MESS. Any company of the officers or crew of a ship, who eat, drink, and associate together. (See [Number].) Also, the state of a ship in a sudden squall, when everything is let go and flying, and nothing hauled in.
MESS-DECK. The place where a ship's crew mess.
MESSENGER. A large cable-laid rope, used to unmoor or heave up the anchor of a ship, by the aid of the capstan. This is done by binding a part of the messenger to the cable by which the ship rides, in several places, with pliant nippers, and by winding another part of it about the capstan. The messenger has an eye-splice at each end, through which several turns of a strong lashing are passed, forming an endless rope. So that by putting on fresh nippers forward, and taking them off as they are hove aft, the capstan may be kept constantly going, and the cable is walked in without stopping. (See [Viol].) A superior plan is now adopted, in which the messenger, consisting of a pitch chain which has a double and single link alternately, works in iron spurs fastened above the lower rim of the capstan. This avoids the trouble of shifting or fleeting the messenger while heaving in. Again, the cable itself is commonly brought to the capstan.—Light forward the messenger! is the order to pull the slack of it towards the hawse holes, on the slack or opposite side, so as to be ready to fasten upon the cable which is being hove in, as it comes off the manger-roller at the bows.
MESSENGERS. Boys appointed to carry orders from the quarter-deck. In some ships they wore winged caps of the Mercury type.
MESS-KID. A wooden tub for holding cooked victuals or cocoa.
MESSMATE. A companion of the same mess-table, hence comrades in many ways; whence the saw: "Messmate before a shipmate, shipmate before a stranger, stranger before a dog."
MESS-TRAPS. The kids, crockery, bowls, spoons, and other articles of mess service.
META-CENTRE. That point in a ship where a vertical line drawn from the centre of cavity cuts a line perpendicular to the keel, passing through the centre of gravity. As this depends upon the situation of the centre of cavity, the meta-centre is often called the shifting-centre. Safety requires this point to be above the centre of gravity.
METAL. A word comprehending the great guns, or ordnance generally, of a ship or battery.
METEINGS. The measurement and estimate of timber.