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

Thwart-ships, across the ship. See the article Athwart.

TIDE, marée, (tyd, Sax.) a regular periodical current of the water, setting alternately in a flux and reflux, produced by the influence of the moon.

If the ocean were equally deep in every place, the ebbing and flowing of the tide would be universally regular and equal; but the shallowness of the water in many places, and the streightness of the channels, by which the tides may be considerably interrupted in some parts, and propagated in others, occasion a great diversity in their force and quantity. Hence, without an exact knowledge of all the circumstances of the several places where they happen to run, as of the position of the land, the breadth and depth of channels; it is impossible to account for this diversity.

The theory of the tides is concisely described by a great author, in these words: “That motion of the water called tides is a rising and falling of the sea: the cause of this is the attraction of the moon, whereby the part of water in the great ocean which is nearest the moon, being most strongly attracted, is raised higher than the rest; and the part opposite to it being least attracted, is also higher than the rest; and these two opposite elevations of the surface of the water in the great ocean, following the motion of the moon from est to west, and striking against the large coasts of the continents, from thence rebounds back again, and so makes floods and ebbs in narrows, seas, and rivers.” Locke.

With regard to the relative force of the tide on a ship floating therein, it is already explained in the article Current.

TIER, batterie, a name given to the range of cannon mounted on one side of a ship’s deck. See the articles Deck and Cannon.

Tier of the cable, is a range of the fakes or windings of the cable, which are laid within one another in an horizontal position, so as that the last becomes the innermost. See Coiling.

Cable-Tier is the hollow space in the middle of a cable, when it is coiled.

TIGHT, (dicht, Dutch) the quality whereby a vessel resists the penetration of any fluid, whether compressing its surface, or contained within it. Hence a ship is said to be tight, when her planks are so compact and solid as to prevent the entrance of the water in which she is immersed: and a cask is called tight, when the staves are so close that none of the liquid contained therein can issue through or between them. In both senses it is opposed to leaky, which see.

TILLER, timon, or barre de gouvernail, the bar or lever employed to turn the rudder in steering. See the article Helm.