YAREMLEK. A silver Turkish coin of 20 paras, or 9d. sterling.
YARMOUTH CAPON. A red herring; a bloater.
YARMOUTH HERRING-BOAT. A clincher-built vessel with lug-sails, similar to the drift or mackerel boats.
YARN. One of the threads of which ropes are composed. A number of these are twisted together to form a strand, in proportion to the size of the proposed rope. Three strands are then twisted into one another, which completes the process of ordinary rope-making; but cables, hawsers, and other ground tackling, are composed of three strands, each of which is formed of three lesser ones. (See [Cable], [Hawser], &c.)—A tough yarn. A long story, or tale, hard to be believed.
YARN-SPINNING. A figurative expression for telling a story.
YATAGHAN. A crooked sabre used in the Levant. Also, the knife-swords of India.
YAUGH. An archaic term for a little bark, pinnace, or yacht.
YAW. The quick movement by which a ship deviates from the direct line of her course towards the right or left, from unsteady steering.
YAWL. A man-of-war's boat, resembling the pinnace, but rather smaller; it is carvel-built, and generally rowed with twelve oars. The yawl in the Customs Act is a carvel-built vessel of the cutter class, but having a jigger or mizen lug, the boom-mainsail being curtailed, so that its boom traverses clear of the mizen-mast: used also by yachts. Also, a small fishing-vessel.
YAW-SIGHTED. A nautical term for those who squint.