CLOSE-QUARTERS, OR CLOSE-FIGHTS. Certain strong bulk-heads or barriers of wood, formerly stretching across a merchant ship in several places; they were used for retreat and shelter when a ship was boarded by an adversary, and were therefore fitted with loop-holes. Powder-chests were also fixed upon the deck, containing missiles which might be fired from the close quarters upon the boarders. The old slave-ships were thus fitted in case of the negroes rising, and flat-headed nails were cast along the deck to prevent their walking with naked feet. In the navy, yard-arm and yard-arm, sides touching. CLOSE-REEFED. The last reefs of the top-sails, or other sails set, being taken in. CLOSE-SIGHT. The notch in the base-ring of a cannon, to place the eye in a line with the top-sight. CLOSE THE WIND, TO. To haul to it.--_Close upon a tack or bowline_, or _close by a wind_, is when the wind is on either bow, and the tacks or bowlines are hauled forwards that they may take the wind to make the best of their way.--_Close to the wind_, when her head is just so near the wind as to fill the sails without shaking them. CLOSE WITH THE LAND, TO. To approach near to it. CLOSH [from the Danish _klos_]. A sobriquet for east-country seamen. CLOTHED. A mast is said to be clothed when the sail is so long as to reach the deck-gratings. Also, well clothed with canvas; sails well cut, well set, and plenty of them. CLOTHES-LINES. A complete system of parallel lines, hoisted between the main and mizen masts twice a week to dry the washed clothes of the seamen. CLOTHING. The rigging of the bowsprit.--_Clothing the bowsprit_ is rigging it. Also, the purser's slops for the men. CLOTH IN THE WIND. Too near to the wind, and sails shivering. Also, groggy. CLOTHS. In a sail, are the breadths of canvas in its whole width. When a ship has broad sails they say she spreads much cloth. CLOTTING. A west-country method of catching eels with worsted thread. CLOUD. A collection of vapours suspended in the atmosphere. Also, under a cloud of canvas. CLOUGH. A word derived from the verb _to cleave_, and signifying a narrow valley between two hills. (_See_ CLEUGH.) Also, in commerce, an allowance on the turn of the beam in weighing. CLOUT. From the Teutonic _kotzen_, a blow. Also, a gore of blood. CLOUT-NAILS [Fr. _clouter_]. To stud with nails, as ships' bottoms and piles were before the introduction of sheet copper. CLOUTS. Thin plates of iron nailed on that part of the axle-tree of a gun-carriage that comes through the nave, and through which the linch-pin goes. CLOVE-HITCH. A knot or noose by which one rope is fastened to another. (_See_ HITCH.) Two half hitches round a spar or rope. CLOVE-HOOK. Synonymous with _clasp-hook_. CLOVES. Planks made by cleaving. Certain weights for wool, butter, &c. Also, long spike-nails [derived from _clou_, Fr.] CLOW. A kind of sluice in which the aperture is regulated by a board sliding in a frame and groove.