Z.
ZEPHIRE, or Zephir, the west wind.
ZOPISSA, or poix navale, tar. See Goudron.
[1]. In regno Saracenorum quatuor prætores statuit, qui admiralii vocabantur. Sigebert.
[2]. Mr. Bigot de Morogues says from 4000 to 4500, and Mr. Hauksbee 5000.
[3]. “The change proposed here, of reducing the quantity of powder in all ship guns to one-third of the weight of the bullet, has for some time past been practised by the French in a much severer service, where the encreasing the velocity of the bullet could not at any time diminish its effect; the service I mean is battering in breach. For I learn, that of late years all their breaches, in the different sieges they have undertaken, have been made with this very charge, that is, their twenty four-pounders have been loaded with eight pounds of powder, and they have found, that though the penetration of the bullet is less with this charge than with a larger one, yet the other conveniences attending this smaller charge, are more than, sufficient to balance that particular.
“And here I must observe, that there have not been wanting persons of considerable name, who have asserted that the velocity of a twenty-four pound bullet was really greater with eight pounds of powder than with any large quantity, founding their opinion on the ridiculous persuasion, that whatever quantity was put in, no more than eight pounds of it took fire; but this supposition is destroyed by their own experiments, and their own reasonings and later experiments, with greater attention, put it beyond all doubt, that to the larger charge (at least as far as twenty pounds of powder) there corresponds a greater velocity.
[4]. It is necessary to observe in this place, that Mr. Muller, whose opinion herein has been confirmed by various experiments, has, with little variation, adopted the sentiments of the above proposal, and strongly recommended them as a scheme of public utility.
[5].
——Yon tall anchoring bark
Diminish’d to her cock; her cock a buoy, &c.
Shakespeare.
[6]. The wires of which the needle has hitherto been generally composed, were only hardened at their ends; now if those ends are not equally hard, or if one end be hardened up higher than the other, when they come to be put together, in fixing them to the card, that end which is hardest will destroy much of the virtue of the other; by which means the hardest end will have the greatest power in directing the card, and consequently make it vary towards its own direction; and, as the wires are disposed in the form of a lozenge, these cards can have but little force; so that they will often, when drawn aside, stand at the distance of several degrees on either side the point from whence they are drawn; for all magnetical bodies receive an additional strength by being placed in the direction of the earth’s magnetism, and act proportionably less vigorously when turned out of it. Therefore when these kind of needles are drawn aside from their true point, two of the parallel sides of the lozenge will conspire more directly than before with the earth’s magnetism, and the other two will be less in that direction: by this means the two former sides will very much impede its return, and the two latter will have that impediment to overcome, as well as the friction, by their own force alone.
[7]. It is necessary to observe here, that the principal, and indeed the only circumstance in which Knight’s compasses are superior to those which have hitherto obtained, is, that their needles being tempered much higher than usual, are thereby enabled to contain a much greater quantity of the magnetical stream, which is certainly a real advantage. But, on the other hand, experience sufficiently proves, and truth obliges us to remark, that the methods he has taken to ballance the card with more accuracy than had been formerly attempted, have rendered it by far too delicate to encounter the shocks of a tempestuous sea.
[8]. “At Java, in the streights of Sunda, when the monsoons blow from the west, viz. in the month of May, the currents set to the eastward, contrary to the general motion.
“Also between the island of Celebes and Madura, when the western monsoons set, viz. in December, January, and February, or when the winds blow from the N W. or between the north and west, the currents set to the S E. or between the south and east.
“At Ceylon, from the middle of March to October, the currents set to the southward, and in the other parts of the year to the northward; because at this time the southern monsoons blow, and at the other, the northern.
“Between Cochin-China and Malacca, when the western monsoons blow, viz. from April to August, the currents set eastward against the general motion, but the rest of the year set westward; the monsoon conspiring with the general motion. They run so wrongly in these seas, that unexperienced sailors mistake them for waves that beat upon the rocks known by the name of breakers.
