Nautical Dictionary
Papa, in the International Code of Signals (ICS) it means:
In harbour: All persons should report on board as the vessel is about to proceed to sea.
At sea: It may be used by fishing vessels to mean: "My nets have come fast upon an obstruction."
P.M. [Lat. post meridiem.] Post meridian, or after mid-day.
P.M.A. Pacific Maritime Association.
P.O. Mark for a petty officer.
P.S.V. Platform Supply Vessel. Carries supplies to drilling units or installations during field de-velopment or production.
P&I. Protection and indemnity insurance.
PACE. A measure, often used for reconnoitring objects. The common pace is 2-1/2 feet, or half the geometrical pace. The pace is also often roughly assumed as a yard.
PACIFIC OCEAN. A name given by the Spaniards to the “Great Ocean,” from the fine weather they experienced on the coast of Peru. Other parts, however, prove this a misnomer.
PACK-ICE. A large collection of broken floe huddled together, but constantly varying its position; said to be open when the fragments do not touch, and close when the pieces are in contact.
PACKING-BOXES. Recesses in the casing of a steamer, directly facing the steam-ports, filled with hemp-packing and tallow, in order to form steam-tight partitions.
PACKS. Heavy thunder clouds.
PAD, OR PAD-PIECE. In ship-building, a piece of timber placed on the top of a beam at its middle part, in order to make up the curve or round of the deck.
PADDLE BOY. A frame of wood enclosing a paddle wheel.
PADDLE-BEAMS. Two large beams projecting over the sides of a steamer, between which the paddle-wheels revolve. (See SPONSON.)
PADDLE-BOX BOATS. Boats made to fit the paddle-box rim, stowed bottom upwards on each box.
PADDLE-BOX. The frame of wood which encircles the upper part of the paddle-wheel.
PADDLE-SHAFT. The stout iron axis carrying the paddle-wheels, which revolves with them when keyed.
PADDLE-STEAMER. A steam-ship propelled through the water by paddle-wheels.
PADDLE-WHEELS. The wheels on each side of a steamer, suspended externally by a shaft, and driven by steam, to propel her by the action of the floats.
PADDLE. A kind of oar, used by the natives of India, Africa, America, and by most savages; it is shorter and broader in the blade than the common oar.—To paddle, is to propel a boat more purely by hand, that is, without a fulcrum or rowlock.
PADDY-BOATS. A peculiar Ceylon boat, for the conveyance of rice and other necessaries.
PADDY, OR PADI. Rice in the husk, so called by the Malays, from whose language the word has found its way to all the coasts of India.
PADDY'S HURRICANE. Not wind enough to float the pennant.
PADRONE. (See PATRON or MASTER.) This word is not used in larger vessels than coasters.
PADUAN. A small Malay vessel, armed with two guns, one aft and the other forward, for piratical purposes.
PAGODA. Tall tapering buildings erected by the Chinese and other eastern nations, to note certain events, or as places for worship, of which the great pagoda of Pekin may be taken as an example. They are rather numerous on the banks of the Canton River. (See STAR-PAGODA.)
PAH. A New Zealand stronghold. (See HEP-PAH.)
PAHI. The large war-canoe of the Society Islands.
PAID OFF. See PAYING OFF.
PAINTER. A rope attached to the bows of a boat, used for making her fast: it is spliced with a thimble to a ring-bolt inside the stem. “Cut your painter,” make off.
PAIR-OAR. A name of the London wherry of a larger size than the scull.
PAIXHAN GUN. Introduced by the French General Paixhan about 1830, for the horizontal firing of heavy shells; having much greater calibre, but proportionally less metal, than the then current solid-shot guns.
PALABRAS. Sp. words; hence palaver amongst natives of new countries where the Spaniards have landed.
PALADIN. A knight-errant.
PALANQUIN. The covered litter of India.
PALAVER. See PALABRAS.
PALES AND CROSS-PALES. The interior shores by which the timbers of a ship are kept to the proper breadth while in frame.
PALISADES. [Sp.] Palings for defensive purposes, formed of timber or stout stakes fixed vertically and sharpened at the head.
PALLET. A ballast-locker formerly used, to give room in the hold for other stowage.
PALLET. A flat tray, generally made of wood but occasionally of steel, on which goods particularly those in boxes, cartons or bags, can be stacked. Its purpose is to facilitate the movement of such goods, mainly by the use of forklift trucks.
PALLETTING. A slight platform made above the bottom of the magazines, to keep the powder from moisture.
PALM-WINE. A sub-acid and pleasant fermented tropical drink. (See TODDY.)
PALM. The triangular face of the fluke of an anchor. Also, a shield-thimble used in sewing canvas, rope, &c. It consists of a flat thimble to receive the head of the needle, and is fixed upon a piece of canvas or leather, across the palm of the hand, hence the name.
PALMAIR. An old northern word for rudder. Also, a pilot.
PALMETTO. One of the palm tribe, from the sheath of which sennit is worked for seamen's (straw) hats.
PAMBAN MANCHE, OR SNAKE-BOAT OF COCHIN. A canoe used on the numerous rivers and back-waters, from 30 to 60 feet long, and cut out of the solid tree. The largest are paddled by about twenty men, double-banked, and, when pressed, they will go as much as 12 miles an hour.
PAMPAS. The Savannah plains of South America, so extensive that, as Humboldt observes, whilst their northern extremity is bounded by palm-trees, their southern limits are the eternal snows of the Magellanic straits.
PAMPERO. A violent squall of wind from the S.W., attended with rain, thunder, and lightning, over the immense plains or pampas of the Rio de la Plata, where it rages like a hurricane.
PAN. In fire-arms, is a small iron cavity of the old flint lock, adjacent to the touch-hole of the barrel, to contain the priming powder.
PANAMAX. A vessel designed to be just small enough to transit the Panama Canal.
PANCAKES. Thin floating rounded spots of snow ice, in the Arctic seas, and reckoned the first indication of the approach of winter, in August.
PANDEL. A Kentish name for the shrimp.
PANDOOR. A northern name for a large oyster, usually taken at the entrance of the pans.
PANGAIA. A country vessel of East Africa, like a barge, with one mat-sail of cocoa-nut leaves, the planks being pinned with wooden pins, and sewed with twine.
PANNIKIN. A small tin pot.
PANNYAR. Kidnapping negroes on the coast of Africa.
PANSHWAY. A fast-pulling passenger-boat used on the Hooghly.
PANTOGRAPH. An instrument to copy or reduce drawings.
PANTOMETER. An instrument for taking angles and elevations, and measuring distances.
PAOLO. A Papal silver coin, value 5-1/4_d.; ten paoli make a crown.
PAPS. Coast hills, with rounded or conical summits; the lofty paps of Jura are three in number.
PAR-LINE. A term signifying the normal level of a barometer for a given station, or the mean pressure between 32° and the sea-level, to which last the observations are all to be corrected and reduced.
PAR, OR PARR. In ichthyology, the samlet, brannock, or branling. Also, a commercial term of exchange, where the moneys are equalized.
PARA. A small Turkish coin of 3 aspers, 1-1/2 farthing.
PARABOLA. A geometrical figure formed by the section of a cone when cut by a plane parallel to its side.
PARADE. An assembling of troops in due military order. Also, the open space where they parade or are paraded. The quarter-deck of a man-of-war is often termed the sovereign's parade.
PARALLACTIC ANGLE. The angle made at a star by arcs passing through the zenith and pole respectively.
PARALLAX. An apparent change in the position of an object, arising from a change of the observer's station, and which diminishes with the altitude of an object in the vertical circle. Its effect is greatest in the horizon, where it is termed the horizontal parallax, and vanishes entirely in the zenith. The positions of the planets and comets, as viewed from the surface of the earth, differ from those they would occupy if observed from its centre by the amount of parallax, the due application of which is an important element. The stars are so distant that their positions are the same from whatever part of the earth they are seen; but attempts have been made to detect the amount of variation in their places, when observed from opposite points of the earth's orbit, the minute result of which is termed the annual parallax; and the former effect, due to the observer's station on our globe, is called the diurnal parallax.
PARALLEL OF LATITUDE. Is a circle parallel to the equator passing through any place. Almucantar is the Arabic name.
PARALLEL SAILING. Sailing nearly on a given parallel of latitude.
PARALLEL-BAR. In the marine steam-engine, forms a connection with the pump-rods and studs along the centre line of the levers.
PARALLEL. A term for those lines that preserve an equal distance from each other. It is sometimes used instead of latitude, as, “Our orders were to cruise in the parallel of Madeira.” More definitely, they are imaginary circles parallel with the equator, ninety in the northern, and ninety in the southern hemispheres.
PARALLELOGRAM. A right-lined quadrilateral figure, the opposite sides of which are parallel and equal.
PARALLELOPIPED. A prism or solid figure contained under six parallelograms, the opposite sides of which are equal and parallel.
PARALLELS OF DECLINATION. Secondary circles parallel to the celestial equator.
PARALLELS. The trenches or lines made by a besieger parallel to the general defence of a place, for the purpose of connecting and supporting his several approaches.
PARANZELLO. A small Mediterranean vessel, pink-sterned, with a lateen main-sail and mizen, and a large jib.
PARAPET. A breast-high defence against missiles; its top is usually sloped away to the front, that the defenders may conveniently fire over it; and it is preferred of earth, of a thickness proportionate to the kind of fire it is intended to resist; its height also is often much increased.
PARASANG. A Persian military measure, sometimes assumed as a league, but equal to about 4 English miles.
PARBUCKLE. A method of hauling up or lowering down a cask, or any cylindrical object, where there is no crane or tackle; the middle of a rope is passed round a post, the two ends are then passed under the two quarters of the cask, bringing the ends back again over it, and they being both hauled or slackened together, either raise or lower the cask, &c., as may be required. The parbuckle is frequently used in public-house vaults. Guns are parbuckled up steep cliffs without their carriages, and spars in timber-yards are so dealt with.
PARCEL, TO. To wind tarred canvas round a rope.
PARCELLING. Narrow strips of old canvas daubed with tar and frequently wound about a rope like bandages, previous to its being served.
PARCLOSE. A name of the limber-hole.
PARDON. The gazetted amnesty or remission of penalty for deserters who return to their duty; the same as act of grace.
PARGOS. A fish resembling a large bream, from which the crews of Quiros and Cook suffered violent pains and bad effects. The porgy of Africa and the West Indies.
PARHELION. A mock or false sun; sometimes more than one.
PARIAH. The low-caste people of Hindustan; outcasts.—Pariah-dogs ; also outcasts of no known breed.
PARK. A piece of ground (other than a battery) appointed for the ranging of guns or of ordnance stores.
PARLEY. That beat of drum by which a conference with the enemy is desired. Synonymous with chamade.—To parley. To bandy words.
PARLIAMENT-HEEL. The situation of a ship when careened by shift of ballast, &c.; or the causing her to incline a little on one side, so as to clean the side turned out of water, and cover it with fresh composition, termed boot-topping (which see).
PAROLE-EVIDENCE. In insurance cases it is a general rule, that the policy alone shall be conclusive evidence of the contract, and that no parole-evidence shall be received to vary the terms of it.
PAROLE. The word of honour given by a prisoner of war until exchanged. Also, synonymous with word (which see).
PARRALS, OR PARRELS. Those bands of rope, or sometimes iron collars, by which the centres of yards are fastened at the slings to the masts, so as to slide up and down freely when requisite.
PARREL WITH RIBS AND TRUCKS, OR JAW PARRELS. This is formed by passing the two parts of the parrel-rope through the two holes in the ribs, observing that between every two ribs is strung a truck on each part of the rope. (See RIBS and TRUCKS.) The ends of the parrel-rope are made fast with seizings; these were chiefly used on the topsail-yards.
PARREL WITH TRUCKS. Is composed of a single rope passing through a number of bull's-eye trucks, sufficient to embrace the mast; these are principally used for the cheeks of a gaff.
