ADZE, a sharp tool to trim smooth, after an axe or saw.
AFT, the hinder part of the ship, or that nearest the stern.
ARM, each end of a bibb.
AUGER, an instrument to bore holes with.
AXE, a sharp tool to trim off rough wood.
AXIS, a real or supposed line through the centre of a body, about which it may turn.
BATTENS, thin pieces of oak or fir, nailed on to mast-heads and the midship-part of yards.
BAULKS, short fir timber.
BEARDING is diminishing any piece from a given line on its surface to make the thickness less on the edge.
BED, the place of the greatest diameters in bowsprits; and the main piece of barrel-screws, through which the puppets work.
BEES, pieces of elm plank bolted to the outer ends of bowsprits.
BEVELLINGS are angles that differ from right angles, called, by workmen, either under or standing bevellings. By the former is meant an acute, and by the latter an obtuse, angle. Bevellings are taken by an instrument called a bevel, which resembles a square, only the tongue is movable, and fixes to the angle required. To transfer it, or set it off on the piece, is the same operation as by the square.
BIBBS, or brackets, are made of elm plank, and bolted to the hounds of masts, as supporters to the trestle-trees.
BLOCK, and eight-square or round part below the heeling of main and fore topmasts.
BLOCKS, short pieces, laid under a mast, to raise it from the ground.
BOARD, timber sawed to a less thickness than plank, as one inch and under.
BOLSTER, a sort of pillow made of fir, fastened on each side the mast-head, to prevent the shrouds chasing against the trestle-trees.
BOLTS, cylindrical pins of iron. The commonest have small round heads, and are used to unite two or more pieces together. Some have round flat heads, called saucer-heads, with a mortise in the other end, or point, and are used to fasten moveable pieces to fixed ones; others have an eye at one end, for lashing or hooking blocks, &c. and are driven in mast-heads, yards, caps, &c. Some have a square part left at the back of the eye, that they may not be driven on the eye, and endanger splitting.
BOOM-IRONS are rings fastened to the quarters and extremities of yards, for the studdingsail booms to slide through.
BOW, the rounding part of a ship's side forward.
BRAIL, a rope used to haul up the sail.
BUTT, the lower part next the root of a tree, also the lower ends of any part of made-masts, and the ends of coaks, tablings, haunches, &c.
CALLIPERS are compasses with circular legs.
CANTING, a term denoting the act of turning any thing over from its former position.
CANT-PIECES are used in the angles of the fishes and side-trees, or to supply any part that may prove sappy or rotten.
CAP, a thick block of elm timber, with two holes perpendicular to its length and breadth, and parallel to its thickness, (the foremost hole being round and the after one square,) used to confine two masts together, when one is erected at the head of the other to lengthen it.
CARLINGS, pieces of oak timber, about eight feet long and eight inches square, or more, used for framing the partners.
CHAMFERING, taking off angles or edges.
CHEEKS are projecting parts on each side the mast, to sustain the frame of the top and topmast.
CHEEKS, head of the, that part above the stops.
CHINSE, to thrust oakum into the seams, with a small iron instrument.
CHOCKS, pieces made to fashion out some part wanting, or to place between the head of a lower mast and heel of a topmast.
CLEATS, pieces of plank or board of various shapes, for different purposes. Those used for stopping of shores are mostly made of Elm, similar to wedges, but only taper from one side: those for stopping of rigging are haunched on the back with a hollow, from one third the length; the thin end is shaped with a duck's-bill; these are made of oak, but, for mast heads, of elm.
CLEATS, COMB, are straight on the inner edge, and round on the back, with a hollow cavity in the middle.
CLEATS, SHROUD, one part is shaped like a belaying cleat, with two arms, the other part straight, and grooved on the edge to the convexity of the shroud, to which it is seized, having a score cut towards its extremities for the seizing to lie in.
CLEATS, SLING, of lower yards, are made with one arm; belaying-cleats with two, one on each side the middle. Thumb-cleats are similar to sling-cleats, but smaller, to hang any thing thereon.
CLEATS are nailed wherever wanted, with more or less nails, according to the strain they resist.
CLENCHING. Making fast the point of a bolt or nail on a ring or rove of iron, by battering the point and making it spread.
COAKS are oblong ridges left on the surface of different pieces of made-masts by cutting away the wood round them; the intermediate part is called the plain.
