A kind of yacht of the twelfth century. According to Diez, "Dictionary of the Romance Languages," the word is old French, esneque or esneche, "a sharp prowed ship."

In rowing, an order given by the person steering a boat when being rowed alongside a vessel or causeway to direct the oarsmen to cease rowing with the stroke about to be completed, and lay in their oa [..]

To slacken up a rope, and then haul on it suddenly, in order that those who are hauling on it may acquire a momentum. Pulling by jerks.

To back a sail, is to haul the sheet to windward.

To luff up in the wind, and then fill off again. Often a vessel is worked up a narrow channel with a weather tide by backing and filling: that is, the helm is put down slowly, and the vessel kept movi [..]

To luff up in the wind, and then fill off again. Often a vessel is worked up a narrow channel with a weather tide by backing and filling: that is, the helm is put down slowly, and the vessel kept movi [..]

Timber fitted at the back of other timbers.

The stays that support the topmast with a beam or stern wind. The topmast shrouds or rigging. (See "Shifting Backstay" and "Preventer.")

The water thrown back when waves strike a wall or other solid object. The water that appears to follow under the stern of a ship. To back water is to move the oars of a boat so that the boat moves ast [..]

Sails are said to bag when they do not sit flat.