VADROUILLE, a brush used to pay a ship’s bottom with tallow or stuff.
VA et vient, a span or rope extended from one place to another, whereon to draw any thing along by the means of a traveller.
VAGANS, vagrants or hovellers, who infest the sea-coast in a tempest, in expectation of plunder from some shipwrecked vessel. See Debris.
VAGUES, the waves or surges of the sea. See Lames.
VAIGRER, to fix on the planks and thick-stuff of a ship’s cieling to the timbers.
VAIGRES, ou serres, a general name for the clamps and thick-stuff used in the cieling of a ship; as,
Vaigres de fond, the thick-stuff placed next to the keel.
Vaigres d’empature, the thick-stuff placed between the floor-heads and the vaigres de fond.
Vaigres de pont, the clamps which support the ends of the beams.
Vaigres des fleurs, the thick stuff placed opposite to the floor-heads.
VAISSEAU, a ship, or large vessel of war or burthen.
Vaisseau à la bande, a ship lying along, or heeling gunnel-to, under a weight of sail in a fresh wind: this is frequently called lying down on the beam-ends, or broadside.
Vaisseau à l’ancre, a ship at anchor.
Vaisseau à son poste, a ship in her station, as appointed by the commanding officer.
Vaisseau beau de combat, a roomy ship, advantageously built for battle, as carrying her lower tier high above the water, and having a good height between-decks.
Vaisseau corsaire. See Corsaire.
Vaisseau démarré, a ship unmoored, or whose anchors are weighed; also a ship broke adrift from her moorings.
Vaisseau gondolé, a ship built with a great sheer.
Vaisseau qui a le côté droit comme un mur, a wall-sided ship.
Vaisseau qui a la côté foible, a streight-sheered ship.
Vaisseau qui a le côté fort, a round-sided ship.
Vaisseau qui-cargue, a crank ship.
Vaisseau qui charge à fret, a laden or loaded ship. See Fret.
Vaisseau qui se manie bien, a good working ship; a ship that is easily managed and steered.
Vaisseau qui se port bien à la mer, a good sea-boat.
Vaisseau ralongé, a lengthened ship.
Vaisseau de bas-bord, a low-built vessel navigated with sails and oars, as the gallies in the Mediterranean.
Vaisseau de haut-bord, a general name for large ships.
VALANCINE. See Balancine.
VALETS d’artillerie, the boys which attend the great guns in a sea-fight, &c.
VALTURE, the lashing of the sheers; or a rope employed to lash two masts together in any particular place, when they are to be used as sheers.
VARANGUAIS. See Marticles.
VARANGUES, a general name for the floor-timbers; as,
Varangues acculées, the crotches or floor-timbers afore and abaft.
Varangues demi-acculées, the floor-timbers placed between the varangues acculées and the
Varangues plates, or Varangues de fond, the flat floor-timbers placed in the middle or broadest part of a ship’s floor.
VARECH, sea-wreck. Also the wreck of a ship. See Choses de la mer.
VARIATION, the variation of the compass. See Declinaison.
Variation vaut la rout, the variation is on the weather-side, or opposite the lee-way.
VASART, oozy, or slimy, expressed of a particular bottom or soundings at sea. See Fond.
VASSOLES, laths or battens placed between the ledges of the gratings.
VEGRES. See Vaigres.
VEILLE la drisse! stand by the haliards! the order to have the top-sail-haliards ready to lower in case of a squall.
Veille l’écoute de hune! stand by the top sail sheets!
Veille les huniers. See Veille la drisse.
VEILLER, to watch, attend, or take care of any thing; as,
Il faut Veiller les mâts, & non le côté, we must look to the masts, and not to the side; expressed of a ship, whose masts being good, will rather overset her, than be carried away. When the anchor is a cockbill, and ready to let go, they say, Ancre est à la Veille; and when the buoy floats over the anchor to shew its place, it is called bouée à la Veille.
VENT, the wind.
Vent alizé, a trade-wind, or monsoon.
Vent arriere, a wind right aft or astern.
Vent d’amont, a land-wind, or land breeze.