COAKING is uniting two or more pieces together, in the middle, by small tabular pieces, formed from the solid of one piece and sunk exactly the same in the other, the butts of which prevent the pieces drawing asunder lengthways.
There are different methods of coaking, as follow. Coak and plain is when a coak is formed, and a plain surface follows that and the next. Running coaks are coaks continued the whole length along the middle, but answer the above purpose, as the butts of each coak come one third their breadth within and without each other alternately.
Chain-coaks are formed one at the end of the other on the opposite sides of the middle-line. See Tabling.
COAT, pieces of canvas tarred to put round the masts at the partners.
CROSS-TREES, pieces of oak timber athwart the upper ends of the lower masts, let in and bolted to the trestle-trees.
DEALS are of similar thickness to plank, but the term is confined to fir.
DOULING. A method of coaking, by letting pieces into the solid; or uniting two pieces together with tenons.
DRAWING-KNIFE. A long narrow edge-tool, with a handle in each end.
DRIFT means the difference between the size of a bolt and the hole into which it is to be driven; as, if a bolt be 1-8th of an inch larger than the hole, the bolt is said to have 1-8th drift. And so of a hoop which is to be driven on a mast.
DUBBING, reducing or taking wood away with an adze.
ELM, wood of singular use when continually exposed either to wet or dry; its grain being tough and curly makes it not liable to split. If felled between November and February it has no sap. It is used in mast-making for caps, bibbs, bees, and parts of tops.
FACING, letting one piece into another with a rabbet.
FAYING, the joining of one piece to another, that the least opening may not appear; it is performed by moulds, bevellings, or by laying one piece on the other, and setting them as close together as possible; then with compasses take the distance they may be asunder, and let that distance, or spoiling, be set off from the surface or edge of the fairest piece on to the sides of the other, at as many places as may be necessary for lineing. If the pieces coak or table together, the thickness of the coaks or tablings must be added to the former gage or spoiling.
FERRULE, a small iron hoop, fixed on the extremities of the yards, booms, &c.
FILLINGS, pieces used to make a fair curve for the wooldings, between the edges of the front-fish and sides of the mast.
FID, a square bar of iron or wood, used to support the weight of the topmast, &c. when erected at the head of the standing mast.
FIR, in mastmaking, is the most useful wood for length, size, and lightness. It forms the body of the mast, the spindle, side-trees, fishes, cheeks, fillings, and cant-pieces. Mats are also frequently made of single trees, as are yards, booms, topmasts, &c.
Fir-trees of Riga and Gottenburgh exceed in strength about one tenth those of Norway, and one sixth of New England: and fir-trees of Scotland exceed in strength those of Norway.
Though the Riga and Gottenburgh trees exceed those of New-England in strength, the latter have the advantage on size; as a large mast may be made of a single tree: but masts made of Gottenburgh, Riga, or Norway, trees, are composed of the most substantial parts of several.
The value of fir-trees and timber fluctuates; but annexed is a table of the prices given in 1792.
FISHES, SIDE, two long pieces of fir, hollowed on the opposite sides of a made-mast to give it the diameter required.
FISH, FRONT, or paunch, a long piece of fir, hollowed on the inside to the convexity of the mast, and rounded on the back. It fastens to the foreside of lower masts in the middle, and adds security and strength. Fishes are also used in the middle of masts, yards, bowsprits, &c. sprung or damaged at sea.
FLAG-STAFFS are light poles, formed by, or erected on, mast-heads; also at the heads and sterns, on which flags are hoisted.
FLOORS, the lowest timbers in a ship.
FORE AND AFT, from stem to stern, or in that direction.
FORELOCKS, small flat wedges of iron, pointed at one end, to drive through mortises in the ends of bolts, to retain their fixed position, and prevent their drawing.
FORELOCKS, SPRING, have heads, and are shouldered underneath, to prevent their going through the mortises; they also have thin tongues at the points, as springs, to keep them from coming out: these are used to bolts that often require shifting.
FORWARD, the foremost part of the ship, or that nearest the head.
GAGE, a measurement taken by a rule or compasses.
GAMMONING, a rope that binds the inner quarter of the bowsprit close down upon the stern [sic].
GIRTH, the circumference.
GUNWALE, a board of elm, nailed to the upper sides of the timbers, at the after part of a top. The upper flat planks on the sides of a vessel are likewise called the gunwale.
