[f. FISH v.; the senses are unconnected.]
1. An act of fishing, colloq.
1880. Scribner’s Mag., XX. 542/2. I will go find Tim … and have a fish.
2. a. The purchase used in ‘fishing’ or raising the flukes of an anchor to the gunwale. b. (See quot. 1892.)
1825. H. B. Gascoigne, Nav. Fame, 51.
| The tricing Fish the careful Gunners hook, | |
| No time is lost, it firmly grasps the Fluke. |
1892. Northumb. Gloss., Fish, a tool used for bringing up a bore rod or pump valve.
3. attrib. and Comb. The sb. in sense 2, or the vb.-stem, occurs in various technical terms (chiefly Naut.): fish-back, a rope attached to the hook of the fish-block, and used to assist in ‘fishing’ the anchor; fish-block, the block of a fish-tackle; fish-davit, a davit for fishing the anchor; fish-fall, the tackle depending from the fish-davit; fish-head, -martingale, -pendant (see quots.); † fish-rope = fish-fall; fish-tackle, that used for fishing the anchor. Also FISH-HOOK 2.
1862. Nares, Seamanship, 74. *Fish-back. From the forecastle, and secured to the back of the fish hook.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 10. The Dauid is a short peece of timber, at the end whereof in a notch they hang a blocke in a strap called the *Fish-block, by which they hale up the flook of the Anchor to the Ships bow.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxi. 120. The fish tackle was got up, fish-davit rigged out, and after two or three hours of hard and cold work, both the anchors were ready for instant use.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 93. Iron … fish davits are now fitted to nearly all ships. Ibid. (1862), 74. It [the fish martingale] keeps the davit from topping up as the *fish fall is hauled taut.
1842. Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., II. 171. The *‘fish-head’ for drawing a ‘drowned clack.’
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, 109. Fish-head, an apparatus for withdrawing the clacks of pumps through the column.
1862. Nares, Seamanship, 74. *Fish martingale, a large jigger, the double block secured to one of the bolts in the davit head, the single block hooked down to a bolt in the ship’s side.
1750. T. R. Blanckley, Naval Expositor, *Fish Pendant hangs at the end of the Davit, by the Strap of the Block, to which the Fish Hook is spliced, by which the Flook of the Anchor is hawled up to the Ship’s bow or Chanwaal.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 234. The upper end [of the fish-davit] being properly secured by a tackle from the mast-head; to which end is hung a large block, and through it a strong rope is rove, called the fish-pendant.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wks., I. 81/1. Her … Cables, hawsers, *Fish and Cattrope … Halliers, Ropeyarns, founding Lines, were all of rare stuffes of great price and small profit.
1841. R. H. Dana, Seaman’s Man., 105. *Fish-tackle. The tackle used for fishing an anchor.