Vent d’aval, a foul wind which blows from the sea, &c.
Vent de bouline, a scant-wind, on which the ship cannot lie her course without being close-hauled.
Vent de quartier, a quarterly, or quartering wind[61].
Vent en pouppe. See Vent arriere.
Vent en pouppe, largue la soute; large wind, large allowance; an expression used by seamen on the commencement of a fair wind, after they had been put to short allowance in consequence of foul winds.
Le Vent en pouppe fait trouver la mer unie, a stern wind brings an easy sea; expressed of a ship when sailing afore the wind, in which situation she will be less strained by the agitation of the sea, than when she lies in the trough or hollow of it, side-ways.
Vent largue, a large wind.
Vent routier, a wind which serves to go and come upon the same line; such is the wind upon the beam.
Vents variables, variable winds, or such as are without the tropics.
Vent à pic, the wind is right down; a witticism amongst sailors, to signify that there is a total cessation of wind, at which time the vanes hang right downward, instead of blowing out.
VENTER, to blow or spring up; understood of the wind.
VENTILATEUR, a ventilator used at sea.
VERBOQUET, a guy used by ship-wrights to steddy a piece of timber which they are erecting in a ship’s frame.
VERGE de girouette, the spindle of the vane at any mast-head.
Verge de l’ancre, the arm of an anchor.
Verge de pompe, a pump-spear. See also Barre de pompe.
VERGUE, the yard of any principal sail which traverses the mast at right angles.
Vergue à corne. See Corne de vergue.
Vergue de foule, the cross-jack-yard.
Vergue en boute dehors, the main-boom of a sloop-rigged, or schooner-rigged vessel.
Vergue traversée, the sprit which traverses a boat’s sail diagonally.
VERIN, an instrument nearly similar to a jack-screw, and used occasionally to launch a ship from the stocks.
VEUE, or Vue, etre à vue, avoir la vue, to be in sight of; to make or discover at sea, as the land, or some distant object. See Non-vue.
Veue par vue, & cours par cours, sailing by the bearings, or distances of the land, on the sea-coast.
VIBORD, the quick-work, or that part of a ship’s side which is comprehended between the drift-rails and the waist-rail.
VICE-Amiral, the vice-admiral of France.
VICTUAILLES, the provisions used for the subsistence of the ship’s crew at sea, &c.
VICTUAILLEUR, a contractor, or agent-victualler.
VIF, alive, busy, all in motion; an epithet applied to a wharf, dock, or slip, where the artificers are all at work on the shipping.
Vif de l’eau, or haute marée, high water.
VIGIE, a lurking rock, or reef; a rock under the surface of the water.
VIGIER, to look out, or watch upon deck, or at the mast-head, &c.
Vigier une flotte, to dodge, or watch the motions of a fleet.
VIGOTS de racage. See Bigots.
VINDAS, a sort of moveable capstern; also a windlass. See Virevaut.
VIRAGE, the act of heaving up any weighty body by a crab or capstern.
VIRER, to overset.
Virer au cabestan, to heave the capstern, or heave at the capstern.
Virer de bord, to go about, or put about-ship.
Virer vent arriere, to veer, or wear.
Virer vent devant, to tack, or put about head-to-wind.
VIREVAUT, the windlass of a ship or boat.
VIROLE, a little iron ring placed on the small end of a bolt which is driven through any part of a ship’s decks or sides; it is used to prevent the fore-lock from cutting the wood.
VIROLET. See Moulinet.
VIRURE, a streak of planks continued from the stem to the stern-post.
Virure, is also the sheer of any plank in the ship’s side.
VISITE de vaisseau, an examination of the cargo of a ship by the officers of the revenue.
VISITEUR, an officer resembling our tide-surveyors of the customs.
VITTES de gouvernail. See Ferrure.
VITTONIERES. See Anguilleres.
VIVIER, a fishing-boat, furnished with a well filled with water amid-ships, wherein to keep the fish alive.
VIVRES. See Victuailles.
UN, deux, trois, an exclamation, or song, used by seamen when hauling the bowlines, the greatest effort being made at the last word. English sailors, in the same manner, call out on this occasion—haul-in—haul-two—haul-belay!
