SNOOD [Anglo-Saxon, snod]. A short hair-line or wire to which hooks are fastened below the lead in angling. Or the link of hair uniting the hook and fishing-line.

SNOOK. A fish of the family Scombridæ, Thyrsites atun, abundant in Table Bay, whence it is exported, when salted, to the Mauritius.

SNOTTER. The lower support of the sprit (which see).

SNOW. A vessel formerly much in use. It differs slightly from a brig. It has two masts similar to the main and fore masts of a ship, and close[637] abaft the main-mast a trysail-mast. Snows differ only from brigs in that the boom-mainsail is hooped to the main-mast in the brig, and traverses on the trysail-mast in the snow.

SNUBBING HER. Bringing a ship up suddenly with an anchor, and short range of cable, yet without jerking. [Said to be from the Icelandic snubba.]

SNUG. Under proper sail to meet a gale.

SNY. A gentle bend in timber, curving upwards: when it curves downwards, it is said to hang.

SO! An order to desist temporarily from hauling upon a rope, when it has come to its right position.

SOAK AND SEND! The order to pass wet swabs along.

SOAM. The dried air-bladder of herrings.

SOCKETS. The holes in which swivel-pintles, or the capstan or windlass spindles move.

SOD-BANK. A peculiar effect of refraction sometimes seen in calm weather, showing all objects on the water multiplied or magnified. A poor name for a fine phenomenon.

SOFT-LAES. A term on our northern coast for the small coves and bays formed by the waves on the more friable parts of cliffs.

SOFT-PLANK. Picking a soft plank in the deck, is choosing an easy berth. (See Plank It.)

SOFT TOMMY, or Soft Tack. Loaves of bread served out instead of biscuit.

SOLAN-GOOSE. The gannet, Sula bassana, a well-known sea fowl, frequenting the coasts of many countries in the northern hemisphere in the summer to lay its eggs, and then migrating.

SOLANO. An oppressive wind, blowing from Africa into the Mediterranean; synonymous with sirocco.

SOLAR DAY. Is the interval which elapses between two successive meridian transits of the sun, and is the unit of time in common use.

SOLAR SPECTRUM. The coloured image of the sun produced by refraction through a prism.

SOLAR SPOTS. See Maculæ.

SOLAR SYSTEM. The sun, planets, and comets, which are assumed to form a system, independent of the surrounding fixed stars.

SOLDIER. One that has enlisted to serve his government in peace or war; receiving pay, and subject to the Mutiny Act and Articles of War.

SOLDIER-CRAB. A name for the hermit-crab (which see).

SOLDIER'S WIND. One which serves either way; allowing a passage to be made without much nautical ability.

SOLE. A common flat-fish, Solea vulgaris. Also, the decks of the cabin and forecastle in some ships, respectively called the cabin and forecastle soles. Also, the lining of the bilge-ways, rudder, and the like.

SOLENT SEA. The old name of the narrow strait between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.[638]

SOLE OF A GUN-PORT. The lower part of it, more properly called port-sill.

SOLE OF THE RUDDER. A piece of timber attached to its lower part to render it nearly level with the false keel.

SOLLERETS. Pieces of steel which formed part of the armour for the feet.

SOLSTICES. The epochs when the sun passes through the solstitial points.

SOLSTITIAL COLURE. A great circle passing through the poles and solstitial points.

SOLSTITIAL POINTS. The two points where the tropics meet the ecliptic, in longitude 90° and 270°.

SOMA. A Japan junk of burden.

SONG. The call of soundings by the leadsman in the channels. Songs are also used to aid the men in keeping time when pulling on a rope, where a fife is not available. They are very common in merchant ships. The whalers have an improvised song when cutting docks in the ice in Arctic seas.

SON OF A GUN. An epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their husbands to sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage.

SOPS. A northern term for small detached clouds, hanging about the sides of a mountain.

SORT. "That's your sort," means approval of a deed.

SORTIE. See Sally.

SOUGH. An old northern term for the distant surging of the sea; a hollow murmur or howling, or the moaning of the wind before a gale.

SOUND [Anglo-Saxon, sund]. An arm of the sea over the whole extent of which soundings may be obtained, as on the coasts of Norway and America. Also, any deep bay formed and connected by reefs and sand-banks. On the shores of Scotland it means a narrow channel or strait. Also, the air-bladder of the cod, and generally the swimming-bladder or "soundes of any fysshes.

" Also, a cuttle-fish.

SOUND, Velocity of. May be freely assumed at nearly 1142 feet in a second of time, when not affected by the temperature or wind; subject to corrections when great accuracy is required.

SOUND DUES. A toll formerly levied by the Danes on all merchant vessels passing the sound or strait between the North Sea and the Baltic.

SOUNDING. The operation of ascertaining the depth of the sea, and the quality of the ground, by means of a lead and line, sunk from a ship to the bottom, where some of the ooze or sand adheres to the tallow in the hollow base of the lead. Also, the vertical diving of a whale when struck. It is supposed to strike the bottom, and will take 3 or 4 coils of whale-line, equal to 2000 feet.

SOUNDING-LEAD. See Lead.

SOUNDING-LINE. This line, with a plummet, is mentioned by Lucilius; and was the sund-gyrd of the Anglo-Saxons.[639]

SOUNDING-ROD. A slight rod of iron marked with feet and inches, which being let down by a line in a groove of the side of the pump, indicates what water there is in the well, and consequently whether the ship requires pumping out or not.

