term especially referable to any object farther onward, or immediately before the ship, or in the course steered, and therefore opposed to astern.—Ahead of the reckoning, is sailing beyond the estimated position of the ship.—Ahead is also used for progress; as, cannot get ahead, and is generally applied to forward, in advance.
AHOLD. A term of our early navigators, for bringing a ship close to the wind, so as to hold or keep to it.
AHOO, or All Ahoo, as our Saxon forefathers had it; awry, aslant, lop-sided. (See Askew.)
AHOY! See Ho!
A-HULL. A ship under bare poles and her helm a-lee, driving from wind and sea, stern foremost. Also a ship deserted, and exposed to the tempestuous winds.
AID, To. To succour; to supply with provisions or stores.
AID-DE-CAMP. A military staff officer, who carries and circulates the general's orders; and another class selected as expert at carving and dancing. In a ship, flag-lieutenant to an admiral, or, in action, the quarter-deck midshipmen to a captain.
AIGRE. The sudden flowing of the sea, called in the fens of Lincolnshire, acker. (See Bore.)
AIGUADE [Fr.] Aguada [Sp.] Water as provision for ships.
AIGUADES. Watering-places on French coasts.
AIGUILLE aimantee, magnetic needle. ——de carène, out-rigger. ——d'inclinaison, dipping needle. ——de tré, or à ralingue, a bolt-rope needle.
AIGUILLES. The peculiar small fishing-boats in the Garonne and other rivers of Guienne.
AIGULETS [Fr. aiguillettes]. Tagged points or cords worn across the breast in some uniforms of generals, staff-officers, and special mounted corps.
AILETTES. Small plates of steel placed on the shoulders in mediæval armour.
AIM. The direction of a musket, cannon, or any other fire-arm or missile weapon towards its object.—To take aim, directing the piece to the object.
AIR. The elastic, compressible, and dilatable fluid encompassing the terraqueous globe. It penetrates and pervades other bodies, and thus animates and excites all nature.—Air means also a gentle breath of wind gliding over the surface of the water.—To air, to dry or ventilate.
AIR-BLADDER. A vesicle containing gas, situated immediately beneath the spinal column in most fish, and often communicating by a tube with the gullet. It is the homologue of the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates.
AIR-BRAVING. Defying the winds.
AIR-CONE, in the marine engine, is to receive the gases which enter the hot-well from the air-pump, where, after ascending, they escape through a pipe at the top.
AIRE. A name in our northern islands for a bank of sand.
AIR-FUNNEL. A cavity formed by omission of a timber in the upper works of a vessel, to admit fresh air into the hold of a ship and convey the foul out of it.
AIR-GUN. A silent weapon, which propels bullets by the expansive force of air only.
AIRING-STAGE. A wooden platform, on which gunpowder is aired and dried.
AIR-JACKET. A leathern garment furnished with inflated bladders, to buoy the wearer up in the water. (See Ayr.)
AIR-PIPES. Funnels for clearing ships' holds of foul air, on the principle of the rarefying power of heat.
AIR-PORTS. Large scuttles in ships' bows for the admission of air, when the other ports are down. The Americans also call their side-ports by that name.
AIR-PUMP. An apparatus to remove the water and gases accumulating in the condenser while the engine is at work.
AIR-SCUTTLES. The same as air-ports.
AIR-SHAFTS. Vertical holes made in mining, to supply the adits with fresh air. Wooden shafts are sometimes adopted on board ship for a similar purpose.
AIRT, or Art. A north-country word for a bearing point of the compass or quarter of the heavens. Thus the song—
"Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly love the west."
AIRY. Breezy.
AKEDOWN. A form of the term acton, as a defensive dress.
ALABLASTER. An arbalist or cross-bow man; also the corruption of alabaster.
ALAMAK. The name given in nautical astronomy to that beautiful double star Anak al ard of the Arabians, or γ Andromedæ.
ALAMOTTIE. The Procellaria pelagica, or Storm-finch; Mother Cary's chicken, or stormy petrel.
ALAND. A term formerly used for to the shore, on shore, or to land.
ALARM, Alarum [from the Italian all'armi!] An apprehension from sudden noise or report. The drum or signal by which men are summoned to stand on their guard in time of danger.—False alarm is sometimes occasioned by a timid or negligent sentry, and at others designedly by an officer, to ascertain the promptness of his men. Sometimes false alarms are given by the enemy to harass the adversary. Old Rider defines alarm as a "watch-word shewing the neernesse of the enemies."
ALARM-POST. A place appointed for troops to assemble, in case of a sudden alarm.
ALBACORE. A fish of the family Scombridæ, found in shoals in the ocean; it is about 5 or 6 feet long, with an average weight of nearly 100 lbs. when fine.
ALBANY BEEF. A name for the sturgeon of the Hudson River, where it is taken in quantity for commerce.
ALBATROSS. A large, voracious, long-winged sea-bird, belonging to the genus Diomedea; very abundant in the Southern Ocean and the Northern Pacific, though said to be rarely met with within the tropics.
ALBION. An early name of England, from the whiteness of the eastern coast cliffs.
ALBURNUM. The sap-wood of timber, commonly termed the slab-cuts.
ALCAID. A governor, or officer of justice, amongst the Moors, Spaniards, and Portuguese.
ALCATRAZ. The pelican. Alcatraz Island is situated in the mouth of the river San Francisco, in California, so named from its being covered with these birds. Also Alcatraz on the coast of Africa, from Pelecanus sula—booby. Columbus mentions the alcatraz when nearing America, and Drayton says—
"Most like to that sharp-sighted alcatras, That beats the air above the liquid glass."
ALDEBARAN. The lucida of Taurus, the well-known nautical star, popularly called Bull's-eye.
A-LEE. The contrary of a-weather: the position of the helm when its tiller is borne over to the lee-side of the ship, in order to go about or put her head to windward.—Hard a-lee! or luff
