est" may engage the attention of the naval officer, not merely
for the information it conveys, but for the doubts it may raise in
matters deserving further research. Independently of the variety of
subjects treated, the author's characteristic manner of handling them
will make it to his former brother officers a reminiscence of one of the
true tars of the old school--the rising generation will find here old
terms (often misunderstood by younger writers) interpreted by one who
was never content with a definition until he had confirmed it
satisfactorily by the aid of the most accomplished of his cotemporaries;
the landsman will discover the meaning or derivation of words either
obsolete or which are not elsewhere to be traced, though occurring in
general literature. To all it is the legacy of an officer highly
appreciated by men of science, who on shore as well as afloat fought his
way to eminence in every department, and always deemed it his pride that
no aim was dearer to him than the advancement of his noble profession.

LONDON, _May, 1867_.

[Illustration: CAPT^N W. H. SMYTH, R.N., K.S.F., F.R.S., F.S.A.,
F.R.A.S., 1842]

INTRODUCTION.

What's in a word? is a question which it is held clever to quote and
wise to think unanswerable: and yet there is a very good answer, and it
is--a meaning, if you know it. But there is another question, and it is,
What's a word in? There is never a poor fellow in this world but must
ask it now and then with a blank face, when aground for want of a
meaning. And the answer is--a dictionary, if you have it. Unfortunately,
there may be a dictionary, and one may have it, and yet the word may not
be there. It may be an old dictionary, and the word a new one; or a new
dictionary, and the word an old one; a grave dictionary, and the word a
slang one; a slang dictionary, and the word a grave one; and so on
through a double line of battle of antitheses. Such is assuredly matter
for serious cogitation: and voluntarily to encounter those anomalous
perplexities requires no small amount of endurance, for the task is
equally crabbed and onerous, without a ray of hope to the pioneer beyond
that of making himself humbly useful. This brings me to my story.

Many years ago, I harboured thoughts of compiling a kind of detailed
nautical _vade mecum_; but a lot of other irons already in the fire
marred the project. Still the scheme was backing and filling, when the
late Major Shadwell Cle