t vessels of the ancients, especially contrived for
swiftness; propelled both by sails and oars; of the latter never less
than twenty.

ACUMBA. Oakum. The Anglo-Saxon term for the _hards_, or the coarse part,
of flax or unplucked wool.

ACUTE. Terminating in a point, and opposed to _obtuse_. An _acute_ angle
is less than a right one, or within 90 deg.

ACUTE-ANGLED TRIANGLE. That which has all its angles acute.

ADAMANT. The loadstone; the magnet--the sense in which it was held by
early voyagers; but others considered it a "precyowse stone," or gem.

ADAMAS. The moon in nautic horoscopes.

ADAPTER. A brass tube to fit the eye-end of a telescope, into which all
the eye-pieces will screw.

ADARRIS. A word which Howell explains as the flower of sea-water.

ADDEL, OR ADDLE. An old term for the putrid water in casks.

ADDICE, an adze. Also the addled eggs of gulls and other sea-fowl.

ADDLINGS. Accumulated pay or wages.

ADELANTADO. A lieutenant of the king of Spain, but used by old English
writers for "admiral."

ADHESION. Consent to a proposal. Union or temporary cohesion; as, two
vessels forced into _adhesion_ by the pressure of the tide on their
beam.

ADIT. A space in ancient ships, in the upper and broadest part, at which
people entered. The _adit_ of a military mine, is the aperture by which
it is dug and charged: the name is also applied to an air-hole or drift.

ADJACENT. Lying close to another object; a word applied to the relative
situations of capes or bays from the ship.--_Adjacent angle_ is one
immediately contiguous to another, so that they have one common side.

ADJOURN, TO. To put off till another day. _Adjournments_ can be made in
courts-martial from day to day, Sundays excepted, until sentence is
passed.

ADJUDICATION. The act of adjudging prizes by legal decree. Captors are
compelled to submit the adjudication of their captures to a competent
tribunal.

ADJUST, TO. To arrange an instrument for use and observation; as, to
adjust a sextant, or the escapement of a chronometer. To set the frame
of a ship.

ADJUSTMENT. In marine insurance, the ascertaining and finally settling
the amount of indemnity--whether of average or of salvage--which the
insured (after all proper deductions have been made) is entitled to
receive under the policy, when the ship is lost.

ADJUSTMENT OF THE COMPASS. Swinging a ship to every point of bearing, to
note the variation or error of the needle upon each rhu