WINDJAMMERS
iTo the Editor of the Senc-ncroa.] Sot,—When your reviewer observed—in your issue of December 29th—that the word " Windjammer " does not occur in any of the " old nautical dictionaries " he was undeniably accurate ; for, until the advent and rivalry of deep-sea steamers, no invidious distinction could have arisen to suggest the comparison, nor was there, indeed, any necessity to call a ship a sailing-ship. The word " windjammer " obviously derives from the practice, in fast passage-making ships, of " jamming " the lee lower yard-arms against the backstays in light head-winds (not in fresh breezes), in order to make the sails " draw " one point nearer to the wind than they would do when comfortably trimmed for " full-and-by."
I respectfully: submit, however, that the use of the word among sailors themselves- might easily be traced farther back than your reviewer's" fifty years." I heard it myself during my first voyage to sea, and that was fifty-seven years ago.
For example : The " old man " might come on deck in a restless mood, glance down at the compass, up at the sails, and say to the officer of the watch, "-Brace her up sharp, mister ! Slack away the weather braces and ' jam' her up taut."
• When this " drill," as the crew called it, happened in the night watches, it was not unusual to hear the men at the lee braces murmur the malediction, " Damn the old wind- jammer ! " But, of course, they might have meant it for the skipper as well as the ship.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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