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184 THOMPSON'S COAST PILOT. To bowse ; to pull upon any body with a tackle, in order to remove it. Bowsprit ; a large mast or piece of timber which stands out from the bows of a ship. Boxhauling ; a particular method of veering a ship, when the swell of the sea renders tacking impracticable. Boxing ; an operation somewhat similar to boxhauling. It is performed by laying the head sails aback, to receive the greatest force of the wind in a line perpendicular to their surfaces, in order to turn the ship's head into the line of her course, after she has inclined to the windward of it. Braces ; the ropes by which the yards are turned about, to form the _ sails to the wind. To brace the yards ; to move the yards, by means of the braces, to any direction required.-- To brace about ; to brace the yards round for the con- trary tack,--Zo brace sharp; to brace the yards to a position in which they will make the smallest possible angle with the keel, for the ship to have head-way.-- Zo brace to ; to ease off the lee braces, and round in the weather braces, to assist the motion of the ship's head in tacking. rails ; a name peculiar only to certain ropes belonging to the mizzen, used to truss it up to the mast; but it is likewise applied to all the ropes which are employed in hauling up the bottoms, lower corners, and skirts of the other great sails--TZo bdrail up; to haul up a sail by means of the brails, for the more ready furling it when necessary. To break bulk ; to begin to unload a ship. Lo break sheer. When a ship at anchor is forced, by the wind or cur- rent, from that position in which she keeps her anchor most free of herself, and most firm in the ground, so as to endanger the tripping of her anchor, she is said to break her sheer. Sreaming ; burning off the filth from a ship's bottom. reast-fast ; a rope employed to confine a ship sideways to a wharf, or to some other ship. | 7 ; To bring by the lee---See To broach to. es To bring to; to check the course of a ship when she is advancing, by - arranging the sails in such a manner that they shall counteract each other, and prevent her from either retreating or advancing.--See Zo Wie to. To broach to; to incline suddenly to windward of the ship's course, so as to present her side to the wind, and endanger her oversetting. The dif- ference between breaching to and bringing by the lee may be thus defined: Suppose a ship, under great sail is steering south, having the wind at N,N. W.; then west isthe weather-side, and east the lee-side. If, by any acci- dent, her head turns round to the westward, so-that her sails are all taken aback on the weather-side, she is said to broach to. If, on the contrary, her head declines so far eastward as to lay her sails aback on that side which was the lee-side, it is called bringing by the lee, Broadside; a discharge of all the guns on one side of a ship, both above and below. Broken-backed; the state of a ship which is so loosened in her frame as to drop at each end.