LAND-FALL. The making land after being at sea.

A good land-fall, is when a vessel makes the land as intended.

LAND HO! The cry used when land is first seen.

LANYARDS. Ropes rove through dead-eyes for setting up rigging. Also, a rope made fast to anything to secure it, or as a handle, is called a lanyard.

LARBOARD. The left side of a vessel, looking forward.

LARBOWLINES. The familiar term for the men in the larboard watch.
LARGE A vessel is said to be going large, when she has the wind free.
LATCHINGS. Loops on the head rope of a bonnet, by which it is laced to the
foot of the sail.

LAUNCH. A large boat. The LONG-BOAT.

LAUNCH HO! High enough!

LAY.

To come or to go; as, Lay aloft! Lay forward! Lay aft! Also, the direction in which the strands of a rope are twisted; as, from left to right, or from right to left.

LEACH. The border or edge of a sail, at the sides.

LEACHLINE. A rope used for hauling up the leach of a sail.

LEAD. A piece of lead, in the shape of a cone or pyramid, with a small hole at the base, and a line attached to the upper end, used for sounding. (See HAND-LEAD, DEEP-SEA-LEAD.)

LEADING-WIND. A fair wind. More particularly applied to a wind abeam or quartering.

LEAK. A hole or breach in a vessel, at which the water comes in.

LEDGES. Small pieces of timber placed athwartships under the decks of a vessel, between the beams.

LEE. The side opposite to that from which the wind blows; as, if a vessel has the wind on her starboard side, that will be the weather, and the larboard will be the lee side.

A lee shore is the shore upon which the wind is blowing.
Under the lee of anything, is when you have that between you and the wind.
By the lee. The situation of a vessel, going free, when she has fallen off
so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails
aback on the other side.

LEE-BOARD. A board fitted to the lee side of flat-bottomed boats, to prevent their drifting to leeward.

LEE-GAGE. (See GAGE.)

LEEWAY. What a vessel loses by drifting to leeward. When sailing closehauled with all sail set, a vessel should make no leeway. If the topgallant sails are furled, it is customary to allow one point; under close-reefed topsails, two points; when under one close-reefed sail, four or five points.

LEEFANGE. An iron bar, upon which the sheets of fore-and-aft sails traverse. Also, a rope rove through the cringle of a sail which has a bonnet to it, for hauling in, so as to lace on the bonnet. Not much used.

LEEWARD. (Pronounced lu-ard.) The lee side. In a direction opposite to that from which the wind blows, which is called windward. The opposite of lee is weather, and of leeward is windward; the two first being adjectives.

LIE-TO, is to stop the progress of a vessel at sea, either by counter-bracing the yards, or by reducing sail so that she will make little or no headway, but will merely come-to and fall-off by the counteraction of the sails and helm.

LIFE-LINES. Ropes carried along yards, booms, &c., or at any part of the vessel, for men to hold on by.

LIFT. A rope or tackle, going from the yard-arms to the mast-head, to support and move the yard. Also, a term applied to the sails when the wind strikes them on the leaches and raises them slightly.

LIGHT. To move or lift anything along; as, to "Light out to windward !" that is, haul the sail over to windward. The light sails are all above the topsails, also the studdingsails and flying jib.

LIGHTER. A large boat, used in loading and unloading vessels.

WING. That part of the hold or between-decks which is next the side.
WINGERS. Casks stowed in the wings of a vessel.

WING-AND-WING. The situation of a fore-and-aft vessel when she is going dead before the wind, with her foresail hauled over on one side and her mainsail on the other.

WITHE, or WYTHE. An iron instrument fitted on the end of a boom or mast, with a ring to it, through which another boom or mast is rigged out and secured.

WOOLD. WORK UP.

To wind a piece of rope round a spar, or other thing.

To draw the yarns from old rigging and make them into spunyarn, foxes, sennit, &c. Also, a phrase for keeping a crew constantly at work upon needless matters, and in all weathers, and beyond their usual hours, for punishment.

WORM. (See page 26.) To fill up between the lays of a rope with small stuff wound round spirally. Stuff so wound round is called worming.

WRING. To bend or strain a mast by setting the rigging up too taut.
WRING-BOLTS. Bolts that secure the planks to the timbers.
WRING-STAVES. Strong pieces of plank used with the wring-bolts.

YACHT. (Pronounced yot.) A vessel of pleasure or state.

YARD. (See PLATE 1.) A long piece of timber, tapering slightly toward the ends, and hung by the centre to a mast, to spread the square sails upon. YARD-ARM. The extremities of a yard.

YARD-ARM AND YARD-ARM. The situation of two vessels, lying alongside one another, so near that their yard-arms cross or touch.

YARN. (See ROPE-YARN.)

YAW. The motion of a vessel when she goes off from her course.

YEOMAN. A man employed in a vessel of war to take charge of a storeroom; as, boatswain's yeoman, the man that has charge of the stores, of rigging, &c.

YOKE. A piece of wood placed across the head of a boat's rudder, with a rope attached to each end, by which the boat is steered.

PART II.

CHAPTER I.

THE MASTER.

