Fateful Voyage
Glossary & Nautical Dictionary
V
- vane
- F: a thin strip of bunting hung to the
masthead, or some other conspicuous place in the ship,
to show the direction of the wind. It is commonly sewed upon a wooden frame called the stock, which contains
two holes whereby to slip over the
spindle, upon which it turns about as the wind changes.
- vang
- W: A line extended down from the end of a
yard or a
gaff, used to regulate its position
- variation
- W: The angular difference at the vessel between the direction of true north and magnetic north.
Also called magnetic declination.
- F: the angle contained between the true
meridian and the magnetic meridian;
After the discovery of that most useful property of the magnet, or loadstone, namely, the giving hardened
iron and steel a polarity, the
compass was for many years used without knowing that its direction in any ways
deviated from the poles of the world; and about the middle of the 16th century, so certain were some of its
inflexibly pointing to the north, that they treated with contempt the notion of the variation, which about
that time began to be suspected. Mr. Robertson, librarian of the Royal Society, favoured the author with an
inspection of several curious remarks concerning the history of modern
navigation; in which it appears, that
the most early discoveries with regard to the magnetical variation were made about the year 1570. Mr. Robert
Norman, from a variety of observations made by him nearly at that time, ascertains it to have been 11°
15′ easterly, or one point of the compass. However, careful observations soon discovered, that in England,
and its neighbourhood, the needle pointed to the eastward of the true north; but the quantity of this deviation
being known, mariners became as well satisfied as if the compass had none; because they imagined that the true
course could be obtained by making allowance for the true variation. From successive observations made
afterwards, it was found, that the deviation of the needle from the north was not a constant quantity; but that
it gradually diminished, and at last, and about the year 1660, it was found at London that the needle pointed
due north, and has ever since been getting to the westward, and now the variation is more than 20 degrees to
the westward of the north; so that in any one place it may be suspected the variation has a kind of libratory
motion, traversing through the north to unknown limits eastward and westward. But the settling of this point
must be left to time. "During the time of the said observations it was also discovered, that the variation of
the needle was different in different parts of the world, it being west in some places when it was east in
others; and in places where the variation was of the same name, yet the quantity of it greatly differed. It
was therefore found necessary, that mariners should every day, or as often as they had opportunity, make,
during their voyage, proper observations for an amplitude or
azimuth; whereby they might be enabled to find
the variation of the compass in their present place, and thence correct their courses."
- vee
- ambarella, golden apple, or otaheite apple grows on tropical tree native to polynesia, related to mango
- veer
- (of the wind) shift aft; to change direction into the wind, to wear ship; to let out, veer away the cable
- F: the operation by which a ship, in changing her course from one
board to the other, turns her
stern to windward. Hence it is used in opposition to
tacking, wherein the
head is turned to the wind, and the stern
to leeward.
- veer and haul
- TFD: 1. to vary the course or direction; - said of the wind, which veers aft and hauls forward. The
wind is also said to veer when it shifts with the sun. 2. to pull tight and slacken alternately.
- F: 1. The wind is said to veer and haul when it alters its direction, and becomes more or less fair.
Thus it is said to veer aft and to haul forward. 2. to pull a rope tight, by drawing it in and slackening it
alternately, till the body to which it is applied acsuires an additional motion, like the increased vibrations
of a pendulum, so that the rope is straitened to a greater tension with more facility and dispatch. This method
is particularly used in hauling the bowlines.
- veer away
- TFD: to let out; to slacken and let run; to pay out; as, to veer away the cable; to veer out a rope.
- vial
- a vial or phial is a glass vessel or bottle, especially a small bottle used to store medicines
- voyal
- A large rope, used to unmoor, or heave up the
anchor, by communicating the effect of the
capstan to the
cable.
- W13: The
block through which a
messenger passes.
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