WING UP BALLAST, To. To carry the dead weight from the bottom as high as consistent with the stability of a ship, in order to ease her quick motion in rolling.
WING-WALE. A thick plank extending from the extremity of a steamer's paddle-beam to her side; it is also designated the sponson-rim.
WINNOLD-WEATHER. An eastern-county term for stormy March weather.
WINTER-FISH. This term generally alludes to cured cod and ling.
WINTER-QUARTERS. The towns or posts occupied during the winter by troops who quit the campaign for the season. Also, the harbour to which a blockading fleet retires in wintry gales. In Arctic parlance, the spot where ships are to remain housed during the winter months—from the 1st October to the 1st July or August.
WINTER-SOLSTICE. See [Capricornus].
WIPER. A cogged contrivance in machinery by which a rotatory motion is converted into a reciprocating motion.
WIPER-SHAFT. An application to the valve equipoise of a marine-engine: their journals or bearings lie in bushes, which are fixed upon the frame of the engine.
WIRE-MICROMETER. An instrument necessary for delicate astronomical measurements. It contains vertical and horizontal wires, or spider-lines, acting in front of a comb or scale for distances, and on a graduated circle on the screw-head for positions.
WIRE-ROPE. Rigging made of iron wire galvanized, and laid up like common cordage.