RETROGRADATION. An apparent motion of the planets contrary to the order of the signs, and to their orbital march. The arc of retrogradation is the angular distance thus apparently traversed. Mars may be watched as an instance.

RETROGRADE MOTION. See Motion.

RETURN. A ship on a return voyage is not generally liable; but if she sailed on the outward voyage under false papers, the liability to confiscation continues.

RETURN A SALUTE, To. Admirals are saluted, but return two guns less for each rank that the saluting officer is below the admiral.

RETURNS. All the various reports and statements required by officers in command to be made periodically. (See Supplies and Returns.)

REVEILLE. The beat of drum at break of day, when night duties cease.

REVENUE. In cases of revenue proceedings, the law harshly provides that the onus probandi is to be on the claimant, however injured.[571]

REVENUE-CUTTERS. Sharp-built single-masted vessels armed, for the purpose of preventing smuggling, and enforcing the custom-house regulations. They are usually styled revenue-cruisers.

REVERSE. A change; a vicissitude. Also, the flank at the other extremity from the pivot of a division is termed the reverse flank.

REVETMENT. A sloping wall of brick-work, or any other attainable material, supporting the outer face of the rampart, and lining the side of the ditch.

REVIEW. The inspection of a fleet or army, or of any body of men under arms.

REVOLUTION, Time of. In relation to a planet or comet, this is the time occupied in completing a circuit round the sun, and is synonymous with periodic time.

RHE. A very old word signifying an overflow of water.

RHILAND-ROD. A Dutch measure of 12 English feet, formerly in use with us: it is more properly Rhine-land rod.

RHODIAN LAWS. A maritime code, asserted, but without sufficient proof, to be the basis of the Roman sea-laws. The code published by Leunclavius and others, as a body of Rhodian laws, is a mere forgery of modern times.

RHODINGS. The brass cleats on which the axles of the pumps work.

RHOMBOID. An oblique parallelogram, having its opposite sides equal and parallel, but its angles not right angles.

RHOMBUS. A lozenge-shaped figure, having four equal sides, but its angles not right angles.

RHUMB, or Rhomb. A vertical circle of any given place, or the intersection of a part of such a circle with the horizon. Rhumbs, therefore, coincide with points of the world, or of the horizon; and hence seamen distinguish the rhumbs by the same names as the points and winds, as marked on the fly or card of the compass. The rhumb-line, therefore, is a line prolonged from any point of the compass in a nautical chart, except the four cardinal points; or it is a line which a ship, keeping in the same collateral point or rhumb, describes throughout its whole course.

RHYDAL [from the Celtic rhydle]. A ford or channel joining lakes or broad waters.

RIBADOQUIN. A powerful cross-bow for throwing long darts. Also, an old piece of ordnance throwing a ball of one or two pounds.

RIBBANDS. In naval architecture, long narrow flexible pieces of fir nailed upon the outside of the ribs, from the stem to the stern-post of a ship, so as to encompass the body lengthways, and hold the timbers together while in frame.

RIBBING-NAILS. Similar to deck-nails, but not so fine; they have large round heads with rings, so as to prevent their heads from splitting the timbers, or being drawn through.

RIBBONS. The painted mouldings along a ship's side. Also, the tatters of a sail in blowing away.[572]

RIBS. The frame timbers which rise from the bottom to the top of a ship's hull: the hull being as the body, the keel as the backbone, and the planking as the skin.

RIBS AND TRUCKS. Used figuratively for fragments.

RIBS OF A PARREL. An old species of parrel having alternate ribs and bull's-eyes; the ribs were pieces of wood, each about one foot in length, having two holes in them through which the two parts of the parrel-rope are reeved with a bull's-eye between; the inner smooth edge of the rib rests against, and slides readily up and down, the mast.

RICKERS. Lengths of stout poles cut up for the purpose of stowing flax, hemp, and the like. Spars supplied for boats' masts and yards, boat-hook staves, &c.

RICOCHET. The bound of a shot. Ricochet fire, that whereby, a less charge and a greater elevation being used, the shot or shell is made to just clear a parapet, and bound along the interior of a work.

RIDDLE. A sort of weir in rivers.—To riddle. To fire through and through a vessel, and reduce her to a sieve-like condition.

RIDE, To. To ride at anchor. A vessel rides easily, apeak, athwart, head to wind, out a gale, open hawse, to the tide, to the wind, &c. A rope rides, as when round the capstan or windlass the strain part overlies and jams the preceding turn. —To ride between wind and tide.

Said of a ship at anchor when she is acted upon by wind and tide from different directions, and takes up a position which is the result of both forces.

RIDEAU. A rising ground running along a plain, nearly parallel to the works of a place, and therefore prejudicial.

RIDERS. Timbers laid as required, reaching from the keelson to the orlop-beams, to bind a ship and give additional strength. They are variously termed, as lower futtock-riders and middle futtock-riders. When a vessel is weak, or has broken her floors or timbers, riders are introduced to secure the ship, and enable her to reach a port where she can be properly repaired. Stringers are also used, but these run horizontally.

—Riders are also upper tiers of casks, or any stowed above the ground tier in the hold.

RIDING A PORT-LAST. With lower yards on the gunwales.

RIDING-BITTS. Those to which the cable is made fast.

