BOWLINE.-This knot is extremely useful. It serves to make a large loop at the end of a hawser or any other rope, which may be thrown over a bollard for hauling on to. A running knot may also be made by passing the main part of the rope through this

1st Mo.

COMPLETE

loop.

FIG. 15.-BOWLINE.

FIG. 16.-COLLAR KNOT.

The bowline may be left permanently on the rope, for use at any moment. The diagram (fig. 15) will explain the method

of making it.

COLLAR KNOT (fig. 16), for fitting shrouds to a small mast. Two ropes being taken (or one long one doubled into two legs), a simple overhand loop (see fig.) is made in the middle of one, and the other rope passed through this, the loop being then passed over the head of the mast. Thus there will be four shrouds, two on either side. The fishermen occasionally use this in case of their shrouds breaking.

STOPPER KNOTS.-These are for preventing the end of a rope from flying loose or sliping through some ring or fairlead, and may be therefore of various sorts. The simplest is the common over-hand thumb or end knot, which is no more than a turning-in of the end of the rope. An equally simple and very elegant one is the figure of eight, with which the ends of jib or foresail sheets are often stoppered. Both will be understood by the diagram (fig. 17). Another is the Matthew Walker. "A knot so termed from the originator. It is formed by a half-hitch on each strand in the direction of the lay, so that the rope can be continued after the knot is FIGURE OF formed, which shows as a traverse collar of

EIGHT.

FIG. 17.

THUMB.

three strands.

It is the knot often used on the end of the lan

yards of rigging, where dead-eyes are employed."

SLIP KNOT or running knot.-A very simple knot (see diagram, fig. 18), which draws anything very close and slips easily.

Among other knots the sheepshank (fig. 19) will be found useful, its object being to shorten a cable or warp both ends of which are engaged. A study of the diagram will make the method plain.

Koff." A small two-masted vessel formerly employed in the Dutch fisheries. It had two masts, main and fore, with a large sprit sail abaft each. This arrangement enabled her to sail very close to the wind, and she could set square sails if the wind happened to be astern." (Brande and Cox.)

Kreel, or creel.-A framework of timber for taking fish, or for preserving them in the water. An osier basket or pot. A crab pot. A fishing basket.

Krennels. The smaller cringles on a square sail for bowline bridles, etc.

L.

L.L.L.-The three L's,-Lead, Latitude, Look-out. The motto to which the old seamen pinned their faith, in preference to putting any trust in modern appliances.

Labour.-When a vessel pitches and strains in a heavy sea she is said to labour.

Lacing-A thin rope for lacing a sail to a boom or yard, or to a stay. A foresail may be made to run on the forestay either by shackles or by a lacing. In racing yachts the mainsail is usually

ratlines (which see) are

so close together that a lady might walk up them without difficulty. Lagan, or ligsam.—In law, a term applied to goods jettisoned, but secured by a buoy or mooring. (See FLOTSAM and JETSAM.)

Laggers. A name at one time given to men who were employed in taking canal barges through tunnels, which they did by lying on their backs and working with their feet along the head of the archways. This may still be seen on the inland canals, and is as often as not assisted in by the women who live on board the canal boats.

Lagging and priming of the tides. (In physics).—A phenomenon of the tides, in consequence of which the intervals between high water at any particular place are irregular. The cause is the combined action of the sun and moon; and the effect is most apparent about the times of new and full moon. At these times the tides are called spring tides, and are higher at high water and lower at low water than during the periods of the first and third quarters of the moon, when they are called neap-tides. (See MAKING OF THE TIDES.)

Laid up.-A vessel unrigged or dismantled during winter; or lacking employment.

Laid up in ordinary.-A naval term signifying that a ship is laid up in a state of total inaction.

Lamb's-wool sky.-White masses of fleecy cloud, often portending rain.

Land.-Lands.-In boat-building, the overlapping part of the planks in a clincher-built boat. (See "Clincher-building," under BUILD.)

Land-locked.-A bay or haven almost surrounded by land, and, therefore, a safe haven.

Landmark.-Any conspicuous object on land, serving as a guide or warning to ships at sea.

Landsman.-At sea, the rating of a sailor; the second-class ordinary seaman. Formerly it meant one who had not before been

to sea.