PARREL-ROPE. Is formed of a single rope well served, and fitted with an eye at each end; this being passed round the yard is seized fast on, the two ends are then passed round the after-part of the mast, and one of them being brought under, and the other over the yard, the two eyes are lashed together; this is seldom used but for the top-gallant and smaller yards.
PARSEES. The great native merchants of Bombay, &c., and a very useful class as merchants and shopkeepers all along the Malabar coast. They are the remains of the ancient Persians, and are Guebres, or fire-worshippers.
PART OWNERS. Unlike any other partnership, they may be imposed upon each other without mutual consent, whence arises a frequent appeal to both civil and common law. (See SHIP-OWNER.)
PART, TO. To break a rope. To part from an anchor is in consequence of the cable parting.
PARTAN. A name on our northern coasts for the common sea-crab.
PARTING. The state of being driven from the anchors by breaking the cables. The rupture or stranding of any tackle-fall or hawser.
PARTIZAN WARFARE. Insurrectionary, factional, and irregular hostilities.
PARTIZAN, OR PERTUISAN. A halbert formerly much used. Thus in Shakspeare (Antony and Cleopatra), “I had as lief have a reed that will do me no service, as a partizan I could not heave.” Also, a useful stirring man, fit for all sorts of desultory duties.
PARTNERS. A framework of thick plank, fitted round the several scuttles or holes in a ship's decks, through which the masts, capstans, &c., pass; but particularly to support it when the mast leans against it.
PARTNERSHIP with a neutral cannot legalize commerce with a belligerent.
PARTRIDGES. Grenades thrown from a mortar.
PARTY. The detachment of marines serving on board a man-of-war. Also, a gang of hands sent away on particular duties.
PASHA. Viceroy. A Turkish title of honour and command.
PASS-WORD. The countersign for answering the sentinels.
PASS, OR PASSPORT. A permission granted by any state to a vessel, to navigate in some particular sea without molestation; it contains all particulars concerning her, and is binding on all persons at peace with that state. It is also a letter of licence given by authority, granting permission to enter, travel in, and quit certain territories.
PASS, TO. To give from one to another, and also to take certain turns of a rope round a yard, &c., as “Pass the line along;” “pass the gasket;” “pass a seizing;” “pass the word there,” &c.
PASS. A geographical term abbreviated from passage, and applied to any defile for crossing a mountain chain. Also, any difficult strait which commands the entrance into a country. Also, a certificate of leave of absence for a short period only. Also, a thrust with a sword.
PASSAGE-BOAT. A small vessel employed in carrying persons or luggage from one port to another. Also, a ferry-boat.
PASSAGE-BROKER. One who is licensed to act in the procuring of passages by ships from one port to another.
PASSAGE-MONEY. The allowance made for carrying official personages in a royal ship. Also, the charge made for the conveyance of passengers in a packet or merchant- vessel.
PASSAGE. A voyage is generally supposed to comprise the outward and homeward passages. Also, a west-country term for ferry. (See VOYAGE.)
PASSAGES. Cuts in the parapet of the covered way to continue the communication throughout.
PASSANDEAU. An ancient 8-pounder gun of 15 feet.
PASSAREE, OR PASSARADO. A rope in use when before the wind with lower studding-sail booms out, to haul out the clues of the fore-sail to tail-blocks on the booms, so as to full-spread the foot of that sail.
PASSE-VOLANT. A name applied by the French to a Quaker or wooden gun on board ship; but it was adopted by our early voyagers as also expressing a movable piece of ordnance.
PASSED BOYS. Those who have gone through the round of instruction given in a training-ship.
PASSED. The having undergone a regular examination for preferment.
PASSENGER SHIP. A passenger ship that its authorized to carry over twelve passengers.
PASSPORT. See PASS.
PATACHE. A Portuguese tender, from 200 to 300 tons, for carrying treasure: well armed and swift.
PATACOON. A Spanish piece of eight, worth 4_s. 6_d.
PATALLAH. A large and clumsy Indian boat, for baggage, cattle, &c.
PATAMAR. An excellent old class of advice-boats in India, especially on the Bombay coast, both swift and roomy. They are grab-built, that is, with a prow-stern, about 76 feet long, 21 feet broad, 11 feet deep, and 200 tons burden. They are navigated with much skill by men of the Mopila caste and other Mussulmans.
PATAMOMETER. An instrument for measuring the force of currents.
PATAXOS. A small vessel formerly used by the Spaniards as an advice-boat.
PATCH. The envelope used with the bullet in old rifles.— Muzzle-patch is a projection on the top of the muzzle of some guns, doing away with the effect of dispart in laying.
PATELLA. The limpet, of which there are 250 known species.
PATERERO. A kind of small mortar sometimes fired for salutes or rejoicing, especially in Roman Catholic countries on holidays.
PATERNOSTER-WORK. The framing of a chain-pump.
PATH. The trajectory of a shell.
PATOO-PATOO. A formidable weapon with sharp edges, used by the Polynesian Islanders and New Zealanders as a sort of battle-axe to cleave the skulls of their enemies.
PATROL. The night-rounds, to see that all is right, and to insure regularity and order. PATRON, OR PADRONE. The master of a merchant vessel or coaster in the Mediterranean. Also, a cartridge-box, temp. Elizabeth.
PAUL BITT. A strong timber fixed perpendicularly at the back of the windlass in the middle, serving to support the system of pauls which are pinned into it, as well as to add security to the machine.
PAUL RIM. A notched cast-iron capstan-ring let into the ship's deck for the pauls to act on.
PAUL THERE, MY HEARTY. Tell us no more of that. Discontinue your discourse.
PAULER, THAT IS A. A closer or stopper; an unanswerable or puzzling decision.
PAULS, OR PAWLS. A stout but short set of bars of iron fixed close to the capstan- whelps, or windlass of a ship, to prevent them from recoiling and overpowering the men. Iron or wood brackets suspended to the paul-bitts of a windlass, and dropping into appropriate scores, act as a security to the purchase. To the windlass it is vertical; for capstans, horizontal, bolted to the whelps, and butting to the deck-rim.
PAUNCH-MAT. A thick and strong mat formed by interweaving sinnet or strands of rope as close as possible; it is fastened on the outside of the yards or rigging, to prevent their chafing.
PAVILION. A state tent.
PAVILLON [Fr.] Colours; flag; standard.
PAVISER. Formerly a soldier who was armed with a pavise or buckler.
PAWK. A young lobster.
PAWL. See PAULS.
PAY A MAST OR YARD, TO. To anoint it with tar, turpentine, rosin, tallow, or varnish; tallow is particularly useful for those masts upon which the sails are frequently hoisted and lowered, such as top-masts and the lower masts of sloops, schooners, &c.
PAY A VESSEL'S BOTTOM, TO. To cover it with tallow, sulphur, rosin, &c. (See BREAMING.)
PAY AWAY. The same as paying out (which see). To pass out the slack of a cable or rope.—Pay down. Send chests or heavy articles below.
PAY OFF. An expression used when a ship is in the wind, and is paying off again in the right direction.
PAY OUT. To slack away (to let out) a line that has been secured on board. To feed line over the side of the boat, hand over hand.
PAY ROUND, TO. To turn the ship's head.
PAY-SERJEANT, IN THE ARMY. A steady non-commissioned officer, selected by the captain of each company, to pay the subsistence daily to the men, after the proper deductions.
PAY, TO [from Fr. poix, pitch]. To pay a seam is to pour hot pitch and tar into it after caulking, to defend the oakum from the wet. Also, to beat or drub a person, a sense known to Shakspeare as well as to seamen.
PAY. A buccaneering principle of hire, under the notion of plunder and sharing in prizes, was, no purchase no pay.
PAYAREE. A rope rove through the clews of a fore course for guying them out to the swinging boom when running before the wind.
PAYING OFF. The movement by which a ship's head falls off from the wind, and drops to leeward. Also, the paying off the ship's officers and crew, and the removal of the ship from active service to ordinary.
PAYING OUT. The act of slackening a cable or rope, so as to let it run freely. When a man talks grandiloquently, he is said to be “paying it out.”
PAYMASTER. The present designation of the station formerly held by the purser; the officer superintending the provisioning and making payments to the crew.
PEA OR P.-JACKET. A skirtless loose rough coat, made of Flushing or pilot cloth.
PEA-BALLAST. A coarse fresh-water sand used by ships in the China trade for stowing tea-chests upon.
PEAK DOWN-HAUL. A rope rove through a block at the outer end of the gaff to haul it down by.
PEAK HALLIARDS. The ropes or tackles by which the outer end of a gaff is hoisted, as opposed to the throat-halliards (which see).
PEAK OF AN ANCHOR. The bill or extremity of the palm, which, as seamen by custom drop the k, is pronounced pea; it is tapered nearly to a point in order to penetrate the bottom.
PEAK PURCHASE. A purchase fitted in cutters to the standing peak-halliards to sway it up taut.
PEAK, TO. To raise a gaff or lateen yard more obliquely to the mast. To stay peak, or ride a short stay peak, is when the cable and fore-stay form a line: a long peak is when the cable is in line with the main-stay.
PEAK. The more or less conical summit of a mountain whether isolated or forming part of a chain. Also, the upper outer corner of those sails which are extended by a gaff.
PEARL. A beautiful concretion found in the interior of the shells of many species of mollusca, resulting from the deposit of nacreous substance round some nucleus, mostly of foreign origin. The Meleagrina margaritifera, or pearl oyster of the Indian seas, yields the most numerous and finest specimens.
PECTORAL FINS. The pair situated behind the gills of fishes, corresponding homologically to the fore limbs of quadrupeds and the wings of birds.
PEDESTAL-BLOCKS. Synonymous with plumber-blocks (which see).
PEDESTAL-RAIL. A rail about two inches thick, wrought over the foot-space rail, and in which there is a groove to steady the heel of the balusters of the galleries.
PEDRO-A-PIED [Pedro-pee]. The balance on one leg in walking a plank as a proof of sobriety. A man placed one foot on a seam and flourished the other before and behind, singing, “How can a man be drunk when he can dance Pedro-pee,” at which word he placed the foot precisely before the other on the seam, till he proved at least he had not lost his equilibrium. This was an old custom.
PEDRO. An early gun of large calibre for throwing stone-balls.
PEECE. An old term for a fortified position.
PEEGAGH. The Manx or Erse term for a large skate.
PEEK. See PEAK.
PEEL. A stronghold of earth and timber for defence. Also, the wash of an oar.
PEGASUS. One of the ancient northern constellations, of which the lucida is Markab.
PEKUL. A Chinese commercial weight of about 130 or 132 lbs.
PELAGIANS. Fishes of the open sea.
PELICAN. A well-known water-bird. Also, the old six-pounder culverin.
PELL [from the British pwll]. A deep hole of water, generally beneath a cataract or any abrupt waterfall. Also, a large pond.
PELLET-POWDER. Has its grains much larger and smoother, and is intended to act more gradually than service gunpowder, but by the English it is at present considered rather weak.
PELLET. An old word for shot or bullet.
PELTA. An ancient shield or buckler, formed of scales sewed on skins.
PEMBLICO. A small bird whose cry was deemed ominous at sea as presaging wind.
PEMMICAN. Condensed venison, or beef, used by the hunters around Hudson's Bay, and largely provided for the Arctic voyages, as containing much nutriment in a small compass. Thin slices of lean meat are dried over the smoke of wood fires; they are then pounded and mixed with an equal weight of their own fat. It is generally boiled and eaten hot where fire is available.
PEN BOARDS. Flat pieces of wood used to section out parts of the dory to hold fish.
PEN. A cape or conical summit. Also, the Creole name for houses and plantations in the country. Also, an inclosure for fishing on the coast.
PENA, OR PENON. High rocks on the Spanish coasts.
