r. Any stranger or fresh hand
newly arrived.

NEWELL. An upright piece of timber to receive the tenon of the rails
that lead from the breast-hook to the gangway.

NEWGATE BIRDS. The men sent on board ship from prisons; but the term has
also been immemorially used, as applied to some of the _Dragon's_ men in
the voyage of Sir Thomas Roe to Surat, 1615.

NEW MOON. The moon is said to be new when she is in conjunction with the
sun, or between that luminary and the earth.

NEWS. "Do you hear the news?" A formula used in turning up the relief
watch.

NICE STEERAGE. That which is required in tide-ways and intricate
channels, chasing or chased.

NIDGET. A coward. A term used in old times for those who refused to join
the royal standard.

NIGHT-CAP. Warm grog taken just before turning in.

NIGHTINGALES. _See_ SPITHEAD NIGHTINGALES.

NIGHT ORDER-BOOK. A document of some moment, as it contains the
captain's behests about change of course, &c., and ought to be legibly
written.

NIGHT-WALKER. A fish of a reddish colour, about the size of a haddock,
so named by Cook's people from the greatest number being caught in the
night; probably red-snapper.

NIGHT WARD. The night-watch.

NILL. Scales of hot iron at the armourer's forge. Also, the stars of
rockets.

NIMBUS. Ragged and hanging clouds resolving into rain. (_See_
CUMULO-CIRRO-STRATUS.)

NINE-PIN BLOCK. A block in that form, mostly used for a _fair-leader_
under the cross-pieces of the forecastle and quarter-deck bitts.

NINES, TO THE. An expression to denote complete.

NINGIM. A corruption of _ginseng_ (which see).

NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic
parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite
edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the
place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing. Also, _Nip in the
hawse_; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service
into the hawse.

NIPCHEESE. The sailor's name for a purser's steward.

NIPPER. The armourer's pincers or tongs. Also, a hammock with so little
bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.

NIPPERING. Fastening nippers by taking turns crosswise between the parts
to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. These
are called racking-turns.

NIPPER-MEN. Foretop-men employed to bind the nippers about the cables
and messenger, and to whom the boys return them when they are taken