The Sailor's Word-Book Part 236

STUMP TOPGALLANT-MASTS. Those without a royal pole.

STUN-SAILS. A corruption of _studding-sails_ (which see).

STURGEON. _Acipenser sturio_, a large fish; it has a cartilaginous skeleton, with a small circular and tubular mouth. It is found in the European seas and larger rivers. The roes are made into _caviare_, and the sounds and muscular parts into isingla.s.s. It is a royal fish in England.

STURRE-MANNE. An old name for a sea-captain.

SUBALTERNS. All commissioned army officers ranking below captains.

SUB-LIEUTENANT. A rank lately reproduced, to which a mids.h.i.+pman is ent.i.tled on pa.s.sing for lieutenant; formerly styled mate.

SUBMARINE BANK. An extensive sandy plateau with deep water over it.

SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH. Consists of a steel wire-rope, containing a heart of gutta-percha and other soft materials, in which are inclosed the copper wires through which the communication by electricity is conveyed.

Rapid progress has been made in the art of making and handling this rope, as is proved by the existence of two cables between Ireland and America, one of which was recovered from the deep sea by creeping.

SUBMARINE THERMOMETER. An instrument for trying the temperature of the sea at different depths. It consists of a hollow weighted cylinder in which a Six's thermometer is placed; the cylinder being provided with a valve at each end, opening upwards, so that as it sinks the valves open, allowing a free course of water through the cylinder: when it reaches the required depth the line is checked and the valves close; it is then hauled gently in, and the thermometer reaches the surface surrounded by water of the required depth, indicating its temperature.

SUBSIDY. A stipulated sum of money paid by one ruler to another, in pursuance of a treaty of alliance for offensive and defensive war. Also, a sum allowed for the conveyance of mails.

SUBSISTENCE. The amount to be issued to troops as daily pay, after making the regulated deductions for rations, necessaries, &c.

SUCCADES. Sweetmeats entered at the custom-house; formerly a large part of the cargo of Spanish West Indiamen.

SUCCOUR. An enterprise undertaken to relieve a place besieged or blockaded, by either forcing the enemy from before it, or throwing in supplies.

SUCKING. The action of the pump when the well is nearly dry, or at least so low at the pump-foot as to admit air.

SUCK-STONE. An archaic name for the remora.

SUCK THE MONKEY, TO. To rob the grog-can. (_See_ MONKEY.)

SUCTION. The rising of a fluid by the pressure of the atmosphere into a s.p.a.ce where a vacuum has been created.

SUFFERANCE. A permission on the custom-house _transire_ (which see.)

SUFFERANCE WHARF. _See_ WHARF.

SUFFOLK BANG. A very poor and hard kind of cheese, which was indignantly refused in our North Sea fleet. It was, as farmer's boy Bloomfield admitted, "too hard to bite."

SUGAR-LOAF. A term applied to conical hills along a sea-coast.

SUGAR-LOAF SEA. High turbulent waves with little wind.

SUGG, TO. To move or rock heavily on a bank or reef.

SUIT OF SAILS. The whole of the sails required to be bent for a vessel.

SULLAGE. The deposition of mud and silt by water.

SULLIT. A broad Dutch fis.h.i.+ng-boat.

SULPHUR. A mineral which forms a princ.i.p.al ingredient in the manufacture of gunpowder, and greatly increases the rapidity of its combustion.

SUMMER-BLINK. A transient gleam of suns.h.i.+ne in bad weather.

SUMMER COUTS. A northern name for the _aurora borealis_.

SUMMER SOLSTICE. _See_ CANCER.

SUMP. A bog or swamp. Also, a patent fuse used in mining.

SUMPIT. An arrow blown from the sumpitan, in Borneo. The sumpitan is about 7 feet long; the arrow has been driven with some force at 130 yards. Some suppose it to be poisoned.

SUN. The central body of our planetary system, and the source of light and heat; it is 850,000 miles in diameter.--_With the sun_, _i.e._ from left to right.--_Against the sun_, from right to left.

SUN AND MOON IN DISTANCE. When the angle between those bodies admits of measurement for lunars (about 130).

SUNDAY. Ought to be a day of rest at sea as well as on sh.o.r.e, when religious services might generally be performed. Though called the negro's holiday, it often brings but little cessation from work in some merchantmen; they sail on a Sunday, not because of exigency, but because it is otherwise a leisure day, and thereby gained to the owners.

SUN-FISH. The _Orthagoriscus mola_, a whimsical-looking creature, like the head of a large fish severed from its body. Also, a name in the south for the basking shark, from its habit of lying in the suns.h.i.+ne.

SUNKEN ROCK. That which lies beneath the surface of the sea, and is dangerous to navigation.

SUNK LAND. Shallows and swamps.

SUN-STAR. The _Solaster papposus_, one of the largest and handsomest of our radiated star-fishes.

SUPERANNUATED. Applied to such as have permission to retire from the service on a stated pension, on account of age or infirmity.

SUPER-CARGO. A person charged with the accounts and disposal of the cargo, and all other commercial affairs in the merchant-s.h.i.+p in which he sails.

SUPER-HEATED. Said of steam, the heat of which has been raised after being generated.

SUPER-HEATER. A contrivance for increasing the temperature of the steam to the extent that it would lose on its way from the boiler, until exhausted from the cylinder.

SUPERIOR CONJUNCTION. When an inferior planet is situated in the same longitude as the sun, and has that luminary between it and the earth, it is said to be in superior conjunction.

SUPERIOR PLANETS. Those which revolve about the sun as a centre, outside the earth's...o...b..t; the opposite of _inferior_.

SUPERIOR SLOPE. The inclined upper surface of a parapet.

SUPERNATANT PART OF A s.h.i.+P. That part which, when afloat, is above the water. This was formerly expressed by the name _dead-work_.

SUPERNUMERARIES. Men over and above the established complement of a s.h.i.+p, who are entered on a separate list in the s.h.i.+p's books for victuals and wages.

SUPPLEMENT OF LONGITUDE. The term usually applied to its complement, or what it wants of 180.