FLYING, in navigation, is a name given to a vessel used in the South seas, because with a brisk trade-wind trade-wind it fails near 20 miles an hour. In the construction of the proa, the head and stern are exactly alike, but the sides are very different; the side intended to be always the lee-side being flat; and the windward side made rounding, in the manner of other vessels; and, to prevent her over-fetting, which, from her small breadth, and the straight run of her leeward side, would, without this precaution, infallibly happen, there is a frame laid out from her to windward, to the end of which is fastened a log, fashioned into the shape of a small boat, and made hollow. The weight of the frame is intended to balance the proa, and the small-boat is by its buoyancy (as it is always in the water) to prevent her overfetting to windward; and this frame is usually called an outrigger. The body of the vessel is made of two pieces joined endwise, and sewed together with bark, for there is no iron used about her; she is about two inches thick at the bottom, which, at the gunwale, is reduced to less than one. The sail is made of matting, and the mast, yard, boom, and outriggers, are all made of bamboo. See Anson's Voyage, quarto, p. 341.