| |
|
RUDDER, or ROTHER.
|
|
The machine, attached to the stern post, by the pintles
and braces, which serve to direct the course of the ship. It is formed of
several pieces of timber, of which the main piece is generally of oak, extends
the whole length, and forms the head. The bearding piece, which forms the fore
part, is of elm, and derives its name from its shape, because from the middle,
each way, it is shaped angle-wise, or bearded to two-fifths of its thickness, or
less if the stern-post is bearded back, that the rudder occasionally may form an
obtuse angle with the ship's length. The other pieces are of fir. |
| |
|
RUDDER-CHOCKS.
|
|
Large pieces of fir, to fay or fill up the excavation on
the side of the rudder hole; so that the helm being in midships the rudder may
be fixed, and supposing the tiller broken, another might thus be supplied.
|
| |
|
RUDDER-IRONS.
|
|
A name by which the pintles are frequently called.
|
| |
|
RUDDER PENDANTS.
|
|
Ropes to prevent the loss of the rudder in case of its
being unshipped by accident. |
| |
|
RUN. |
|
The narrowing of the ship abaft, as of the floor towards
the stern-post, when it becomes no broader than the post itself.
This term is also used to signify the running or drawing
of a line on the ship, or mould loft floor, as "to run the wale line," or
deck line. |
|
|
SADDLE. |
|
A piece sometimes fayed upon the upper end of the lacing
to secure the foremost ends of the main rails. |
| |
|
SAGGING. |
|
In seamanship, SAGGING to leeward, signifies the
movement by which a ship makes considerable leeway, or is driven far to leeward
of the course on which she apparently sails. But as a phrase applied to the hull
of the ship is the very reverse of HOGGING, as then the midship part of the ship
by straining arches upwards, whereas in sagging, by a different sort of strain,
it curves downwards. |
| |
|
SAILS. |
|
The surfaces of canvas, extended on or between the masts,
to receive the force of the wind, and thereby press the vessel through the
water. |
| |
|
SAMPSON's POST.
|
|
A large pillar or stanchion placed up diagonally on each
side against the quarter-deck beam, and next afore the cabin bulkhead, with its
lower end tendoned into a chase on the upper deck. It is used to bring the
fish-tackle too when fishing the anchor. This name is also given to the pillar
immediately under the hatchways, having scores on each side, as steps, to go up
and down by. This pillar is of so much larger scantling than the other pillars,
as not to be too much weakened by the scores. |
| |
|
SAWS. |
|
The most useful instruments used in carpentry. The
hand-saw is the smallest, and is used by one hand. The two-hand or
cross-cut-saw is much longer, and is used by two men. The whip-saw is
the longest of all, being that generally used in a saw-pit, or for the more
laborious purposes. The hack-saw is made of a scythe jagged at the edge,
and used chiefly for cutting off iron bolts. |
| |
|
SCALE. |
|
The graduated lines, divided into equal parts, and placed
at the bottom of the sheer draught. as a common measure for ascertaining the
dimensions by the plan; and for this purpose each of the larger divisions
represents a foot, and the subdivisions, inches. |
| |
|
SCANTLING. |
|
The dimensions given for the timbers, plank. Likewise, all
quartering under five inches square, which is termed scantling; all above that
size is called CARLING. |
| |
|
SCARPING. |
|
The letting of one piece of timber or plank into another
with a lap, in such a manner, that both may appear as one solid and even
surface, as keel-pieces stem pieces, clamps. |
| |
|
SCHOONER. |
|
A cutter-built vessel, but longer in proportion than a
cutter, and having two masts, whose main-sail and fore-sail are spread upon a
gaff or boom. |
| |
|
SCREEN BULKHEAD.
|
|
The after bulkhead under the round-house. |
| |
|
SCREWS, BED or BARREL.