“So for some months after the fifteenth of February the currents set from the Maldivies towards India on the east, against the general motion of the sea.
“On the shore of China and Cambodia, in the months of October, November, and December, the currents set to the N W. and from January to the S W. when they run with such a rapidity of motion about the shoals of Parcel, that it seems swifter than that of an arrow.
“At Pulo Condore, upon the coast of Cambodia, though the monsoons are shifting, yet the currents set strongly towards the east, even when they blow to a contrary point.
“Along the coasts of the bay of Bengal, as far as the cape Romania, at the extreme point of Malacca the current runs southward in November and December.
“When the monsoons blow from China to Malacca, the sea runs swiftly from Pulo Cambi to Pulo Condore, on the coast of Cambodia.
“In the bay of Sans Bras, not far from the Cape of Good Hope, there is a current particularly remarkable, where the sea runs from east to west to the landward; and this more vehemently as it becomes opposed by the winds from a contrary direction. The cause is undoubtedly owing to some adjacent shore, which is higher than this.” Varenius.
These currents constantly follow the winds, and set to the same point with the monsoon, or trade-wind, at sea. See Monsoon.
[9]. Lucan.
[10]. Vegetius.
[11].
A ponderous mace, with studs of iron crown’d,
Full twenty cubits long he swings around. Pope.
[12]. See the note on the following page.
[13]. Potter’s Archaeologia Graeca. De Morogues Tactique Navale.
[14].
Ut primum rostris crepuerunt obvia rostra,
In puppim rediere rates, emissaque tela
Aera texerant, vacuumque cadentia pontum. Lucan.
Which we may thus translate:
The beaks encounter with a thundering sound,
Then reeling, from the mutual shock rebound.
The javelins fly! an iron tempest sweeps
The darken’d air, and covers all the deeps!
[15].
Seque tenent remis toto stetit æquore bellum.
Jam non excussis torquentur tela lacertis
Nec longinqua cadunt jaculato vulnera ferro;
Miscenturque manus, navali plurima bello;
Ensis agit; stat quisque suæ de robore puppis
Pronus in adversos ictus.—— Lucan.
Thus translated by Rowe.
——Others by the tangling oars are held.
The seas are hid beneath the closing war,
Nor need they cast the javelins now from far;
With hardy strokes the combatants engage,
And with keen faulchions deal their deadly rage:
Man against man, and board by board, they lie.
“The famous machine called the Corvus, was framed after the following manner: They erected on the prow of their vessels a round piece of timber, of about a foot and a half diameter, and about twelve foot long; on the top whereof they had a block or pulley. Round this piece of timber, they laid a stage or platform of boards, four foot broad, and about eighteen foot long, which was well framed, and fastened with iron. The entrance was long-ways, and it moved about the aforesaid upright piece of timber, as on a spindle, and could be hoisted up within six foot of the top: about this was a sort of a parapet, knee high, which was defended with upright bars of iron, sharpened at the end; towards the top whereof there was a ring: through this ring, fastening a rope, by the help of the pulley, they hoisted or lowered the engine at pleasure; and so with it attacked the enemy’s vessels, sometimes on their bow, and sometimes on their broad-side, as occasion best served. When they had grappled the enemy with those iron spikes, if they happen’d to swing broad-side to broad-side, then they entered from all parts; but in case they attacked them on the bow, they entered two and two by the help of this machine, the foremost defending the fore-part, and those that followed the flanks, keeping the boss of their bucklers level with the top of the parapet.
