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In "An Universal Dictionary of the Marine," William Falconer presents a comprehensive lexicon of maritime terminology that serves both as a practical resource for seafarers and as an insightful exploration of nautical culture. Written in an accessible yet erudite style, the dictionary encompasses terms spanning naval architecture, navigation, and maritime natural history, reflecting the Enlightenment's fascination with empirical knowledge and exploration. Falconer's work is notable for its clarity and organization, allowing readers to navigate the intricate world of maritime language with ease, and it stands as a significant contribution to the literature of the sea during the 18th century. William Falconer, also a poet and naval officer, drew on his personal experiences at sea to inform his writing. His understanding of the everyday life of mariners and the complexities of navigation imbues the dictionary with authenticity and depth, marking it as not only a reference work but also a reflection of the maritime ethos of his time. Falconer's dual perspective as both a practitioner and a scholar enriches the content, making it an essential text for those interested in marine literature. "An Universal Dictionary of the Marine" is highly recommended for maritime historians, sailors, and anyone intrigued by the language of the sea. Falconer's meticulous compilation of terms serves as an invaluable tool for understanding the profound relationship between humanity and the ocean, making it indispensable for both academic study and practical navigation. In this enriched edition, we have carefully created added value for your reading experience: - A succinct Introduction situates the work's timeless appeal and themes. - The Synopsis outlines the central plot, highlighting key developments without spoiling critical twists. - A detailed Historical Context immerses you in the era's events and influences that shaped the writing. - A thorough Analysis dissects symbols, motifs, and character arcs to unearth underlying meanings. - Reflection questions prompt you to engage personally with the work's messages, connecting them to modern life. - Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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An Universal Dictionary of the Marine
Table of Contents
Introduction
Between the fury of the ocean and the discipline of seamanship stands a language precise enough to make survival possible, and William Falconer’s An Universal Dictionary of the Marine embodies that precarious balance by gathering the hard-won terminology of ships, rigging, navigation, and command into an ordered system that turns experience into knowledge, hazard into procedure, and a labyrinth of ropes, spars, and winds into coherent practice, revealing how words can chart the boundary between chaos and control while preserving the craft traditions, professional standards, and tacit expertise that allowed eighteenth-century mariners to work together in commerce and war across nights, storms, and the busiest seaways.
First appearing in the eighteenth century—specifically in the 1760s—this work belongs to the genre of technical reference, compiled by a practitioner for a community whose daily labor depended on exact speech and mutual understanding. Its setting is the world of sail, dockyard, and quarterdeck, where the British maritime sphere coordinated naval and merchant enterprises at a global scale. Falconer organizes the material as a comprehensive dictionary of maritime terms, covering the fabric of the vessel and the conduct of service alike, so that readers encounter the sea not as romance but as a workplace governed by tools, duties, rules, and skill.
Readers meet a compendium designed for consultation yet surprisingly engaging to browse, arranged alphabetically into entries that define, clarify, and situate each term within practice. The voice is authoritative without pedantry, shaped by experience afloat and attentive to use over ornament. Falconer favors plain exposition, concrete description, and practical remarks that show how meaning attaches to procedure. The tone is measured and instructive, encouraging mastery through careful distinctions. One may dip into a single word, follow cross-references of related parts and operations, or read in sustained stretches to perceive patterns of method, hierarchy, and craft that structure life at sea.
At its core, the Dictionary dramatizes how naming becomes a technology: it standardizes collaboration, transmits craft, and stabilizes practice against the sea’s changeability. It treats knowledge as collective, cumulative, and situational, recognizing that a ship’s safety relies on shared definitions as much as shared effort. The book also reveals the interplay of art and science in seamanship, where geometry and observation meet muscle, memory, and drill. By fixing terms that describe structure, maneuver, and command, it delineates professional identity and responsibility, mapping a social order alongside a material system, and showing how language itself can be a life-preserving instrument.
For contemporary readers, this reference illuminates the vocabulary that animates maritime history, travel writing, and naval records from the period, clarifying allusions that often remain opaque. It also preserves data vital to historians of technology, allowing close reconstruction of practices otherwise scattered across logs and manuals. Beyond scholarship, the Dictionary models a way of organizing complex, tacit knowledge into accessible form, an enduring lesson for any field where safety and coordination depend on exact terms. Engaging with it restores attention to the material realities of ships and seafaring labor, grounding modern imaginations of the sea in accurate, working detail.
Falconer writes as someone steeped in practice, and his definitions carry the grain of lived procedure rather than abstract theory. He differentiates functions, tools, and operations with care, noting practical relations that matter under sail and within shipboard organization. The effect is cumulative: over many entries the reader apprehends an integrated system in which parts fit purposes and duties. Approaching the book today rewards patient, curious reading—its specialized terms belong to a particular era, yet they open onto a coherent world. The clarity, consistency, and poise of the prose make that world legible without sacrificing technical precision.
In a century that increasingly relies on maritime logistics and faces renewed attention to oceanic risk, this Dictionary offers more than antiquarian interest: it conveys how collective skill, shared language, and disciplined method turn vulnerable bodies and fragile materials into effective, cooperative systems. It affirms that terminologies are tools, and that maintaining them is part of maintaining safety, memory, and craft. For general readers, it brings the age of sail into focus; for specialists, it remains a foundational point of reference. To open its pages is to enter a workshop of words where clarity anchors understanding and action.
Synopsis
William Falconer’s An Universal Dictionary of the Marine (first published in 1769) is a comprehensive, alphabetically arranged compendium of nautical terminology from the age of sail. Drawing on professional seamanship, it seeks to standardize language across shipbuilding, navigation, and naval operations. Each entry defines a term and situates it within practice, often noting relationships to allied concepts and directing readers to related entries. The work’s practical orientation is supported by engraved plates that visualize structures and rigging otherwise difficult to grasp in words. Rather than arguing a single thesis, the dictionary advances clarity and uniformity as its guiding purpose.
Falconer devotes extensive attention to naval architecture and the fabric of vessels, from keel, frames, and planking to masts, yards, sails, and standing and running rigging. Entries explain functions, relative positions, and proportions, showing how components interact to produce strength, stability, and manageable sail power. He records terminology used in shipyards and aboard ship, clarifying distinctions among spars, lines, and fittings whose names can shift with context. The dictionary also describes shipyard processes such as caulking, sheathing, and launching, giving readers a vocabulary for the life cycle of a wooden ship. Cross-references knit these descriptions into a coherent technical map.
