FIRE-BUCKETS. Canvas, leather, or wood buckets for quarters, each fitted with a sinnet laniard of regulated length, for reaching the water from the lower yards. (See [Firemen].)
FIRE-DOOR. An access to the fire-place of an engine.
FIRE-DRAKE. A meteor, or the Corpo Santo. Also, a peculiar fire-work, which Shakspeare in Henry VIII. thus mentions: "That fire-drake did I hit three times on the head, and three times was his nose discharged against me; he stands there like a mortar-piece to blow us."
FIRE-EATER. One notoriously fond of being in action; much humbled by iron-clads.
FIRE-FLAUGHTS. The aurora borealis, or northern lights.
FIRE-HEARTH. The security base of the galley-range and all its conveniences.
FIRE-HEARTH-CARLINE. The timber let in under the beams on which the fire-hearth stands, with pillars underneath, and chocks thereon.
FIRE-HOOPS. A combustible invented by the knights of Malta to throw among their besiegers, and afterwards used in boarding Turkish galleys.
FIRE-LOCK. Formerly the common name for a musket; the fire-arm carried by a foot-soldier, marine, or small-arm man, until the general introduction of rifles. It carried a ball of about an ounce in weight.
FIREMEN. A first and second man is stationed to each gun, in readiness for active duty. The firemen, when called with the first and second division of boarders, were an effective force. If for duty aloft, each bucket had a lanyard which reached from the main-yard to the sea, so as to keep the lower sails well wet. The ship's engine was also manned by the second division of boarders, while the first division and carpenters cut away obstacles. (For firemen in a steamer, see [Stoker].)