“To this purpose Polybius gives us an account of the first warlike preparations which the Romans made by sea. We may add, in short, the order, which they observed in drawing up their fleet for battle, taken from the same author. The two consuls were in the two admiral galleys, in the front of their two distinct squadrons, each of them just a-head of their own divisions, and a-breast of each other; the first fleet being posted on the right, the second on the left, making two long files or lines of battle. And, whereas it was necessary to give a due space between each galley, to ply their oars, and keep clear one of another, and to have their heads or prows looking somewhat outwards; this manner of drawing up did therefore naturally form an angle, the point whereof was at the two admiral galleys, which were near together; and as their two lines were prolonged, so the distance grew consequently wider and wider towards the rear. But, because the naval as well as the land army consisted of four legions, and accordingly the ships made four divisions; two of these were yet behind: Of which the third fleet, or the third legion, was drawn up front-ways in the rear of the first and second, and so stretching along from point to point composed a triangle, whereof the third line was the base. Their vessels of burden, that carried their horses and baggage, were in the rear of these; and were, by the help of small boats provided for that purpose, towed or drawn after them. In the rear of all, was the fourth fleet, called the Triarians, drawn up likewise in rank or front-ways, parallel to the third: but these made a longer line, by which means the extremities stretched out, and extended beyond the two angles at the base. The several divisions of the army, being thus disposed, formed, as is said, a triangle; the area within was void, but the base was thick and solid, and the whole body quick, active, and very difficult to be broken.” Kennett Antiq. Rome.
[16]. De Morogues Tact. Navale.
[17]. “The use of powder was not established in battle, till the long wars of Francis I. and Charles V. From its invention to this period, both the machines in use before that discovery, and those which that discovery introduced, were used in war at the same time; and even some time after this period, both sorts of machines were continued in use.” Le Blond’s Elements of War.
[18]. De Morogues Tact. Navale.
[19]. “The carabine is a sort of musketoon, the barrel of which is riffled spirally from the breech, so that when the ball, which is forced into it, is again driven out by the strength of the powder, it is lengthened about the breadth of a finger, and marked with the riffle of the bore. This piece has an iron rammer.
“The barrel of the carabine is three foot long, including the stock. It has a much greater range than the fusil or musket, because the riffle of the barrel impedes the ball, which thereby makes the greater resistance at the first inflammation of the powder, and, giving time for the whole charge to take fire before it goes out of the bore, it is at length thrown out with greater force than from the common musket.” Le Blond’s Elements of War.
The coehorn is a sort of small mortar, fixed on a swivel, and particularly used to discharge grenadoes, or cast bullets from close quarters in merchant vessels when boarded.
The fire-arrow, dard à feu, is a small iron dart furnished with springs and bars, together with a match, impregnated with powder and sulphur, which is wound about its shaft. It is intended to fire the sails of the enemy, and is for this purpose discharged from a musketoon or swivel-gun. The match being kindled by the explosion, communicates the flame to the sail against which it is directed, where the arrow is fastened by means of its bars and springs. As this is peculiar to hot climates, particularly the West-Indies, the sails being extremely dry, are instantly inflamed, and of course convey the fire to the masts and rigging, and finally to the vessel itself.
The powder-flask and stink pot are described in the article Boarding: and the organ is no other than a machine consisting of six or seven musket barrels fixed upon one stock, so as to be fired all at once.
[20]. M. De Morogues.
[21]. The Gauls, says Vegetius, had the advantage of the Romans in their numbers: The Germans have their stature; the Spaniards their strength and numbers united; the Africans their artifice and opulence; the Greeks their policy and prudence; but the Romans have triumphed over all by their discipline.
[22]. M. De Morogues.
[23]. As a number of technical terms are introduced in these instructions, the land-reader who wishes to understand the subject, should refer to the several articles, all of which are inserted in this work.
[24]. The iron chambers are ten inches long, and 3.5 in diameter. They are breeched against a piece of wood fixed across the ports, and let into another a little higher. When loaded, they are almost filled with corn-powder, and have a wooden tompion well driven into their muzzles. They are primed with a small piece of quick-match thrust through their vents into the powder, with a part of it hanging out. When the ports are blown open by means of the iron chambers, the port-lids either fall downward, or are carried away by the explosion.
[25]. The fire-barrels ought to be of a cylindrical form, as most suitable to contain the reeds with which they are filled, and more convenient for stowing them between the troughs in the fire-room. Their inside diameters should not be less than twenty-one inches, and thirty inches is sufficient for their length. The bottom parts are first well stored with short double dipped reeds placed upright; and the remaining vacancy is filled with fire-barrel composition, well mixed and melted, and then poured over them. The composition used for this purpose is a mass of sulphur, pitch, tar, and tallow.
