BASHAW. A Turkish title of honour and command; more properly _pacha_.
BASIL. The angle to which the edge of shipwrights' cutting tools is ground away.
BASILICON. An ointment composed of wax, resin, pitch, black resin, and olive oil. _Yellow basilicon_, of olive oil, yellow resin, Burgundy pitch, and turpentine.
BASILICUS. A name of Regulus or the Lion's Heart, {a} Leonis; a star of the first magnitude.
BASILISK. An old name for a long 48-pounder, the gun next in size to the carthoun: called basilisk from the snakes or dragons sculptured in the place of dolphins. According to Sir William Monson its random range was 3000 paces. Also, in still earlier times, a gun throwing an iron ball of 200 lbs. weight.
BASILLARD. An old term for a poniard.
BASIN. A wet-dock provided with flood-gates for restraining the water, in which shipping may be kept afloat in all times of tide. Also, all those sheltered spaces of water which are nearly surrounded with slopes from which waters are received; these receptacles have a circular shape and narrow entrance. Geographically basins may be divided, as upper, lower, lacustrine, fluvial, Mediterranean, &c.
BASIS. _See_ BASE.
BASKET. In field-works, baskets or corbeilles are used, to be filled with earth, and placed by one another, to cover the men from the enemy's shot.
BASKET-FISH. A name for several species of _Euryale_; a kind of star-fish, the arms of which divide and subdivide many times, and curl up and intertwine at the ends, giving the whole animal something of the appearance of a round basket.
BASKET-HILT. The guard continued up the hilt of a cutlass, so as to protect the whole hand from injury.
BASKING SHARK. So called from being often seen lying still in the sunshine. A large cartilaginous fish, the _Squalus maximus_ of Linnaeus, inhabiting the Northern Ocean. It attains a length of 30 feet, but is neither fierce nor voracious. Its liver yields from eight to twelve barrels of oil.
BASS, OR BAST. A soft sedge or rush (_Juncus laevis_), of which coarse kinds of rope and matting are made. A Gaelic term for the blade of an oar.
BASSE. A species of perch (_Perca labrax_), found on the coast and in estuaries, commonly about 18 inches long.
BASSOS. A name in old charts for shoals; whence bas-fond and basso-fondo. Rocks a-wash, or below water.
BAST. Lime-tree, linden (_Tilia europea_). Bast is made also from the bark of various other trees, macerated in water till the fibrous layers separate. In the Pacific Isles it is very fine and strong, from _Hibiscus tiliaceus_.
BASTA. A word in former use for _enough_, from the Italian.
BASTARD. A term applied to all pieces of ordnance which are of unusual or irregular proportions: the government bastard-cannon had a 7-inch bore, and sent a 40-lb. shot. Also, a fair-weather square sail in some Mediterranean craft, and occasionally used for an awning.
BASTARD-MACKEREL, OR HORSE-MACKEREL. The _Caranx trachurus_, a dry, coarse, and unwholesome fish, of the family _Scombridae_, very common in the Mediterranean.
BASTARD-PITCH. A mixture of colophony, black pitch, and tar. They are boiled down together, and put into barrels of pine-wood, forming, when the ingredients are mixed in equal portions, a substance of a very liquid consistence, called in France _bray gras_. If a thicker consistence is desired, a greater proportion of colophony is added, and it is cast in moulds. It is then called _bastard-pitch_.
BASTE, TO. To beat in punition. A mode of sewing in sail-making.
BASTILE. A temporary wooden tower, used formerly in naval and military warfare.
BASTIONS. Projecting portions of a rampart, so disposed that the bottom of the escarp of each part of the whole rampart may be defended from the parapet of some other part. Their form and dimensions are influenced by many considerations, especially by the effect and range of fire-arms; but it is essential to them to have two faces and two flanks; the former having an average length, according to present systems, of 130 yards, the latter of 40 yards.
BASTON, OR BATON. A club used of old by authority. (_See_ BATOON.)
BASTONADO. Beating a criminal with sticks [from _bastone_, a cudgel]. A punishment common among Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and still practised in the Levant, China, and Russia.
BAT, OR SEA-BAT. An Anglo-Saxon term for boat or vessel. Also a broad-bodied thoracic fish, with a small head, and distinguished by its large triangular dorsal and anal fins, which exceed the length of the body. It is the _Chaetodon vespertilio_ of naturalists.
