BEND ON THE TACK. In hoisting signals, that piece of rope called the distant line--which keeps the flags so far asunder that they are not confused. Also, in setting free sails, the studding-sail tack, &c.
BEND-ROLL. A rest formerly used for a heavy musket.
BENDS. The thickest and strongest planks on the outward part of a ship's side, between the plank-streaks on which men set their feet in climbing up. They are more properly called wales, or wails. They are reckoned from the water, and are distinguished by the titles of _first_, _second_, or _third bend_. They are the chief strength of a ship's sides, and have the beams, knees, and foot-hooks bolted to them. Bends are also the frames or ribs that form the ship's body from the keel to the top of the side, individualized by each particular station. That at the broadest part of the ship is denominated the _midship-bend_ or _dead-flat_.
BE-NEAPED. The situation of a vessel when she is aground at the height of spring-tides. (_See_ NEAPED.)
BENJY. A low-crowned straw-hat, with a very broad brim.
BENK. A north-country term for a low bank, or ledge of rock; probably the origin of _bunk_, or sleeping-places in merchant vessels. (_See_ BUNK.)
BENN. A small kind of salmon; the earliest in the Solway Frith.
BENT. The trivial name of the _Arundo arenaria_, or coarse unprofitable grass growing on the sea-shore.
BENTINCK-BOOM. That which stretches the foot of the fore-sail in many small square-rigged merchantmen; particularly used in whalers among the ice, with a reefed fore-sail to see clearly ahead. The tack and sheet are thus dispensed with, a spar with tackle amidships brings the leeches taut on a wind. It is principally worked by its bowline.
BENTINCKS. Triangular courses, so named after Captain Bentinck, by whom they were invented, but which have since been superseded by storm staysails. They are still used by the Americans as trysails.
BENTINCK-SHROUDS. Formerly used; extending from the weather-futtock staves to the opposite lee-channels.
BERG. A word adopted from the German, and applied to the features of land distinguished as steppes, banquettes, shelves, terraces, and parallel roads. (_See_ ICEBERG.)
BERM. In fortification, a narrow space of level ground, averaging about a foot and a half in width, generally left between the foot of the exterior slope of the parapet and the top of the escarp; in permanent fortification its principal purpose is to retain the earth of the parapet, which, when the latter is deformed by fire or by weather, would otherwise fall into the ditch; in field fortification it also serves to protect the escarp from the pressure of a too imminent parapet.