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SHOVE off from the wharf-edge! Steady!
Watch for a smooth! Give way!
If she feels the lop already
She'll stand on her head in the bay.
It's ebb–it's dusk–it's blowing–
The shoals are a mile of white,
But (snatch her along! ) we're going
To find our master to-night.

This is from "Song of the Red War-Boat" by Kipling.

I am glad if some one kindly teach me the meaning of two lines below.

Watch for a smooth!
If she feels the lop already

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  • From the full OED, smooth (noun, nautical) A stretch of comparatively smooth or calm water in a rough sea.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 12:34
  • @FumbleFingers Anyone who has kippled much is aware of the author's fondness for nautical arcana, but this one made me look twice. Did you know it without peeking?
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 19:37
  • @P. E. Dant: It's hard to be sure with things like this, but I certainly don't recall ever coming across this usage before. On the other hand, given the context, I was more or less expecting the definition I found above. If I hadn't immediately seen a subdefinition headed Naut on the first screen of definitions, I'd very likely have searched the entire multi-screen webpage for those four letters. Same with lop - which I did also search for, but it turned out that was really easy to find because it's a different etymology, so OED have a completely separate (short) entry for it.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jul 19, 2017 at 13:57

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It's hard to say for sure, but I'm guessing that "Watch for a smooth" means "Don't launch the boat when a big wave is coming," and the "lop" refers to a wave hitting the boat as it's being launched. (Therefore, the essence is: Be careful! If the boat gets hit by a big wave as it's being launched, it might tip over – i.e., "stand on its head")

In any case, I don't think it's day-to-day parlance (at least, not that I'm aware of – not even at a marina or wharf). It sounds very dated.

For what it's worth, the OED lists 8 different meanings of lop as a noun; one of them is a Nautical term, meaning, "A state of the sea in which the waves are short and lumpy." There are a few example usages provided (all from the 19th century):

  • There being a ‘lop’ on, the boat lurched to windward.
  • Quite a ‘lop’ of a sea gets up, but these battleships take no heed of it.
  • There was too much ‘lop’.
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  • @JR Thank so much,for your detailed and kind answer!! Hiroshi
    – Hiroshi Inagaki
    Commented Jul 18, 2017 at 23:15

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