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

TAUGHT, roide, (dicht, Dutch) the state of being extended or stretched out. It is usually applied to a rope or sail, in opposition to slack.

TAUNT, foit, an epithet used, in the sea-language, to signify high or tall. It is peculiarly expressed of the masts when they are of an extraordinary length, as square is applied to the yards on the same occasion.

TENDER, patache, a small vessel employed in the King’s service, on various occasions; as, to receive volunteers and impressed men, and convey them to a distant place; to attend on ships of war or squadrons; and to carry intelligence or orders from one place to another, &c.

TENDING, the movement by which a ship turns or swings round her anchor in a tide-way, at the beginning of the flood or ebb. Thus, if the flood sets northerly, it is evident that the ship, unless when moored head and stern, will fall into the line of the current, turning her head to the southward. But as the reflux will for the same reason set to the southward, the ship will of necessity turn about at the change of the tide, and carry her head to the northward; and the transition from one situation to the other is called tending or swinging.

TENON, the end of a piece of timber cut smaller to enter into a mortise.

THIMBLE, cosse, a sort of iron ring, whose outer surface is hollowed throughout its whole circumference, in order to contain, in the channel or cavity, a rope which is spliced about it, and by which it may be hung in any particular station. See plate [XII]. fig. 1. It is used to guide the direction of some running rope, which passes through it, from one place to another. See Span.

THOLES, (tholet, Fr.) certain small pins driven perpendicularly into the upper edge of a boat, as expressed by e, fig. 1, plate [III]. In the exercise of rowing, the oar is contained between the two tholes, in the space which is called the row-lock. Sometimes there is only one pin to each oar, as in the boats navigated on the Mediterranean sea. In that case the oar is hung upon the pin by means of a strop; and indeed this method is much more ancient than the former. See the article Rowing.

THROAT, a name given to the inner end of a gaff, or to that part which is next to the mast. It is opposed to peek, which implies the outer extremity of the said gaff, or that part of it which extends the sail behind. Hence the ropes employed to hoist up, and lower a gaff, being applied to those parts of it, are called the throat and peek haliards. See Haliards.

THUS! the order by which the pilot directs the helmsman to keep the ship in her present situation when sailing with a scant wind; so that she may not approach too near the direction of the wind, and thereby shiver her sails, nor fall to leeward, and run farther out of her course. See Steering.

THWART, banc, the seat or bench of a boat whereon the rowers sit to manage the oars.