"Is it proper to use that expression about a boat, the Goldwing or the Lily?" asked Bark.
"It might pass if you wished to be extra salt, though it is hardly applicable. In fact, bowlines are but little used nowadays."
"What is scudding under bare poles?" asked Sam Spottwood.
"It is a literal expression, and means sailing without any sail set. In a heavy gale, a very heavy one, when a ship can carry no sail, she sometimes scuds before the wind."
"What is wearing?" inquired Archie Pinkler.
"Do you know what tacking means?"
"Yes, sir: it is changing from one tack to another."
"To the other, for there are only two tacks in this sense. But which way do you come about?"
"Stick her head right up into the wind," answered Archie, using an expression he had learned that morning.
"Right, my boy: you are quite a sailor. Sometimes the head of the vessel will not come about: it may be on account of a current, or a want of head-sail. In that case, she has to wear around the other way, with the wind, instead of against it. Box-hauling, in a square-rigged vessel, is wearing by backing the head-sails, those on the foremast."