e seamen as distinguished from the marines.

BLUE LIGHT. A pyrotechnical preparation for signals by night. Also
called Bengal light.

BLUE-LIGHTISM. Affected sanctimoniousness.

BLUE MOON. An indefinite period.

BLUE-NOSE. A general term for a native of Nova Scotia.

BLUE PETER. The signal for sailing when hoisted at the fore-topmast
head; this well-known flag has a blue ground with a white square in the
centre.

BLUE PIGEON. A nickname for the sounding lead.

BLUE WATER. The open ocean.

BLUFF. An abrupt high land, projecting almost perpendicularly into the
sea, and presenting a bold front, rather rounded than cliffy in outline,
as with the headland.

BLUFF-BOWED. Applied to a vessel that has broad and flat bows--that is,
full and square-formed: the opposite of lean.

BLUFF-HEADED. When a ship has but a small rake forward on, being built
with her stem too straight up.

BLUNDERBUSS. A short fire-arm, with a large bore and wide mouth, to
scatter a number of musket or pistol bullets or slugs.

BLUNK. A sudden squall, or stormy weather.

BLUSTROUS. Stormy: also said of a braggadocio.

BO. Abbreviation of _boy_. A familiar epithet for a comrade, derived
probably from the negro.

BOADNASH. Buckhemshein coins of Barbary.

BOANGA. A Malay piratical vessel, impelled by oars.

BOARD. Certain offices under the control of the executive government,
where the business of any particular department is carried on: as the
Board of Admiralty, the Navy Board, Board of Ordnance, India Board,
Board of Trade, &c. Also, timber sawn to a less thickness than plank:
all broad stuff of under 1-1/2 inch in thickness. (_See_ PLANK.) Also,
the space comprehended between any two places when the ship changes her
course by tacking; or, it is the line over which she runs between tack
and tack when working to windward, or sailing against the direction of
the wind.--_To make a good board._ To sail in a straight line when
close-hauled, without deviating to leeward.--_To make short boards_, is
to tack frequently before the ship has run any great length of way.--_To
make a stern board_, is when by a current, or any other accident, the
vessel comes head to wind, the helm is shifted, and she has fallen back
on the opposite tack, losing what she had gained, instead of having
advanced beyond it. To make a stern board is frequently a very critical
as well as seamanlike operation, as in very close channels. The vessel
is allowed to run up int