NINES, TO THE. An expression to denote complete.

NINGIM. A corruption of ginseng (which see).

NIP. A short turn in a rope. Also, a fishing term for a bite. In Arctic parlance, a nip is when two floes in motion crush by their opposite edges a vessel unhappily entrapped. Also, the parts of a rope at the place bound by the seizing, or caught by jambing. Also, Nip in the hawse; hence "freshen the nip," by veering a few feet of the service into the hawse.

NIPCHEESE. The sailor's name for a purser's steward.

NIPPER. The armourer's pincers or tongs. Also, a hammock with so little bedding as to be unfit for stowing in the nettings.

NIPPERING. Fastening nippers by taking turns crosswise between the parts to jam them; and sometimes with a round turn before each cross. These are called racking-turns.

NIPPER-MEN. Foretop-men employed to bind the nippers about the cables and messenger, and to whom the boys return them when they are taken off.

NIPPERS. Are formed of clean, unchafed yarns, drawn from condemned rope, unlaid. The yarns are stretched either over two bolts, or cleats, and a fair strain brought on each part. They are then "marled" from end to end, and used in various ways, viz. to bind the messenger to the cable, and to form slings for wet spars, &c. The nipper is passed at the manger-board, the fore-end pressing itself against the cable; after passing it round cable and messenger spirally, the end is passed twice round the messenger, and a foretop-man holds the end until it reaches the fore-hatchway, when a maintop-man takes it up, and at the main-hatchway it is taken off, a boy carrying it forward ready coiled for further use.—Selvagee nippers are used when from a very great strain the common nippers are not found sufficiently secure; selvagees are then put on, and held fast by means of tree-nails. (See SELVAGEE and TREE-NAILS.)—Buoy and nipper. Burt's patent for sounding. By this contrivance any amount of line is loosely veered. So long as the lead descends, the line runs through the nipper attached to a canvas inflated buoy. The instant it is checked or the lead touches bottom, the back strain nips the line, and indicates the vertical depth that the lead has descended.

NIPPLE. In ship-building. Another name for knuckle (which see). Also, the nipple of a gun or musket lock; the perforated projection which receives the percussion-cap.

NISSAK. The Shetland name for a small porpoise.

NITRE. Potassae nitras, a salt formed by the union of nitric acid with potash; the main agent in gunpowder.

NITTY. A troublesome noise; a squabble.

NOAH'S ARK. Certain clouds elliptically parted, considered a sign of fine weather after rain.

NOB. The head; therefore applied to a person in a high station of life. (See KNOB.)

NOCK. The forward upper end of a sail that sets with a boom. Also, a term used for notch.

NOCTURNAL, NOCTURLABIUM. An instrument chiefly used at sea, to take the altitude or depression of some of the stars about the pole, in order to find the latitude and the hour of the night.

NOCTURNAL ARC. That part of a circle, parallel to the equator, which is described by a celestial object, between its setting and rising.

NODDY. The Sterna solida, a dark web-footed sea-bird, common about the West Indies. Also, a simpleton; so used by Shakspeare in the Two Gentlemen of Verona.

NODES. Those points in the orbit of a planet or comet where it intersects the ecliptic. The ascending node is the point where it passes from the south to the north side of the ecliptic; the descending node is the opposite point, where the latitude changes from north to south. (See LINE OF NODES.)

NOG. A tree-nail driven through the heels of the shores, to secure them.

NOGGIN. A small cup or spirit-measure, holding about 1/4 of a pint.

NOGGING. The act of securing the shores by tree-nails. Also, warming beer at the galley-fire.

NO HIGHER! See NEAR.

NO-HOWISH. Qualmy; feeling an approaching ailment without being able to describe the symptoms.

NO-MAN'S LAND. A space in midships between the after-part of the belfry and the fore-part of a boat when it is stowed upon the booms, as is often done in a deep-waisted vessel; this space is used to contain any blocks, ropes, tackles, &c., which may be necessary on the forecastle, and probably derives its name from being neither on the starboard nor port side, neither in the waist, nor on the forecastle.

NONAGESIMAL DEGREE. The point of the ecliptic which is at the greatest altitude above the horizon.

NON-COMBATANTS. A term applied erroneously to the purser, master surgeon, &c., of a man-of-war, for all men on board may be called on, more or less, to fight.

NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS. In familiar parlance, non-coms. are the sergeants, corporals, and others, appointed under special regulations, by the orders of the commanding officer.

