BLOCKHOUSE. A small work, generally built of logs, to protect adjacent ports. Blockhouses were primarily constructed in our American colonies, because they could be immediately built from the heavy timber felled to clear away the spot, and open the lines of fire. The ends were simply crossed alternately and pinned. Two such structures, with a space of 6 feet for clay, formed, on an elevated position, a very formidable casemated work. The slanting overhanging roof furnished excellent cover in lieu of loop-holes for musketry. BLOCK-MAKER. A manufacturer of blocks. BLOCKS. The several transverse pieces or logs of timber, piled in plane, on which a ship is built, or to place her on for repair: they consist of solid pieces of oak laid on the ground-ways. BLOCKS, FIXED. _See_ FIXED BLOCKS. BLOOD-SUCKERS. Lazy fellows, who, by skulking, throw their proportion of labour on the shoulders of their shipmates. BLOODY FLAG. A large red flag. BLOOM. A peculiar warm blast of wind; a term used in iron-foundries. BLORE. An old word for a stiff gale. BLOUT. A northern term for the sudden breaking-up of a storm. Blout has been misused for blirt. BLOW. Applied to the breathing of whales and other cetaceans. The expired air from the lungs being highly charged with moisture, which condenses at the temperature of the atmosphere, appears like a column of steam. BLOW. A gale of wind. BLOWE. A very old English word for scold or revile, still in use, as when a man receives a good blowing-up. BLOW-HOLES. The nostrils of the cetaceans, situated on the highest part of the head. In the whalebone whales they form two longitudinal slits, placed side by side. In the porpoises, grampuses, &c., they are united into a single crescentic opening. BLOW HOME. The wind does not cease or moderate till it comes past that place, blowing continuously over the land and sea with equal velocity. In a naval sense, it does not blow home when a sea-wind is interrupted by a mountainous range along shore. BLOWING GREAT GUNS AND SMALL ARMS. Heavy gales; a hurricane. BLOWING HARD. Said of the wind when it is strong and steady. BLOWING THE GRAMPUS. Throwing water over a sleeper on watch. BLOWING WEATHER. A nautical term for a continuance of strong gales. (_See_ GALE.) BLOWN COD. A split cod, half dried by exposure to the wind. _Blown_ is also frequently applied to bloated herrings, when only partly cured. Also, a cod-fish rises to the surface, and is easily taken, if blown. By being hauled nearly up, and the hook breaking, it loses the power for some time of contracting the air-bladder, and thus dies head out of water. BLOWN ITSELF OUT. Said of a falling gale of wind. BLOW OFF, TO. To clear up in the clouds.