moment, as it contains the captain's behests about change of course, &c., and ought to be legibly written.
NIGHT-WALKER. A fish of a reddish colour, about the size of a haddock, so named by Cook's people from the greatest number being caught in the night; probably red-snapper.
NIGHT WARD. The night-watch.
NILL. Scales of hot iron at the armourer's forge. Also, the stars of rockets.
NIMBUS. Ragged and hanging clouds resolving into rain. (See Cumulo-cirro-stratus.)
NINE-PIN BLOCK. A block in that form, mostly used for a fair-leader under the cross-pieces of the forecastle and quarter-deck bitts.
NINES, To the. An expression to denote complete.
NINGIM. A corruption of ginseng (which see).
NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing.
Also, Nip in the hawse; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service into the hawse.
NIPCHEESE. The sailor's name for a purser's steward.
NIPPER. The armourer's pincers or tongs. Also, a hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.[498]
NIPPERING. Fastening nippers by taking turns crosswise between the parts to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. These are called racking-turns.
NIPPER-MEN. Foretop-men employed to bind the nippers about the cables and messenger, and to whom the boys return them when they are taken off.
NIPPERS. Are formed of clean, unchafed yarns, drawn from condemned rope, unlaid. The yarns are stretched either over two bolts, or cleats, and a fair strain brought on each part. They are then "marled" from end to end, and used in various ways, viz. to bind the messenger to the cable, and to form slings for wet spars, &c.
The nipper is passed at the manger-board, the fore-end pressing itself against the cable; after passing it round cable and messenger spirally, the end is passed twice round the messenger, and a foretop-man holds the end until it reaches the fore-hatchway, when a maintop-man takes it up, and at the main-hatchway it is taken off, a boy carrying it forward ready coiled for further use. —Selvagee nippers are used when from a very great strain the common nippers are not found sufficiently secure; selvagees are then put on, and held fast by means of tree-nails. (See Selvagee and Tree-nails. )—Buoy and nipper. Burt's patent for sounding.
By this contrivance any amount of line is loosely veered. So long as the lead descends, the line runs through the nipper attached to a canvas inflated buoy. The instant it is checked or the lead touches bottom, the back strain nips the line, and indicates the vertical depth that the lead has descended.
NIPPLE. In ship-building. Another name for knuckle (which see). Also, the nipple of a gun or musket lock; the perforated projection which receives the percussion-cap.
NISSAK. The Shetland name for a small porpoise.
NITRE. Potassæ nitras, a salt formed by the union of nitric acid with potash; the main agent in gunpowder.
NITTY. A troublesome noise; a squabble.
NOAH'S ARK. Certain clouds elliptically parted, considered a sign of fine weather after rain.
NOB. The head; therefore applied to a person in a high station of life. (See Knob.)
NOCK. The forward upper end of a sail that sets with a boom. Also, a term used for notch.
NOCTURNAL, Nocturlabium. An instrument chiefly used at sea, to take the altitude or depression of some of the stars about the pole, in order to find the latitude and the hour of the night.
NOCTURNAL ARC. That part of a circle, parallel to the equator, which is described by a celestial object, between its setting and rising.
NODDY. The Sterna solida, a dark web-footed sea-bird, common about the West Indies. Also, a simpleton; so used by Shakspeare in the Two Gentlemen of Verona.
NODES. Those points in the orbit of a planet or comet where it intersects[499] the ecliptic. The ascending node is the point where it passes from the south to the north side of the ecliptic; the descending node is the opposite point, where the latitude changes from north to south. (See Line of Nodes.)
NOG. A tree-nail driven through the heels of the shores, to secure them.
NOGGIN. A small cup or spirit-measure, holding about 1⁄4 of a pint.
NOGGING. The act of securing the shores by tree-nails. Also, warming beer at the galley-fire.
NO HIGHER! See Near.
NO-HOWISH. Qualmy; feeling an approaching ailment without being able to describe the symptoms.
NO-MAN'S LAND. A space in midships between the after-part of the belfry and the fore-part of a boat when it is stowed upon the booms, as is often done in a deep-waisted vessel; this space is used to contain any blocks, ropes, tackles, &c., which may be necessary on the forecastle, and probably derives its name from being neither on the starboard nor port side, neither in the waist, nor on the forecastle.
