vessel is said to "roll deep but easy" when she moves
slowly, and not with quick jerks.

EATING THE WIND OUT OF A VESSEL. Applies to very keen seamanship, by
which the vessel, from a close study of her capabilities, steals to
windward of her opponent. This to be done effectually demands very
peculiar trim to carry weather helm to a nicety.

EAVER. A provincial term for the direction of the wind. A quarter of the
heavens.

EBB. The lineal descendant of the Anglo-Saxon _ep-flod_, meaning the
falling reflux of the tide, or its return back from the highest of the
flood, full sea, or high water. Also termed _sae-aebbung_, sea-ebbing, by
our progenitors.

EBB, LINE OF. The sea-line of beach left dry by the tide.

EBBER, OR EBBER-SHORE. From the Anglo-Saxon signifying shallow.

EBB-TIDE. The receding or running out of the sea, in contradistinction
to flood.

EBONY. A sobriquet for a negro.

ECHELON. [Fr.] Expressing the field-exercise of soldiers, when the
divisions are placed in a situation resembling the steps of a ladder,
whence the name.

ECHINUS. A word lugged in to signify the sweep of the tiller. (_See_
SEA-EGG.)

ECLIPSE. An obscuration of a heavenly body by the interposition of
another, or during its passage through the shadow of a larger body. An
_eclipse of the sun_ is caused by the dark body of the moon passing
between it and the earth. When the moon's diameter exceeds the sun's,
and their centres nearly coincide, a _total eclipse_ of the sun takes
place; but if the moon's diameter be less, then the eclipse is
_annular_.

ECLIPTIC. The great circle of the heavens which the sun appears to us to
describe in the course of a year, in consequence of the earth's motion
round that luminary. It is inclined to the equinoctial at an angle of
nearly 23 deg. 28', called the obliquity of the ecliptic, and cuts it in
two points diametrically opposite to each other, called the equinoctial
points. The time when the sun enters each of these points (which occurs
about the 20th of March and 23d of September, respectively) is termed
the equinox, day and night being then equal; at these periods,
especially about the time of the vernal equinox, storms, called the
equinoctial gales, are prevalent in many parts of the globe. The two
points of the ecliptic, which are each 90 deg. distant from the
equinoctial points, are called the solstitial points. That great circle
which passes through the equinoctial points and the poles