TRIGGER. In ship-building, is the letting fall the paul of the cradle by which the dog-shore falls flush, and offers no further obstruction to the ship gliding down the ways into her absurdly termed "native element." Also, a small catch under the lock of fire-arms, by drawing which back, when the piece is cocked, it is discharged.

TRIGGER-FINGER. See Fore-finger.

TRIGGER-LINE. A line by which the gun is fired.

TRIG-MEAT. A western term for any kind of shell-fish picked up at low water.

TRIGON. See Triangle.

TRIGONOMETRY. The science which deals with measuring triangles, or determining their unknown sides and angles, plane or spherical.

TRIM. The set of a ship on the water, whether by the head or the stern, or on an even keel. It is by the disposition of the ballast, cargo, masts, and other weight which she carries, that a vessel is best adapted for navigation. Also, the working or finishing of any piece of timber or plank to its proper shape or form. —In trim, is neat and regular.

—To trim, is to arrange the sails so that they may receive the full advantage of the wind.

TRIM of the Hold. The arrangement of the cargo, &c., by which a vessel carries sail well, and becomes under control as well as sea-worthy.

TRIMMED. Sails properly set, and yards well braced after tacking.[698]

TRIMMED SHARP. The arrangement of a ship's sails in a slant wind, so that she may keep as close as possible to the breeze.

TRIMMING A JACKET. Rope's-ending the wearer.

TRIMONIER. A corruption of timoneer, but formerly a rating on ships' books.

TRIM THE BOAT! The order to sit in the boat in such a manner as that she shall float upright. Also, to edge aft, so that her steerage becomes easier, and she does not ship heavy seas.

TRINK. An old contrivance for catching fish. (Statute 2 Hen. VI. c.

15.

TRIP. An outward-bound passage or short voyage, particularly in the coasting trade. It also denotes a single board in plying to windward. Also, the movement by which an anchor is loosened from its bed and raised clear of the bottom, either by its cable or buoy-rope. —The anchor's a-trip, i.

e. no longer holds.

TRIPLE STAR. Three stars situated in close proximity, but apparently only optically connected. (See Ternary System.)

TRIPPING. Giving a yard the necessary cant by a tripping-line. Also, the lifting an upper mast to withdraw its fid, in order that it may be lowered by means of the mast-rope.

TRIPPING-LINE. A small rope serving to unrig the lower top-gallant yard-arm of its lift and brace, when in the act of sending it down on deck. Also, the line used for tripping an upper mast.

TROACHER, or Troaker. A dealer in smuggled goods.

TROCHOID, or Cycloid. A geometrical curve, resulting from a circle being made to run along a right line, whence the French designate it roulette. But if a circle be made to roll along the circumference of another circle, it becomes an epicycloid (which see).

TROITE. An archaism for the cuttle-fish.

TROLLING. Drawing the bait along the water to imitate the swimming of a real fish; this is generally done by a long line attached to the stern of a sailing-boat. The word of old signified sauntering or idling about.

TROMBONE. A species of blunderbuss for boat service, taking its name from its unseemly trumpet mouth.

TRONA. An article of export from Tripoli and Egypt; the natron of commerce, and over munnoo of the East Indies. Sesqui-carb. of soda mixed with salt and sulphate of soda.

TROOP. A company of cavalry, commanded by a captain, generally from forty to sixty strong. Also, an assembling beat of the drum. —Trooping the guard, or the colours, are special military ceremonies connected with guard-mounting. —Troop the guard.

A ceremony daily practised in large ships by the marines at morning muster.

TROOP-BOATS. Are built with great flatness of floor, with extreme breadth, carried well forward and aft, and possessing the utmost buoyancy, as well as capacity for stowage. They were carried as paddle-box boats (inverted), and thus protected the paddles as well as being ready for use.

TROOP-SHIPS. A class of vessel of excellent account, during war, in the[699] hands of government; far preferable to hired transports for the purpose of conveying soldiers, especially cavalry and their horses. They were usually, in the last French war, 50's and 64's; and with the lower-deck guns taken out, were roomy and airy.

TROPHY. Anything captured from an enemy and shown or treasured as a token of victory.

TROPICAL MOTION. See Motion.

TROPICAL REVOLUTION. If the periodic time of a circuit round the sun be taken in reference to the equinoxes or tropics, it is called a tropical revolution.

TROPIC-BIRD. Phaethon æthereus, a well-known sea-bird, distinguished by two very long feathers in its tail; also termed boatswain-bird, from the tail feathers resembling a marline-spike.

TROPICS. Two imaginary lines upon the globe, or lesser circles of the sphere, parallel to the equator, and at 231⁄2° distance on each side of it; they touch the ecliptic at its greatest distances from the equator, and from the boundaries of the sun's declination, north and south.

TROUGH [from the Anglo-Saxon troh]. A small boat broad at both ends. Also, the hollow or interval between two waves, which resembles a broad and deep trench perpetually fluctuating. As the set of the sea is produced by the wind, the waves and the trough are at right angles with it; hence a ship rolls heaviest when she is in the trough of the sea.

TROUL. The action of silt being rolled along by a tide.

TROUNCE, To. To beat or punish. An old word; in Mathew's translation of the Bible, 1537, we find, "The Lord trounced Sisera."

TROUNCER. An old word for a waister.

TROUS DE LOUP. Holes dug in the form of an inverted cone, with a sharp picket or stake in each, to break the march of an enemy's column when advancing to the attack.

