FLEET THE MESSENGER. When about to weigh, to shift the eyes of the messenger past the capstan for the heavy heave.
FLEET-WATER. Water which inundates.
FLEMISH, To. To coil down a rope concentrically in the direction of the sun, or coil of a watch-spring, beginning in the middle without riders; but if there must be riding fakes, they begin outside, and that is the true French coil.
FLEMISH ACCOUNT. A deficit in accounts.
FLEMISH EYE. A kind of eye-splice, in which the ends are scraped down, tapered, passed oppositely, marled, and served over with spun yarn. Often called a made-eye.
FLEMISH FAKE. A method of coiling a rope that runs freely when let go; differing from the French, and was used for the head-braces. Each bend is slipped under the last, and the whole rendered flat and solid to walk on.
FLEMISH HORSE, is the outer short foot-rope for the man at the earing; the outer end is spliced round a thimble on the goose-neck of the studding-sail boom-iron. The inner end is seized by its eye within the brace-block-strop and head-earing-cleat.
FLEMISHING. A forcing or scoring of the planks.
FLENCH-GUT. The blubber of a whale laid out in long slices.
FLENSE, To. To strip the fat off a flayed seal, or the blubber from a whale.