Beyond things, the work catalogs actions. Falconer treats fundamental evolutions—tacking, wearing, heaving-to, mooring, warping, and weighing anchor—by defining the terms and indicating the circumstances that call for each. He indexes the verbs and nouns of practice, from reefing and furling to veering cable and paying out line, so a reader can trace the language of a maneuver step by step. The emphasis remains descriptive rather than prescriptive, but definitions frequently reflect the logic behind established routines, pointing to the interplay among wind, sea room, and a ship’s trim. Terminology for equipment is thus tied to the methods that make it effective.
The dictionary encompasses navigation and the seaman’s reading of environment. It explains instruments and measures in common use, together with terms for courses, bearings, and the handling of leeway and drift. Soundings, shoals, tides, and currents receive vocabulary that helps situate a vessel in relation to coast and bottom. Falconer also gathers the words sailors use for weather, cloud forms, and sea state, enabling concise reports and shared interpretation of conditions aloft and below. Geographic and coastal descriptors, when included, are treated as aids to piloting rather than as gazetteer entries, keeping the focus on the language that supports safe conduct at sea.
Falconer’s scope extends to martial and organizational aspects of seafaring. Entries outline the parts and handling of ordnance, from guns and carriages to powder-room fittings, and they name the procedures that govern firing and securing. Communication appears through explanations of signals and flags, reflecting the need for coordinated action among vessels. The dictionary also identifies principal classes of ships and boats, noting attributes that differentiate their forms and intended service. Without venturing into strategy, it gives readers the terminological tools to discuss convoys, formations, and the practical constraints that weapons, hulls, and rigging impose on operations in company or in action.
Attention to people and provisions rounds out the lexicon. Falconer defines ranks, stations, and duties aboard, mapping how authority and labor are distributed on a working ship. He includes the language of victualling, stores, and maintenance, from rope and canvas to spars, tar, and ballast, along with the routines that keep a vessel seaworthy over long passages. Dockyard terms describe repair and refit, and where usage varies, the entries register alternative expressions and practice. By presenting both the material culture and the social organization of seafaring, the work enables specialists and newcomers alike to speak precisely about daily life afloat and ashore.
Compiled at a moment of technological and institutional consolidation in eighteenth‑century seafaring, An Universal Dictionary of the Marine captures the state of nautical knowledge in English with unusual breadth and precision. Its alphabetic design, practical definitions, and illustrative plates make it a working tool as well as a record of usage. The book’s lasting importance lies in how it unifies scattered craft vocabularies into a shared reference, supporting training, collaboration, and later historical study. Without prescribing doctrine, it preserves the terms that encode experience, giving subsequent readers a reliable window onto the practices of the age of sail and their continuing legacy.
Historical Context
An Universal Dictionary of the Marine appeared in London in 1769, at the height of Britain’s eighteenth-century maritime ascendancy. The city’s Admiralty, Navy Board, and dockyards at Portsmouth, Chatham, and Deptford coordinated a global fleet that linked home waters to the Mediterranean, Atlantic, Africa, and Asia. Trinity House regulated pilots and seamarks, while the Royal Naval Academy at Portsmouth promoted formal training in mathematics and navigation. In this setting of institutional consolidation and imperial logistics, standardizing the language of seamanship became a practical necessity. Falconer’s dictionary answered that need by assembling definitions from everyday practice across the Royal Navy and the merchant service.
The Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) had just concluded with major British victories at sea, securing colonies and trade routes and underscoring naval power’s primacy in statecraft. The peace that followed brought demobilization but also intensive refitting, surveying, and doctrinal reflection within the fleet. Shipbuilding programs continued in royal dockyards, while convoys, privateering legacies, and coastal defense shaped operational routines. Officers compiled signal books and standing orders; courts martial and Admiralty paperwork demanded precise terminology. This postwar atmosphere, balancing battle experience with professional codification, created fertile ground for a technical lexicon that could reconcile regional jargon and establish shared meanings for maneuvers, equipment, and ranks.
Mid-century navigation was being reshaped by science. Parliament’s Board of Longitude, founded in 1714, sponsored experiments that culminated in John Harrison’s successful sea trials of the H4 timekeeper in the 1760s. Simultaneously, Astronomer Royal Nevil Maskelyne launched the Nautical Almanac in 1767 to support lunar-distance methods. Hydrographic charting expanded, and mathematical instruction spread among officers and masters. These innovations did not replace seamanship’s traditional arts—heaving the lead, working sails, and coastal pilotage—but they intensified the demand for clear, consistent terms. Falconer’s dictionary mirrored this synthesis, cataloging venerable practices alongside new instruments and methods so that navigators could translate theory into action on deck.
Ship design and rigging were also in transition. British shipwrights blended rule-of-thumb construction with emerging naval architecture, informed by European treatises such as Henri-Louis Duhamel du Monceau’s Éléments de l’architecture navale (1752) and British works like Mungo Murray’s Treatise on Ship-building (1754). Experimental copper sheathing appeared in the 1760s, though full adoption came later. Rope-making, sail plans, and spars followed standardized patterns but varied by rate and trade. Falconer recorded this evolving vocabulary—of frames, scantlings, masts, rigging, and evolutions—fixing the meaning of terms used in yard plans and quarterdecks alike, and documenting the working ship just before subsequent decades’ accelerating technical change.
Britain’s maritime economy depended on complex commercial circuits. The East India Company’s voyages to Asia, Atlantic exchanges with North America and the Caribbean, and the transatlantic slave trade were integral to shipping profits, underwriting insurance markets centered on Lloyd’s coffee house and reported in Lloyd’s List. Marine law governed salvage, average, and prize-taking, requiring precise language in policies and courts of Admiralty. Harbor regulations, customs procedures, and convoy instructions further multiplied technical terms. Falconer’s dictionary addressed this commercial-legal environment by clarifying the lexicon of cargo handling, hull measurement, chartering, and discipline, enabling merchants, insurers, and officers to communicate with fewer ambiguities across ports and jurisdictions.
The book entered a vibrant encyclopedic age. Ephraim Chambers’s Cyclopaedia (1728) and Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie had modeled systematic knowledge, yet general works only sampled marine terminology. Specialized manuals existed for navigation or gunnery, but comprehensive seafaring vocabularies were scattered. Falconer, drawing on printed sources and shipboard experience, organized a large corpus of entries, cross-references, and tables, illustrated with engraved plates to clarify complex tackle and spars. Issued in London in 1769, it was crafted for practical use by officers, shipwrights, and merchants. Its clarity and breadth sought to bridge gaps between dockyard design rooms, countinghouses, and the forecastle, codifying usage without constraining necessary local practice.
