LEADING-PART. The rope of a tackle which runs between the fall and the standing part. Generally confused with the fall. It is that part of the fall which is to be hauled on, or overhauled, to ease the purchase.

LEADING-STRINGS. The yoke-lines for steering a boat.

LEADING-WIND. Wind abeam or quartering; more particularly a free or fair wind, and is used in contradistinction to a scant wind. (See Wind.)

LEAD-LINE. A line attached to the upper end of the sounding-lead. (See Hand-line and Deep-sea Line.)

LEAD-NAILS. Small round-headed composition nails for nailing lead.

LEADSMAN. The man who heaves the hand-lead in the channels. In Calcutta the young gentlemen learning to be pilots are called leadsmen.

LEAF. The side of a lock-gate.

LEAGUE. A confederacy; an alliance. Also, a measure of length consisting of three nautical miles, much used in estimating sea-distances; = 3041 fathoms.

LEAGUER. An old term for a camp. Also, leaguers, the longest water-casks, stowed next the kelson, of 159 English imperial gallons each. Before the invention of water-tanks, leaguers composed the whole ground tier of casks in men-of-war.

LEAK [Anglo-Saxon leccinc]. A chink in the deck, sides, or bottom of a ship, through which the water gets into her hull. When a leak begins, a vessel is said to have sprung a leak.

LEAKAGE. Loss by the act of leaking out of a cask. Also, an allowance of 12 per cent., to merchants importing wine, by the customs.[437]

LEAKIES. Certain irregularities of tide in the Firth of Forth.

LEAKY. The state of a ship admitting water, and a cask or other vessel letting out its contents.

LEAN. Used in the same sense as clean or sharp; the reverse of full or bluff in the form of a ship.

LEAN-BOW. Having a sharp entrance; a thin narrow bow being opposed to bold bow. Fine forward, very fine is lean as a lizard.

LEAP. The sudden fall of a river in one sheet. Also, a weel, made of twigs, to catch fish in.

LEAPER. See Lipper.

LEAT. A canal leading from a pool to a mill-course.

LEATHAG. A Celtic name for the plaice or flounder.

LEATHER. See Lather.

LEATHER-JACKET. A tropical fish with a very thick skin.

LEAVE. Permission to be absent from the ship for the day. (See Absence, Liberty. )—French leave. Going on shore without permission.

—Long leave. Permission to be absent for a number of days.

LEAVE-BREAKING. A liberty man not being back to his time.

LEAVE-TICKET. See Liberty-ticket.

LEAX. See Lex.

LEDGE. A compact line of rocks running parallel to the coast, and which is not unfrequent opposite sandy beaches. The north coast of Africa, between the Nile and the Lesser Syrtis, is replete with them.

LEDGES. The 'thwart-ship pieces from the waste-trees to the roof-trees in the framing of the decks, let into the carlings, to bear gratings, &c. Any cross-pieces of fir or scantling.

LEDO. A barbarous Latin law-term (ledo -onis) for the rising water, or increase of the sea.

LEE. From the Scandinavian word lœ or laa, the sea; it is the side opposite to that from which the wind is blowing; as, if a vessel has the wind on her port side, that side will be the weather, and the starboard will be the lee side.—Under the lee, expresses the situation of a vessel anchored or sailing near the weather-shore, where there is always smoother water than at a great distance from it.—To lay a ship by the lee, or to come up by the lee, is to let her run off until the wind is brought on the lee-quarter, so that all her sails lie flat against the masts and shrouds.

LEE-ANCHOR. The leeward one, if under weigh; or that to leeward to which a ship, when moored, is riding.

LEE-BEAM. On the lee-side of the ship, at right angles with the keel.

LEE-BOARDS. Wooden wings or strong frames of plank affixed to the sides of flat-bottomed vessels, such as Dutch schuyts, &c.; these traversing on a stout bolt, by being let down into the water, when the vessel is close-hauled, decrease her drifting to leeward.

LEECHES. The borders or edges of a sail, which are either sloping or perpendicular; those of the square sails are denominated from the ship's side, as the starboard-leech of the main-sail, &c.; but the sails which are[438] fixed obliquely on the masts have their leeches named from their situation with regard to the ship's length, as the hoist or luff, or fore-leech of the mizen, the after-leech of the jib, &c.

LEECH-LINES. Ropes fastened to the leeches of the main-sail, fore-sail, and cross-jack, communicating with blocks under the tops, and serving to truss those sails up to the yards. (See Brails.)—Harbour leech-lines. Ropes made fast at the middle of the topsail-yards, then passing round the leeches of the top-sails, and through blocks upon the topsail-tye, serving to truss the sails very close up to the yard, previous to their being furled in a body.

LEECH-ROPE. A name given to that vertical part of the bolt-rope to which the border or edge of a sail is sewed. In all sails whose opposite leeches are of the same length, it is terminated above by the earing, and below by the clue. (See Bolt-rope, Clue, and Earings.)

LEE-FANG. A rope rove through the cringle of a sail, for hauling in, so as to lace on a bonnet.

LEE-FANGE. The iron bar upon which the sheets of fore-and-aft sails traverse, in small vessels. (See Horse.)

LEE-GAUGE. Implies being farther from the point whence the wind blows, than another vessel in company.

