O. The fourth class of rating on Lloyd's books for the comparative excellence of merchant ships. But insured vessels are rarely so low. (See A.)

O! or Ho! An interjection commanding attention or possibly the cessation of any action.

OAK. Quercus, the valuable monarch of the woods. "Hearts of oak are our ships," as the old song says.

OAKUM [from the Anglo-Saxon æcumbe]. The state into which old ropes are reduced when they are untwisted and picked to pieces. It is principally used in caulking the seams, for stopping leaks, and for making into twice-laid ropes. Very well known in workhouses. —White Oakum.

That which is formed from untarred ropes.

OAKUM-BOY. The caulker's apprentice, who attends to bring oakum, pitch, &c.

OAR. A slender piece of timber used as a lever to propel a boat through the water. The blade is dipped into the water, while the other end within board, termed the loom, is small enough to be grasped by the rower. The silver oar is a badge of office, similar to the staff of a peace-officer, which on presentation, enables a person intrusted with a warrant to serve it on board any ship he may set foot upon. —To boat the oars, is to cease rowing and lay the oars in the boat.

—Get your oars to pass! The order to prepare them for rowing, or shipping them.

OAR, To Shove in an. To intermeddle, or give an opinion unasked.

OAR-PROPULSION. The earliest motive power for vessels; it may be by the broadside in rowlocks abeam, by sweeps on the quarters fore and aft, or by sculling with one oar in the notch of the transom amidships. (See Stern-oar.)

OARS! The order to cease rowing, by lifting the oars from the water, and poising them on their looms horizontally in their rowlocks.—Look to your oars! Passing any object or among sea-weed.—Double-banked oars (which see).

OASIS. A fertile spot in the midst of a sandy desert.

OATH. A solemn affirmation or denial of anything, before a person authorized to administer the same, for discovery of truth and right. (See Corporal Oath.) Hesiod ascribes the invention of oaths to discord. The oath of supremacy and of the Protestant faith was formerly taken by an officer before he could hold a commission in the royal navy.

OAZE. Synonymous with the Ang.-Sax. wase when applied to mud. (See Ooze.)

OBEY. A word forming the fulcrum of naval discipline.

OBI. A horrible sorcery practised among the negroes in the West Indies, the infliction of which by a threat from the juggler is sufficient to lead the denounced victim to mental disease, despondency, and death. Still the wretched trash gathered together for the obi-spell is not more ridiculous than the amulets of civilized Europe.

OBLATE. Compressed or flattened.

OBLIGATION. A bond containing a penalty, with a condition annexed for payment of money or performance of covenants.

OBLIMATION. The deposit of mud and silt by water.

OBLIQUE-ANGLED TRIANGLE. Any other than a right-angled triangle.

OBLIQUE ASCENSION. An arc between the first point of Aries and that point of the equator which comes to the horizon with a star, or other heavenly body, reckoned according to the order of signs. It is the sum or difference of the right ascension and ascensional difference.

OBLIQUE BEARINGS. Consist in determining the position of a ship, by observing with a compass the bearings of two or more objects on the shore whose places are given on a chart, and drawing lines from those places, so as to make angles with their meridians equal to the observed bearings; the intersection of the line gives on the chart the position of the ship. This is sometimes called the method of cross-bearings.

OBLIQUE SAILING. Is the reduction of the position of the ship from the various courses made good, oblique to the meridian or parallel of latitude. If a vessel sails north or south, it is simply a distance on the meridian. If east or west, on the parallel, and refers to parallel sailing. If oblique, it is solved by middle latitude, or Mercator sailing.

OBLIQUE STEP. A movement in marching, in which the men, while advancing, gradually take ground to the right or left.

OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. The angle between the planes of the[504] ecliptic and the equator, or the inclination of the earth's equator to the plane of her annual path, upon which the seasons depend: this amounts at present to about 23° 27′.

OBLONG SQUARE. A name improperly given to a parallelogram. (See Three-square.)

OBSERVATION. In nautical astronomy, denotes the taking the sun, moon, or stars' altitude with a quadrant or sextant, in order thereby to find the latitude or time; also, the lunar distances.

OBSERVE, To. To take a bearing or a celestial observation.

OBSIDIONAL CROWN. The highest ancient Roman military honour; the decoration of the chief who raised a siege.

OBSTACLES. Chains, booms, abattis, snags, palisades, or anything placed to impede an enemy's progress. Unforeseen hindrances.

OBTURATOR. A cover or valve in steam machinery.

OBTUSE ANGLE. One measuring above 90°, and therefore beyond a right angle; called by shipwrights standing bevellings.

OBTUSE-ANGLED TRIANGLE. That which has one obtuse angle.

OCCIDENT. The west.

OCCULTATION. One heavenly body eclipsing another; but in nautical astronomy it is particularly used to denote the eclipses of stars and planets by the moon.

OCCUPY, To. To take military possession.

OCEAN. This term, in its largest sense, is the whole body of salt water which encompasses the globe, except the collection of inland seas, lakes, and rivers: in a word, that glorious type of omnipotent power, whether in calm or tempest:—

In a more limited sense it is divided into—1. The Atlantic Ocean. 2. The Pacific Ocean. 3.

The Indian Ocean. 4. The Southern Ocean.

OCEAN-GOING SHIP. In contradistinction to a coaster.

OCHRAS. A Gaelic term for the gills of a fish.

OCTAGON. A geometrical figure which has eight equal sides and angles.

ODHARAG. The name of the young cormorant in our northern isles.

