BUTTOCK-LINES. In ship-building, the longitudinal curves at the rounding part of the after body in a vertical section.
BUTTON. The knob of metal which terminates the breech end of most guns, and which affords a convenient bearing for the application of handspikes, breechings, &c.
BUTTONS, TO MAKE. A common time-honoured, but strange expression, for sudden apprehension or misgiving.
BUTTRESS. In fortification. (_See_ COUNTERFORTS.)
BUTT-SHAFT, OR BUTT-BOLT. An arrow without a barb, used for shooting at a butt.
BUXSISH. A gratuity, in oriental trading.
BUZZING. Sometimes used for _booming_ (which see).
BY. On or close to the wind.--_Full and by_, not to lift or shiver the sails; rap-full.
BY AND LARGE. To the wind and off it; within six points.
BYKAT. A northern term for a male salmon of a certain age, because of the beak which then grows on its under-jaw.
BYLLIS. An old spelling for _bill_ (which see).
BYRTH. The old expression for tonnage. (_See_ BURDEN or BURTHEN.)
BYSSA. An ancient gun for discharging stones at the enemy.
BYSSUS. The silken filaments of any of the bivalved molluscs which adhere to rocks, as the _Pinna_, _Mytilus_, &c. The silken byssus of the great pinna, or wing-shell, is woven into dresses. In the _Chama gigas_ it will sustain 1000 lbs. Also, the woolly substance found in damp parts of a ship.
BY THE BOARD. Over the ship's side. When a mast is carried away near the deck it is said to go by the board.
BY THE HEAD. When a ship is deeper forward than abaft.
BY THE LEE. The situation of a vessel going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side.
BY THE STERN. When the ship draws more water abaft than forward. (_See_ BY THE HEAD.)
BY THE WIND. Is when a ship sails as nearly to the direction of the wind as possible. (_See_ FULL AND BY.) In general terms, within six points; or the axis of the ship is 67-1/2 degrees from the direction of the wind.
BY-WASH. The outlet of water from a dam or discharge channel.
CABANE. A flat-bottomed passage-boat of the Loire.
CABBAGE. Those principally useful to the seaman are the esculent cabbage-tree (_Areca oleracea_), which attains to a great height in the W. Indies. The sheaths of the leaves are very close, and form the green top of the trunk a foot and a half in length; this is cut off, and its white heart eaten. Also, the _Crambe maritima_, sea-kail, or marine cabbage, growing in the west of England.