e two articles.

FORFEITURE. The effect or penalty of transgressing the laws.

FORGE. A portable forge is to be found in every ship which bears a rated
armourer; and it can be used either on board or ashore.

FORGE AHEAD, TO. To shoot ahead, as in coming to an anchor--a motion or
moving forwards. A vessel forges ahead when hove-to, if the tide presses
her to windward against her canvas.

FORGING OVER. The act of forcing a ship violently over a shoal, by the
effort of a great quantity of sail, steam, or other man[oe]uvre.

FORK-BEAMS. Short or half beams to support the deck where there is no
framing, as in the intervention of hatchways. The _abeam arm fork_ is a
curved timber scarphed, tabled, and bolted for additional security where
the openings are large.

FORKERS. Those who reside in sea-ports for the sake of stealing dockyard
stores, or buying them, knowing them to be stolen.

FORLORN HOPE. Officers and men detached on desperate service to make a
first attack, or to be the first in mounting a breach, or foremost in
storming a fortress, or first to receive the whole fire of the enemy.
Forlorn-hopes was a term formerly applied to the videttes of the army.
This ominous name (the _enfants perdus_ of the French) is familiarized
into a better one among soldiers, who call it the _flowing-hope_.
Promotion is usually bestowed on the survivors.

FORMATION. The drawing up or arrangement of troops, or small-arm men, in
certain orders prescribed as the basis of man[oe]uvres in general. Also,
the particulars of a ship's build.

FORMER. The gunner's term for a small cylindrical piece of wood, on
which musket or pistol cartridge-cases are rolled and formed. The name
is also applied to the flat piece of wood with a hole in the centre used
for making wads, but which is properly _form_.

FORMICAS. Clusters of small rocks [from the Italian for ants]. Also,
Hormigas [Sp.]

FORMING THE LINE. _See_ LINE.

FORMING THE ORDER OF SAILING. _See_ SAILING, ORDER OF.

FORMS. The moulds for making wads by. (_See_ FORMER.)

FORT. In fortification, an inclosed work of which every part is flanked
by some other part; though the term is loosely applied to all places of
strength surrounded by a rampart.

FORTALEZZA [Sp.] A fort on the coast of Brazil.

FORTALICE. A small fortress or fortlet; a bulwark or castle.

FORTH. An inlet of the sea.

FORTIFICATION. The art by which a place is so fortified that a given
number of men occupying