FLOT-MANN. A very early term for sailor.
FLOTSAM. In legal phraseology, is the place where shipwrecked goods continue to float and become derelict property. Sometimes spelled flotson.
FLOUNDER. A well-known pleuronect, better to fish for than to eat. Called also floun-dab.
FLOW. In tidology, the rising of the tide; the opposite of ebb. Also, the course or direction of running waters.
FLOWER of the Winds. The mariner's compass on maps and charts.
FLOWERING. The phenomenon observed usually in connection with the spawning of fish, at the distance of four leagues from shore. The water appears to be saturated with a thick jelly, filled with the ova of fish, which is known by its adhering to the ropes that the cobles anchor with while fishing, for they find the first six or seven fathom of rope free from spawn, the next ten or twelve covered with slimy matter, and the remainder again free to the bottom; this gelatinous material may supply the new-born fry with food, and protect them by clouding the water.
FLOWING-HOPE. See [Forlorn Hope].
FLOWING-SHEET. In sailing free or large, is the position of the sheets or lower clues of the principal sails when they are eased off to the wind, so as to receive it more nearly perpendicular than when they are close-hauled, although more obliquely than when going before the wind; a ship is therefore said to have a flowing-sheet, when the wind crosses the line of her course nearly at right angles; that is to say, a ship steering due north with the wind at east, or directly on her side, will have a flowing-sheet; whereas, if the sheets were hauled close aft, she would sail two points nearer the wind—viz. N.N.E. This explanation will probably be better understood by considering the yards as plane faces of wedges—the more oblique fore and aft, the less head-way force is given, until 22° before the transverse line or beam. This is the swiftest line of sailing. As the wind draws aft of the beam the speed decreases (unless the wind increases), so that a vessel with the wind abeam, and every sail drawing, goes much faster than she would with the same wind before it.
FLUCTUATION of the Tide. The rising and falling of the waters.
FLUE. See [Flukes].