DIXON KEMP

Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing and Architecture

(11th and final edition, 1913)

S. - Seam

Saddle.--
A projection our a spar to support another spar, as a saddle on the mast for the jaws of the boom to rest upon in coasters.
 
Sagging.--
Bending or curved downwards; the opposite of hogging. Sagging to leeward is to make a great deal of leeway.
 
Sail.--
Often applied to a ship, or an assemblage of ships, as "We saw four sail off Ushant." (See "Sails.")
 
Sail Coats.--
Covers for sails, usually made of painted canvas. A yacht master named Carey introduced the following plan, but it has not often been adopted: The sail covers fit tight round the blocks, and by the parts overlapping one another at a a (Fig. 88) it is quite impossible that any wet should ever touch the sail ; h shows the opening for the throat halyard block overlapped and laced. (See "Waterproofing.")
 
FIG 88
 
Sail Her Along.--
In close-hauled sailing, an order given to the helmsman when he is keeping the vessel too close to wind, meaning that he is to keep her a little off ; sail her fuller or harder or "give her the whole weight of it," meaning the wind, and keep her passing through the water as fast as possible.
 
Sail Her.--
When lying to if way has to be got on again, the order is to "Sail her"; or, "Let the head sheets draw and sail her !" Also "Sail her" is a general admonition to a helmsman to be very careful in his steering. (See "Fill.")
 
Sailing Directions.-- Books of pilotage which accompany charts.
 
Sailing on Land.--
Capt. de Boulay, writing on this subject, has given much interesting information. Any student of old writings and engravings cannot fail to notice that this idea of sailing on hand by insane of a sailing chariot, or land-boat, is a very old one, and this is only what might be expected, for as soon as the wonderful propelling effect of the sail afloat had been realised by mankind it was inevitable that the most daring and progressive spirits should wish to make use of the same means of propulsion for land transport. The idea never seemed to take on very much in England, probably owing to the enclosed and woody nature of this country, as well as to the number of horses always to be met with on the highways; but in works referring to Holland constant mention is made of sailing chariots early in the seventeenth century, and especially about one belonging to a member of the Royal Family, one Prince Maurice, who kept it near the Hague. It was constructed to run on four wheels and carried two sails, the designer being a great mathematician of the name of Stephenus, and although we do not know its actual dimensions, yet it is on record that it often carried from six to ten persons, whilst its speed was over twenty miles an hour.
 
About this time also a very learned and scientific prelate of the name of Bishop Wilkins constructed a wonderful sailing chariot, whose wheels were supposed to be driven by a sort of horizontal windmill fixed

 

FIG 89.
 
on the top of a short mast; but we have no authentic records of the speeds obtained nor the number of passengers carried, and it must be feared that if the good bishop relied on this means of conveyance for visiting his diocese many a church function must have been often postponed from the hour originally fixed for its performance. Those most practical utilitarians, the Chinese, have for centuries probably used the sail as an adjunct to their wheelbarrows, on which so much of the inland traffic is conveyed along the elevated narrow tracks between the cultivated patches, the sail being set on a short mast right forward and the two trimming sheets being led aft to the handles of the barrow, and many a toiling Chinese coolie has doubtless blessed the inventive genius who first thought of using this cheap and useful aid for the relief of their straining muscles and sinews.
 
That wonderfully ingenious naval officer, Lieut. Shuldham, also turned his attention to sailing on land as well as afloat, and his craft seem to have been quite practical machines with a good turn of speed. Of course, what all these machines suffered from was the excessive weight which had to be carried, being constructed, as they were, of the best materials then obtainable--i.e., timber and blacksmith's handiwork, but, with the advent of the bicycle, the motorcar, and lastly the flying machine, a new branch of engineering manufacture has sprung up so that nowadays structures, either fixed or movable, can easily be built up of ample strength for their requirements, and weighing only a fraction of what was the permissible minimum a few years back. The introduction of the small racing craft has brought about similar improvements in the spars, rigging, and sails, necessary for the propelling power. It is evident therefore that, by a skilful combination of the foregoing parts, a sailing chariot, or land-boat, can now be built of such lightness and mobility as to be a practical success, given an expanse of smooth, level ground within easy reach.
 
