The Sailor's Word-Book Part 123

HARPOON, OR HARPAGO. A spear or javelin with a barbed point, used to strike whales and other fish. The harpoon is furnished with a long shank, and has at one end a broad and flat triangular head, sharpened at both edges so as to penetrate the whale with facility, but blunt behind to prevent its cutting out. To the other end a fore-ganger is bent, to which is fastened a long cord called the whale-line, which lies carefully coiled in the boat in such a manner as to run out without being interrupted or entangled. Several coils, each 130 fathoms of whale-line (soft laid and of clean silky fibre) are in readiness; the instant the whale is struck the men cant the oars, so that the roll may not immerse them in the water. The line, which has a turn round the bollard, flies like lightning, and is intensely watched. One man pours water on the smoking bollard, another is ready with a sharp axe to cut, and the others see that the lines run free. Seven or eight coils have been run out before the whale "sounds," or strikes bottom, when he rises again to breathe, and probably gets a similar dose.--_Gun harpoon._ A weapon used for the same purpose as the preceding, but it is fired out of a gun, instead of being thrown by hand; it is made entirely of steel, and has a chain or long shackle attached to it, to which the whale-line is fastened. Greener's harpoon-gun is a kind of wall-piece fixed in a crutch, which steps into the bow-bollard of the whale-boat. The harpoon projects about four inches beyond the muzzle. It consists of its barbed point attached to a long link, with a solid b.u.t.ton at its opposite end to fit the gun; on one rod of this link is a ring which runs to the muzzle, and is there attached to the whale-line by a thong of seal or walrus hide, wet. The gun being fired, the harpoon is projected, the ring sliding up to the b.u.t.ton, when the line follows. Some of these harpoons or other engines have grenades--gla.s.s globules with prussic acid or other chemicals--which sicken the whale instantly, and little trouble ensues.

HARPOONER, HARPONEER, OR HARPINEER. The expert bowman in a whale-boat, whose duty it is to throw or fire the harpoon.

HARP-SEAL. The _Phoca grnlandica_, a species of seal from the Arctic seas; so called from the form of a dark-brown mark upon its back.

HARQUEBUSS, OR ARQUEBUSS. Something larger than a musket. Sometimes called caliver. (_See_ ARQUEBUSS.)

HARR, OR HARL. A sea-storm, from a northern term for snarling, in allusion to the noise. Also, a cold thick mist or fog in easterly winds; the _haar_.

HARRY-BANNINGS. A north-country name for sticklebacks.

HARRY-NET. A net with such small meshes, and so formed, as to take even the young and small fish.

HARVEST-MOON. The full moon nearest the autumnal equinox, when for several successive evenings she rises at the same hour; and this name is given in consequence of the supposed advantage of the additional length of moonlight to agriculture.

HASEGA. A corruption of _a.s.seguay_ (which see).

HASK. An archaism for a fish-basket.

HASLAR HAGS. The nurses of the naval hospital Haslar.

HASLAR HOSPITAL. A fine establishment near Gosport, for the reception and cure of the sick and wounded of the Royal Navy.

HASP. A semicircular clamp turning in an eye-bolt in the stem-head of a sloop or boat, and fastened by a forelock in order to secure the bowsprit down to the bows. (_See_ SPAN-SHACKLE.)

HASTAN. The Manx or Erse term for a large eel or conger.

HASTY-PUDDING. A batter made of flour or oatmeal stirred in boiling water, and eaten with treacle or sugar at sea. This dish is not altogether to be despised in need, although Lord Dorset--the sailor poet--speaks of it disparagingly:

"Sure hasty-pudding is thy chiefest dish, With bullock's liver, or some stinking fish."

HATCH. A half-door. A contrivance for trapping salmon. (_See_ HECK.)

HATCH-BARS. To secure the hatches; are padlocked and sealed.

HATCH-BOAT. A sort of small vessel known as a pilot-boat, having a deck composed almost entirely of hatches.

HATCH-DECK. Gun brigs had hatches instead of lower decks.

HATCh.e.l.lING. The combing and preparing hemp for rope-making.