William Falconer was a Scottish-born seaman and poet who had risen from ordinary service to a purser’s responsibilities, gaining firsthand familiarity with naval and merchant routines. His poem The Shipwreck (1762) had already exhibited technical exactitude and sympathy for sailors’ labor. The dictionary distilled this credibility into reference form, privileging definitions that reflected actual operations rather than purely theoretical schemes. Shortly after the dictionary’s publication, Falconer embarked as purser of the Aurora on an East India voyage; the ship was lost with all on board. The work thus stands as the enduring record of a working mariner’s accumulated knowledge and observation.
The dictionary’s utility ensured its persistence. It was reissued and expanded in later eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century editions, notably revised by editors such as William Burney, and became a standard desk companion for English-language seafarers. Admiralty clerks, shipyards, and insurers found in it a shared vocabulary aligned with contemporary practice. By fixing meanings without romanticizing the sea, it reflects an era that fused war, commerce, and scientific inquiry into a single maritime system. Falconer’s work preserves the voice of practical seamanship on the cusp of rapid innovation, serving both as a mirror of his age and a tool for those who sustained it.
An Universal Dictionary of the Marine
PREFACE.
The following work has engaged my utmost application for some years. Several performances on the same subject have already appeared; as Sir H. Manwaring’s Seaman’s Dictionary; Boteler’s Sea Dialogues; Guillet’s Gentleman’s Dictionary, and Blanckley’s Naval Expositor, &c. Far from exhibiting an enlarged and comprehensive view of naval affairs, these productions are extremely imperfect, according to the very circumscribed plan which their authors have adopted. There are besides, the Dictionaire de Marine of M. Aubin, published in Holland; and that of M. Saverien, published in France. These are indeed voluminous, but very deficient in the most necessary articles. Besides a circumstantial detail of the local oeconomy of different marine departments, they are swelled out with astronomy, navigation, hydrography, natural history, &c. all of which are abundantly better treated in other compositions. Of the machinery of a ship; the disposition of the rigging on her masts and yards; and the comparative force of her different mechanical powers, their accounts however are often vague, perplexed, and unintelligible.
With regard to her internal government in action; to the general regulations of the line of battle; and to the principal movements in sailing, they are almost totally silent. Had any of these works been executed with tolerable success, it might have rendered mine unnecessary; or probably have introduced it in the form of a translation.
I acknowledge with great pleasure the advantages I have derived in the prosecution of this work, from several authors of distinguished reputation: in reality however none of those above-mentioned are of the number. In that part which is dedicated to the theory and art of ship-building, I owe considerable obligations to the ingenious M. Du Hamel[1]. The principal pieces used in the construction of a ship, together with their combination and disposition, are copiously and accurately described in his Elements of Naval Architecture: and his general account of the art itself is perspicuous and comprehensive. Many of his explanations I have therefore implicitly adopted.
In treating of the artillery, I have occasionally consulted Le Blond, Muller, and Robins, besides selecting some valuable materials from the manuscripts of officers of long experience and established reputation in that service. Whatever relates to the rigging, sails, machinery, and movements of a ship; or to the practice of naval war, is generally drawn from my own observations; unless where the author is quoted.
As there are abundance of books professedly written on astronomy, and the theory of navigation, I have totally omitted the terms of the former, as foreign to my plan; and slightly passed over the latter: because no reader could acquire a sufficient idea of those sciences from so partial a description. Many of the least important parts of a ship, as well as of her rigging, are very generally defined. To explain the track of every particular rope, through its different channels, would be equally useless and unintelligible to a land reader: to mariners it were superfluous: and even the youths who are trained to the sea, would reap little advantage from it; because their situation affords them much better opportunities of making these minute discoveries.
I have in general endeavoured to give the etymology of the most material expressions, unless when their evident analogy to common words rendered this unnecessary. Many reasons may be alledged for introducing the French sea-terms and phrases; particularly that obvious one, of understanding their pilots, when we may have occasion for their assistance. Wherever it was found necessary to explain one technical term by another, the latter is usually printed in italics the first time it is mentioned; so that the reader may refer to it for a further explanation.
As the plates of this publication were intended to illustrate the various objects to which they refer, they are little ornamented; but have in general the recommendation of simplicity and geometrical truth. In this part I have been particularly favoured with many original drawings, which are usually considered amongst the inaccessible arcana of ship-building. They are much more numerous, useful, and correct, than what has hitherto appeared in any work of the kind. In fine, I have endeavoured, to the best of my judgment, to retrench the superfluities, and supply the deficiences of former writers on the same subject, as well as to digest and methodise whatever appeared loose or inaccurate therein.
This undertaking was first suggested to me by my worthy and ingenious friend George Lewis Scott, Esq; who considered it as a work of extensive utility, Indeed, in a country whose principal sources of strength are derived from the superiority of her marine, it is evidently wanted. I have the pleasure also to know that Sir Edward Hawke, and several officers of respectable abilities in our navy, are of the same opinion. To this may be added, what the celebrated M. Du Hamel lately observed, in a letter to me, s. I mention this expressly, because some sea-officers have considered the work unnecessary. It is however submitted, with all possible deference, to superior judges; to men of science and letters, who know the difficulty of explaining the parts of a mechanical system, when the readers are unacquainted with the subject.
A LIST of the SUBSCRIBERS.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland.
Right Hon. Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, as a Board.
A
C
apt. Abdy, of the Navy
John Adam, Esq;
Robert Adam, Esq;
James Adam, Esq;
William Adam, Esq;
Alex. Anderson, Esq;
Capt. Alwright, of the Navy
Capt. Antrobus, ditto
Mr. Richard Atkinson,
2 copies
London Assurance Office
Royal Exchange Assurance Office
B
His Grace the Duke of Beaufort
Right Hon. Earl of Berkeley
Right Hon. Lord Bottetourt
Right Hon. John Buller, Lord of the
Admiralty.
Col. Bendyshe
Hon. George Berkeley
The Rev. Dr. Blair
Capt. Bentinck, of the Navy
Capt. George Bowyer, of ditto
Mr. Robert Baynes
Edward Hugh Boscawen, Esq;
William Glanville Boscawen, Esq;
John Boddington, Esq;
John Blair, Esq; Calcutta
Lieut. Henry Baynes
Lieut. T. P. Braithwaite
Lieut. James Bradley
Mr. J. Bourgh
Lieut. Geo. Baker
Capt. Brisac
Mr. Robert Bogle
Mr. William Brymer
Mr. James Barwell
Mr. William Berry
Mr. Burrel
Mr. Thomas Barwis
Charles Boddam, Esq;
Mr. Burgh
Mr. Robert Brown
John Bullock, Esq;
Theobal Burke, Esq;
C
Right Hon. Lord Cochran
Hon. H. S. Conway, Lieut. Gen. of the Ordnance, &c.
