AVERAGE, in commerce _avarie_, (_averagium_, Lat.) the accidents and misfortunes which happen to ships and their cargoes, from the time of their loading and sailing, till their return and unlading. It is divided into three kinds. 1. The simple or particular _average_, which consists in the extraordinary expences incurred for the ship alone, or for the merchandise alone; such is the loss of anchors, masts, and rigging, occasioned by the common accidents at sea; the damages which happen to merchandises by storms, capture, shipwreck, wet, or rotting; all which must be borne and paid by the thing that suffered the damage. 2. The large and common average, being those expences incurred, and damages sustained, for the common good and security, both of the merchandise and vessels, consequently to be borne by the ship and cargo, and to be regulated upon the whole. Of this number are the goods or money given for the ransom of the ship and cargo; things thrown overboard for the safety of the ship; the expences of unlading, or entering into a river or harbour, and the provisions and hire of the sailors when the ship is put under embargo. 3. The small averages, which are expences for towing and piloting the ship out of, or into harbours, creeks, or rivers; one third of which must be charged to the ship, and two thirds to the cargo. AVERAGE is more particularly used for a certain contribution that merchants make proportionably towards their losses. It also signifies a small duty which the merchants, who send goods in another man’s ship, pay to the master, for his care of them, over and above the freight. Hence it is expressed in the bills of lading, paying so much freight for the said goods, with damage and average accustomed. AWEIGH, _a quitté_ (of _a_ and _weigh_) the state of the anchor when it is drawn out of the ground in a perpendicular direction, by the application of mechanical powers, as a capstern or windlass, to the cable within the ship; so that aweigh is synonimous to _atrip_. AWNING, _tendelet_, (from _aulne_, Fr.) a canopy of canvass extending over the decks of a ship in hot weather, for the convenience of the officers and crew, and to preserve the decks from being cracked or split, _ebaroui_, by the heat of the sun: The awning is supported by a range of light posts, called stanchions, which are erected along the ship’s side on the right and left; it is also suspended in the middle by a complication of small cords, called a crowfoot. See the article CROWFOOT. AZIMUTH-COMPASS, an instrument employed to discover the magnetical azimuth or amplitude of any heavenly object. This operation is performed at sea, to find the exact variation of the magnetical needle. The compass will be described in its proper place: it is, however, necessary here to explain the additional contrivance by which it is fitted to take the magnetical azimuth, or amplitude of the sun or stars, or the bearings of head-lands, ships, and other objects at a distance.