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

CHEARLY, a phrase which usually implies heartily, chearfully, or quickly, as row chearly in the boats! lower away chearly! i. e. row heartily, lower speedily, &c.

CHEEKS of the mast, jottereaux, the faces or projecting parts on each side of the masts, used to sustain the frame of the top, together with the top-mast, which rests immediately upon them.

CHESTREES, taquets d’ amure, two pieces of wood bolted perpendicularly, one on the starboard, and the other on the larboard side of the ship. They are used to confine the clue, or lower corners of the main-sail; for which purpose there is a hole in the upper part through which the rope passes that usually extends the clue of the sail to windward. See the article Tack.

The chess-trees are commonly placed as far before the main-mast as the length of the main-beam.

Clerk of the CHECK, an officer in the royal dock-yards, who keeps a muster or register of all the men employed aboard his majesty’s ships and vessels, and also of all the artificers and others in the service of the navy at the port where he is settled.

To CHINSE, is to thrust oakum into a seam or chink with the point of a knife or chissel. This is chiefly used as a temporary expedient when calking cannot be safely or conveniently performed.

CHOCK, a sort of wedge used to confine a cask, or other weighty body, in a certain place, and to prevent it from fetching way when the ship is in motion, &c.

CLAMPS, bauquieres, thick planks in a ship’s side, used to sustain the ends of the beams. See the article Midship Frame.

The clamps extend from the stem to the fashion-pieces of the stern, including the whole interior range of the side. They are placed close under each deck so as to be securely fayed to all the timbers, to which they are fastened by nails driven through the clamp, and penetrating two thirds of the thickness of the timbers.

The clamps of the lower and second decks ought to be equal in thickness to half the corresponding timbers in that part, and as broad as can be procured. In their disposition it is essentially necessary to avoid their being wounded by the ports, as the strength and firmness of a ship greatly depend on the substance and solidity of those pieces which lie horizontally in her frame.