, from Bilbao, where
the best Spanish sword-blades were made. Shakspeare humorously describes
Falstaff in the buck-basket, like a good bilbo, coiled hilt to point.

BILBOES. Long bars or bolts, on which iron shackles slid, with a padlock
at the end; used to confine the legs of prisoners in a manner similar to
the punishment of the stocks. The offender was condemned to irons, more
or less ponderous according to the nature of the offence of which he was
guilty. Several of them are yet to be seen in the Tower of London, taken
in the Spanish Armada. Shakspeare mentions Hamlet thinking of a kind of
fighting,

"That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay
Worse than the mutines in the bilboes."

BILCOCK. The northern name for the water-rail.

BILGE, OR BULGE. That part of the floor in a ship--on either side of the
keel--which approaches nearer to a horizontal than to a perpendicular
direction, and begins to round upwards. It is where the floors and
second futtocks unite, and upon which the ship would rest if laid on
the ground; hence, when a ship receives a fracture in this part, she is
said to be bilged or bulged.--_Bilge_ is also the largest circumference
of a cask, or that which extends round by the bung-hole.

BILGE-BLOCKS. _See_ SLIDING BILGE-BLOCKS.

BILGE-COADS. In launching a ship, same with sliding-planks.

BILGE-FEVER. The illness occasioned by a foul hold.

BILGE-FREE. A cask so stowed as to rest entirely on its beds, keeping
the lower part of the bilge at least the thickness of the hand clear of
the bottom of the ship, or other place on which it is stowed.

BILGE-KEELS. Used for vessels of very light draught and flattish
bottoms, to make them hold a better wind, also to support them upright
when grounded. The _Warrior_ and other iron-clads are fitted with
bilge-keels.

BILGE-KEELSONS. These are fitted inside of the bilge, to afford strength
where iron, ores, and other heavy cargo are shipped. Otherwise they are
the same as sister-keelsons.

BILGE-PIECES. Synonymous with _bilge-keels_.

BILGE-PLANKS. Certain thick strengthenings on the inner and outer lines
of the bilge, to secure the _shiftings_ as well as bilge-keels.

BILGE-PUMP. A small pump used for carrying off the water which may lodge
about the lee-bilge, so as not to be under the action of the main pumps.
In a steamer it is worked by a single link off one of the levers.

BILGE-TREES. Another name for bilge-coads.

BILGE-WATER. Th