John Campbell, Esq; F.R.S. Capt. in the Navy
John Carter, Esq; Deal
John Cartwright, Esq;
Charles Cartwright, Esq;
Capt. Collin
Alexander Craufurd, Esq;
Lieut. R. P. Cooper
Mr. Henry Crawford
John Henry Cochran, Esq;
Henry Cort, Esq;
William Crighton, Esq;
General Clerk
Mr. Thomas Clerk
Mr. Duncan Clerk
Capt. John Campbell
D
Rear Admiral Sir James Douglas
Mr. Dalrymple
Mr. Robert Dallas,
2 copies
George Dempster, Esq;
2 copies
Lieut. George Dawson
Lieut. Richard Douglas
Mr. Duncan Davidson
Major Deaker
Mr. Edward Downes
Mr. John Delaton
Thomas Dunkerley, Esq;
Stillingfleet Durnford, Esq;
E
Right Hon. Earl of Edgcumbe
Right Hon. Earl of Egmont
Right Hon. Lord Elibank
Sir John Elwill
General Ellison
Arthur Edie, Esq;
Mr. John Ewer
F
Sir Thomas Frankland, Bart. Vice-Admiral of the Red Squadron
Capt. Fanshaw
Sir Robert Fletcher, Kt.
Charles Ferguson, Esq;
Sir Adam Ferguson
Mr. John Finch
Mr. Francis Farrar
G
Right Hon. Earl of Gainsborough
Charles Gore, Esq;
Mr. John Gathorne
James Gordon, Esq;
2 copies
Mr. Arch. Gairdner
John Gray, Esq;
Alexander Geddes, Esq;
Mr. William Gemmell
H
Right Hon. Earl of Home
Right Hon. Lord Viscount Howe
Right Hon. Sir Edw. Hawke, K. B. first Lord of the Admiralty, &c. &c.
Thomas Hanway, Esq; Commissioner of the Navy
Capt. John Hay, of the Navy
Mr. Samuel Hannay,
4 copies
Sir Thomas Hesketh, Bart.
Col. Hale
Warren Hastings, Esq;
The Rev. Wm. Hirst, A.M. F.R.S.
2 copies
John Hope, Esq;
Lieut. Charles Hope
Capt. Horne, of the East India Company
Capt. Hume, of ditto
John Hume, Esq;
Mr. John Hunter, of Lisbon
Lieut. Edmond Hawker
Lieut. Harry Harmood
Adam Hayes, Esq;
Dr. Harris
Mr. Hall
Mr. Hutton
Lieut. Harris
I
The Court of Directors of the East India Company
William Innis, Esq;
George Johnstone, Esq;
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John Johnstone, Esq;
Mr. James Johnston
Lieut. Judd
K
Hon. Augustus Keppel, Rear Admiral of the blue squadron
Mr. Daniel Kemp
Mr. John Kendrick
L
Hon. Capt. Leveson
Sir John Lindsay, Capt. in the Navy
Lieut. Charles Logie
Francis Lucas, Esq;
William Lascelles, Esq; of the Inner Temple
Mr. S. Cousgarne Lloyd
Dr. Lawrence
Capt. Lauder, of the East India Company
Mr. Liddel
Mr. Lennox
M
Capt. Macbride, of the Navy
Mr. Colin Mackenzie,
2 copies
Mr. Majendie
Major Mills
Richard Maitland, Esq;
Lieut. David Maitland
Lieut. James Macnamara
Lieut. Thomas Montagu,
2 copies
Edward Meadows, Esq;
James Montresor, Esq;
Robert Mure, Esq;
Mr. James Mason
Mr. Mackworth
Mr. Robert Man
Mr. James Mather
Mr. William Myrtle
Mr. Money
James Mill, Esq;
Mr. John Mackintosh
N
The principal Officers and Commissioners of his Majesty’s Navy
Valentine Neville, Esq;
Mr. Francis Newton
Mrs. Sarah Norton
O
Charles Ogilvie, Esq;
Capt. Ommanney, of the Navy
Mr. Ousnam
P
Right Hon. Earl of Plymouth
Right Hon. Lord Palmerston, Lord of the Admiralty
Right Hon. Lord Pigot
Capt. Hugh Pigot, of the Navy
Mr. Simon Parry
Edward Payne, Esq;
The Rev. Hugh Panton, L. L. B.
Lieut. Henry Gibson Panton
Mr. Thomas Poynting
Mr. Paterson
Mr. John Perriman
Mr. Pitchford
Q
His Grace the Duke of Queensbury and Dover
R
Capt. Lockhart Ross, of the Navy
Capt. Joseph Rowley, of ditto
Capt. Reynolds, of the Navy
Dr. Charles Richardson
Capt. George Richardson, of the East India Company
S
Hon. Sir Charles Saunders, K. B. Vice-Admiral of the Blue Squadron
George Lewis Scott, Esq; F.R.S.
2 copies
Robert Stewart, Esq;
Edward Salway, Esq;
Gordon Skelly, Esq;
Capt. Stott
Lieut. Patrick Stewart
Henry Smith, Esq;
Capt. Peter Stokes, of the East India Company
T
The Corporation of Trinity House
Capt. Tonyn, of the Navy
Lieut. Henry Tuite
Mr. William Trotter
Mr. Tais
Mr. Taulbert
Mr. William Tennant
Mr. Thomas Trower
Thomas Townshend, Esq;
V
The Commissioners for Victualling his Majesty’s Navy, as a Board
Hon. Capt. Raby Vane
His Excellency Count San-Vincent, Rear Admiral of Portugal
Henry Vansittart, Esq;
George Vandeput, Esq; Capt. in the Navy
W
Mr. Thomas Walker
Mr. John Way
Andrew Wilkinson, Esq;
Capt. Williams
Mr. William Wigginton, of Bristol
Capt. John Waddell, of the East India Company
Lieut. George Robinson Walters
Y
Rear Admiral Young
ANUNIVERSAL DICTIONARYOF THE MARINE.
A.
ABACK[2], coeffé, the situation of the sails when their surfaces are flatted against the masts by the force of the wind.
The sails are said to be taken aback, when they are brought into this situation, either by a sudden change of the wind, or by an alteration in the ship’s course. They are laid aback, to effect an immediate retreat, without turning to the right or left; or, in the sea-phrase, to give the ship stern-way, in order to avoid some danger discovered before her in a narrow channel; or when she has advanced beyond her station in the line of battle, or otherwise.
