FREE PORT. Ports open to all comers free of entry-dues, as places of call, not delivery.
FREE SHIP. A piratical term for one where it is agreed that every man shall have an equal share in all prizes.
FREE TRADER. Ships trading formerly under license to India independent of the old East India Company's charter. Also, a common woman.
FREEZE, To. To congeal water or any fluid. Thus sea-water freezes at 28° 5′ Fah.; fresh water at 32°; mercury at 39° 5′ below zero. All fluids change their degree of freezing in accordance with mixtures of alcohol or solutions of salt used for the purpose. Also, according to the atmospheric pressure; and by this law heights of mountains are measured by the boiling temperature of water.
FREIGHT. By former English maritime law it became the mother of wages, as the crew were obliged to moor the ship on her return in the docks or forfeit them. So severely was the axiom maintained, that if a ship was lost by misfortune, tempest, enemy, or fire, wages also were forfeited, because the freight out of which they were to arise had perished with it. This harsh measure was intended to augment the care of the seamen for the welfare of the ship, but no longer holds, for by the merchant shipping act it is enacted that no right of wages shall be dependent on the earning of freight; in cases of wreck, however, proof that a man has not done his utmost bars his claim. Also, for the burden or lading of a ship. (See [Dead-freight].) Also, a duty of 50 sols per ton formerly paid to the government of France by the masters of foreign vessels going in or out of the several ports of that kingdom. All vessels not built in France were accounted foreign unless two-thirds of the crew were French. The Dutch and the Hanse towns were exempted from this duty of freight.—To freight a vessel, means to employ her for the carriage of goods and passengers.
FREIGHT of a Ship. The hire, or part thereof, usually paid for the carriage and conveyance of goods by sea; or the sum agreed upon between the owner and the merchant for the hire and use of a vessel, at the rate of so much for the voyage, or by the month, or per ton.
FREIGHTER. The party who hires a vessel or part of a vessel for the carriage of goods.
FREIGHTING. A letting out of vessels on freight or hire; one of the principal practices in the trade of the Dutch.
FRENCH FAKE. A name for what is merely a modification of the Flemish coil, both being extremely good for the object, that is, when a rope has to be let go suddenly, and is required to run freely. Fake, in contradistinction to long coil is, run a rope backward and forward in one-fathom bends, beside each other, so that it may run free, as in rocket-lines, to communicate with stranded vessels. (See [Flemish Fake].)
FRENCH LAKE. A soubriquet for the Mediterranean.