GALE, in the sea-language, a term of various import. When the wind blows not so hard but that a ship may carry her top-sails a-trip (that is, hoisted up to the highest), then they say it is a loom-gale. When it blows very strong, they say it is a stiff, strong, or fresh gale. When two ships are near one another at sea, and, there being but little wind blowing, one of
them finds more of it than the other, they say that the one ship gales away from the other.