CUTTER. A small single-masted, sharp-built broad vessel, commonly navigated in the English Channel, furnished with a straight running bowsprit, occasionally run in horizontally on the deck; except for which, and the largeness of the sails, they are rigged much like sloops. Either clincher or carvel-built, no jib-stay, the jib hoisting and hanging by the halliards alone. She carries a fore-and-aft main-sail, gaff-topsail, stay-foresail, and jib. The name is derived from their fast sailing. The cutter (as H.M.S. Dwarf) has been made to set every sail, even royal studding-sails, sky-scrapers, moon-rakers, star-gazers, water and below-water sails, that could be set by any vessel on one mast. One of the largest which has answered effectually, was the Viper, of 460 tons and 28 guns; this vessel was very useful during the American war, particularly by getting into Gibraltar at a critical period of the siege.
CUTTER-BRIG. A vessel with square sails, a fore-and-aft main-sail, and a jigger-mast with a smaller one. (See [Ketch].)
CUTTERS of a ship are broader for their length, deeper and shorter in proportion than the barge or pinnace; are fitter for sailing, and commonly employed in carrying light stores, passengers, &c., to and from the ships; some are clench-built. They generally row ten oars; others of similar build only four, which last are termed jolly-boats. The cutters for ships of the line are carvel-built of 25 feet, and fit for anchor work.
CUTTER-STAY FASHION. The turning-in of a dead-eye with the end of the shroud down.
CUT THE CABLE, To. A manœuvre sometimes necessary for making a ship cast the right way, or when the anchor cannot be weighed.
CUTTIE. A name on our northern coasts for the black guillemot (Uria grille).
CUTTING. The adjusting of a cask or spar, or turning it round.
CUTTING A FEATHER. It is common when a ship has too broad a bow to say, "She will not cut a feather," meaning that she will not pass through the water so swift as to make less foam or froth.
CUTTING DOWN. Taking a deck off a ship; as ships of the line are converted into frigates, the Royal Sovereign into a turret ship, &c.—Cutting down is also a dangerous midshipman's trick, and sometimes practised by the men: it consists in cutting the laniard of a cot or hammock in which a person is then asleep, and letting him fall—lumpus—either by the head or the feet.
CUTTING-DOWN LINE. An elliptical curve line used by shipwrights in the delineation of ships; it determines the depth of all the floor timbers, and likewise the height of the dead-wood fore and aft. It is limited in the middle of the ship by the thickness of the floor timbers, and abaft by the breadth of the keelson, and must be carried up so high upon the stern as to leave sufficient substance for the breeches of the rising timbers.