bent,
or nipped between the outside skin and the timbers of a vessel, whether
from bad driving or severe straining.

NECKING. A small neat moulding at the foot of the taffrail over the
light.

NECKLACE. A ring of wads placed round a gun, as sometimes practised, for
readiness and stowage. Also, a strop round a lower mast carrying
leading-blocks. Also, the chain necklace, to which the futtock-shrouds
are secured in some vessels.

NECK OF LAND. Dividing two portions of water, or it may be the neck of a
peninsula.

NECK OF THE CASCABLE. The part between the swell of the breech of a gun
and the button. Its narrowest part within the button.

NECKUR. A Scandinavian sea-sprite, whence some derive our "Old Nick" in
preference to St. Nicholas, the modern patron of sailors.

NEEDLE. The Ang.-Sax. _naedl_. (_See also_ MAGNETIC NEEDLE.)

NEEDLE-FISH. The shorter pipe-fish, stang, or sting, _Sygnathus acus_.

NEEDLE-GUN. One wherein the ignition for the cartridge is produced by
the penetration of the detonating priming by a steel spike working in
the lock. It is the Prussian musket.

NEEDLES. Used by sail-makers, are _seaming_, _bolt-rope_, or _roping_
needles, all three-sided, and of very fine steel.--The _Needles_ of the
Isle of Wight are the result of cracks in the rocks, through which the
sea has worn its way, as also at Old Harry, Swanage Bay. As the chalk
formation stretches westward, the structure changes in hardness until at
Portland we meet with Portland stone. In California many of the needle
rocks are of volcanic origin; others again are basaltic columns.

NEGLECT. A charge not exceeding L3, from the wages of a seaman, in the
Complete Book, for any part of the ship's stores lost overboard, or
damaged, from his gross carelessness.

NEGLIGENCE. If agent or broker engages to do an act for another, and he
either wholly neglects it, or does it unskilfully, an action on the case
will lie against him.

NEGOTIATE, TO. The duty of a diplomatist; the last resource and best
argument being now 12-ton guns.

NEGRO-BOAT. _See_ ALMADIA.

NEGROHEAD. Hard-rolled tobacco.

NEGRO-HEADS. The brown loaves issued to ships in ordinary.

NELLY. _Diomedea spadicea_, a sea-bird of the family _Procellaridae_,
which follows in the wake of a ship when rounding the Cape of Good Hope:
it is very voracious of fat blubber.

NEPTUNE. A superior planet, recently discovered; it is the most distant
member of the solar system yet known,