|
|
A powerful machine for lifting large bodies; and when
placed against the gripe of a ship, to be launched for starting her . It
consists of two large poppets or male screws, having holes through their heads
to admit levers, a bed formed by a large oblong piece of elm, with a female
screw near each end to admit the poppets, and a sole of elm plank for the heels
of the poppets to work on, agreeably to the annexed figure. Those used as last
described, have an inclined sole so as to stand square to the stem or knee.
|
| |
|
SCROLL |
|
A spinal ornament fastened at the drifts. Likewise the
finish of the upper part of the hair bracket. |
| |
|
SCUPPERS. |
|
Leaden pipes let through the ship's side to convey the
water from the decks. |
| |
|
SCUTTLES. |
|
Square openings cut through the decks, much less than the
hatchways, for the purpose on handing small things up from deck to deck. There
are also scuttles cut through the sides of the ship, some for the admission of
air and light into the cabins between decks, and some between the ports, through
which the sweeps are used, to row the ship along in calms, and one is cut in
each port-lid of two-deck ships to admit air and light between decks.
|
| |
|
SEA-BOAT. |
|
A vessel that bears the sea firmly, without straining her
masts. is commonly said to be "a good sea-boat." |
| |
|
SEAMS. |
|
The openings between the edges of the planks when wrought.
|
| |
|
SEASONING. |
|
A term applied to a ship kept standing a certain time
after she is completely framed and dubbed out for planking, which should never
be less than six months when circumstances will permit. Seasoned plank or
timber is such as has been cut down and sawn out one season at least,
particularly when thoroughly dry, and not liable to shrink. |
| |
|
SEAT. |
|
The scarp or part trimmed out for a chock. to fay to.
|
| |
|
SEATING. |
|
That part of the floor which fays on the deadwood; and of
a transom which fays against the post. |
| |
|
SEAT TRANSOM.
|
|
That transom which is fayed and bolted to the
counter-timbers, next above the deck transom, at the height of the port sills.
|
| |
|
SECTION. |
|
A draught or figure, representing the internal parts of
the ship, at any particular place athwartships. |
| |
|
SETTING, or SETTING-TO.
|
|
The act of making the planks. fay close to the timbers, by
driving wedges between the planks. and a wrain-staff. Hence we say, "Set, or set
away," meaning to exert more strength. The power or engine used for the purpose
of setting is called a SETT, and is composed of two ring-bolts, and a
wrain-staff, cleats, and lashings. |
| |
|
SHACKLES. |
|
The small ring-bolts driven into the ports, or scuttles,
and through which the lashing passes when the ports are barred in. |
| |
|
SHAKEN, or SHAKEY.
|
|
A natural defect in plank or timber when it is full of
splits or clefts, and will not bear fastening or caulking. |
| |
|
SHANK-PAINTER.
|
|
A chain bolted through the topside, abaft the cathead, to
retain the shank and flukes of the anchor when stowed. |
| |
|
SHEATHING. |
|
A thin sort of doubling, or casing, or fir-board or sheet
copper, and sometimes of both, over the ship's bottom, to protect the planks
from worms. Tar and hair, or brown paper dipped in tar and oil, is laid between
the sheathing and the bottom. |
| |
|
SHEAVE. |
|
A cylindrical wheel made of hard wood, moveable round a
rim as its axis, and placed in a block, of which there are several in the sides
of a ship, let through the side and chest-tree , for assisting to lead the tacks
and sheets on board. |
| |
|
SHELL-ROOMS.
|
|
A compartment in a bomb-vessel, fitted up with shelves to
receive bomb-shells when charged. |
| |
|
SHEER. |
|
The longitudinal curve or hanging of the ship's side in a
fore and aft direction. |
| |
|
SHEER DRAUGHT.
|
|
The plan of elevation of a ship, whereon are described the
outboard works, as the wales, sheer-rails, ports, drifts, head, quarters, post
and stem. the hang of each deck inside, the height of the water-lines.
|
| |
|
SHEER-RAILS.
|
|
The narrow ornamental moldings along the topside, which
are parallel to the sheer. They are generally made of deal but are sometimes
wrought from the solid plank. |
| |
|
SHEER-STRAKE.
