The Sailor's Word-Book
Chapter 126 : HEAVING TAUT. The act of turning the capstan, &c., till the rope applied thereto becom

HEAVING TAUT. The act of turning the capstan, &c., till the rope applied thereto becomes straight and ready for action.

HEAVING THROUGH ALL. The surging or slipping of the cable when the nippers do not hold.

HEAVY DRIFT-ICE. Dense ice, which has a great depth in the water in proportion to its size, and is not in a state of decay, therefore dangerous to s.h.i.+pping.

HEAVY GALE. A strong wind, in which a s.h.i.+p is reduced to storm-staysails and close-reefed main-topsail. Force 10.

HEAVY METAL, OR HEAVY ORDNANCE. Ordnance of large calibre.

HEAVY SEA. High and strong waves.

HEBBER-MAN. An old name for a fisherman on the Thames below London Bridge, who took whitings, smelts, &c., commonly at ebbing-water.

HEBBING-WEIR. Contrivances for taking fish at ebbing-water.

HECK-BOAT. The old term for pinks. Latterly a clincher-built boat with covered fore-sheets, and one mast with a trysail.

HECKLE. Said to be from the Teutonic _heckelen_, to dress flax for rope-making. Also, an artificial fly for fis.h.i.+ng.

HECKLE-BACK. A name of the fifteen-spined stickleback, _Gasterosteus spinachia_.

HEDA. An early term for a small haven, wharf, or landing-place.

HEDAGIUM. A toll or duty paid at the wharf for landing goods, &c.

HEDGEHOGS. A name formerly applied to vessels which rowed with many oars. Also, small stunted trees unfit for timber.

HEEL. The after end of a s.h.i.+p's keel, and the lower end of the stern-post to which it is connected. Also, the lower end of any mast, boom, bowsprit, or timber. Also, that part of the end of the b.u.t.t of a musket which is uppermost when at the firing position.--_To heel._ To lie over, or incline to either side out of the perpendicular: usually applied to a s.h.i.+p when canted by the wind, or by being unequally ballasted. (_See_ CRANK, STIFF, and TRIM.)

HEEL-BRACE. A piece of iron-work applicable to the lower part of a rudder, in case of casualty to the lower pintles.

HEELING GUNWALE TO. Pressing down sideways to her upper works, particularly applied to boats running before a heavy sea, when they may roll their weather gunwales to.

HEEL-KNEE. The compa.s.s-piece which connects the keel with the stern-post.

HEEL-LAs.h.i.+NG. The rope which secures the inner part of a studding-sail boom to the yard; also, that which secures the jib-boom.

HEEL OF A MAST. The lower end, which either fits into the step attached to the keel, or in top-masts is sustained by the fid upon the trestle-trees. Heeling is the square part of the spar through which the fid hole is cut.

HEEL-ROPE. That which hauls out the bowsprit in cutters, and the jib and studding-sail booms, or anything else where it pa.s.ses through the heel of the spar, except in the case of top-masts and topgallant-masts, where it becomes a _mast-rope_.

HEELS. _Having the heels of a s.h.i.+p_; sailing faster.

HEEL-TACKLES. The luff purchases for the heels of each sheer previous to taking in masts, or otherwise using them.

HEEVIL. An old northern term for the conger.

HEFT. The Anglo-Saxon _haeft_; the handle of a dirk, knife, or any edge-tool; also, the handle of an oar.

HEIGHT. Synonymous with hill, and meaning generally any ground above the common level of the place. Our early navigators used the word as a synonym of lat.i.tude.

HEIGHT OF THE HOLD. Used for the depth of the hold.

HEIGHT OF BREADTH. In s.h.i.+p-building, is a delineation generally in two lines--upper and lower--determining the height of the broadest place of each timber.

HELIACAL. A star rises heliacally when it first becomes visible in the morning, after having been hidden in the sun's rays; and it sets heliacally when it is first lost in the evening twilight, owing to the sun's proximity.

HELIER. A cavern into which the tide flows.

HELIOCENTRIC. As seen from, or having reference to, the centre of the sun.

