BRICKLAYER'S CLERK. A contemptuous expression for lubberly pretenders to having seen "better days," but who were forced to betake themselves to sea-life. BRIDGE. A narrow gangway between two hatchways, sometimes termed a bridge. Military bridges to afford a passage across a river for troops, are constructed with boats, pontoons, casks, trusses, trestles, &c. Bridge in steam-vessels is the connection between the paddle-boxes, from which the officer in charge directs the motion of the vessel. Also, the middle part of the fire-bars in a marine boiler, on either side of which the fires are banked. Also, a narrow ridge of rock, sand, or shingle, across the bottom of a channel, so as to occasion a shoal over which the tide ripples. That between Mount Edgecombe and St. Nicholas' Isle, at Plymouth, has occasioned much loss of life. BRIDGE-ISLET. A portion of land which becomes insular at high-water--as Old Woman's Isle at Bombay, and among others, the celebrated Lindisfarne, thus _tidally_ sung by Scott:-- "The tide did now his flood-mark gain, And girdled in the saint's domain: For, with the flow and ebb, its style Varies from continent to isle; Dry-shod, o'er sands, twice ev'ry day The pilgrims to the shrine find way; Twice every day the waves efface Of staves and sandall'd feet the trace." BRIDGE-TRAIN. An equipment for insuring the passage of troops over a river. Pontooners. (_See_ PONTOON.) BRIDLE. _See_ MOORING-BRIDLE and BOWLINE-BRIDLE. BRIDLE-PORT. A square port in the bows of a ship, for taking in mooring bridles. They are also used for guns removed from the port abaft, and required to fire as near a line ahead as possible. They are main-deck chase-ports. BRIDLES. The upper part of the moorings laid in the queen's harbours, to ride ships or vessels of war. (_See_ MOORINGS.) BRIG. A two-masted square-rigged vessel, without a square main-sail, or a trysail-mast abaft the main-mast. This properly constituted the snow, but both classes are latterly blended, and the terms therefore synonymous. BRIGADE. A party or body of men detached for a special service. A division of troops under the command of a general officer. In artillery organization on land, a brigade is a force usually composed of more than a battery; in the field it commonly consists of two or three batteries; on paper, and for administrative purposes, of eight. BRIGADE-MAJOR. A staff officer attached to a brigade, and is the channel through which all orders are received from the general and communicated to the troops. BRIGADE-ORDERS. Those issued by the general officer commanding troops which are brigaded. BRIGADIER. An officer commanding a brigade, and somewhat the same as commodore for a squadron of ships. BRIGANDINE. A pliant scale-like coat of mail.