the
sheets and tacks to lie in when not required. Cant term for
pockets--"Hands out of beckets, sir."

BED. Flat thick pieces of wood, lodged under the quarters of casks
containing any liquid, and stowed in a ship's hold, in order to keep
them bilge-free; being steadied upon the beds by means of wedges called
quoins. The impression made by a ship's bottom on the mud on having been
left by an ebb-tide. The bite made in the ground by the fluke of an
anchor. A kind of false deck, or platform, placed on those decks where
the guns were too low for the ports.--_Bed of a gun-carriage_, or
_stool-bed_. The piece of wood between the cheeks or brackets which,
with the intervention of the quoin, supports the breech of the gun. It
is itself supported, forward, on the bed-bolt, and aft, generally with
the intervention of an elevating-screw, on the rear axle-tree.

BED OR BARREL SCREWS. A powerful machine for lifting large bodies, and
placed against the gripe of a ship to be launched for starting her.

BED-BOLT. A horizontal bolt passing through both brackets of a
gun-carriage near their centres, and on which the forward end of the
stool-bed rests.

BEDDING A CASK. Placing dunnage round it.

BEDLAMERS. Young Labrador seals, which set up a dismal cry when they
cannot escape their pursuers--and go madly after each other in the sea.

BED OF A MORTAR. The solid frame on which a mortar is mounted for
firing. For sea-service it is generally made of wood; for land-service,
of iron, except in the smaller natures. In mortar vessels as latterly
fitted, the bed traverses on a central pivot over a large table or
platform of wood, having under it massive india-rubber buffers, to
moderate the jar from the discharge.--_Bed of a river_, that part of the
channel of a stream over which the water generally flows, as also that
part of the basin of a sea or lake on which the water lies.

BED-OF-GUNS. A nautical phrase implying ordnance too heavy for a ship's
scantling, or a fort over-gunned.

BE-DUNDERED. Stupified with noise.

BEE. A ring or hoop of metal.--_Bees of the bowsprit._ (_See_
BEE-BLOCKS.)

BEE-BLOCKS. Pieces of hard wood bolted to the outer end of the bowsprit,
to reeve the fore-topmast stays through, the bolt, serving as a pin,
commonly called bees.

BEEF. A figurative term for strength.--_More beef!_ more men on.

BEEF-KID. A mess utensil for carrying meat from the coppers.

BEETLE. A shipwright's heavy mallet for driving t