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

WEDGING UP. Gaining security by driving wedges.

WEED, To. To clear the rigging of stops, rope-yarns, and pieces of oakum.

WEEKLY ACCOUNT. A correct return of the whole complement made every week when in harbour to the senior officer. Also, a sobriquet for the white patch on a midshipman's collar.

WEEL. A kind of trap-basket, or snare, to catch fish, made of twigs and baited; contrived similarly to a mouse-trap, so that fish have a ready admittance, but cannot get out again.

WEEPING. The oozing of water in small quantities through the seams of a ship.

WEEVIL [from the Anglo-Saxon wefl]. Curculio, a coleopterous insect which perforates and destroys biscuit, wood, &c.

WEFT. See [Waft].

WEIGH, To [from the Anglo-Saxon woeg]. To move or carry. Applied to heaving up the anchor of a ship about to sail, but also to the raising any great weight, as a sunken ship, &c.

WEIGHAGE. The charge made for weighing goods at a dock.

WEIGH-SHAFT. In the marine-engine, the same as wiper-shaft.