flukes

The Sailor's Word-Book

The two parts which constitute the large triangular tail of the whale; from the power of these the phrase obtained among whalers of fluking or all-a-fluking, when running with a fresh free wind. Flukes, or palms, are also the broad triangular plates of iron on each arm of the anchor, inside the bills or extreme points, which having entered the ground, hold the ship. Seamen, by custom, drop the k, and pronounce the word flue.