dolphin striker

plural dolphin strikers

1. nauticalA near-vertical spar between the bowsprit and martingale

   An iron band with studs for the martingale and back ropes to be fitted to is frequently used on the dolphin striker.

   1865, Sir George Strong Nares, Seamanship, page 71

   3 more examples

   meanwhile some of the sailors, with an imitative flying fish, get to that part of the vessel just under the bowsprit, called “the dolphin striker,” and with a bottle midway to their bait, they suddenly jerk it out of the water, to imitate the flying fish.

   1844, William Graeme Rhind, The Creation: A Series of Letters from a Father to His Children

   I ordered the Captain of the forecastle, to run out on the bowsprit with the end of a two inch at once, and throw a running bowline knot over his shoulders, and by-and-by, when he broke adrift from the dolphin striker, we hauled him in by the head; and the same night or next morning, I had a good beefsteak cut off him near his tail, and a capital one it was, too, you would hardly have known it from the regular beef.

   1846, Jack's Life at Sea: By an Old Irish Captain of the Head., page 366

   The dolphin striker is slung near the cap; and the sprit-sail gaffs near the rigging by "jaw ropes,” and supported at their ends by lifts from the bowsprit cap.

   1857, John McNeill Boyd, A Manual for Naval Cadets, page 173