ops, sewed to the bonnets and drablers of a
sail, to secure the bonnets to the courses, or the drablers to the
bonnets.

LAST. A dry measure containing 80 bushels of corn. A cargo. A weight of
4000 lbs. A last of cod or white herrings is 12 barrels. Last, or
ship-last, a Swedish weight of 2 tons.

LASTAGE. This is a commercial term for the general lading of a ship. It
is also applied to that custom which is paid for wares sold by the last,
as herrings, pitch, &c.

LASTER. The coming in of the tide.

LAST QUARTER. _See_ QUARTER, LAST.

LATCH. An old term for a cross-bow; _temp._ Henry VII.--_Lee-latch._
Dropping to leeward of the course.

LATCHES. The same as _laskets_ (which see; also _keys_).

LATCHINGS KEYS. Loops on the head-rope of a bonnet, by which it is laced
to the foot of the sail.

LATEEN SAIL AND YARD. A long triangular sail, bent by its foremost leech
to a lateen yard, which hoists obliquely to the mast; it is mostly used
by xebecs, feluccas, &c., in the Mediterranean. A gaff-topsail, if
triangular and set on a yard, is lateen. The term _lateen-rigged_, where
sails have short tacks, is wrong. These latter are nothing more or less
than clumsy lugs or quadrilaterals. The lateen tack is the yard-arm
bowsed amidships.

LATHE. A term for a sort of a cross-bow once used in the fleet.

LATHER, TO. To beat or drub soundly.

LATITUDE. In wide terms, the extent of the earth from one pole to the
other; but strictly it is the distance of any place from the equator in
degrees and their parts; or an arc of the meridian intercepted between
the zenith of the place and the equinoctial. Geographical latitude is
either northern or southern, according as the place spoken of is on this
or that side of the equator. Geocentric latitude is the angular distance
of a place from the equator, as corrected for the oblateness of the
earth's form; in other words, it is the geographical latitude diminished
by the angle of the vertical.

LATITUDE BY ACCOUNT. That estimated by the log-board, and the last
determined by observation.

LATITUDE BY OBSERVATION. The latitude determined by observations of the
sun, star, or moon, by meridional, as also by double altitudes.

LATITUDE OF A CELESTIAL OBJECT. An arc of a circle of longitude between
the centre of that object and the ecliptic, and is north or south
according to its position.

LAUNCE. A term when the pump sucks--from the Danish _l[oe]ns_,
exhausted. Also, a west-country