SOUNDINGS. To be in soundings implies being so near the land that a deep-sea lead will reach the bottom, which is seldom practicable in the ocean. As soundings may, however, be obtained at enormous depths, and at great distances from the land, the term is limited in common parlance to parts not far from the shore, and where the depth is about 80 or 100 fathoms. Also, a name given to the specimen of the ground brought up adhering to the tallow stuck upon the base of the deep-sea lead, and distinguishing the nature of the bottom, as sand, shells, ooze, &c.

SOUNDLESS. Places assumed formerly to be bottomless, but thousands of fathoms are now measured. Our elders little thought of a submarine telegraph across the Atlantic Ocean!

SOURCE. The spring or origin of a stream or river, or at least one of the tributaries of supply.

SOURS. An old word for a rise, or rapid ascent.

SOUSE. A method of pickling fish by immersing them in vinegar after being boiled. (See Marl.)

SOUSED GURNET. Best expressed by Falstaff's—"If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I am a soused gurnet."

SOUTHERN CROSS. The popular name of a group of stars near the South Pole, which are somewhat in the figure of a cross.

SOUTHERN-LIGHTS. See Aurora Australis.

SOUTHING. In navigation, implies the distance made good towards the south: the opposite of northing.

SOUTHING OF THE MOON. The time at which the moon passes the meridian of any particular place. Popularly the term is used to denote the meridian transit of any heavenly body south of the observer.

SOUTH SEA. See Pacific Ocean.

SOUTH-WESTER. A useful water-proof hat for bad weather.

SOUTH-WIND. A mild wind in the British seas with frequent fogs; it generally brings rain or damp weather.

SOW. The receptacle into which the molten iron is poured in a gun-foundry. The liquid iron poured from it is termed pig, whence the term pig-ballast.

SPADE. In open speaking, to call a spade a spade is to give a man his real character. The phrase is old and still in use.

SPADO, or Spadroon. A cut-and-thrust sword [from the Spanish].

SPAKE-NET. A peculiar net for catching crabs.

SPALDING-KNIFE. A knife used for splitting fish in Newfoundland.

SPALDINGS. A north-country name for whitings and other small fish, split and dried.

SPALES. In naval architecture, internal strengthening by cross artificial beams. (See Cross-spales.)[640]

SPAN. A rope with both ends made fast, so that a purchase may be hooked to its bight. Also, a small line or cord, the middle of which is usually attached to a stay, whence the two ends branch outwards to the right and left, having either a block or thimble attached to their extremities. It is used to confine some ropes which pass through the corresponding blocks or thimbles as a fair leader.

SPAN-BLOCKS. Blocks seized into each bight of a strap, long enough to go across a cap, and allow the blocks to hang clear on each side, as main-lifts, top-mast studding-sail, halliards, blocks, &c.

SPAN IN THE RIGGING, To. To draw the upper parts of the shrouds together by tackles, in order to seize on the cat-harping legs. The rigging is also "spanned in" when it has been found to stretch considerably on first putting to sea, but cannot be set up until it moderates.

SPANISH-BURN. A specious method of hiding defects in timber, by chopping it in pieces.

SPANISH-BURTON. The single is rove with three single blocks, or two single blocks and a hook in the bight of one of the running parts. The double Spanish-burton is furnished with one double and two single blocks.

SPANISH DISTURBANCE. An epithet given to the sudden armament on the Nootka Sound affair, in 1797, an epoch from which many of our seamen dated their service in the late wars.

SPANISH MACKEREL. An old Cornish name for the tunny, or a scomber, larger than the horse-mackerel.

SPANISH REEF. The yards lowered on the cap. Also, a knot tied in the head of the jib.

SPANISH WINDLASS. A wooden roller, or heaver, having a rope wound about it, through the bight of which an iron bolt is inserted as a lever for heaving it round. This is a handy tool for turning in rigging, heaving in seizings, &c.

SPANKER. A fore-and-aft sail, setting with a boom and gaff, frequently called the driver (which see). It is the aftermost sail of a ship or bark.

SPANKER-EEL. A northern term for the lamprey.

SPANKING. Going along with a fresh breeze when the spanker tells, as the aft well-boomed out-sail. The word is also used to denote strength, spruceness, and size, as a spanking breeze, a spanking frigate, &c.

SPANNER. An instrument by which the wheel-lock guns and pistols were wound up; also used to screw up the nuts of the plummer boxes. Also, an important balance in forming the radius of parallel motion in a steam-engine, since it reconciles the curved sweep which the side-levers describe with the perpendicular movement of the piston-rod, by means of which they are driven.

SPANNING A HARPOON. Fixing the line which connects the harpoon and its staff. The harpoon iron is a socketed tool, tapering 3 feet to the barb-heads; on that iron socket a becket is worked; the staff fits in loosely. The harpoon line reeves upwards from the socket through this becket,[641] and through another on the staff, so that on striking the whale the staff leaps out of the socket and does not interfere with the iron, which otherwise might be wrenched out.

SPAN OF RIGGING. The length of shrouds from the dead-eyes on one side, over the mast-head, to the dead-eyes on the other side of the ship.