There are five holes of ¾ inch in diameter, and three inches deep, formed in the top of the composition while it is yet warm; one being in the center, and the other four at equal distances round the sides of the barrel. When the composition is cold and hard, the barrel is primed by filling those holes with fuse-composition, which is firmly driven into them, so as to leave a little vacancy at the top to admit a strand of quick match twice doubled. The center hole contains two strands at their whole length, and every strand must be driven home with mealed powder. The loose ends of the quick-match being then laid within the barrel, the whole is covered with a dipped curtain, fastened on with a hoop that slips over the head of the barrel, to which it is nailed.
The barrels should be made very strong, not only to support the weight of the composition before firing, when they are moved or carried from place to place, but to keep them together whilst burning: for if the staves are too light and thin, so as to burn very soon, the remaining composition will tumble out and be dissipated, and the intention of the barrels, to carry the flame aloft, will accordingly be frustrated.
The curtain is a piece of coarse canvas, nearly a yard in breadth and length, thickened with melted composition, and covered with saw-dust on both sides.
[26]. The reeds are made up in small bundles of about a foot in circumference, cut even at both ends, and tied together in two places. They are distinguished into two kinds, viz. the long and short; the former of which are four feet, and the latter two feet five inches in length. One part of them are singly dipped, i. e. at one end; the rest are dipped at both ends in a kettle of melted composition. After being immersed about seven or eight inches in this preparation, and then drained, they are sprinkled over with pulverised sulphur upon a tanned hide.
[27]. The bavins are made of birch, heath, or other brush-wood, which is tough and readily kindled. They are usually two or three feet in length, and have all their bush-ends lying one way, the other ends being tied together with small cords. They are dipped in composition at the bush-ends, whose branches are afterwards confined by the hand, to prevent them from breaking off by moving about; and also to make them burn more fiercely. After being dipped, in the same manner as the reeds, they also are sprinkled with sulphur.
[28]. Quick match is formed of three cotton strands drawn into length, and dipped in a boiling composition of white-wine vinegar, salt-petre, and mealed powder. After this immersion it is taken out hot, and laid in a trough where some mealed powder, moistened with spirits of wine, is thoroughly incorporated into the twists of the cotton, by rolling it about therein. Thus prepared they are taken out separately, and drawn through mealed powder, then hung upon a line till dried, by which they are fit for immediate service.
[29]. Port-fires are frequently used by the artillery people in preference to matches, to set fire to the powder or compositions. They are distinguished into wet and dry port-fires. The composition of the former is salt-petre four, sulphur one, and mealed powder four. When these materials are thoroughly mixed and sifted, the whole is to be moistened with a little linseed oil, and rubbed between the hands till all the oil is imbibed by the composition. The preparation for dry port fires is salt-petre four, sulphur one, mealed powder two, and antimony one. These compositions are driven into small paper cases, to be used whenever necessary.
[30]. De Morogues Tact. Navale,
[31]. Bourdé. Manœuvrier.
[32]. Bourdé. Manœuvrier.
[33]. Beugner, Traité de la Manœuvre de Vaisseaux. Bourdé. Manœuvrier.
[34]. Saverien Dict. Marine.
[35]. Aubin. Saverien.
[36]. The cut-water is called taille-mer by the French.
[37]. Milton alludes to this situation, in his second book of Paradise Lost: where,
“The pilot of some small night-founder’d skiff,
“With fixed anchor——
“Moors by his side, under the lee.”——
[38]. De Morogues. Tactique Navale.
[39]. Muller’s Artillery.
[40]. Le Blond’s Elements of War.
Extract of a letter from the commanding-officer of the artillery at Gibraltar, May 10, 1756.
