BINACLE, a wooden case or box, which contains the compasses, log-glasses, watch-glasses, and lights to shew the compass at night.
As this is called bittacle in all the old sea-books, even by mariners, it appears evidently to be derived from the French term habitacle, (a small habitation) which is now used for the same purpose by the seamen of that nation.
The Binacle (plate [I]. fig. 4.) is furnished with three apartments, with sliding shutters: the two side ones, a b, have always a compass in each, d, to direct the ship’s way, while the middle division, c, has a lamp or candle, with a pane of glass on either side to throw a light upon the compass in the night, whereby the man who steers may observe it in the darkest weather, as it stands immediately before the helm on the quarter-deck.
There are always two binacles on the deck of a ship of war, one being designed for the man who steers, and the other for the person who superintends the steerage, whose office is called conning, or cunning.
BIRTH, or Berth, eviteé, the station in which a ship rides at anchor, either alone or in a fleet; or the distance between the ship and any adjacent object; comprehending the extent of the space in which she ranges at the length of her cables; as, she lies in a good birth, i. e. in a convenient situation, or at a proper distance from the shore and other vessels; and where there is good anchoring-ground, and shelter from the violence of the wind and sea.
Birth, appartement, also signifies the room or apartment where any particular number of the officers or ship’s company usually mess and reside. In a ship of war there is commonly one of these between every two guns.
To BITE, mordre, to hold fast in the ground; expressed of the anchor.
BITS, bittes, (bitol, Sax.) a frame composed of two strong pieces of timber, fixed perpendicularly in the fore-part of a ship, whereon to fasten her cables as she rides at anchor. See b b, Pieces of the Hull.
These pieces being let down through square mortises cut in the decks above and below, are bolted and fore-locked to the ship’s beams. There are several bits in a ship, the principal of which are those for the cables: their upper ends commonly reach about four or five feet above the lower deck, over which the cable passes. They are supported on the fore part by strong standards; one arm of which is bolted to the deck, and the other to the bits: and on the after part is fixed a strong beam of timber, g, (plate [I]. Pieces of the Hull) parallel to the deck, and at right angles with the bits, to which it is bolted and forelocked. The ends of this beam, which is called the cross-piece, reach about two or three feet beyond the bits, whose upper-ends are nearly two feet above the cross-piece. The cable being passed once round about these bits, may be gradually slackened at pleasure; without which it would be impossible to prevent it from running out with the utmost rapidity, when the ship rides a great strain, which is always the case in a storm, or an impetuous tide. In ships of war there are usually two pair of cable bits, and when they are both used at once, the cable is said to be double-bitted. The plan of the bits, with their cross-pieces and standards, are represented in Plate [III]. where b b are the bits, e their standards, and g the cross-piece.
To Bit the cable, is to put it round the bits, in order to fasten it, or slacken it gradually, which last is called veering away.