Chapter D (9)

HORSE-FOOT. A name of the _Limulus polyphemus_ of the shores of America, where from its shape it is called the horse-shoe or lantern crab.

HORSE-LATITUDES. A space between the westerly winds of higher latitudes and the trade-winds, notorious for tedious calms. The name arose from our old navigators often throwing the horses overboard which they were transporting to America and the West Indies.

HORSE-MACKEREL. A large and coarse member of the Scomber family, remarkably greedy, and therefore easily taken, but unwholesome.

HORSE-MARINE. An awkward lubberly person. One out of place.

HORSE-MUSSEL. _See_ DUCK-MUSSEL.

HORSE-POTATOES. The old word for yams.

HORSE-POWER. A comparative estimate of the capacity of steam-engines, by assuming a certain average effective pressure of steam, and a certain average linear velocity of the piston. The pressure multiplied by the velocity gives the effective force of the engine exerted through a given number of feet per minute; and since the force called a horse-power means 33,000 lbs. acting thus one foot per minute, it follows that the nominal power of the engine will be found by dividing the effective force exerted by the piston, multiplied by the number of feet per minute through which it acts by 33,000.

HORSES. Blocks in whalers for cutting blubber on. (_See_ WHITE-HORSE.)

HORSE-SHOE. In old fortification, a low work of this plan sometimes thrown up in ditches.

HORSE-SHOE CLAMP. The iron or copper straps so shaped, used as the fastenings which connect the gripe with the fore-foot at the scarph of the keel and stem.

HORSE-SHOE HINGES. Those by which side-scuttles or ventilators to the cabins are hung.

HORSE-SHOE RACK. A sweep curving from the bitt-heads abaft the main-mast carrying a set of nine-pin swivel-blocks as the fair leaders of the light running gear, staysail, halliards, &c.

HORSE-TONGUE. A name applied to a kind of sole.

HORSE-UP. _See_ HORSING-IRON.

HORSING-IRON. An iron fixed in a withy handle, sometimes only lashed to a stick or tree-nail, and used with a beetle by caulkers.--_To horse-up_, or harden in the oakum of a vessel's seams.

HOSE (for watering, &c.) An elastic pipe.

HOSE-FISH. A name for a kind of cuttle-fish.

HOSPITAL. A place appointed for the reception of sick and wounded men, with a regular medical establishment. (_See_ NAVAL HOSPITALS.)

HOSPITAL-SHIP. A vessel fitted to receive the sick, either remaining in port, or accompanying a fleet, as circumstance demands. She carries the chief surgeons, &c. The _Dreadnought_, off Greenwich, is a free hospital-ship for seamen of all nations.

HOSTAGE. A person given up to an enemy as a pledge or security for the performance of the articles of a treaty.

HOSTILE CHARACTER is legally constituted by having landed in an enemy's territory, and by residing there, temporary absence being immaterial; by permanent trade with an enemy; and by sailing under an enemy's flag.

HOST-MEN. An ancient guild or fraternity at Newcastle, to whom we are indebted for the valuable sea-coal trade. (_See_ HOASTMEN.)

HOT COPPERS. Dry fauces; morning thirst, but generally applied to those who were drinking hard over-night.

HOT-PRESS. When the press-gangs were instructed, on imminent emergency, to impress seamen, regardless of the protections.

HOT-SHOT. Balls made red-hot in a furnace. Amongst the savages in Bergou, the women are in the rear of the combatants, and they heat the heads of the spears, exchanging them for such as are cooled in the fight.

HOT-WELL. In a steamer, a reservoir from whence to feed the boiler with the warm water received out of the condenser; it also forms part of the discharge passage from the air-pump into the sea.

HOUND-FISH. The old Anglo-Saxon term for dog-fish--_hund-fisc_.

HOUNDS. Those projections at the mast-head serving as supports for the trestle-trees of large and rigging of smaller masts to rest upon. With lower masts they are termed _cheeks_.