“Happening to mention, before the governor and commodore Edgecumbe, that, in case of Gibraltar being attacked by sea, howitzers would be of great service, as I did not imagine any ship’s side proof against a 10 inch shell, fired point-blank, or at a small elevation, with a full charge of powder; which being thought impossible by most present, it was agreed to try the experiment: accordingly a target, of about 6 feet square, of an equal strength and resistance with the strongest part of our largest men of war’s sides, was made, and was just 3 feet thick of solid fir-timber: we fired at it out of a sea-service 10 inch howitzer, at 150 yards distance, and with 10 lb. of powder.”
“The first shell just touched the top of the object, and lodged in the bank of sand behind it; the second grazed short three yards, and went through the lower corner of the object; but the third shell gave full satisfaction, going through the very centre of the object, and entering 5 feet into a solid bank of sand behind it.”
[41]. The regulations, with regard to pilots in the royal navy, are as follow: The commanders of the king’s ships, in order to give all reasonable encouragement to so useful a body of men as pilots, and to remove all their objections to his majesty’s service, are strictly charged to treat them with good usage, and in equal respect with warrant-officers.
“The purser of the ship is always to have a set of bedding provided on board for the pilots, and the captain is to order the boatswain to supply them with hammocs, and a convenient place to lie in, near their duty, and apart from the common men; which bedding and hammocs are to be returned when the pilots leave the ship.
“A pilot, when conducting one of his majesty’s ship’s in pilot-water, shall have the sole charge and command of the ship, and may give orders for steering; setting, trimming, or furling the sails; tacking the ship; or whatever concerns the navigation: and the captain is to take care that all the officers and crew obey his orders. But the captain is diligently to observe the conduct of the pilot, and if he judges him to behave so ill as to bring the ship into danger, he may remove him from the command and charge of the ship, and take such methods for her preservation as shall be judged necessary; remarking upon the log-book the exact hour and time when the pilot was removed from his office, and the reasons assigned for it.
“Captains of the king’s ships, employing pilots in foreign parts of his majesty’s dominions, shall, after performance of the service, give a certificate thereof to the pilot, which being produced to the proper naval-officer, he shall cause the same to be immediately paid; but if there be no naval-officer there, the captain of his majesty’s ship shall pay him, and send the proper vouchers, with his bill, to the navy-board, in order to be paid as bills of exchange.
“Captains of his majesty’s ships, employing foreign pilots, to carry the ships they command into, or out of foreign ports, shall pay them the rates due by the establishment or custom of the country, before they discharge them; whose receipts being duly vouched, and sent with a certificate of the service performed, to the navy-board, they shall cause them to be paid with the same exactness as they do bills of exchange.” Regulations and Instructions of the Sea-service, &c.
[42]. Hist. Denmark, by Saxo Grammaticus.
[43]. Saverien Dict. Marine.
[44]. The regulations with regard to prizes in the royal navy are as follow:
“I. When any ship or vessel is taken from the enemy, the hatches are to be immediately spiked up, and her lading and furniture secured from embezzlement, till sentence is passed upon her in some court of admiralty, empowered to take cognizance of causes of that nature.
“II. The captain is to cause the officers of the prize to be examined; three or more of the company, who can give best evidence, to be brought to the said court of admiralty, together with the charter-parties, bills of lading, and other ship’s papers found on board.
“V. When a privateer is taken, great care is to be had to secure all the ship’s papers, especially the commission; but if there be no legal commission found on board, then all the prisoners are to be carried before some magistrate, in order to their being examined and committed as pirates.”
N. B. The third and fourth articles relate to the finding any of the king’s subjects in the prizes; and appear unnecessary in this place.
[45]. Ricoche signifies duck and drake, a name given to the bounding of a flat stone thrown almost horizontally into the water.
[46]. Muller’s Artillery.
[47]. Le Blond’s Elements of War.
[48]. Belidor. Bigot de Morogues.