NONAGESIMAL DEGREE. The point of the ecliptic which is at the greatest altitude above the horizon.
NON-COMBATANTS. A term applied erroneously to the purser, master surgeon, &c., of a man-of-war, for all men on board may be called on, more or less, to fight.
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. In familiar parlance, non-coms. are the sergeants, corporals, and others, appointed under special regulations, by the orders of the commanding officer.
NON-CONDENSING ENGINE. A high-pressure steam-engine.
NONIUS SCALE, or Vernier. That fixed to the oblong opening near the lower end of the index-bar of a sextant or quadrant; it divides degrees into minutes, and these again into parts of seconds.
NO! NO! The answer to the night-hail by which it is known that a midshipman or warrant officer is in the boat hailed.
NON-RECOIL. This was effected by securing the breeching while the gun was run out: often practised in small vessels.
NOOK. A small indentation of the land; a little cove in the inner parts of bays and harbours.
NOOK-SHOTTEN. A Shakspearian expression for a coast indented with bays; as in Henry V. Bourbon speaks contemptuously of "that nook-shotten isle of Albion."
NOON. Mid-day.
NOOSE. A slip or running knot.
NORE. The old word for north. Also, a canal or channel.
NORIE'S EPITOME. A treatise on navigation not to be easily cast aside.
NORLAND. Of, or belonging to, the north land.
NORMAL LEVEL of a Barometer. A term reckoned synonymous with par-line (which see).
NORMAN. A short wooden bar thrust into one of the holes of the windlass[500] or capstan in a merchantman, whereon to veer a rope or fasten the cable, if there be little strain upon it. Also fixed through the head of the rudder, in some ships, to prevent the loss of the rudder. Also, a pin placed in the bitt-cross-piece to confine the cable from falling off.
NORRIE, AND TAMMIE NORRIE. The Scotch name for the puffin.
NORTH. From the Anglo-Saxon nord.
NORTH-AWAY YAWL. The old term for Norway yawl (which see).
N., Part 2
NECKUR. A Scandinavian sea-sprite, whence some derive our "Old Nick" in preference to St. Nicholas, the modern patron of sailors.
NEEDLE. The Ang.-Sax. nædl. (See also Magnetic Needle.)
NEEDLE-FISH. The shorter pipe-fish, stang, or sting, Sygnathus acus.
NEEDLE-GUN. One wherein the ignition for the cartridge is produced by the penetration of the detonating priming by a steel spike working in the lock. It is the Prussian musket.
NEEDLES. Used by sail-makers, are seaming, bolt-rope, or roping needles, all three-sided, and of very fine steel.—The Needles of the Isle of Wight are the result of cracks in the rocks, through which the sea has worn its way, as also at Old Harry, Swanage Bay. As the chalk formation stretches westward, the structure changes in hardness until at Portland we meet with Portland stone. In California many of the needle rocks are of volcanic origin; others again are basaltic columns.
NEGLECT. A charge not exceeding £3, from the wages of a seaman, in the Complete Book, for any part of the ship's stores lost overboard, or damaged, from his gross carelessness.
NEGLIGENCE. If agent or broker engages to do an act for another, and he either wholly neglects it, or does it unskilfully, an action on the case will lie against him.[496]
NEGOTIATE, To. The duty of a diplomatist; the last resource and best argument being now 12-ton guns.
NEGRO-BOAT. See Almadia.
NEGROHEAD. Hard-rolled tobacco.
NEGRO-HEADS. The brown loaves issued to ships in ordinary.
NELLY. Diomedea spadicea, a sea-bird of the family Procellaridæ, which follows in the wake of a ship when rounding the Cape of Good Hope: it is very voracious of fat blubber.
NEPTUNE. A superior planet, recently discovered; it is the most distant member of the solar system yet known, and was revealed by the effect which its attraction had produced upon the movements of Uranus; this was one of the most admirable solutions in modern mathematical science. Neptune, so far as is yet known, has no satellites.
NEPTUNES. Large brass pans used in the Bight of Biafra for obtaining salt.
NEPTUNE'S GOBLETS. The large cup-shaped sponges found in the eastern seas; Raphyrus patera.
NEPTUNE'S SHEEP. Waves breaking into foam, called white horses.