OE. An island [from the Ang.-Sax.] Oes are violent whirlwinds off the Faeroe Islands, said at times to raise the water in syphons.

OFERLANDERS. Small vessels on the Rhine and the Meuse.

OFF. The opposite to near. Also applied to a ship sailing from the shore into the open sea. Also, implies abreast of, or near, as "We were off Cape Finisterre. "—Nothing off!

The order to the helmsman not to suffer the ship to fall off from the wind.

OFFAL. Slabs, chips, and refuse of timber, sold in fathom lots at the dockyards.

OFF AND ON. When a ship beating to windward approaches the shore by one board, and recedes from it when on the other. Also used to denote an undecided person. Dodging off a port.[505]

OFF AT A TANGENT. Going in a hurry, or in a testy humour.

OFF DUTY. An officer, marine, or seaman in his watch below, &c. An officer is sometimes put "off duty" as a punishment.

OFFENCES. Crimes which are not capital, but by the custom of the service come under the articles of war.

OFFICER. A person having some command. A term applied both in the royal and mercantile navies to any one of a ship's company who ranks above the fore-mast men.

OFFICER OF THE DAY. A military officer whose immediate duty is to attend to the interior economy of the corps to which he belongs, or of those with which he may be doing duty.

OFFICER OF THE WATCH. The lieutenant or other officer who has charge of, and commands, the watch.

OFFICERS' EFFECTS. The effects of officers who die on board are not generally sold; but should they be submitted to auction, the sale is to be confined entirely amongst the officers.

OFFICIAL LETTERS. All official letters which are intended to be laid before the commander-in-chief, must be signed by the officers themselves, specifying their rank under their signatures. All applications from petty officers, seamen, and marines, relative to transfer, discharge, or other subjects of a similar nature, are to be made through the captain or commanding officer. They ought to be written on foolscap paper, leaving a margin, to the left hand, of one-fourth of the breadth, and superscribed on the cover "On H. M.

Service.

OFFING. Implies to sea-ward; beyond anchoring ground.—To keep a good offing, is to keep well off the land, while under sail.

OFF-RECKONING. A proportion of the full pay of troops retained from them, in special cases, until the period of final settlement, to cover various expected charges (for ship-rations and the like).

OFF SHE GOES! Means run away with the purchase fall. Move to the tune of the fifer. The first move when a vessel is launched.

OFF THE REEL. At once; without stopping. In allusion to the way in which the log-line flies off the reel when a ship is sailing fast.

OFFWARD. The situation of a ship which lies aground and leans from the shore; "the ship heels offward," and "the ship lies with her stern to the offward," is when her stern is towards the sea.

OGEE. In old-pattern guns, the doubly curved moulding added, by way of finish, to several of the rings.

OGGIDENT. Jack's corruption of aguardiente [Sp.], a fiery and very unwholesome spirit.

OIL-BUTT. A name for the black whale.

OILLETS, or Œillets. Apertures for firing through, in the walls of a fort.

OITER. A Gaelic word still in use for a sand-bank.

OJANCO SNAPPER. A tropical fish of the Mesoprion family, frequenting the deep-water banks of the West Indies.

OKE. A Levant weight of 23⁄4 lbs., common in Mediterranean commerce.[506]

OLD COUNTRY. A very general designation for Great Britain among the Americans. The term is never applied to any part of the continent of Europe.

OLD HAND. A knowing and expert person.

OLD HORSE. Tough salt-beef.

OLD ICE. In polar parlance, that of previous seasons.

OLD-STAGER. One well initiated in anything.

OLD-STAGERISM. An adherence to established customs; sea conservatism.

OLDSTERS. In the old days of cockpit tyranny, mids of four years' standing, and master's-mates, &c., who sadly bullied the youngsters.

OLD WIFE. A fish about 2 feet long, and 9 inches high in the back, having a small mouth, a large eye, a broad dorsal fin, and a blue body. Also, the brown long-tailed duck of Pennant.

OLD WOMAN'S TOOTH. A peculiar chisel for stub morticing.

OLERON CODE. A celebrated collection of maritime laws, compiled and promulgated by Richard Cœur-de-Lion, at the island of Oleron, near the coast of Poitou, the inhabitants of which have been deemed able mariners ever since. It is reckoned the best code of sea-laws in the world, and is recorded in the black book of the admiralty.

OLICK. The torsk or tusk, Gadus callarias.

OLIVER. A west-country term for a young eel.

OLPIS. A classic term for one who, from a shore eminence, watched the course which shoals of fish took, and communicated the result to the fishers. (See Conder.)

OMBRE. A fish, more commonly called grayling, or umber.

ON. The sea is said to be "on" when boisterous; as, there is a high sea on.

ON A BOWLINE. Close to the wind, when the sail will not stand without hauling the bowlines.

ONAGER. An offensive weapon of the middle ages.

ON A WIND. Synonymous with on a bowline.

ON BOARD. Within a ship; the same as aboard.

ONCIA. A gold coin of Sicily; value three ducats, or 10s. 10d. sterling.

ONCIN. An offensive weapon of mediæval times, consisting of a staff with a hooked iron head.

ON DECK THERE! The cry to call attention from aloft or below.

ONE-AND-ALL. A mutinous sea-cry used in the Dutch wars. Also, a rallying call to put the whole collective force on together.

ON EITHER TACK. Any way or every way; a colloquialism.

ON END. The same as an-end (which see). Top-masts and topgallant-masts are on end, when they are in their places, and sail can be set on them.