The Sailor's Word-Book - An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.

W. H. (William Henry) Smyth

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• Publié par: feak
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 28
• Langue: English

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Title: The Sailor's Word-Book
An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some
More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to
Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.
Author: William Henry Smyth
Editor: Sir Edward Belcher
Release Date: July 7, 2008 [EBook #26000]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE
SAILOR'S WORD-BOOK:
AN ALPHABETICAL DIGEST
OF
NAUTICAL TERMS,
INCLUDING SOME MORE ESPECIALLY MILITARY AND SCIENTIFIC, BUT USEFUL TO
SEAMEN;
AS WELL AS ARCHAISMS OF EARLY VOYAGERS, ETC.
BY THE LATE
ADMIRAL W. H. SMYTH,ADMIRAL W. H. SMYTH,
K.S.F., D.C.L., &c.
REVISED FOR THE PRESS BY
VICE-ADMIRAL SIR E. BELCHER,
K.C.B., &c. &c.
LONDON:
BLACKIE AND SON, PATERNOSTER ROW;
AND GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH.
1867.
GLASGOW:
W. G. BLACKIE AND CO., PRINTERS,
VILLAFIELD.
Transcriber's Note
Dialect, variant and obsolete spellings remain as
printed. Minor typographical errors have been
corrected without note, whilst significant changes
have been listed at the end of the text. Greek text
appears as originally printed, but with a
mousehover transliteration, Β ι β λ ο ς. The following table
has been added for convenience.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M
N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
[v]
THE EDITOR'S PREFACE.
THE recent loss of Admiral William Henry Smyth, noticed as it was by the
leading periodicals, will have recalled to many, not only the social characterand amiable qualities of the compiler of this Work, but also his distinguished
professional career and high reputation as an officer, a navigator, and a
seaman, which will be a guarantee for the details of this posthumous
publication.
When, in 1858, the Admiral reached the allotted term of three-score years
and ten, yet in perfect health, he executed his resolution of resigning to younger
men the posts he held in the active scientific world, and concentrated his
attention, at his quiet and literary retreat of St. John's Lodge, near Aylesbury, on
reducing for the press the vast amount of professional as well as general
information which he had amassed during a long, active, and earnest life: the
material for this "Digest" outstanding as the last, largest, and most important
part of it. Had he survived but a few months more, a preface in his own terse
and peculiar style, containing his last ideas, would have rendered these
remarks unnecessary; but he was cut off on the 8th of September, 1865, leaving
this favourite manuscript to the affectionate care of his family and friends. By
them it has been most carefully revised; and is now presented to the public,
especially to his honoured profession, for the benefit of which he thought and
worked during the long period which elapsed between his leaving the
quarterdeck and his death; as his Charts (constructed from his numerous surveys), his
twenty years' Essays in the United Service Journal , his efforts to render his
astronomical researches accessible to seamen,—all testify.
Admiral Smyth was what has been called a commonplacer. He had the habit
[vi]of methodically storing up, through a long series of years, all that could profit
the seaman, whether scientific or practical. A collector of coins, and in various
ways an antiquary, he knew well, not merely that "many mickles make a
muckle," but that it will sometimes chance that the turning up of one little thing
makes another little thing into a great one. And he culled from the intelligent
friends with whom he associated many points of critical definition which cannot
be found elsewhere. Thus, in addition to naval terms, he has introduced others
relating to fortification; to ancient and modern arms and armour; to objects of
natural history occurring at sea, in travel, &c.: the whole forming such an
assemblage of interesting and instructive matter as will prove valuable to both
seaman and landsman.
This "Digest" may engage the attention of the naval officer, not merely for the
information it conveys, but for the doubts it may raise in matters deserving
further research. Independently of the variety of subjects treated, the author's
characteristic manner of handling them will make it to his former brother officers
a reminiscence of one of the true tars of the old school—the rising generation
will find here old terms (often misunderstood by younger writers) interpreted by
one who was never content with a definition until he had confirmed it
satisfactorily by the aid of the most accomplished of his cotemporaries; the
landsman will discover the meaning or derivation of words either obsolete or
which are not elsewhere to be traced, though occurring in general literature. To
all it is the legacy of an officer highly appreciated by men of science, who on
shore as well as afloat fought his way to eminence in every department, and
always deemed it his pride that no aim was dearer to him than the
advancement of his noble profession.
LONDON, May, 1867.[1]
INTRODUCTION.
WHAT'S in a word? is a question which it is held clever to quote and wise to think
unanswerable: and yet there is a very good answer, and it is—a meaning, if you
know it. But there is another question, and it is, What's a word in? There is
never a poor fellow in this world but must ask it now and then with a blank face,
when aground for want of a meaning. And the answer is—a dictionary, if you
have it. Unfortunately, there may be a dictionary, and one may have it, and yet
the word may not be there. It may be an old dictionary, and the word a new one;
or a new dictionary, and the word an old one; a grave dictionary, and the word a
slang one; a slang dictionary, and the word a grave one; and so on through a
double line of battle of antitheses. Such is assuredly matter for serious
cogitation: and voluntarily to encounter those anomalous perplexities requires
no small amount of endurance, for the task is equally crabbed and onerous,
without a ray of hope to the pioneer beyond that of making himself humbly
useful. This brings me to my story.
Many years ago, I harboured thoughts of compiling a kind of detailed nautical
vade mecum; but a lot of other irons already in the fire marred the project. Still
[2]the scheme was backing and filling, when the late Major Shadwell Clerke
—opening the year 1836 in the United Service Journal —fired off the following,
to me, unexpected announcement:—
"A Nautical Dictionary, or Cyclopædia of Naval Science and Nomenclature,
is still a desideratum. That of Falconer is imperfect and out of date. We have
heard that the design of such a work has been entertained, and materials for its
execution collected, by Captain W. H. Smyth, whom, we earnestly recommend
to prosecute an undertaking of such promise to the service of which he is so
experienced and distinguished a member—it could not be in more competenthands."
This broad hint must have been signalled by the gallant Major in the way of a
stimulating fillip, and accordingly it aroused considerable attention. Among
those who were excited by the notification was my friend Captain Basil Hall,
who wrote to me from Paris a few days afterwards—13th of January, 1836—in
these words:
"I read a day or two ago, in the United Service Journal , that you had some
thoughts of preparing a Nautical Dictionary for publication; and from your
connection with that journal, or at least your acquaintance with our friend the
editor, I am led to fear that the report may be true. You will understand the use
of the word fear when I tell you that, for nearly three years, my own thoughts
have turned in the same direction, and I have been busily preparing for a task to
which I meant to buckle to with a will, and to which I meant to devote some four
or five years of exclusive diligence. What I am anxious to know, as soon as may
be, is the fact of your having undertaken a similar work, or not . For I assure you
I am not so foolish, nor so insensible either to my own peace of mind or my own
reputation; nor am I so careless of your good opinion and regard, as to enter the
lists with you. I repeat, neither my feelings nor my judgment would permit me in
any way to cross your hawse, if indeed, as I too much fear, you have got before
me. There is one other man in the service besides yourself, and only one, with
whom no consideration would induce me to enter into competition—and that is
Beaufort—but his hands, I presume, are full enough, and I had somehow
imagined yours were too. So much so, that you were one of the first men I
meant to consult on my return to England, and to beg assistance from. I should
not have minded the competition of any one else, but I am not so vain as to
suppose that I coul