|
|
The strake or strakes wrought in the topside, of which the
upper edge is wrought well with the top-timber line, or top of the side, and the
lower edge kept well with the upper part of the upper deck ports in midships, so
as to be continued whole all fore and aft, and not cut by the ports. It forms
the chief strength of the upper part of the topside, and is therefore always
worked thicker than the other strakes, and scarped with hook and butt between
the drifts. |
| |
|
SHEER-WALES, or
MIDDLE-WALES. |
|
Those strakes of thick stuff in the topside of
three-decked ships which are wrought between the middle and lower deck ports.
|
| |
|
SHEERS. |
|
Two rough masts erected across the building slip, for
hoisting the ship's frames. They are lashed together at their upper ends, with
tackles depending from the intersection at top; and are kept upright by guys
extending forward and aft from the heads. The heels are lashed to prevent their
spreading.
That some judgment may be formed of the dimensions of
sheers, we subjoin the following, which are sufficient for raising the
stern-frame of the largest ship in the English navy. Two masts, each nineteen
inches and a half in diameter, and sixty-six feet long, spread at the heels,
from out to outside, forty-six feet four inches. The tackles, consisting of four
treble blocks, twenty-eight inches long, the sheaves brass coaked. The falls new
eight-inch rope. One treble block lashed, so as to be fixed to the aft part of
the sheers, and another to the foreside. Shivers to stand nearly athwartships,
and fair with the leading-block at the heels of the sheers, to prevent the fall
from rubbing against the cheeks of the blocks. One treble block lashed to the
back of the stern frame, between the deck and filling transoms, to stand
athwartships, and lead to the opposite sheer. To have a double tackle at the
head of the stern-post, the fall 3-1/2 inch rope, to browse the head forward
occasionally, with a double tackle at the heel of 4-1/2 inch rope, to ease it
forward or browse it aft as required. One double tackle at each end of the wing
transom, called horning tackles, to lead to the standards most convenient to
horn or square the frame as wanted. The after treble block at the sheer head is
to plumb the after part of the wing transom as nearly as possible, and the guys
to steady the sheer-heads, two to lead forward and two aft on each side of the
slip, to be seven inch hawsers. |
| |
|
SHIFT. |
|
A term applied to disposing the butts of the planks. so
that they may over launch each other without reducing the length, and so as to
gain the most strength. The planks of the bottom, in British-built ships of war,
have a six-feet shift with three planks between each butt, so that the planks
run twenty-four feet long. In the bottoms of merchant ships they have a six-feet
shift with only two planks between each butt; making but eighteen-feet planks in
length. The shift of the timbers are more or less according to the contract.
|
| |
|
SHIFTING. |
|
The act of setting off the length of the planks of the
bottom, topside. that the butts may over-run each other, in order to make a good
shift. Replacing old stuff with new is also called shifting.
|
| |
|
SHOLES. |
|
Pieces of oak or plank, placed under the soles of the
standards; or under the heels of the shores, in docks or slips where there are
no ground ways, to enable them to sustain the weight required without sinking.
Old hanging port-lids are particularly suitable and useful for this purpose.
|
| |
|
SHORES. |
|
Those pieces of timber fixed under the rib bands, or
against the sides and bottom of the ship to prop her up whilst building.
|
| |
|
SHOT-LOCKERS, or
GARLANDS. |
|
Apartments built up in the hold to contain the shot. Also
pieces of oak plank, fixed against the head-ledges and coamings of the hatch and
ladderway, or against the side between the ports to contain the shot; for which
purpose they are hollowed out to near one-third of its diameter, so that the
balls lie in them about one inch asunder. It is the latter that are termed
garlands. |
| |
|
SHRINKING. |
|
The contraction or loss of substance in timber as it gets
dry. |
| |
|
SHROUDS. |
|
The range of large ropes extended from each side of the
ship to the mast-heads for the support of the masts. |
| |
|
SIDE COUNTER TIMBER.
