BRACKISH. Water not fresh; from the Icelandic _breke_, the sea.
BRADS. Small nails.
BRAE. A declivity or precipice.
BRAGGIR. The name given in the Western Islands of Scotland to the broad leaves growing on the top of the _Alga marina_, or sea-grass.
BRAILS. Ropes passing through leading blocks on the hoops of the mizen-mast and gaff, and fastened to the outermost leech of the sail, in different places, to truss it close up as occasion requires; all trysails and several of the staysails also have brails.
BRAIL UP! The order to pull upon the brails, and thereby spill and haul in the sail. The mizen, or spanker, or driver, or any of the gaff-sails, as they may be termed, when brailed up, are deemed furled; unless it blows hard, when they are farther secured by gaskets.
BRAKE. The handle or lever by which a common ship-pump is usually worked. It operates by means of two iron bolts, one thrust through the inner hole of it, which bolted through forms the lever axis in the iron crutch of the pump, and serves as the fulcrum for the brake, supporting it between the cheeks. The other bolt connects the extremity of the brake to the pump-spear, which draws up the spear box or piston, charged with the water in the tube; derived from _brachium_, an arm or lever. Also, used to check the speed of machinery by frictional force pressing on the circumference of the largest wheel acted on by leverage of the brake.
BRAN, TO. To go on; to lie under a floe edge, in foggy weather, in a boat in Arctic seas, to watch the approach of whales.
BRANCH. The diploma of those pilots who have passed at the Trinity House, as competent to navigate vessels in particular places. The word branch is also metaphorically used for river divergents, but its application to affluents is improper. Any branch or ramification, as in estuaries, where they traverse, river-like, miles of territory, in labyrinthine mazes.
BRANCH-PILOT. One approved by the Trinity House, and holding a branch, for a particular navigation.
BRAND. The Anglo-Saxon for a burnished sword. A burned device or character, especially that of the broad arrow on government stores, to deface or erase which is felony.
BRANDED TICKET. A discharge given to an infamous man, on which his character is written, and the reason he is turned out of the service. In the army, deserters are branded with D; also B for bad character. In the navy, a corner of the ticket is cut off.
BRANDLING. A supposed fry of the salmon species, found on the north of England coasts. Also, the angler's dew-worm.
BRANDY-PAWNEE. A cant term for brandy and water in India.
BRANLAIG. The Manx or Gaelic term for a cove or creek on a shore between rocks.
BRANLIE, OR BRANLIN. A northern name for the samlet or par.
BRAN-NEW. Quite new: said of a sail which has never been bent.
BRASH. Small fragments of crushed ice, collected by wind or currents, near the shore; or such that the ship can easily force through.
BRASS. Impudent assurance.
BRASSARTS. Pieces between the elbow and the top of the shoulder in ancient armour.
BRASSER. A defensive bit of armour for the arm.
BRAT. A northern name for a turbot.
BRAVE. This word was not only used to express courage by our early seamen, but was also applied to strength; as, "we had a brave wind."
BRAWET. A kind of eel in the north.
BRAY, TO. To beat and bruise in a mortar.
BREACH. Formerly, what is made by the breaking in of the sea, now applied also to the openings or gaps made in the works of fortified places battered by an enemy's cannon. Also, an old term for a heavy surf or broken water on a sea-coast; by some called _brist_.
BREACHING. The act of leaping out of the water; applied to whales.
BREACH OF THE SEA. Waves breaking over the hull of a vessel in bad weather, or when stranded.--_A clear breach_ implies the waves rolling clean over without breaking. Shakspeare in "Twelfth Night" uses the term for the breaking of the waves.--_Clean-breach_, when masts and every object on deck is swept away.
BREACHY. Brackish, as applied to water, probably originating in the sea breaking in.
BREAD. The usual name given to biscuit.
BREAD-BARGE. The tray in which biscuit is handed round.
BREAD-FRUIT (_Artocarpus incisa_). This most useful tree has a wide range of growth, but the seedless variety produced in Tahiti and some of the South Sea Islands is superior to others; it has an historical interest from its connection with the voyage of the _Bounty_ in 1787.
BREAD-ROOM. The lowest and aftermost part of the orlop deck, where the biscuit is kept, separated by a bulk-head from the rest; but any place parted off from below deck for containing the bread is so designated.
