planks, or
pieces of timber, fastened together with swifters and raft-dogs side by
side, as well as tier upon tier. The timber and plank with which
merchant ships are laden in the different ports of the Baltic, are
attached together in this manner, in order to float them off to the
shipping; but the rafts of North America are the most gigantic in the
world. Also, a kind of floating bridge of easy construction for the
passage of rivers by troops, &c.

RAFT-DOG. A broad flat piece of iron, having a sharp point at each end,
with the extremities bent at right angles. There are also _dog-hooks_,
having the shoulder bent into a hook, by which the raft-chains are
secured, or suddenly thrown off and released.

RAFTING. Conveying goods by floating, as by raft-chains, lashings, &c.

RAFT-PORT. A large square hole, framed and cut through the buttocks of
some ships, immediately under the counter--or forward between the
breast-hooks of the bow--to load or unload timber.

RAG-BOLTS. Those which are jagged or barbed, to prevent working in their
holes, and to make them hold more securely. The same as _barb-bolts_.

RAILS. Narrow pieces of wood, with mouldings as ornaments, mortised into
the heads of stanchions, or nailed for ornament on several parts of a
ship's upper works.

RAILS OF THE HEAD. Curved pieces of timber extending from the bows on
each side to the continuation of the ship's stem, to support the knee of
the head, &c.

RAILS OF THE STERN. (_See_ STERN-RAILS.)

RAINBOW.

"A rainbow towards night,
Fair weather in sight.
Rainbow at night,
Sailor's delight;
Rainbow in morning,
Sailors, take warning."

RAIN-CLOUD. _See_ NIMBUS.

RAINS. Belts or zones of calms, where heavy rain prevails; they exist
between the north-east and south-east trade-winds, changing their
latitude several degrees, depending on the sun's declination. In India
"the rains" come in with the S.W. monsoon.

RAISE, TO. To make an object subtend a larger angle by approaching it,
which is the foundation of perspective, and an effect increased by the
sphericity of our globe: the opposite of _laying_ (which see).

RAISE A SIEGE, TO. To abandon or cause the abandonment of a siege.

RAISED UPON. When a vessel is heightened in her upper works.

RAISE-NET. A kind of staked net on our northern shores, so called from
rising and falling with the tide.

RAISE OR RISE TACKS AND SHEETS. The lifting the clues of the courses,
pre