RIDING-DOWN. The act of the men who throw their weight on the head of a sail to stretch it. Also, of the man who comes down a stay, &c., to tar it; or foots the bunt in.

RIDGE. Hydrographically means a long narrow stretch of shingle or rocks, near the surface of the sea, (See Reef and Shallows.) Geographically, the intersection of two opposite slopes, or a range of hills, or the highest line of mountains.

RIDGE-ROPES, are of various kinds. Thus the centre-rope of an awning, and those along the rigging to which it is stretched, the man-ropes to the bowsprit, safety lines from gun to gun in bad weather—all obtain this name.[573]

RIFE. An old provincial term for a salt-water pond.

RIFLED ORDNANCE. That which is provided with spiral grooves in the interior of the bore, to give rotatory motion to the projectile, thereby much increasing its accuracy of flight, and permitting the use of elongated shot and shell.

RIFLE-PIT. Cover hastily thrown up by one or two skirmishers, but contributing, when a line of them is joined together, to form works sometimes of much importance.

RIG. Colloquially, mischievous frolic not carried to excess.

RIG, To. To fit the shrouds, stays, braces, and running-rigging to their respective masts, yards, and sails. Colloquially, it means to dress.—To rig in a boom, is to draw it in.—To rig out a boom, is to run it out from a yard, in order to extend the foot of a sail upon it, as with studding-sail booms, &c.

RIGEL. β Orionis, one of the bright stars in Orion.

RIGGED. Completely equipped.

RIGGERS. Men employed on board ships to fit the standing and running rigging, or to dismantle them. The riggers in the naval yards, who rig ships previous to their being commissioned, are under the master-attendant, and perform all anchor, mooring, and harbour duties also.

RIGGING. A general name given to all the ropes or chains employed to support the masts, and arrange the sails according to the direction of the wind. Those are termed "standing" which are comparative fixtures, and support the masts, &c.; and those "running," which are in constant use, to trim the yards, and make or shorten sail, &c.

RIGGING-LOFT. A long room or gallery in a dockyard, where rigging is fitted by stretching, serving, splicing, seizing, &c., to be in readiness for the ship.

RIGGING-MATS. Those which are seized upon a vessel's standing rigging, to prevent its being chafed.

RIGGING OUT. A term for outfitting. Also, a word used familiarly to express clothing of ship or tar.

RIGGING-STOPPER. See Stopper of the Cable.

RIGHT. As to direction, fully or directly; thus, right ahead, or right away, &c.

RIGHT ANGLE. An angle formed by a line rising or falling perpendicularly upon another, and measuring 90°, or the quadrant of a circle.

RIGHT-ANGLED TRIANGLE. That which has one right angle.

RIGHT ASCENSION. An arc of the equator between the first point of Aries, and the hour circle which passes through any planet or star; or that point of the equinoctial, which comes to the meridian with any heavenly object, and is therefore similar to terrestrial longitude.

RIGHT ATHWART. Square, or at right angles with the keel.

RIGHT AWAY! It is a habit of seamen answering when a sail is discovered from the mast-head; "Right away on the beam, sir," or "on the bow," [574]&c.

RIGHT-HAND ROPE. That which is laid up and twisted with the sun, that is to the right hand; the term is opposed to water-laid rope, which is left-handed.

RIGHTING. The act of a ship recovering her upright position after she has been laid upon a careen, which is effected by casting loose the careening tackles, and, if necessary, heaving upon the relieving tackles. A ship is also said to right at sea, when she rises with her masts erect, after having been listed over on one side by grounding, or force of wind.

RIGHT THE HELM! The order to put it amidships, that is, in a line with the keel.

RIGHT ON END. In a continuous line; as the masts should be.

RIGHT SAILING. Running a course on one of the four cardinal points, so as to alter only a ship's latitude, or longitude.

RIGHT UP AND DOWN. Said in a dead calm, when the wind is no way at all. Or, in anchor work, when the cable is in that condition, the boatswain calls, "Up and down, sir," whereupon "Thick and dry (nippers) for weighing" are ordered.

RIGHT WAY. When the ship's head casts in the desired direction. Also, when she swings clear at single anchor.

RIGHT WHALE. A name applied to the whale with a very large head and no dorsal fin, which yields the whalebone and train-oil of commerce, in opposition to the fin-backs or rorquals, which are scarcely worth catching. There are several species found both in the Arctic and Southern seas, but never within the tropics.

RIG OF A SHIP. The disposition of the masts, cut of sails, &c., whether square or fore-and-aft rigs. In fact, the rig denotes the character of the vessel.

RIG THE CAPSTAN, To. To fix the bars in the drumhead in readiness for heaving; not forgetting to pin and swift. (See Capstan.)

RIG THE GRATINGS. Prepare them for punishment.

RILE. An old corruption of rail. To ruffle the temper; to vex.

RILL. A very small run of fresh water, less than a rivulet.

RIM, or Brim. A name given to the circular edge of a top. (See Top.)

RIM-BASE. The shoulder on the stock of a musket.

RIME. Hoar-frost; condensed vapour.

RIMER. A palisade in fortification; but for its naval application, see Reeming. Also, a tool for enlarging holes in metal plates, &c.

RIMS. Those pieces which form the quarter-galleries between the stools. Also, the cast-iron frame in which the dropping pauls of a capstan traverse, and bring up the capstan.