HALLIARDS, ropes to hoist or lower the gaff, &c.
HAUNCH, a sudden decrease in size.
HEAD OF THE MAST is the upper part of the mast from the stop of the cheeks.
HEEL, the lower end of a mast; the same as butt.
HEELING, the square part left at the lower end of a topmast and topgallant mast.
HEWING, trimming off the rough from timber, &c. with an axe.
HOOK-BUTT, is the surface raised across higher in one place than another.
HOOPS are strong circles of iron driven on masts and yards.
HOOPS, CLASP, have a hinge in the middle, and fasten together with forelocks through mortises made in the ends.
HOOPS, MOULD, those that deviate from a circle.
HORSE, a thick iron rod, fastened at the ends to the inside of the stern of vessels that carry a fore and aft mainsail, for the main sheet to travel on; and also across the deck before the mast, for the sheet of a foresail.
HOUNDS, the place next under the head of a mast, where it is made more substantial for supporting the trestle-trees and top.
JAWS, or HORNS, to the inner ends of gaffs and booms, are semi-circular, to confine them to the mast by embracing half its circumference.
JURY-MASTS, masts used instead of the proper ones, in cases of necessities or otherwise.
KEEL, the lowest part of a ship, formed by square timbers scarfed together endways.
KEELSON, square pieces of timber fayed to the upper part of the floors over the keel.
LAP, to cover one piece with part of another,
LARBOARD SIDE, when looking forward from the stern, is the left side.
LEATHERING, prepared leather, dressed close round the circular holes of caps, and the sweep of jaws belonging to booms and gaffs, nailed on the upper and under sides.
LINEING, is marking the length, breadth, or depth, of any thing, according to design, by a cord, rubbed with white or red chalk, fastened at the extremities, and forcibly pulled up in the middle, or towards one end, then let fall perpendicularly, if meant to be straight, or thrown sideways to form a curve. To perform the latter with exactness requires practice.
MALL, an iron tool to drive bolts with, &c.
MALLET, a wooden tool, to drive with.
MIDSHIPS, when speaking with regard to the breadth of the vessel, is a supposed line from the stem to the stern-post; but, with regard to the length of the vessel, the broadest part is called the midships, although that is not the middle of its length.
MOULDS are made of board to the shape of some design; or to the shape of such pieces as are wanted for making good deficiencies; others for making of hoops are made to the shape and size of the mast, and nailed together at the corners.
MOULDED, signifies breadth; or the sides of a piece shaped by a mould.
MOUSING, several turns, with a strand, taken round the back of a hook and through an eye in the point, to prevent its unhooking.
NAILS, DUMP, are round, and have long flat points.
NECK, the arms that support the boom-ring are called the neck of the outer boom-iron.
NOCK-EARING, the rope that fastens the nock of the sail.
NUTS, small square pieces of iron, with a screw-hole cut in the middle.
OAK, the most useful timber for strength and durability, when exposed to the weather. It is used, in mastmaking, for trestle-trees, cross-trees, and open tops.
OAKUM, old rope untwisted and picked small.
OUT OF WINDING. See Winding.
OVOLO, a moulding consisting of a round and hollow.
OUTHAULER, a rope that hauls out the tack of the jib, &c.
PARTNERS, the place where the deck intersects the mast, which is there made more substantial for wedging the same. But, in mastmaking, it more generally implies the place of the middle-deck, in three-deck ships, and the place of the upper-deck, in two-deck ships; and at that place the given diameter in the Table of Dimensions is applied. Masts with hoops are made one inch larger than the given diameter, two feet each way of the partners, to give the hoops a quicker drift.
All mats are to keep the same size as the given diameter at each deck.
PIECES, heel, head, or hound, are short pieces to make good some deficiency.
PLAIN, an even surface between the coaks.
PLANE, a tool to make smooth with.
PLANK, broad timber, from four inches to one inch thick.
PLUMB, perpendicular.
PLUMB-LINE, a line suspending a lump of lead, which keeps it straight and perpendicular: by it is taken, at the sides of masts, &c. the diametrical dimensions, to correspond with the line or lines struck on the surface of the upper side, to which it is sawed. When masts are not sawed, the sides are hewed in, at different places, about four feet asunder, until the plumb-line answers with the line struck on the surface; and the rough wood between these divisions is hewed off, to agree with the plumb-line. A mast, or piece to be plumbed, should be placed in such a manner as, when hewed in its direction, may gain the greatest substance clear of sap or rot.
