BILANCELLA. A destructive mode of fishing in the Mediterranean, by means of two vessels towing a large net stretched between them. BILANCIIS DEFERENDIS. A writ directed to a corporation, for the carrying of weights to such a haven, there to weigh the wool that persons, by our ancient laws, were licensed to transport. BILANDER. A small merchant vessel with two masts, particularly distinguished from other vessels with two masts by the form of her main-sail, which is bent to the whole length of her yard, hanging fore and aft, and inclined to the horizon at an angle of about 45°. Few vessels are now rigged in this manner, and the name is rather indiscriminately used. BILBO. An old term for a flexible kind of cutlass, from Bilbao, where the best Spanish sword-blades were made. Shakspeare humorously describes Falstaff in the buck-basket, like a good bilbo, coiled hilt to point. BILBOES. Long bars or bolts, on which iron shackles slid, with a padlock at the end; used to confine the legs of prisoners in a manner similar to the punishment of the stocks. The offender was condemned to irons, more or less ponderous according to the nature of the offence of which he was guilty. Several of them are yet to be seen in the Tower of London, taken in the Spanish Armada. Shakspeare mentions Hamlet thinking of a kind of fighting, "That would not let me sleep: methought, I lay Worse than the mutines in the bilboes." BILCOCK. The northern name for the water-rail. BILGE, OR BULGE. That part of the floor in a ship--on either side of the keel--which approaches nearer to a horizontal than to a perpendicular direction, and begins to round upwards. It is where the floors and second futtocks unite, and upon which the ship would rest if laid on the ground; hence, when a ship receives a fracture in this part, she is said to be bilged or bulged.--_Bilge_ is also the largest circumference of a cask, or that which extends round by the bung-hole. BILGE-BLOCKS. _See_ SLIDING BILGE-BLOCKS. BILGE-COADS. In launching a ship, same with sliding-planks. BILGE-FEVER. The illness occasioned by a foul hold. BILGE-FREE. A cask so stowed as to rest entirely on its beds, keeping the lower part of the bilge at least the thickness of the hand clear of the bottom of the ship, or other place on which it is stowed. BILGE-KEELS. Used for vessels of very light draught and flattish bottoms, to make them hold a better wind, also to support them upright when grounded. The _Warrior_ and other iron-clads are fitted with bilge-keels. BILGE-KEELSONS. These are fitted inside of the bilge, to afford strength where iron, ores, and other heavy cargo are shipped. Otherwise they are the same as sister-keelsons. BILGE-PIECES. Synonymous with _bilge-keels_. BILGE-PLANKS. Certain thick strengthenings on the inner and outer lines of the bilge, to secure the _shiftings_ as well as bilge-keels.