AGENCY. Payment pro operâ et labore, fixed by the prize act at five per cent. as a fair average, but it gives nothing where the property is restored; in such cases it is usual for the agent to charge a gross sum.
AGENCY, NAVAL. A useful class of persons, who transact the monetary affairs of officers, and frequently help them to the top branches of the profession. They are paid for their services by a percentage of 21⁄2.
AGENT. In physics, expresses that by which a thing is done or effected.—Navy agent is a deputy employed to pass accounts, transact business, and receive pay or other monies, in behoof of the officers and crew, and to apply the proceeds as directed by them.—Agent victuallers, officers appointed to the charge of provisions at our foreign ports and stations, to contract for, buy, and regulate, under the authority of the commissioners of the navy. (See Negligence.)—Prize agent, one appointed for the sale of prizes, and nominated in equal numbers by the commander, the officers, and the ship's company.
AGENTS TO LLOYD'S. See Lloyd's Agents.
AGGRESSION. The first act of injury in provoking warfare.
AGIO. An Italian word, applied to denote the profit arising from discounting bills; also the difference between the value of bank-stock and currency.
AGISTMENT. An embankment against the sea or rivers, or one thrown up to fence out a stream.
AGON. A Chinese kind of metal cymbal. (See Gong.) It is singular that Gower, circa 1395, using this old word for gone, thus metallicizes—
"Of brasse, of silver, and of golde,
The world is passed, and agon."
AGONIST. A champion; prize-fighter.
AGREEMENT. Except vessels of less than eighty tons register, the master of a ship must enter into an agreement with every seaman whom he carries from any port in Great Britain as one of his crew; and that agreement must be in the form sanctioned by the Board of Trade. (See Running Agreement.)
AGROUND. The situation of a ship or other vessel whose bottom touches or rests upon the ground. It also signifies stranded, and is used figuratively for being disabled or hindered.
AGUA-ARDIENTE [Sp.] Corrupted into aguardiente—the adulterated brandy of Spain supplied to ships.
AGUADA. The Spanish and Portuguese term for a watering-place.
AGUGLIA. A common name for sharp-pointed rocks. From the Italian for needle; written agulha in Spanish and Portuguese charts.
AHEAD. A term especially referable to any object farther onward, or immediately before the ship, or in the course steered, and therefore opposed to astern.—Ahead of the reckoning, is sailing beyond the estimated position of the ship.—Ahead is also used for progress; as, cannot get ahead, and is generally applied to forward, in advance.
AHOLD. A term of our early navigators, for bringing a ship close to the wind, so as to hold or keep to it.
AHOO, or All Ahoo, as our Saxon forefathers had it; awry, aslant, lop-sided. (See Askew.)
AHOY! See Ho!
A-HULL. A ship under bare poles and her helm a-lee, driving from wind and sea, stern foremost. Also a ship deserted, and exposed to the tempestuous winds.
AID, To. To succour; to supply with provisions or stores.
AID-DE-CAMP. A military staff officer, who carries and circulates the general's orders; and another class selected as expert at carving and dancing. In a ship, flag-lieutenant to an admiral, or, in action, the quarter-deck midshipmen to a captain.
AIGRE. The sudden flowing of the sea, called in the fens of Lincolnshire, acker. (See Bore.)
AIGUADE [Fr.] Aguada [Sp.] Water as provision for ships.
AIGUADES. Watering-places on French coasts.
AIGUILLE aimantee, magnetic needle. ——de carène, out-rigger. ——d'inclinaison, dipping needle. ——de tré, or à ralingue, a bolt-rope needle.
AIGUILLES. The peculiar small fishing-boats in the Garonne and other rivers of Guienne.
AIGULETS [Fr. aiguillettes]. Tagged points or cords worn across the breast in some uniforms of generals, staff-officers, and special mounted corps.
AILETTES. Small plates of steel placed on the shoulders in mediæval armour.
AIM. The direction of a musket, cannon, or any other fire-arm or missile weapon towards its object.—To take aim, directing the piece to the object.
AIR. The elastic, compressible, and dilatable fluid encompassing the terraqueous globe. It penetrates and pervades other bodies, and thus animates and excites all nature.—Air means also a gentle breath of wind gliding over the surface of the water.—To air, to dry or ventilate.
AIR-BLADDER. A vesicle containing gas, situated immediately beneath the spinal column in most fish, and often communicating by a tube with the gullet. It is the homologue of the lungs of air-breathing vertebrates.
AIR-BRAVING. Defying the winds.
AIR-CONE, in the marine engine, is to receive the gases which enter the hot-well from the air-pump, where, after ascending, they escape through a pipe at the top.
AIRE. A name in our northern islands for a bank of sand.
AIR-FUNNEL. A cavity formed by omission of a timber in the upper works of a vessel, to admit fresh air into the hold of a ship and convey the foul out of it.
AIR-GUN. A silent weapon, which propels bullets by the expansive force of air only.
AIRING-STAGE. A wooden platform, on which gunpowder is aired and dried.
AIR-JACKET. A leathern garment furnished with inflated bladders, to buoy the wearer up in the water. (See Ayr.)
AIR-PIPES. Funnels for clearing ships' holds of foul air, on the principle of the rarefying power of heat.
AIR-PORTS. Large scuttles in ships' bows for the admission of air, when the other ports are down. The Americans also call their side-ports by that name.
AIR-PUMP. An apparatus to remove the water and gases accumulating in the condenser while the engine is at work.
AIR-SCUTTLES. The same as air-ports.
AIR-SHAFTS. Vertical holes made in mining, to supply the adits with fresh air. Wooden shafts are sometimes adopted on board ship for a similar purpose.
AIRT, or Art. A north-country word for a bearing point of the compass or quarter of the heavens. Thus the song—
"Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly love the west."
AIRY. Breezy.
AKEDOWN. A form of the term acton, as a defensive dress.
ALABLASTER. An arbalist or cross-bow man; also the corruption of alabaster.
ALAMAK. The name given in nautical astronomy to that beautiful double star Anak al ard of the Arabians, or γ Andromedæ.
ALAMOTTIE. The Procellaria pelagica, or Storm-finch; Mother Cary's chicken, or stormy petrel.
ALAND. A term formerly used for to the shore, on shore, or to land.
ALARM, Alarum [from the Italian all'armi!] An apprehension from sudden noise or report. The drum or signal by which men are summoned to stand on their guard in time of danger.—False alarm is sometimes occasioned by a timid or negligent sentry, and at others designedly by an officer, to ascertain the promptness