The Seaman's Friend / Containing a treatise on practical seamanship, with plates, a dictionary of sea terms, customs and usages of the merchant service

by Richard Henry Dana

To bend a sail, is to make it fast to the yard.

To bend a cable, is to make it fast to the anchor.

A bend, is a knot by which one rope is made fast to another.

Bends. (See Plate 3.) The strongest part of a vessel's side, to which the beams, knees, and foot-hooks are bolted. The part between the water's edge and the bulwarks.

Beneaped. (See Neaped.)

Bentick Shrouds. Formerly used, and extending from the futtock-staves to the opposite channels.

Berth. The place where a vessel lies. The place in which a man sleeps.

Between-decks. The space between any two decks of a ship.

Bibbs. Pieces of timber bolted to the hounds of a mast, to support the trestle-trees.

Bight. The double part of a rope when it is folded; in contradistinction from the ends. Any part of a rope may be called the bight, except the ends. Also, a bend in the shore, making a small bay or inlet.