The estimate of the ship's way or distance run is done by observing the length of the line unwound whilst the glass is running; for so many knots as run out in that time, so many miles the ship sails in an hour. —To heave the log is to throw it into the water on the lee-side, well out of the wake, letting it run until it gets beyond the eddies, then a person holding the glass turns it up just as the first mark, or stray-line, goes out, from which the knots begin to be reckoned. The log is, however, at best, a precarious way of computing, and must be corrected by experience. The inventor of it is not known, and no mention is made of it till the year 1607, in an East India voyage, published by Purchas. The mode before, and even now in some colliers, and in native craft in the East Indies, is to throw a log or chip overboard at the foremost channel-plate, and to walk aft, keeping up with it until it passes the stern, thus estimating (and closely too by practice) the rate of motion.

Other methods have been invented by various people, but Massey's Patent Log gives the most accurate measurement. The same principle is also applied to the deep-sea sounding-lead.

LOGWOOD. Dyewood, Hæmatoxylon campechianum. It occurs on both sides of the American coasts near the Isthmus of Darien, and is a great article of trade, varying from £5 to £10 per ton. Recent discoveries of the products of coal have reduced the price.

LOICH. A statute term, comprehending the fishes lobbe, ling, and cod.

LONDAGE. An old term for landing from a boat.[454]

LONDON WAGGON. The tender which carried the impressed men from off the tower to the receiving-ship at the Nore.

LONGÆ. Roman row-boats built to carry a large number of men.

LONG AND SHORT BOARDS. See Tack and Half-tack.

LONG BALLS. Engaging beyond the reach of carronades.

LONG BOAT. Is carvel-built, full, flat, and high, and is usually the largest boat belonging to a ship, furnished with spars and sails, and may be armed and equipped for cruizing short distances; her principal employ, however, is to bring heavy stores on board, and also to go up small rivers to fetch water, wood, &c. At sea it is stowed between the fore and main masts. Not used in the navy. (See Launch.)

LONG-BOW. A noted weapon formerly supplied to our men-of-war.

LONG CHALKS. Great strides. (See Chalks.)

LONGER. Each row of casks in the hold, athwart. Also, the fore and aft space allotted to a hammock; the longers reckoned similarly to last.

LONG-GASKETS. Those used for sea service; the opposite of harbour-gaskets (which see).

LONGIE. A name of the foolish guillemot, Uria troile, in the north.

LONGITUDE. Is an arc of the equator, or any parallel of latitude, contained between the meridian of a place and that of Greenwich, or any other first meridian. These arcs being similar, are expressed by the same number of degrees and miles, though the absolute distance on the earth's surface decreases as the latitude increases, for which see Departure. East longitude extends 180 degrees to the right, when looking north, and west longitude as many to the left of the first meridian.

LONGITUDE, Geocentric. The angular distance of a heavenly body from the first point of Aries, measured upon the ecliptic, as viewed from the earth.

LONGITUDE, Heliocentric. The angular distance of a body from the first point of Aries, measured upon the ecliptic, as viewed from the sun.

LONGITUDE BY ACCOUNT. The distance east and west, as computed from the ship's course and distance run, carried forward from the last astronomical determination.

LONGITUDE BY CHRONOMETER. Is estimated by the difference between the time at the place, and the time indicated by chronometer.

LONGITUDE BY LUNAR OBSERVATION. The longitude calculated by observing the moon's angular distance from the sun or a fixed star. It is the only check on chronometers, and very valuable in long voyages, though now much neglected, since the establishment of compulsory examination in the merchant service, which does not require lunars.

LONGITUDE OF A CELESTIAL BODY. An arc of the ecliptic, contained between the first point of Aries and a circle of longitude passing through the centre of the body.

LONGITUDINAL SECTION. In ship-building, a line which cuts the draught of a vessel lengthwise.

LONG-JAWED. The state of rope when its strands are straightened by[455] being much strained and untwisted, and from its pliability will coil both ways.

LONG-LEAVE. Permission to visit friends at a distance.

LONG-LEGGED. Said of a vessel drawing much water.—Long leggers, lean schooners. Longer than ordinary proportion to breadth. Swift.

LONG OYSTER. A name of the sea cray-fish.

LONG-SERVICE. A cable properly served to prevent chafing under particular use.

'LONGSHORE. A word used rather contemptuously for alongshore; land usage.—'Longshore fellows, landsmen pretenders.—'Longshore owners, those merchants who become notorious for sending their ships to sea scantily provided with stores and provisions.

LONG-SHOT. A distant range. It is also used to express a long way; a far-fetched explanation; something incredible.

LONG STERN-TIMBERS. See Stern-timbers.

LONG STROKE. The order to a boat's crew to stretch out and hang on her.

LONG-TACKLES. Those overhauled down for hoisting up top-sails to be bent. Long-tackle blocks have two sheaves of different sizes placed one above the other, as in fiddle-blocks.

LONG-TAILS. A sobriquet for the Chinese.

LONG TIMBERS, or Long Top-timbers. Synonymous with double futtocks. Timbers in the cant-bodies, reaching from the dead-wood to the head of the second futtock, and forming a floor.

LONG TOGS. Landsman's clothes.

LONG TOM, or Long Tom Turks. Pieces of lengthy ordnance for chasers, &c.

LONG VOYAGE. One in which the Atlantic Ocean is crossed.

LONG-WINDED WHISTLERS. Chase-guns.

LOO, or Loe. A little round hill or heap of stones.—Under the loo, is shelter from the wind; to leeward.

LOOF. The after part of a ship's bow, before the chess-tree, or that where the planks begin to be incurvated as they approach the stem. Hence, the guns which lie here are called loof-pieces.