TROW. A clinker-built, flat-floored barge used on the Severn, &c. Also, a sort of double boat with an interval between, and closed at the ends; it is used on the Tyne for salmon-fishing, the fisherman standing across the opening, leister in hand, ready to strike the quarry which passes.

TRUCE. The exhibition of a flag of truce has been religiously respected amongst civilized nations. It is a request by signal to desist from farther warfare, until the object of the truce requested has been acceded to or rejected.

TRUCHMAN. See Trugman.

TRUCK. A Cornish word for the trough between two surfs. Also, exchange, as fish for grog, &c.

TRUCKLE. A Welsh coracle.

TRUCKS. Pieces of wood of various forms, though mostly round; they are for different purposes, as wheels on which the gun-carriages run. —Trucks of the flag-staves or at the mast-head. Circular caps on the upper mast-heads; they are generally furnished with two or more small sheaves, through which the signal halliards are rove. —Trucks of the parrels.

[700] Spherical pieces of wood, termed bull's-eyes, having a hole through them, in which is inserted the rope of the parrel. (See Parrals. )—Trucks for fair leaders, are similar to bull's-eyes, but are scored to fit the shrouds to which they are seized. The ropes are thus kept from getting jammed between the yards and the rigging; they are also useful, especially at night, as guides to particular ropes.

TRUE ANOMALY. See Anomaly.

TRUE-BLUE. A metaphorical term for an honest and hearty sailor: "true to his uniform, and uniformly true."

TRUE-HORIZON. See Horizon.

TRUE TIDE. Opposed to cross-tide (which see).

TRUE WATER. The exact depth of soundings.

TRUFF. A west-country name for a trout.

TRUG. A rough basket for carrying chips of timber.

TRUGMAN. An early word for interpreter, being a corruption of dragoman; also called trench-man, but not trencher-man, as a worthy Mediterranean consul wrote it.

TRUMPETER. A petty officer and musician stationed on the poop, to sound salutes and various evolutionary orders.

TRUNCHEON. A field-marshal's baton; also a constable's.

TRUNDLE-HEAD. The lower drumhead of a capstern, when it is double, and worked on one shaft both on an upper and lower deck.

TRUNDLE-SHOT. An iron bolt 16 or 18 inches long, with sharp points, and a ball of lead just inside each head.

TRUNK. (See Rudder-trunk. ) Also, a large species of turtle. Also, a place for keeping fish in. Also, an iron hoop with a bag, used to catch crabs and lobsters.

—Fire-trunks. Funnels fixed in fire-ships under the shrouds, to convey the flames to the masts, rigging, and sails.

TRUNK-ENGINE. A direct-acting steam-engine, in which the end of the connecting-rod is attached to the bottom of a hollow trunk, passing steam-tight through the cylinder cover.

TRUNK-FISH. A name of the Ostracion, a fish remarkable for having its body encased in an inflexible armour of hard octagonal plates, the fins, mouth, and gill-openings passing through holes in this casing.

TRUNNION-RING. The ring round a cannon next before the trunnions, now disused.

TRUNNIONS. The arms, or two pieces of metal projecting from the opposite sides of a gun, by which it rests and swings upon its carriage, acting as an axis of elevation or depression. Also, pieces of well-seasoned wood, used in securing the ship's timbers.

TRUSS. The trusses or parrels of the lower yards serve to bind them to their masts and are bowsed taut when the yards are trimmed, in order to arrest motion and friction. But the introduction of an iron goose-neck, centering and securing the yard well free of the mast, very much supersedes the use of trusses.

TRUSS-HOOPS. Synonymous with clasp-hoops for masts or spars; they[701] are open iron hoops, so made that their ends, being let into each other, may be well fastened by means of iron wedges or forelock keys.

TRUSS-PARREL. That part of a rope-truss which goes round the yard.

TRUSS-PENDANT. That part of a rope-truss into which the truss-tackle blocks are seized.

TRUSS-PIECES. The fillings in between the frame compartments of the riders, in diagonal trussing.

TRUSS-TACKLE. A gun-tackle purchase applied to the ends of the truss-pendants, to bowse them taut home to the mast.

TRUSS UP, To. To brail up a sail suddenly; to toss up a bunt.

TRY, To, or Lie-to, in a Gale, is, by a judicious balance of canvas, to keep a ship's bow to the sea, and, with as much as she can safely show, prevent her rolling to windward in the trough of a sea. Close-hauled under all sail, a vessel gains head-way within six points of the wind; but in trying she may come up to five and fall off to seven: so that a vessel does not hold her own. If the vessel be in proper trim, or properly stowed, she will naturally keep to the wind; but custom, and deficiency of seamanlike ability, have induced the lazy habit of lashing the helm a-lee.

TRY BACK FOR A BEND, To. To pay back some of the bight of a cable, in order to have sufficient to form the bend.

TRY DOWN, To. To boil out the oil from blubber at sea in whalers.

TRYING THE RANGE. A lubberly mode of estimating the distance of an enemy's ship or fort by firing a shot at it.

TRYSAIL. A reduced sail used by small craft in lieu of their main-sail during a storm. Also, a fore-and-aft sail, set with a boom and gaff, in ships, synonymous with the spencers of brigs and schooners, and the spanker or driver of ships. (See Storm-trysail.)

TRYSAIL-MAST. A spar abaft the fore and main mast, for hoisting the trysail.

TRY-WORKS. Large copper boilers, for boiling the blubber in whalers.

TUB, Grog. A half-cask, set apart for mixing the daily allowance of spirit with water, lime-juice, and sugar, prior to its being served out to the ship's company.