|
|
The stern timber which partakes of the shape of the
topside and heels upon the end of the wing transom. |
| |
|
SIDING, or SIDED.
|
|
The size or dimensions of timber the contrary way to the
molding, or mould side. |
| |
|
SILLS, or CELLS.
|
|
The pieces of plank, or timber, let in horizontally
between the frames to form the lower and upper sides of the ports, and between
the timbers for scuttles. |
| |
|
SIRMARKS. |
|
The different places marked upon the moulds where the
respective beveling are to be applied, as the lower sirmark, floor sirmark.
|
| |
|
SKEG. |
|
The after part of the keel, or that part whereon the
stern-post is fixed. |
| |
|
SKEG-SHORES.
|
|
One or two-pieces of four-inch plank, put up endways
under the skeg of the ship, to steady the after part a little when in the act of
launching. They are confined to the bottom of the ship by a hinge. The upper
part is rounded, and they should be so carefully fixed as to fall readily when
the ship starts; for the writer hereof once saw a seventy-four-gun ship detained
from launching by her skeg-shore only. |
| |
|
SKIDS. |
|
Pieces of oak plank, formed to the topside of the ship,
and extending vertically from the wales to the top of the side. Their use is, to
preserve the ship's side from being injured by weighty bodies, when hoisted into
or lowered out of the ship, but as they are seldom wanted, for the reason
heretofore given under the article FENDERS, their tendency to conduce to the
decay of the sides ought to explode them. |
| |
|
SKINNING. |
|
A term often used for planking. |
| |
|
SLEEPERS. |
|
Pieces of compass timber fayed and bolted upon the
transoms and timbers adjoining, within side, to strengthen the buttock of the
ship. |
| |
|
SLICES. |
|
Tapering pieces of plank, used to drive under the false
keel, and settle the ship upon. |
| |
|
SLIDING-KEELS.
|
|
An invention of the ingenious Captain Schank, of the Royal
Navy, to prevent vessels from being driven to leeward by a side wind. They are
composed of plank of various breadths, erected vertically, so as to slide up and
down, through the keel. |
| |
|
SLIDING PLANKS,
|
|
are the planks upon which the bilgeways slide in
launching. |
| |
|
SLIP. |
|
The foundation laid for the purpose of building the ship
upon, and launching her. |
| |
|
SLOOP. |
|
According to the general acceptation of the word, a small
merchant or coasting vessel with one mast. But all ships of the Royal Navy
carrying less than twenty guns, and being above the class of gun-vessels, are
denominated sloops, excepting bomb-vessels and fire-ships. |
| |
|
SLOP-ROOM. |
|
The place appointed for the purser to keep the ship's
slops in. |
| |
|
SNAPE, To. |
|
To hance or bevel the end of any thing so as to fay upon
an inclined plane. |
| |
|
SNOW. |
|
A vessel similar in construction to a brig, but the
largest of vessels fitted with two masts. It has a square foresail and mainsail,
with a trysail abaft, resembling the mizzen of a ship, and hoisted by a gaff
upon a small mast, close abaft the main-mast, which is called the trysail mast.
|
| |
|
SNYING. |
|
A term applied to planks when their edges round or curve
upwards. The great sny occasioned in full bows or buttocks is only to be
prevented by introducing steelers. |
| |
|
SOLE. |
|
A sort of lining to prevent wearing or tearing away the
main part to which it may be attached; as the rudder, bilgeways. |
| |
|
SPALING. |
|
Keeping the frames of a ship to their proper breadths by
the cross-spales, which should so remain till some of the deck knees are bolted.
|
| |
|
SPANSHACKLE.
|
|
A large bolt driven through the forecastle and upper deck
beams, and forelocked under each beam. It has a large square ring at the head,
for the purpose of receiving the end of the davit. It has however been long
since disused in the Royal Navy, as the davits are more commodiously fixed in
the fore-channels. |
| |
|
SPARS. |
|
Small firs used in making staging. |
| |
|
SPILES. |
|
Small wooden pins, which are driven into nail-holes, to
prevent leaking. |
| |
|
SPILINGS. |
|
The dimensions taken from a straight line, a mould's edge,
or rule-staff, to any given line or edge. |
| |
|
SPIRIT ROOM.
