the ship or cargo, is the object of insurance.

WAGES OR PAY OF THE ROYAL NAVY is settled by act of parliament. In the
merchant service seamen are paid by the month, and receive their wages
at the end of the voyage.

WAGES REMITTED FROM ABROAD. When a ship on a foreign station has been
commissioned twelve calendar months, every petty officer, seaman, and
marine serving on board, may remit the half of the pay due to them to a
wife, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, brother, or sister.

WAGGON. A place amidships, on the upper deck of guard-ships, assigned
for the supernumeraries' hammocks.

WAGGONER. A name applied to an atlas of charts, from a work of this
nature published at Leyden in 1583, by Jans Waghenaer.

WAIF. Goods found and not claimed; derelict. Also used for _waft_.

WAIST. That portion of the main deck of a ship of war, contained between
the fore and main hatchways, or between the half-deck and galley.

WAIST-ANCHOR. An additional or spare anchor stowed before the
chess-tree. (_See_ SPARE ANCHOR.)

WAIST-BOARDS. The berthing made to fit into a vessel's gangway on either
side.

WAIST-CLOTHS. The painted canvas coverings of the hammocks which are
stowed in the waist-nettings.

WAISTERS. Green hands, or worn seamen, in former times stationed in the
waist in working the ship, as they had little else of duty but hoisting
and swabbing the decks.

WAIST-NETTINGS. The hammock-nettings between the quarter-deck and
forecastle.

WAIST-RAIL. The channel-rail or moulding of the ship's side.

WAIST-TREE. Another name for _rough-tree_ (which see).

WAIVE, TO. To give up the right to demand a court-martial, or to enforce
forfeitures, by allowing people who have deserted, &c., to return to
their duties.

WAIVING. The action of dispensing with salutes--by signal, by motion of
the hand to guards, &c., and to vessels, which may be, in accordance
with old custom, passing under the lee to be hailed and examined.

WAIVING AMAIN. A salutation of defiance, as by brandishing weapons, &c.

WAKE. The transient, generally smooth, track impressed on the
surface-water by a ship's progress. Its bearing is usually observed by
the compass to discover the angle of lee-way. A ship is said to be in
the wake of another, when she follows her upon the same track. Two
distant objects observed at sea are termed in the wake of each other,
when the view of the farthest off is intercepted by the one that is
nearer. (_See_ CR