NON-CONDENSING ENGINE. A high-pressure steam-engine.

NONIUS SCALE, OR VERNIER. That fixed to the oblong opening near the lower end of the index-bar of a sextant or quadrant; it divides degrees into minutes, and these again into parts of seconds.

NO! NO! The answer to the night-hail by which it is known that a midshipman or warrant officer is in the boat hailed.

NON-RECOIL. This was effected by securing the breeching while the gun was run out: often practised in small vessels.

NOOK. A small indentation of the land; a little cove in the inner parts of bays and harbours.

NOOK-SHOTTEN. A Shakspearian expression for a coast indented with bays; as in Henry V. Bourbon speaks contemptuously of "that nook-shotten isle of Albion."

NOON. Mid-day.

NOOSE. A slip or running knot.

NORE. The old word for north. Also, a canal or channel.

NORIE'S EPITOME. A treatise on navigation not to be easily cast aside.

NORLAND. Of, or belonging to, the north land.

NORMAL LEVEL OF A BAROMETER. A term reckoned synonymous with par-line (which see).

NORMAN. A short wooden bar thrust into one of the holes of the windlass or capstan in a merchantman, whereon to veer a rope or fasten the cable, if there be little strain upon it. Also fixed through the head of the rudder, in some ships, to prevent the loss of the rudder. Also, a pin placed in the bitt-cross-piece to confine the cable from falling off.

NORRIE, AND TAMMIE NORRIE. The Scotch name for the puffin.

NORTH. From the Anglo-Saxon nord.

NORTH-AWAY YAWL. The old term for Norway yawl (which see).

NORTH-EAST PASSAGE. To the Pacific, or round the north of Europe, has been divided into three parts, thus: 1. From Archangel to the river Lena; 2. from the Lena, round Tschukotskoi-ness to Kamtschatka; and 3. from Kamtschatka to Japan. They have been accomplished at various times, but not successively.

NORTHERN DIVER. The Colymbus glacialis, a large diving-bird.

NORTHERN-GLANCE. The old sea-name of the aurora borealis (which see).

NORTHERN LIGHTS. See NORTHERN-GLANCE.

NORTHERS. Those winds so well known to all seamen who have frequented the West Indies, and which are preceded by the appearance of a vast quantity of fine cobwebs or gossamer in the atmosphere, which clings to all parts of a vessel's rigging, thus serving as a warning of an approaching gale. Northers alternate with the seasons in the Gulf of Mexico, the Florida Channel, Jamaica, Cuba, &c. Their cold is intense.

NORTH FOLLOWING. For this and north preceding, see QUADRANT.

NORTH PASSAGE TO THE INDIES. The grand object of our maritime expeditions at a remote period, prosecuted with a boldness, dexterity, and perseverance which, although since equalled in the same pursuit, have not yet been surpassed:—

"I will undertake To find the north passage to the Indies sooner, Than plough with your proud heifer."—Massinger.

NORTH SEA. The Jamaica name for the north swell. (See GROUND-SEA.)

NORTH-WESTER. This wind in India usually commences or terminates with a violent gust from that quarter, with loud thunder and vivid lightning. Also, gales which blow from the eastern coast of North America in the Atlantic during the autumn and winter.

NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. By Hudson's Bay into the Pacific Ocean has been more than once attempted of late years, but hitherto without success. Some greatly doubted the practicability of such an enterprise; but the north-west passage, as far as relates to the flow of the sea beneath the ice, was satisfactorily solved by H.M.S. Investigator, Sir R. Maclure, reaching the western end of Barrow's Straits. The former question, up to Melville Island, which Sir R. Maclure reached and left his notice at in 1852, having been already thoroughly established by Sir E. Parry in 1820.

NORTH WIND. This wind in the British seas is dry and cold, and generally ushers in fair weather and clear skies. The barometer rises with the wind at north, and is highest at N.N.E.; the air forming this wind comes from colder latitudes, and has therefore lost most of its moisture.

NORWAY SKIFF. A particularly light and buoyant boat, which is both swift and safe in the worst weather.

NORWAY YAWL. This, of all small boats, is said to be the best calculated for a high sea; it is often met with at a distance from land, when a stout ship can hardly carry any sail. The parent of the peter-boat.

NOSE. Often used to denote the stem of a ship. Also, a neck of land: naes, or ness.

NOTARY. The person legally empowered to attest deeds, protests, or other documents, in order to render them binding.