|
|
A place built abaft the after-hold to contain the
spirits. |
| |
|
SPIRKITTING.
|
|
A thick strake, or strakes, wrought within side upon the
ends of the beams or waterways. In ships that have ports the spirkitting reaches
from the waterways to the upper side of the lower sill, which is generally of
two strakes, wrought anchor-stock fashion; in this case, the planks should
always be such as will work as broad as possible, admitting the butts be about
six inches broad. |
| |
|
SPLA-BOARDS.
|
|
Boards or plank fixed to an obtuse angle, to throw the
light into the filling room of a magazine. |
| |
|
SPRUNG. |
|
A term indicating that a plank. is strained so much in the
working as to crack or fly open and so as to be nearly broken off. To SPRING, is
to quicken or raise the sheer. |
| |
|
SPURN WATER.
|
|
A channel left above the ends of a deck to prevent water
from coming any further. |
| |
|
SPURS. |
|
Large pieces of timber, the lower ends of which are fixed
to the bilgeways, and the upper ends fayed and bolted to the ship's bottom. They
are used in some of the Royal Yards, although not by merchant builders, as an
additional security to the bilgeways in case any other part should fail in
launching the ship. |
| |
|
SQUARE, A. |
|
An instrument formed by a stock and a tongue, fixed at
right angles. To SQUARE is to horn or form with right angles; and to
STAND-SQUARE is to stand or be at right angles relatively to some object.
|
| |
|
SQUARE BODY.
|
|
The figure which comprehends all the timbers whose areas
or planes are perpendicular to the keel, which is all that portion of a ship
between the cant-bodies. |
| |
|
SQUARE MAKER, A.
|
|
A shipwright who cuts the butts to receive the oakum, and
prepares the work ready for the caulkers. |
| |
|
SQUARE RIB BANDS.
|
|
The same as horizontal rib bands. |
| |
|
SQUARE-STERNED.
|
|
A term applied to ships whose wing-transom is at right
angles, or nearly at right angles, with the stern-post, and towards the upper
side of which the upper planks of the bottom butt, or finish, in a rabbet formed
by the tuck-rail; the other part of the plank stopping at the side counter
timbers, by which means the stern may be commodiously fitted with sashes, walks.
All British ships are now built upon this principle, whilst many of other
nations are still constructed by the ancient methods; hence we so frequently
hear the phrase of "square-sterned and British built," as our practice in this
respect justly claims the superiority over that of all nations. |
| |
|
SQUARE TIMBERS.
|
|
The timbers which stand square with, or perpendicular to,
the keel. |
| |
|
SQUARE TUCK.
|
|
A name given to the after part of a ship's bottom when
terminated in the same direction up and down as the wing-transom, and the planks
of the bottom end in a rabbet at the foreside of the fashion piece; whereas
ships with a buttock are round or circular, and the planks of the bottom end
upon the wing-transom. |
| |
|
STABILITY. |
|
That quality which enables a ship to keep herself steadily
in the water, without rolling or pitching. Stability in the construction, is
only to be acquired, by fixing the centre of gravity at a certain distance below
the meta-centre, because the stability of the vessel increases with the altitude
of the meta-centre above the center of gravity. But when the meta-centre
coincides with the centre of gravity, the vessel has no tendency whatever to
remove out of the situation into which it may be put. Thus if the vessel be
inclined either to the starboard or larboard side, it will remain in that
position till a new force is impressed upon it; in this case, therefore, the
vessel would not be able to carry sail, and is consequently unfit for the
purposes of navigation. If the meta-centre falls below the common centre of
gravity, the vessel will immediately overset. |
| |
|
STAGES. |
|
The platforms on which the shipwrights work.
|
|
|
