neap tides

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea | 2006 | 524 words | Copyright

neap tides, those tides which occur during the first and third quarters of the moon when the pull of the sun is at right angles to that of the moon. The effect of this counteraction is to make the high water lower and the low water higher than when the sun and moon both exert their pull in the same direction, a condition which causes spring tides. To be neaped, the expression used of a vessel which goes aground on the spring tides and has to wait for the next ones before there is enough depth of water to float it off.

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"neap tides." The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

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