The sails are placed in this position by slackening their lee-braces, and hauling in the weather ones; so that the whole effort of the wind is exerted on the fore-part of their surface, which readily pushes the ship astern, unless she is restrained by some counter-acting force. See Backing, and Bracing.
It is also usual to spread some sail aback near the stern, as the mizen-top-sail, when a ship rides with a single anchor in a road, in order to prevent her from approaching it so as to entangle the flukes of it with her slackened cable, and thereby loosen it from the ground. See Anchor.
Fig. 1. Plate III. discovers the plan of a ship, a b, with her main-top-sail, c d, aback; in which the curved dotted line expresses the cavity of it, as blown back by the wind on each side of the mast. The fore-top-sail, which is full, is exhibited by the line e f. Fig. 3. represents a perspective view of the ship in the same situation; and the dart shews the direction of the wind upon both.
Lay all flatAback, the order to arrange all the sails in this situation.
ABAFT, arriere, (abaft[3]an, Sax. behind) the hinder part of a ship, or all those parts both within and without, which lie towards the stern, in opposition to afore; which see.
Abaft, arriere de, is also used as a preposition, and signifies further aft, or nearer the stern; as, the barricade stands abaft the main mast, i. e. behind it, or nearer the stern.
ABOARD[4] (à bord, Fr. abordo, Ital.) the inside of a ship: hence any person who enters a ship is said to go aboard: but when an enemy enters in the time of battle, he is said to board. A phrase which always implies hostility. See the article Boarding.
To fall Aboard of, aborder, to strike or encounter another ship, when, one or both are in motion; to be driven upon a ship by the force of the wind or current.
Aboard-main-tack!amure la grande voile! the order to draw the main-tack, i. e. the lower corner of the main-sail, down to the chess-tree. See Chess-tree.
ABOUT, reviré, (abutan, Sax.) the situation of a ship immediately after she has tacked or changed her course by going about, and standing on the other tack. See Tacking.
About-Ship!adieu-va! the order to the ship’s crew to prepare for tacking[1q].
ABREAST[5], par le travers (of breost, Sax.), side by side, or opposite to; a situation in which two or more ships lie, with their sides parallel to each other, and their heads equally advanced.
This term more particularly regards the line of battle at sea, where, on the different occasions of attack, retreat, or pursuit, the several squadrons, or divisions of a fleet, are obliged to vary their dispositions, and yet maintain a proper regularity by sailing in right or curved lines. When the line is formed abreast, the whole squadron advances uniformly, the ships being equally distant from, and parallel to each other, so that the length of each ship forms a right angle with the extent of the squadron or line abreast. The commander in chief is always stationed in the center, and the second and third in command in the centers of their respective squadrons. See this farther illustrated in the article Line.
Abreast, within the ship, implies on a line with the beam, or by the side of any object aboard; as, the frigate sprung a leak abreast of the main hatch-way, i. e. on the same line with the main hatch-way, crossing the ship’s length at right angles, in opposition to afore or abaft the hatch-way. See Abaft.
We discovered a fleet Abreast of Beachy-Head, i. e. off, or directly opposite thereto.
ACORN[6], pomme de girouette, a little ornamental piece of wood, fashioned like a cone, and fixed on the uppermost point of the spindle, above the vane, on the mast-head. It is used to keep the vane from being blown off from the spindle in a whirlwind, or when the ship leans much to one side under sail. See plate I. fig. 1. where a represents the acorn, b the vane and stock, c the spindle, and d the mast-head.
ADMIRAL[7], amiral, an officer of the first rank and command in the fleet, and who is distinguished by a flag displayed at his main-top-mast-head. Also an officer who superintends the naval forces of a nation, and who is authorised to determine in all maritime causes.
The origin and denomination of this important office, which seems to have been established in most countries that border on the sea, have given rise to a great variety of opinions. Some have borrowed them from the Greek, others from the Arabic, while a third sort, with greater probability, derive both the title and dignity from the Saracens.[1] But since no certain conclusions have been deduced from these elaborate researches, and as it rather appears the province of this work to give the reader an idea of the office and duty of an admiral at sea, than to furnish an historical or chronological detail of the rank and power with which admirals have been invested in different nations, we shall contentedly resign this task to the ingenious lexicographers who have so repeatedly entertained us with such critical investigations.
The Admiral, or commander in chief of a fleet, being frequently invested with a great charge, on which the fate of a kingdom may depend, ought certainly to be possessed of abilities equal to so important a station and so extensive a command. His fleet is unavoidably exposed to a variety of perplexing situations in a precarious element. A train of dangerous incidents necessarily arise from those situations. The health, order, and discipline of his people, are not less the objects of his consideration, than the condition and qualities of his ships. A sudden change of climate, a rank and infectious air, a scarcity, or unwholsomness of provisions, may be as pernicious to the former, as tempestuous weather or dangerous navigation to the latter. A lee-shore, an injudicious engagement with an enemy greatly superior, may be equally fatal to both. He ought to have sufficient experience to anticipate all the probable events that may happen to his fleet during an expedition or cruise, and, by consequence, to provide against them. His skill should be able to counter-act the various disasters which his fleet may suffer from different causes. His vigilance and presence of mind are necessary to seize every favourable opportunity that his situation may offer to prosecute his principal design; to extricate himself from any difficulty or distress; to check unfortunate events in the beginning, and retard the progress of any great calamity. He should be endued with resolution and fortitude to animate his officers by the force of example, and promote a sense of emulation in those who are under his command, as well to improve any advantage, as to frustrate or defeat the efforts of his ill fortune.
The most essential part of his duty, however, appears to be military conduct. As soon as the fleet under his command puts to sea, he is to form it into the proper order of battle, called the Line. In this arrangement he is to make a judicious distribution of strength from the van to the rear, throwing the principal force into the center, to resist the impression of the enemy’s fleet; which might otherwise, at some favourable opportunity, break through his line, and throw the van and rear into confusion.
A competent knowledge of the seas, weather, and reigning winds, of the coast or region where he is stationed, is also requisite, as it will greatly facilitate his plans on the enemy. It will enable him to avoid being improperly embayed, where he might be surprised in a disadvantageous situation; and to judge whether it will be most expedient to attack his adversary, or lie prepared to receive his assault. When his fleet is forced by stress of weather or otherwise to take shelter in a road or bay, it will likewise suggest the necessary conduct of keeping a sufficient number of cruisers at sea, to bring him early intelligence, that they may be ready to cut or slip the cables when they are too much hurried to weigh their anchors.
As the forming a complete, strong, and uniform line is a very material article in naval war, the admiral ought frequently to arrange the fleet under his command into this order, that the inferior officers may observe to bring their ships, with greater dexterity and alertness, into their several stations, and maintain the regularity of the line when they tack, veer, or sail abreast. See Line.