PENANG LAWYER. A cane, with the administration of which debts were wont to be settled at Pulo-Penang.
PENCEL. A small streamer or pennon.
PENDANT. A strop or short piece of rope fixed on each side, under the shrouds, upon the heads of the main and fore masts, from which it hangs as low as the cat-harpings, having an iron thimble spliced into an eye at the lower end to receive the hooks of the main and fore tackles. There are besides many other pendants, single or double ropes, to the lower extremity of which is attached a block or tackle; such are the fish-pendant, stay-tackle-pendant, brace-pendant, yard-tackle-pendant, reef-tackle-pendant, &c., all of which are employed to transmit the efforts of their respective tackles to some distant object.—Rudder-pendants. Strong ropes made fast to a rudder by means of chains. Their use is to prevent the loss of the rudder if by any accident it should get unshipped.
PENDANT. See PENNANT.
PENDULUM. A gravitating instrument for measuring the motion of a ship and thereby assisting the accuracy of her gunnery in regulating horizontal fire.
PENGUIN. A web-footed bird, of the genus Aptenodytes, unable to fly on account of the small size of its wings, but with great powers of swimming and diving: generally met with in high southern latitudes.
PENINSULA. A tract of land joined to a continent by a comparatively narrow neck termed an isthmus.
PENINSULAR WAR. A designation assigned to the Duke of Wellington's campaigns in Portugal and Spain.
PENKNIFE ICE. A name given by Parry to ice, the surface of which is composed of numberless irregular vertical crystals, nearly close together, from five to ten inches long, about half an inch broad, and pointed at both ends. Supposed to be produced by heavy drops of rain piercing their way through the ice rather than by any peculiar crystallization while freezing.
PENNANT-SHIP. Generally means the commodore, and vessels in the employ of government. It is also an authority delegated by the commander of convoy to some smart merchant ship to assist in the charge, and collect stragglers.
PENNANT. A long narrow banner with St. George's cross in the head, and hoisted at the main. It is the badge of a ship-of-war. Signal pennants are 9 feet long, tapering from 2 feet at the mast to 1 foot. They denote the vessels of a fleet; there are ten pennants, which can be varied beyond any number of ships present. When the pennant is half mast, it denotes the death of the captain. When hauled down the ship is out of commission. Broad pennant denotes a commodore, and is a swallow-tailed flag, the tails tapering, and would meet, if the exterior lines were prolonged; those of a cornet could not.
PENNOCK. A little bridge thrown over a water-course.
PENNY-WIDDIE. A haddock dried without being split.
PENSIONERS. Disabled soldiers or sailors received into the superb institutions of Chelsea and Greenwich, or, “recently if they choose,” receiving out-pensions.
PENSTOCK. A flood-gate to a mill-pond. Also used in fortification, for the purpose of inundating certain works.
PENTAGON. A right-lined figure of five equal sides and angles.
PENUMBRA. The lighter shade which surrounds the dark shadow of the earth in an eclipse of the moon. Also, the light shade which usually encircles the black spots upon the sun's disc.
PEON-WOOD. See POON-WOOD.
PEOTTA. A craft of the Adriatic, of light burden, propelled by oars and canvas.
PEPPER-DULSE. Halymenia edulis; a pungent sea-weed, which, as well as H. palmata, common dulse, is eaten in Scotland.
PER CONTAINER RATE. Rates and/or changes on shipments transported in containers or trailers and rated on the basis of the category of the container or trailer.
PER-CENTAGE. A proportional sum by which insurance, brokerage, freight, del credere, &c., are paid.
PERCER. A rapier; a short sword.
PERCH. A pole stuck up on a shoal as a beacon; or a spar erected on or projected from a cliff whence to watch fish.
PERCUSSION. The striking of one body by another.
PERDEWS. A corruption from enfans perdus, to designate those soldiers who are selected for the forlorn hope (which see).
PERIGEE. That point in the moon's orbit where she is nearest to the earth; or the point in the earth's orbit where we are nearest to the sun.
PERIHELION. That point in the orbit of a planet or comet which is nearest to the sun.
PERIKO. An undecked boat of burden in Bengal.
PERIL, OR PERIL OF THE SEA. Does not mean danger or hazard, but comprises such accidents as arise from the elements, and which could not be prevented by any care or skill of the master and crew. (See ACT OF GOD.)
PERIMETER. The sum of all the sides of a geometrical figure taken together.
PERIODIC INEQUALITIES. Those disturbances in the planetary motions, caused by their reciprocal attraction in definite periods.
PERIODIC TIME. The interval of time which elapses from the moment when a planet or comet leaves any point in its orbit, until it returns to it again.
PERIODICAL WINDS. See MONSOON and TRADE-WINDS.
PERIPHERY. The circumference of any curved figure.
PERISHABLE MONITION. The public notice by the court of admiralty for the sale of a ship in a perishable condition, whose owners have proved contumacious.
PERIWINKLE. The win-wincle of the Ang.-Sax., a favourite little shell-fish, the pin- patch, or Turbo littoreus.
PERMANENT MAGNETISM. The property of attraction and repulsion belonging to magnetized iron. (See INDUCED MAGNETISM.)
PERMANENT RANK. That given by commission, and which does not cease with any particular service.
PERMIT. A license to sell goods that have paid the duties or excise.
PERPENDICLE. The plumb-line of the old quadrant.
PERPENDICULAR. A right line falling from or standing upon another vertically, and making the angle of 90° on both sides.
PERRY. An old term for a sudden squall.
PERSONAL FLOATATION DEVICE. Approved floats meant as life preservers and carried on board American ships.
PERSONNEL. A word adopted from the French, and expressive of all the officers and men, civil and military, composing an army or a naval force.
PERSPECTIVE. The old term for a hand telescope. Also, the science by which objects are delineated according to their natural appearance and situation.
PERSUADER. A rattan, colt, or rope's end in the hands of a boatswain's mate. Also, a revolver.
PERTURBATIONS. The effects of the attractions of the heavenly bodies upon each other, whereby they are sometimes drawn out of their elliptic paths about the central body, as instanced by the wondrous discovery of Neptune.
PESAGE. A custom or duty paid for weighing merchandise, or other goods.
PESETA, OR PISTOREEN. A Spanish silver coin: one-fifth of a piastre.
PESSURABLE, OR PESTARABLE, of our old statutes, implied such merchandise as take up much room in a ship.
PETARD. A hat-shaped metal machine, holding from 6 to 9 lbs. of gunpowder; it is firmly fixed to a stout plank, and being applied to a gate or barricade, is fired by a fuse, to break or blow it open. (See POWDER-BAGS.)
PETARDIER. The man who fixes and fires a petard, a service of great danger. PET-COCK. A tap, or valve on a pump.
PETER-BOAT. A fishing-boat of the Thames and Medway, so named after St. Peter, as the patron of fishermen, whose cross-keys form part of the armorial bearings of the Fishmongers' Company of London. These boats were first brought from Norway and the Baltic; they are generally short, shallow, and sharp at both ends, with a well for fish in the centre, 25 feet over all, and 6 feet beam, yet in such craft boys were wont to serve out seven years' apprenticeship, scarcely ever going on shore.
PETER-MAN, OR PETERER. A fisherman. Also, the Dutch fishing vessels that frequented our eastern coast.
PETER. See BLUE PETER.
PETITORY SUITS. Causes of property, formerly cognizable in the admiralty court.
PETREL. The Cypselli of the ancients, and Mother Cary's chickens of sailors; of the genus Procellaria. They collect in numbers at the approach of a gale, running along the waves in the wake of a ship; whence the name peterel, in reference to St. Peter's attempt to walk on the water. They are seen in all parts of the ocean. The largest of the petrels, Procellaria fuliginosa, is known by seamen as Mother Cary's goose.
PETROLEUM. Called also rock, mineral, or coal, oil. A natural oil widely distributed over the globe, consisting of carbon and hydrogen, in the proportion of about 88 and 12 per cent. It burns fiercely with a thick black smoke; and attempts, not yet successful, have been made to adapt it as a fuel for steamers.
PETRONEL. An old term for a horse-pistol; also for a kind of carbine.
PETTAH. A town adjoining the esplanade of a fort.
PETTICOAT TROWSERS. A kind of kilt formerly worn by seamen in general, but latterly principally by fishermen. (See GALLIGASKINS.)
PETTY AVERAGE. Small charges borne partly by a ship, and partly by a cargo, such as expenses of towing, &c.
PETTY OFFICER. A divisional seaman of the first class, ranking with a sergeant or corporal.
PHALANX. An ancient Macedonian legion of varying numbers, formed into a square compact body of pikemen with their shields joined.
PHARONOLOGY. Denotes the study of, and acquaintance with, lighthouses.
PHAROS. A lighthouse; a watch-tower.
PHASELUS. An ancient small vessel, equipped with sails and oars.
PHASES. The varying appearances of the moon's disc during a lunation; also those of the inferior planets Venus and Mercury, as they revolve round the sun.
PHILADELPHIA LAWYER. “Enough to puzzle a Philadelphia lawyer” is a common nautical phrase for an inconsistent story.
PHINAK. A species of trout. (See FINNOCK.)
PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY. That department of the science which treats of the causes of the motions of the heavenly bodies.
PHYSICAL DOUBLE-STAR. See DOUBLE-STAR and BINARY SYSTEM.
PIASTRE. A Spanish silver coin, value 4_s. 3_d. sterling. Also, a Turkish coin of 40 paras, or 1_s. 7_d.
PICARD. A boat of burden on the Severn, mentioned in our old statutes.
PICCANINNY. A negro or mulatto infant.
PICCAROON. A swindler or thief. Also, a piratical vessel.
PICCARY. Piratical theft on a small scale.
PICK UP A WIND, TO. Traverses made by oceanic voyagers; to run from one trade or prevalent wind to another, with as little intervening calm as possible.
PICKERIE. An old word for stealing; under which name the crime was punishable by severe duckings.
PICKET. A pointed staff or stake driven into the ground for various military purposes, as the marking out plans of works, the securing horses to, &c. (See also PIQUET, an outguard.)
PICKETS. Two pointers for a mortar, showing the direction of the object to be fired at, though it be invisible from the piece.
PICKLE-HARIN. A sea-sprite, borrowed from the Teutonic.
PICKLING. A mode of salting naval timber in our dockyards, to insure its durability. (See BURNETTIZE.)
PICTARNIE. A name on our northern coasts for the Sterna hirundo, the tern, or sea- swallow.
PICUL. See PEKUL.
PIE. The beam or pole that is erected to support the gun for loading and unloading timber. Also called pie-tree.
PIECE OF EIGHT. The early name for the coin of the value of 8 reals, the well-known Spanish dollar.
PIER. A quay; also a strong mound projecting into the sea, to break the violence of the waves.
PIERCER. Used by sail-makers to form eyelet-holes.
PIG-TAIL. The common twisted tobacco for chewing.
PIG-YOKE. The name given to the old Davis quadrant.
PIGGIN. A little pail having a long stave for a handle; used to bale water out of a boat. PIG-IRON. (See SOW.) An oblong mass of cast-iron used for ballast; there are also pigs of lead. “A nodding beam or pig of lead May hurt the very ablest head.”
PIKE-TURN. See CHEVAUX DE FRISE. PIL, OR PYLL. A creek subject to the tide.
PIKE. (See HALF-PIKE.) A long, slender, round staff, armed at the end with iron. (See BOARDING-PIKE and PYKE.) Formerly in general use, but which gave way to the bayonet. Also, the peak of a hill. Also, a fish, the Esox lucius, nicknamed the fresh-water shark.
PILCHARD. The Clupea pilchardus, a fish allied to the herring, which appears in vast shoals off the Cornish coast about July.
PILE-DRIVER. A machine adapted for driving piles. Also, applied to a ship given to pitch heavily in a sea-way.
