In the second part of "Henry VI." Clifford threatens Warwick--
"And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear, And tread it underfoot with all contempt."
BURGOO. A seafaring dish made of boiled oatmeal seasoned with salt, butter, and sugar. (_See_ LOBLOLLY and SKILLY.)
BURLEY. The butt-end of a lance.
BURLEY-TWINE. A strong and coarse twine or small string.
BURN, OR BOURNE. The Anglo-Saxon term for a small stream or brook, originating from springs, and winding through meadows, thus differing from a beck. Shakspeare makes Edgar say in "King Lear"--
"Come o'er the bourn, Bessy, to me."
The word also signifies a boundary.
BURNETTIZE, TO. To impregnate canvas, timber, or cordage with Sir William Burnett's fluid, a solution of chloride of zinc.
BURN THE WATER. A phrase denoting the act of killing salmon in the night, with a lister and lighted torch in the boat.
BURN-TROUT. A northern term for a small species of river-trout.
BURR. The iris or hazy circle which appears round the moon before rain. Also, a Manx or Gaelic term for the wind blowing across on the tide. Also, the sound made by the Newcastle men in pronouncing the letter R.
BURREL. A langrage shot, consisting of bits of iron, bullets, nails, and other matters, got together in haste for a sudden emergency.
BURROCK. A small weir over a river, where weals are laid for taking fish.
BURR-PUMP. A name of the bilge-pump.
BURSER. _See_ PURSER.
BURST. The explosion of a shell or any gun.
BURTHEN. _See_ BURDEN.
BURTON. A small tackle rove in a particular manner; it is formed by two blocks or pulleys, with a hook-block in the bight of the running part; it is generally used to set up or tighten the shrouds, whence it is frequently termed a top-burton tackle; but it is equally useful to move or draw along any weighty body in the hold or on the deck, as anchors, bales of goods, large casks, &c. (_See_ SPANISH-BURTON.) The burton purchase, also _runner-purchase_ (which see).
BUSH, OR BOUCHE. A circular shouldered piece of metal, usually of brass, let into the lignum vitae sheaves of such blocks as have iron pins, thereby preventing the sheave from wearing, without adding much to its weight. The operation of placing it in the wood is called bushing or coaking, though the last name is usually given to smaller bushes of a square shape. Brass bushes are also extensively applied in the marine steam-engine work. Also, in artillery, the plug (generally of copper, on account of the superior resistance of that metal to the flame of exploded gunpowder), having a diameter of about an inch, and a length equal to the intended length of the vent, screwed into the metal of the gun at the place of the vent, which is then drilled in it. Guns may be re-bushed when the vent has worn too large, by the substitution of a new bush.
BUSH. The forests in the West Indies, Australia, &c.
BUSHED. Cased with harder metal, as that inserted into the holes of some rudder braces or sheaves in general, to prevent their wearing.
BUSHED-BLOCK. _See_ COAK.
BUSKING. Piratical cruising; also, used generally, for beating to windward along a coast, or cruising off and on.
BUSS. A small strong-built Dutch vessel with two masts, used in the herring and mackerel fisheries, being generally of 50 to 70 tons burden.
BUST-HEAD. _See_ HEAD.
BUSY AS THE DEVIL IN A GALE OF WIND. Fidgety restlessness, or double diligence in a bad cause; the imp being supposed to be mischievous in hard gales.
BUT. A northern name for a flounder or plaice. Also, a conical basket for catching fish.
BUTCHER'S BILL. A nickname for the official return of killed and wounded which follows an action.
BUTESCARLI. The early name for the sea-officers in the British Navy (_see the_ EQUIPMENT OF).
BUTT. The joining of two timbers or planks endways. Also, the opening between the ends of two planks when worked. Also, the extremities of the planks themselves when they are united, or abut against each other. The word likewise is used to denote the largest end of all timber. Planks under water as they rise are joined one end to another. In large ships butt-ends are most carefully bolted, for if any one of them should spring, or give way, the leak would be very dangerous and difficult to stop.--_To start_ or _spring a butt_ is to loosen the end of a plank by the ship's weakness or labouring.--_Butt-heads_ are the same with butt-ends.--_Butt_ is also a mark for shooting at, and the hind part of a musket or pistol. Also, a wine-measure of 126 gallons.
BUTT-AND-BUTT. A term denoting that the butt ends of two planks come together, but do not overlay each other. (_See_ HOOK AND BUTT and HOOK-SCARPH.)
BUTT-END. The shoulder part of a fire-lock.
BUTTER-BOX. A name given to the brig-traders of lumpy form, from London, Bristol, and other English ports. A cant term for a Dutchman.
