DRAWING WATER. The number of feet depth which a ship submerges. DRAWN BATTLE. A conflict in which both parties claim the victory, or retire upon equal terms. DRAW-NET. Erroneously used for _drag-net_. DRAWN FOR THE MILITIA. When men are selected by ballot for the defence of the country. DRAW THE GUNS. To extract the charge of wad, shot, and cartridge from the guns. DREDGE. An iron scraper-framed triangle, furnished with a bottom of hide and stout cord net above, used for taking oysters or specimens of shells from the bottom. DREDGER-BOAT. One that uses the net so called, for turbots, soles, sandlings, &c. DREDGING. Fishing by dragging the dredge. DREDGING MACHINE. A large lighter, or other flat-bottomed vessel, equipped with a steam-engine and machinery for removing the mud and silt from the bottom, by the revolution of iron buckets in an endless chain. DREDGY. The ghost of a drowned person. DREINT. The old word used for drowned, from the Anglo-Saxon. DRESS, TO. To place a fleet in organized order; also, to arrange men properly in ranks; to present a true continuous line in front.--_To dress a ship._ To ornament her with a variety of colours, as ensigns, flags, pendants, &c., of various nations, displayed from different parts of her masts, rigging, &c., on a day of festivity. DREW. A name in our northern isles for the _Fucus loreus_, a narrow thong-shaped sea-weed. DRIBBLE. Drizzling showers; light rain. DRIES. A term opposed to _rains_ on the west coast of Africa. DRIFT. The altered position of a vessel by current or falling to leeward when hove-to or lying-to in a gale, when but little head-way is made by the action of sails. In artillery, a priming-iron of modern introduction used to clear the vent of ordnance from burning particles after each discharge. Also, a term sometimes used for the constant deflection of a rifled projectile. (_See_ DEFLECTION.) DRIFTAGE. The amount due to lee-way. (_See_ DRIFT.) DRIFT-BOLTS. Commonly made of steel, are used as long punches for driving out other bolts. DRIFT-ICE. The debris of the main pack. (_See_ OPEN ICE.) DRIFTING-UP. Is used as relating to sands which are driven by the winds. As at Cape Blanco, on the coast of Africa, off the tail of the Desert of Zahara, where the houses and batteries have been thus obliterated. DRIFT-MUD. Consisting chiefly of an argillaceous earth, brought down by the rivers, floated about, and successively deposited in banks; forming the alluvial and fertile European settlements of Guiana. DRIFT-NET. A large net, with meshes of one inch, used in the pilchard fishery in August; also, for herrings and mackerel in March: used in drifting in the Chops of the Channel. Also, of strong gauze, for molluscs. DRIFT-PIECES. Solid pieces fitted at the drifts, forming the scrolls on the drifts: they are commonly mitred into the gunwale.