HATCHES. Flood-gates set in a river to stop the current of water. Also, coverings of grating, or close hatches to seal the holds.--_To lie under hatches, stowed in the hold._ Terms used figuratively for being in distress and death.

HATCHET-FAs.h.i.+ON. Cutting at the heads of antagonists, instead of thrusting.

HATCH-RINGS. Rings to lift the hatches by, or replace them.

HATCHWAY. A square or oblong opening in the middle of the deck of a s.h.i.+p, of which there are generally three--the fore, main, and after--affording pa.s.sages up and down from one deck to another, and again descending into the hold. The coverings over these openings are called hatches. Goods of bulk are let down into the hold by the hatchways. To lay anything in the hatchway, is to put it so that the hatches cannot be approached or opened. The hatches of a smaller kind are distinguished by the name of _scuttles_.

HATCHWAY-NETTINGS. Nettings sometimes placed over the hatchways instead of gratings, for security and circulation of air. They arrest the fall of any one from a deck above.

HATCHWAY-SCREENS. Pieces of fear-nought, or thick woollen cloth, put round the hatchways of a man-of-war in time of action, to screen the pa.s.sages to the magazine.

HATCHWAY-STOPPERS. Those for a hempen cable are fitted as a ring-stopper, only a larger rope. They are rove through a hole on each side of the coamings, in the corner of the hatchway; and both tails, made selvagee-fas.h.i.+on, are dogged along the cable. When a chain-cable is used, the stopper works from a beam on the lower deck.

HAT-MONEY. A word sometimes used for _primage_, or the trifling payment received by the master of a s.h.i.+p for care of goods.

HAUBERK. _See_ AUBERK.

HAUGH. Flat or marshy ground by the side of a river.

HAUL, TO. An expression peculiar to seamen, implying to pull or bowse at a single rope, without the a.s.sistance of blocks or other mechanical powers upon it; as "haul in," "haul down," "haul up," "haul aft," "haul together." (_See_ BOWSE, HOIST, and ROUSE.) A vessel _hauls her wind_ by tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the yards and sails so as to lie nearer to, or close to the wind, and by the power of the rudder shaping her course accordingly.

HAUL ABOARD THE FORE AND MAIN TACKS. This is to haul them forward, and down to the chess-trees on the weather-side.

HAUL AFT A SHEET. To pull it in more towards the stern, so as to trim the sail nearer to the wind.

HAULAGE. A traction-way.

HAUL-BOWLINGS. The old name for the able-bodied seamen.

HAUL HER WIND. Said of a vessel when she comes close upon the wind.--_Haul your wind_, or _haul to the wind_, signifies that the s.h.i.+p's head is to be brought nearer to the wind--a very usual phrase when she has been going free.

HAUL IN, TO. To sail close to the wind, in order to approach nearer to an object.

HAULING DOWN VACANCY. The colloquialism expressive of the promotion of a flag-lieutenant and mids.h.i.+pman on an admiral's hauling down his flag.

HAULING-LINE. A line made fast to any object, to be hauled nearer or on board, as a hawser, a spar, &c.

HAULING SHARP. Going upon half allowance of food.

HAUL MY WIND. An expression when an individual is going upon a new line of action. To avoid a quarrel or difficulty.

HAUL OF ALL! An order to brace round all the yards at once--a manuvre sometimes used in tacking, or on a sudden change of wind; it requires a strong crew.

HAUL OFF, TO. To sail closer to the wind, in order to get further from any object.

HAUL OUT TO LEEWARD! In reefing top-sails, the cry when the weather earing is pa.s.sed.

HAUL ROUND. Said when the wind is gradually s.h.i.+fting towards any particular point of the compa.s.s. Edging round a danger.

HAULS AFT, OR VEERS AFT. Said of the wind when it draws astern.

HAULSER. The old orthography for _hawser_.

HAULS FORWARD. Said of the wind when it draws before the beam.

HAUL UNDER THE CHAINS. This is a phrase signifying a s.h.i.+p's working and straining on the masts and shrouds, so as to make the seams open and shut as she rolls.