BILL OF HEALTH. A certificate properly authenticated by the consul, or other proper authority at any port, that the ship comes from a place where no contagious disorder prevails, and that none of the crew, at the time of her departure, were infected with any such distemper. Such constitutes a _clean_ bill of health, in contradistinction to a _foul_ bill. BILL OF LADING. A memorandum by which the master of a ship acknowledges the receipt of the goods specified therein, and promises to deliver them, in like good condition, to the consignee, or his order. It differs from a charter-party insomuch as it is given only for a single article or more, laden amongst the sundries of a ship's cargo. BILL OF SALE. A written document by which the property of a vessel, or shares thereof, are transferred to a purchaser. BILL OF SIGHT, OR OF VIEW. A warrant for a custom-house officer to examine goods which had been shipped for foreign parts, but not sold there. BILL OF STORE. A kind of license, or custom-house permission, for re-importing unsold goods from foreign ports duty free, within a specified limit of time. BILLOWS. The surges of the sea, or waves raised by the wind; a term more in use among poets than seamen. BILLS. The ends of compass or knee timber. BILLY BOY OR BOAT. A Humber or east-coast boat, of river-barge build, and a trysail; a bluff-bowed north-country trader, or large one-masted vessel of burden. BINARY SYSTEM. When two stars forming a double-star are found to revolve about each other. BIND. A quantity of eels, containing 10 sticks of 25 each. BINDINGS. In ship-building, a general name for the beams, knees, clamps, water-ways, transoms, and other connecting parts of a ship or vessel. BINDING-STRAKES. Thick planks on the decks, in midships, between the hatchways. Also the principal strakes of plank in a vessel, especially the sheer-strake and wales, which are bolted to the knees and shelf-pieces. BING. A heap; an old north-country word for the sea-shore, and sometimes spelled _being_. BINGE, TO. To rinse, or bull, a cask. BINGID. An old term for locker. BINK. _See_ BENK. BINN. A sort of large locker, with a lid on the top, for containing a vessel's stores: bread-binn, sail-binn, flour-binn, &c. BINNACLE (formerly BITTACLE). It appears evidently to be derived from the French term _habittacle_, a small habitation, which is now used for the same purpose by the seamen of that nation. The binnacle is a wooden case or box, which contains the compass, and a light to illuminate the compass at night; there are usually three binnacles on the deck of a ship-of-war, two near the helm being designed for the man who steers, weather and lee, and the other amidships, 10 or 12 feet before these, where the quarter-master, who conns the ship, stands when _steering_, or going with a free wind. (_See_ CONN.) BINNACLE-LIGHT. The lamp throwing light upon the compass-card. BINOCLE. A small binocular or two-eyed telescope.