PILE. A pyramid of shot or shell.—To pile arms, is to plant three fire-locks together, and unite the ramrods, to steady the outspread butt-ends of the pieces resting on the ground. A pile is also a beam of wood driven into the ground to form by a number a solid foundation for building upon. A sheeting-pile has more breadth than thickness, and is much used in constructing coffer-dams.
PILGER. An east-country term for a fish-spear.
PILING ICE. In Arctic parlance, where from pressure the ice is raised, slab over slab, into a high mass, which consolidates, and is often mistaken for a berg.
PILL. (See PIL.) A term on the western coast for a draining rivulet, as well as the creek into which it falls.
PILLAGE. Wanton and mostly iniquitous plunder. But an allowed ancient practice, both in this and other countries, as shown by the sea ordinances of France, and our black book of the admiralty.
PILLAN. A northern coast name for the shear-crab.
PILLAR OF THE HOLD. A main stanchion with notches for descent.
PILLAW. A dish composed at sea of junk, rice, onions, and fowls; it figured at the marriage feast of Commodore Trunnion. It is derived from the Levantine pillaf.
PILLOW. A block of timber whereon the inner end of the bowsprit is supported. PILMER. The fine small rain so frequent on our western coasts.
PILOT CUTTER. A very handy sharp-built sea-boat used by pilots.
PILOT-FISH. Naucrates ductor, a member of the Scomber family, the attendant on the shark.
PILOT. An experienced person charged with the ship's course near the coasts, into roads, rivers, &c., and through all intricate channels, in his own particular district.—Branch pilot. One who is duly authorized by the Trinity board to pilot ships of the largest draft.
PILOT'S FAIR-WAY, OR PILOT'S WATER. A channel wherein, according to usage, a pilot must be employed.
PILOT'S-ANCHOR. A kedge used for dropping a vessel in a stream or tide-way.
PILOTAGE DUES. A fee payable by the owner or operator of a ship for the services of a pilot. This fee is normally based on the ship's tonnage.
PILOTAGE. The act carried out by a pilot of assisting the master of a ship in navigation when entering or leaving a port. Sometimes used to define the fee payable for the services of a pilot.
PILOTHOUSE. The enclosed space on the navigating bridge from which a ship is controlled when under way.
PIN-MAUL. See MAUL.
PIN-TAIL. The Anas acuta, a species of duck with a long pointed tail. Also, in artillery, the iron pin on the axle-tree of the limber, to which the trail-eye of the gun-carriage is attached for travel.
PINCH-GUT PAY. The short allowance money.
PINCH-GUT. A miserly purser.
PINE. A genus of lofty coniferous trees, abounding in temperate climates, and valuable for its timber and resin. The masts and yards of ships are generally of pine. (See PITCH- PINE.)—Pine is also a northern term for drying fish by exposure to the weather.
PING. The whistle of a shot, especially the rifle-bullets in their flight.
PINGLE. A small north-country coaster.
PINK. A ship with a very narrow stern, having a small square part above. The shape is of old date, but continued, especially by the Danes, for the advantage of the quarter-guns, by the ship's being contracted abaft. Also, one of the many names for the minnow.—To pink, to stab, as, between casks, to detect men stowed away.
PINKSTERN. A very narrow boat on the Severn.
PINNACE. A small vessel propelled with oars and sails, of two, and even three masts, schooner-rigged. In size, as a ship's boat, smaller than the barge, and, like it, carvel-built. The armed pinnace of the French coasts was of 60 or 80 tons burden, carrying one long 24-pounder and 100 men. In Henry VI. Shakspeare makes the pinnace an independent vessel, though Falstaff uses it as a small vessel attending on a larger. Also, metaphorically, an indifferent character.
PINNOLD. A term on our southern shores for a small bridge.
PINS.—Belaying pins. Short cylindrical pieces of wood or iron fixed into the fife-rail and other parts of a vessel, for making fast the running-rigging.
PINTADOS. Coloured or printed chintzes, formerly in great demand from India, and among the fine goods of a cargo.
PINTLES. The rudder is hung on to a ship by pintles and braces. The braces are secured firmly to the stern-post by jaws, which spread and are bolted on each side. The pintles are hooks which enter the braces, and the rudder is then wood-locked; a dumb pintle on the heel finally takes the strain off the hinging portions.
PIONEERS. A proportion of troops specially assigned to the clearing (from natural impediments) the way for the main body; hence, used generally in the works of an army, its scavenging, &c. Labourers of the country also are sometimes so used.
PIPE DOWN! The order to dismiss the men from the deck when a duty has been performed on board ship.
PIPE-CLAY. Known to the ancients under the name of paretonium ; formerly indispensable to soldiers as well as the jolly marines.
PIPE-FISH. A fish of the genus Syngnathus, with an elongated slender body and long tubular mouth.
PIPE. A measure of wine containing two hogsheads, or 125 gallons, equal to half a tun. Also, a peculiar whistle for summoning the men to duty, and directing their attention by its varied sounds. (See CALL.)
PIPER. A half-dried haddock. Also, the shell Echinus cidaris. Also, the fish Trigla lyra.
PIQUET. A proportion of a force set apart and kept on the alert for the security of the whole.—The outlying piquet, some distance from the main body, watches all hostile approach.—The inlying piquet is ready to act in case of internal disorder, or of alarm.
PIRACY. Depredation without authority, or transgression of authority given, by despoiling beyond its warrant. Fixed domain, public revenue, and a certain form of government, are exempt from that character, therefore the Barbary States were not treated by Europe as such. The Court of Admiralty is empowered to grant warrants to commit any person for piracy, only on regular information upon oath. By common law, piracy consists in committing those acts of robbery and depredation upon the high seas, which, if committed on land, would have amounted to felony, and the pirate is deemed hostis humani generis.
PIRAGUA [Sp. per agua]. See PIROGUE.
PIRATE. A sea-robber, yet the word pirata has been formerly taken for a sea-captain. Also, an armed ship that roams the seas without any legal commission, and seizes or plunders every vessel she meets; their colours are said to be a black field with a skull, a battle-axe, and an hour-glass. (See PRAHU.)
PIRIE. An old term for a sudden gust of wind.
PIRLE. An archaic word signifying a brook or stream.
PIROGUE, OR PIRAGUA. A canoe formed from the trunk of a large tree, generally cedar or balsa wood. It was the native vessel which the Spaniards found in the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west coasts of South America; called also a dug-boat in North America.
PISCARY. A legal term for a fishery. Also, a right of fishing in the waters belonging to another person.
PISCES. The twelfth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the 21st of February.
PISCIS AUSTRALIS. One of the ancient southern constellations, the lucida of which is Fomalhaut.
PISTOL-PROOF. A term for the point of courage for which a man was elected captain by pirates.
PISTOL. An old word for a swaggering rogue; hence Shakspeare's character in Henry V.
PISTOLA. A Papal gold coin of the sterling value of 13_s. 11_d.
PISTOLE. A Spanish gold coin, value 16_s. 6_d. sterling.
PISTOLET. This name was applied both to a small pistol and a Spanish pistole.
PISTOLIERS. A name for the heavy cavalry, temp. Jac. I.
PISTON-ROD. A rod which is firmly fixed in the piston by a key driven through both.
PISTON. In the marine steam-engine, a metal disc fitting the bore of the cylinder, and made to slide up and down within it easily, in order, by its reciprocating movement, to communicate motion to the engine.
PIT-PAN. A flat-bottomed, trough-like canoe, used in the Spanish Main and in the West Indies.
PIT-POWDER. That made with charcoal which has been burned in pits, not in cylinders.
PIT. In the dockyards. See SAW-PIT.
PITCH IN, TO. To set to work earnestly; to beat a person violently. (A colloquialism.)
PITCH-BOAT. A vessel fitted for boiling pitch in, which should be veered astern of the one being caulked.
PITCH-KETTLE. That in which the pitch is heated, or in which it is carried from the pitch-pot.
PITCH-LADLE. Is used for paying decks and horizontal work.
PITCH-MOP. The implement with which the hot pitch is laid on to ships' sides and perpendicular work.
PITCH-PINE. Pinus resinosa, commonly called Norway or red pine. (See PINE.)
PITCH. Tar and coarse resin boiled to a fluid yet tenacious consistence. It is used in a hot state with oakum in caulking the ship to fill the chinks or intervals between her planks. Also, in steam navigation, the distance between two contiguous threads of the screw-propeller, is termed the pitch. Also, in gunnery, the throw of the shot.—To pitch, to plant or set, as tents, pavements, pitched battles, &c.
PITCHED. A word formerly used for stepped, as of a mast, and also for thrown. PITCH-HOUSE. A place set apart for the boiling of pitch for the seams and bottoms of vessels.
PITCHING. The plunging of a ship's head in a sea-way; the vertical vibration which her length makes about her centre of gravity; a very straining motion.
PITH. Well known as the medullary part of the stem of a plant; but figuratively, it is used to express strength and courage.
PIVOT-GUN. Mounted on a frame carriage which can be turned radially, so as to point the piece in any direction.
PIVOT-SHIP. In certain fleet evolutions, the sternmost ship remains stationary, as a pivot upon which the other vessels are to form the line anew.
PIVOT. A cylinder of iron or other metal, that may turn easily in a socket. Also, in a column of troops, that flank by which the dressing and distance are regulated; in a line, that on which it wheels.
PLACE FOR EVERYTHING, AND EVERYTHING IN ITS PLACE. One of the golden maxims of propriety on board ship.
PLACE OF ARMS. In fortification, a space contrived for the convenient assembling of troops for ulterior purposes; the most usual are those at the salient and re-entering angles of the covered-way.
PLACE. A fortress, especially its main body.
PLACER. A Spanish nautical term for shoal or deposit. Also, for deposits of precious minerals.
PLACES OF CALL. Merchantmen must here attend to two general rules:—If these places of call are enumerated in the charter-party, then such must be taken in the order laid down; but if leave be given to call at all, or any, then they must be taken in their geographical sequence.
PLAGES [Lat.] An old word for the divisions of the globe; as, plages of the north, the northern regions.
PLAIN. A term used in contradistinction to mountain, though far from implying a level surface, and it may be either elevated or low.
PLAN OF THE TRANSOMS. The horizontal appearance of them, to which the moulds are made, and the bevellings taken.
PLAN. The area or imaginary surface defined by, or within any described lines. In ship- building, the plan of elevation, commonly called the sheer-draught, is a side-plan of the ship. ( See HORIZONTAL PLAN and BODY-PLAN, or plan of projection.)
PLANE OF THE MERIDIAN. See MERIDIAN.
PLANE TRIANGLE. One contained by three right lines.
PLANE-CHART. One constructed on the supposition of the earth's being an extended plane, and therefore but little in request.
PLANE-SAILING. That part of navigation which treats a ship's course as an angle, and the distance, difference of latitude, and easting or westing, as the sides of a right-angled triangle. The easting or westing is called departure. To convert this into difference of longitude, parallel, middle latitude, or Mercator's sailing is needed, depending on circumstances. Plane-sailing is so simple that it is colloquially used to express anything so easy that it is impossible to make a mistake.
PLANE. In a general sense, a perfectly level surface; but it is a term used by shipwrights, implying the area or imaginary surface contained within any particular outlines, as the plane of elevation, or sheer-draught, &c.
PLANETS, PRIMARY. Those beautiful opaque bodies which revolve about the sun as a centre, in nearly circular orbits. (See INFERIOR, MINOR, and SUPERIOR.)
PLANETS, SECONDARY. The satellites, or moons, revolving about some of the primary planets—the moon being our satellite.
PLANIMETRY. The mensuration of plane surfaces.
PLANK IT, TO. To sleep on the bare decks, choosing, as the galley saying has it, the softest plank.
PLANK-SHEER. Pieces of plank covering the timber-heads round the ship; also, the gunwale or covering-board. The space between this and the line of flotation has latterly been termed the free-board.
