COUNTER-MOULD. The converse of _mould_ (which see).
COUNTER-RAILS. The balustrade work, or ornamental moulding across a square stern, where the counter terminates.
COUNTERSCARP. In fortification, the outer side of the ditch next the country; it is usually of less height, and less strongly revetted than the escarp, the side which forms the face of the rampart.
COUNTER-SEA. The disturbed state of the sea after a gale, when, the wind having changed, the sea still runs in its old direction.
COUNTERSIGN. A particular word or number which is exchanged between sentinels, and intrusted to those on duty. (_See_ PAROLE.)
COUNTER-SUNK. Those holes which are made for the heads of bolts or nails to be sunk in, so as to be even with the general surface.
COUNTER-TIMBERS. Short right-aft timbers for the purpose of strengthening the counter, and forming the stern.
COUNTER-TRENCHES. _See_ COUNTER-APPROACHES.
COUNTRY. A term synonymous with _station_. The place whither a ship happens to be ordered.
COUP DE GRACE. The finishing shot which brings an enemy to surrender; or the wound which deprives an adversary of life or resistance.
COUP DE MAIN. A sudden and vigorous attack.
COUP D'[OE]IL. The skill of distinguishing, at first sight, the weakness of an enemy's position, as Nelson did at the Nile.
COUPLE, TO. To bend two hawsers together; coupling links of a cable; coupling shackles.
COUREAU. A small yawl of the Garonne. Also, a narrow strait or channel.
COURSE. The direction taken by anything in motion, shown by the point of the compass _towards_ which they run, as water in a river, tides, and currents; but of the wind, as similarly indicated by the compass-point _from_ which it blows. Course is also the ship's way. In common parlance, it is the point of the compass upon which the ship sails, the direction in which she proceeds, or is intended to go. When the wind is foul, she cannot "lie her course;" if free, she "steers her course."
COURSES. A name by which the sails hanging from the lower yards of a ship are usually distinguished, viz. the main-sail, fore-sail, and mizen: the staysails upon the lower masts are sometimes also comprehended in this denomination, as are the main staysails of all brigs and schooners. A ship is under her courses when she has no sail set but the fore-sail, main-sail, and mizen. _Trysails_ are courses (which see), sometimes termed _bentincks_.
COURSET. The paper on which the night's course is set for the officer in charge of the watch.
COURT-MARTIAL. A tribunal held under an act of parliament, of the year 1749, and not, like the mutiny act, requiring yearly re-enactment. It has lately, 6th August, 1861, been changed to the "Naval Discipline Act." At present a court may be composed of five, but must not exceed nine, members. No officer shall sit who is under twenty-one years of age. No flag-officer can be tried unless the president also be a flag-officer, and the others flag, or captains. No captain shall be tried unless the president be of higher rank, and the others captains and commanders. No court for the trial of any officer, or person below the rank of captain, shall be legal, unless the president is a captain, or of higher rank, nor unless, in addition, there be two other officers of the rank of commander, or of higher rank. Any witness summoned--civil, naval, or military--by the judge-advocate, refusing to attend or give evidence, to be punished as for same in civil courts. The admiralty can issue commissions to officers to hold courts-martial on foreign stations, without which they cannot be convened. A commander-in-chief on a foreign station, holding such a commission, may under his hand authorize an officer in command of a detached portion to hold courts-martial. Formerly all officers composing the court, attendants, witnesses, &c., were compelled to appear in their full-dress uniforms; but by recent orders, the undress uniform, with cocked hat and sword, is to be worn.
COUTEL. A military implement which served both for a knife and a dagger.
COUTERE. A piece of armour which covered the elbow.
COVE. An inlet in a coast, sometimes extensive, as the Cove of Cork. In naval architecture, the arched moulding sunk in at the foot or lower part of the taffrail.--_My cove_, a familiar friendly term.
COVER. Security from attack or interruption, as under cover of the ship's guns, under cover of the parapet. In the field exercise and drill of troops, one body is said to cover another exactly in rear of it. Covers for sails when furled (to protect them from the weather when loosing and airing them is precluded), are made of strong canvas painted.
COVERED WAY. In fortification, a space running along the outside of the ditch for the convenient passage of troops and guns, covered from the country by a palisading and the parapet of the glacis. It is of importance to an active defence, as besides enabling a powerful musketry fire to be poured on the near approaches of the besieger, it affords to the garrison a secure base from which to sally in force at any hour of the day or night.
