e_ MAGNETIC AZIMUTH.) It is fitted with vertical sight
vanes for the purpose of observing objects elevated above the horizon.

AZOGUE. [Sp.] Quicksilver.

AZOGUES. Spanish ships fitted expressly for carrying quicksilver.

AZUMBRE. A Spanish wine-measure, eight of which make an arroba.

AZURE. The deep blue colour of the sky, when perfectly cloudless.

B.

BAARD. A mediaeval transport.

BAARE-Y-LANE. The Manx or Gaelic term for high-water.

BAAS. An old term for the skipper of a Dutch trader.

BAB. The Arabic for _mouth_ or _gate_; especially used by seamen for the
entrance of the Red Sea, _Bab-el-mandeb_.

BABBING. An east-country method of catching crabs, by enticing them to
the surface of the water with baited lines, and then taking them with a
landing net.

BABBLING. The sound made by shallow rivers flowing over stony beds.

BAC. A large flat-bottomed French ferry-boat. In local names it denotes
a ferry or place of boating.

BACALLAO [Sp.] A name given to Newfoundland and its adjacent islands,
whence the epithet is also applied to the cod-fish salted there.

BACCHI. Two ancient warlike machines; the one resembled a battering-ram,
the other cast out fire.

BACK. _To back an anchor._ To carry a small anchor ahead of the one by
which the ship rides, to partake of the strain, and check the latter
from coming home.--_To back a ship at anchor._ For this purpose the
mizen top-sail is generally used; a hawser should be kept ready to wind
her, and if the wind falls she must be hove apeak.--_To back and fill._
To get to windward in very narrow channels, by a series of smart
alternate boards and backing, with weather tides.--_To back a sail._ To
brace its yard so that the wind may blow directly on the front of the
sail, and thus retard the ship's course. A sailing vessel is backed by
means of the sails, a steamer by reversing the paddles or
screw-propeller.--_To back astern._ To impel the water with the oars
contrary to the usual mode, or towards the head of the boat, so that she
shall recede.--_To back the larboard_ or _starboard oars_. To back with
the right or left oars only, so as to round suddenly.--_To back out._
(_See Back a Sail._) The term is also familiarly used for retreating out
of a difficulty.--_To back a rope or chain_, is to put on a preventer
when it is thought likely to break from age or extra strain.--_To back
water._ To impel a boat astern, so as to recede in a direction opposite
to