PLANK. Thick boards, 18 feet long at least, from 1-1/2 to 4 inches thick, and 9 or 10 inches broad; of less dimensions, it is called board or deal (which see), the latter being 8 or 9 inches wide, by 14 feet long.
PLANKING. The outside and inside casing of the vessel.
PLANT. A stock of tools, &c. Also, the fixtures, machinery, &c., required to carry on a business.
PLANTER. In Newfoundland it means a person engaged in the fishery; and in the United States the naked trunk of a tree, which, imbedded in a river, becomes one of the very dangerous snag tribe.
PLASH, TO. To wattle or interweave branches.
PLASTRON. A pad used by fencers. Also, the shield on the under surface of a turtle. PLATE. In marine law, refers to jewels, plate, or treasure, for which freight is due. Thus, plate-ship is a galleon so laden.
PLATE-ARMOUR. Thick coverings or coatings for ships on the new principle, to render them impervious to shot and shell, if kept just outside of breaking-plate distance.
PLATE. Backstay-plate. A piece of iron used instead of a chain to confine the dead-eye of the backstay to the after-channel.— Foot-hook or futtock plates. Iron bands fitted to the lower dead-eyes of the topmast-shrouds, which, passing through holes in the rim of the top, are attached to the upper ends of the futtock-shrouds.
PLATEAU. An upland flat-topped elevation.
PLATFORM. A kind of deck for any temporary or particular purpose: the orlop-deck, having store-rooms and cabins forward and aft, and the middle part allotted to the stowage of cables. Also, the flooring elevation of stone or timber on which the carriage of a gun is placed for action. Hence, in early voyages, a fort or battery, with well- mounted ordnance, is called “the platform.”
PLATOON. Originally a small square body or subdivision of musketeers; hence, platoon exercise, that which relates to the loading and firing of muskets in the ranks; and platoon firing, i.e. by subdivisions.
PLAY. Motion in the frame, masts, &c. Also said of the marine steam-engine when it is in action or in play. Also, in long voyages or tedious blockades.
PLAYTE. An old term for a river-boat.
PLEDGET. The string of oakum used in caulking. Also, in surgery, a small plug of lint.
PLEIADES. The celebrated cluster of stars in Taurus, of which seven or eight are visible to the naked eye; the assisted vision numbers over 200.
PLENY TIDES. Full tides.
PLICATILES. Ancient vessels built of wood and leather, which could be taken to pieces and carried by land.
PLONKETS. Coarse woollen cloths of former commerce. (See statute 1 R. III. c. 8.)
PLOT, OR PLOTT. A plan or chart. (See ICHNOGRAPHY.)
PLOTTING. The making of the plan after an actual survey of the place has been obtained.
PLOUGH. An instrument formerly used for taking the sun's altitude, and possessed of large graduations. When a ship cuts briskly through the sea she is said to plough it.
PLUCKER. The fishing frog, Lophius piscatorius.
PLUG. A conical piece of wood to let in or keep out water, when fitted to a hole in the bottom of a boat.—Hawse-plugs. To stop the hawse-holes when the cables are unbent, and the ship plunges in a head-sea.—Shot-plugs. Covered with oakum and tallow, to stop shot-holes in the sides of a ship near the water-line; being conical, they adapt themselves to any sized shot-holes.
PLUMB. Right up and down, opposed to parallel.—To plumb. To form the vertical line. Also, to sound the depth of water.
PLUMBER-BLOCKS. These, in a marine steam-engine, are Y's, wherein are fixed the bushes, in which the shafts or pinions revolve.
PLUMMET. A name sometimes given to the hand-lead, or any lead or iron weight suspended by a string, as used by carpenters, &c.
PLUNDER. A name given to the effects of the officers and crew of a prize, when pillaged by the captors, though the act directs that “nothing shall be taken out of a prize- ship till condemned.” (See PILLAGE.)
PLUNGING FIRE. A pitching discharge of shot from a higher level, at such an angle that the shot do not ricochet.
PLUNGING SPLASH. The descent of the anchor into the water when let go.
PLUSH [evidently from plus]. The overplus of the grog, arising from being distributed in a smaller measure than the true one, and assigned to the cook of each mess, becomes a cause of irregularity. (See TOT.)
PLUVIOMETER, OR RAIN-GAUGE. A measurer of the quantity of rain which falls on a square foot. There are various kinds.
PLY, TO. To carry cargoes or passengers for short trips. Also, to work to windward, to beat. Also, to ply an oar, to use it in pulling.
PLYMOUTH CLOAK. An old term for a cane or walking stick.
POCHARD. A kind of wild duck.
POCKET. A commercial quantity of wool, containing half a sack. Also, the frog of a belt.
POD. A company of seals or sea-elephants.
POGGE. The miller's thumb, Cottus cataphractus.
POHAGEN. A fish of the herring kind, called also hard-head (which see).
POINT A GUN, TO. To direct it on a given object.
POINT A SAIL, TO. To affix points through the eyelet-holes of the reefs. (See POINTS.)
POINT BRASS OR IRON. A large sort of plumb for the nice adjustment of perpendicularity for a given line.
POINT OF THE COMPASS. The 32d part of the circumference, or 11° 15'.
POINT-BEACHER. A low woman of Portsmouth.
POINT-BLANK FIRING. That wherein no elevation is given to the gun, its axis being pointed for the object.
POINT-BLANK RANGE. The distance to which a shot was reckoned to range straight, without appreciable drooping from the force of gravity. It varied from 300 to 400 yards, according to the nature of gun; and was measured by the first graze of the shot fired horizontally from a gun on its carriage on a horizontal plane. The finer practice of rifled guns is much abating the use of the term, minute elevations being added to the point- blank direction for even the very smallest ranges.
POINT-BLANK. Direct on the object; “blank” being the old word for the mark on the practice-butt.
POINT-DE-GALLE CANOE. Consists of a single stem of Dúp wood, 18 to 30 feet long, from 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 feet broad, and from 2 to 3 feet deep. It is fitted with a balance log at the ends of two bamboo out-riggers, having the mast, yard, and sail secured together; and, when sailing, is managed in a similar way to the catamaran. They sail very well in strong winds, and are also used by the natives of the Eastern Archipelago, especially at the Feejee group, where they are very large.
POINT-HOLES. The eyelet-holes for the points.
POINT. A low spit of land projecting from the main into the sea, almost synonymous with promontory or head. Also, the rhumb the winds blow from.
POINTER-BOARD. A simple contrivance for duly training a ship's guns.
POINTER. The index or indicator of an instrument.—Station pointer. A brass graduated circle with one fixed and two radial legs; by placing them at two adjoining angles taken by a sextant between three known objects, the position of the observer is fixed on the chart.
POINTERS. Stout props, placed obliquely to the timbers of whalers, to sustain the shock of icebergs. All braces placed diagonally across the hold of any vessel, to support the bilge and prevent loose-working, are called pointers. Also, the general designation for the stars {a} and {b} in the Great Bear, a line through which points nearly upon the pole-star.
POINTING. The operation of unlaying and tapering the end of a rope, and weaving some of its yarns about the diminished part, which is very neat to the eye, prevents it from being fagged out, and makes it handy for reeving in a block, &c.
POINTS OF SERVICE. The principal details of duty, which ought to be executed with zeal and alacrity.
POINTS. See REEF-POINTS.—Armed at all points, is when a man is defended by armour cap-à-pie.
POLACRE. A ship or brig of the Mediterranean; the masts are commonly formed of one spar from truck to heel, so that they have neither tops nor cross-trees, neither have they any foot-ropes to their upper yards, because the men stand upon the topsail-yards to loose and furl the top-gallant sails, and upon the lower yards to loose, reef, or furl the top-sails, all the yards being lowered sufficiently for that purpose.
POLANS. Knee-pieces in armour.
POLAR CIRCLES. The Arctic and the Antarctic; 23° 28' from either pole.
POLAR COMPRESSION. See COMPRESSION OF THE POLES.
POLAR DISTANCE. The complement of the declination. The angular distance of a heavenly body from one of the poles, counted on from 0° to 180°.
POLAR REGIONS. Those parts of the world which lie within the Arctic and Antarctic circles.
POLARIS. See POLE-STAR.
POLDAVIS, OR POLDAVY. A canvas from Dantzic, formerly much used in our navy. A kind of sail-cloth thus named was also manufactured in Lancashire from about the year 1500, and regulated by statute 1 Jac. cap. 24.
POLE-MASTS. Single spar masts, also applied where the top-gallant and royal masts are in one. (See MAST.)
POLE-STAR. {a} Ursæ minoris. This most useful star is the lucida of the Little Bear, round which the other components of the constellation and the rest of the heavens appear to revolve in the course of the astronomical day.
POLE. The upper end of the highest masts, when they rise above the rigging.
POLEAXE, OR POLLAX. A sort of hatchet, resembling a battle-axe, which was used on board ship to cut away the rigging of an adversary. Also in boarding an enemy whose hull was more lofty than that of the boarders, by driving the points of several into her side, one above another, and thus forming a kind of scaling-ladder; hence were called boarding-axes.
POLEMARCH. The commander-in-chief of an ancient Greek army.
POLES. Two points on the surface of the earth, each 90° distant from all parts of the equator, forming the extremities of the imaginary line called the earth's axis. The term applies also to those points in the heavens towards which the terrestrial axis is always directed.— Under bare poles. The situation of a ship at sea when all her sails are furled. (See SCUD and TRY.)
POLICY. A written contract, by which the insurers oblige themselves to indemnify sea- risks under various conditions. An interest policy, is where the insurer has a real assignable interest in the thing insured; a wager policy, is where the insurer has no substantial interest in the thing insured; an open policy, is where the amount of interest is not fixed, but left to be ascertained in case of loss; a valued policy, is where an actual value has been set on the ship or goods.
POLLACK. The Merlangus pollachius, a well-known member of the cod family.
POLLUX. {b} Geminorum. A bright and well-known star in the ancient constellation Gemini, of which it is the second in brightness.
POLRON. That part of the armour which covered the neck and shoulders.
POLTROON. Not known in the navy.
POLYGON. A geometrical figure of any number of sides more than four; regular or irregular. In fortification the term is applied to the plan of a piece of ground fortified or about to be fortified; and hence, in some countries, to a fort appropriated as an artillery and engineering school.
POLYMETER. An instrument for measuring angles.
POLYNESIA. A group of islands: a name generally applied to the islands of the Pacific Ocean collectively, whether in clusters or straggling.
POMELO, OR PUMELO. Citrus decumana. A large fruit known by this name in the East Indies, but in the West by that of shaddock, after Captain Shaddock, who introduced it there.
POMFRET. A delicate sea-fish, taken in great quantities in Bombay and Madras.
POMMELION. A name given by seamen to the cascable or hindmost knob on the breech of a cannon.
PONCHES. Small bulk-heads made in the hold to stow corn, goods, &c.
PONCHO. A blanket with a hole in the centre, large enough for the head to pass through, worn by natives of South and Western America.
POND. A word often used for a small lagoon, but improperly, for ponds are formed exclusively from springs and surface-drainage, and have no affluent. Also, a cant name for the Mediterranean. Also, the summit-level of a canal.
PONENT. Western.
PONIARD. A short dagger with a sharp edge.
PONTAGE. A duty or toll collected for the repair and keeping of bridges.
PONTONES. Ancient square-built ferry-boats for passing rivers, as described by Cæsar and Aulus Gellius.
PONTOON. A large low flat vessel resembling a barge of burden, and furnished with cranes, capstans, tackles, and other machinery necessary for careening ships; they are principally used in the Mediterranean. Also, a kind of portable boat specially adapted for the formation of the floating bridges required by armies: they are constructed of various figures, and of wood, metal, or prepared canvas (the latter being most in favour at present), and have the necessary superstructure and gear packed with them for transport.
