attached to their extremities. It
is used to confine some ropes which pass through the corresponding
blocks or thimbles as a fair leader.

SPAN-BLOCKS. Blocks seized into each bight of a strap, long enough to go
across a cap, and allow the blocks to hang clear on each side, as
main-lifts, top-mast studding-sail, halliards, blocks, &c.

SPAN IN THE RIGGING, TO. To draw the upper parts of the shrouds together
by tackles, in order to seize on the cat-harping legs. The rigging is
also "spanned in" when it has been found to stretch considerably on
first putting to sea, but cannot be set up until it moderates.

SPANISH-BURN. A specious method of hiding defects in timber, by chopping
it in pieces.

SPANISH-BURTON. The _single_ is rove with three single blocks, or two
single blocks and a hook in the bight of one of the running parts. The
_double_ Spanish-burton is furnished with one double and two single
blocks.

SPANISH DISTURBANCE. An epithet given to the sudden armament on the
Nootka Sound affair, in 1797, an epoch from which many of our seamen
dated their service in the late wars.

SPANISH MACKEREL. An old Cornish name for the tunny, or a scomber,
larger than the horse-mackerel.

SPANISH REEF. The yards lowered on the cap. Also, a knot tied in the
head of the jib.

SPANISH WINDLASS. A wooden roller, or heaver, having a rope wound about
it, through the bight of which an iron bolt is inserted as a lever for
heaving it round. This is a handy tool for turning in rigging, heaving
in seizings, &c.

SPANKER. A fore-and-aft sail, setting with a boom and gaff, frequently
called the _driver_ (which see). It is the aftermost sail of a ship or
bark.

SPANKER-EEL. A northern term for the lamprey.

SPANKING. Going along with a fresh breeze when the spanker tells, as the
aft well-boomed out-sail. The word is also used to denote strength,
spruceness, and size, as a _spanking breeze_, a _spanking frigate_, &c.

SPANNER. An instrument by which the wheel-lock guns and pistols were
wound up; also used to screw up the nuts of the plummer boxes. Also, an
important balance in forming the radius of parallel motion in a
steam-engine, since it reconciles the curved sweep which the side-levers
describe with the perpendicular movement of the piston-rod, by means of
which they are driven.

SPANNING A HARPOON. Fixing the line which connects the harpoon and its
staff. The harpoon iron is a socketed tool, tapering 3 feet to the
barb-head