The Sailor's Word-Book / An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.

by W. H. Smyth

JIB AND STAYSAIL JACK. A designation of inexperienced officers, who are troublesome to the watch by constantly calling it unnecessarily to trim, make, or shorten sail.

JIBBER THE KIBBER. A cant term for a diabolical trick for decoying vessels on shore for plunder, by tying a lantern to a horse's neck, one of whose legs is checked; so that at night the motion has somewhat the appearance of a ship's light.—Jib or jibber means a horse that starts or shrinks; and Shakspeare uses it in the sense of a worn-out horse.

JIB-BOOM. A continuation of the bowsprit forward, being a spar run out from the extremity in a similar manner to a top-mast on a lower-mast, and serving to extend the foot of the jib and the stay of the foretop-gallant-mast, the tack of the jib being lashed to it. It is usually attached to the bowsprit by means of the cap and the saddle, where a strong lashing confines it.—Flying jib-boom. A boom extended beyond the preceding, to which it is secured by a boom-iron and heel-lashing; to the outer end of this boom the tack of the flying-jib is hauled out, and the fore-royal-stay passes through it.

JIB-FORESAIL. In cutters, schooners, &c., it is the stay-foresail.

JIB-GUYS. Stout ropes which act as backstays do to a mast, by supporting the jib-boom against the pressure of its sail and the ship's motion.

JIBING, or Gybing. A corruption of jibbing. The act of shifting over the boom of a fore-and-aft sail from one side of the vessel to the other. By a boom-sail is meant any sail the bottom of which is extended by a boom, which has its fore-end jawed or hooked to its respective mast, so as to swing occasionally on either side of the vessel, describing an arc, of which the mast will be the centre. As the wind or the course changes, the boom and its sail are jibed to the other side of the vessel, as a door turns on its hinges.

JIB OF JIBS. A sixth jib on the bowsprit, only known to flying-kite-men: the sequence being—storm, inner, outer, flying, spindle, jib of jibs.

JIB-STAY. The stay on which the jib is set.

JIB-TOPSAIL. A light sail set on the topmost stay of a fore-and-aft rigged vessel.

JIB-TRAVELLER. An iron ring fitted to run out and in on the jib-boom, for the purpose of bringing outwards or inwards the tack, or the outer corner of the sail; to this traveller the jib-guys are lashed.