WAI 
plates, and dry them in a stove ; then cut 
tliem out for use. You may make them of 
what colour you please, by tinging the 
paste with brazil or vermilion for red ; in- 
digo or verditer, &c. for blue ; saffron, tur- 
meric, or gamboge, &c. for yellow. 
WAFT, in naval language, a signal dis- 
played from the stern of a ship for some 
particular purpose, by lioisting the ensign, 
furled up together into a long roll, to the 
head of its staff, or to the mizen-peek. It 
is particularly used to summon the ship’s 
boats off from the shore. 
WAGER of law is a particular mode of 
proceeding, whereby, in an action of debt, 
brought upon a simple contract between 
the parties, without any deed or record, the 
defendant may discharge himself by swear- 
ing in court, in the presence of compurga- 
tors, that he owes tlie plaintiff nothing, in 
manner and form as he has declared, and 
bis compurgators swear, that they believe 
what he says is true. And this waging his 
law is sometimes called making his law. It 
being at length considered, that this waging 
of law offered too great a temptation to per- 
jury, by degrees new remedies were dd- 
vised, and new forms of action introduced, 
wherein no defendant is at liberty to wage 
his law, as in assumpsit and trover. Also 
when a new statute inflicts a penalty, and 
gives an action of debt to recover it, it is 
usual to add, in which no wager of law shall 
be allowed. 
Wagers. In general a wager may be 
considered as legal, if it be not an incite- 
ment to a breach of the peace, or to immo- 
rality, or if it do not affect the feelings or 
interest of a third person,, or expose him to 
ridicule ; or if it be not against sound poli- 
cy. See Insurance, Wager, Policy. 
WAIFS are goods which are stolen and 
waved by a felon in his flight from those 
who jnirsue him, which are forfeited ; and 
though waif is generally spoken of goods 
stolen, yet if a man be pursued w'ith hue 
and cry as a felon, and he flee and leave 
his own goods, these will be forfeited as 
goods stolen ; but they are properly fugi- 
tive’s gppds, and not forfeited till it be 
found before the coroner, or otherwise of 
record, that he fled for the felony. See Es- 
TRAYS. 
WAIST, in ship-building, that part of a 
ship which is contained between the quarter- 
deck and forecastle, being usually a hollow 
space, with an ascent of several steps to 
either of those places. When the waist of 
a merchant-ship is only one or two steps of 
WAL 
descent from the quarter-deck and fore- 
castle, .she is said to be galley-built ; but 
when with six or seven steps she is called 
frigate-built. 
WAISTEKS, in naval affairs, people sta- 
tioned in the waist in working the ship. 
As their business requires only strength 
without art or Judgment, they are commonly 
selected from the .strongest landsmen and 
ordinary seamen. 
WAIVER, .signifies the passing by of a 
thing, or a refusal to accept it.: sometimes 
it is applied to an estate, or something con- 
veyed to a man, and sometimes to plea, &c. 
and a w aiver on disagreement as to goods and 
chattels, in case of a gift, will be effectual. 
WAKE of a ship, is the smooth water 
astern when she is under sail. This show s 
the way she has gone in the sea, whereby 
the mariners judge what way she inake.s. 
For if tire wake be right a-stern, they con- 
clude she makes her vvay forwards ; but if 
the wake be to leew'ard a point or two, 
then they conclude she falls to the leeward 
of her course. When one ship, giving 
chase to- another, is got as far into the wind 
as she, and sails directly after her, they say, 
she has got into her w’ake, A ship is said 
to stay to the w eather of her wake, when, 
in her staying, she is so quick, that she does 
not fall to leeward upon a tack, but that 
wheij she is tacked, her wake is to the lee- 
ward j and it is a sign she feels her helm 
very well, and is quick of steerage. 
WALE, or Wales, in a ship, those outer- 
piost timbers in a ship’s side, on which 
the sailors set their feet in climbing uj). 
Tiiey are reckoned from the water, and aie 
called her first, second, and third wale, or 
bend. 
Wale knot, a round knot or knob made 
with three strands of a rope, so that it 
cannot slip, by which the tacks, top-sail 
sheets, and stoppers arc made fast, as also 
some otlier ropes. 
AVale reared, on board a ship, a name 
the seamen give to a ship, which, after .she 
comes to her bearing, is built straight up. 
This way of building,, though it does not 
look well, nor i.s, as the seamen term it, 
ship-shapen ; yet it has this advantage, that 
a ship is thereby more roomy within board, 
and becoihes thereby a wholesome ship at 
sea, especially if her bearing be well laid 
put. 
WALES. By statute 27 Henry ATII, 
c. 26, and other subsequent statutes, the 
dominion of AVales shall be incorporater^ 
with, and part of the realm of England ^ 
