withy handle, sometimes only lashed to
a stick or tree-nail, and used with a beetle by caulkers.--_To
horse-up_, or harden in the oakum of a vessel's seams.

HOSE (for watering, &c.) An elastic pipe.

HOSE-FISH. A name for a kind of cuttle-fish.

HOSPITAL. A place appointed for the reception of sick and wounded men,
with a regular medical establishment. (_See_ NAVAL HOSPITALS.)

HOSPITAL-SHIP. A vessel fitted to receive the sick, either remaining in
port, or accompanying a fleet, as circumstance demands. She carries the
chief surgeons, &c. The _Dreadnought_, off Greenwich, is a free
hospital-ship for seamen of all nations.

HOSTAGE. A person given up to an enemy as a pledge or security for the
performance of the articles of a treaty.

HOSTILE CHARACTER is legally constituted by having landed in an enemy's
territory, and by residing there, temporary absence being immaterial; by
permanent trade with an enemy; and by sailing under an enemy's flag.

HOST-MEN. An ancient guild or fraternity at Newcastle, to whom we are
indebted for the valuable sea-coal trade. (_See_ HOASTMEN.)

HOT COPPERS. Dry fauces; morning thirst, but generally applied to those
who were drinking hard over-night.

HOT-PRESS. When the press-gangs were instructed, on imminent emergency,
to impress seamen, regardless of the protections.

HOT-SHOT. Balls made red-hot in a furnace. Amongst the savages in
Bergou, the women are in the rear of the combatants, and they heat the
heads of the spears, exchanging them for such as are cooled in the
fight.

HOT-WELL. In a steamer, a reservoir from whence to feed the boiler with
the warm water received out of the condenser; it also forms part of the
discharge passage from the air-pump into the sea.

HOUND-FISH. The old Anglo-Saxon term for dog-fish--_hund-fisc_.

HOUNDS. Those projections at the mast-head serving as supports for the
trestle-trees of large and rigging of smaller masts to rest upon. With
lower masts they are termed _cheeks_.

HOUNSID. A rope bound round with service.

HOUR-ANGLE. The angular distance of a heavenly body east or west of the
meridian.

HOUR-GLASS. The sand-glass: a measure of the hour.

HOUSE, TO. To enter within board. To house a topgallant-mast, is to
lower it so as to prevent the rigging resting or chafing on the cap, and
securing its heel to the mast below it. This admits of double-reefed
top-sails being set beneath.

HOUSE-BOAT. One with a cabin; a _coche d'eau_.