powerful cross-bow for throwing long darts. Also, an old
piece of ordnance throwing a ball of one or two pounds.

RIBBANDS. In naval architecture, long narrow flexible pieces of fir
nailed upon the outside of the ribs, from the stem to the stern-post of
a ship, so as to encompass the body lengthways, and hold the timbers
together while in frame.

RIBBING-NAILS. Similar to deck-nails, but not so fine; they have large
round heads with rings, so as to prevent their heads from splitting the
timbers, or being drawn through.

RIBBONS. The painted mouldings along a ship's side. Also, the tatters of
a sail in blowing away.

RIBS. The frame timbers which rise from the bottom to the top of a
ship's hull: the hull being as the body, the keel as the backbone, and
the planking as the skin.

RIBS AND TRUCKS. Used figuratively for fragments.

RIBS OF A PARREL. An old species of parrel having alternate ribs and
bull's-eyes; the ribs were pieces of wood, each about one foot in
length, having two holes in them through which the two parts of the
parrel-rope are reeved with a bull's-eye between; the inner smooth edge
of the rib rests against, and slides readily up and down, the mast.

RICKERS. Lengths of stout poles cut up for the purpose of stowing flax,
hemp, and the like. Spars supplied for boats' masts and yards, boat-hook
staves, &c.

RICOCHET. The bound of a shot. _Ricochet fire_, that whereby, a less
charge and a greater elevation being used, the shot or shell is made to
just clear a parapet, and bound along the interior of a work.

RIDDLE. A sort of weir in rivers.--_To riddle._ To fire through and
through a vessel, and reduce her to a sieve-like condition.

RIDE, TO. To ride at anchor. A vessel rides easily, apeak, athwart, head
to wind, out a gale, open hawse, to the tide, to the wind, &c. A rope
rides, as when round the capstan or windlass the strain part overlies
and jams the preceding turn.--_To ride between wind and tide._ Said of a
ship at anchor when she is acted upon by wind and tide from different
directions, and takes up a position which is the result of both forces.

RIDEAU. A rising ground running along a plain, nearly parallel to the
works of a place, and therefore prejudicial.

RIDERS. Timbers laid as required, reaching from the keelson to the
orlop-beams, to bind a ship and give additional strength. They are
variously termed, as _lower futtock-riders_ and _middle futtock-riders_.
When a vessel is weak,