The Sailor's Word-Book Part 233

"O, do but think, You stand upon the rivage, and behold A city on the inconstant billows dancing; For so appears this fleet majestical, Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow!

Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy."

STERN-ALL. A term amongst whalers, meaning to pull the boat stern foremost, to back off after having entered an iron (_harpoon_).

STERN-BOARD. This term is familiarly known to seamen as tacking by misadventure in stays; or purposely, as a seamanlike measure, to effect the object. Thus a s.h.i.+p in a narrow channel is allowed to fly up head to wind until her stem nearly touches a weather danger; the head-yards are then quickly braced abox, and the helm s.h.i.+fted. Thus she makes stern-way until all the sails are full, when she is again skilfully brought to the wind before touching the danger under her lee. Generally speaking, however, it refers to bad seamans.h.i.+p.

STERN-CHASERS. The guns which fire directly aft.

STERN-DAVITS. Pieces of iron or timber projecting from the stern, with sheaves or blocks at their outer ends, for hoisting boats up to.

STERN-FAST. A rope used to confine the stern of a vessel to a wharf, &c.

STERN-FRAME. That strong and ornamental union based on the stern-post, transom, and fas.h.i.+on-pieces.

STERN-KNEE. Synonymous with _stern-son_ (which see).

STERN-LADDER. Made of ropes with wooden steps, for getting in and out of the boats astern.

STERNMOST. Implies anything in the rear, or farthest astern, as opposed to headmost.

STERN-PORTS. The ports made between the stern-timbers.

STERN-POST. The opposite to the _stem_; scarphed into the keel, and suspending the rudder. In steam-s.h.i.+ps, where a screw is fitted, it works between this and an after stern-post which carries the rudder.

STERN-SHEETS. That part of a boat between the stern and the aftmost thwart, furnished with seats for pa.s.sengers.

STERN-SON. A knee-piece of oak-timber, worked on the after dead-wood; the fore-end is scarphed into the kelson, and the after-side fayed into the throats of the transoms.

STERN-WALK. The old galleries formerly used to line-of-battle s.h.i.+ps.

STERN-WAY. The movement by which a s.h.i.+p goes stern foremost. The opposite of _head-way_.

STEVEDORE, OR STIVADORE. A stower; one employed in the hold in loading and unloading merchant vessels.

STEWARD. There are several persons under this appellation in most s.h.i.+ps, according to their size, appointed to the charge of the sea-stores of the various grades. The paymaster's steward has most to do, having to serve the crew, and therefore has a.s.sistants, distinguished by the sobriquet of Jack-o'-the-dust, &c. In large pa.s.senger s.h.i.+ps which do not carry a purser, part of his duties devolves upon the captain's steward.

In smaller merchant s.h.i.+ps the special duties of the steward are not heavy, so that he a.s.sists in the working of the s.h.i.+p, and in tacking; his station is, _ex officio_, the main-sheet.

STICHLING. A grown perch, thus described by old Palsgrave: "Styckelyng, a maner of fysshe."

STICKLEBACK. A very small fish, armed with sharp spines on its back.

STICKS. A familiar phrase for masts.

STIFF. Stable or steady; the opposite to _crank_; a quality by which a s.h.i.+p stands up to her canvas, and carries enough sail without heeling over too much.

STIFF BOTTOM. A clayey bottom.

STIFF BREEZE. One in which a s.h.i.+p may carry a press of sail, when a little more would endanger the spars.

STIFFENING ORDER. A custom-house warrant for making a provision in the s.h.i.+pping of goods, before the whole inward cargo is discharged, to prevent the vessel getting too light.

STILL WATER. Another name for _slack-tide_; it is also used for water under the lee of headlands, or where there is neither tide nor current.

STING-RAY. A fish, _Trygon pastinaca_, which wounds with a serrate bone, lying in a sheath on the upper side of its tail; the wound is painful, as all fish-wounds are, but not truly poisonous, and the smart is limited by superst.i.tion to the next tide.

STINK-b.a.l.l.s. A pyrotechnical preparation of pitch, rosin, nitre, gunpowder, colophony, a.s.saftida, and other offensive and suffocating ingredients, formerly used for throwing on to an enemy's decks at close quarters, and still in use with Eastern pirates, in earthen jars or stink-pots.

STIPULATION. A process in the instance-court of the admiralty, which is conventional when it regards a vessel or cargo, but praetorian and judicial in proceedings against a person.

STIREMANNUS. The term in _Domesday Book_ for the pilot of a s.h.i.+p or steersman.

STIRRUP. An iron or copper plate that turns upwards on each side of a s.h.i.+p's keel and dead-wood at the fore-foot, or at her skegg, and bolts through all: it is a strengthener, but not always necessary.

STIRRUPS. Ropes with eyes at their ends, through which the foot-ropes are rove, and by which they are supported; the ends are nailed to the yards, and steady the men when reefing or furling sails.

STIVER. A very small Dutch coin. "Not worth a stiver" is a colloquialism to express a person's poverty.

STOACH-WAY. The streamlet or channel which runs through the silt or sand at low-water in tidal ports; a term princ.i.p.ally used on our southern sh.o.r.es.

STOAKED. The limber-holes impeded or choked, so that the water cannot come to the pump-well.

STOCADO. A neat thrust in fencing.

STOCCADE. A defensive work, constructed of stout timber or trunks of trees securely planted together. Originally written _stockade_.

STOCKADE. Now spelled _stoccade_.

STOCK AND FLUKE. The whole of anything.

STOCK-FISH. Ling and haddock when sun-dried, without salt, were called stock-fish, and used in the navy, but are now discontinued, from being thought to promote the scurvy.

STOCK OF AN ANCHOR. A cross-beam of wood, or bar of iron, secured to the upper end of the shank at right angles with the flukes; by its means the anchor is canted with one fluke down, and made to hook the ground.--_Stock of a gun, musket, or pistol_, is the wooden part to which the barrel is fitted, for the convenience of handling and firing it. _Stock_ is also applied to stores laid in for a voyage, as sea-stock, live-stock, &c.--_To stock to_, in stowing an anchor, is, by means of a tackle upon the upper end of the stock, to bowse it into a perpendicular direction, which tackle is hence denominated the stock-tackle.

STOCKS. A frame of blocks and sh.o.r.es whereon to build s.h.i.+pping. It has a gradual declivity towards the water.

STOER-MACKEREL. A name for the young tunny-fish.

STOITING. An east-country term for the jumping of fishes above the surface of the water.

STOKE, TO. To frequent the galley in a man-of-war, or to trim fires.

STOKE-HOLE. A scuttle in the deck of a steamer to admit fuel for the engine. Also, the s.p.a.ce for the men to stand in, to feed and trim the fires.

STOKER, OR FIREMAN. The man who attends to feed and trim the fires for the boilers in a steam-vessel.

STOMACH-PIECE. _See_ Ap.r.o.n.

STONACRE. A sloop-rigged boat employed to carry stone on the Severn.