_Hatches_, a term which seamen sometimes incorrectly use for _gratings_; a sort of open cover for the hatchways, formed by several small laths, or battens, which cross each other at right angles, leaving a square interval between: these gratings are not only of service to admit the air and light between decks, but also to let off the smoke of the great guns during action. _Lanyard_, or laniard, is a short piece of line fastened to different things on board a ship, to preserve them in a particular place; such are the lanyards of the gun-ports, the lanyard of the buoy, the lanyard of the cat-hook, &c.; but the lanyards alluded to in the above line, were those by means of which the shrouds were extended; or, as a sailor would express himself, _taught_. PAGE 99, l. 5. _Both stay-sail sheets to mid-ships were conveyed._ The fore stay-sail being one of the sails which command the fore part of the ship, is for that reason hoisted at this time, to bear her fore-part round before the wind: for the same reason, after it is split, the foremast yards are braced aback; that is, so as to form right angles with the direction of the wind. For a further illustration of this, see the subsequent note. PAGE 99, l. 18. _And hew at once the mizen-mast away!_ “When a ship is forced by the violence of a contrary wind to furl all her sails, if the storm increases, and the sea continue to rise, she is often strained to so great a degree, that, to ease her, she must be made to run before their mutual direction; which, however, is rarely done but in cases of the last necessity: now, as she has no head-way, the helm is deprived of its governing power, as the latter effect is only produced in consequence of the former: it therefore necessarily requires an uncommon effort to wheel, or turn her, into any different position. It is an axiom in natural philosophy, that ‘Every body will persevere in its state of rest, or moving uniformly in a right line, unless it be compelled to change its state by forces impressed; and that the change of motion is proportional to the moving force impressed, and is made according to the right line in which that force acts.’