When the admiral intends a descent on an enemy’s coast, or other attack which may be attended with complicated and unforeseen incidents, his orders should be delivered or drawn up with the greatest accuracy and precision: they should be simple, perspicuous, direct, and comprehensive; they should collect a number of objects into one point of view, and, foreseeing the effects of success or defeat, appoint the proper measures to be adopted in consequence thereof. History and experience confirm the necessity of this observation, and present us with a variety of disasters that have happened on such occasions, merely by a deficiency in this material article. In the commanding officer, inattention, barrenness of expedient, or a circumscribed view of the necessary effects of his enterprize, may be equally pernicious. And general orders ought to be utterly free from pedantry and perplexity, which always betray a false taste and confused imagination, besides the probability of producing many fatal consequences.
When an admiral conquers in battle, he should endeavour to improve his victory, by pushing the advantages he has acquired as far as prudence directs; a conduct which merits his attention as much as any in the action! When he is defeated, he ought to embrace every opportunity of saving as many of his ships as possible, and endeavour principally to assist those which are disabled. In short, it is his duty to avail himself of every practicable expedient rather than sink under his misfortune, and suffer himself to become an easy prey to the enemy.
He should be sufficiently acquainted with civil law, to judge with propriety of the proceedings of courts-martial, and to correct the errors, and restrain the abuses which may happen therein by mistake, or ignorance, or inattention.
As secret treaties, propositions, or schemes of the enemy, may occasionally be submitted to his inspection, or fall into his possession by capture; and which it might be improper to discover to any person near him, he ought to have a competent knowledge of the modern languages, or at least, those of the countries against whom his military operations are directed, to be able to comprehend with facility the full scope and purport of such papers.
He ought to be well versed in geometry, to order proper and correct surveys of unknown coasts, roads, or harbours to be made, and to judge of their accuracy, and detect their errors. To ascertain the situation and longitude of different places, he should be also sufficiently skilled in astronomy, and the method of taking observations, which indeed is essentially necessary to the profession of a sea-officer, although too much neglected.
By his orders the admiral is likewise to assist at all councils of war that relate to naval affairs: to visit, as often as convenient, the other ships of his squadron: to enquire particularly into their condition, and observe the men mustered, taking care that no supernumeraries are borne on the books. He is directed to acquaint the secretary of the admiralty[9] of all his proceedings relating to the service, for the information of the lord-high-admiral, or lords commissioners of the admiralty; and to attend him or them, on his return home, with an account of his voyage or expedition, and to transmit a copy of his journal to their secretary.
Much more might be observed on this occasion. It appears however by the general outline which we have sketched, that the office and duty of an admiral requires greater skill and more comprehensive abilities than is generally supposed necessary to the command of a naval armament. And that he ought to be duly qualified, at least in this kingdom, to assist at the councils of his sovereign, and enter into the enlarged system of protecting his country from an invasion by sea, or of meditating a descent on an enemy’s coast; as well as to improve navigation, and open new channels of commerce. For further particulars of his charge, see the articles Engagement, Line, Squadron.
Admiralof the fleet[8], the highest officer under the admiralty of Great-Britain: when he embarks on any expedition, he is distinguished by the union flag at the main-top-mast-head.
Vice-Admiral, vice-Amiral, the officer next in rank and command to admiral; his flag is displayed at the fore-top-mast-head.
Rear-Admiral, contre-amiral, lieutenant-général des armées navales, the officer next in rank and command to the vice-admiral, and who carries his flag at the mizen-top-mast-head.
There are at present in England, besides the admiral of the fleet, three admirals of the white squadron, and four of the blue. Three vice-admirals of the red, three of the white, and four of the blue. Four rear-admirals of the red, four of the white, and five of the blue squadron: besides twenty-two rear-admirals that have carried no flag, who are superannuated upon half-pay.
Vice-Admiral is also a civil officer appointed by the lords-commissioners of the admiralty. There are several of these officers established in different parts of Great-Britain, with judges and marshals under them, for executing jurisdiction within their respective districts. Their decisions, however, are not final, an appeal lying to the court of admiralty in London.
ADMIRALTY, Amirauté, the office of lord-high-admiral, whether discharged by one single person, or by joint commissioners, called Lords of the Admiralty.
ADVICE-BOAT[10], pacquet d’ avis, a small vessel employed to carry expresses or orders with all possible dispatch.
ADRIFT (from a and drift, Sax.) the state of a ship or vessel broke loose from her moorings, and driven without controul at the mercy of the wind, seas, or current, or all of them together.
AFLOAT, (à flot, Fr.) floating on the surface of the water: a ship is said to be afloat when there is a volume of water under her bottom of sufficient depth to buoy her up from the ground.
AFORE, avant, (fore, Sax.) all that part of a ship which lies forward, or near the stem.
Afore, as a preposition, likewise implies further forward, or nearer the prow; as, the manger stands afore the fore-mast, i. e. further forward, or nearer the stem. In both these senses afore is used in contradistinction to abaft. See the article Abaft.
AFT, arriere, (from æfter, or abaft) behind, or near the stern of the ship; being opposed to fore; as, run out the guns fore and aft! i. e. from one end of the ship to the other; and whence,
AFTER, de l’arriere, (æfter, Sax.) a phrase applied to any object situated in the hinder-part of the ship; as, the after-hatchway, the after-capstern, the after-sails, &c.
The After-Sails usually comprehend all those which are extended on the mizen-mast, and on the stays between the mizen and main-masts. They are opposed to the head-sails, which include all those that are spread on the fore-mast and bowsprit; and both by their mutual operation on the opposite ends of the ship, duly balance her when under sail. See the article Trim.
AGENT-Victualler, avitalleur, an officer stationed at a royal port, to regulate the victualling of the king’s ships, under the directions of the commissioners for victualling the navy. He receives all the provisions from the victualling-office in London, and distributes them to the ships in the harbour. He also receives into his store-houses such as may be returned by ships after the expiration of their voyage, and renders an account thereof to the said commissioners.
AGROUND, echoué, (from a and ground) the situation of a ship whose bottom, or any part of it, hangs or rests upon the ground, so as to render her immoveable till a greater quantity of water floats her off; or till she is drawn out into the stream, by the application of mechanical powers.
AHEAD, avant, au devant, (from a and head, Sax.) further onward than the ship, or at any distance before her, lying immediately on that point of the compass to which her stem is directed. It is used in opposition to astern, which expresses the situation of any object behind the ship. See Astern.
To run Ahead of one’s reckoning, depasser, to sail beyond the place shewn erroneously in the dead-reckoning as the ship’s station.
