The Sailor's Word-Book Part 210

SAW-BONES. A sobriquet for the surgeon and his a.s.sistants.

SAW-FISH. A species of shark (_Pristis antiquorum_) with the bones of the face produced into a long flat rostrum, with a row of pointed teeth placed along each edge.

SAY-NAY. A Lancas.h.i.+re name for a lamprey.

SAYTH. A coal-fish in its third year.

SCAFFLING. A northern term for an eel.

SCALA. Ports and landing-places in the Levant, so named from the old custom of placing a ladder to a boat to land from. Gang-boards are now used for that purpose.

SCALDINGS! Notice to get out of the way; it is used when a man with a load wishes to pa.s.s, and would lead those in his way to think that he was carrying hot water.

SCALE. An old word for commercial emporium, derived from _scala_. Also, the graduated divisions by which the proportions of a chart or plan are regulated. Also, the common measures of the sheer-draught, &c. (_See_ GUNTER'S LINE.)

SCALENE TRIANGLE. That which has all three sides unequal.

SCALING. The act of cleaning the inside of a s.h.i.+p's cannon by the explosion of a reduced quant.i.ty of powder. Also, attacking a place by getting over its defences.

SCALING-LADDERS. Those made in lengths which may be carried easily, and quickly fitted together to any length required.

SCAMPAVIA. A fast rowing war boat of Naples and Sicily; in 1814-15 they ranged to 150 feet, pulled by forty sweeps or oars, each man having his bunk under his sweep. They were rigged with one huge lateen at one-third from the stem; no forward bulwark or stem above deck; a long bra.s.s 6-pounder gun worked before the mast, only two feet above water; the jib, set on a gaff-like boom, veered abeam when firing the gun. Abaft a lateen mizen with top-sail, &c.

SCANT. A term applied to the wind when it heads a s.h.i.+p off, so that she will barely lay her course when the yards are very sharp up.

SCANTLING. The dimensions of a timber when reduced to its standard size.

SCAR. In hydrography applies to a cliff; whence are derived the names Scarborough, Scarnose, &c. Also, to rocks bare only at low water, as on the coasts of Lancas.h.i.+re. Also, beds of gravel or stone in estuaries.

SCARBRO' WARNING. Letting anything go by the run, without due notice.

Heywood in his account of Stafford's surprise of Scarborough castle, in 1557, says:--

"This term _Scarborow warning_ grew (some say), By hasty hanging for rank robbery theare, Who that was met, but suspected in that way, Straight he was truss't, whatever he were."

SCARFED. An old word for "decorated with flags."

SCARP. A precipitous steep; as either the escarp or counterscarp of a fort: but a bank or the face of a hill may also be _scarped_.

SCARPH, OR SCARFING. Is the junction of wood or metal by sloping off the edges, and maintaining the same thickness throughout the joint. The stem and stern posts are scarfed to the keel.

SCARPHS OF THE KEEL. The joints, when a keel is made of several pieces.

(_See_ SCARPH.)

SCARRAG. Manx or Erse for a skate or ray-fish.

SCAT. A west of England term for a pa.s.sing shower.

SCAUR. _See_ SCAR.

SCAW. A promontory or isthmus.

SCAWBERK. An archaism for scabbard.

SCEITHMAN. An old statute term signifying _pirate_.

'SCENDING [from _ascend_]. The contrary motion to pitching. (_See_ SEND.)

SCENOGRAPHY. Representation of s.h.i.+ps or forts in some kind of perspective.

SCHEDAR. The lucida of the ancient constellation Ca.s.siopeia, and one of the nautical stars.

SCHEMER. One who has charge of the hold of a North Sea s.h.i.+p.

SCHNAPS. An ardent spirit, like Schiedam hollands, impregnated with narcotic ingredients; a destructive drink in common use along the sh.o.r.es of the northern seas.

SCHOCK. A commercial measure of 60 cask staves. (_See_ RING.)

SCHOOL. A term applied to a shoal of any of the cetacean animals.

SCHOONER. Strictly, a small craft with two masts and no tops, but the name is also applied to fore-and-aft vessels of various cla.s.ses. There are two-topsail schooners both fore and aft, main-topsail schooners, with two square top-sails; fore-topsail schooners with one square top-sail. Ballahou schooners, whose fore-mast rakes forward; and we also have three-masted vessels called schooners.

SCHOUT. A water-bailiff in many northern European ports, who superintends the police for seamen.

SCHRIVAN. An old term for a s.h.i.+p's clerk.

SCHULL. _See_ SCHOOL.

SCHUYT. A Dutch vessel, galliot rigged, used in the river trade of Holland.

SCIMETAR. An eastern sabre, with a broad, very re-curved blade.

SCOBS. The scoria made at the armourer's forge.

SCONCE. A petty fort. Also, the head; whence Shakspeare's pun in making Dromio talk of having his sconce ensconced. Also, the Anglo-Saxon for a dangerous candle-holder, made to let into the sides or posts in a s.h.i.+p's hold. Also, _sconce of the magazine_, a close safe lantern.

SCOODYN. An old word to express the burring which forms on vessels'

bottoms, when foul.

SCOOP. A long spoon-shaped piece of wood to throw water, when was.h.i.+ng a s.h.i.+p's sides in the morning. _Scooping_ is the same as _baling_ a boat.

SCOPE. The riding scope of a vessel's cable should be at least three times the depth of water under her, but it must vary with the amount of wind and nature of the bottom.

SCORE. Twenty; commercially, in the case of certain articles, six score went to the hundred--a usage thus regulated:

"Five score's a hundred of men, money, and pins: Six score's a hundred of all other things."

Also an angular piece cut out of a solid. Also, an account or reckoning.

SCORE OF A BLOCK, OR OF A DEAD EYE. The groove round which the rope pa.s.ses.