BAT AND FORAGE. A regulated allowance in money and forage to officers in the field.
BATARDATES. Square-stemmed row-galleys.
BATARDEAU. In fortification, a dam of masonry crossing the ditch: its top is constructed of such a form as to afford no passage along it.
BATARDELLES. Galleys less strong than the capitana, and placed on each side of her.
BATEAU. A flat-bottomed, sharp-ended clumsy boat, used on the rivers and lakes of Canada; some of them are large. Also a peculiar army pontoon.
BATED. A plump, full-roed fish is said to be bated.
BATELLA. A small plying-boat.
BATH. (_See_ WASHING-PLACE.) An order of knighthood instituted in 1339, revived in 1725, and enlarged as a national reward of naval and military merit in January, 1815. Henry IV. gave this name, because the forty-six esquires on whom he conferred this honour at his coronation had watched all the previous night, and then _bathed_ as typical of their pure virtue. The order was supposed to belong to men who distinguished themselves by valour as regards the navy, but it is now deemed an inferior representation of court favour.
BATILLAGE. An old term for boat-hire.
BATMAN. A Turkish weight of 6 okes, or about 18 lbs. English. There is also a smaller batman in Turkey, of about 4 lbs. 10 ozs. English. In Persia there are also two batmans--the larger equal to 12 lbs. English, and the other is of about half that weight. Also, a soldier assigned to a mounted officer as groom.
BATOON, BASTON, OR BATON. A staff, truncheon, or badge of military honour for field-marshals. A term in heraldry. Also, _batoons of St. Paul_, the fossil spines of echini, found in Malta and elsewhere.
BAT-SWAIN. An Anglo-Saxon expression for boatswain.
BATTA. Extra allowance of pay granted to troops in India, varying somewhat with the nature of the service they are employed upon, and their distance from the capital of the presidency.
BATTALIA. The order of battle.
BATTALION. A force of soldiers, complete in staff and officers, of such strength as will allow of its man[oe]uvres on the field of battle being intimately regulated by one superior officer. The term is now proper to infantry only, and represents from 500 to 1000 men. It is the ordinary unit made use of in estimating the infantry strength of an army.
BATTARD. An early cannon of small size.
BATTELOE. A lateen-rigged vessel of India.
BATTENING THE HATCHES. Securing the tarpaulins over them. (_See_ BATTENS OF THE HATCHES.)
BATTENS. In general, scantlings of wood from 1 inch to 3 inches broad. Long slips of fir used for setting fair the sheer lines of a ship, or drawing the lines by in the moulding loft, and setting off distances.
BATTENS FOR HAMMOCKS. _See_ HAMMOCK-BATTENS.
BATTENS OF THE HATCHES. Long narrow laths, or straightened hoops of casks, serving by the help of nailing to confine the edges of the tarpaulins, and keep them close down to the sides of the hatchways, in bad weather. Also, thin strips of wood put upon rigging, to keep it from chafing, by those who dislike mats: when large these are designated _Scotchmen_.
BATTERING GUNS. Properly guns whose weight and power fit them for demolishing by direct force the works of the enemy; hence all heavy, as distinguished from field or light, guns come under the term. (_See_ SIEGE-ARTILLERY and GARRISON GUNS.)
BATTERING RAM. _See_ RAM.
BATTERING TRAIN. The train of heavy ordnance necessary for a siege, which, since the copious introduction of vertical and other shell fire, is more correctly rendered by the term siege-train (which see).
BATTERY. A place whereon cannon, mortars, &c., are or may be mounted for action. It generally has a parapet for the protection of the gunners, and other defences and conveniences according to its importance and objects. (_See also_ FLOATING BATTERY.) Also, a company of artillery. In field-artillery it includes men, guns (usually six in the British service), horses, carriages, &c., complete for service.
BATTLE. An engagement between two fleets, or even single ships, usually called a sea-fight or engagement. The conflict between the forces of two contending armies.
BATTLE LANTERNS (American). _See_ FIGHTING-LANTERNS.
BATTLEMENTS. The vertical notches or openings made in the parapet walls of old castles and fortified buildings, to serve for embrasures to the bowmen, arquebusiers, &c., of former days.
BATTLE-ROYAL. A term derived from cock-fighting, but generally applied to a noisy confused row.
BATTLE THE WATCH, TO. To shift as well as we can; to contend with a difficulty. To depend on one's own exertions.