PUPPETS, two upright pieces, with a screw cut in the lower ends.
QUARTERS, a term given to some of the divisions on a mast, yard, &c. where the different dimeters are set off, for lineing, or marking.
RABBET, a small square channel cut in the edge of one piece to let in another. The depth of the rabbet to be equal to the thickness let in.
RACE, to mark, by the edges of moulds, with a racing knife or points of compasses, upon timber, &c.
RACING-KNIFE, a small tool to race with.
RAILS are made of wood or iron, and fitted across the aftside of tops, to prevent the men from falling.
RAKE, the inclination of the masts from a perpendicular with the keel.
RAM-LINE, a long line, (thicker than common) used to gain a straight middle-line upon a tree or mast. It is made fast at one end, and hauled upon at the other till it is quite straight, and then made fast.
RIM, a skirting of narrow elm board round the upperside of tops.
RIND-GALL, a damage the tree received when young, so that the bark or rind grows in the inner substance of the tree.
RING, a small circle of iron, used to put over the pointer of a bolt, between the wood and the forelock, to prevent its chafing or cutting the wood.
ROLLERS, are similar to sheaves, but longer.
ROUNDING. In large masts, the sixteen square is divided into four parts, and lined, and those angles dubbed off. Smaller masts, yards, &c. have the angles of the sixteenth-square taken off with a drawing-knife, and then are rounded fair and smooth with planes.
ROVE, a small square piece of iron, with a hole in the middle, whereon is clenched the point of a nail, to prevent its drawing.
SADDLES, semi-circular pieces of wood, shaped and fastened and fastened to the upper side of the bowsprit.
SAUCER, a bolt with a flat head.
SCANTLING, the thickness or depth of a piece of timber.
SCARFED, the end of one piece of timber lapped over or let into another, to appear a solid and even surface.
SCORE, a notch cut out of any piece of wood, to admit another projecting in a similar shape.
SCREWS, bed or barrel, for raising the heads or large masts and fixing the trestle-trees, are made of elm, and consist of two puppets, a bed, and a sole: the puppets are four feet nine inches long, have their lower parts round like a cylinder, and are cut with a screw; their upper part, or head, is larger, and is either eight-square or round, with iron hoops driven on, to prevent their splitting; through these heads are holes, on the different sides, through which long iron pines are thrust; which put them in motion by pressing against them, and acting as levers. The bed is a broad thick piece of elm, three times the diameter of the screw in breadth, once the diameter of the screw in thickness, and about six feet in length; with a hole at each end of the bed, for the screws or puppets to work in. Six bolts are driven through the bed, and clenched on a ring to prevent its splitting; two are in the middle, and two at each end. In the sides and ends, mortises are cut for hand-holes. The sole is the same breadth and length as the bed, and half the thickness, with a hole hollowed out at each end for the puppets to work in. Sometimes the sole is thicker, and , instead of holes, has an iron plate, with a hole let into each end, wherein works an iron sprig, that is driven into the heel of the puppet with a shoulder.
SCREWS, hand, a box of elm containing cogged iron wheels, of increasing powers. The outer one, which moves the rest, is put in motion by a winch on the outside, and is called either single or double, according to its increasing force. It is sometimes falsely called a jack.
SCUTTLE, a square hole cut through a floor, and furnished with a lid or covering.
SEAMS, the openings (in which oakum is driven) between the pieces that compose made-masts, yards, &c.
SET-OFF, a term used for marking down the distance of any dimensions or spoiling from a given place.
SETTS, powers made use of, where fore is required, to bring or unite two or more pieces together. It is performed by screws, shores, cross-setts, or cleats.
SETTS, cross, are made by two short pieces or spar, about four or six feet in length; one is laid across the upper side, and the other on the under side, of any two pieces that are to be brought together, and their ends lashed together on each side with several turns of rope, taken round each end alternately; wedges are then driven in between the upper cross-piece, and the side or part of the mast.
SHEAVES, solid cylindrical wheels, fixed in mortises, cut in the masts, yards, booms, caps, or blocks, and moveable about a pin or bolt as axis.
