shoot, to

The Sailor's Word-Book

To move suddenly; as "the ballast shoots on one side." Also, a ship shoots ahead in stays. Also, to push off in a boat from the shore into a current; to descend a rapid. The term is well used thus amongst the powerful rivers of N. America, of which perhaps the finest example is given by the St. Lawrence at La Chine, there reported to rush in spring-time at the rate of 40 miles an hour. Thus the shooting Old London Bridge was the cause of many deaths, and gave occasion to the admirable description in the Loves of the Triangles (anti-Jacobin), when all were agreed:


"'Shoot we the bridge,' the vent'rous boatmen cry;

'Shoot we the bridge,' th' exulting fare reply."

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