SISTER BLOCK. A long piece of wood with two sheaves in it, one above the other, with a score between them for a seizing, and a groove around the block, lengthwise.
SKIDS. Pieces of timber placed up and down a vessel's side, to bear any articles off clear that are hoisted in.
SKIN. The part of a sail which is outside and covers the rest when it is furled. Also, familiarly, the sides of the hold; as, an article is said to be stowed _next the skin_.
SKYSAIL. A light sail next above the royal. (See PLATE 2.)
SKY-SCRAPER. A name given to a _skysail_ when it is triangular.
SLABLINE. A small line used to haul up the foot of a course.
SLACK. The part of a rope or sail that hangs down loose.
_Slack in stays_, said of a vessel when she works slowly in tacking.
SLEEPERS. The knees that connect the transoms to the after timbers on the ship's quarter.
SLING. To set a cask, spar, gun, or other article, in ropes, so as to put on a tackle and hoist or lower it.
SLINGS. The ropes used for securing the centre of a yard to the mast.
_Yard-slings_ are now made of iron. Also, a large rope fitted so as to go round any article which is to be hoisted or lowered.
SLIP. To let a cable go and stand out to sea. (See page 90.)
SLIP-ROPE. A rope bent to the cable just outside the hawse-hole, and brought in on the weather quarter, for slipping. (See page 90.)
SLOOP. A small vessel with one mast. (See PLATE 4.)
SLOOP OF WAR. A vessel of any rig, mounting between 18 and 32 guns.
SMALL STUFF. The term for spunyarn, marline, and the smallest kinds of rope, such as ratline-stuff, &c.
SNAKE. To pass small stuff across a seizing, with marling hitches at the outer turns.
SNATCH-BLOCK. A single block, with an opening in its side below the sheave, or at the bottom, to receive the bight of a rope.
SNOTTER. A rope going over a yard-arm, with an eye, used to bend a tripping-line to in sending down topgallant and royal yards in vessels of war.
SNYING. A term for a circular plank edgewise, to work in the bows of a vessel.
SO! An order to 'vast hauling upon anything when it has come to its right position.
SOLE. A piece of timber fastened to the foot of the rudder, to make it level with the false keel.
SOUND. To get the depth of water by a lead and line. (See page 85.) The pumps are _sounded_ by an iron _sounding rod_, marked with a scale of feet and inches.