FRESH SHOT. A river swollen by rain or tributaries; it also signifies the falling down of any great river into the sea, by which fresh water is often to be found on the surface a good way from the mouth of the river.

FRESH SPELL. Men coming to relieve a gang at work.

FRESH WATER. Water fit to drink, in opposition to sea or salt water; now frequently obtained at sea by distillation. (See Iceberg.)

FRESH-WATER JACK. The same as fresh-water sailor.

FRESH-WATER SAILOR. An epithet for a green hand, of whom an old saying has it, "whose shippe was drowned in the playne of Salsbury."

FRESH-WATER SEAS. A name given to the extensive inland bodies of fresh water in the Canadas. Of these, Lake Superior is upwards of 1500 miles in circuit, with a depth of 70 fathoms near the shores, while Michigan and Huron are almost as prodigious; even Erie is 600 miles round, and Ontario near 500, and Nepigon, the head of the system geographically, though the least important at present commercially, but just now partially explored, is fully 400. Their magnitude, however, appears likely to be rivalled geographically by the lakes lately discovered in Central Africa, the Victoria Nyanza and the Albert Nyanza.

FRESH WAY. Increased speed through the water; a ship is said to "gather fresh way" when she has tacked, or hove-to, and then fills her sails.

FRET. A narrow strait of the sea, from fretum.

FRET, To. To chafe.

FRET of Wind. A squally flaw.

FRETTUM, or Frectum. The freight of a ship, or freight-money.

FRETUM BRITANNICUM. A term used in our ancient writings for the Straits of Dover.

FRIAR-SKATE. The Raia oxyrinchus, or sharp-nosed ray.

FRICTION-ROLLER. A cylinder of hard wood, or metal, with a concave surface, revolving on an axis, used to lessen the friction of a rope which is passed over it. Friction-rollers are a late improvement in the sheaves of blocks, &c., by which the pin is relieved of friction by three rollers in the coak, placed equilaterally.

FRICTION-TUBE. The means of firing a gun most in favour at present in the British service; ignition is caused by the friction on sudden withdrawal of a small horizontal metal bar from the detonating priming in the head of the tube.

FRIDAY. The dies infaustus, on which old seamen were desirous of not getting under weigh, as ill-omened.[325]

FRIEZE-PANEL. The lower part of a gun-port.

FRIEZING. The ornamental carving or painting above the drift-rails, and likewise round the stern or the bow.

FRIGATE. In the Royal Navy, the next class vessel to a ship of the line; formerly a light nimble ship built for the purpose of sailing swiftly. The name was early known in the Mediterranean, and applied to a long kind of vessel, navigated in that sea, with sails and oars. The English were the first who appeared on the ocean with these ships, and equipped them for war as well as for commerce. These vessels mounted from 28 to 60 guns, and made excellent cruisers.

Frigate is now apocryphal, being carried up to 7000 tons. The donkey-frigate was a late invention to serve patronage, and sprigs of certain houses were educated in them. They carried 28 guns, carronades, and were about 600 tons burden, commanded by captains who sometimes found a commander in a sloop which could blow him out of water. —Frigate is also the familiar name of the membranous zoophyte, Physalia pelagica, or Portuguese man-of-war.

FRIGATE-BIRD. Tachypetes aquila, a sea-bird generally seen in the tropics. It seems to live on the wing, is partially web-footed, and only visits the land at breeding time.

FRIGATE-BUILT. The disposition of the decks of such merchant ships as have a descent of some steps from the quarter-deck and forecastle into the waist, in contradistinction to those whose decks are on a continued line for the whole length of the ship, which are called galley-built. (See Decks.)

FRIGATOON. A Venetian vessel, commonly used in the Adriatic, built with a square stern, and with only a main-mast, jigger mizen-mast, and bowsprit. Also applied to a ship sloop-of-war.

FRINGING REEFS. Narrow fringes of coral formation, at a greater or less distance from the shore, according to the slopes of the land.

FRISKING. The wind freshening.

FRITH. Derived from fretum maris, a narrow strait: an arm of the sea into which a river flows. Synonymous with firth (which see).

FRITTERS. Tendinous fibres of the whale's blubber, running in various directions, and connecting the cellular substance which contains the oil. They are what remains after the oil has been tried out, and are used as fuel to try out the next whale.

FROG. An old term for a seaman's coat or frock.

FROG-BELT. A baldrick (which see).

FROG-FISH. See Fishing-frog.

FROG-LANDERS. Dutchmen in colloquial language.

FROG-PIKE. A female pike, so called from its period of spawning being late, contemporary with the frogs.

FRONT. The foremost rank of a battalion, squadron, file, or other body of men.—To front, to face.

FRONTAGE. The length or face of a wharf.

FRONTIER. The limits or borders of a country.[326]

FRONT OF FORTIFICATION. The whole system of works included between the salient angles, or the capitals prolonged, of any two neighbouring bastions.

FROSTED STEEL. The damasked sword-blades.

FROST-FISH. A small fish, called also tommy-cod; in North America they are taken in large quantities in the depth of winter by fishing through holes cut in the ice.

FROST-RIME. See Frost-smoke.

FROST-SMOKE. A thick mist in high latitudes, arising from the surface of the sea when exposed to a temperature much below freezing; when the vapours as they rise are condensed either into a thick fog, or, with the thermometer about zero, hug the water in eddying white wreaths. The latter beautiful form is called in North America a "barber," probably from its resemblance to soap-suds.

FROTH. See Foam.

F.R.S. The sigla denoting a Fellow of the Royal Society.