HOUNSID. A rope bound round with service.

HOUR-ANGLE. The angular distance of a heavenly body east or west of the meridian.

HOUR-GLASS. The sand-glass: a measure of the hour.

HOUSE, TO. To enter within board. To house a topgallant-mast, is to lower it so as to prevent the rigging resting or chafing on the cap, and securing its heel to the mast below it. This admits of double-reefed top-sails being set beneath.

HOUSE-BOAT. One with a cabin; a _coche d'eau_.

HOUSED. The situation of the great guns upon the lower gun-decks when they are run in clear of the port, and secured. The breech being let down, the muzzle rests against the side above the port; they are then secured by their tackles, muzzle-lashings, and breechings. Over the muzzle of every gun are two strong eye-bolts for the muzzle-lashings, which are 3-1/2-inch rope. When this operation is well performed, no accident is feared, as every act is one of mechanical skill. A gun is sometimes housed fore and aft to make room, as in the cabin, &c. Ships in ordinary, not in commission, are housed over by a substantial roofing.

HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. A designation of the horse and foot guards, who enjoy many immunities and privileges for attending the sovereign.

HOUSEWIFE. _See_ HUZ-ZIF.

HOUSING, OR HOUSE-LINE. A small line formed of three fine strands, smaller than rope yarn; principally used for seizings of the block-strops, fastening the clues of sails to their bolt-ropes, and other purposes. (_See_ MARLINE, TWINE.)

HOUSING-IN. After a ship in building is past the breadth of her bearing, and that she is brought in too narrow to her upper works, she is said to be _housed in_, or pinched. (_See_ TUMBLING HOME.)

HOUSING OF A LOWER MAST. That part of a mast which is below deck to the step in the kelson; of a bowsprit, the portion within the _knight-heads_.

HOUSING-RINGS. Ring-bolts over the lower deck-ports, through the beam-clamps, to which the muzzle-lashings of the guns are passed when housed.

HOUVARI. A strong land wind of the West Indies, accompanied with rain, thunder, and lightning.

HOUZING. A northern term for lading water.

HOVE DOWN, properly _hove out_ or _careened_. The situation of a ship when heeled or placed thus for repairs.--_Hove off_, when removed from the ground.--_Hove up_, when brought into the slips or docks by cradles on the gridiron, &c.

HOVE-IN-SIGHT. The anchor in view. Also, a sail just discovered.

HOVE-IN-STAYS. The position of a ship in the act of going about.

HOVE KEEL OUT. Hove so completely over the beam-ends that the keel is above the water.

HOVELLERS. A Cinque-Port term for pilots and their boatmen; but colloquially, it is also applied to sturdy vagrants who infest the sea-coast in bad weather, in expectation of wreck and plunder.

HOVERING, AND HOVERING ACTS. Said of smugglers of old.

HOVE-SHORT. The ship with her cable hove taut towards her anchor, when the sails are usually loosed and braced for canting; sheeted home.--_Hove well short_, the position of the ship when she is drawn by the capstan nearly over her anchor.

HOVE-TO. From the act of heaving-to; the motion of the ship stopped. It is curious to observe that seamen have retained an old word which has otherwise been long disused. It occurs in Grafton's _Chronicle_, where the mayor and aldermen of London, in 1256, understanding that Henry III. was coming to Westminster from Windsor, went to Knightsbridge, "and _hoved_ there to salute the king."

HOW. An ancient term for the carina or hold of a ship.

HOWE, HOE, OR HOO. A knoll, mound, or elevated hillock.

HOW FARE YE? Are you all hearty? are you working together? a good old sea phrase not yet lost.

HOWITZER. A piece of ordnance specially designed for the horizontal firing of shells, being shorter and much lighter than any gun of the same calibre. The rifled gun, however, throwing a shell of the same capacity from a smaller bore, and with much greater power, is superseding it for general purposes.

HOWKER. _See_ HOOKER.

