The Sailor's Word-Book Part 247

TRANTER. One who carries fish for sale.

TRAP-CREEL. A basket for catching lobsters.

TRAPEZIUM. A quadrilateral figure that has only two of its four sides parallel.

TRAPEZOID, OR TABLET. Has all its four sides and angles unequal, and no sides parallel.

TRAVADO, OR TRAVAT [from _tornado_]. A heavy squall, with sudden gusts of wind, lightning, and rain, on the coast of North America; like the African tornado, it commences with a black cloud in calm weather and a clear sky.

TRAVEL, TO. For a thimble, block, &c., to run along on beams or ropes.

TRAVELLER. One or more iron thimbles with a rope spliced round them, sometimes forming a kind of tail, but more generally a species of grummet.--_Traveller of boat's masts_, _jib-boom_, &c. An iron ring fitted so as to slip up and down a spar, to run in and out on a boom or gaff, for the purpose of extending or drawing in the outer corner or tack of the sail.

TRAVELLER-IRON. To a cutter's fore-sail, boom-mainsail, or spanker-boom; generally termed traveller horse. (_See_ HORSE.)

TRAVELLING-BACKSTAYS, are generally the breast-backstays, which set up with a runner purchase in the channels on the weather side; that to leeward is let go in stays. The traveller is a strong parrel-strop which pa.s.ses round the mast, and through two thimbles of which the breast backstays reeve. As the yard is hoisted this slips up, but when a reef is taken in it is rode down by the feet of two men close to the tye-block, and thus supports the mast from the top-rim to the parrel.

TRAVELLING-GUYS. The jib traveller guys are seized on to the traveller, and are shortened in and set up when the jib is eased in.

TRAVELLING-MARTINGALE. A similar contrivance adapted to a martingale to support the jib-boom in that particular part where the jib-tack is fixed. (_See_ MARTINGALE.)

TRAVERSE. Denotes the several courses a s.h.i.+p makes under the changes of wind or manuvres. It is self-evident that if she steered a course there would be no traverse. But her course being north, and the wind from the north, it is evident she could have but two courses open to her, E.N.E., or W.N.W. The reduction of the distances run on each course, corrected for variation and lee-way, const.i.tutes the traverse table, from which the reckoning is deduced each day up to noon. From this zig-zag set of lines we have the term _Tom c.o.x's traverse_ (which see). Also, in fortification, a mound, often of parapet form, raised to cover from enfilade or reverse fire. Also, to traverse a gun or mortar. To alter its direction from right to left, or _vice versa_, with handspikes, tackles, &c.

TRAVERSE A YARD, TO. To get it fore and aft.

TRAVERSE-BOARD. A thin circular piece of board, marked with all the points of the compa.s.s, and having eight holes bored in each, and eight small pegs hanging from the centre of the board. It is used to determine the different courses run by a s.h.i.+p during a watch, by sticking one peg into the point on which the s.h.i.+p has run each half hour. It is useful in light and variable winds.

TRAVERSE-HORSE. _See_ JACK-STAYS.

TRAVERSE QUESTIONS. Cross examinations at a court-martial.

TRAVERSE SAILING. Resolving a traverse is merely a general term for the determination of a single course equivalent to a series of successive courses steered, whatever be the manner of finding the lengths of the lines forming the triangles.

TRAVERSE-TABLE. A table which gives the difference of lat.i.tude and departure corresponding to a certain course and distance, and _vice versa_. It is generally calculated to every quarter of a point or degree, and up to a distance of 300 miles.

TRAVERSE-WIND. A wind which sets right in to any harbour, and prevents the departure of vessels.

TRAVERSIER. A small fis.h.i.+ng vessel on the coast of Roch.e.l.le.

TRAVERSUM. A archaic term for a ferry.

TRAWL. A strong net or bag dragged along the bottom of fis.h.i.+ng-banks, by means of a rope, a beam, and a pair of iron trawl-heads.

TRAYERES. An archaic term for a sort of long-boat.

TREADING A SEAM, OR DANCING PEDRO-PEE. _See_ PEDRO-A-PIED.

TREAD OF A s.h.i.+P OR KEEL. The length of her keel.

TREAD WATER, TO. The practice in swimming by which the body is sustained upright, and the head kept above the surface.

TREBLE-BLOCK. One fitted with three sheaves or rollers.

TREBLING. Planking thrice around a whaler's bows in order the more effectually to withstand the pressure of the ice.

TREBUCHET. An engine of old to cast stones and batter walls.

TRECK-SCHUYT. A ca.n.a.l boat in Holland for carrying goods and pa.s.sengers.

TREEING. In the Arctic regions, refraction sometimes causes the ice to resemble a huge wall, which is considered an indication of open water in that quarter.

TREE-NAILS. Long cylindrical oak or other hard wood pins, driven through the planks and timbers of a vessel to connect her various parts.

TREE-NAIL WEDGE. A cross is cut in the tree-nail end, and wedges driven in, caulked; or sometimes a wedge is driven into its inner end, and the tree-nail is thus secured.

TREES OF A s.h.i.+P. The chess-trees, the cross-trees, the rough-trees, the trestle-trees, and the waste-trees.

TRELAWNEY. A poor mess composed of barley-meal, water, and salt.

TRENCHES. The earthworks by which a besieger approaches a fortified place; generally half sunk in the ground, the other half formed by the excavated earth thrown, as a parapet, to the front.

TRENCHMAN. _See_ TRUGMAN.

TRENCH THE BALLAST, TO. To divide the ballast in a s.h.i.+p's hold to get at a leak, or to trim and stow it.

TREND, TO. To bend or incline, speaking of a coast; as, "The land trends to the south-west." Also, the course of a current or stream.

TREND OF AN ANCHOR. The lower end of the shank, where it thickens towards the arms, usually at one-third from the crown. In round terms, it is the same distance on the shank from the throat that the arm measures from the throat to the bill.

TRENNEL. _See_ TREE-NAILS.

TREPANG. An eastern name for the _Holothuria_, or _beche-de-mer_, frequently called the sea-slug; used as an article of food by the Chinese.

TRESTLE-TREES. Two strong bars of timber fixed horizontally fore-and-aft on each side of the lower mast-head, to support the top-mast, the lower cross-trees, and top; smaller trestle-trees are fitted on a topmast-head to support the topgallant-mast and top-mast cross-trees.

TRIANGLE, OR TRIGON. A geometrical figure consisting of three sides and as many angles. Also, a machine formed by spars for lifting weights, water-casks, &c. Also, a stage hung round a mast, to sc.r.a.pe, paint, or grease it.

TRIANGULUM. One of the ancient northern constellations.

TRIATIC STAY. A rope secured at each end of the heads of the fore and main masts, with thimbles spliced in its bight to hook the stay-tackles to. This term applies also to the jumper-stay, extending in schooners from the mainmast-head to the foremast-head, clearing the end of the fore gaff.

TRIBUTARY. Any stream, large or small, which directly or indirectly joins another stream.

TRICE, TO. To haul or lift up by means of a las.h.i.+ng or line.

TRICE UP--LIE OUT! The order to lift the studding-sail boom-ends while the top-men move out on the yards, preparatory to reefing or furling.

TRICING BATTENS. Those used for the hammocks, or tricing up the bags between the beams on the lower-deck.