rbour. Now applied to the ship's apprentices.

GROMMET, OR GRUMMET. A ring formed of a single strand of rope, laid in
three times round; used to fasten the upper edge of a sail to its stay
in different places, and by means of which the sail is hoisted or
lowered. Iron or wooden hanks have now been substituted. (_See_ HANKS.)
Grommets are also used with pins for large boats' oars, instead of
rowlocks, and for many other purposes.

GROMMET-WAD. A ring made of 1-1/2 or 2 inch rope, having attached to it
two cross-pieces or diameters of the same material; it acts by the ends
of these pieces biting on the interior of the bore of the gun.

GROOVE-ROLLERS. These are fixed in a groove of the tiller-sweep in large
ships, to aid the tiller-ropes, and prevent friction.

GROPERS. The ships stationed in the Channel and North Sea.

GROPING. An old mode of catching trout by tickling them with the hands
under rocks or banks. Shakspeare makes the clown in "Measure for
Measure" say that Claudio's offence was--

"Groping for trouts in a peculiar river."

GROSETTA. A minute coin of Ragusa, somewhat less than a farthing.

GROUND, TO. To take the bottom or shore; to be run aground through
ignorance, violence, or accident.--_To strike ground._ To obtain
soundings.

GROUNDAGE. A local duty charged on vessels coming to anchor in a port or
standing in a roadstead, as _anchorage_.

GROUND-BAIT, OR GROUNDLING. A loach or loche.

GROUND-GRU. _See_ ANCHOR-ICE.

GROUND-GUDGEON. A little fish, the _Cobitis barbatula_.

GROUND-ICE. _See_ ANCHOR-ICE.

GROUNDING. The act of laying a ship on shore, in order to bream or
repair her; it is also applied to runnings aground accidentally when
under sail.

GROUND-PLOT. _See_ ICHNOGRAPHY.

GROUND-SEA. The West Indian name for the swell called _rollers_, or in
Jamaica the _north sea_. It occurs in a calm, and with no other
indication of a previous gale; the sea rises in huge billows, dashes
against the shore with roarings resembling thunder, probably due to the
"northers," which suddenly rage off the capes of Virginia, round to the
Gulf of Mexico, and drive off the sea from America, affecting the Bahama
Banks, but not reaching to Jamaica or Cuba. The rollers set in
terrifically in the Gulf of California, causing vessels to founder or
strike in 7 fathoms, and devastating the coast-line. H.M.S. _Lily_
foundered off Tristan d'Acunha in similar weather. In all the latter
cases no satisfactory c