LineAhead. See the article Line.
A-HULL, à sec; à mats, & à cordes (from a and hull) the situation of a ship when all her sails are furled on account of the violence of the storm, and when having lashed her helm on the lee-side, she lies nearly with her side to the wind and sea, her head being somewhat inclined to the direction of the wind. See this further explained in the article Trying.
AIM, the direction of a cannon, or other fire-arm, to its object, or the point to which it is directed; whence,
To takeAim, prendre sa mire, (from esmer, Fr.) is to point a gun to its object according to the point-blank range. See Cannon and Range.
ALEE, envoié, (from a and lee) the situation of the helm when it is pushed down to the lee side of the ship, in order to put the ship about, or lay her head to the windward.
ALL in the wind, the state of a ship’s sails when they are parallel to the direction of the wind, so as to shake and shiver, by turning the ship’s head to windward, either by design, or neglect of the helm’s man.
All’s well! an acclamation of safety or security pronounced by a centinel, and repeated by all the others who are stationed in different places of a ship of war, at the time of striking the bell each half-hour during the period of the night watch.
Allhands high, or Allhands hoay! tout le monde haut! the call or order by which all the ship’s company are summoned upon deck by the boatswain.
ALOFT, en haut, (loffter, to lift up, Dan.) up in the tops, at the mast-heads, or any where about the higher yards or rigging.
ALONG-side, bord à bord, flanc & flanc, side by side, or joined to a ship, wharf, &c. and lying parallel thereto.
To lay Along-side, alonger, to arrange a ship by the side of another.
Along-shore, along the coast; this phrase is commonly applied to coasting-navigation, or to a course which is in sight of, and nearly parallel to, the shore.
LyingAlong, à la bande, (au longe, Fr.) the state of being pressed down sideways by a weight of sail in a fresh wind that crosses the ship’s course either directly or obliquely.
ALOOF, lof, this has frequently been mentioned as a sea-term, but whether justly or not we shall not presume to determine; it is known in common discourse to imply, at a distance; and the resemblance of the phrases, keep aloof, and keep a luff, or keep the luff, in all probability gave rise to this conjecture. If it was really a sea-phrase originally, it seems to have referred to the dangers of a lee-shore, in which situation the pilot might naturally apply it in the sense commonly understood, viz. keep all off, or quite off: it is, however, never expressed in that manner by seamen now. See Luff. It may not be improper to observe, that, besides using this phrase in the same sense with us, the French also call the weather side of a ship, and the weather clue of a course, le lof.
AMAIN, cale-tout, (from main, or maigne, old French) at once, suddenly; as, let go amain! i. e. let it run at once. This phrase is generally applied to any thing that is hoisted or lowered by a tackle, or complication of pullies.
AMIDSHIPS, the middle of the ship, either with regard to her length or breadth. Example in the first sense; The enemy boarded us amidships, i. e. in the middle, between the stem and stern. Example in the second sense; Put the helm amidships, i. e. in the middle, between the two sides.
ANCHOR, ancre (anchora, Lat. from αγκυρα, Greek) a heavy, strong, crooked instrument of iron, dropped from a ship into the bottom of the water, to retain her in a convenient station in a harbour, road, or river.
The most ancient anchors are said to have been of stone, and sometimes of wood, to which a great quantity of lead was usually fixed. In some places baskets full of stones, and sacks filled with sand, were employed for the same use. All these were let down by cords into the sea, and by their weight stayed the course of the ship. Afterwards they were composed of iron, and furnished with teeth, which being fastened to the bottom of the sea, preserved the vessel immoveable; whence ὀδοντες and dentes are frequently taken for anchors in the Greek and Latin poets. At first there was only one tooth, whence anchors were called ἐτερόστομοι; but in a short time the second was added by Eupalamus, or Anacharsis, the Scythian philosopher. The anchors with two teeth were called ἀμφίβολοι, or ἀμφίστομοι, and from ancient monuments appear to have been much the same with those used in our days, only the transverse piece of wood upon their handles (the stock) is wanting in all of them. Every ship had several anchors, one of which, surpassing all the rest in bigness and strength, was peculiarly termed ἱηρὰ, or sacra, and was never used but in extreme danger; whence sacram anchoram solvere, is proverbially applied to such as are forced to their last refuge. Potter’s Antiquities of Greece.
The anchors now made are contrived so as to sink into the ground as soon as they reach it, and to hold a great strain before they can be loosened or dislodged from their station. They are composed of a shank, a stock, a ring, and two arms with their flukes. The stock, which is a long piece of timber fixed across the shank, serves to guide the flukes in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the ground; so that one of them sinks into it by its own weight as soon as it falls, and is still preserved steadily in that position by the stock, which, together with the shank, lies flat on the bottom. In this situation it must necessarily sustain a great effort before it can be dragged through the earth horizontally. Indeed this can only be effected by the violence of the wind or tide, or of both of them, sometimes increased by the turbulence of the sea, and acting upon the ship so as to stretch the cable to its utmost tension, which accordingly may dislodge the anchor from its bed, especially if the ground be soft and oozy or rocky. When the anchor is thus displaced, it is said, in the sea phrase, to come home.
That the figure of this useful instrument may be more clearly understood, let us suppose a long massy beam of iron erected perpendicularly, Plate I. fig. 2. b c; at the lower end of which are two arms, de, of equal thickness with the beam (usually called the shank) only that they taper towards the points, which are elevated above the horizontal plane at an angle of thirty degrees; or inclined to the shank at an angle of sixty degrees: on the upper part of each arm (in this position) is a fluke, or thick plate of iron, g h, commonly shaped like an isosceles triangle, whose base reaches inwards to the middle of the arm. On the upper-end of the shank is fixed the stock transversely with the flukes: the stock is a long beam of oak, f, in two parts, strongly bolted, and hooped together with iron rings. See also fig. 3. Close above the stock is the ring, a, to which the cable is fastened, or bent: the ring is curiously covered with a number of pieces of short rope, which are twisted about it so as to form a very thick texture or covering, called the puddening, and used to preserve the cable from being fretted or chafed by the iron.
Every ship has, or ought to have, three principal anchors, with a cable to each, viz. the sheet, maitresse-ancre, (which is the anchora sacra of the antients) the best bower, second ancre, and small bower, ancre d’ affourche, so called from their usual situation on the ship’s bows. There are besides smaller anchors, for removing a ship from place to place in a harbour or river, where there may not be room or wind for sailing; these are the stream-anchor, ancre de touei; the kedge and grappling, grapin; this last, however, is chiefly designed for boats.