Beginning of the voyage-Shipping the crew-Outfit-Provisions-Watches-Navigation -Log-book-Observations-Working ship--Day's work-Discipline

In the third part of this work, it will be seen that the shipmaster is a person to whom, both by the general marine law of all commercial nations, and by the special statutes of the United States, great powers are confided, and upon whom heavy responsibilities rest. The shipmaster will find there what are his legal rights, duties, and remedies as to owner, ship, and crew, and the various requirements as to the papers with which he is to furnish his ship, and the observances of revenue and other regulations.

It is proposed to give here, rather more, perhaps, for the information of others than of the master himself, the ordinary and everyday duties of his office, and the customs which long usage has made almost as binding as laws.

There is a great difference in different ports, and among the various owners, as to the part the master is to take in supplying and manning the vessel. In many cases, the owner puts on board all the stores for the ship's use and for the crew, and gives the master particular directions, sometimes in writing, as to the manner in which he is to dispense them. These directions are more or less liberal, according to the character of the owner; and, in some cases, the dispensing of the stores is left to the master's discretion. In other instances, the master makes out an inventory of all the stores he thinks it expedient to have put on board, and they are accordingly supplied by the owner's order.

In the manner of shipping the crew, there is as great a difference as in that of providing the stores. Usually, the whole thing is left

to shipping-masters, who are paid so much a head for each of the crew, and are responsible for their appearance on board at the time of sailing. When this plan is adopted, neither the master nor owner, except by accident, knows anything of the crew before the vessel goes to sea. The shipping-master opens the articles at his office, procures the men, sees that they sign in due form, pays them their advance, takes care that they, or others in their place, are on board at the time of sailing, and sends in a bill for the whole to the owner. In other cases, the master selects his crew, and occasionally the owner does it, if he has been at sea himself and understands seamen; though a shipping-master is still employed, to see them on board, and for other purposes. In the ordinary course of short voyages, where crews are shipped frequently, and there is not much motive for making a selection, the procuring a crew may be left entirely to the agency of a faithful shipping-master; but upon long voyages, the comfort and success of which may depend much upon the character of a crew, the master or owner should interest himself to select able-bodied and respectable men, to explain to them the nature and length of the voyage they are going upon, what clothing they will want, and the work that will be required of them, and should see that they have proper and sufficient accommodations and provisions for their comfort. The master or owner should also, though this duty is often neglected, go to the forecastle and see that it is cleaned out, whitewashed, or painted, put in a proper habitable condition, and furnished with every reasonable convenience. It would seem best that the master should have something to do with the selection of the provisions for his men, as he will usually be more interested in securing their good-will and comfort than the owner would be.

By the master or owner's thus interesting himself for the crew, a great deal of misunderstanding, complaint, and ill-will may be avoided, and the beginning, at least, of the voyage be made under good auspices.

Unless the master is also supercargo, his duties, before sailing, are mostly confined to looking after the outfit of the vessel, and seeing that she is in sea order.

Everything being in readiness, the customhouse and other regulations complied with, and the crew on board, the vessel is put under the charge of the pilot to be carried out clear of the land. While the pilot is on board, the master has little else to do than to see that everything is in order, and that the commands of the pilot are executed. As soon as the pilot leaves the ship, the entire control and responsibility is thrown upon the master. When the vessel is well clear of the land, and things are put into some order,

it is usual for the master to call all hands aft, and say something to them about the voyage upon which they have entered. After this, the crew are divided into watches. The watches are the divisions of the crew into two equal portions. The periods of time occupied by each part of the crew, while on duty, are also called watches.

There are two watches, the larboard, commanded by the chief mate, and the starboard, by the second mate. The master himself stands no watch, but comes and goes at all times, as he chooses. The starboard is sometimes called the captain's watch, probably from the fact that in the early days of the service, when vessels were smaller, there was usually but one mate, and the master stood his own watch; and now, in vessels which have no second mate, the master keeps the starboard watch. In dividing into watches, the master usually allows the officers to choose the men, one by one, alternately; but sometimes makes the division himself, upon consulting with his officers. The men are divided as equally as possible, with reference to their qualities as able seamen, ordinary seamen, or boys (as all green hands are called, whatever their age may be); but if the number is unequal, the larboard watch has the odd one, since the chief mate does not go aloft and do other duty in his watch, as the second mate does in his. The cook always musters with the larboard watch, and the steward with the starboard. If there is a carpenter, and the larboard watch is the largest, he generally goes aloft with the starboard watch; otherwise, with the larboard.

As soon as the division is made, if the day's work is over, one watch is set, and the other is sent below. Among the numerous customs of the ocean, which can hardly be accounted for, it is one that on the first night of the outward passage the starboard watch should take the first four hours on deck, and on the first night of the homeward passage the larboard should do the same. The sailors explain this by the old phrase, that the master takes the ship out and the mate takes her home.

The master takes the bearing and distance of the last point of departure upon the land, and from that point the ship's reckoning begins, and is regularly kept in the log-book. The chief mate keeps the log-book, but the master examines and corrects the reckoning every day. The master also attends to the chronometer, and takes all the observations, with the assistance of his officers, if necessary. Every day, a few minutes before noon, if there is any prospect of being able to get the sun, the master comes upon deck with his quadrant or sextant, and the chief mate also usually takes his. The second mate does not, except upon a Sunday, or when there is no work going forward. As soon as the sun crosses the meridian,