The Sailor's Word-Book / An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.

by W. H. Smyth

TARN. A small mountain lake [probably from the Icelandic tiaurn].

TARPAULIN. Canvas well covered with tar or paint to render it water-proof. Also, the foul-weather hats and jackets of seamen; often applied to the men themselves. Properly paulin when paint is used.

TARRED WITH THE SAME BRUSH. Equivalent to "birds of a feather."

TARRING AND FEATHERING. A punishment now obsolete,—inflicted by stripping the delinquent, then smearing him with tar, covering him with flocks and feathers, and towing him ashore. It was ordered in the naval enactments of Richard I. for theft.

TARROCK. The kittiwake, Larus tridactylus, a small species of gull.

TARRY-BREEKS. A north-country name for a sailor.

TARTAN. A small coasting vessel of the Mediterranean, with one mast and a bowsprit, lateen-rigged.

TARTAR. A domineering commanding officer.—To catch a Tartar. Said of a vessel which mistakes her enemy's force, and is obliged to yield.

TASKING. Examining a vessel to see whether her timbers are sound.

TASTING TIMBER. Chipping it with an adze, and boring it with an augur, to ascertain its quality.