To drag theAnchors, chasser sur ses ancres, implies the effort of making the anchor come home, when the violence of the wind, &c. strains the cable so as to tear it up from the bed into which it had sunk, and drag it along the ground; as already explained.
Foul-Anchor: it is so called when it either hooks some other anchor, wreck, or cable, under the surface of the water; or when, by the wind suddenly abating, the ship slackens her strain, and straying round the bed of her anchor, entangles her slack cable about the upper fluke of it, and easily draws it out of its place, as soon as she begins to ride with a strain. To prevent this, it is usual, as she approaches the anchor, in light winds, to draw the slack cable into the ship as fast as possible.
ToAnchor, ancrer, mouiller, &c. is to let go the anchor, and to let the ship ride thereby.
TheAnchoris a cock-bill, ancre est àla vielle, implies that the shank-painter, or rope by which the flukes were hung to the ship’s bow, being cast off, the flukes drop down perpendicularly; whilst the anchor is suspended at the cat-head by its stopper, ready to be sunk from the bow at a moment’s warning.
AtAnchor, à l’ ancre, the situation of a ship which rides by her anchor in a road or haven, &c. Plate I. fig. 6. represents the fore-part of a ship, as riding in this situation.
TheAnchoris a peek. See the article Apeek.
TheAnchoris a-trip, or a-weigh. See those articles.
To back theAnchor. See Back.
To cat theAnchor, caponner l’ancre, is to hook a tackle called the cat to its ring, and thereby pull it up close to the cat-head, which see.
To fish theAnchor, to draw up the flukes upon the ship’s side after it is catted. See the articles Davit and Fish.
To sheer the ship to herAnchor, gouverner sur l’ancre, is to steer the ship’s head towards the place where the anchor lies when they are heaving the cable into the ship; that the cable may thereby enter the hause with less resistance, and the ship advance towards the anchor with greater facility.
To shoe theAnchor. See the article Shoe.
To weigh theAnchor, lever l’ancre, to heave the anchor out of the ground by its cable. See Capstern and Windlass.
To weigh theAnchorwith the long-boat, lever l’ancre avec la chaloupe, is to draw it up by applying mechanical powers to the buoy-rope, and thereby pull it up to the boat’s stem or stern.
To weigh theAnchorby the hair, is to weigh it by the cable in a boat, when the ship cannot approach it, or when the buoy rope is broke. See the French term Ancre, and the phrases which succeed in order.
Anchor-ground, fond de bonne tenue, is a bottom which is neither too deep, too shallow, nor rocky; as in the first the cable bears too nearly perpendicular, and is thereby apt to jerk the anchor out of the ground: in the second, the ship’s bottom is apt to strike at low water, or when the sea runs high, by which she is exposed to the danger of sinking: and in the third, the anchor is liable to hook the broken and pointed ends of rocks, and tear away its flukes; whilst the cable, from the same cause, is constantly in danger of being cut through as it rubs on their edges.
APEEK, (à pique, Fr.) perpendicular to the anchor; a ship is said to be in this situation, when the cable is drawn so tight into the bow as to, bring her directly over the anchor, so that the cable bears right down from the ship’s stem.
APRON, (from a and foran, Sax.) a platform, or flooring of plank, raised at the entrance of a dock, a little higher than the bottom, against which the dock gates are shut. See the article Dock.
Apron, contre etrave, in ship-building, a piece of curved timber fixed behind the lower part of the stem, immediately above the foremost end of the keel. See plate I. fig. H. in the Piecesof theHull.
The Apron conforms exactly to the shape of the stem, so that when the convexity of the former is applied to the concavity of the latter, it forms one solid piece, which serves to fortify the stem, and give it a firmer connexion with the keel.
As the apron is composed of two pieces scarfed together, and used to support she scarf of the stem, it is necessary that the scarf thereof should be at some distance from that of the stem. It is formed of the same thickness with the heel of the stem; but its thickness is equal throughout. Sometimes the piece immediately under the apron forms a curve, of which the horizontal part covers the dead-wood, whilst the vertical part corresponds with the inside of the stem, to which it is fayed, making the commencement of the apron.
Naval ARCHITECTUREPlate. i.
Apron, platine, is also a square piece of lead fastened over the touch-hole of the cannon, to keep the charge dry at sea or in rainy weather.
Naval ARCHITECTURE, or the science of ship-building, comprehends the theory of delineating marine vessels upon a plane; and the art of framing them upon the stocks, according to the proportions exhibited in a regular design.
All edifices, whether civil or military, are known to be erected in consequence of certain established plans, which have been previously altered or improved till they have arrived at the desired point of perfection. The construction of ships appears also to require at least as much correctness and precision as the buildings which are founded upon terra firma: it is therefore absolutely necessary that the mechanical skill of the shipwright should be assisted by plans and sections, which have been drawn with all possible exactness, examined by proper calculations, and submitted to the most accurate scrutiny.
NavalArchitecture, or ship-building, may be distinguished into three principal parts.
First, To give the ship such an exterior form as may be most suitable to the service for which she is designed.
Secondly, to give the various pieces of a ship their proper figures; to assemble and unite them into a firm, compact frame, so that by their combination and disposition they may form a solid fabric, sufficient to answer all the purposes for which it is intended: And,
Thirdly, To provide convenient accommodations for the officers and crew, as well as suitable apartments for the cargo, furniture, provisions, artillery and ammunition.
The exterior figure of a ship may be divided into the bottom and upper-works.
The bottom, or quick-work, contains what is termed the hold, and which is under water when the ship is laden. The upper-works, called also the dead-work, comprehend all that part which is usually above the water when the ship is laden.
The figure of the bottom is therefore determined by the qualities which are necessary for the vessel, and conformable to the service for which she is proposed.
The limits of our design will not admit of a minute description, and enumeration of all the pieces of timber which enter into the construction of a ship, nor of a particular description of their assemblage and union; or the manner in which they reciprocally contribute to the solidity of those floating citadels. It nevertheless appears necessary to give a general idea of the use, figure, and station, of the principal pieces, to those who are intirely unacquainted with the subject. As our definitions will be greatly illustrated also by the proper figures, we have annexed to this article a plate which comprehends some of the most material draughts, as well as a representation of the principal pieces employed in naval architecture.
It is usual amongst shipwrights to delineate three several draughts.
First, The whole length of the ship is represented according to a side view, perpendicular to the keel, and is termed the plane of elevation, or sheer-draught. Plate I.
Second, The ship is exhibited according to an end view, and stripped of her planks, so as to present the outlines of the principal timbers; and this is properly termed the plane of projection, or the vertical plane of the timbers, Plate I. because it shews the projection of their frames relatively to each other.
