LOBSTER-BOAT. A bluff, clincher-built vessel, fitted with a well, to preserve the lobsters alive.
LOBSTER-TOAD. See [Deep-sea Crab].
LOB-TAILING. The act of the sperm whale in violently beating the water with its tail.
LOB-WORM. A worm found at low-water in sand, esteemed for bait.
LOCAL ATTRACTION. The effect of the iron in a ship on her compasses; it varies with the position of a compass in a ship, also with that of a ship on the earth's surface, and with the direction of the ship's head. In iron ships it is affected by the line of direction in which they are built. Its detection and remedies are amongst the most important studies of navigators of iron ships and steamers.
LOCAL MARINE-BOARD. See [Marine Boards].
LOCH. Gaelic for lake, in Scotland and Ireland. In Scotland also an arm of the sea, where the tides ebb and flow; on the east coast called a firth, though on the west mostly termed a loch.
LOCHABER AXE. A formidable weapon once used by the Highlanders.
LOCK. The striking instrument by which fire is produced for the discharge of a gun, containing the cock, the hammer, the pan, &c. It was first introduced in naval ordnance by Sir Charles Douglas, and has now given way to the detonating hammer and friction-tube, as the old match and the salamander did to the lock.
LOCK. A spelling of [loch] (which see). Also, the general name for any works made to confine or raise the water of a river; a canal inclosed between the sluice-gate above and the flood-gate below.