POO. A small crab on the Scottish coast.
POOD. A Russian commercial weight, equal to 36 lbs. English.
POODLE. An old Cornish name for the English Channel. Also, a slang term for the aide- de-camp of a garrison general.
POOL. Is distinguished from a pond, in being filled by springs or running water. Also, a pwll or port.
POOLING. The sharing of cargo or the profit or loss from freight by member lines of a liner conference. Pooling arrangements do not exist in all conferences.
POOP-LANTERN. A light carried by admirals to denote the flag-ship by night.
POOP-NETTING. See HAMMOCK-NETTINGS.
POOP-RAILS. The stanchions and rail-work in front of the poop. (See BREAST- WORK and FIFE-RAILS.)
POOP-ROYAL. A short deck or platform placed over the aftmost part of the poop in the largest of the French and Spanish men-of-war, and serving as a cabin for their masters and pilots. This is the topgallant-poop of our shipwrights, and the former round-house cabin of our merchant vessels.
POOP. [From the Latin puppis.] The aftermost and highest part of a large ship's hull. Also, a deck raised over the after-part of a spar-deck, sometimes called the round-house. A frigate has no poop, but is said to be pooped when a wave strikes the stern and washes on board.
POOPED. A wave breaking over the stern of a ship is said to poop her.
POOPING, OR BEING POOPED. The breaking of a heavy sea over the stern or quarter of a boat or vessel when she scuds before the wind in a gale, which is extremely dangerous, especially if deeply laden.
POOR JOHN. Hake-fish salted and dried, as well as dried stock-fish, and bad bacalao, or cod, equally cheap and coarse. Shakspeare mentions it in Romeo and Juliet.
POPLAR. The tree which furnishes charcoal for the manufacture of gunpowder.
POPLER. An old name for a sea-gull.
POPPETS. Upright pieces of stout square timber, mostly fir, between the bottom and bilge-ways, at the run and entrance of a ship about to be launched, for giving her further support. Also, poppets on the gunwale of a boat support the wash-strake, and form the rowlocks.
POPPLING SEA. Waves in irregular agitation.
PORBEAGLE. A kind of shark.
PORPESSE, PORPOISE, OR PORPUSS. The Phoc[oe]na communis. One of the smallest of the cetacean or whale order, common in the British seas.
PORT ARMS! The military word of command to bring the fire-lock across the front of the body, muzzle slanting upwards; a motion preparatory for the “charge bayonets!” or for inspecting the condition of the locks.
PORT CIP. Contracts with berth CIP. NOR can be given when within commercial limits of the port.
PORT-BARS. Strong pieces of oak, furnished with two laniards, by which the ports are secured from flying open in a gale of wind, the bars resting against the inside of the ship; the port is first tightly closed by its hooks and ring-bolts.
PORT-CHARGES, OR HARBOUR-DUES. Charges levied on vessels resorting to a port.
PORT-FIRE. A stick of composition, generally burning an inch a minute, used to convey fire from the slow-match or the like to the priming of ordnance, though superseded with most guns by locks or friction-tubes. With a slightly altered composition it is used for signals; also for firing charges of mines.
PORT-FLANGE. In ship-carpentry, is a batten of wood fixed on the ship's side over a port, to prevent water or dirt going into the port.
PORT-GLAIVE. A sword-bearer.
PORT-LAST, OR PORTOISE. Synonymous with gunwale.
PORT-MEN. A name in old times for the inhabitants of the Cinque Ports; the burgesses of Ipswich are also so called.
PORT-MOTE. A court held in haven towns or ports.
PORT-NAILS. These are classed double and single: they are similar to clamp-nails, and like them are used for fastening iron work.
PORT-PENDANTS. Ropes spliced into rings on the outside of the port-lids, and rove through leaden pipes in the ship's sides, to work the port-lids up or down by the tackles.
PORT-PIECE. An ancient piece of ordnance used in our early fleets. PORT-PIECE CHAMBER. A paterero for loading a port-piece at the breech.
PORT-REEVE. A magistrate of certain sea-port towns in olden times. PORT-ROPES. Those by which the ports are hauled up and suspended.
PORT-SALE. A public sale of fish on its arrival in the harbour.
PORT-SASHES. Half-ports fitted with glass for the admission of light into cabins.
PORT-SHACKLES. The rings to the ports.
PORT-SILLS. In ship-building, pieces of timber put horizontally between the framing to form the top and bottom of a port.
PORT-TACKLES. Those falls which haul up and suspend the lower-deck ports, so that since the admiralty order for using the word port instead of larboard, we have port port- tackle falls.
PORT. An old Anglo-Saxon word still in full use. It strictly means a place of resort for vessels, adjacent to an emporium of commerce, where cargoes are bought and sold, or laid up in warehouses, and where there are docks for shipping. It is not quite a synonym of harbour, since the latter does not imply traffic. Vessels hail from the port they have quitted, but they are compelled to have the name of the vessel and of the port to which they belong painted on the bow or stern.—Port is also in a legal sense a refuge more or less protected by points and headlands, marked out by limits, and may be resorted to as a place of safety, though there are many ports but rarely entered. The left side of the ship is called port, by admiralty order, in preference to larboard, as less mistakeable in sound for starboard.—To port the helm. So to move the tiller as to carry the rudder to the starboard side of the stern-post.— Bar-port. One which can only be entered when the tide rises sufficiently to afford depth over a bar; this in many cases only occurs at spring- tides.—Close-port. One within the body of a city, as that of Rhodes, Venice, Amsterdam, &c.—Free-port. One open and free of all duties for merchants of all nations to load and unload their vessels, as the ports of Genoa and Leghorn. Also, a term used for a total exemption of duties which any set of merchants enjoy, for goods imported into a state, or those exported of the growth of the country. Such was the privilege the English enjoyed for several years after their discovery of the port of Archangel, and which was taken from them on account of the regicide in 1648.
PORTABLE SOUP, and other preparations of meat. Of late years a very valuable part of naval provision.
PORTAGE. Tonnage. Also, the land carriage between two harbours, often high and difficult for transport. Also, in Canadian river navigation means the carrying canoes or boats and their cargo across the land, where the stream is interrupted by rocks or rapids.
PORTCULLIS. A heavy frame of wooden or iron bars, sliding in vertical grooves within the masonry over the gateway of a fortified town, to be lowered for barring the passage. When hastily made, it was termed a sarrazine.
PORTE. See SUBLIME PORTE.
PORTHOLES. Holes in the sides of a ship, to point cannon out of, called now embrasures.
PORTS, OR PORT-HOLES. The square apertures in the sides of a ship through which to point and fire the ordnance. Also, aft and forward, as the bridle-port in the bows, the quarter-port in round-stern vessels, and stern-ports between the stern-timbers. Also, square holes cut in the sides, bow, or stem of a merchant ship, for taking in and discharging timber cargoes, and for other purposes.— Gunroom-ports. Are situated in the ship's counter, and are used for stern-chasers, and also for passing a small cable or a hawser out, either to moor head and stern, or to spring upon the cable, &c. (See MOOR and SPRING.)—Half-port. A kind of shutter which hinges on the lower side of a port, and falls down outside when clear for action; when closed it half covers the port to the line of metal of the gun, and is firmly secured by iron hooks. The upper half-port is temporary and loose, will not stand a heavy sea, and is merely secured by two light inch- rope laniards.
PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. A beautiful floating acalephan of the tropical seas; the Physalia pelagica.
PORTUGUESE. A gold coin, value £1, 16_s., called also moiadobras.
POSITION, GEOGRAPHICAL, of any place on the surface of the earth, is the determination of its latitude and longitude, and its height above the level of the sea.
POSITION. Ground (or water) occupied, or that may be advantageously occupied, in fighting order.
POSSESSORY. A suit entered in the admiralty court by owners for the seizing of their ship.
POST OF HONOUR. The advance, and the right of the lines of any army.
POST-CAPTAIN. Formerly a captain of three years' standing, now simply captain, but equal to colonel in the army, by date of commission.
POST. Any ground, fortified or not, where a body of men can be in a condition for defence, or fighting an enemy. Also, the limits of a sentinel's charge.
POSTED. Promoted from commander to captain in the navy; a word no longer officially used.
POSTERN. A small passage constructed through some retired part of a bastion, or other portion of a work, for the garrison's minor communications with the town, unperceived by the enemy.
POSTING. Placing people for special duty. Also, publicly handing out a bad character.
POUCH. A case of strong leather for carrying ammunition, used by soldiers, marines, and small-arm men. Also, the crop of a shark.
POUCHES. Wooden bulk-heads across the hold of cargo vessels, to prevent grain or light shingle from shifting.
POULDRON. A shoulder-piece in armour. Corrupted from epauldron.
POULTERER. Called “Jemmy Ducks” on board ship; he assists the butcher in the feeding and care of the live stock, &c.
POUND-AND-PINT-IDLER. A sobriquet applied to the purser.
POUND. A lagoon, or space of water, surrounded by reefs and shoals, wherein fish are kept, as at Bermuda.
POUNDER. A denomination applied to guns according to the weight of the shot they carry; at present everything larger than the 100-pounder is described by the diameter of its bore, coupled with its total weight.
POW. A name on the Scotch shores for a small creek. Also, a mole.
POWDER-BAGS. Leathern bags containing from 20 to 40 lbs. of powder; substituted for petards at the instance of Lord Cochrane, as being more easily placed. They have lately been called Ghuznee bags.
POWDER-HOY. An ordnance vessel expressly fitted to convey powder from the land magazine to a ship; it invariably carries a red distinguishing flag, and warns the ship for which the powder is intended, to put out all fires before she comes alongside.
POWDER-MAGAZINE. The prepared space allotted for the powder on board ship.
POWDER-MONKEY. Formerly the boy of the gun, who had charge of the cartridge; now powder-man.
POWDER-VESSEL. A ship used as a floating magazine.
POWDER, TO. To salt meat slightly; as Falstaff says, “If thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me, and eat me too, to-morrow.”—Powdering-tub. A vessel used for pickling beef, pork, &c.
POWDER. See GUNPOWDER.
POWER. Mechanical force; in the steam-engine it is esteemed effective, expansive, or full. (See HORSE-POWER.)
POZZOLANA. Volcanic ashes, used in cement, especially if required under water.
PRACTICABLE. Said of a breach in a rampart when its slope offers a fair means of ascent to an assaulting column.
PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY. A branch of science which includes the determination of the magnitude, distance, and phenomena of the heavenly bodies; the ready reduction of observations for tangible use in navigation and geography; and the expert manipulation of astronomical instruments.
PRÆCURSORIÆ. Ancient vessels which led or preceded the fleets.
PRÆDATORIÆ, OR PRÆDATICÆ. Long, swift, light ancient pirates.
PRAHU. [Malay for boat.] The larger war-vessels among the Malays, range from 55 to 156 feet in length, and carry 76 to 96 rowers, with about 40 to 60 fighting men. The guns range from 2 inches to 6 inches bore, are of brass, and mounted on stock-pieces, four to ten being the average. These boats are remarkable for their swiftness.
PRAIA [Sp. playa]. The beach or strand on Portuguese coasts.
PRAIRIE. The natural meadows or tracts of gently undulating, wonderfully fertile land, occupying so vast an extent of the great river-basins of North America.
PRAM, OR PRAAM. A lighter used in Holland, and the ports of the Baltic, for loading and unloading merchant ships. Some were fitted by the French with heavy guns, for defending the smaller ports.
PRANKLE. A Channel term for the prawn.
PRATIQUE. A Mediterranean term, implying the license to trade and communicate with any place after having performed the required quarantine, or upon the production of a clean bill of health.
PRAWN. A marine crustacean larger than a shrimp, much esteemed as an article of food.
PRAYER-BOOK. A smaller hand-stone than that which sailors call “bible;” it is used to scrub in narrow crevices where a large holy-stone cannot be used. (See HOLY-STONE.)
