Bear up the helm a-weather!
The reason for putting the helm a-weather, or to the side next the wind, is to make the ship veer before it when it blows so hard that she cannot bear her side to it any longer. Veering, or wearing, is the operation by which a ship, in changing her course from one board to the other, turns her stern to windward; the French term is, virer vent arriere.
[Page 68], l. 20.
Timoneer—
The helmsman, from the French, timonnier.
[Page 69], l. 8.
While the fore stay-sail balances before:
Called with more propriety the fore top-mast stay-sail: it is of a triangular shape, and runs upon the fore top-mast stay, over the bowsprit: it consequently has an influence on the fore-part of the ship, as the mizen has on the hinder part; and, when thus used together, they may be said to balance each other. See also the last note of this Canto.
[Page 69], l. 10.
... th’ extended tack confin’d.