BUTTER-BUMP. A name of the bittern in the north.
BUTTER-FINGERED. Having a careless habit of allowing things to drop through the fingers.
BUTTLE. An eastern-county name for the bittern.
BUTTOCK. The breadth of the ship astern from the tuck upwards: it is terminated by the counter above, by the bilge below, by the stern-post in the middle, and by the quarter on the side. That part abaft the after body, which is bounded by the fashion pieces, and by the wing transom, and the upper or second water-line. A ship is said to have a broad, or narrow, buttock according to her transom convexity under the stern.
BUTTOCK-LINES. In ship-building, the longitudinal curves at the rounding part of the after body in a vertical section.
BUTTON. The knob of metal which terminates the breech end of most guns, and which affords a convenient bearing for the application of handspikes, breechings, &c.
BUTTONS, TO MAKE. A common time-honoured, but strange expression, for sudden apprehension or misgiving.
BUTTRESS. In fortification. (_See_ COUNTERFORTS.)
BUTT-SHAFT, OR BUTT-BOLT. An arrow without a barb, used for shooting at a butt.
BUTT-SLINGING A BOWSPRIT. _See_ SLINGS.
BUXSISH. A gratuity, in oriental trading.
BUZZING. Sometimes used for _booming_ (which see).
BY. On or close to the wind.--_Full and by_, not to lift or shiver the sails; rap-full.
BY AND LARGE. To the wind and off it; within six points.
BYKAT. A northern term for a male salmon of a certain age, because of the beak which then grows on its under-jaw.
BYLLIS. An old spelling for _bill_ (which see).
BYRNIE. Early English for body-armour.
BYRTH. The old expression for tonnage. (_See_ BURDEN or BURTHEN.)
BYSSA. An ancient gun for discharging stones at the enemy.
BYSSUS. The silken filaments of any of the bivalved molluscs which adhere to rocks, as the _Pinna_, _Mytilus_, &c. The silken byssus of the great pinna, or wing-shell, is woven into dresses. In the _Chama gigas_ it will sustain 1000 lbs. Also, the woolly substance found in damp parts of a ship.
BY THE BOARD. Over the ship's side. When a mast is carried away near the deck it is said to go by the board.
BY THE HEAD. When a ship is deeper forward than abaft.
BY THE LEE. The situation of a vessel going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side.
BY THE STERN. When the ship draws more water abaft than forward. (_See_ BY THE HEAD.)
BY THE WIND. Is when a ship sails as nearly to the direction of the wind as possible. (_See_ FULL AND BY.) In general terms, within six points; or the axis of the ship is 67-1/2 degrees from the direction of the wind.
BY-WASH. The outlet of water from a dam or discharge channel.
C.
CAAG. _See_ KAAG.
CABANE. A flat-bottomed passage-boat of the Loire.
CABBAGE. Those principally useful to the seaman are the esculent cabbage-tree (_Areca oleracea_), which attains to a great height in the W. Indies. The sheaths of the leaves are very close, and form the green top of the trunk a foot and a half in length; this is cut off, and its white heart eaten. Also, the _Crambe maritima_, sea-kail, or marine cabbage, growing in the west of England.
CABIN. A room or compartment partitioned off in a ship, where the officers and passengers reside. In a man-of-war, the principal cabin, in which the captain or admiral lives, is the upper after-part of the vessel.
CABIN-BOY. A boy whose duty is to attend and serve the officers and passengers in the cabin.
CABIN-LECTURE. _See_ JOBATION.
CABIN-MATE. A companion, when two occupy a cabin furnished with two bed-places.
CABLE. A thick, strong rope or chain which serves to keep a ship at anchor; the rope is cable-laid, 10 inches in circumference and upwards (those below this size being hawsers), commonly of hemp or coir, which latter is still used by the Calcutta pilot-brigs on account of its lightness and elasticity. But cables have recently, and all but exclusively, been superseded by iron chain.--_A shot of cable_, two cables spliced together.
CABLE, TO COIL A. To lay it in fakes and tiers one over the other.--_To lay a cable._ (_See_ LAYING.)--_To pay cheap the cable_, to hand it out apace; to throw it over.--_To pay out more cable_, to let more out of the ship.--_To serve or plait the cable_, to bind it about with ropes, canvas, &c.; to keep it from galling in the hawse-pipe. (_See_ ROUNDING, KECKLING, &c.)--_To splice a cable_, to make two pieces fast together, by working the several yarns of the rope into each other; with chain it is done by means of shackles.--_To veer more cable_, to let more out.