NESS [Ang. -Sax. næs]. A projection of land, as Dungeness, Sheerness, &c. It is common in other European languages, as the French nez, Italian naso, Russian noss, Norwegian naze, &c.
Our Dunnose is an example.
NEST. See Crow's Nest.
NET. In commerce, is the weight of a commodity alone, without the package.
NET AND COBLE. The means by which sasses or flood-gates are allowed in fishings on navigable rivers.
NETTING. Network of rope or small line for the purpose of securing hammocks, sails, &c. —Boarding netting. A stout netting formerly extended fore and aft from the gunwale to a proper height up the rigging. Its use was to prevent an enemy from jumping on board.
—Splinter netting. Is stretched from the main-mast aft to the mizen-mast, in a horizontal position, about 12 feet above the quarter-deck.
NETTLES. Small line used for seizings, and for hammock-clues. (See Knittle.)—To nettle, is to provoke.
NEUTRALS. Those who do not by treaty owe anything to either party in war; for if they do they are confederates. They are not to interfere between contending powers; and the right of security justifies a belligerent in enforcing the conditions. They are not allowed to trade from one port of the enemy to another, nor to be habitually employed in his coasting trade. Indeed the simple conveyance of any article to the opponent of the blockading squadron, at once settles the non-admission, or even hovering.[497]
NEVER SAY DIE! An expressive phrase, meaning do not despair, there is hope yet.—Nil desperandum! As Cowper says,
NEW ACT. The going on shore without leave, and which though thus termed new, is an old trick.
NEWCOME. An officer commencing his career. Any stranger or fresh hand newly arrived.
NEWELL. An upright piece of timber to receive the tenon of the rails that lead from the breast-hook to the gangway.
NEWGATE BIRDS. The men sent on board ship from prisons; but the term has also been immemorially used, as applied to some of the Dragon's men in the voyage of Sir Thomas Roe to Surat, 1615.
NEW MOON. The moon is said to be new when she is in conjunction with the sun, or between that luminary and the earth.
NEWS. "Do you hear the news?" A formula used in turning up the relief watch.
NICE STEERAGE. That which is required in tide-ways and intricate channels, chasing or chased.
NIDGET. A coward. A term used in old times for those who refused to join the royal standard.
NIGHT-CAP. Warm grog taken just before turning in.
NIGHTINGALES. See Spithead Nightingales.
NIGHT ORDER-BOOK. A document of some moment, as it contains the captain's behests about change of course, &c., and ought to be legibly written.
NIGHT-WALKER. A fish of a reddish colour, about the size of a haddock, so named by Cook's people from the greatest number being caught in the night; probably red-snapper.
NIGHT WARD. The night-watch.
NILL. Scales of hot iron at the armourer's forge. Also, the stars of rockets.
NIMBUS. Ragged and hanging clouds resolving into rain. (See Cumulo-cirro-stratus.)
NINE-PIN BLOCK. A block in that form, mostly used for a fair-leader under the cross-pieces of the forecastle and quarter-deck bitts.
NINES, To the. An expression to denote complete.
NINGIM. A corruption of ginseng (which see).
NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing.
Also, Nip in the hawse; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service into the hawse.
NIPCHEESE. The sailor's name for a purser's steward.
NIPPER. The armourer's pincers or tongs. Also, a hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.[498]
NIPPERING. Fastening nippers by taking turns crosswise between the parts to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. These are called racking-turns.
NIPPER-MEN. Foretop-men employed to bind the nippers about the cables and messenger, and to whom the boys return them when they are taken off.
NIPPERS. Are formed of clean, unchafed yarns, drawn from condemned rope, unlaid. The yarns are stretched either over two bolts, or cleats, and a fair strain brought on each part. They are then "marled" from end to end, and used in various ways, viz. to bind the messenger to the cable, and to form slings for wet spars, &c.
The nipper is passed at the manger-board, the fore-end pressing itself against the cable; after passing it round cable and messenger spirally, the end is passed twice round the messenger, and a foretop-man holds the end until it reaches the fore-hatchway, when a maintop-man takes it up, and at the main-hatchway it is taken off, a boy carrying it forward ready coiled for further use. —Selvagee nippers are used when from a very great strain the common nippers are not found sufficiently secure; selvagees are then put on, and held fast by means of tree-nails. (See Selvagee and Tree-nails. )—Buoy and nipper. Burt's patent for sounding.
