H

HAIL	To speak or call to another vessel, or to men in a different part of a ship.
HALYARDS	Ropes or tackles used for hoisting and lowering yards, gaffs, and sails.
HALF-HITCH	Kind of knot.
HAMMOCK	A piece of canvass, hung at each end, in which seamen sleep.
HAND	To hand a sail is to furl it. Bear-a-hand; make haste. Lend-a-hand; assist. Hand-over-hand; hauling rapidly on a rope, by putting one hand before the other alternately.
HAND-LEAD	A small lead, used for sounding in rivers and harbors.
HANDSOMELY	Slowly, carefully. Used for an order, as, "Lower handsomely!"
HANDSPIKE	A long wooden bar, used for heaving at the windlass.
HANDY BILLY	A watch-tackle.
HANKS	Rings or hoops of wood, rope, or iron, round a stay, and seized to the luff of a fore-and-aft sail.
HARPINGS	The fore part of the wales, which encompass the bows of a vessel, and are fastened to the stem.
HARPOON	A spear used for striking whales and other fish.
HATCH or HATCHWAY	An opening in the deck to afford a passage up and down. The coverings over these openings are also called hatches . Hatch-bar is an iron bar going across the hatches to keep them down.
HAUL	Haul her wind , said of a vessel when she comes up close upon the wind.
HAWSE	The situation of the cables before a vessel's stem, when moored. Also the distance upon the water a little in advance of the stem; as, a vessel sails athwart the hawse , or anchors in the hawse of another. Open hawse . When a vessel rides by two anchors, without any cross in her cables.
HAWSE-HOLE	The hole in the bows through which the cable runs.
HAWSE-PIECES	Timbers through which the hawse-holes are cut.
HAWSE-BLOCK	A block of wood fitted into a hawse-hole at sea.
HAWSER	A large rope used for various purposes, as warping, for a spring, &c.
HAWSER-LAID or CABLE-LAID	Rope laid with nine strands against the sun
HAZE	A term for punishing a man by keeping him unnecessarily at work upon disagreeable or difficult duty.
HEAD	The work at the prow of a vessel. If it is a carved figure, it is called a figure-head; if simple carved work, bending over and out, a billet-head; and if bending in, like the head of a violin, a fiddle-head . Also, the upper end of a mast, called a mast-head . (See BY-THE-HEAD. See FAST.)
HEAD-LEDGES	Thwartship pieces that frame the hatchways.
HEAD-SAILS	A general name given to all sails that set forward of the fore-mast.
HEART	A block of wood in the shape of a heart, for stays to reeve through.
HEART-YARNS	The centre yarns of a strand.
HEAVE SHORT	To heave in on the cable until the vessel is nearly over her anchor.
HEAVE-TO	To put a vessel in the position of lying-to. (See LIE-TO.)
HEAVE IN STAYS	To go about in tacking.
HEAVER	A short wooden bar, tapering at each end. Used as a purchase.
HEEL	The after part of the keel. Also, the lower end of a mast or boom. Also, the lower end of the stern-post. To heel , is to lie over on one side.
HEELING	The square part of the lower end of a mast, through which the fid-hole is made.
HELM	The machinery by which a vessel is steered, including the rudder, tiller, wheel, &c. Applied more particularly, perhaps, to the tiller.
HELM-PORT	The hole in the counter through which the rudder-head passes.
HELM-PORT-TRANSOM	A piece of timber placed across the lower counter, inside, at the height of the helm-port, and bolted through every timber, for the security of that port.
HIGH AND DRY	The situation of a vessel when she is aground, above water mark.
HITCH	A peculiar manner of fastening ropes.
HOG	A flat rough broom, used for scrubbing the bottom of a vessel.
HOGGED	The state of a vessel when, by any strain, she is made to droop at each end, bringing her centre up.
HOLD	The interior of a vessel, where the cargo is stowed.
HOLD WATER	To stop the progress of a boat by keeping the oar-blades in the water.
HOLY-STONE	A large stone, used for cleaning a ship's decks.
HOME	The sheets of a sail are said to be home , when the clews are hauled chock out to the sheave-holes. An anchor comes home when it is loosened from the ground and is hove in toward the vessel.
HOOD	A covering for a companion hatch, skylight, &c.
HOOD-ENDS or HOODING-ENDS or WHOODEN-ENDS	Those ends of the planks which fit into the rabbets of the stem or stern-post.
HOOK-AND-BUTT	The scarfing, or laying the ends of timbers over each other.
HORNS	The jaws of booms. Also, the ends of cross-trees.
HORSE	(See FOOT-ROPE.)
HOUNDS.	Those projections at the mast-head serving as shoulders for the top or trestle-trees to rest upon.
HOUSE	To house a mast, is to lower it almost half its length, and secure it by lashing its heel to the mast below.
HOUSING or HOUSE-LINE	A small cord made of three small yarns, and used for seizings. (Pronounced houze-lin .)
HULL	The body of a vessel. (See A-HULL.)