COVERING-BOARD. _See_ PLANK-SHEER.
COVERING-PARTY. A force detached to protect a party sent on especial duty.
COVERT-WAY. _See_ COVERED WAY.
COW. Applied by whalers to the female whale.--_To cow._ To depress with fear.
COWARDICE, AND DESERTION OF DUTY IN FIGHT. Are criminal by law, even in the crew of a merchant-ship. Such poltroonery is very rare.
COWD. To float slowly. A Scotch term, as "the boat cowds braely awa."
COW-HITCH. A slippery or lubberly hitch.
COWHORN. The seaman's appellation of the coehorn.
COWIE. A name among Scotch fishermen for the porpoise.
COWL. The cover of a funnel.
COWRIE. Small shells, _Cypraea moneta_, used for money or barter in Africa and the East Indies.
COXSON, OR COXON. _See_ COCKSWAIN.
COX'S TRAVERSE. Up one hatchway and down another, to elude duty. (_See_ TOM COX.)
C.P. Mark for men sent by civil power.
CRAB. A wooden pillar, the lower end of which being let down through a ship's decks, rests upon a socket like the capstan, and having in its upper end three or four holes at different heights, long oars are thrust through them, each acting like two levers. It is employed to wind in the cable, or any other weighty matter. Also, a portable wooden or cast-iron machine, fitted with wheels and pinions similar to those of a winch, of use in loading and discharging timber-vessels, &c.--_The crab with three claws_, is used to launch ships, and to heave them into the dock, or off the key.--_To catch a crab._ To pull an oar too light or too deep in the water; to miss time in rowing. This derisive phrase for a false stroke may have been derived from the Italian _chiappar un gragno_, to express the same action.
CRABBING TO IT. Carrying an over-press of sail in a fresh gale, by which a ship crabs or drifts sideways to leeward.
CRABBLER. _See_ KRABLA.
CRAB-BOAT. Resembles a large jolly-boat.
CRAB-CAPSTAN. _See_ CRAB.
CRAB-WINDLASS. A light windlass for barges.
CRAB-YAWS. _See_ YAW.
CRACK. "In a crack," immediately.
CRACKER. So named from the noise it makes in exploding; it is applied to a small pistol. Also, to a little hard cabin biscuit, so called from its noise in breaking.
CRACKNEL. A small bark. Also, biscuits (see 1 Ki. xiv. 3).
CRACK OFFICER. One of the best class.
CRACK ON, TO. To carry all sail.
CRACK-ORDER. High regularity.
CRACK-SHIP. One uncommonly smart in her evolutions and discipline, perhaps from the old English word for a fine boy. Crack is generally used for first-rate or excellent.
CRADLE. A frame consisting of bilge-ways, poppets, &c., on the principle of the wedge, placed under the bottom of a ship, and resting on the ways on which it slips, thus launching her steadily into the water, at which time it supports her weight while she slides down the greased ways. The cradle being the support of the ship, she carries it with her into the water, when, becoming buoyant, the frame separates from the hull, floats on the surface, and is again collected for similar purposes.
CRADLES. Standing bedsteads made up for wounded seamen, that they may be more comfortable than is possible in a hammock. Boats' chocks are sometimes called cradles.
CRAFT [from the Anglo-Saxon word _craeft_, a trading vessel]. It is now a general name for lighters, hoys, barges, &c., employed to load or land any goods or stores.--_Small craft._ The small vessels of war attendant on a fleet, such as cutters, schooners, gunboats, &c., generally commanded by lieutenants. Craft is also a term in sea-phraseology for every kind of vessel, especially for a favourite ship. Also, all manner of nets, lines, hooks, &c., used in fishing.
CRAG. A precipitous cliff whose strata if vertical, or nearly so, subdivide into points.
CRAGER. A small river lighter, mentioned in our early statutes.
CRAGSMAN. One who climbs cliffs overhanging the sea to procure sea-fowls, or their eggs.
CRAIG-FLOOK. The smear-dab, or rock-flounder.
CRAIK, OR CRAKE. A ship; a diminutive corrupted from _carrack_.
CRAIL. _See_ KREEL.
CRAIL-CAPON. A haddock dried without being split.