SELVAGEE, a sort of hank or skein of rope-yarn tied together at several distances. It is used to fasten round any rope, as a shroud or stay, so that a tackle may be hooked in it, to extend the said shroud or stay, which is called setting it up.
SENDING, the act of pitching precipitately into the hollow or interval, between two waves.
SENNIT, garcettes, (from seven and knit) a sort of flat braided cordage, formed by platting five or seven rope-yarns together.
SERVING, fourrer, winding any thing round a rope, to prevent it from being rubbed. The materials used for this purpose, and which are accordingly called service, fourrure, are generally small lines, leather, plat canvas, &c.
SETTEE, scitie, a ship of two masts, equipped with triangular sails, commonly called lateen sails. These vessels are peculiar to the Mediterranean sea, and are generally navigated by Italians, Greeks, or Mahometans.
SETTING, the act of observing the situation of any distant object by the compass, in order to discover the angle which it makes with the nearest meridian; as, at seven in the evening, we set the Tower of Arabia near the port of Alexandria, and it bore S. S. E. distant four leagues by estimation. See Bearing.
Setting also denotes the direction of the wind, current, or sea, but particularly the two latter: as, the tide which sets to the south, is opposed to a swelling sea setting to the north-west.
Setting, when applied to the sails, is the loosening and expanding them, so as to move a ship along the water, after she had been for some time at rest; or to accelerate her velocity when she is already moving, and perhaps give a new direction to her motion. It is used in contradistinction to taking-in the sails, as loosing or heaving-out is opposed to furling or stowing them.
Setting-up, the act of extending the shrouds, stays, and back-stays, to secure the masts, by the application of mechanical powers, as tackles, &c. See Dead-eye, Laniard, &c.
SETTLED, lowered in the water; as, we have settled the land, or sunk it lower, by sailing farther out to seaward. This phrase is usually opposed to raising; the former being occasioned by departing from the object understood, and the latter by approaching it: however, the sense is more commonly expressed laying.