VOGUE, the rowing of a galley; the movement or course of a galley rowed with oars.
Vogue-avant, the rower who holds the handle of an oar and gives the stroke.
VOGUER, to row, or give head-way to a galley by rowing.
VOILE, a sail; also a ship discovered at a distance.
Avec les quatre corps de Voiles, under the courses and top-sails.
Faire toutes Voiles blanches, to cruise as a pirate; to make all fish that comes to the net.
Forcer de Voiles, to croud sail. See Forcer.
Ce vaisseau porte la Voile comme un rocher, the ship carries her sail as stiff as a church, or without seeming to heel.
Les Voiles sur les cargues, the sails clewed up, or hauled up in the brails.
Les Voiles sur le mât, the sails laid to the mast, or aback. See Coeffé.
Régler les Voiles, to regulate or appoint what sail is to be carried, in order to keep company in a fleet.
Toutes Voiles hors, all sails set, all sails out, or standing.
Les Voiles au sec, sails loosed, to dry in the sun or wind.
Les Voiles fouettent le mât, the sails beat against the mast, as when first taken aback.
Voile Angloise, a boat’s sail with a diagonal sprit.
Voile d’eau, a sort of water-sail used by the Dutch.
Voile défoncée, a sail split or rent asunder in the bunt or middle.
Voile de fortune. See Treou.
Voile déralinguée, a sail blown or torn from the bolt-rope.
Voile en banniere, a sail, whose sheets being slackened or flown in a storm, flies loose, and flutters in the wind like a flag or ensign.
Voile en pantenne, a sail shivering in the wind, for want of being properly trimmed.
Voile enverguée, a sail bent to its yard.
Voile latine, or Voile à oreille de lievre. See Latine.
Voile quarrée, a square sail, or sail nearly square; such as are the courses, top-sails, and top-gallant-sails of all ships.
Voiles basses, or basses Voiles, the courses. See Pacfi.
Voiles de l’arriere, the after-sails.
Voiles de l’avant, the head-sails.
Voiles d’étai, the stay-sails. See Étai.
VOILERIE, a sail-loft, or place where sails are formed.
VOILIER, a sail-maker.
Bon Voilier, or mauvais Voilier, when expressed of a ship, implies a good or bad sailer, or one that sails swiftly or slowly.
VOILURE, the trim of the sails; also a complete suit of sails, with their furniture.
Voilure, a general name for all sorts of sails belonging to a ship.
Meme Voilure, the same sail set; expressed of two ships in company, which carry the same quantity and number of sails.
Regler sa Voilure, to regulate the quantity of sail to be carried in order to keep company with some other ship or ships.
Toute la Voilure de l’avant, all the head-sails.
Toute la Voilure de l’arriere, all the after-sails.
VOIR l’une par l’autre. See Ouvrier & tenir.
Voir par proue, to see or discover, a-head of the ship.
Donner la VOIX, to sing out; as in hauling, hoisting, heaving, &c.
VOLÉE, a platoon, or limited number of great guns in a broad-side, fired at once in a sea-fight.
VOLET, a little sea compass, used in a long-boat or cutter.
VOLONTAIRES, volunteers in a ship of war.
VOLTE, a particular course or route; also the movement of bearing away, or hauling the wind, to change the course, or bring the broad-side to bear upon an enemy.
VOUTE, or Voutis, the upper-counter of a ship, upon which the ecusson is placed.
VOYAGES de long cours, a long voyage, as those to China, or the Indies.
URETAC, a fore-tack-tackle, or preventer fore-tack.
VRILLE, a wimble, or drill, used by ship-wrights, &c. to bore holes.
US & coutumes de la mer, the usages and customs of the sea, which are partly regulated by the laws of Oleron.
USANCE, the agreement, or contract, made between the master, the owner, and freighters of a ship. See also the preceding article.
UTENSILS du canon, a general name for all the instruments used in charging and firing a cannon, as the rammer, the ladle, the linstoc, the spunge, &c.
