BYSSUS. The silken filaments of any of the bivalved molluscs which adhere to rocks, as the _Pinna_, _Mytilus_, &c. The silken byssus of the great pinna, or wing-shell, is woven into dresses. In the _Chama gigas_ it will sustain 1000 lbs. Also, the woolly substance found in damp parts of a ship. BY THE BOARD. Over the ship's side. When a mast is carried away near the deck it is said to go by the board. BY THE HEAD. When a ship is deeper forward than abaft. BY THE LEE. The situation of a vessel going free, when she has fallen off so much as to bring the wind round her stern, and to take her sails aback on the other side. BY THE STERN. When the ship draws more water abaft than forward. (_See_ BY THE HEAD.) BY THE WIND. Is when a ship sails as nearly to the direction of the wind as possible. (_See_ FULL AND BY.) In general terms, within six points; or the axis of the ship is 67-1/2 degrees from the direction of the wind. BY-WASH. The outlet of water from a dam or discharge channel. C. CAAG. _See_ KAAG. CABANE. A flat-bottomed passage-boat of the Loire. CABBAGE. Those principally useful to the seaman are the esculent cabbage-tree (_Areca oleracea_), which attains to a great height in the W. Indies. The sheaths of the leaves are very close, and form the green top of the trunk a foot and a half in length; this is cut off, and its white heart eaten. Also, the _Crambe maritima_, sea-kail, or marine cabbage, growing in the west of England. CABIN. A room or compartment partitioned off in a ship, where the officers and passengers reside. In a man-of-war, the principal cabin, in which the captain or admiral lives, is the upper after-part of the vessel. CABIN-BOY. A boy whose duty is to attend and serve the officers and passengers in the cabin. CABIN-LECTURE. _See_ JOBATION. CABIN-MATE. A companion, when two occupy a cabin furnished with two bed-places. CABLE. A thick, strong rope or chain which serves to keep a ship at anchor; the rope is cable-laid, 10 inches in circumference and upwards (those below this size being hawsers), commonly of hemp or coir, which latter is still used by the Calcutta pilot-brigs on account of its lightness and elasticity. But cables have recently, and all but exclusively, been superseded by iron chain.--_A shot of cable_, two cables spliced together. CABLE, TO COIL A. To lay it in fakes and tiers one over the other.--_To lay a cable._ (_See_ LAYING.)--_To pay cheap the cable_, to hand it out apace; to throw it over.--_To pay out more cable_, to let more out of the ship.--_To serve or plait the cable_, to bind it about with ropes, canvas, &c.; to keep it from galling in the hawse-pipe. (_See_ ROUNDING, KECKLING, &c.)--_To splice a cable_, to make two pieces fast together, by working the several yarns of the rope into each other; with chain it is done by means of shackles.--_To veer more cable_, to let more out.