LEE-GUNWALE UNDER. A colloquial phrase for being sorely over-pressed, by canvas or other cause.

LEE-HATCH, Take care of the! A word of caution to the helmsman, not to let the ship fall to leeward of her course.

LEE-HITCH. The helmsman getting to leeward of the course.

LEE-LURCHES. The sudden and violent rolls which a ship often takes to leeward when a large wave strikes her on the weather-side.

LEE-SHORE. A ship is said to be on a lee-shore, when she is near it, with the wind blowing right on to it.

LEE-SIDE. All that part of a ship or boat which lies between the mast and the side farthest from the wind, the other half being the weather-side.

LEE-SIDE of the Quarter-deck. Colloquially called the midshipman's parade.

LEE-TIDE. A tide running in the same direction as the wind, and forcing a ship to leeward of the line upon which she appears to sail.

LEEWARD. The lee-side. (See Lee.) The opposite of lee is weather, and of leeward, windward.

LEEWARDLY. Said of a ship or vessel which presents so little resistance to the water, when on a wind, as to bag away to leeward. It is the contrary to weatherly.

LEE-WAY. What a vessel loses by drifting to leeward in her course. When she is sailing close-hauled in a smooth sea with all sail set, she should make little or no lee-way; but a proportionate allowance must be made under every reduction of sail or increase of sea, the amount depending on the seaman's skill, and his knowledge of the vessel's qualities.[439]

LEE-WHEEL. The assistant to the helmsman.

LEG. The run made on a single tack. Long and short legs (see Tack and Half-tack).

LEG ALONG. Ropes laid on end, ready for manning.

LEG-BAIL. Dishonest desertion from duty. The phrase is not confined to its nautical bearing.

LEGGERS. See Leaguer.

LEGS. (See Angle. ) A fast-sailing vessel is said to have legs. —Legs are used in cutters, yachts, &c. , to shore them up in dry harbours when the tide leaves them.

The leech-line cringles have also been called legs. Also, the parts of a point which hang on each side of the sail.

LEGS of the Martinets. Small lines through the bolt-ropes of the courses, above a foot in length, and spliced at either end into themselves, making a small eye into which the martinets are hitched.

LEGS AND WINGS. See Over-masted.

LEISTER. A three-pronged dart for striking fish, used in the north of England.

LEIT. A northern term for a snood or link of horse-hair for a fishing-line.

LEITH. A channel on the coast of Sweden, like that round the point of Landfoort to Stockholm.

LEMBUS. A light undecked vessel, used by ancient pirates.

LEMING-STAR. An old name for a comet.

LEMON-ROB. The inspissated juice of limes or lemons, a powerful anti-scorbutic.

LEND A FIST or a Hand. A request to another to help.

LEND US YOUR POUND HERE! A phrase demanding assistance in man-weight; alluding to the daily allowance of beef.

LENGTHENING. The operation of cutting a ship down across the middle, and adding a certain portion to her length. This is done by sawing her planks asunder in different parts of her length, on each side of the midship-frame, to prevent her from being weakened too much in one place. One end is then drawn apart to the required distance. An intermediate piece of timber is next added to the keel, and the vacancy filled up.

The two parts of the keelson are afterwards united. Finally, the planks of the side are prolonged, so as to unite with each other, and those of the ceiling refitted.

LENGTHENING-PIECE. The same as short top-timber (which see).

LENS. The glass of a telescope, or of a microscope, with curved surfaces like a lentil, whence the name.

LENT. The spring fast, during which butchers were prohibited to kill flesh unless for victualling ships, except by special license.

LENTRIÆ. Ancient small vessels, used on rivers.

LENUNCULI. Ancient fishing-boats.

LEO. The fifth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 22d of July. It is one of the ancient constellations.

LEPPO. A sort of chunam, used on the China station, for paying vessels.[440]

LERRICK. A name of the water-bird also called sand-lark or sand-piper.

LESSER CIRCLE. One whose plane does not pass through the centre of the sphere, and therefore divides it unequally. (See Great Circle.)

LET DRAW! The order to let the wind take the after-leeches of the jibs, &c., over to the lee-side, while tacking.

LET DRIVE, To. To slip or let fly. To discharge, as a shot from a gun.

LET FALL! The order to drop a sail loosed from its gaskets, in order to set it.

LET FLY, To. To let go a rope at once, suddenly.

LET GO AND HAUL! or Afore haul! The order to haul the head-yards round by the braces when the ship casts on the other tack. "Let go," alluding to the fore-bowline and lee head-braces.

LET GO UNDER FOOT. See Under Foot.

LET IN, To. To fix or fit a diminished part of one plank or piece of timber into a score formed in another to receive it, as the ends of the carlings into the beams.

LET OUT, or Shake out, a Reef, To. To increase the dimensions of a sail, by untying the points confining a reef in it.

LET-PASS. Permission given by superior authority to a vessel, to be shown to ships of war, to allow it to proceed on its voyage.

LET RUN, or let go by the Run. Cast off at once.

LETTER-BOARD. Another term for name-board (which see).

LETTER-BOOK. A book wherein is preserved a copy of all letters and orders written by the captain of a ship on public service.

LETTER MEN. See King's Letter Men.

LETTERS. See Circulars and Official Letters.