To the Bembridge Sailing Club, that home of so many novelties in connection with all that pertains to boats, whether motor or sail, must be given the credit for seeing the above possibilities and acting on them ; and the illustrations show a sand-boat built by Mr. R. Stewart Savile, at Bembridge, which has turned out successful. With a good breeze abeam this sand-boat travels along at quite twenty miles an hour, laying up about five points from the wind, so that, as all leeway is absent, it works well to windward, and when lightly laden (as with the owner's children she can be put about without stopping and worked to windward like a boat. Although so light as to be as easily pushed along as a tricycle, her framework is rigid enough to carry two men, being most scientifically constructed as it is of bicycle wheels and tubes and wrought iron gas pipe, stayed and strutted where necessary like a flying-machine. In a structure like this there is room for the development of the highest engineering skill, and Messrs Thornycroft, of Southampton, construct the boats which cannot fail to afford a good deal of sport and amusement during the hours of low water when sailing in the ordinary way is difficult. As the sand. boat can be designed to take the same sails as are used in a sailing-boat, the expense of the latter can be saved, so that the total expenditure can be kept to a very low limit. (See also "Land Boat.")
 
Sails.-- Sails in this country are usually made of flax in the form of canvas, but several racing yachts since 1886 have had cotton sails. In America nothing but cotton canvas was formerly used; but since 1881 several suits of flax canvas have been sent to America by Messrs. Ratsey and Lapthorn. In 1851 the yacht America came here, and the superiority of the cut, make, and sit of her cotton canvas revolutionised sail making in England. In 1881 the cutter Madge visited America, and her flax sails were considered so superior to those of American yachts that her success was partly ascribed to her English suit of Lapthorn sails. Cotton stretches slightly less than flax. The objection to it is that in case of rain it takes up so much water and becomes very hard, is not so durable as flax, and old cotton sails are fit for little else than the rag merchant, whereas old flex sails fetch a fair price. Fishermen will not buy old cotton sails. Nevertheless, cotton sails are becoming more general every year. They are prettier, more yachtlike, and better in light weather.
The manufacture of sails for yachts in this country has, curiously enough, become a monopoly, nearly every vessel having her canvas made by the firm of Ratsey and Lapthorn, who have houses of business at Cowes, Gosport, Gourock, Scotland, and at New York. The prices charged by the firm are high, but their work is maintained at a very high degree of efficiency, and their cut attains perfection.
If the skippers of yachts could only be taught to understand that new sails must not be stretched by hard pulling either on luff, head, leech, or foot, much trouble would be saved. Yet few skippers will believe this. Modern canvas can be ruined by oversetting. Little force is required to set new sails, and if every day in fine sunny weather the mainsail is set to its natural area and shape on the spars as if spread out on a floor, and the yacht sails about with it so trimmed and set in a nice breeze, it will soon "come out" on the spars to its proper size. If it appears to "come out" slowly in the first few days the skipper must have patience with it, remembering that if he hauls--especially on the foot--it will be ruined.
 
St. Andrew's Flag.-- A blue flag with white diagonal cross, thus X.
 
St George's Jack.--
A white square flag with rod St. George's cross (right angled, thus +), used by admirals in the Royal Navy. A vice admiral's flag has one red ball, and rear admiral's two (vertically). An admiral flies his flag from the main, vice from the fore, rear from mizen. St. Georges Jack was the English flag before the union with Scotland and Ireland. (See "Admiral" and "Jack.")

 

St. Patrick's Cross.-- A red diagonal cross, X.
 
Salt and Fresh Water.--
A cubic foot of salt water weighs 64lb. ; a ton contains 34 cubic feet. A cubic foot of fresh water weighs 62.4lb. ; a ton contains 36 cubic feet : hence salt water bulk for bulk will sustain a greater weight.

 

FIG 90.
 
When a vessel goes from salt water to fresh she is sometimes lightened in ballast, in order that she may present the same surface for friction. There will be a loss of stability, and on the whole the practice is of doubtful utility. Regarding the case inversely, if a vessel be loaded down in salt water to the same depth that she has been floating at in fresh water, and driven at the same speed, the resistance will increase in ratio to the superior density of salt water. No exact experiments have been made to ascertain whether a vessel, by floating somewhat lighter in salt than in fresh water, meets with a decrease of resistance. The comparison would be always attended with difficulty, as if there were a difference in the resistance, it would be a very complicated matter unravelling it, as it would be necessary to know how much of the resistance depended on skin friction, and how much on wave making. We are inclined to think that the resistance (taking weight for weight) is a trifle less in salt water than in fresh. By removing weight, so as to float at the same load line as in salt water, the resistance in fresh water would be less, but the question of diminished stability, which removing weight involves, is such a serious matter that removing weight for river sailing cannot be advised. It has been estimated that the difference in L.W.L length of a yacht of shape commonly produced under the
 