HOWLE. An old English word for the hold of a ship. When the foot-hooks or futtocks of a ship are scarphed into the ground-timbers and bolted, and the plank laid up to the orlop-deck, then they say, "the ship begins to howle."

HOY. A call to a man. Also, a small vessel, usually rigged as a sloop, and employed in carrying passengers and goods, particularly in short distances on the sea-coast; it acquired its name from stopping when called to from the shore, to take up goods or passengers. In Holland the hoy has two masts, in England but one, where the main-sail is sometimes extended by a boom, and sometimes without it. In the naval service there are _gun-hoy_, _powder-hoy_, _provision-hoy_, _anchor-hoy_, all rigged sloop-fashion.

HOYSE. The old word for hoist.

HUBBLE-BUBBLE. An eastern pipe for smoking tobacco through water, which makes a bubbling noise.

HUDDOCK. The cabin of a keel or coal-barge.

"'Twas between Ebbron and Yarrow,
There cam on a varry strong gale;
The skipper luicked out o' th' huddock,
Crying, 'Smash, man, lower the sail!'"

HUDDUM. The old northern term for a kind of whale.

HUER. A man posted on an elevation near the sea, who, by concerted signals, directs the fishermen when a shoal of fish is in sight. Synonymous with _conder_ (which see). Also, the hot fountains in the sea near Iceland, where many of them issue from the land.

HUFFED. Chagrined, offended, often needlessly.

HUFFLER. One who carries off fresh provisions to a ship; a Kentish term.

HUG, TO.--_To hug the land_, to sail as near it as possible, the land however being to windward.--_To hug the wind_, to keep the ship as close-hauled to the wind as possible.

HUGGER-MUGGER. In its Shakspearian bearing may have meant secretly, or in a clandestine manner, but its nautical application is to express anything out of order or done in a slovenly way.

HUISSIERS. The flat-bottomed transports in which horses were embarked in the Crusades.

HULCOCK. A northern name for the _Squalus galeus_, or smooth hound-fish.

HULK. Is generally applied to a vessel condemned as unfit for the risks of the sea, and used as a store-vessel and housing for crews while refitting the vessels they belong to. There are also hulks for convicts, and for masting, as _sheer-hulk_. (_See_ SHEERS.)

HULL. The Gothic _hulga_ meant a husk or external covering, and hence the body of a ship, independent of masts, yards, sails, rigging, and other furniture, is so called.--_To hull_, signifies to hit with shot; to drive to and fro without rudder, sail, or oar; as Milton--

"He looked and saw the ark hull on the flood."

--_To strike hull_ in a storm, is to take in her sails and lash the helm on the lee side of the ship, which is termed _to lie a-hull_.

HULL-DOWN. Is said of a ship when at such a distance that, from the convexity of the globe, only her masts and sails are to be seen.

HULLING. Lying in wait at sea without any sails set. Also, to hit with shot.

HULLOCK OF A SAIL. A small part lowered in a gale.

HULL-TO. The situation of a ship when she is lying a-hull, or with all her sails furled.

HULLY. A long wicker-trap used for catching eels.

HUMBER-KEEL. A particular clincher-built craft used on the Humber.

HUMLA-BAND. A northern term for the grommet to an oar-pin or thole.

HUMMOCK. A hill with a rounded summit or conical eminence on the sea-coast. When in pairs they are termed _paps_ by navigators (which see).

HUMMOCKS OF ICE. Protuberant lumps of ice thrown up by some pressure upon a _field_ or _floe_, or any other frozen plane. The pieces which rise when large fragments come in contact, and bits of pack are frozen together and covered with snow.

HUMMUMS. From the Arabic word _hammam_, a bagnio or bath.

HUMP-BACKED WHALE. A species of whalebone whale, the _Megaptera longimana_, which attains to 45 or 50 feet in length, and is distinguished by its low rounded dorsal fin.

HURD. The strand of a rope.

HURDICES. Ramparts, scaffolds, fortifications, &c.

HURDIGERS. Particular artificers employed in constructing the castles in our early ships.

