CANNON-SERPENTINE. An old name for a gun of 7-inches bore.
CANOE. A peculiar boat used by several uncivilized nations, formed of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, and sometimes of several pieces of bark joined together, and again of hide. They are of various sizes, according to the uses for which they are designed, or the countries to which they belong. Some carry sail, but they are commonly rowed with paddles, somewhat resembling a corn-shovel; and instead of rowing with it horizontally, as with an oar, they manage it perpendicularly. In Greenland and Hudson Bay, the Esquimaux limits of America, skin-boats are chiefly in use, under the name of kaiack, oomiak, baidar, &c.
CANOPUS. The lucida of Argo Navis, and a Greenwich star. Also, a city of classical importance, visited by the heroes of the Trojan war, the reputed burial-place of the pilot of Menelaus, &c. But, as some ancient places have been so fortunate as to renew their classical importance in modern times, so this, under the modern name of Abukeir, has received a new "stamp of fate," by its overlooking, like Salamis, the scene of a naval battle, which also led to a decision of the fate of nations. In this bay Nelson, at one blow, destroyed the fleet of the enemy, and cut off the veteran army of France from the shores of Egypt. The Canopian mouth of the Nile was the most westerly of all the branches of that celebrated river.
CANOPY. A light awning over the stern-sheets of a boat.
CANT, To. To turn anything about, or so that it does not stand square. To diverge from a central right line. Cant the boat or ship; i.e. for careening her.
CANT. A cut made in a whale between the neck and the fins, to which the cant-purchase is made fast, for turning the animal round in the operation of flensing.
CANTARA. A watering-place.
CANT-BLOCKS. The large purchase-blocks used by whalers to cant the whales round under the process of flensing.
CANT-BODY. An imaginary figure of that part of a ship's body which forms the shape forward and aft, and whose planes make obtuse angles with the midship line of the ship.
CANTEEN. A small tin vessel for men on service to carry liquids. Also, a small chest containing utensils for an officer's messing. Also, a kind of sutling-house in garrisons.
CANTERA. A Spanish fishing-boat.
CANT-FALLS. See Spike-tackle.
CANT-HOOK. A lever with a hook at one end for heavy articles.
CANTICK-QUOINS. Short three-edged pieces of wood to steady casks from labouring against each other.
CANTING BALLAST. Is when by a sudden gust or stress of weather a ship is thrown so far over that the ballast settles to leeward, and prevents the ship from righting.
CANTING-LIVRE. See Console-bracket.
CANT-LINE. Synonymous with girt-line, as to cant the top over the lowermast-head.
CANTONMENTS. Troops detached and quartered in different towns and villages near each other.
CANT-PURCHASE. This is formed by a block suspended from the mainmast-head, and another block made fast to the cant cut in the whale. (See Cant-blocks.)
CANT-RIBBONS. Those ribbons that do not lie in a horizontal or level direction.
CANT-ROPE. See Four-cant.
CANT-SPAR. A hand-mast pole, fit for making small masts or yards, booms, &c.
CANT-TIMBERS. They derive their name from being canted or raised obliquely from the keel. The upper ends of those on the bow are inclined to the stem, as those in the after-part incline to the stern-post above. In a word, cant-timbers are those which do not stand square with the middle line of the ship. They may be deemed radial bow or stern-timbers.
CANVAS [from cannabis, hemp]. A cloth made of hemp, and used for the sails of ships. It is purchased in bolts, and numbered from 1 to 8, rarely to 9 and 10. Number 1 being the coarsest and strongest, is used for the lower sails, as fore-sail and main-sail in large ships. When a vessel is in motion by means of her sails she is said to be under canvas.
CANVAS-BACK DUCK. An American wild duck (Fuligula valisneria), which takes this name from the colour of the back feathers; much esteemed as a delicacy.
CANVAS-CLIMBER. A word used by Marston for a sailor who goes aloft; hence Marina tells Leonine—
"And, clasping to a mast, endur'd a sea
That almost burst the deck, and from the ladder-tackle
Wash'd off a canvas-climber."
CAP. A strong thick block of wood having two large holes through it, the one square, the other round, used to confine two masts together, when one is erected at the head of the other, in order to lengthen it. The principal caps of a ship are those of the lower masts, which are fitted with a strong eye-bolt on each side, wherein to hook the block by which the top-mast is drawn up through the cap. In the same manner as the top mast slides up through the cap of the lower mast, the topgallant-mast slides up through the cap of the top-masts. When made of iron the cap used to be called a crance.—To cap a mast-head is placing tarpaulin guards against weather. The term is applied to any covering such as lead put over iron bolts to prevent corrosion by sea-water, canvas covers over the ends of rigging, &c. &c. Also, pieces of oak laid on the upper blocks on which a vessel is built, to receive the keel. They are split out for the addition of the false keel, and therefore should be of the most free-grained timber. Also, the coating which guards the top of a quill tube. Also, the percussion priming for fire-arms.—Cap-a-pied, armed from head to foot.
CAP, To. To puzzle or beat in argument. To salute by touching the head-covering, as Shakspeare makes Iago's friends act to Othello. It is now more an academic than a sea-term.
CAPABARRE. An old term for misappropriating government stores. (See Marryat's Novels.)
CAPACISE. A corrupt form of capsize.
CAPACITY. Burden, tonnage, fitness for the service, rating.
CAPE. A projecting point of land jutting out from the coast-line; the extremity of a promontory, of which last it is the secondary rank. It differs from a headland, since a cape may be low. The Cape of Good Hope is always familiarly known as "The Cape." Cape was also used for a rhumb-line.
CAPE, To. To keep a course. How does she cape? how does she lie her course?
CAPE FLY-AWAY. A cloud-bank on the horizon, mistaken for land, which disappears as the ship advances. (See Fog.)
CAPE-HEN. See Molly-mawk.
CAPELLA. The lucida of Auriga, and a nautical star.
CAPE-MERCHANT [capo]. An old name for super-cargo in early voyages, as also the head merchant in a factory.
CAPE-PIGEON, or Cape-petrel. A sea-bird which follows a ship in her passage round the cape; the Procellaria capensis. (See Pintados.)
CAPER. A light-armed vessel of the 17th century, used by the Dutch for privateering.
CAPER CORNER-WAY. Diagonally.
CAPFUL OF WIND. A light flaw, which suddenly careens a vessel and passes off.
CAPITAL of a Work. In fortification, an imaginary line bisecting its most prominent salient angle.
CAPITANA. Formerly the principal galley in a Mediterranean fleet: the admiral's ship.
CAPITULATION. The conditions on which a subdued force surrenders, agreed upon between the contending parties.
CAPLIN, or Capelin. A fish of the family Clupeidæ, very similar to a smelt; frequently imported from Newfoundland dried. It is the general bait for cod-fish there.
CAP'N. The way in which some address the commanders of merchant vessels.
CAPON.