HELIOMETER. An instrument designed for the accurate measurement of the diameters of the sun or planets.

HELIOSTAADT, OR HELIOTROPE. This instrument reflects the sun's rays by a silvered disc, used in the great trigonometrical surveys. It has been visible at 100 miles' distance, from c.u.mberland to Ireland.

h.e.l.l-AFLOAT. A vessel with a bad name for tyranny.

HELM. Properly is the tiller, but sometimes used to express the rudder, and the means used for turning it, which, in small vessels and boats, is merely a tiller, but in larger vessels a wheel is added, which supplies the leverage for pulling the tiller either way; they are connected by ropes or chains.--_A-lee the helm_, or _Down with the helm!_ So place the tiller that the rudder is brought on the weather side of the stern-post. These, and the following orders, were established when tillers extended forward from the rudder-head, but now they often extend aft, which requires the motion of the tiller to be reversed. With the latter style of tiller the order "down with the helm" is carried out by bringing the tiller _up_ to the weather side of the s.h.i.+p; which being done, the order "Helm's a lee" follows.--_Bear up the helm._ That is, let the s.h.i.+p go more large before the wind.--_Ease the helm._ To let the helm come more amids.h.i.+ps, when it has been put hard up or down.--It is common to ease the helm before a heavy sea takes the s.h.i.+p when close-hauled.--_Helm amids.h.i.+ps_, or _right the helm_. That is, keep it even with the middle of the s.h.i.+p, in a line with the keel.--_Helm over._ The position of the tiller to enable a vessel steaming ahead to describe a curve.--_Port the helm._ Place the tiller so as to carry the rudder to starboard. (_See_ _A-lee the helm_.)--_s.h.i.+ft the helm._ Put it from port to starboard, and _vice versa_, or it may be amids.h.i.+ps.--_Starboard the helm._ Place the tiller so as to carry the rudder to port.--_Up with the helm._ Place the tiller so as to carry the rudder to leeward. (_See_ _A-lee the helm_.)

HELMED. An old word for steered; it is metaphorically used by Shakspeare in _Measure for Measure_.

HELMET. A piece of defensive armour; a covering for the head.

HELM-PORT. The round hole or cavity in a s.h.i.+p's counter, through which the head of the rudder pa.s.ses into the trunk.

HELM-PORT TRANSOM. The piece of timber placed across the lower counter, withinside the height of the helm-port, and bolted through every timber for the security of that part of the s.h.i.+p.

HELMSMAN. The timoneer, or person, who guides the s.h.i.+p or boat by the management of the helm. The same as _steersman_.

HELM-WIND. A singular meteorological phenomenon which occurs in the north of England. Besides special places in c.u.mberland and Westmoreland, it suddenly rushes from an immense cloud that gathers round the summit of Cross-Fell, covering it like a helmet. Its effects reach the sea-board.

HELMY. Rainy [from an Anglo-Saxon phrase for rainy weather].

HELTER-SKELTER. Hurry and confusion. Defiance of good order.

Privateerism.

HELVE. The handle of the carpenter's mauls, axes, and adzes; also of an oar, &c.

HELYER. _See_ HELIER.

HEMISPHERE. Half the surface of a globe. The celestial equator divides the heavens into two hemispheres--the northern and the southern.

HEMP. _Cannabis sativa._ A manufactorial plant of equal antiquity with flax. The produce of hemp in fibre varies from three to six hundred weight per acre, and forms the best of all cordage and ropes. It is mixed with opium in the preparation of those rich drugs called _has.h.i.+she_ in Cairo and Constantinople. Those who were in the constant use of them were called _has.h.i.+s.h.i.+n_ (herb-eaters); and being often by their stimulative properties excited almost to frenzy and to murder, the word "a.s.sa.s.sin" is said to have been derived by the crusaders from this source. While the French army was in Egypt, Napoleon I. was obliged to prohibit, under the severest penalties, the sale and use of these pernicious substances.

HENDECAGON. A right-lined figure with eleven sides; if it be regular, the sides and angles are all equal.

HEN-FRIGATE. A s.h.i.+p wherein the captain's wife interfered in the duty or regulations.