The Seaman's Friend Part 26

SOUND. To get the depth of water by a lead and line. (See page 85.) The pumps are _sounded_ by an iron _sounding rod_, marked with a scale of feet and inches.

SPAN. A rope with both ends made fast, for a purchase to be hooked to its bight.

SPANKER. The after sail of a s.h.i.+p or bark. It is a fore-and-aft sail, setting with a boom and gaff. (See PLATE 2.)

SPAR. The general term for all masts, yards, booms, gaffs, &c.

SPELL. The common term for a portion of time given to any work.

_To spell_, is to relieve another at his work.

_Spell ho!_ An exclamation used as an order or request to be relieved at work by another.

SPENCER. A fore-and-aft sail, set with a gaff and no boom, and hoisting from a small mast called a _spencer-mast_, just abaft the fore and main masts. (See PLATES 2 and 4.)

SPILL. To shake the wind out of a sail by bracing it so that the wind may strike its leech and s.h.i.+ver it.

SPILLING LINE. A rope used for spilling a sail. Rove in bad weather.

SPINDLE. An iron pin upon which the capstan moves. Also, a piece of timber forming the diameter of a made mast. Also, any long pin or bar upon which anything revolves.

SPIRKETING. The planks from the water-ways to the port-sills.

SPLICE. (See PLATE 5 and page 44.) To join two ropes together by interweaving their strands.

SPOON-DRIFT. Water swept from the tops of the waves by the violence of the wind in a tempest, and driven along before it, covering the surface of the sea.

SPRAY. An occasional sprinkling dashed from the top of a wave by the wind, or by its striking an object.

SPRING. To crack or split a mast.

_To spring a leak_, is to begin to leak.

_To spring a luff_, is to force a vessel close to the wind, in sailing.

SPRING-STAY. A preventer-stay, to a.s.sist the regular one. (See STAY.)

SPRING TIDES. The highest and lowest course of tides, occurring every new and full moon.

SPRIT. A small boom or gaff, used with some sails in small boats. The lower end rests in a becket or snotter by the foot of the mast, and the other end spreads and raises the outer upper corner of the sail, crossing it diagonally. A sail so rigged in a boat is called a _sprit-sail_.

SPRIT-SAIL-YARD. (See PLATE 1.) A yard lashed across the bowsprit or knight-heads, and used to spread the guys of the jib and flying jib-boom. There was formerly a sail bent to it called a _sprit-sail_.

SPUNYARN. (See page 44.) A cord formed by twisting together two or three rope-yarns.

SPURLING LINE. A line communicating between the tiller and tell-tale.

SPURS. Pieces of timber fixed on the bilge-ways, their upper ends being bolted to the vessel's sides above the water. Also, curved pieces of timber, serving as half beams, to support the decks where whole beams cannot be placed.

SPUR-SHOES. Large pieces of timber that come abaft the pump-well.

SQUARE. Yards are _squared_ when they are horizontal and at right angles with the keel. Squaring by the lifts makes them horizontal; and by the braces, makes them at right angles with the vessel's line. Also, the proper term for the length of yards. A vessel has square yards when her yards are unusually long. A sail is said to be very square on the head when it is long on the head.

_To square a yard_, in working s.h.i.+p, means to bring it in square by the braces.

SQUARE-SAIL. A temporary sail, set at the fore-mast of a schooner or sloop when going before the wind. (See SAIL.)

STABBER. A p.r.i.c.kER.

STAFF. A pole or mast, used to hoist flags upon.

STANCHIONS. (See PLATE 3.) Upright posts of wood or iron, placed so as to support the beams of a vessel. Also, upright pieces of timber, placed at intervals along the sides of a vessel, to support the bulwarks and rail, and reaching down to the bends, by the side of the timbers, to which they are bolted. Also, any fixed, upright support; as to an awning, or for the man-ropes.

STAND BY! An order to be prepared.

STANDARD. An inverted knee, placed above the deck instead of beneath it; as, _bitt-standard_, &c.

STANDING. The _standing part_ of a rope is that part which is fast, in opposition to the part that is hauled upon; or the main part, in opposition to the end.

The _standing part_ of a tackle is that part which is made fast to the blocks and between that and the next sheave, in opposition to the hauling and leading parts.

STANDING RIGGING. (See page 43.) That part of a vessel's rigging which is made fast and not hauled upon. (See RUNNING.)

STARBOARD. The right side of a vessel, looking forward.

STARBOWLINES. The familiar term for the men in the starboard watch.

START. To _start a cask_, is to open it.

STAY. To tack a vessel, or put her about, so that the wind, from being on one side, is brought upon the other, round the vessel's head. (See TACK, WEAR.)

_To stay a mast_, is to incline it forward or aft, or to one side or the other, by the stays and backstays. Thus, a mast is said to be _stayed_ too much forward or aft, or too much to port, &c.

_Stays._ Large ropes, used to support masts, and leading from the head of some mast down to some other mast, or to some part of the vessel.

Those which lead forward are called _fore-and-aft stays_; and those which lead down to the vessel's sides, _backstays_. (See BACKSTAYS.)

_In stays_, or _hove in stays_, the situation of a vessel when she is _staying_, or going about from one tack to the other.

STAYSAIL. A sail which hoists upon a stay.

STEADY! An order to keep the helm as it is.

STEERAGE. That part of the between-decks which is just forward of the cabin.

STEEVE. A bowsprit _steeves_ more or less, according as it is raised more or less from the horizontal.

The _steeve_ is the angle it makes with the horizon. Also, a long, heavy spar, with a place to fit a block at one end, and used in stowing certain kinds of cargo, which need be driven in close.

STEM. (See PLATE 3.) A piece of timber reaching from the forward end of the keel, to which it is scarfed, up to the bowsprit, and to which the two sides of the vessel are united.