'To speak a ship' definitions:

Definition of 'To speak a ship'

From: GCIDE

Speak \Speak\, v. t.
1. To utter with the mouth; to pronounce; to utter articulately, as human beings. [1913 Webster]
They sat down with him upn ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him. --Job. ii. 13. [1913 Webster]
2. To utter in a word or words; to say; to tell; to declare orally; as, to speak the truth; to speak sense. [1913 Webster]
3. To declare; to proclaim; to publish; to make known; to exhibit; to express in any way. [1913 Webster]
It is my father;s muste To speak your deeds. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
Speaking a still good morrow with her eyes. --Tennyson. [1913 Webster]
And for the heaven's wide circuit, let it speak The maker's high magnificence. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
Report speaks you a bonny monk. --Sir W. Scott. [1913 Webster]
4. To talk or converse in; to utter or pronounce, as in conversation; as, to speak Latin. [1913 Webster]
And French she spake full fair and fetisely. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster]
5. To address; to accost; to speak to. [1913 Webster]
[He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair. --Ecclus. xiii. 6. [1913 Webster]
each village senior paused to scan And speak the lovely caravan. --Emerson. [1913 Webster]
To speak a ship (Naut.), to hail and speak to her captain or commander. [1913 Webster]