By this contrivance any amount of line is loosely veered. So long as the lead descends, the line runs through the nipper attached to a canvas inflated buoy. The instant it is checked or the lead touches bottom, the back strain nips the line, and indicates the vertical depth that the lead has descended.
NIPPLE. In ship-building. Another name for knuckle (which see). Also, the nipple of a gun or musket lock; the perforated projection which receives the percussion-cap.
NISSAK. The Shetland name for a small porpoise.
NITRE. Potassæ nitras, a salt formed by the union of nitric acid with potash; the main agent in gunpowder.
NITTY. A troublesome noise; a squabble.
NOAH'S ARK. Certain clouds elliptically parted, considered a sign of fine weather after rain.
NOB. The head; therefore applied to a person in a high station of life. (See Knob.)
NOCK. The forward upper end of a sail that sets with a boom. Also, a term used for notch.
NOCTURNAL, Nocturlabium. An instrument chiefly used at sea, to take the altitude or depression of some of the stars about the pole, in order to find the latitude and the hour of the night.
NOCTURNAL ARC. That part of a circle, parallel to the equator, which is described by a celestial object, between its setting and rising.
NODDY. The Sterna solida, a dark web-footed sea-bird, common about the West Indies. Also, a simpleton; so used by Shakspeare in the Two Gentlemen of Verona.
NODES. Those points in the orbit of a planet or comet where it intersects[499] the ecliptic. The ascending node is the point where it passes from the south to the north side of the ecliptic; the descending node is the opposite point, where the latitude changes from north to south. (See Line of Nodes.)
NOG. A tree-nail driven through the heels of the shores, to secure them.
NOGGIN. A small cup or spirit-measure, holding about 1⁄4 of a pint.
NOGGING. The act of securing the shores by tree-nails. Also, warming beer at the galley-fire.
NO HIGHER! See Near.
NO-HOWISH. Qualmy; feeling an approaching ailment without being able to describe the symptoms.
NO-MAN'S LAND. A space in midships between the after-part of the belfry and the fore-part of a boat when it is stowed upon the booms, as is often done in a deep-waisted vessel; this space is used to contain any blocks, ropes, tackles, &c., which may be necessary on the forecastle, and probably derives its name from being neither on the starboard nor port side, neither in the waist, nor on the forecastle.
NONAGESIMAL DEGREE. The point of the ecliptic which is at the greatest altitude above the horizon.
NON-COMBATANTS. A term applied erroneously to the purser, master surgeon, &c., of a man-of-war, for all men on board may be called on, more or less, to fight.
NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. In familiar parlance, non-coms. are the sergeants, corporals, and others, appointed under special regulations, by the orders of the commanding officer.
NON-CONDENSING ENGINE. A high-pressure steam-engine.
NONIUS SCALE, or Vernier. That fixed to the oblong opening near the lower end of the index-bar of a sextant or quadrant; it divides degrees into minutes, and these again into parts of seconds.
NO! NO! The answer to the night-hail by which it is known that a midshipman or warrant officer is in the boat hailed.
NON-RECOIL. This was effected by securing the breeching while the gun was run out: often practised in small vessels.
NOOK. A small indentation of the land; a little cove in the inner parts of bays and harbours.
NOOK-SHOTTEN. A Shakspearian expression for a coast indented with bays; as in Henry V. Bourbon speaks contemptuously of "that nook-shotten isle of Albion."
NOON. Mid-day.
NOOSE. A slip or running knot.
NORE. The old word for north. Also, a canal or channel.
NORIE'S EPITOME. A treatise on navigation not to be easily cast aside.
NORLAND. Of, or belonging to, the north land.
NORMAL LEVEL of a Barometer. A term reckoned synonymous with par-line (which see).
NORMAN. A short wooden bar thrust into one of the holes of the windlass[500] or capstan in a merchantman, whereon to veer a rope or fasten the cable, if there be little strain upon it. Also fixed through the head of the rudder, in some ships, to prevent the loss of the rudder. Also, a pin placed in the bitt-cross-piece to confine the cable from falling off.
NORRIE, AND TAMMIE NORRIE. The Scotch name for the puffin.
NORTH. From the Anglo-Saxon nord.
NORTH-AWAY YAWL. The old term for Norway yawl (which see).