bar of a port

The Sailor's Word-Book

or bar of a harbour


An accumulated shoal or bank of sand, shingle, gravel, or other uliginous substances, thrown up by the sea to the mouth of a river or harbour, so as to endanger, and sometimes totally prevent, the navigation into it.

♦ Bars of rivers are some shifting and some permanent. The position of the bar of any river may commonly be guessed by attending to the form of the shores at the embouchure. The shore on which the deposition of sediment is going on will be flat, whilst the opposite one is steep. It is along the side of the latter that the deepest channel of the river lies; and in the line of this channel, but without the points that form the mouth of the river, will be the bar. If both the shores are of the same nature, which seldom happens, the bar will lie opposite the middle of the channel. Rivers in general have what may be deemed a bar, in respect of the depth of the channel within, although it may not rise high enough to impede the navigation for the increased deposition that takes place when the current slackens, through the want of declivity, and of shores to retain it, must necessarily form a bank. Bars of small rivers may be deepened by means of stockades to confine the river current, and prolong it beyond the natural points of the river's mouth. They operate to remove the place of deposition further out, and into deeper water. Bars, however, act as breakwaters in most instances, and consequently secure smooth water within them. The deposit in all curvilinear or serpentine rivers will always be found at the point opposite to the curve into which the ebb strikes and rebounds, deepening the hollow and depositing on the tongue. Therefore if it be deemed advisable to change the position of a bar, it may be in some cases aided by works projected on the last curve sea-ward. By such means a parallel canal may be forced which will admit vessels under the cover of the bar.

♦ Bar, a boom formed of huge trees, or spars lashed together, moored transversely across a port, to prevent entrance or egress.

♦ Bar, the short bits of bar-iron, about half a pound each, used as the medium of traffic on the Negro coast.

♦ Bar-harbour, one which, from a bar at its entrance, cannot admit ships of great burden, or can only do so at high-water.

♦ Capstan-bars, large thick bars put into the holes of the drumhead of the capstan, by which it is turned round, they working as horizontal radial levers.

♦ Hatch-bars, flat iron bars to lock over the hatches for security from theft, &c.

♦ Port-bar, a piece of wood or iron variously fitted to secure a gun-port when shut.

♦ Bar-shallow, a term sometimes applied to a portion of a bar with less water on it than on other parts of the bar.

♦ Bar-shot, two half balls joined together by a bar of iron, for cutting and destroying spars and rigging. When whole balls are thus fitted they are more properly double-headed shot.

♦ To bar. To secure the lower-deck ports, as above.

The Sailor's Word-Book

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