COUP DE GRACE. The finishing shot which brings an enemy to surrender; or the wound which deprives an adversary of life or resistance.
COUP DE MAIN. A sudden and vigorous attack.
COUP D'ŒIL. The skill of distinguishing, at first sight, the weakness of an enemy's position, as Nelson did at the Nile.
COUPLE, To. To bend two hawsers together; coupling links of a cable; coupling shackles.
COUREAU. A small yawl of the Garonne. Also, a narrow strait or channel.
COURSE. The direction taken by anything in motion, shown by the point of the compass towards which they run, as water in a river, tides, and currents; but of the wind, as similarly indicated by the compass-point from which it blows. Course is also the ship's way. In common parlance, it is the point of the compass upon which the ship sails, the direction in which she proceeds, or is intended to go. When the wind is foul, she cannot "lie her course;" if free, she "steers her course."
COURSES. A name by which the sails hanging from the lower yards of a ship are usually distinguished, viz. the main-sail, fore-sail, and mizen: the staysails upon the lower masts are sometimes also comprehended in this denomination, as are the main staysails of all brigs and schooners. A ship is under her courses when she has no sail set but the fore-sail, main-sail, and mizen. [Trysails] are courses (which see), sometimes termed bentincks.
COURSET. The paper on which the night's course is set for the officer in charge of the watch.
COURT-MARTIAL. A tribunal held under an act of parliament, of the year 1749, and not, like the mutiny act, requiring yearly re-enactment. It has lately, 6th August, 1861, been changed to the "Naval Discipline Act." At present a court may be composed of five, but must not exceed nine, members. No officer shall sit who is under twenty-one years of age. No flag-officer can be tried unless the president also be a flag-officer, and the others flag, or captains. No captain shall be tried unless the president be of higher rank, and the others captains and commanders. No court for the trial of any officer, or person below the rank of captain, shall be legal, unless the president is a captain, or of higher rank, nor unless, in addition, there be two other officers of the rank of commander, or of higher rank. Any witness summoned—civil, naval, or military—by the judge-advocate, refusing to attend or give evidence, to be punished as for same in civil courts. The admiralty can issue commissions to officers to hold courts-martial on foreign stations, without which they cannot be convened. A commander-in-chief on a foreign station, holding such a commission, may under his hand authorize an officer in command of a detached portion to hold courts-martial. Formerly all officers composing the court, attendants, witnesses, &c., were compelled to appear in their full-dress uniforms; but by recent orders, the undress uniform, with cocked hat and sword, is to be worn.
COUTEL. A military implement which served both for a knife and a dagger.