FAG-END. Is the end of any rope. This term is also applied to the end of a rope when it has become untwisted.
FAGGOTS. Men who used to be hired to answer to names on the books, when the crew were mustered by the clerk of the cheque. Such cheating was once still more prevalent in the army.
FAGOT. A billet for stowing casks. A [fascine] (which see).
FAG-OUT, To. To wear out the end of a rope or end of canvas.
FAIK, or Falk. A name in the Hebrides for the sea-fowl razor-bill (Alca torda).
FAIR. A general term for the wind when favourable to a ship's course, in opposition to contrary or foul; fair is more comprehensive than large, since it includes about 16 points, whereas large is confined to the beam or quarter, that is, to a wind which crosses the keel at right angles, or obliquely from the stern, but never to one right astern. (See [Large] and [Scant].)—Fair, in ship-building, denotes the evenness or regularity of a curve or line.—To fair, means to clip the timbers fair.
FAIR-CURVE. In delineating ships, is a winding line whose shape is varied according to the part of the ship it is intended to describe. This curve is not answerable to any of the figures of conic sections, although it occasionally partakes of them all.
FAIRING. Sheering a ship in construction. Also, the draught of a ship. To run off a great number of different lines or curves, in order to ascertain the fairness in point of curvature of every part, and the beauty of the whole.
FAIR-LEAD. Is applied to ropes as suffering the least friction in a block, when they are said to lead fair.
FAIR-LEADER. A thimble or cringle to guide a rope. A strip of board with holes in it, for running-rigging to lead through, and be kept clear, so as to be easily distinguished at night.