an expression peculiar to seamen, implying to pull a single rope, without the assistance of blocks or other such mechanical powers. When a rope is otherwise pulled, as by the application of tackles, or the connection with blocks, &c. the term is changed into bowing. HAU

To HAUL the Wind, is to direct the ship's course nearer to that point of the compass from which the wind arises. Thus, supposing a ship to sail south-west, with the wind northerly, and some particular occasion requires to haul the wind more westward; to perform this operation, it is necessary to arrange the sails more obliquely with her keel; to brace the yards more forward, by slackening the starboard and pulling in the larboard braces, and to haul the lower sheets further aft; and, finally, to put the helm a-port, i.e. over to the larboard side of the vessel. As soon as her head is turned directly to the westward, and her sails are trimmed accordingly, she is said to have hauled the wind four points; that is to say, from south-west to west. She may still go two points nearer to the direction of the wind, by disposing her sails according to their greatest obliquity, or, in the sea-phrase, by trimming all sharp; and in this situation she is said to be close-hauled, as sailing west-north-west.