UVOLFE, a dangerous whirl-pool, or race, known by the name of the Wolf, between two islands on the coast of Norway.
WATREGANS, pronounced Outregans, a sort of canals or ditches, filled with water, which are usually navigable for boats and small-craft.
WOLFE, or Vulfe, a whirl-pool, or race, on the coast of Norway.
YACHT, or Yac, a yacht.
YEUX de bœuf, bulls eyes, or wooden travellers; also the trucks of a parrel.
Yeux de pie. See Oeil de pie.
ZEPHIRE, or Zephir, the west wind.
ZOPISSA, or poix navale, tar. See Goudron.
1. In regno Saracenorum quatuor prætores statuit, qui admiralii vocabantur. Sigebert.
2. Mr. Bigot de Morogues says from 4000 to 4500, and Mr. Hauksbee 5000.
3. “The change proposed here, of reducing the quantity of powder in all ship guns to one-third of the weight of the bullet, has for some time past been practised by the French in a much severer service, where the encreasing the velocity of the bullet could not at any time diminish its effect; the service I mean is battering in breach. For I learn, that of late years all their breaches, in the different sieges they have undertaken, have been made with this very charge, that is, their twenty four-pounders have been loaded with eight pounds of powder, and they have found, that though the penetration of the bullet is less with this charge than with a larger one, yet the other conveniences attending this smaller charge, are more than, sufficient to balance that particular.
“And here I must observe, that there have not been wanting persons of considerable name, who have asserted that the velocity of a twenty-four pound bullet was really greater with eight pounds of powder than with any large quantity, founding their opinion on the ridiculous persuasion, that whatever quantity was put in, no more than eight pounds of it took fire; but this supposition is destroyed by their own experiments, and their own reasonings and later experiments, with greater attention, put it beyond all doubt, that to the larger charge (at least as far as twenty pounds of powder) there corresponds a greater velocity.
4. It is necessary to observe in this place, that Mr. Muller, whose opinion herein has been confirmed by various experiments, has, with little variation, adopted the sentiments of the above proposal, and strongly recommended them as a scheme of public utility.
5.
6. The wires of which the needle has hitherto been generally composed, were only hardened at their ends; now if those ends are not equally hard, or if one end be hardened up higher than the other, when they come to be put together, in fixing them to the card, that end which is hardest will destroy much of the virtue of the other; by which means the hardest end will have the greatest power in directing the card, and consequently make it vary towards its own direction; and, as the wires are disposed in the form of a lozenge, these cards can have but little force; so that they will often, when drawn aside, stand at the distance of several degrees on either side the point from whence they are drawn; for all magnetical bodies receive an additional strength by being placed in the direction of the earth’s magnetism, and act proportionably less vigorously when turned out of it. Therefore when these kind of needles are drawn aside from their true point, two of the parallel sides of the lozenge will conspire more directly than before with the earth’s magnetism, and the other two will be less in that direction: by this means the two former sides will very much impede its return, and the two latter will have that impediment to overcome, as well as the friction, by their own force alone.
7. It is necessary to observe here, that the principal, and indeed the only circumstance in which Knight’s compasses are superior to those which have hitherto obtained, is, that their needles being tempered much higher than usual, are thereby enabled to contain a much greater quantity of the magnetical stream, which is certainly a real advantage. But, on the other hand, experience sufficiently proves, and truth obliges us to remark, that the methods he has taken to ballance the card with more accuracy than had been formerly attempted, have rendered it by far too delicate to encounter the shocks of a tempestuous sea.
8. “At Java, in the streights of Sunda, when the monsoons blow from the west, viz. in the month of May, the currents set to the eastward, contrary to the general motion.
“Also between the island of Celebes and Madura, when the western monsoons set, viz. in December, January, and February, or when the winds blow from the N W. or between the north and west, the currents set to the S E. or between the south and east.
“At Ceylon, from the middle of March to October, the currents set to the southward, and in the other parts of the year to the northward; because at this time the southern monsoons blow, and at the other, the northern.
