log-beaver

With the old hand-log, its line running out while the sand sped its way through the fourteen-seconds glass, the log-beaver might sometimes, by judicious "feeding" -- hurrying the line under the plea of not dragging the log-chip -- squeeze a little more record out of the log-line than the facts warranted; and Smith seemed to feel I might have done a little better for the watch and for the ship.

From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life 1877