SLEECH. A word on our southern coasts for mud or sea-sand used in agriculture.
SLEEP. A sail sleeps when, steadily filled with wind, it bellies to the breeze.
SLEEPERS. Timbers lying fore and aft in the bottom of the ship, now generally applied to the knees which connect the transoms to the after timbers on the ship's quarter. They are particularly used in Greenland ships, to strengthen the bows and stern-frame, to enable them to resist the shocks of the ice. Also, any wooden beams used as supports. Also, ground tier casks.
SLEEVE. The word formerly used to denote the narrows of a channel, and particularly applied to the Strait of Dover, still called La Manche by the French. When Napoleon was threatening to invade England, he was represented trying to get into a coat, but one of the sleeves utterly baffled him, whence the point: "Il ne peut pas passer La Manche."
SLEEVE-FISH. A name for the calamary, Loligo vulgaris, an animal allied to the cuttle-fish.
SLICE. A bar of iron with a flat, sharp, spear-shaped end, used in stripping off sheathing, ceiling, and the like. The whaler's slice is a slender chisel about four inches wide, used to cut into, and flinch the fish.
SLICES. Tapering wedges of plank used to drive under the false keel, and between the bilge-ways, preparatory to launching a vessel.
SLICK. Smooth. This is usually called an Americanism, but is a very old sea-term. In the Book for Boys and Girls, 1686, it is aptly illustrated:
"The mole's a creature very smooth and slick,
She digs i' th' dirt, but 'twill not on her stick."
SLIDE-VALVE CASING. A casing on one side of the cylinder of an engine, which covers the nozzles or steam-ports, and confines the slide-valves.