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

MILLAR'S SIGHT. General Millar's simple dispart—a sliding pillar bearing a scale graduated to tangents of degrees for setting the gun by.

MILLED LEAD. Sheet lead.

MILLER, To Drown the. To put an overdose of water to grog.

MILLER'S THUMB. A fresh-water fish, the Cottus cataphractus.

MILT. The soft roe, or spermatic part, of the male fish.

MINE. A passage made under ground, with a chamber at the end, under the place intended to be blown up; it is entered by the shaft, which leads through the gallery to the chamber.

MINERAL OIL. See [Petroleum].

MINIE RIFLE. This has acquired a great name, though not yet in general use.

MINION. An old four-pounder gun about 7 feet long. Its point-blank range was 120 paces, with a random one of 1500. Bourne, in 1578, mentions the minion as requiring shot 3 inches in diameter.

MINISTER. A minister, though termed plenipotentiary, has no power to grant protection to vessels or cargoes otherwise subject to the operations and laws of hostilities.