BREAD-ROOM JACK. The purser's steward's help.
BREADTH. The measure of a vessel from side to side in any particular place athwart-ships. (_See_ STRAIGHT OF BREADTH, HEIGHT OF BREADTH, TOP-TIMBER BREADTH, &c.)--_Breadth of beam_, extreme breadth of a ship.
BREADTH EXTREME. _See_ EXTREME BREADTH OR BEAM.
BREADTH LINE. A curved line of the ship lengthwise, intersecting the timbers at their greatest extent from the middle line of the ship.
BREADTH-MOULDED. _See_ MOULDED BREADTH.
BREADTH-RIDERS. Timbers placed nearly in the broadest part of the ship, and diagonally, so as to strengthen two or more timbers.
BREAK, TO. To deprive of commission, warrant, or rating, by court-martial.
BREAK. The sudden rise of a deck when not flush; when the aft, and sometimes the fore part, of a vessel's deck is kept up to give more height below, and at the drifts.--_Break of the poop_, where it ends at the foremost part.
BREAKAGE. The leaving of empty spaces in stowing the hold. In marine insurance, the term alludes to damage occurring to goods.
BREAK-BEAMS. Beams introduced at the break of a deck, or any sudden termination of planking.
BREAK-BULK. To open the hold, to begin unloading and disposing of the goods therein, under legal provisions.
BREAKERS. Small barrels for containing water or other liquids; they are also used in watering the ship as gang-casks. (_See_ BAREKA.) Also, those billows which break violently over reefs, rocks, or shallows, lying immediately at, or under, the surface of the sea. They are distinguished both by their appearance and sound, as they cover that part of the sea with a perpetual foam, and produce loud roaring, very different from what the waves usually have over a deeper bottom. Also, a name given to those rocks which occasion the waves to break over them.--_Breakers ahead!_ the common pass-word to warn the officer of broken water in the direction of the course. (_See also_ SHIP-BREAKER.)
BREAK-GROUND. Beginning to weigh, or to lift the anchor from the bottom. On shore it means to begin the works for besieging a place, or opening the trenches.
BREAKING. Breaking out stores or cargo in the hold. The act of extricating casks or other objects from the hold-stowage.
BREAKING LIBERTY. Not returning at the appointed time.
BREAKING OF A GALE. Indications of a return of fine weather; short gusts at intervals; moaning or whistling of the wind through the rigging.
BREAKING-PLATE DISTANCE. The point within which iron-plated ships, under concentrated fire, may be damaged.
BREAKING THE EY. _See_ EYGHT.
BREAKING-UP OF THE MONSOON. A nautical term for the violent storms that attend the shifting of periodical winds.
BREAK-OFF. (_See_ BROKEN-OFF). "She breaks off from her course," applied only when the wind will not allow of keeping the course; applies only to "close-hauled" or "on a wind."--_Break-off!_ an order to quit one department of duty, to clap on to another.
BREAK-SHEER, TO. When a ship at anchor is laid in a proper position to keep clear of her anchor, but is forced by the wind or current out of that position, she is said to break her sheer. Also, for a vessel to break her sheer, or her back, means destroying the gradual sweep lengthways.
BREAK-UP, TO. To take a ship to pieces when she becomes old and unserviceable.
BREAK-WATER. Any erection or object so placed as to prevent the sea from rolling inwards. Where there is no mole or jetty the hull of an old ship may be sunk at the entrance of a small harbour, to break off or diminish the force of the waves as they advance towards the vessels moored within. Every bar to a river or harbour, intended to secure smooth water within, acts as a break-water.
BREAM. A common fresh as well as salt water fish (_Abramis brama_), little esteemed as food.
BREAMING. Cleaning a ship's bottom by burning off the grass, ooze, shells, or sea-weed, which it has contracted by lying long in harbour; it is performed by holding kindled furze, faggots, or reeds to the bottom, which, by melting the pitch that formerly covered it, loosens whatever filth may have adhered to the planks; the bottom is then covered anew with a composition of sulphur, tallow, &c., which not only makes it smooth and slippery, so as to divide the fluid more readily, but also poisons and destroys those worms which eat through the planks in the course of a voyage. This operation may be performed either by laying the ship aground after the tide has ebbed from her or by docking or careening.