FRUMENTARIÆ. The ancient vessels which supplied the Roman markets with corn.

FRUSH. A northern term for wood that is apt to splinter and break.

FRY. Young fishes.

FUCUS MAXIMUS. An enormous sea-weed, growing abundantly round the coasts of Tristan d'Acunha, and perhaps the most exuberant of the vegetable tribe. Said to rise from a depth of many fathoms, and to spread over a surface of several hundred feet, it being very tenacious.

FUDDLED. Not quite drunk, but unfit for duty.

FUELL. An old nautical word signifying an opening between two headlands, having no bottom in sight.

FU-FU. A well-known sea-dish of barley and treacle, in merchant ships.

FUGITIVES over the Sea. By old statutes, now obsolete, to depart this realm without the king's license incurred forfeiture of goods; and masters of ships carrying such persons beyond seas, forfeited their vessels.

FUGLEMAN, or more properly Flugelman. A corporal, or active adept, who exhibits the time for each motion at the word of command, to enable soldiers, marines, and small-arm men to act simultaneously.

FULCRUM. The prop or support of a lever in lifting or removing a heavy body.

FULL. The state of the sails when the wind fills them so as to carry the vessel ahead.

FULL AND BY. Sailing close-hauled on a wind; when a ship is as close as she will lie to the wind, without suffering the sails to shiver; hence keep her full is the order to the helmsman not to incline too much to windward, and thereby shake the sails, which would retard the ship's velocity.

FULL BASTION. In fortification, is a bastion whereof the terreplein, or terrace in rear of the parapet, is extended at nearly the same level over the whole of its interior space.[327]

FULL-BOTTOMED. An epithet to signify such vessels as are designed to carry large cargoes.

FULL DRIVE. Fully direct; impetuous violence.

FULL DUE. For good; for ever; complete; belay.

FULLER. The fluting groove of a bayonet.

FULL FEATHER. Attired in best dress or full uniform.

FULL FOR STAYS! The order to keep the sails full to preserve the velocity, assisting the action of the rudder in tacking ship.

FULL MAN. A rating in coasters for one receiving whole pay, as being competent to all his duties; able seaman.

FULL MOON. When her whole illuminated surface is turned towards us; she is then in opposition, or diametrically opposite, to the sun.

FULL PAY. The stipend allowed when on actual service.

FULL RETREAT. When an army, or any body of men, retire with all expedition before a conquering enemy.

FULL REVETMENT. In fortification, that form of retaining wall which is carried right up to the top of the mass retained, leaving no exterior slope above it; the term is principally used with reference to the faces of ramparts.

FULL SAILS. The sails well set, and filled by the wind.

FULL SEA. High water.

FULL SPEED! A self-explanatory order to the engineer of a steamer to get his engine into full play.

FULL SPREAD. All sail set.

FULL SWING. Having full power delegated; complete control.

FULMAR. A web-footed sea-bird, Procellaria glacialis, of the petrel kind, larger than the common gull; its eggs are taken in great quantity at St. Kilda and in the Shetlands.

FUMADO. A commercial name of the pilchard, when garbaged, salted, smoked, pressed, and packed.

FUMBLE-FISTED. Awkward in catching a turn, or otherwise handling a rope.

FUMIGATE, To. To purify confined or infectious air by means of smoke, sulphuric acid, vinegar, and other correctives.

FUMIGATION-LAMP. An invention for purifying the air in hospital-ships and close places.

FUNERAL HONOURS. Obsequies with naval or military ceremonies.

FUNGI. An almost incalculably numerous order of plants growing on dead vegetable matter, and often produced on a ship's lining by long-continued damp.

FUNK. Touch-wood. Also nervousness, cowardice, or being frightened.—To funk. To blow the smoke of tobacco.

FUNNEL. An iron tube used where necessary for carrying off smoke. The cylindrical appendages to the furnaces of a steam-ship: the funnel is fastened on the top of the steam-chest, where the flues for both boilers meet. Also, the excavation formed by the explosion of a mine. Also,[328] in artillery, a cup-shaped funnel of leather, with a copper spout, for filling powder into shells.

FUNNEL-STAYS. The ropes or chains by which the smoke-funnel is secured in a steam-ship.

FUNNY. A light, clinker-built, very narrow pleasure-boat for sculling, i. e. rowing a pair of sculls. The stem and stern are much alike, both curved.

The dimensions are variable, from 20 to 30 feet in length, according to the boat being intended for racing purposes (for which they are mostly superseded by wager-boats), or for carrying one or more sitters.

FUR. The indurated sediment sometimes found in neglected ships' boilers. (See Furring.)

FURL, To. To roll up and bind a sail neatly upon its respective yard or boom.

FURLING. Wrapping or rolling a sail close up to the yard, stay, or mast, to which it belongs, by hauling on the clue-lines and buntlines, and winding a gasket or cord about it, to fasten it thereto and secure it snugly.

FURLING IN A BODY. A method of rolling up a top-sail only practised in harbour, by gathering all the loose part of the sail into the top, about the heel of the top-mast, whereby the yard appears much thinner and lighter than when the sail is furled in the usual manner, which is sometimes termed, for distinction sake, furling in the bunt. It is often practised to point the yards, the earings and robins let go, and the whole sail bunted in the top, and covered with tarpaulins.

FURLING-LINE. Denotes a generally flat cord called a gasket. In bad weather, with a weak crew, the top-sail is brought under control by passing the top-mast studding-sail halliards round and round all, from the yard-arm to the bunt; then furling is less dangerous.

FURLOUGH. A granted leave of absence.

FURNACE. The fire-place of a marine boiler.