BRITISH SHIP. May be foreign built, or rebuilt on a foreign keel which belonged to any of the people of Great Britain and Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, or the Isle of Man, or of any colony, island, or territory in Asia, Africa, or America, or was registered before the 1st of May, 1786.
BRITISH SUBJECT. Settled in an enemy's country, may not trade in any contraband goods.
BRITTLE-STAR. The common name of a long-rayed star-fish (Ophiocoma rosula).
BROACH A BUSINESS, To. To begin it.
BROACH-TO, To. To fly up into the wind. It generally happens when a ship is carrying a press of canvas with the wind on the quarter, and a good deal of after-sail set. The masts are endangered by the course being so altered, as to bring it more in opposition to, and thereby increasing the pressure of the wind. In extreme cases the sails are caught flat aback, when the masts would be likely to give way, or the ship might go down stern foremost.
BROAD ARROW. The royal mark for government stores of every description. To obliterate, deface, or remove this mark is felony; or even to be in possession of any goods so marked without sufficient grounds. It is no doubt one of the Ditmarsh runes.
BROAD AXE. Formerly a warlike instrument; also for beheading; specially applied to the axe of carpenters for mast-making, and sometimes cutting away the masts or cable.
BROAD CLOTH. Square sails.
BROAD OF WATER. An extensive lake with a channel communicating with the sea, or a wide opening of a river after passing a narrow entrance.
BROAD PENNANT. A swallow-tailed piece of buntin at the mast-head of a man-of-war; the distinctive mark of a commodore. The term is frequently used for the officer himself. It tapers, in contradistinction to a cornet, which has only the triangle cut out of it.
BROAD R. See Broad Arrow.
BROADS. Fresh-water lakes, in contradistinction to rivers or narrow waters.
BROADSIDE. The whole array, or the simultaneous discharge of the artillery on one side of a ship of war above and below. It also implies the whole of that side of a ship above the water which is situate between the bow and quarter, and is in a position nearly perpendicular to the horizon. Also, a name given to the old folio sheets whereon ballads and proclamations were printed of old (broad-sheet).
BROADSIDE-ON. The whole side of a vessel; the opposite of end-on.
BROADSIDE WEIGHT OF METAL. The weight of iron which the guns of a ship can project, when single-shotted, from one side. (See Weight of Metal.)
BROADSWORD. See Cutlas.
BROCAGE. The same with brokerage (which see).
BROCLES. See Strake-nails.
BRODIE. The fry of the rock-tangle, or Hettle-codling, a fish caught on the Hettle Bank, in the Firth of Forth.
BROGGING. A north-country method of catching eels, by means of small sticks called brogs.
BROGUES. Among seamen, coarse sandals made of green hide; but Shakspeare makes Arviragus put "his clouted brogues from off his feet," for "answering his steps too loud." This would rather refer to shoes strengthened with hob-nails.
BROKE. Sentence of a court-martial, depriving an officer of his commission.
BROKEN. An old army word, used for reduced; as, a broken lieutenant, &c. The word is also applied to troops in line when not dressed. The heart of a gale is said to be broken; parole is broken; also, leave, bulk, &c. (which see).
BROKEN-BACKED. The state of a ship so loosened in her frame, either by age, weakness, or some great strain from grounding amidships, as to droop at each end, causing the lines of her sheer to be interrupted, and termed hogged. It may result from fault of construction, in the midship portions having more buoyancy, and the extreme ends too much weight, as anchors, boats, guns, &c., to sustain.
BROKEN-OFF. Fallen off, in azimuth, from the course. Also, men taken from one duty to be put on another.
BROKEN SQUALL. When the clouds separate in divisions, passing ahead and astern of a ship, and affecting her but little, if at all.
BROKEN WATER. The contention of currents in a narrow channel. Also, the waves breaking on and near shallows, occasionally the result of vast shoals of fish, as porpoise, skip-jacks, &c., which worry untutored seamen.
BROKER. Originally a broken tradesman, from the Anglo-Saxon broc, a misfortune; but, in later times, a person who usually transacts the business of negotiating between the merchants and ship-owners respecting cargoes and clearances: he also effects insurances with the underwriters; and while on the one hand he is looked to as to the regularity of the contract, on the other he is expected to make a candid disclosure of all the circumstances which may affect the risk.
BROKET. A small brook; the sea-lark is so called at the Farne Islands.
BROKE-UP. Said of a gale of wind passing away; or a ship which has gone to pieces on a reef, &c.
BROND. An old spelling of brand, a sword.
BRONGIE. A name given to the cormorant in the Shetland Islands.
BROOD. Oysters of about two years old, which are dredged up at sea, for placing on the oyster-beds.
BROOD-HEN STAR. The cluster of the Pleiades.
BROOK, or Brooklet. Streams of fresh or salt water, less than a rivulet, creeping through narrow and shallow passages. The clouds brook-up, when they draw together and threaten rain.
BROOM. A besom at the mast-head signifies that the ship is to be sold: derived probably from the old practice of displaying boughs at shops and taverns. Also, a sort of spartium, of which ropes are made.
BROOMING. See Breaming.
BROTHER-OFFICERS. Those of the same ship or regiment.
BROTH OF A BOY. An excellent, though roystering fellow.
BROUGHT BY THE LEE. See Bring by the Lee.
BROUGHT-TO. A chase made to stop, and heave-to. Also, the cable is brought-to when fastened to the messenger by nippers. The messenger is brought to the capstan, or the cable to the windlass.
BROUGHT TO HIS BEARINGS. Reduced to obedience.
BROUGHT TO THE GANGWAY. Punished.
BROW. An inclined plane of planks, on one or both sides of a ship, to communicate internally; a stage-gangway for the accommodation of the shipwrights, in conveying plank, timber, and weighty articles on board. Also, the face of a rising ground. An old term for a gang-board.
BROWN BESS. A nickname for the old government regulation bronzed musket, although till recently it was