SHEER-HULK, which is used in the royal navy for masting of vessels, is an old ship of war, cut down to the gun or lower deck, with a mast fixed in midships, about 33 inches diameter, and 108 feet high, strengthened with shores; the upper shore 87 and the lower shore 81 feet long, and each 19 inches diameter. There are shrouds and stays to secure the mast and sheers, which act as the arm of a crane, (supported by a derrick, 100 feet long and 22 inches diameter,) to hoist in or out the lower masts, when conveniently laid alongside.
There are three sheers, each composed of two pieces, 22 inches diameter, scarfed together in the middle, to make 116 feet in height. The heels rest upon the sides of the hulk, and the heads incline outwards from a perpendicular, to hang over the vessel whose masts are to be fixed or displaced. This is performed by large tackles, extending from the head of the mast to the head of the sheers. The tackles by means of two capstans are fixed on the deck.
SHEERS, used for masting vessels in the merchant service, are two hand-masts or large spars, erected on the vessel whose masts are to be fixed or displaced; the lower ends or heels rest, on opposite sides of the deck, upon thick planks sufficiently long to extend over two or three beams shored underneath. The two handmasts cross each other at the upper end, and are securely lashed. A tackle is lashed in the centre, and hangs perpendicularly over the station where the mast is to be fixed.
The sheers are secured by guys, or stays, of proportionable rope, extending fore and aft to the opposite extremities of the vessel.
SHEET, main, a tackle by which the boom of a fore and aft mainsail is shifted from each quarter.
SHORES are made of small spars, cut to suitable lengths, that their heels may rest against a cleat, nailed on the mast or floor, or against a stump driven in the ground, or any thing of greater resistance than the force required: The sett is made by driving wedges between the head or heel or the shore.
SHROUDS, large ropes that support the masts.
SIDED, the dimensions of any piece contrary to which it is moulded.
SIDE-TREES, the lower main pieces of made-mast.
SLIDING-RULE, a flat useful instrument, one foot long, with a slide, on which various dimensions and proportions are marked.
SLINGS, the middle, or that part of a yard attached to the mast.
SNAPING, reducing the ends of any piece to a less substance.
SPARS, small for-trees.
SPOILING us taking the greatest distance of the inequalities between any two pieces to be fayed together.
SPINDLE, the upper main piece of a made-mast.
SPRIG, a small eye-bolt, ragged at the point.
SQUARE, an iron or wooden instrument, with a perpendicular and base, used as a guide to set-off by.
SQUARING is making one or mode sides from the plumed sides, which may be performed by a plumb or square, the tongue of which is a perpendicular to its stock or base.
The mast or piece is first lined or marked to its size on one of the sides already plumed, and so fixed that the sides, when plumed, shall be square to the upper side. If by the latter, the stock is rested on the given side, and the line thereon transmitted by compasses to the under side from the inside of the tongue, and this repeated at the quarters, and where necessary, for lineing. Pieces that are straight need only a spot squared down at each end. Observe, the under side of the stock of the square should be kept out of winding from one particular place; supposing that place to be near the middle, a batten with a straight edge must be laid across, and there kept fixed against the side of the mast or piece, to which the under side of the square must agree, by seeing the two edges parallel with each other. The same may be performed by two battens. Let one square spot be hewed, to which one batten must be held, and the other batten looked out of winding at such distances as are necessary; and, when the edges of two battens agree, take, with compasses, what the line on the surface is within the edge of the square, or batten, and in the same direction set that gage within the edge of the batten or square on the opposite or under side, and a line is then struck to range through these spots. The more curve there is, the greater number of spots are necessary.
An eight-square is formed by reducing a four-square nearer to round, by taking off the angles, which are lined or marked within the edge, or from the middle line on each side. If the former, 7-24ths of the diameter is set within the edge at as many places as may be necessary for lineing: or 5-24ths the diameter on each side the middle line, for the latter, and a line struck to range fair through those spots; and the angles dubbed or sawed away to those lines.
The rule proper for mastmakers has the divisions for the eight-square stamped on the edges, from 1 to 36 inches, or more: those on one edge are marked M. for middle line, and on the other edge E. for those set within the edge. It is necessary to have both these divisions, in case the mast or piece will not work square enough to gain the squares or angles.
A sixteen-square is made by reducing a mast, or any other piece, nearer to a round, by taking the angles off the eight-square, in the following manner: viz. divide the eight-square into four equal parts, and strike a line to range through the divisions next the edges or angles, which are dubbed off to those lines, similar to the former.
