CORDAGE, (cordage, Fr.) a general term for the running rigging of a ship, or all that part of her rigging which is employed to extend, contract, or traverse the sails; or which lies in reserve to supply the place of such as may be rendered unserviceable. See the article Rigging.
CORPORAL of a ship of war, an officer under the master at arms, employed to teach the sailors the exercise of small arms, or musketry; to attend at the gangway, or entering-ports, and observe that no spirituous liquors are brought into the ship, unless by particular leave from the officers. He is also to extinguish the fire and candles at eight o’clock in winter, and nine in summer, when the evening gun is fired; and to walk frequently down in the lower decks in his watch, to see that there are no lights but such as are under the charge of proper centinels.
CORPOSANT, feu St. Elme (corpo santo, Ital.), a sort of volatile meteor, or ignis fatuus, often beheld in a dark and tempestuous night about the decks or rigging of a ship, but particularly at the extremities, as the mast-heads, and yard arms: it is most frequent in heavy rain, accompanied with lightning. “They usually wander with uncertain motion from place to place, sometimes appearing to cleave close to the sails and masts; but they frequently leap up and down with intermission, affording an obscure flame, like that of a candle burning faintly. They are produced by some sulphureous and bituminous matter, which being beat down by the motion of the air above, and gathering together, is kindled by the agitation of the air, as butter is gathered together by the agitation of the cream. And from this appearance we infer that storms come from sulphureous spirits that rarify the air, and put it into a motion.” Varenius.
CORSAIR, (corsair, Fr.) a name commonly given to the piratical cruisers of Barbary, who frequently plunder the merchant-ships of European nations with whom they are at peace.
COTT, a particular sort of bed-frame, suspended from the beams of a ship, for the officers to sleep in between the decks. This contrivance is much more convenient at sea than either the hammocks or fixed cabins, being a large piece of canvas sewed into the form of a chest, about six feet long, one foot deep, and from two to three feet wide: it is extended by a square wooden frame with a canvas bottom, equal to its length and breadth, to retain it in an horizontal position.
COVE, anse, a small creek or bay, where boats or little vessels may ride at anchor sheltered from the wind and sea.
COUNTER, contre-arcasse, an arch or vault whose upper-part is terminated by the bottom of the stern, and the lower part by the wing-transom and buttock, being expressed by the letters KG, in the elevation, plate [I]. as likewise by the same letters in fig. 1, plate [X]. and the figure referred to from the article Quarter.
There is also another counter above, parallel to this, but not vaulted; it extends from the upper-part of the lower, or vaulted counter, to the moulding which terminates the windows of the cabin or ward-room below. This latter is usually called the upper or second counter.
COUNTER-BRACING. See this operation fully explained in the article Tacking.
COURSE, route, in navigation, the angle contained between the nearest meridian and that point of the compass upon which a ship sails in any particular direction.