FIG 91
 
International Rule in fresh and salt water is approximately as follows:
Increase of length
 
Rating -- in Fresh Waler.
12 Metres 5.5 Inches
10 "4.5 "
9 "4.0
8 "3.5 "
7 " 2.75 "
6 "2.0 "
 
A 6-metre boat measured in fresh water was found to have risen from 1/4 to 5/16 of an inch when measured in salt water. The figures given in the table are but a rough estimate, because the increase obviously depends upon the angle that the profile of the stem and stern make with the L.W.L.
 
Salute.-- A salvo of cannon fired as a mark of respect and honour to a Royal personage, commodore, vice or rear commodore, flag, &c. A Royal Salute is twenty-one guns; admiral of the fleet, seventeen; admiral, fifteen; vice admiral, thirteen; rear-admiral, eleven; commodore (no senior captain being present. See "Burgee."), nine ; captains or other officers are not saluted. A captain or other officers' salute is returned with seven guns.
 
Among yacht clubs it is usual to salute a flag officer on his first hoisting his flag (swallow-tail burgee) on a club station at the beginning of a season, on his shifting his flag or on his promotion, and when he hauls it down at the end of a season, by eleven guns for a commodore, nine for a vice-commodore, and seven for a rear-commodore respectively. The club ensign is hoisted on the club flagstaff during the salute. It is unusual to salute a vice or rear commodore in the presence of a commodore, and if the commodore and vice or rear arrive together, neither of the latter is saluted. The Royal Cork Yacht Club has, however, a rule that a vice or rear can be saluted after a commodore has returned his salute. A commodore replies to a club salute, or to a salute by a squadron, with one salute of the number of guns he is entitled to. He returns a vice or rear commodore's salute with the guns each is entitled to, unless he receives a salute from both, then he returns with the number of gains he himself is entitled to. Strictly, however, the rear should not salute the commodore in the presence of the vice unless he obtains permission from the vice to do so. The regulation of the Royal Navy is that no salute is to be fired without permission of the senior officer present, except salutes to the senior officer himself; and, further, if a salute has to be fired, only the senior officer of two or more yachts in company is to fire the salute. It is etiquette for a xxx uag.omcer of a club to return a salute, but a Royal personage does not do so. The practice used to be for a yacht to "salute the flag" on arriving at a station; this practice is still in vogue in America, a junior always saluting first. If a winning yacht is saluted, it should be with five guns. A duke is saluted with fifteen guns, and any other nobleman thirteen.
 
The rule in the "King's Regulations" for a funeral salute is to fire the number of guns the officer would have been entitled to if alive.
 
Merchant ships are supposed to salute H.M.S. by striking topsails or any upper sail, such as. a royal or top-gallant sail: but the practice is now little observed except by old fashioned seamen, the dipping of an ensign being all that is done. In the old Queen's regulations for salutes. we find the following obsolete instructions:
"If any of Her Majesty's subjects shall so far forget their duty as to attempt to pass any of Her Majesty's ships without striking their topsails, the names of the ship and the master, the port to which they belong, the place from which they came, and that to which they are bound, together with affidavits. of the fact, are to be sent to the secretary of the Admiralty, in order to their being proceeded against in the Admiralty Court."
If a merchant ship salutes a naval officer with the guns he is entitled to, the naval officer responds with five guns ; or seven if there are several merchant ships. A merchant ship now usually salutes a man-of-war by dipping the ensign ; the ensign is dipped (almost hauled down) and kept down until the man-of-war responds. This is repeated three times ; but some merchant ships only trouble to dip once, and then of course the man-of-war only responds once. (See "Dipping the Ensign ;" see also the "King's Regulations for the Royal Navy," to be obtained of Messrs. Harrison and Sons., St. Martin's-lane.)
 

Sand Boat.-- See "Land Boat" and "Sailing on Land."

 
Save All.-- A water sail; a sail set underneath booms in light weather.
 
Scandalize a Mainsail.--
The peak is dropped downs between the topping lifts until square to the mast and the main tack triced up. Sometimes the throat is lowered also.
 
Scant.--
When the wind is very bare; when the wind comes so that a vessel will barely lie her course.
 
