ALLOTTING. Persons agreeing to buy a ship's cargo appoint a disinterested person to allot a share to each by affixing their respective names.
ALLOW, To. To concede a destined portion of stores, &c.
ALLOWANCE. The ration or allotted quantum of provisions which each individual receives; and it is either double, full, two-thirds, half, or short, according to incidents.
ALLUVION. An accretion formed along sea-shores and the banks of rivers by the deposition of the various substances held in solution or washed by the waters. Sea alluvions differ from those of rivers, in that they form a slope towards the land.
ALLY. A friendly or confederated state.
ALMACANTARS. Circles parallel to the horizon, and supposed to pass through every degree of the meridian. An Arabic term, synonymous with parallels of latitude.
ALMACANTARS STAFF. An instrument formerly used at sea for observing the sun's amplitude, formed of an arc of about 15 degrees.
ALMADIA. A small African canoe, made of the bark of trees. Some of the larger square-sterned negro-boats are also thus designated.
ALMAFADAS. Large dunnage cut on the coast of Portugal.
ALMAGEST. The celebrated work of Ptolemy on geometry and astronomy. Ricciolus adopted the term in 1651 for his Body of Mathematical Science. It became general, whence Chaucer—
"His Almagiste and bookes, grete and small."
ALMANAC. A record of the days, feasts, and celestial phenomena of the year. Though confounded with calendar, it is essentially different—the latter relating to time in general, and the almanac to that of a year; but the term calendar can be properly used for a particular year. (See Ephemeris.)
ALMATH [Hamal]. The star in Aries whence the first mansion of the moon takes its name. The Frankeleine in Chaucer says:—
"And by his eighte speres in his werking,
He knew ful wel how far Alnath was shove Fro the hed of thilke fix Aries above, That in the ninthe spere considered is."
ALMIRANTE. A great sea-officer or high-admiral in Spain.
ALMIRANTESA. The wife of an admiral.
ALMURY. The upright part of an astrolabe.
ALNUS CAVER. Transport-ships of the early English, so called from the wood of which they were constructed.
ALOFT [Anglo-Saxon, alofte, on high]. Above; overhead; on high. Synonymous with up above the tops, at the mast-head, or anywhere about the higher yards, masts, and rigging of ships.—Aloft there! the hailing of people in the tops.—Away aloft! the command to the people in the rigging to climb to their stations. Also, heaven: "Poor Tom is gone aloft."
ALONDE. An old English word for ashore, on land.
ALONG [Saxon]. Lengthwise.—Alongside, by the side of a ship; side by side.—Lying along, when the wind, being on the beam, presses the ship over to leeward with the press of sail; or, lying along the land.
ALONGSHORE. A common nautical phrase signifying along the coast, or a course which is in sight of the shore, and nearly parallel to it. (See 'Longshore.)
ALONGST. In the middle of a stream; moored head and stern.
ALOOF. The old word for "keep your luff," in the act of sailing to the wind. (See Luff.)—Keep aloof, at a distance.
ALOOFE. See Alewife.
ALOW. Synonymous with below; as alow and aloft, though more properly low and aloft. Carrying all sail alow and aloft is when the reefs are shaken out, and all the studding-sails set.
ALPHABETICAL LIST. This is a list which accompanies the ship's books; it contains the names and number of every person in the pay-book.
ALTAIR. The bright nautical star α Aquilæ, binary.
ALTAR. A platform in the upper part of a dock.
ALTEMETRIE. The old term for trigonometry among navigators.
ALTERNATE. Reciprocal.—Alternate angles are the internal angles formed by a line cutting two parallels, and lying on the opposite side of the cutting line; the one below the first parallel, and the other above.—Alternate ratio is that of which the antecedents and consequents bear respectively to each other in any proportion which has the quantities of the same kind.
ALTERNATING WINDS. Peculiar winds blowing at stated times one way, and then, from a sudden alteration in the temperature of the elements, setting in the contrary direction. A remarkable instance is that of the Gulf of Arta in the Ionian Sea, where the effect is promoted by local causes. All land and sea breezes are strictly alternating winds. These however are mostly intertropical; the solar heat causing the sea-breeze to blow on the land by day, and condensation and greater heat of the sea causing a reaction when the land has cooled to a lower temperature.
ALTERNATION or Permutation of Quantities, is the varying or changing their order, and is easily found by a continual multiplication of all numbers.
ALTIMETRY. Trigonometry; the art of measuring heights or depressions of land, whether accessible or not.
ALTITUDE. The elevation of any of the heavenly bodies above the plane of the horizon, or its angular distance from the horizon, measured in the direction of a great circle passing through the zenith. Also the third dimension of a body, considered with regard to its elevation above the ground.—Apparent altitude is that which appears by sensible observations made on the surface of the globe.—Altitude of the pole. The arc of the meridian between the pole of the heavens and the horizon of any place, and therefore equal to its geographical latitude.—Altitude of the cone of the earth's and moon's shadow, is the height of the one or the other during an eclipse, and is measured from the centre of the body.—Altitude of a shot or shell. The perpendicular height of the vertex of the curve in which it moves above the horizon.—Meridian altitude. The arc of the meridian—or greater or less altitude, measured from the horizon, of a celestial object in its passage over the meridian, above or below the pole, of the place of the observer. In Polar regions two such transits of the sun, and in England similarly, circumpolar stars afford double observations for the determination of time or latitude. The general term is understood by seamen to denote mid-day, when the passage and meridian altitude of the sun affords the latitude.—True altitude is that produced by correcting the apparent one for parallax and refraction.
ALTMIKLEC. A silver Turkish coin of 60 paras, or 2s. 91⁄2d. sterling.
ALUFFE, or Aloof. Nearer to the wind. This is a very old form of luff; being noticed by Matthew Paris, and other writers, as a sea-term. (See Luff.)
ALURE. An old term for the gutter or drain along a battlement or parapet wall.
ALVEUS. A very small ancient boat, made from the single trunk of a tree. A monoxylon, or canoe.
A.M. The uncials for ante-meridian, or in the forenoon. (See Meridian.)
AMAIN [Saxon a, and mægn, force, strength]. This was the old word to an enemy for "yield," and was written amayne and almayne. Its literal signification is, with force or vigour, all at once, suddenly; and it is generally used to anything which is moved by a tackle-fall, as "lower amain!" let run at once. When we used to demand the salute in the narrow seas, the lowering of the top-sail was called striking amain (see Strike), and it was demanded by the wave amain (see Waving), or brandishing a bright sword to and fro.
AMALPHITAN CODE, the oldest code of modern sea-laws, compiled, during the first Crusade, by