BAD-RELIEF. One who turns out sluggishly to relieve the watch on deck. (See One-bell.)
BAESSY. The old orthography of the gun since called base.
BAFFLING. Is said of the wind when it frequently shifts from one point to another.
BAG. A commercial term of quantity; as, a bread or biscuit bag, a sand-bag, &c. An empty purse.—To bag on a bowline, to be leewardly, to drop from a course.
BAG, of the Head-rails. The lowest part of the head-rails, or that part which forms the sweep of the rail.
BAG, The. Allowed for the men to keep their clothes in. The ditty bag included needles and needfuls, love-tokens, jewels, &c.
BAGALA. A rude description of high-sterned vessel of various burdens, from 50 to 300 tons, employed at Muskat and on the shores of Oman: the word signifying mule among the Arabs, and therefore indicative of carrying rather than sailing.
BAG AND BAGGAGE. The whole movable property.
BAGGAGE. The necessaries, utensils, and apparel of troops.
BAGGAGE-GUARD. A small proportion of any body of troops on the march, to whom the care of the whole baggage is assigned.
BAGGETY. The fish otherwise called the lump or sea-owl (Cyclopterus lumpus).
BAGGONET. The old term for bayonet, and not a vulgarism.
BAGNIO. A sort of barrack in Mediterranean sea-ports, where the galley-slaves and convicts are confined.
BAGPIPE. To bagpipe the mizen is to lay it aback, by bringing the sheet to the mizen-shrouds.
BAG-REEF. A fourth or lower reef of fore-and-aft sails, often used in the royal navy.—Bag-reef of top-sails, first reef (of five in American navy); a short reef, usually taken in to prevent a large sail from bagging when on a wind.
BAGREL. A minnow or baggie.
BAGUIO. A rare but dreadfully violent wind among the Philippine Isles.
BAHAR. A commercial weight of a quarter of a ton in the Molucca Islands.
BAIDAR. A swift open canoe of the Arctic tribes and Kurile Isles, used in pursuing otters and even whales; a slender frame from 18 to 25 feet long, covered with hides. They are impelled by six or twelve paddles. (See Kayak.)
BAIKIE. A northern name for the Larus marinus, or black-backed gull.
BAIKY. The ballium, or inclosed plot of ground in an ancient fort.
BAIL. A surety. The cargo of a captured or detained vessel is not allowed to be taken on bail before adjudication without mutual consent. It was also a northern term for a beacon or signal.
BAIL-BOND. The obligation entered into by sureties. Also when a person appears as proxy for the master of a vessel, or, on obtaining letters of marque, he makes himself personally responsible. In prize matters, however, the bail-bond is not a mere personal security given to the individual captors, but an assurance to abide by the adjudication of the court.
BAIL'D. This phrase "I'll be bail'd" is considered as an equivalent to "I'll be bound;" but it is probably an old enunciation for "I'll be poisoned," or "I'll be tormented," if what I utter is not true.
BAILO. A Levantine term for consul.
BAILS, or Bailes. The hoops which bear up the tilt of a boat.
BAIOCCO. An Italian copper coin, about equal to our halfpenny. Also a generic term for copper money or small coin.
BAIRLINN. A Gaelic term for a high rolling billow.
BAIT. The natural or artificial charge of a hook, to allure fish.
BAITLAND. An old word, formerly used to signify a port where refreshments could be procured.
BALÆNA. The zoological name for the right whale.
BALANCE. One of the simple mechanical powers, used in determining the weights and masses of different bodies. Also, one of the twelve signs of the zodiac, called Libra. Balance-wheel of a chronometer—see Chronometer.
BALANCE, To. To contract a sail into a narrower compass;—this is peculiar to the mizen of a ship, and to the main-sail of those vessels wherein it is extended by a boom. The operation of balancing the mizen is performed by lowering the yard or gaff a little, then rolling up a small portion of the sail at the peak or upper corner, and lashing it about one-fifth down towards the mast. A boom main-sail is balanced by rolling up a portion of the clew, or lower aftermost corner, and fastening it strongly to the boom.—N.B. It is requisite in both cases to wrap a piece of old canvas round the sail, under the lashing, to prevent its being fretted by the latter.
BALANCE-FISH. The hammer-headed shark (which see).
BALANCE-FRAMES. Those frames or bends of timber, of an equal capacity or area, which are equally distant from the ship's centre of gravity.
BALANCE OF TRADE. A computation of the value of all commodities which we import or export, showing the difference in amount.
BALANCE-REEF. A reef-band that crosses a sail from the outer head-earing to the tack diagonally, making it nearly triangular, and is used to contract it in very blowing weather. (2) A balance reef-band is generally placed in all gaff-sails; the band runs from the throat to the clew, so that it may be reefed either way—by lacing the foot or lower half; or by lacing the gaff drooped to the band: the latter is only done in the worst weather.—This is a point on which seamen may select—but the old plan, as first given, affords more power; (2) is applicable to the severest weather.
BALANCING-POINT. A familiar term for centre of gravity. (See Gravity.)
BALANDRA. A Spanish pleasure-boat. A lighter, a species of schooner.
BALANUS. The acorn-shell. A sessile cirriped.
BALCAR. See Balkar.
BALCONY. The projecting open galleries of old line-of-battle ships' sterns, now disused. They were convenient and ornamental in hot climates, but were afterwards inclosed within sash windows.
BALDRICK. A leathern girdle or sword-belt. Also the zodiac.
BALE. A pack. This word appears in the statute Richard II. c. 3, and is still in common use.
BALE, To. To lade water out of a ship or vessel with buckets (which were of old called bayles), cans, or the like, when the pumps are ineffective or choked.
BALEEN. The scientific term for the whalebone of commerce, derived from balæna, a whale. It consists of a series of long horny plates growing from each side of the palate in place of teeth.
BALE GOODS. Merchandise packed in large bundles, not in cases or casks.
BALENOT. A porpoise or small whale which frequents the river St. Lawrence.
BALESTILHA. The cross-staff of the early Portuguese navigators.
BALINGER, or Balangha. A kind of small sloop or barge; small vessels of war formerly without forecastles. The name was also given by some of the early voyagers to a large trading-boat of the Philippines and Moluccas.
BALISTES. A fish with mailed skin. File-fish.
BALIZAS. Land and sea marks on Portuguese coasts.
BALK. Straight young trees after they are felled and squared; a beam or timber used for temporary purposes, and under 8 inches square. Balks, of timber of any squared size, as mahogany, intended for planks, or, when very large, for booms or rafts.
BALKAR. A man placed on an eminence, like the ancient Olpis, to watch the movements of shoals of fish. In our early