BEACH-MAN. A person on the coast of Africa who acts as interpreter to shipmasters, and assists them in conducting the trade.
BEACH-MASTER. A superior officer, captain, appointed to superintend disembarkation of an attacking force, who holds plenary powers, and generally leads the storming party. His acts when in the heat of action, if he summarily shoot a coward, are unquestioned—poor Falconer, to wit!
BEACH-MEN. A name applied to boatmen and those who land people through a heavy surf.
BEACH-RANGERS. Men hanging about sea-ports, who have been turned out of vessels for bad conduct.
BEACH-TRAMPERS. A name applied to the coast-guard.
BEACON. [Anglo-Saxon, béacn.] A post or stake erected over a shoal or sand-bank, as a warning to seamen to keep at a distance; also a signal-mark placed on the top of hills, eminences, or buildings near the shore for the safe guidance of shipping.
BEACONAGE. A payment levied for the maintenance of beacons.
BEAFT. Often used by east-country men for abaft.
BEAK, or Beak-head. A piece of brass like a beak, fixed at the head of the ancient galleys, with which they pierced their enemies. Pisæus is said to have first added the rostrum or beak-head. Later it was a small platform at the fore part of the upper deck, but the term is now applied to that part without the ship before the forecastle, or knee of the head, which is fastened to the stem and is supported by the main knee. Latterly, to meet steam propulsion, the whole of this is enlarged, strengthened, and armed with iron plates, and thus the armed stem revives the ancient strategy in sea-fights. Shakspeare makes Ariel thus allude to the beak in the "Tempest:"—
"I boarded the king's ship; now on the beak,
Now in the waist, the deck, in every cabin,
I flam'd amazement."