keep the cable
tight, _faire teste_; to be out of trim, _etre en pantenne_; to keep the
sails full, _porter plain_. These expressions have fallen out of use.
To-day we say _louvoyer_ for to beat to windward, they said _leauvoyer_;
for _naviguer_, sail, they said _naviger_; for _virer vent devant_, to
tack, _donner vent devant_; for _aller de l'avant_, to make headway,
_tailler de l'avant_; for _tirez d'accord_, haul together, _halez
d'accord_; for _derapez_, to weigh anchor, _deplantez_; for _embraquez_,
to haul tight, _abraquez_; for _taquets_, cleats, _bittons_; for
_burins_, toggles, _tappes_; for _balancine_, fore-lift, main-lift,
etc., _valancine_; for _tribord_, starboard, _stribord_; for _les hommes
de quart a babord_, men of the larboard watch, _les basbourdis_.
Tourville wrote to Hocquincourt: _nous avons singlet_ (sailed), for
_cingle_. Instead of _la rafale_, squall, _le raffal_; instead of
_bossoir_, cat-head, _boussoir_; instead of _drosse_, truss, _drousse_;
instead of _loffer_, to luff, _faire une olofee_; instead of _elonger_,
to lay alongside, _alonger_; instead of _forte brise_, stiff breeze,
_survent_; instead of _jouail_, stock of an anchor, _jas_; instead of
_soute_, store-room, _fosse_.

Such, at the beginning of this century, was the maritime dialect of the
Channel Islands. Ango would have been startled had he heard the speech
of a Jersey pilot. Whilst everywhere else the sails _faseyaient_
(shivered), in these islands they _barbeyaient_. A _saute de vent_,
sudden shift of wind, was a _folle-vente_. The old methods of mooring
known as _la valture_ and _la portugaise_ were alone used, and such
commands as _jour-et-chaque!_ and _bosse et vilte!_ might still be
heard. While a sailor of Granville was already employing the word _clan_
for sheave-hold, one of St. Aubin or of St. Sampson still stuck to his
_canal de pouliot_. What was called _bout d'alonge_ (upper fultock) at
St. Malo, was _oreille d'ane_ at St. Helier. Mess Lethierry, as did the
Duke de Vibonne, called the sheer of the decks _la tonture_, and the
caulker's chisel _la patarasse_.

It was with this uncouth sea dialect in his mouth that Duquesne beat De
Ruyter, that Duguay Trouin defeated Wasnaer, and that Tourville, in
1681, poured a broadside into the first galley which bombarded Algiers.
It is now a dead language. The idiom of the sea is altogether different.
Duperre would not be able to understand Suffren.

The language of French na