HURLEBLAST. An archaic term for _hurricane_.

HURRICANE. _See_ TYPHOON.

HURRICANE-DECK. A light deck over the saloon of some steamers.

HURRICANE-HOUSE. Any building run up for temporary purposes; the name is occasionally given to the round-house on a vessel's deck.

HURRICANO. Shakspeare evidently makes King Lear use this word as a water-spout.

HURRY. A staith or wharf where coals are shipped in the north.

HURST. Anglo-Saxon to express a wood.

HURT. A wound or injury for which a compensation can be claimed.

HURTLE, TO. To send bodily on by a swell or wind.

HUSBAND, OR SHIP'S HUSBAND. An agent appointed by deed, executed by all the owners, with power to advance and lend, to make all payments, to receive the prices of freights, and to retain all claims. But this office gives him no authority to insure or to borrow money; and he is to render a full account to his employers.

HUSH. A name of the lump-fish, denoting the female.

HUSSAR, OR HUZZAR. A Hungarian term signifying "twentieth," as the first hussars were formed by selecting from various regiments the ablest man in every twenty; now generally a light-cavalry soldier equipped somewhat after the original Hungarian fashion.

HUT. The same as _barrack_ (which see).

HUTT. The breech-pin of a gun.

HUZZA! This was originally the _hudsa_, or cry, of the Hungarian light horse, but is now also the national shout of the English in joy and triumph.

HUZ-ZIF. A general corruption of _housewife_. A very useful contrivance for holding needles and thread, and the like.

HYDRAULIC DOCK. _See_ CAISSON.

HYDRAULIC PRESS. The simple yet powerful water-press invented by Bramah, without which it would have been a puzzle to float the enormous _Great Eastern_.

HYDRAULIC PURCHASE. A machine for drawing up vessels on a slip, in which the pumping of water is used to multiply the force applied.

HYDRAULICS. _See_ HYDROLOGY.

HYDROGRAPHER. One who surveys coasts, &c., and constructs true maps and charts founded on astronomical observations. The hydrographer to the admiralty presides over the hydrographical office.

HYDROGRAPHICAL CHARTS OR MAPS. Usually called _sea-charts_, are projections of some part of the sea and its neighbouring coast for the use of navigation, and therefore the depth of water and nature of the bottom are minutely noted.

HYDROGRAPHICAL OFFICE. A department of the admiralty where the labours of the marine surveyors of the Royal Navy are collected and published.

HYDROGRAPHY. The science of marine surveying, requiring the principal points to be astronomically fixed.

HYDROLOGY. That part of physics which explains the properties of water, and is usually divided into hydrostatics and hydraulics. The former treats of weighing water and fluids in general, and of ascertaining their specific gravities; the latter shows the manner of conveying water from one place to another.

HYDROMETER. An instrument constructed to measure the specific gravities of fluids. That used at sea for testing the amount of salt in the water is a glass tube containing a scale, the bottom of the tube swelling out into two bulbs, of which the lower is laden with shot, which causes the instrument to float perpendicularly, and as it displaces its own weight of water, of course it sinks deeper as the water is lighter, which is recorded by the scale.

HYGRE. (_See_ BORE and EAGRE.) An effect of counter-currents.

HYGROMETER. An instrument for ascertaining the quantity of moisture in the atmosphere.

HYPERBOLA. One of the conic sections formed by cutting a cone by a plane which is so inclined to the axis, that when produced it cuts also the opposite cone, or the cone which is the continuation of the former, on the opposite side of the vertex.

HYPOTHECA. A mortgage. In the civil law, was where the thing pledged remained with the debtor.

HYPOTHECATION. An authority to the master, amounting almost to a power of the absolute disposal of the ship in a foreign country; he may hypothecate not only the hull, but his freight and cargo, for necessary and urgent repairs.

HYTHE. A pier or wharf to lade or unlade wares at [from the Anglo-Saxon _hyd_, coast or haven].