Scantlings.--
The dimensions of all kinds of timber used in the construction of a vessel.
 
Scarph or Scarf, or Scarve.--
A method of joining pieces. of wood by tapering their ends. A box scarph is when the ends are not tapered, but a half thickness cut out of each part so that when put together the parts form only one thickness.
 
Schooner.--
A fore-and-aft rigged vessel. A topsail schooner has yards. on her foremast, and sometimes on her mainmast, but no courses. It is claimed that the schooner originated in America in 1713 in this way -- One Andrew Robinson (probably a Scotchman), built a vessel at Gloucester, Massachusetts, and as she was launched into the water a bystander said "How she scoons." The sharp-eared Mr. Robinson, with ready wit responded A scooner let her be!" Webster, inn his dictionary, says that this. story is well authenticated, because Mr. Moses Prince, eight years later, referred to Mr. Robinson as the "first contriver of scooners, and Moses Prince then went on to say "how mankind is obliged to this gentleman for this knowledge"; but it can be doubted if mankind had felt any considerable benefit from schooners, recollecting the Baltimore clippers. Webster says the man exclaimed, "How she scoons" because the Scotch word "scan" is to skim as a flat stone will when thrown upon the water. Webster says this word "scan" might have been an Icelandic word "skunda," to make haste.
 
[The German "schhumen," to skim, and French, "écumer," to skim, are also relevant. The term "eskomer," often applied to fast sailers, was probably an old buccaneer term for their vessels; hence the French "Ecumeur," a corsair or sea rover. The word "eskomer" may have been derived from the Latin "scomber," a mackerel.] The probability is that schooner was derived from the Dutch "schoon," or rather the feminine "schoone," the final "a" being pronounced with a sound of "a" and as a syllable, meaning clean, elegant, fair, beautiful, &c. ; "schoor," a forestay; "schoornen," rowers).
 
c. Webster, without giving any authority, says that the Danish "skooner," German "schoner," and the Spanish "escuna," were all derived from the English, that is from the Englishman or Scotchman who built the "scooner" in Massachusetts. The Swedish for schooner is "skonare"; but whether that was also derived from the term invented by Mr. Robinson is not recorded by Webster, arid altogether the assertion about the derivation is open to very grave doubt. There is no question that this is a very cut-and-dried story about the bystander and Mr. Robinson, and most people will incline to the belief, in spite of the evidence of Mr. Moses Prince, that the word schooner is of Dutch origin. In the seventeenth century, according to Charnock, they had a number of two-masted vessels called "schoots" ; and in old English chronicles of the fifteenth and sixteenth century we find ships called "schippes," and shipmasters "schippers," now skippers; and most likely there were schooters from schoots, and schooners from schoon. The mere fact of Mr. Robinson exclaiming "a schooner let her be" does not prove that the term did not exist before his exclamation was made, but rather shows that the term was a familiar one, and, as previously said, most people will believe that it is of Dutch origin.
 
Mr. Robinson's claim to be the inventor of the rig can also be very well disputed, as there is no doubt that the rig was an adaptation of the brigantine which had its origin as follows. In the Cotton MSS. is a note of the ships Henry VIII. possessed, and, in reference to the "Great Henry Grace à Dieu," as she is therein called, which was built at Erith, is the following: "being in good reparation, caulking except, so that she may be laid in dock at all times when the same shall be ready, and Brigandyn, the clerk of the ship, doth say, that before the said ship shall be laid in the dock, it is necessary that her mast be taken down and bestowed in the great store house at Erith." Now this Brigandyn was the inventor of the brigantyne rig; and in the Harl. MSS. in a passage relating to the state of Edward VI.'s navy is the following: "Item, the two gallies and the brigandyn must be yearly repaired." This brigandyn was as a matter of certainty named after "Brigandyn, the clerk of the ship" ; and in Charles II.'s reign there were five of them in the Royal Navy, named Discovery, Dispatch, Diligence, Shark, and Spy, of about 80 tons. The rig, as depicted in old prints, represents them with a fore-and-aft main, and fore sail and square topsails, much the same as the topsail schooners of a later date.
 
