HAUNCH. A sudden fall or break, as from the drifts forward and aft to the waist. The same as hance.
HAVEN [Anglo-Saxon, hæfen]. A safe refuge from the violence of wind and sea; much the same as harbour, though of less importance. A good anchorage rather than place of perfect shelter. Milford Haven is an exception.
HAVENET. This word has appeared in vocabularies as a small haven.
HAVEN-SCREAMER. The sea-gull, called hæfen by the Anglo-Saxons.
HAVERSACK. A coarse linen bag with a strap fitting over the shoulder worn by soldiers or small-arm men in marching order, for carrying their provision, instead of the knapsack.
HAVILLER. See [Huffler].
HAVOC. Formerly a war cry, and the signal for indiscriminate slaughter. Thus Shakspeare,
"Cry havoc! and let slip the dogs of war."
HAWK'S-BILL. Chelone imbricata, a well-known turtle frequenting the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, so named from having a small mouth like the beak of a hawk; it produces the tortoise-shell of commerce. The flesh is indifferent, but the eggs very good.
HAWSE. This is a term of great meaning. Strictly, it is that part of a vessel's bow where holes are cut for her cables to pass through. It is also generally understood to imply the situation of the cables before the ship's stem, when she is moored with two anchors out from forward, one on the starboard, and the other on the port bow. It also denotes any small distance between her head and the anchors employed to ride her, as "he has anchored in our hawse," "the brig fell athwart our hawse," &c. Also, said of a vessel a little in advance of the stem; as, she sails athwart hawse, or has anchored in the hawse. If a vessel drives at her anchors into the hawse of another she is said to "foul the hawse" of the vessel riding there; hence the threat of a man-of-war's-man, "If you foul my hawse, I'll cut your cable," no merchant vessel being allowed to approach a ship-of-war within certain limits, and never to make fast to the government buoys.—A bold hawse is when the holes are high above the water. "Freshen hawse," or "veer out more cable," is said when part of the cable that lies in the hawse is fretted or chafed, and more should be veered out, so that another part of it may rest in the hawse. "Freshen hawse" also means, clap a service on or round the cable in the hawses to prevent it from fretting; hemp cables only are rounded or cackled. Also, a dram after fatiguing duty. "Clearing hawse," is untwisting or disentangling two cables that come through different holes, and make a foul hawse.