WHEEL AND AXLE. A well-known mechanical power, to which belong all turning or wheel machines, as cranes, capstans, windlasses, cranks, &c.
WHEEL-HOUSE. A small round-house erected in some ships over the steering-wheel for the shelter of the helmsman.
WHEEL-LOCK. A small machine attached to the old musket for producing sparks of fire.
WHEEL-ROPES. Ropes rove through a block on each side of the deck, and led round the barrel of the steering-wheel. Chains are also used for this purpose.
WHEELS. See [Trucks].
WHEFT. More commonly written [waft] (which see). Although wheft is given in the official signal-book, bibliophilists ignore the term.
WHELK. A well-known shell-fish, Buccinum undatum.
WHELPS. The brackets or projecting parts which rise out of the barrel or main body of the capstan, like buttresses, to enlarge the sweep, so that a greater portion of the cable, or whatever rope encircles the barrel, may be wound about it at one turn without adding much to the weight of the capstan. The whelps reach downwards from the lower part of the drumhead to the deck. The pieces of wood bolted on the main-piece of a windlass, or on a winch, for firm holding, and to prevent chafing, are also called whelps.
WHERE AWAY? In what bearing? a question to the man at the mast-head to designate in what direction a strange sail lies.
WHERRY. A name descended from the Roman horia, the oare of our early writers. It is now given to a sharp, light, and shallow boat used in rivers and harbours for passengers. The wherries allowed to ply about London are either scullers worked by one man with two sculls, or by two men, each pulling an oar. Also, a decked vessel used in fishing in different parts of Great Britain and Ireland: numbers of them were notorious smugglers.