Page:Salt-water poems and ballads by Masefield, John, 1878-1967 Published 1916.djvu/241

 GLOSSARY 163 Port Mahon Baboon, or Port Mahon Soger. — I have been unable to discover either the origin of these insulting epithets or the reasons for the peculiar bitterness with which they sting the marine recipient. They are older than Dana {circe 1840). An old merchant sailor, now dead, once told me that Port Mahon was that godless city from which the Ark set sail, in which case the name may have some traditional connection with that evil ' Mahoun ' or ' Mahu,' prince of darkness, mentioned by Shakespeare and some of our older poets. The real Port Mahon, a fine harbour in Minorca, was taken by the French, from Admiral Byng, in the year 1756. I think that the phrases originated at the time of Byng's con- sequent trial and execution. Purchase. — See * Tackle.' Quidding. — Tobacco-chewing. Sails. — The sail-maker. Santa Cruz. — A brand of rum. Scantling. — Planks. Soger. — A laggard, malingerer, or hang-back. To loaf or skulk or work Tom Cox's Traverse. Spunyarn. — A three-strand line spun out of old rope-yarn knotted together. Most sailing-ships carry a spunyarn winch, and the spinning of such yarn is a favourite occupation in fine weather. Stirrup. — A short rope supporting the foot-rope on which the sailors stand when aloft on the yards. Tack. — Tostay or 'bout ship. A reach to windward. The weather lower corner of a course. Tackle. — Pronounced taykle. A combination of pulleys for obtain- ing of artificial power. Taffrail. — The rail or bulwark round the sternmost end of a ship's poop or after-deck. Trick. — The ordinary two-hour spell at the wheel or on the look-out. Windward or Weather. — That quarter from which the wind blows. Printed in the United States of America.