An Universal Dictionary of the Marine / Or, a Copious Explanation of the Technical Terms and Phrases Employed in the Construction, Equipment, Furniture, Machinery, Movements, and Military Operations of a Ship. Illustrated With Variety of Original Designs of Shipping, in Different Situations; Together With Separate Views of Their Masts, Sails, Yards, and Rigging. to Which Is Annexed, a Translation of the French Sea-terms and Phrases, Collected from the Works of Mess. Du Hamel, Aubin, Saverien, &c.

by William Falconer

MARLINE, (merlin, Fr.) a small line, somewhat less than house-line, and used for the same purposes. See House-Line.

MARLING, the act of winding any small line, as marline, spun-yarn, packthread, &c. about a rope, so that every turn is secured by a sort of knot, so as to remain fixed in case all the rest should be cut through by friction, &c. This expedient is much preferable to the winding a line spirally about a rope for the same purpose, because as the turns are at some distance from each other, the same quantity of line will serve for the one method as the other; with this difference, that if one of the spiral turns are cut through, the whole will be rendered useless, whereas by marling, this is entirely prevented.

Marling is commonly used to fasten slips of canvas, called parsling, upon the surface of a rope, to prevent it from being galled by another rope that rubs against it, to attach the foot of a sail to its bolt-rope, &c.

Marling-Spike, epissoir, an iron pin, tapering to a point, and furnished with a large round head. It is principally used to penetrate the twists, or strands of a rope, in order to introduce the ends of some other through the intervals, in the act of knotting or splicing.

It is also used as a lever, on many other occasions, about the rigging, particularly in fixing the seizings upon the shrouds, block-strops, clues of the sails, &c.

To MAROON, deserter, to put one or more sailors ashore upon a desolate island, under pretence of their having committed some great crime. This detestable expedient has been repeatedly practised by some inhuman commanders of merchant-ships, particularly in the West-Indies.

MAST, mât, a long round piece of timber, elevated perpendicularly upon the keel of a ship, to which are attached the yards, the sails, and the rigging.

A mast, with regard to its length, is either formed of one single piece, which is called a pole-mast, or composed of several pieces joined together, each of which retains the name of mast separately. The lowest of these is accordingly named the lower-mast, a, fig. 1. plate [VI]. the next in height is the top-mast, b, which is erected at the head of the former; and the highest is the top-gallant-mast, c, which is prolonged from the upper end of the top-mast. Thus the two last are no other than a continuation of the first upwards.

The lower-mast is fixed in the ship by an apparatus, described in the articles hulk and sheers: the foot, or heel of it, rests in a block of timber called the step, which is fixed upon the kelson; and the top-mast is attached to the head of it by the cap and the tressel-trees. The latter of these are two strong bars of timber, supported by two prominencies, which are as shoulders on the opposite sides of the mast, a little under its upper end: athwart these bars are fixed the cross-trees, upon which the frame of the top is supported. Between the lower mast-head, and the foremost of the cross-trees, a square space remains vacant, the sides of which are bounded by the two tressel-trees. Perpendicularly above this is the foremost hole in the cap, whose after-hole is solidly fixed on the head of the lower-mast. The top-mast is erected by a tackle, whose effort is communicated from the head of the lower mast to the foot of the top-mast; and the upper end of the latter is accordingly guided into, and conveyed up through, the holes between the tressel-trees and the cap, as above mentioned. The machinery by which it is elevated, or, according to the sea-phrase, swayed-up, is fixed in the following manner: the top rope d, fig. 2. passing through a block e, which is hooked on one side of the cap, and afterwards through a hole, furnished with a sheave or pulley f, in the lower end of the top-mast, is again brought upwards on the other side of the mast, where it is at length fastened to an eye-bolt in the cap g, which is always on the side opposite to the top-block e. To the lower end of the top-rope is fixed the top-tackle h, the effort of which being transmitted to the top-rope d, and thence to the heel of the top-mast f, necessarily lifts the latter upwards, parallel to the lower-mast. When the top-mast is raised to its proper height, fig. 3. the lower end of it becomes firmly wedged in the square hole, above described, between the tressel-trees. A bar of wood, or iron, called the fid, is then thrust through a hole i in the heel of it, across the tressel-trees, by which the whole weight of the top-mast is supported.

In the same manner as the top-mast is retained at the head of the lower-mast, the top-gallant-mast is erected, and fixed at the head of the top-mast.