ground log

noun

, Nautical.

1. a lead weight attached to a line, cast overboard in shoal water and allowed to pay out freely to show the speed of a ship and the force of the current.

Example Sentences

The commission’s chief investigator told me that in exceptionally hostile areas he and his colleagues hide boxes in caves or bury them in the ground, log the location, and hope to retrieve them months or years from now—whenever the killing stops.

From The New Yorker

Use the ax to split out the upper half of the ground log, between the saw-cuts and also the upper half of the log D.

From Project Gutenberg

Saw down now from A half-way through the ground log F. Then from B down to half-way through the log D; now continue from G, cutting down to half through the ground log.

From Project Gutenberg

An elastic pole, 20 or 30 feet in length, with the large end fastened under the ground log of the cabin, and the other elevated 10 or 15 feet and supported by two forks, to which a pestle 5 or 6 inches in diameter and 8 or 10 feet long is fixed on the elevated end by a large mortice, and a pin put through its lower end so that two persons can work it in conjunction.

From Project Gutenberg

Not having an axe to sharpen and drive them, he dug pairs of holes a foot deep, one at each end and another pair near the middle of the front ground log.

From Project Gutenberg