HEIGHT. Synonymous with hill, and meaning generally any ground above the common level of the place. Our early navigators used the word as a synonym of latitude.
HEIGHT of the Hold. Used for the depth of the hold.
HEIGHT OF BREADTH. In ship-building, is a delineation generally in two lines—upper and lower—determining the height of the broadest place of each timber.
HELIACAL. A star rises heliacally when it first becomes visible in the morning, after having been hidden in the sun's rays; and it sets heliacally when it is first lost in the evening twilight, owing to the sun's proximity.
HELIER. A cavern into which the tide flows.
HELIOCENTRIC. As seen from, or having reference to, the centre of the sun.
HELIOMETER. An instrument designed for the accurate measurement of the diameters of the sun or planets.
HELIOSTAADT, or Heliotrope. This instrument reflects the sun's rays by a silvered disc, used in the great trigonometrical surveys. It has been visible at 100 miles' distance, from Cumberland to Ireland.
HELL-AFLOAT. A vessel with a bad name for tyranny.
HELM. Properly is the tiller, but sometimes used to express the rudder, and the means used for turning it, which, in small vessels and boats, is merely a tiller, but in larger vessels a wheel is added, which supplies the leverage for pulling the tiller either way; they are connected by ropes or chains.—A-lee the helm, or Down with the helm! So place the tiller that the rudder is brought on the weather side of the stern-post. These, and the following orders, were established when tillers extended forward from the rudder-head, but now they often extend aft, which requires the motion of the tiller to be reversed. With the latter style of tiller the order "down with the helm" is carried out by bringing the tiller up to the weather side of the ship; which being done, the order "Helm's a lee" follows.—Bear up the helm. That is, let the ship go more large before the wind.—Ease the helm. To let the helm come more amidships, when it has been put hard up or down.—It is common to ease the helm before a heavy sea takes the ship when close-hauled.—Helm amidships, or right the helm. That is, keep it even with the middle of the ship, in a line with the keel.—Helm over. The position of the tiller to enable a vessel steaming ahead to describe a curve.—Port the helm. Place the tiller so as to carry the rudder to starboard. (See [A-lee the helm].)—Shift the helm. Put it from port to starboard, and vice versâ, or it may be amidships.—Starboard the helm. Place the tiller so as to carry the rudder to port.—Up with the helm. Place the tiller so as to carry the rudder to leeward. (See [A-lee the helm].)