[49]. Weight, or gravity, always operates equally on a falling body; for as it always subsists in an equal degree, it must perpetually act with equal force, or produce always the same effect in the same time. So if, in the first instant of falling, it communicates to a body a certain force sufficient to move a certain space, it must, in every following instant, communicate a force capable of moving it the like space, and by this means the velocity of a falling body is every moment accelerated; for if it has one degree the first instant, it will have two the second, three the third, and so on. Hence it must move different spaces every instant, and by that means describe the curve-line above mentioned.
[50]. Le Blond’s Elements of War.
[51]. The same gentleman observes, that a ship of two decks, such as are generally all those of the third and fourth rates, cannot be so strongly connected as one that is furnished with three: a vessel pierced for 15 guns on one side of her deck must necessarily be very long, and is sometimes apt to droop at the two ends; or, in the sea-phrase, to break her back under the enormous weight of her artillery.
[52]. The reader, who wishes to be expert in this manœuvre, will find it copiously described by several ingenious French writers, particularly L’Hôte, Saverien, Morogues, Bourdé, and Ozane; who have given accurate instructions, deduced from experience, for putting it in practice when occasion requires. As it is not properly a term of the British marine, a more circumstantial account of it might be considered foreign to our plan. It has been observed in another part of this work[[53]], that the French have generally exhibited greater proofs of taste and judgment in the sculpture, with which their ships are decorated, than the English; the same candour and impartiality obliges us to confess their superior dexterity in this movement.
[53]. See the article Head.
[54]. Le Blond’s Elements of War.
[55]. Mr. Robertson, librarian of the Royal Society, favoured the author with an inspection of several curious remarks concerning the history of modern navigation; in which it appears, that the most early discoveries with regard to the magnetical variation were made about the year 1570. Mr. Robert Norman, from a variety of observations made by him nearly at that time, ascertains it to have been 11° 15´ easterly, or one point of the compass.
[56]. Euler. De la Lande.
[57]. I had often seen water-spouts at a distance, and heard many strange stories of them, but never knew any thing satisfactory of their nature or cause, until that which I saw at Antigua; which convinced me that a water-spout is a whirlwind, which becomes visible in all its dimensions by the water it carries up with it.
There appeared, not far from the mouth of the harbour of St. John’s, two or three water-spouts, one of which took its course up the harbour. Its progressive motion was slow and unequal, not in a strait line, but as it were by jerks or starts. When just by the wharf, I stood about 100 yards from it. There appeared in the water a circle of about twenty yards diameter, which to me had a dreadful though pleasing appearance. The water in this circle was violently agitated, being whisked about, and carried up into the air with great rapidity and noise, and reflected a lustre, as if the sun shined bright on that spot, which was more conspicuous, as there appeared a dark circle around it. When it made the shore, it carried up with the same violence shingles, staves, large pieces of the roofs of houses, &c. and one small wooden house it lifted entirely from the foundation on which it stood, and carried it to the distance of fourteen feet, where it settled without breaking or oversetting; and, what is remarkable, tho’ the whirlwind moved from west to east, the house moved from east to west. Two or three negroes and a white woman were killed by the fall of timber, which it carried up into the air, and dropt again. After passing through the town, I believe it was soon dissipated; for, except tearing a large limb from a tree, and part of the cover of a sugar-work near the town, I do not remember any farther damage done by it. I conclude, wishing you success in your enquiry, and am, &c.
W. M.
[58]. The swiftness of the wind in a great storm is not more than 50 or 60 miles in an hour; and a common brisk gale is about 15 miles an hour. Robertson’s Navigation.
[59]. This manœuvre, according to the best of my information, is entirely unknown to our mariners; it is performed by lining, or doubling, the flukes of an anchor, with two pieces of plank, to strengthen them, and prevent their turning in a bad anchoring-ground.
[60]. According to the arrangement of the French navy, this class comprehends all vessels of war from 50 to 20 guns.
[61]. M. Saverien defines this to be a wind perpendicular to the ship’s course, and, consequently, a wind upon the beam; but I have ventured to correct this explanation, by the authority of M. Aubin, who is certainly right in his description.