LOOF. Usually pronounced and spelled luff (which see).

LOOK, To. The bearing or direction, as, she looks up, is approaching her course.—A plank looks fore and aft, means, is placed in that direction.

LOOK-OUT. Watchful attention; there is always a look-out kept from the forecastle, foretopsail-yard, or above, to watch for any dangerous object lying near a ship's track, for any strange sail heaving in sight, &c.; the officer of the watch accordingly calls frequently from the quarter-deck to the mast-head-man appointed for this service, "Look out afore there."

LOOK OUT FOR SQUALLS. Beware; cautionary.

LOOM. The handle of an oar. Also, the track of a fish.

LOOM, To. An indistinct enlarged appearance of any distant object in light fogs, as the coast, ships, &c.; "that land looms high," "that ship looms large." The effect of refraction.[456]

LOOM-GALE. An easy gale of wind, in which a ship can carry her whole top-sails a-trip.

LOON, or Lunde. The great northern diver, Colymbus glacialis. A bird about the size of a goose, which frequents the northern seas, where "as straight as a loon's leg," is a common comparison.

LOOP. A bight or bend. The winding of a river.

LOOP-HOLES. Small openings made in the walls of a castle, or a fortification, for musketry to fire through. Also, certain apertures formed in the bulk-heads, hatches, and other parts of a merchant-ship, through which small arms might be fired on an enemy who boarded her, and for close fight. They were formerly called meurtrières, and were introduced in British slave-vessels.

LOOPS of a Gun-carriage. The iron eye-bolts to which the tackles are hooked.

LOOSE, To. To unfurl or cast loose any sail, in order to its being set, or dried after rain.

LOOSE A ROPE, To. To cast it off, or let it go.

LOOSE FALL. The losing of a whale after an apparently good opportunity for striking it.

LOOSE ICE. A number of pieces near each other, but through which the ship can make her way.

LOOSERS. Men appointed to loose the sails.

LOOSING FOR SEA. Weighing the anchor.

LOOT. Plunder, or pillage; a term adopted from China.

LOOVERED BATTENS. The battens that inclose the upper part of the well. (See Loover-ways.)

LOOVER-WAYS. Battens or boards placed at a certain angle, so as to admit air, but not wet; a kind of Venetian-blind.

LOP AND TOP. The top and branches of a felled tree.

LOP-SIDED. Uneven; one side larger than the other.

LORCHA. A swift Chinese sailing vessel carrying guns.

LORD OF MISRULE. See Master of Misrule.

LORDS COMMISSIONERS. See Commissioners.

LORD WARDEN of the Cinque Ports. A magistrate who has the jurisdiction of the ports or havens so called. Generally held by one high in office, or an old minister.

LORICA. A defensive coat-armour made of leather; when iron plates were applied, it became a jack.

LORN. A northern name for the crested cormorant, Phalacrocorax cristatus.

LORRELL. An old term for a lubberly fellow.

LOSE WAY, To. When a ship slackens her progress in the water.

LOSING the Number of the Mess. Dead, drowned, or killed. (See Number.)

LOSING GROUND. Dropping to leeward while working; the driftage.

LOSS. Total loss is the insurance recovered under peril, according to the[457] invoice price of the goods when embarked, together with the premium of insurance. Partial loss upon either ship or goods, is that proportion of the prime cost which is equal to the diminution in value occasioned by the damage. (See Insurance.)

LOSSAN. A Manx or Erse term for the luminosity of the sea.

LOST. The state of being foundered or cast away; said of a ship when she has either sunk, or been beat to pieces by the violence of the sea.

LOST DAY. The day which is lost in circumnavigating the globe to the westward, by making each day a little more than twenty-four hours long. (See Gained Day.)

LOST HER WAY. When the buoy is streamed, and all is ready for dropping the anchor.

LOST! LOST! When a whale flukes, dives, or takes tail up to "running," and the boats have no chance in chasing.

LOST OR NOT LOST. A phrase originally inserted in English policies of insurance, in cases where a loss was already apprehended. It is now continued by usage, and is held not to make the contract a wager, nor more hazardous.

LOT. The abbreviation of allotment, or allowance to wife or mother. (See Allotment.)

LOTMAN. An old term for pirate.

LOUGH. See Loch.

LOUND. Calm, out of wind.

LOW. An old term for a small hill or eminence.

LOW AND ALOFT. Sail from deck to truck: "every stitch on her."

LOWE. A flame, blaze. The torch used in the north by fish-poachers.

LOWER, To. The atmosphere to become cloudy. Also, to ease down gradually, expressed of some weighty body suspended by tackles or ropes, which, being slackened, suffer the said body to descend as slowly, or expeditiously, as occasion requires.

LOWER-BREADTH-SWEEP. The second on the builder's draught, representing the lower height of breadth, on which line is set off the main half-breadth of the ship at its corresponding timber.

LOWER COUNTER. The counter between the upper counter and the rail under the lights.

LOWER-DECKERS. The heaviest armament, usually on the lower deck.

LOWER-FINISHING. See Finishings.

LOWER HANDSOMELY, Lower Cheerly. Are opposed to each other; the former being the order to lower gradually, and the latter to lower expeditiously.

LOWER-HEIGHT. See Main-breadth.

LOWER-HOLD. The space for cargo in a merchant-vessel, fitted with 'tween-decks.

LOWER-HOLD-BEAMS. The lowest range of beams in a merchantman.

LOWER-HOPE. A well-known reach in the Thames where ships wait for the turn of the tide.[458]

LOWER-LIFTS. The lifts of the fore, main, and crossjack-yards.

LOWER MASTS. See Mast.

LOWER TRANSIT. The opposite to the upper transit of a circumpolar star: the passage sub polo.