In the Navy List of 1800 we find no brigantines, but the names of about seventy brigs and the names of about fifty schooners. The oldest of these schooners appear to have been built at New York in 1764, and between that year and 1777 (the year of hostilities with the American Colonies), the British Government bought eighteen schooners, and most likely all in America, where also many of the brigs came from, though most were built in England. There is not the smallest doubt that the English settlers in America had done much to improve both the rig and build of the brigantines and in reference to this matter Charnock (1800 edition) says:
 
"On account of the constructors' attention being directed almost solely to one point, and owing to a certain portion of skill which they possessed, and had derived from a long experience in the art of building, with regard to swiftness only, the heavy sailing vessels employed in the purposes of British commerce fell before them an easy prey. - - - The American marine, however, soared not, but with very few exceptions, in its private capacity beyond the classes of brigs and schooners, those of the former denomination proving particularly destructive. Their dimensions were enlarged far beyond those limits which it had been customary to give vessels in that class, and their force on many occasions exceeded the greater part of the British sloops of war, nearly equalling some of the minor frigates. In defiance of the common prejudice then entertained against long and narrow vessels, the American builders ventured their opposition ; and the success which attended the principles they introduced, materially differing from the practice of any country at that time, proved their superior skill in the construction of corsairs.
 
In the early days of English yachting. many gentlemen attempted to emulate the famous American brigs and schooners, the latter almost invariably being rigged with square topsails, until about 1840. The one point of sailing, however, which Americans had studied, "sailing close by the wind," seems to have been much neglected, and when the America, schooner, built in 1850, arrived in England in 1851, we had not a schooner which was fit to compete with her. The America was designed by Mr. G. Steers (the son of a Devonshire shipwright, who learned his trade at Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Guernsey) on principles expounded by the late Mr. Scott Russell from about the year 1834, and exemplified in a few English yachts, notably in the Mosquito, built in 1847. The fault of Mr. Scott Russell's designs, as exemplified in the Titania, was the short hollow entrance he attempted to demonstrate his theory by, although he kept the midship section well aft. This was not apparent in the America. But the genius of George Steers, the Devonshire naval architect, appears to have died with him in 1856, as certainly there were no American yachts built since which can claim any improvement on that famous vessel, until the time of the late Edward Burgess. From America's day, and especially in the sixties and seventies, up to 1880, the schooner rig was very popular in this country, then until 1898 there came a period when it was in disfavour.
 
After a lapse of many years, the schooner rig has once more attained its old popularity, and it is of interest to record that several magnificent vessels have recently been built which in every respect bear comparison with the well-known schooners of the sixties and seventies.
 
When Messrs. Camper and Nicholson built the 160-ton schooner Amphitrite, in 1887 she proved to be the last schooner-rigged yacht of the old school, and subsequently this class of vessel, which had been falling into disfavour since the last season of Sir George Laupson's Miranda, became almost defunct. In 1896 Mr. J.M. Soper designed the 175-ton schooner Charmian, but she did not attract much attention, and it was not until Mr. G. L. Watson's Rainbow, a yacht of 331 tons, was built in 1898 that there was any tendency to revive the schooner rig in British waters. Since that date quite a number of beautiful schooners have been launched, and without exception they have proved useful vessels for cruising and racing. Gleniffer, 496 tons, originally the largest two-masted schooner in the world, designed by Mr. G.L. Watson, and built at Messrs. Henderson's yard, Glasgow, in 1899 ; Clara, 185 tons ; and L'Espérance, 295 tons ; both these very successful cruisers were designed by Mr. J. M. Soper, and the first-named proved an extremely fast yacht The fleet of smaller schooners, such as Sunshine, Roseneath and Mystic, has steadily increased, and, lastly, Mr. W. Fife has contributed the fine racing schooner Cicely, of 263 tons, built in 1902.
 
Since the debut of the late Mr. C. L. Orr-Ewing's yacht Rainbow, which in 1898 attained a higher speed on a broad reach than any yacht had preciously accomplished, many fast matches have been sailed by schooners.
 
The latest additions to the schooner fleet. have been Meteor IV, 400 tons; Germania, 366 tons, built in Germany: Waterwitch, by Fife ; and Margharita, now building, 1913, by Camper & Nicholson, for Mr. Whitaker. The American schooners Ingomar, Elena, and Westward were all wonderfully weatherly vessels. Elena and Westward are about 96 feet on the waterline. The Westward, 338 tons, was designed by Herreshoff to the International Rule, and she was classed 100A1 at Lloyd's, and in 1910, when she appeared in European waters, she defeated the German vessels with ease, being far more weatherly.
 
Schooners are now raced in European waters under the International Rules, which provide that they must be classed A1 at Lloyd's and be over 23-1/4 metres rating.
 
