The Sailor's Word-Book Part 64

CORMORANT. A well-known sea-bird (_Phalacrocorax carbo_) of the family _Pelecanidae_.

CORN, TO. A remainder of the Anglo-Saxon _ge-cyrned_, salted. To preserve meat for a time by salting it slightly.

CORNED. Slightly intoxicated. In Chaucer's _Canterbury Tales_, mention is made of "corny ale."

CORNED POWDER. Powder granulated from the mill-cakes and sifted.

CORNET. A commissioned officer who carries the colours belonging to a cavalry troop, equivalent to an ensign in the infantry; the junior subaltern rank in the horse.

CORNISH RING. The astragal of the muzzle or neck of a gun; it is the next ring from the mouth backwards. (Now disused.)

CORN-SALAD. A species of Valerianella. The top-leaves are used for salad, a good anti-s...o...b..tic with vinegar.

CORNS OF POWDER. The small grains that gunpowder consists of. The powder reduced for fire-works, quill-tubes, &c.; sometimes by alcohol.

COROMONTINES. A peculiar race of negroes, brought from the interior of Africa, and sold; but so ferocious as to be greatly dreaded in the West Indies.

CORONA. In timber, consists of rows of microscopic cylinders, situated between the wood and the pith; it is that part from which all the branches take their rise, and from it all the wood-threads grow.--_Corona_ astronomically means the luminous ring or glory which surrounds the sun or moon during an eclipse, or the intervention of a thin cloud. They are generally faintly coloured at their edges.

Frequently when there is a halo encircling the moon, there is a small corona more immediately around it. Coronae, as well as halos, have been observed to prognosticate rain, hail, or snow, being the result of snow or dense vapours nearer the earth, through which the object becomes hazy.

CORONER. An important officer. Seamen should understand that his duties embrace all acts within a line drawn from one headland to another; or within the body of the county. His duty is to investigate, on the part of the crown, all accidents, deaths, wrecks, &c.; and his warrant is not to be contemned or avoided.

COROUSE. The ancient weapon invented by Duilius for boarding. An attempt was made in 1798 to re-introduce it in French privateers.

COROWNEL. The old word for colonel.

CORPHOUN. An out-of-the-way name for a herring.

CORPORAL, s.h.i.+P'S. In a s.h.i.+p of war was, under the master-at-arms, employed to teach the sailors the use of small arms; to attend at the gangways when entering ports, and see that no spirituous liquors were brought on board without leave. Also, to extinguish the fire and candles at eight o'clock in winter, and nine o'clock in summer, when the evening gun was fired; and to see that there were no lights below, but such as were under the charge of the proper sentinels. In the marines or army in general the corporal is a non-commissioned officer next below the sergeant in the scale of authority. The s.h.i.+p's corporal of the present day is the superior of the first-cla.s.s working petty officers, and solely attends to police matters under the master-at-arms or superintendent-in-chief.

CORPORAL OATH. So called because the witness when he swears lays his right hand on the holy evangelists, or New Testament.

CORPOSANT. [_Corpo santo_, Ital.] _See_ COMPASANT.

CORPS. Any body of troops acting under one commander.

CORPSE. Jack's term for the party of marines embarked; the corps.

CORRECTIONS. Reductions of observations of the sun, moon, or stars.

CORRIDOR. _See_ COVERT-WAY.

CORRYNE POWDER. Corn-powder, a fine kind of gunpowder.

CORSAIR. A name commonly given to the piratical cruisers of Barbary, who frequently plundered the merchant s.h.i.+ps indiscriminately.

CORSELET. The old name for a piece of armour used to cover the body of a fighting-man.

CORTEGE. The official staff, civil or military.

CORUSCATIONS. Atmospheric flashes of light, as in auroras.

CORVETTES. Flush-decked s.h.i.+ps, equipped with one tier of guns: fine vessels for warm climates, from admitting a free circulation of air. The Bermuda-built corvettes were deemed superior vessels, swift, weatherly, "lie to" well, and carry sail in a stiff breeze. The cedar of which they are chiefly built is very buoyant, but also brittle.

CORVORANT. An old mode of spelling _cormorant_.

COSIER. A lubber, a botcher, a tailoring fellow [_coser_, Sp. to sew?]

COSMICAL RISING AND SETTING OF THE HEAVENLY BODIES. Their rising and setting with the sun.

COSMOGRAPHER. Formerly applied to "too clever by half." Now, one who describes the world or universe in all its parts.

COSS. A measure of distance in India, varying in different districts from one mile and a half to two miles.

COSTAL. Relating to the coast.

COSTEIE. An old English word for going by the coast.

COSTERA. A law archaism for the sea-coast.

COSTS AND DAMAGE. Demurrage is generally given against a captor for unjustifiable detention. Where English merchants provoke expense by using false papers, the court decrees the captors their expenses on rest.i.tution. (_See_ EXPENSES.)

COT. A wooden bed-frame suspended from the beams of a s.h.i.+p for the officers, between decks. It is inclosed in canvas, sewed in the form of a chest, about 6 feet long, 1 foot deep, and 2 or 3 feet wide, in which the mattress is laid.

COTT. An old term for a little boat.

COTTON, GUN. _See_ GUN-COTTON.

COTTONINA. The thick sail-cloth of the Levant.

COUBAIS. An ornamented j.a.panese barge of forty oars.

COUD. An old term used for _conn_ or _cunn_.

COULTER-NEB. A name of the puffin (_Fratercula arctica_).

COUNCIL-OF-WAR. The a.s.semblage of officers for concerting measures of moment, too often deemed the symbol of irresolution in the commander-in-chief.

COUNTER. A term which enters into the composition of divers words of our language, and generally implies opposition, as _counter-brace_, _counter-current_, &c.--_Counter of a s.h.i.+p_, refers to her after-seat on the water: the counter above extends from the gun-deck line, or lower ribbon moulding of the cabin windows, to the water-line (or seat of water); the lower counter is arched below that line, and const.i.tutes the hollow run. It is formed on the transom-b.u.t.tocks.

COUNTER-APPROACHES. Works effected outside the place by the garrison during a siege, to enfilade, command, or otherwise check the approaches of the besieger.

COUNTER-BALANCE WEIGHT, in the marine engine. (_See_ LEVER.) Also in many marine barometers, where it slides and is fixed by adjusting screws, so as to produce an even-balanced swing, free from jerk.

COUNTER-BRACE, TO. Is bracing the head-yards one way, and the after-yards another. The counter-brace is the lee-brace of the fore-topsail-yard, but is only distinguished by this name at the time of the s.h.i.+p's going about (called tacking), when the sail begins to s.h.i.+ver in the wind, this brace is hauled in to flatten the sail against the lee-side of the top-mast, and increase the effect of the wind in forcing her round. Counter-bracing becomes necessary to render the vessel stationary when sounding, lowering a boat, or speaking a stranger. It is now an obsolete term, and the manuvre is called _heaving-to_.

COUNTER-CURRENT. That portion of water diverted from the main stream of a current by the particular formation of the coast or other obstruction, and which therefore runs in a contrary direction. There is also a current formed under the lee-counter of a s.h.i.+p when going through the water, which retains floating objects there, and is fatal to a man, by sucking him under.