BASTA. A word in former use for enough, from the Italian.
BASTARD. A term applied to all pieces of ordnance which are of unusual or irregular proportions: the government bastard-cannon had a 7-inch bore, and sent a 40-lb. shot. Also, a fair-weather square sail in some Mediterranean craft, and occasionally used for an awning.
BASTARD-MACKEREL, or Horse-Mackerel. The Caranx trachurus, a dry, coarse, and unwholesome fish, of the family Scombridæ, very common in the Mediterranean.
BASTARD-PITCH. A mixture of colophony, black pitch, and tar. They are boiled down together, and put into barrels of pine-wood, forming, when the ingredients are mixed in equal portions, a substance of a very liquid consistence, called in France bray gras. If a thicker consistence is desired, a greater proportion of colophony is added, and it is cast in moulds. It is then called bastard-pitch.
BASTE, To. To beat in punition. A mode of sewing in sail-making.
BASTILE. A temporary wooden tower, used formerly in naval and military warfare.
BASTIONS. Projecting portions of a rampart, so disposed that the bottom of the escarp of each part of the whole rampart may be defended from the parapet of some other part. Their form and dimensions are influenced by many considerations, especially by the effect and range of fire-arms; but it is essential to them to have two faces and two flanks; the former having an average length, according to present systems, of 130 yards, the latter of 40 yards.
BASTON, or Baton. A club used of old by authority. (See Batoon.)
BASTONADO. Beating a criminal with sticks [from bastone, a cudgel]. A punishment common among Jews, Greeks, and Romans, and still practised in the Levant, China, and Russia.
BAT, or Sea-bat. An Anglo-Saxon term for boat or vessel. Also a broad-bodied thoracic fish, with a small head, and distinguished by its large triangular dorsal and anal fins, which exceed the length of the body. It is the Chætodon vespertilio of naturalists.
BAT AND FORAGE. A regulated allowance in money and forage to officers in the field.
BATARDATES. Square-stemmed row-galleys.
BATARDEAU. In fortification, a dam of masonry crossing the ditch: its top is constructed of such a form as to afford no passage along it.
BATARDELLES. Galleys less strong than the capitana, and placed on each side of her.
BATEAU. A flat-bottomed, sharp-ended clumsy boat, used on the rivers and lakes of Canada; some of them are large. Also a peculiar army pontoon.
BATED. A plump, full-roed fish is said to be bated.
BATELLA. A small plying-boat.
BATH. (See Washing-place.) An order of knighthood instituted in 1339, revived in 1725, and enlarged as a national reward of naval and military merit in January, 1815. Henry IV. gave this name, because the forty-six esquires on whom he conferred this honour at his coronation had watched all the previous night, and then bathed as typical of their pure virtue. The order was supposed to belong to men who distinguished themselves by valour as regards the navy, but it is now deemed an inferior representation of court favour.
BATILLAGE. An old term for boat-hire.
BATMAN. A Turkish weight of 6 okes, or about 18 lbs. English. There is also a smaller batman in Turkey, of about 4 lbs. 10 ozs. English. In Persia there are also two batmans—the larger equal to 12 lbs. English, and the other is of about half that weight. Also, a soldier assigned to a mounted officer as groom.
BATOON, Baston, or Baton. A staff, truncheon, or badge of military honour for field-marshals. A term in heraldry. Also, batoons of St. Paul, the fossil spines of echini, found in Malta and elsewhere.
BAT-SWAIN. An Anglo-Saxon expression for boatswain.
BATTA. Extra allowance of pay granted to troops in India, varying somewhat with the nature of the service they are employed upon, and their distance from the capital of the presidency.
BATTALIA. The order of battle.
BATTALION. A force of soldiers, complete in staff and officers, of such strength as will allow of its manœuvres on the field of battle being intimately regulated by one superior officer. The term is now proper to infantry only, and represents from 500 to 1000 men. It is the ordinary unit made use of in estimating the infantry strength of an army.
BATTARD. An early cannon of small size.
BATTELOE. A lateen-rigged vessel of India.
BATTENING THE HATCHES. Securing the tarpaulins over them. (See Battens of the Hatches.)
BATTENS. In general, scantlings of wood from 1 inch to 3 inches broad. Long slips of fir used for setting fair the sheer lines of a ship, or drawing the lines by in the moulding loft, and setting off distances.
BATTENS for Hammocks. See Hammock-battens.
BATTENS of the Hatches. Long narrow laths, or straightened hoops of casks, serving by the help of nailing to confine the edges of the tarpaulins, and keep them close down to the sides of the hatchways, in bad weather. Also, thin strips of wood put upon rigging, to keep it from chafing, by those who dislike mats: when large these are designated Scotchmen.
BATTERING GUNS. Properly guns whose weight and power fit them for demolishing by direct force the works of the enemy; hence all heavy, as distinguished from field or light, guns come under the term. (See Siege-artillery and Garrison Guns.)
BATTERING RAM. See Ram.
BATTERING TRAIN. The train of heavy ordnance necessary for a siege, which, since the copious introduction of vertical and other shell fire, is more correctly rendered by the term siege-train (which see).
BATTERY. A place whereon cannon, mortars, &c., are or may be mounted for action. It generally has a parapet for the protection of the gunners, and other defences and conveniences according to its importance and objects. (See also Floating Battery.) Also, a company of artillery. In field-artillery it includes men, guns (usually six in the British service), horses, carriages, &c., complete for service.
BATTLE. An engagement between two fleets, or even single ships, usually called a sea-fight or engagement. The conflict between the forces of two contending armies.
BATTLE LANTERNS (American). See Fighting-lanterns.
BATTLEMENTS. The vertical notches or openings made in the parapet walls of old castles and fortified buildings, to serve for embrasures to the bowmen, arquebusiers, &c., of former days.
BATTLE-ROYAL. A term derived from cock-fighting, but generally applied to a noisy confused row.
BATTLE THE WATCH, To. To shift as well as we can; to contend with a difficulty. To depend on one's own exertions.
BATTLING-STONE. A large stone with a smooth surface by the side of a stream, on which washers beat their linen.
BATTS. A north-country term for flat grounds adjoining islands in rivers, sometimes used for the islands themselves.
BAT-WARD. An old term for a boat-keeper.
BAUN. See Bore.
BAVIER. The beaver of a helmet.
BAVIN. Brushwood bound up with only one withe: a faggot is tied with two. It is often spelled baven, but Shakspeare has
"Rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burned."
This underwood is sometimes procurable by ships where none other can be got. Bavin in war applies