DICTIONARY OF

Feed 134 Fid Hammer
Feed. Water pumped into boiler to maintain water level. 2. Oil fed to sprayers of oil-burning
furnace.
Feeder. Temporary wooden trunkway fitted in hatch of a vessel carrying grain in bulk.
Contains between 2 per cent and 6 per cent of hold capacity, and feeds the hold as grain
settles. 2. Usual name for 'oil feeder'.
Feed Heating. Increasing temperature of boiler feed water, or fuel oil, immediately before
feeding.
Feed Tank. Any tank that feeds a service. Particularly, tank that contains feed water for
boilers.
Feeler. Small implement used when sounding with deep-sea apparatus. Consists of stout
wire, mounted in a wood handle, with extremity of wire bent at right angle to remainder.
Laid on wire, when sounding, to detect momentary slacking of wire when sinker reaches the
bottom.
Felucca. Undecked boat of Mediterranean. Has long beak, lateen sails and may pull up to 12
oars a side.
Fend. To protect. To bear off. To insert a fender.
Fender. Any material or fitting used for protecting a floating object from damage by chafing
or collision.
Fender Bolt. Bolt having a large, rounded and projecting head. Used, formerly, on outside
planking of wooden vessels to protect from chafing.
Ferro-Cement. Method of constructing vessels with steel re-enforced concrete.
Ferry. Boat or vessel plying across a narrow piece of water. Also used as a verb.
Fetch. Of wind, is distance from starting point to observer, and measured along the water
troubled by it. In sailing, is to reach or attain. To fetch a pump is to prime it by putting water
inside pump and above plunger.
Fetch Away. To break adrift.
Fid. Strong wood or metal pin passing horizontally through heel of an upper mast and
resting on trestle tree of mast below. 2. Large and conical piece of wood used for opening
strands of large rope. Often has broad base so that it can stand vertically when rope is
worked over its point.
Fiddle Block. Block having one shell but appearing to be two blocks end to end. Each part
has its own sheave, but strop passes around both parts. Has all advantages of a double block
with additional advantages that it is narrower, and block has no tendency to topple.
Fiddle Head. Ornamental carving on stem of a vessel when it remotely resembles a fiddle.
Fiddles. Wooden fittings clamped to meal tables in heavy weather. They limit movement of
dishes, plates, glasses, etc.
Fiddley, Fidley. Stokehold casing and funnel casing.
Fid Hammer. Hammer with one end elongated and tapered. Used when knocking out a fid.
Tapered end makes an emergency fid.