bilge a ship.
BULGE. (See Bilge.) That part of the ship she bears upon when on the ground.
BULGE-WAYS. Otherwise bilge-ways (which see).
BULK. In bulk; things stowed without cases or packages. (See Bulk-head and Laden in Bulk.)
BULKER. A person employed to measure goods, and ascertain the amount of freight with which they are chargeable.
BULK-HEAD, The. Afore, is the partition between the forecastle and gratings in the head, and in which are the chase-ports.
BULK-HEADS. Partitions built up in several parts of a ship, to form and separate the various cabins from each other. Some are particularly strong, as those in the hold, which are mostly built with rabbeted or cyphered plank; others are light, and removable at pleasure. Indeed the word is applied to any division made with boards, to separate one portion of the 'tween decks from another.
BULK OF A SHIP. Implies the whole cargo when stowed in the hold.
BULL. An old male whale. Also, a small keg; also the weak grog made by pouring water into a spirit-cask nearly empty.
BULL-DANCE. At sea it is performed by men only, when without women. It is sometimes called a stag-dance.
BULL-DOG, or Muzzled Bull-dog. The great gun which stands "housed" in the officer's ward-room cabin. General term for main-deck guns.
BULLETIN. Any official account of a public transaction.
BULLET-MOULD. An implement for casting bullets.
BULLETS. Leaden balls with which all kinds of fire-arms are loaded.
BULL-HEAD, or Bull-jub. A name of the fish called miller's thumb (Cottus gobio).
BULLOCK-BLOCKS. Blocks secured under the top-mast trestle-trees, which receive the top-sail ties through them, in order to increase the mechanical power used in hoisting them up.
BULLOCK-SLINGS. Used to hoist in live bullocks.
BULL'S-EYE. A sort of block without a sheave, for a rope to reeve through; it is grooved for stropping. Also, the central mark of a target. Also, a hemispherical piece of ground glass of great thickness, inserted into small openings in the decks, port-lids, and scuttle-hatches, for the admission of light below.
BULL'S-EYE CRINGLE. A piece of wood in the form of a ring, which answers the purpose of an iron thimble; it is seldom used by English seamen, and then only for the fore and main bowline-bridles.
BULL-TROUT. The salmon-trout of the Tweed. A large species of trout taken in the waters of Northumberland.
BULLYRAG, To. To reproach contemptuously, and in a hectoring manner; to bluster, to abuse, and to insult noisily. Shakspeare makes mine host of the Garter dub Falstaff a bully-rook.
BULWARK. The planking or wood-work round a vessel above her deck, and fastened externally to the stanchions and timber-heads. In this form it is a synonym of berthing. Also, the old name for a bastion.
BULWARK-NETTING. An ornamental frame of netting answering the purpose of a bulwark.
BUMBARD. A cask or large vessel for liquids. (See Bombard.) Trinculo, in the "Tempest," thinks an impending storm-cloud "looks like a foul bumbard."
BUM-BOAT. A boat employed to carry provisions, vegetables, and small merchandise for sale to ships, either in port or lying at a distance from the shore; thus serving to communicate with the adjacent town. The name is corrupted from bombard, the vessels in which beer was formerly carried to soldiers on duty.
BUMKIN, Bumpkin, or Boomkin. A short boom or beam of timber projecting from each bow of a ship, where it is fayed down upon the false rail. Its use is to extend the clue or lower corner of the fore-sail to windward, for which purpose there is a large block fixed on its outer end, through which the tack is passed, and when hauled tight down is said to be aboard. The name is also applied to the pieces on each quarter, for the main-brace blocks.
BUMKIN. A small out-rigger over the stern of a boat, usually serving to extend the mizen.
BUMMAREE. A word synonymous with bottomry, in maritime law. It is also a name given to a class of speculating salesmen of fish, not recognized as regular tradesmen.
BUMP, To. To bump a boat, is to pull astern of her in another, and insultingly or inimically give her the stem; a practice in rivers and narrow channels.
BUMP-ASHORE. Running stem-on to a beach or bank. A ship bumps by the action of the waves lifting and dropping her on the bottom when she is aground.
BUMPERS. Logs of wood placed over a ship's side to keep off ice.
BUND. In India, an embankment; whence, Bunda head, and Bunda boat.
BUNDLE-UP! The call to the men below to hurry up on deck.
BUNDLING Things into a Boat. Loading it in a slovenly way.
BUNGLE, To. To perform a duty in a slovenly manner.
BUNGO, or Bonga. A sort of boat used in the Southern States of America, made of the bonga-tree hollowed out.
BUNG-STARTER. A stave shaped like a bat, which, applied to either side of the bung, causes it to start out. Also, a soubriquet for the captain of the hold. Also, a name given to the master's assistant serving his apprenticeship for hold duties.
BUNG-UP AND BILGE-FREE. A cask so placed that its bung-stave is uppermost, and it rests entirely on its beds.
BUNK. A sleeping-place in the fore-peak of merchantmen; standing bed-places fixed on the sides between decks.
BUNKER. For stowing coal in steamers. Cellular spaces on each side which deliver the coal to the engine-room.—Wing-bunkers below the decks, cutting off the angular side-spaces of the hold, and hatched over, are usually filled with sand, holy-stones, brooms, junk-blocks, &c., saving stowage.
BUNT of a Sail. The middle part of it, formed designedly into a bag or cavity, that the sail may gather more wind. It is used mostly in top-sails, because courses are generally cut square, or with but small allowance for bunt or compass. "The bunt holds much leeward wind;" that is, it hangs much to leeward. In "handed" or "furled" sails, the bunt is the middle gathering which is tossed up on the centre of the yard.—To bunt a sail is to haul up the middle part of it in furling, and secure it by the bunt-gasket.
BUNTERS. The men on the yard who gather in the bunt when furling sails.
BUNT-FAIR. Before the wind.
BUNT-GASKET. See Gasket.
BUNTING. A name on our southern shores for the shrimp.
BUNTING, or Buntin. A thin woollen stuff, of which the ship's colours, flags, and signals are usually made.
BUNT-JIGGER. A small gun-tackle purchase, of two single blocks,