PRE-EMPTION. A right of purchasing necessary cargoes upon reasonable compensation to the individual whose property is thus diverted. This claim is usually restricted to neutrals avowedly bound to the enemy's ports, and is a mitigation of the former practice of seizing them. (See COMMEATUS.)
PREAMBLE. Introduction to a Charter Party.
PRECEDENCE. The order and degree of rank among officers of the two services. (See RANK.)
PRECESSION OF THE EQUINOXES. A slow motion of the equinoctial points in the heavens, whereby the longitudes of the fixed stars are increased at the present rate of about 50-1/4” annually, the equinox having a retrograde motion to this amount. This effect is produced by the attraction of the sun, moon, and planets upon the spheroidal figure of the earth; the luni-solar precession is the joint effect of the sun and moon only.
PREDY, OR PRIDDY. A word formerly used in our ships for “get ready;” as, “Predy the main-deck,” or get it clear.
PREMIUM. Simply a reward; but in commerce it implies the sum of money paid to the underwriters on ship or cargo, or parts thereof, as the price of the insurance risk.
PREROGATIVE. A word of large extent. By the constitution of England the sovereign alone has the power of declaring war and peace. The crown is not precluded by the Prize Act from superseding prize proceedings by directing restitution of property seized, before adjudication, and against the will of the captors.
PRESENT ARMS! The military word of command to salute with the musket.
PRESENT USE. Stores to be immediately applied in the fitting of a ship, as distinguished from the supply for future sea use.
PRESENT! The military word of command to raise the musket, take aim, and fire.
PRESERVED MEAT AND VEGETABLES. The occasional use of such food and lime- juice at sea, is not only a great luxury, but in many cases essential to the health of the crew, as especially instanced by the increase of scurvy in ships where this precaution is neglected.
PRESIDENT. At a general court-martial it is usual for the authority ordering it to name the president, and the office usually falls upon the second in command.
PRESS OF SAIL. As much sail as the state of the wind, &c., will permit a ship to carry.
PRESS-GANG. A party of seamen who (under the command of a lieutenant) were formerly empowered, in time of war, to take any seafaring men—on shore or afloat— and compel them to serve on board men-of-war. Those who were thus taken were called pressed men.
PRESS, TO. To reduce an enemy to straits. (See IMPRESSMENT.)
PRESSURE-GAUGE. The manometer of a steam-engine.
PREST. Formerly signified quick or ready, and a prest man was one willing to enlist for a stipulated sum—the very reverse of the pressed man of later times. (See PRESS- GANG.)
PRESTER. An old name for a meteor.
PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE. Is such as by a fair and reasonable interpretation is deducible from the facts of a case.
PREVENTER-PLATES. Stout plates of iron for securing the chains to the ship's side; one end is on the chain-plate bolt, the other is bolted to the ship's side below it.
PREVENTER-STOPPERS. Short pieces of rope, knotted at each end, for securing the clues of sails or rigging during action, or when strained.
PREVENTER. Applied to ropes, &c., when used as additional securities to aid other ropes in supporting spars, &c., during a strong gale; as preventer-backstays, braces, shrouds, stays, &c.
PREVENTIVE SERVICE. The establishment of coast-guards at numerous stations along the shores of the United Kingdom for the prevention of smuggling.
PRICKER. A small marline-spike for making and stretching the holes for points and rope-bands in sails. Also, the priming-wire of a gun. Also, a northern name for the basking-shark.
PRICKING A SAIL. The running a middle seam between the two seams which unite every cloth of a sail to the next adjoining. This is rarely done till the sails have been worn some time, or in the case of heavy canvas, storm-sails, &c. It is also called middle- stitching.
PRICKING FOR A SOFT PLANK. Selecting a place on the deck for sleeping upon.
PRICKING HER OFF. Marking a ship's position upon a chart by the help of a scale and compasses, so as to show her situation as to latitude, longitude, and bearings of the place bound to.
PRIDE OF THE MORNING. A misty dew at sunrise; a light shower; the end of the land breeze followed by a dead calm in the tropics.
PRIEST'S-CAP. An outwork which has three salient angles at the head and two inwards.
PRIMAGE. Premium of insurance. Also, a small allowance at the water side to master and mariner for each pack or bale of cargo landed by them: otherwise called hat-money.
PRIMARY PLANET. (See PLANETS, PRIMARY.)
PRIME VERTICAL. That great circle which passes through the zenith and the east and west points of the horizon.
PRIME, TO. To make ready a gun, mine, &c., for instantaneous firing. Also, to pierce the cartridge with the priming-wire, and apply the quill-tube in readiness for firing the cannon.—To prime a fire-ship. To lay the train for being set on fire.—To prime a match. Put a little wet bruised powder made into the paste called devil, upon the end of the rope slow-match, with a piece of paper wrapped round it.
PRIME. The fore part of the artificial day; that is, the first quarter after sunrise.
PRIMING-IRONS. Consist of a pointed wire used through the vent to prick the cartridge when it is “home,” and of a flat-headed one similarly inserted after discharge to insure its not retaining any ignited particles.
PRIMING-VALVES. The same with escape-valves.
PRINTED INSTRUCTIONS. The name of the volume formerly issued by the admiralty to all commanders of ships and vessels for their guidance; now superseded by Queen's Regulations.
PRISE-BOLTS. Knobs of iron on the cheeks of a gun-carriage to keep the handspike from slipping when prising up the breech.
PRISE, TO. To raise, or slue, weighty bodies by means of a lever purchase or power. (See PRIZING.)
PRISM. In dioptrics, is a geometrical solid bounded by three parallelograms, whose bases are equal triangles.
PRISMATIC COMPASS. One so fitted with a glass prism for reading by reflection, that the eye can simultaneously observe an object and read its compass bearing.
PRISON-SHIP. One fitted up for receiving and detaining prisoners of war.
PRISONER AT LARGE. Free to take exercise within bounds.
PRISONER UNDER RESTRAINT. Suspended from duty; deprived of command.
PRISONERS OF WAR. Men who are captured after an engagement, who are deprived of their liberty until regularly exchanged, or dismissed on their parole.
PRITCH. A dentated weapon for striking and holding eels.
PRIVATE PROPERTY. Commissions of privateers do not extend to the capture of private property on land; a right not even granted to men-of-war. Private armed ships are not within the terms of a capitulation protecting private property generally.
PRIVATE SIGNAL. Understood by captains having the key, but totally incomprehensible to other persons.
PRIVATE. The proper designation of a soldier serving in the ranks of the army, holding no special position.
PRIVATEER PRACTICE, OR PRIVATEERISM. Disorderly conduct, or anything out of man-of-war rules.
PRIVATEERS, or men-of-war equipped by individuals for cruising against the enemy; their commission (see LETTERS OF MARQUE) is given by the admiralty, and revocable by the same authority. They have no property in any prize until it is legally condemned by a competent court. The admiral on the station is entitled to a tenth of their booty. This infamous species of warfare is unhappily not yet abolished among civilized nations.
PRIVY-COAT. A light coat or defence of mail, concealed under the ordinary dress.
PRIZE ACT OF 1793. Ordained that the officers and sailors on board every ship and vessel of war shall have the sole property in all captures, being first adjudged lawful prize, to be divided in such proportions and manner as His Majesty should order by proclamation. In 1746 a man, though involuntarily kept abroad above three years in the service of his country, was deemed to have forfeited his share to Greenwich.
PRIZE-ACTS. Though expiring with each war, are usually revived nearly in the same form.
PRIZE-COURT. A department of the admiralty court; (oyer et terminer) to hear and determine according to the law of nations.
PRIZE-GOODS. Those taken upon the high seas, jure belli, from the enemy.
PRIZE-LIST. A return of all the persons on board, whether belonging to the ship, or supernumeraries, at the time a capture is made; those who may be absent on duty are included.
PRIZE-MASTER. The officer to whom a prize is given in charge to carry her into port.
PRIZE-MONEY. The profits arising from the sale of prizes. It was divided equally by chart. 5 Hen. IV.
PRIZE. A vessel captured at sea from the enemies of a state, or from pirates, either by a man-of-war or privateer. Vessels are also looked upon as prize, if they fight under any other standard than that of the state from which they have their commission, if they have no charter-party, and if loaded with effects belonging to the enemy, or with contraband goods. In ships of war, the prizes are to be divided among the officers, seamen, &c., according to the act; but in privateers, according to the agreement between the owners. By statute 13 Geo. II. c. 4, judges and officers failing in their duty in respect to the condemnation of prizes, forfeit £500, with full costs of suit, one moiety to the crown, and the other to the informer. Prize, according to jurists, is altogether a creature of the crown; and no man can have any interest but what he takes as the mere gift of the crown. Partial interest has been granted away at different times, but the statute of Queen Anne (A.D. 1708) is the first which gave to the captors the whole of the benefit.
PRIZEAGE. The tenth share belonging to the crown out of a lawful prize taken at sea.
PRIZING. The application of a lever to lift or move any weighty body. Also, the act of pressing or squeezing an article into its package, so that its size may be reduced in stowage.
PROA, OR FLYING PROW. See PRAHU.
PROBATION. The noviciate period of cadets, midshipmen, apprentices, &c.
PROBE. A surgical sounder.—To probe. To inquire thoroughly into a matter.
PROCEEDS. The product or produce of prizes, &c.
PROCESSION. A march in official order. At a naval or military funeral, the officers are classed according to seniority, the chiefs last.
PROCURATION, LETTERS OF. Are required to be exhibited in the purchase of ships by agents in the enemy's country.
PROCYON. {a} Canis minoris, the principal star of the Lesser Dog.
PROD. A poke or slight thrust; as in persuading with a bayonet. PRODD. A cross-bow for throwing bullets, temp. Hen. VII.
PRODUCT CARRIER. A tanker which is generally below 70,000 deadweight tons and used to carry refined oil products from the refinery to the consumer. In many cases, four different grades of oil can be handled simultaneously.
PRODUCTION UNIT. Equipped to extract petroleum, e.g. oil production ship.
PRODUCTION. For obtaining the benefits of trading with our colonies, it is necessary that the goods be accompanied by a “certificate of production” in the manner required by marine law. (See ORIGIN.)
PROFILE DRAUGHTS. In naval architecture, a name applied to two drawings from the sheer draught: one represents the entire construction and disposition of the ship; the other, her whole interior work and fittings.
PROFILE OF A FORT. See ORTHOGRAPHIC PROJECTION.
PROFORMA ACC. Estimated account.
PROG. A quaint word for victuals. Swift says, “In town you may find better prog.” It is also a spike.
PROGRESSION. See ARC OF DIRECTION.
PROJECTILES. Bodies which are driven by any one effort of force from the spot where it was applied.
PROJECTION. A method of representing geometrically on a plane surface varied points, lines, and surfaces not lying in any one plane: used in charts and maps, where it is of various kinds, as globular, orthographic, Mercator's, &c. In ship-building, an elevation taken amidship. (See BODY-PLAN.)
PROKING-SPIT. A long Spanish rapier.
PROMISCUI USUS. A law term for those articles which are equally applicable to peace or war.
PROMONTORY. A high point of land or rock projecting into a sea or lake, tapering into a neck inland, and the extremity of which, towards the water, is called a cape, or headland, as Gibraltar, Ceuta, Actium, &c.
PROMOVENT. The plaintiff in the instance-court of the admiralty.
PRONG. Synonymous with beam-arm or crow-foot (which see).
PROOF TIMBER. In naval architecture, an imaginary timber, expressed by vertical lines in the sheer-draught, to prove the fairness of the body.
PROOF. The trial of the quality of arms, ammunition, &c., before their reception for service. Guns are proved by various examinations, and by the firing of prescribed charges; powder by examinations, and by carefully measured firings from each batch.