They sail on a very simple scale of time allowance, namely, four seconds per metre per mile.
 
As to the speed they travel in a strong wind it may be said that in 1912 Germania reached from the East Princessa buoy to the No Man Fort at a speed of 15 knots.
 

Sciatic Stay.--

According to old authorities this is synonymous with Triatic stay, which see.
 

Scope.-- Length or drift of rope or cable.

Score.-- A groove to receive a rope or strop,
Scowing an Anchor.-- When small boats have to anchor on ground known or suspected to befoul, it will always be prudent to scow the anchor (Fig. 92) - Unbend the cable from the ring, and make the end fast round the crown, shank, and flukes with a clove hitch, and bring the end a back to a, and stop it round the cable with spun yarn or hitches; take the cable back to the shackle and stop it as at b. when the cable is hauled upon by the part of the stop at b; will break, and the fluke of the anchor can be readily lifted out of its bed. Sometimes, instead of scowing the anchor a trip line is bent to the crown and buoyed. (See "Anchor")
 
FIG 92.
 
Screens.--
The wood shelves and screens painted red for port side, and green for starboard, in which a vessel's side lights are carried. (See "Side lights.")
 
Scroll Head.--
The outward curved part of the knee at the upper fore part of the stem, called volute.
 
Scud.--
To run before a gale of wind with very little canvas set, or "under bare poles."
 
Scull.--
An oar. To scull is to propel a boat by working an oar over the centre of the transom on the principle of the screw. In fresh water, it is to pull a pair of sculls.
 
Scuppers.--
Apertures cut in the bulwarks or waterways to clear the deck of water.
 
Sea, A.--
A wave. A heavy seals when the waves are large and steep. When a quantity of water falls aboard a vessel it is said that "she shipped a sea."
 
Sea Boat.--
A vessel fit to go to sea. A good sea boat is a relative term, and means a vessel that does not pitch badly or labour in a sea, or does not ship much water, and is, above all things, handy in a sea.
 
Sea, Depth of.--
The soundings taken during the voyage of the Challenger added greatly to our knowledge of the sea depth. The following conclusions are stated in Moseley's "Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger":
 
We are apt to form an erroneous impression as to the actual shapes and distributions of the elevations and depressions on the earth's surface, because only the very tops of the elevations stand above water. The out lines of the various continents and islands with which we are familiar on maps are merely lines marking the height to which the water reaches up. A very small proportion of the elevated masses projects above water, hence from an ordinary map we gain no truer impression of the form of the sculpturing of the surface of the earth itself than we should of a range of mountains if we viewed it when all but its summits were hidden by a flood.
 
So small a proportion does the mass of dry land elevated above the sea level bear to the hollows on the earth's surface beneath this level, that the cavities now occupied by the sea would contain three times the volume of the earth existing above the sea surface. If the surface of the land and the sea bottom were brought to a complete level, the waters of the sea covering its even face would still have a depth of 1700 fathoms, being reduced in depth by the process only about 800 fathoms.
 
Although the depth of the ocean is so small in proportion to the vastness of its expanse, the depth is, nevertheless, so great as to be difficult of adequate realisation. The greatest depth as yet ascertained by sounding occurs in the North-west Pacific Ocean; it amounts to about five miles and a quarter.
The average depth of the ocean between 600 N. and 600 S. is about three miles, or 2500 fathoms. The great depth of five miles occurs only exceptionally over very small areas.
 
No sunlight penetrates the deep sea; probably all is dark below 200 fathoms, at least excepting in so far as light is given out by phosphorescent animals.
At depths of 2000 fathoms and upward the temperature of the water is never many degrees above the freezing point. The conditions under which life exists in the deep sea are very remarkable. The pressure exerted by the water at great depths is enormous, amounting roughly to a ton weight on the square inch for every 1500 fathoms of depth.
 
Sir C. Wyville Thompson ("Voyage of the Challenger," vol.II, p. 352, London, 1877) gives, among the conclusions arrived at, after the first general survey of the deep sea collections of the expedition, that animal life is present on the bottom of the ocean at all depths, but is not nearly so abundant at extreme as at more moderate depths.
 
Moseley mentions the dredging of a fish from 2500 fathoms, which had a deep-sea shrimp in its stomach.
 
Seam.--
The line formed by the meeting of two planks; overlapping parts of canvas in a sail.
 
 
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