STAFFS, short pieces by which the setts are made; also long narrow pieces, with divisions of ten or twenty feet marked thereon, and again divided into halves. They are used to set-off long lengths.
STANTIONS, small pillars of wood to support the top-rail.
STARBOARD SIDE, when looking forward from the stern, is the right-side.
STAYS, large rope to support the masts.
STEM, the curved timber which terminates the ship forward.
STEP, large solid pieces of oak timber, fixed across the keelson, into which the heels of the masts are fixed by the tenon.
STERN is the after or hindmost part of a vessel, above the stern-post.
STERN-POST, the large piece of timber which terminates the vessel below the stern.
STIVING, a term used for elevating any thing so as to make an angle with the horizon.
STOPPERS are ropes the size of the shrouds, two feet in length, with a knot and lanyard to each end.
STOPS, square projections or shoulders, left on the outsides of the cheeks, at the upper part of the hounds of lower masts; also on topmasts and topgallant masts; and at the outer end of jib-booms.
STRIKE, to draw a line or delineate a circle.
TABLING is the uniting of pieces together in a manner similar to the chain-coak, but broader, and comes quite to or very near the edge, from the line in the middle.
TAR, a liquid gum, distilled from pines or other fir-trees, and prepared for use by boiling, &c.
TACKLE, a machine formed by two blocks connected by a rope.
TEAK, a hard and durable Asiatic wood, used abroad for masts and hound-pieces for topmasts.
TENON, the end of a mast, bowsprit, &c. cut smaller to fit into a mortise.
THWARTSHIPS, across the ship at angles with the keel's length.
TIMBERS, a name given to those cross-pieces to which the platforms of close tops are fastened.
TOGGLE, a small wooden pin.
TONGUE, the taper part at the lower end of a spindle, or of a scarf.
TOP, a platform projecting round the lower-mast head: its principal use is to extend the topmast shrouds by a greater angle, and give additional support. In the sides of the top are square mortise holes for the futtock-plates to go through, with dead eyes bound in their upper parts, to unite the topmast shrouds with those of the lower mast.
The top is extremely convenient for extending and managing the small sails, and fixing or repairing the rigging.
Tops of ships of ware are, for defence against swivels, musquetry, &c. barricadoed, with a thick fence of corded hammocks, from the foremast shroud round aft along the rail, breast high. The rail is supported by stantions let into the top, with a netting from side to side; the outside is covered with baize or canvas, and furnished with stoppers, to clap on in case a topmast shroud should be carried away by accident.
The frame of the top is either of deals, laid close together, and nailed to elm timbers, or open, like a grating, and made of oak battens. The former is strongest and most convenient, and is adopted by government; the latter is lighter and cheaper, holds less wind, is consequently less exposed to its effects, and is used in the merchant-service.
THE TOP-ROPE passes through a block, hooked in an eye-bolt on one side the lower cap, and afterwards through a hole, with a sheave or pully, at the lower end of the topmast; it is then brought upwards on the other side of the mast, and made fast to an eye-bolt in the cap opposite the former. At the lower end of the top-rope is a top-tackle, by which the topmast is hoisted parallel to the lower-mast.
TOP-ROPE, JIB, a rope by which the jib-boom is hoisted out.
TREES, ROUGH, those which are cut down, and only the boughs lopped off.
TRESTLE-TREES, two strong bars of oak timber resting on the cheeks of lower-masts, or hounds of topmasts. To lower-masts they are secured by being forced and bolted horizontally on the opposite sides of the mast, fore and aft, and supported by two bibs or brackets, as shoulders under them. Topmast trestle-trees are supported by the hounds.
TRIMMING, working any piece into the form and shape designed by an axe or adze.
TRUCK, and oblate spheroid, made of elm, and fitted on mast-heads.
WEDGES are made of beech or oak to any size required, and taper on each side from the butt or head. There are fir wedges made large enough to continue the mast in the partners of the decks.
WINDING. When the edge or side of a piece of timber or plank is not a direct plain, but twists, it is said to wind; if the contrary, out of winding.
WOOLDING, several close turns of rope, strained tight round a mast, yard, or bowsprit.
YARD-ARM, the outer quarter of a yard.
Transcribed by Lars Bruzelius
Sjöhistoriska Samfundet | The Maritime History Virtual Archives | Etymology.
Copyright © 1999 Lars Bruzelius.