ROSSJACK-YARD [pronounced _crojeck-yard_]. The lower yard on the
mizen-mast, to the arms of which the clues of the mizen top-sail are
extended. The term is applied to any fore-and-aft vessels setting a
square-sail, flying, below the lower cross-trees. It is now very common
in merchant ships to set a sail called a cross-jack upon this yard.

CROSS-PAWLS. _See_ CROSS-SPALES.

CROSS-PIECE. The transverse timber of the bitts. Also, a rail of timber
extending over the windlass of some merchant-ships from the knight-heads
to the belfry. It is furnished with wooden pins to fasten the
running-rigging to, as occasion requires.--_Cross-pieces._ Short pieces
laid across the keel of a line-of-battle ship, and scarphed to the lower
ends of the first futtocks, as strengtheners.

CROSS-SEA. A sea not caused by the wind then blowing. During a heavy
gale which changes quickly (a cyclone, for instance), each change of
wind produces a direction of the sea, which lasts for some hours after
the wind which caused it has changed, so that in a part of the sea which
has experienced all the changes of one of these gales, the sea runs up
in pyramids, sending the tops of the waves perpendicularly into the air,
which are then spread by the prevailing wind; the effect is awfully
grand and dangerous, for it generally renders a ship ungovernable until
it abates.

CROSS-SOMER. A beam of timber.

CROSS-SPALES OR SPALLS. Temporary beams nailed across a vessel to keep
the sides together, and support the ship in frame, until the deck-knees
are fastened.

CROSS-STAFF. _See_ FORE-STAFF.

CROSS-SWELL. This is similar to a cross-sea, except that it undulates
without breaking violently.

CROSS-TAIL. In a steam-engine, is of the same form as the cylinder
cross-head: it has iron straps catching the pins in the ends of the
side-levers.

CROSS-TIDE. The varying directions of the flow amongst shoals that are
under water. (_See_ CURRENT.)

CROSS-TIMBERS. _See_ CROSS-PIECE.

CROSS-TREES. Certain timbers supported by the cheeks and trestle-trees
at the upper ends of the lower and top masts, athwart which they are
laid to sustain the frame of the tops on the one, and to extend the
top-gallant shrouds on the other.

CROTCHED-YARD. The old orthography for _crossjack-yard_ (which see).

CROTCHES. _See_ CRUTCH.

CROW, OR CROW-BAR. An iron lever furnished with a sharp point at one
end, and two claws on a slight bevel bend at the other, to prize or
remove w