SPLITTING OUT. To remove the blocks on which a vessel rests in a dock, or at launching, when the pressure is too great for them to be driven, but by splitting.
SPLITTING THE BOOKS. The making of a new complete-book after payment, in which the dead, run, or discharged men are omitted; but the numbers which stood against the men's names in the first list must be continued.
SPOKES. The handles of the wheel, not the radii.—To put a spoke in a man's wheel, is to say something of him to his advantage, or otherwise.
SPOKE-SHAVE. That useful instrument similar to the carpenter's drawing-knife, for smoothing rounds or hollows.
SPOLIATION of a Ship's Papers. An act which, by the maritime law of every court in Europe, not only excludes further proof, but does, per se, infer condemnation. Our own code has so far relaxed that this circumstance shall not be damnatory. The suppression of ships' papers, however, is regarded in the admiralty courts with great suspicion.
SPONSON. The curve of the timbers and planking towards the outer part of the wing, before and abaft each of the paddle-boxes of a steamer.
SPONSON-RIM. The same as [wing-wale] (which see).
SPONTOON. A light halbert.
SPOOM, To. An old word frequently found in Dryden, who thus uses it,
"When virtue spooms before a prosp'rous gale,
My heaving wishes help to fill the sail."