PROOFS OF PROPERTY. Attestations, letters of advice, invoices, to show that a ship really belongs to the subjects of a neutral state.
PROPANE CARRIER. A ship designed to carry propane in liquid form. The propane is carried in tanks within the holds; it remains in liquid form by means of pressure and refrigeration. Such ships are also suitable for the carriage of butane.
PROPELLER. This term generally alludes to the Archimedean screw, or screw-propeller.
PROPER MOTION OF THE STARS. A movement which some stars are found to possess, independent of the apparent change of place due to the precession of the equinoxes, the accounting for which is as yet only ingenious conjecture.
PROPORTION. In naval architecture, the length, breadth, and height of a vessel, having a due consideration to her rate, and the object she is intended for.
PROPPETS. Those shores that stand nearly vertical.
PROSPECTIVE, OR PROSPECT GLASS. An old term for a deck or hand telescope, with a terrestrial eye-piece. (See SPY-GLASS.)
PROTECTIONS, ON PAPER, against impressment, were but little regarded. Yet seafaring men above 55, and under 18, were by statute exempted, as were all for the first two years of their going to sea, foreigners serving in merchant ships or privateers, and all apprentices for three years.
PROTEST. A formal declaration drawn up in writing, and attested before a notary- public, a justice of the peace, or a consul in foreign parts, by the master of a merchant- ship, his mate, and a part of the ship's crew, after the expiration of a voyage in which the ship has suffered in her hull, rigging, or cargo, to show that such damage did not happen through neglect or misconduct on their part.
PROTRACTOR. An instrument for laying off angles on paper, having an open mark at the centre of the circle, with a radial leg, and vernier, which is divided into degrees (generally 90).
PROVE, TO. To test the soundness of fire-arms, by trying them with greater charges than those used on service.
PROVEDORE [Sp.] One who provided victuals for ships.
PROVENDER. Though strictly forage, is often applied to provisions in general.
PROVISIONS. All sorts of food necessary for the subsistence of the army and navy. Those shipped on board for the officers and crew of any vessel, including merchant- ships, are held in a policy of insurance, as part of her outfit.
PROVISO. A stern-fast or hawser carried to the shore to steady by. A ship with one anchor down and a shore-fast is moored a proviso. Also, a saving clause in a contract.
PROVOST-MARSHAL. The head of the military police. An officer appointed to take charge of prisoners at a court-martial, and to carry the sentences into execution. The executive and summary police in war.
PROW. Generally means the foremost end of a vessel. Also, a name for the beak of a xebec or felucca.
PUCKA. A word in frequent use amongst the English in the East Indies, signifying sterling, of good quality.
PUCKER. A wrinkled seam in sail-making. Also, anything in a state of confusion.
PUDDENING, OR PUDDING. A thick wreath of yarns, matting, or oakum (called a dolphin), tapering from the middle towards the ends, grafted all over, and fastened about the main or fore masts of a ship, directly below the trusses, to prevent the yards from falling down, in case of the ropes by which they are suspended being shot away. Puddings are also placed on a boat's stem as a kind of fender; and also laid round the rings of anchors to prevent hempen cables or hawsers from chafing.
PUDDING AND DOLPHIN. A larger and lesser pad, made of ropes, and put round the masts under the lower yards.
PUDDLE-DOCK. An ancient pool of the Thames, the dirtiness of which afforded Jack some pointed sarcasms.
PUDDLING. A technical term for working clay to a plastic state in an inclosed space, until it is of the requisite consistence for arresting the flow of water. A term in iron furnace work.
PUFF. A sudden gust of wind. A whistle of steam.
PUFFIN. The Fratercula arctica, a sea-bird with a singular bill, formerly supposed to be a bird in show, but a fish in substance, in consequence of which notion the pope permitted its being eaten in Lent.
PULAS. An excellent twine, made by the Malays from the kaluwi, a species of nettle.
PULL FOOT, TO. To hasten along; to run.
PULL-AWAY-BOYS. A name given on the West Coast of Africa to the native Kroo- men, who are engaged by the shipping to row boats and do other work not suited to Europeans in that climate.
PULL-OVER. An east-country term for a carriage-way.
PULLING. The act of rowing with oars; as, “Pull the starboard oars,” “Pull together.”
PULO. The Malay word for island, and frequently met with in the islands of the Eastern seas.
PULWAR. A commodious kind of passage-boat on the Ganges.
PUMMEL. The hilt of a sword, the end of a gun, &c.—To pummel. To drub or beat.
PUMP SHIP. An expression used when the order is given to clear the hold of water.
PUMP SUCKS. The pump sucks is said when, all the water being drawn out of the well, and air admitted, there comes up nothing but froth and wind, with a whistling noise, which is music to the fagged seaman.
PUMP-BARREL. The wooden tube which forms the body of the machine, and wherein the piston moves.
PUMP-BOLTS. Saucer-headed bolts to attach the brake to the pump-standard and pump- spear.
PUMP-BRAKE. The handle or lever of the old and simplest form of pump.
PUMP-CARLINES. The framing or partners on the upper deck, between which the pumps pass into the wells.
PUMP-CHAINS. The chains to which the discs, &c., are attached in the chain-pump.
PUMP-CISTERNS. Are used to prevent chips and other matters getting to, and fouling the action of, the chain-pumps.
PUMP-COAT. A piece of stout canvas nailed to the pump-partners where it enters the upper deck, and lashed to the pump, to prevent the water from running down when washing decks, &c.
PUMP-DALES. Pipes or long wooden spouts extending from the chain-pumps across the ship, and through each side, serving to discharge the water without wetting the decks.
PUMP-FOOT. The lower part, or well-end, of a pump.
PUMP-GEAR. A term implying any materials requisite for fitting or repairing the pumps, as boxes, leather, &c.
PUMP-HOOK. An iron rod with an eye and a hook, used for drawing out the lower pump-box when requisite.
PUMP-SPEAR. The rod of iron to which the upper box is attached—and to the upper end of which the brake is pinned—whereby the pump is put in motion.
PUMP-TACKS. Small iron or copper tacks, used for nailing the leather on the pump- boxes.
PUMP. A well-known machine used for drawing water from the sea, or discharging it from the ship's pump-well.—Chain-pump, consists of a long chain, equipped with a sufficient number of metal discs armed with leather, fitting the cylinders closely, and placed at proper distances, which, working upon two wheels, one above deck and the other below, in the bottom of the hold, passes downward through a copper or wooden tube, and returning upward through another, continuously lifts portions of water. It is worked by a long winch-handle, at which several men may be employed at once; and it thus discharges more water in a given time than the common pump, and with less labour. —Main pumps. The largest pumps in a ship, close to the main-mast, in contradistinction to bilge pumps, which are smaller, and intended to raise the water from the bilges when a ship is laying over so that it cannot run to the main pump-well. Hand-pump, is the distinctive appellation of the common small pump. Superseded by Downton and others.
PUMPKIN, OR POMPION. Cucurbita pepo, a useful vegetable for sea use. PUMP SHIP! The order to the crew to work the pumps to clear the hold of water.
PUMPMAN. A rating who tends to the pumps of an oil tanker.
PUNCH. An iron implement for starting bolts in a little, or for driving them out, called a starting or teeming punch. Also, a well-known sea-drink, now adopted in all countries. It was introduced from the East Indies, and is said to derive its name from panch, the Hindostanee word for five, in allusion to the number of its ingredients. (See BOULEPONGES.)
PUNISHMENT DRILL. Fatiguing exercise or extra drill for petty delinquencies. PUNK. The interior of an excrescence on the oak-tree; used as tinder, and better known as touch-wood. (See SPUNK.)
PUNISHMENT. The execution of the sentence against an offender, as awarded by a court-martial, or adjudged by a superior officer.
PUNT. An Anglo-Saxon term still in use for a flat-bottomed boat, used by fishermen, or for ballast lumps, &c.
PUOYS. Spiked poles used in propelling barges or keels.
PURCHASE A COMMISSION, TO. A practice in our army, which has been aptly termed the “buying of fetters;” it is the obtaining preferment at regulated prices. At present the total value of a commission in a regiment of infantry of the line ranges from £450 for an ensigncy, up to £4540 for a lieutenant-colonelcy, and higher in the other branches of the service.
PURCHASE-BLOCKS. All blocks virtually deserve this name, but it is distinctively given to those used in moving heavy weights.
PURCHASE-FALLS. The rope rove through purchase-blocks.
PURCHASE. Any mechanical power which increases the force applied. It is of large importance to nautical men in the combinations of pulleys, as whip, gun-tackle, luff- tackle, jeer, viol, luff upon luff, runner, double-runner, capstan, windlass, &c.
PURRE. A name for the dunlin, Tringa alpina, a species of sand-piper frequenting our shores and the banks of rivers in winter.
PURSE-NET. A peculiar landing-net in fishing. It is used in the seine and trawl to bewilder the fish, and prevent their swimming out when fairly inside; like a wire mouse- trap.
PURSER. An officer appointed by the lords of the admiralty to take charge of the provisions and slops of a ship of war, and to see that they were carefully distributed to the officers and crew, according to the printed naval instruction. He had very little to do with money matters beyond paying for short allowance. He was allowed one-eighth for waste on all provisions embarked, and additional on all provisions saved; for which he paid the crew. The designation is now discarded for that of paymaster.
PURSER'S DIP. The smallest dip-candle.
PURSER'S GRINS. Sneers.
PURSER'S NAME. An assumed one. During the war, when pressed men caught at every opportunity to desert, they adopted aliases to avoid discovery if retaken, which alias was handed to the purser for entry upon the ship's books.
PURSER'S POUND. The weight formerly used in the navy, by which the purser retained an eighth for waste, and the men received only seven-eighths of what was supplied by government. One of the complaints of the mutiny was, having the purser's instead of an honest pound. This allowance was reduced to one-tenth.
PURSER'S SHIRT. “Like a purser's shirt on a handspike;” a comparison for clothes fitting loosely.
PURSER'S STEWARD. The official who superintended and noted down the exact quantity and species of provisions issued to the respective messes both of officers and men.
PURSER'S STOCKING. A slop article, which stretched to any amount put into it. (See SHOW A LEG.)
PURSUE, TO. To make all sail in chase.
PUSH, TO. To move a vessel by poles.
PUSHING FOR A PORT. Carrying all sail to arrive quickly.
PUT ABOUT. Go on the other tack.
PUT BACK, TO. To return to port—generally the last left.
PUT INTO PORT, TO. To enter an intermediate or any port in the course of a voyage, usually from stress of weather.
PUT OFF! OR PUSH OFF. The order to boats to quit the ship or the shore.
PUTHAG. A name on the Scottish shores for the porpoise; it is a Gaelic word signifying the blower.
PUTTING A SHIP IN COMMISSION. The formal ceremony of hoisting the pennant on the ship to be fitted. This act brought the crew under martial law.
PUTTING A STEAM-ENGINE IN GEAR. This is said when the gab of the eccentric rod is allowed to fall upon its stud on the gab-lever.
PUTTOCK-SHROUDS. Synonymous with futtock; a word in use, but not warranted. PUT TO SEA, TO. To quit a port or roadstead, and proceed to the destination. PYKAR. A herring-boat, or small vessel, treated of in statute 31 Edward III. c. 2. PYKE, TO. A old word signifying to haul on a wind.
PUTTOCK. A cormorant; a ravenous fellow.
PYKE OFF, TO. To go away silently.
PYKE-MAW. The great tern, Larus ridibundus; a species of sea-gull.
PYPERI. A sort of vessel made of several pieces of wood merely lashed together; hardly superior to a raft, but sharp forward to cut the water.
PYRAMID. A solid, the base of which is any right-lined plane figure, and its sides are triangles, having their vertices meeting in one point, named its vertex.
PYROTECHNY. The science of artificial fire-works, including not only such as are used in war, but also those intended for amusement.
