FLOATING, (flotter, Fr.) the state of being borne up, or wafted along with the tide on the surface of the water, the theory of which is explained in the article Trim.
FLOOR, the bottom of a ship; or all that part on each side of the keel, which approaches nearer to an horizontal, than a perpendicular situation, and whereon she rests when aground. Thus it is common to say, a sharp floor, a flat floor, a long floor, &c. Whence
Floor-timbers, varangues, are those parts of the ship’s timbers which are placed immediately across the keel, and upon which the bottom of the ship is framed: to these the upper parts of the timbers are united, being only a continuation of floor-timbers upwards. See Naval Architecture.
FLOWING, the position of the sheets, or lower corners of the principal sails, when they are loosened to the wind, so as to receive it into their cavities in a direction more nearly perpendicular than when they are close-hauled, although more obliquely than when the vessel is sailing before the wind.
A ship is therefore said to have a flowing sheet when the wind crosses the line of her course nearly at right angles: that is to say, a ship steering due north, with the wind at east, or directly on her side, will have a flowing sheet; whereas if the sheets were extended close aft, she would sail two points nearer the wind, viz. N. N. E. See the articles Close-hauled, Large, and Trim.
FLY of an ensign, battant, the breadth or extent from the staff to the extremity or edge that flutters loose in the wind.
FLY-BOAT, or FLIGHT, a large flat-bottomed Dutch vessel, whose burthen is generally from four to six hundred tons. It is distinguished by a stern remarkably high, resembling a Gothic turret, and by very broad buttocks below.
Plate. v.
FOOT of a sail, fond de voile, lower edge or bottom.