“Between Cochin-China and Malacca, when the western monsoons blow, viz. from April to August, the currents set eastward against the general motion, but the rest of the year set westward; the monsoon conspiring with the general motion. They run so wrongly in these seas, that unexperienced sailors mistake them for waves that beat upon the rocks known by the name of breakers.
“So for some months after the fifteenth of February the currents set from the Maldivies towards India on the east, against the general motion of the sea.
“On the shore of China and Cambodia, in the months of October, November, and December, the currents set to the N W. and from January to the S W. when they run with such a rapidity of motion about the shoals of Parcel, that it seems swifter than that of an arrow.
“At Pulo Condore, upon the coast of Cambodia, though the monsoons are shifting, yet the currents set strongly towards the east, even when they blow to a contrary point.
“Along the coasts of the bay of Bengal, as far as the cape Romania, at the extreme point of Malacca the current runs southward in November and December.
“When the monsoons blow from China to Malacca, the sea runs swiftly from Pulo Cambi to Pulo Condore, on the coast of Cambodia.
“In the bay of Sans Bras, not far from the Cape of Good Hope, there is a current particularly remarkable, where the sea runs from east to west to the landward; and this more vehemently as it becomes opposed by the winds from a contrary direction. The cause is undoubtedly owing to some adjacent shore, which is higher than this.” Varenius.
These currents constantly follow the winds, and set to the same point with the monsoon, or trade-wind, at sea. See Monsoon.
9. Lucan.
10. Vegetius.
11.
12. See the note on the following page.
13. Potter’s Archaeologia Graeca. De Morogues Tactique Navale.
14.
Which we may thus translate:
15.
Thus translated by Rowe.
“The famous machine called the Corvus, was framed after the following manner: They erected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, of about a foot and a half diameter, and about twelve foot long; on the top whereof they had a block or pulley. Round this piece of timber, they laid a stage or platform of boards, four foot broad, and about eighteen foot long, which was well framed, and fastened with iron. The entrance was long-ways, and it moved about the aforesaid upright piece of timber, as on a spindle, and could be hoisted up within six foot of the top: about this was a sort of a parapet, knee high, which was defended with upright bars of iron, sharpened at the end; towards the top whereof there was a ring: through this ring, fastening a rope, by the help of the pulley, they hoisted or lowered the engine at pleasure; and so with it attacked the enemy’s vessels, sometimes on their bow, and sometimes on their broad-side, as occasion best served. When they had grappled the enemy with those iron spikes, if they happen’d to swing broad-side to broad-side, then they entered from all parts; but in case they attacked them on the bow, they entered two and two by the help of this machine, the foremost defending the fore-part, and those that followed the flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of the parapet.
“To this purpose Polybius gives us an account of the first warlike preparations which the Romans made by sea. We may add, in short, the order, which they observed in drawing up their fleet for battle, taken from the same author. The two consuls were in the two admiral galleys, in the front of their two distinct squadrons, each of them just a-head of their own divisions, and a-breast of each other; the first fleet being posted on the right, the second on the left, making two long files or lines of battle. And, whereas it was necessary to give a due space between each galley, to ply their oars, and keep clear one of another, and to have their heads or prows looking somewhat outwards; this manner of drawing up did therefore naturally form an angle, the point whereof was at the two admiral galleys, which were near together; and as their two lines were prolonged, so the distance grew consequently wider and wider towards the rear. But, because the naval as well as the land army consisted of four legions, and accordingly the ships made four divisions; two of these were yet behind: Of which the third fleet, or the third legion, was drawn up front-ways in the rear of the first and second, and so stretching along from point to point composed a triangle, whereof the third line was the base. Their vessels of burden, that carried their horses and baggage, were in the rear of these; and were, by the help of small boats provided for that purpose, towed or drawn after them. In the rear of all, was the fourth fleet, called the Triarians, drawn up likewise in rank or front-ways, parallel to the third: but these made a longer line, by which means the extremities stretched out, and extended beyond the two angles at the base. The several divisions of the army, being thus disposed, formed, as is said, a triangle; the area within was void, but the base was thick and solid, and the whole body quick, active, and very difficult to be broken.” Kennett Antiq. Rome.
16. De Morogues Tact. Navale.