Lanyards.-Short pieces of rope having various uses at sea, the most important of which is the taughtening down of the shrouds of a mast by the deadeyes (which see). One end of the lanyard being passed through one of the holes in the upper dead-eye, is stop-knotted to prevent its drawing out; the other end is then rove up and down through all the holes in the dead eyes, hauled taut, and, to keep it taut, is lashed round the lanyard itself in a system of clove hitches. Lapstrake. The method of boat-building called clincher-building. (See BUILD.)

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Larboard. The old term for "port," or the left-hand side of a vessel. The word being too much like starboard" in sound, was officially abolished.

Large." A phrase applied to the wind when it crosses the line of a ship's course in a favourable direction, particularly on the beam or quarter.'

To sail large is, therefore, to go forward with a wind large. It is the same as sailing free, or off the wind; and the opposite to sailing close-hauled or on the wind.

Lash. To bind or make fast by ropes.

To reef-knot two ropes together is often called lashing them. (See KNOTS.)

A lashing is a rope securing any movable object.

Lash the tiller.-To tie the tiller down on one side or the other, as is sometimes done in ships when trying, or in fishing boats when trawling or dredging. With the tiller lashed a vessel is confined on a certain tack and unable to run away from the wind. Hence, in general conversation, when a person makes a determination from which he will not be moved, he is sometimes said to "Lash the tiller."

Lasher.—On the Upper Thames, the body of water just about the fall of a weir and usually marked by a system of white posts set up on the stonework. The lasher is often marked "Danger": in

any case it is well to keep away from it.

Laskets, or latchets (occasionally called keys).-Small lines sewed to the bonnet or to the drabler of a sail to lash, or lace, one to the other.

Latching eye, or latchet eye.-The loops in the head of a bonnet through which the laskets are passed.

Lasking (old term).—To go a'lasking is much the same as sailing large (which see).

Lastage. The ballast or lading of a ship.

Latch.-A" dropping to leeward." (Winn).

Latchet.-See LASKETS.

Lateen.-A rig peculiar to vessels navigating the Mediterranean

and other eastern seas.

It consists of a triangular sail of large

size bent to a very long yard. This rig was at one time very much employed on the rivers of Norfolk and Suffolk, but has now become entirely obsolete. The mast was stepped well forward, was without shrouds or stay, and raked forward. The sail was bent to a yard above and a short boom below, the yard being of immense length, sometimes twice that of the boat itself. Distance north

Latitude. or south of the Equator, expressed in degrees.

Launch.-1. In the Royal

LATEEN SAIL.

Navy, the principal boat belonging to a flag-ship.
2. To launch.-To put a new vessel into the water.
always attended with a certain amount of ceremony.

The act is

3. A launch, in the popular meaning of the word, is a small vessel propelled by some motor, and generally used in harbour or river service, or for pleasure. When it becomes large enough for coasting work it is classed as a steam yacht. Of late years launches have been made to run by either steam or electricity. Steam being undeniably dirty, and electricity both expensive and inconvenient, the use of oil motors is steadily coming in. These have for some time suffered under the charge of smell, which, it must be confessed, has been but justly brought against them. The difficulty is, however, being surmounted; oil engines are, at the time of writing, still in their infancy, but we cannot help thinking that they must eventually supersede both the other motors for use in small boats.

Lay.-1. This word at sea often means to "go, as Lay forward or aft, Go forward or aft.

To lay out upon a yard is to go out towards the yard arms.
To lay in off a yard. To return towards the mast.

2. In another sense the term means to rest quiet, as to lay to, to keep a vessel motionless by putting her head to wind and so disposing the sails that the effect of one may counteract that of another, and therefore prevent her falling off from the wind.

To lay on one's oars, in other words to rest on the oars, is to leave the oars on or just above the water, blades flat.

To lay in the oars.—
-To unship and lay them down in the boat.

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3. But in another sense, again, it may imply precisely the opposite, as Lay to" (in rowing), an encouragement to row hard, or, in any work, to go to work with a will.

4. In shipbuilding, to lay down the lines of a vessel, is to delineate her form according to rule (See LINES), and when it is thus shown her lines are said to be " laid down."