NOTCH. The gaffle of a cross-bow.

NOTCH-BLOCK. See SNATCH-BLOCK.

NOTCH-SIGHT OF A GUN. A sight having a V-shaped notch, wherein the eye easily finds the lowest or central point.

NOTHING OFF! A term used by the man at the conn to the steersman, directing him to keep her close to the wind; or "nothing off, and very well thus!" (See THUS.)

NOTIONS. An American sea-term for a cargo in sorts; thus a notion-vessel on the west coast of America is a perfect bazaar; but one, which sold a mixture—logwood, bad claret, and sugar—to the priests for sacrament wine had to run for it.

NOUD. A term in the north for fishes that are accounted of little value.

NOUP. A round-headed eminence.

NOUS. An old and very general term for intelligent perception, evidently from the Greek.

NOUST. A landing-place or indent into the shore for a boat to be moored in; a term of the Orkney Isles.

NOZZLE-FACES. Square plates of brass raised upon the cylinder; one round each of the steam-ports, for the valve-plates to slide upon.

NOZZLES. In steamers, the same as steam-ports; they are oblong passages from the nozzle-faces to the inside of the cylinder; by them the steam enters and returns above and below the piston. Also pump nozzles.

NUBECULAE, MAJOR AND MINOR. The Magellanic clouds (which see).

NUCLEUS OF A COMET. The condensed or star-like part of the head.

NUDDEE. A Hindostanee word for a river.

NUGGAR. A term in the East Indies for a fort, and also for an alligator.

NULLAH. A ravine or creek of a stream in India.

NUMBER. The number on the ship's books is marked on the clothing of seamen; that on a man's hammock or bag corresponds with his number on the watch and station bill. The ships of the royal navy are denoted by flags expressing letters, and when passing or nearing each other the names are exchanged by signals.—Losing the number of the mess, is a phrase for dying suddenly; being killed or drowned.

NUMERARY OR MARRYAT'S SIGNALS. A useful code used by the mercantile marine, by an arrangement of flags from a cypher to units, and thence to thousands. (See SIGNALS.)

NUN-BUOY. A buoy made of staves, somewhat in the form of a double cone; large in the middle, and tapering rapidly to the ends; the slinging of which is a good specimen of practical rigging tact.

NURAVEE YAWL. A corruption of Norway yawl (which see).

NURSE. An able first lieutenant, who in former times had charge of a young boy-captain of interest, but possessing no knowledge for command. Also, a small kind of shark with a very rough skin; a dog-fish.

NUT. A small piece of iron with a female screw cut through the middle of it, for screwing on to the end of a bolt.

NUTATION. An oscillatory motion of the earth's axis, due chiefly to the action of the moon upon the spheroidal figure of our globe.

NUTS OF AN ANCHOR. Two projections either raised or welded on the square part of the shank, for securing the stock to its place.

NYCTALOPIA. See MOON-BLINK.



O.

O. The fourth class of rating on Lloyd's books for the comparative excellence of merchant ships. But insured vessels are rarely so low. (See A.)

O! OR HO! An interjection commanding attention or possibly the cessation of any action.

OAK. Quercus, the valuable monarch of the woods. "Hearts of oak are our ships," as the old song says.

OAKUM [from the Anglo-Saxon aecumbe]. The state into which old ropes are reduced when they are untwisted and picked to pieces. It is principally used in caulking the seams, for stopping leaks, and for making into twice-laid ropes. Very well known in workhouses.—White Oakum. That which is formed from untarred ropes.

OAKUM-BOY. The caulker's apprentice, who attends to bring oakum, pitch, &c.

OAR. A slender piece of timber used as a lever to propel a boat through the water. The blade is dipped into the water, while the other end within board, termed the loom, is small enough to be grasped by the rower. The silver oar is a badge of office, similar to the staff of a peace-officer, which on presentation, enables a person intrusted with a warrant to serve it on board any ship he may set foot upon.—To boat the oars, is to cease rowing and lay the oars in the boat.—Get your oars to pass! The order to prepare them for rowing, or shipping them.

OAR, TO SHOVE IN AN. To intermeddle, or give an opinion unasked.

OAR-PROPULSION. The earliest motive power for vessels; it may be by the broadside in rowlocks abeam, by sweeps on the quarters fore and aft, or by sculling with one oar in the notch of the transom amidships. (See STERN-OAR.)

OARS! The order to cease rowing, by lifting the oars from the water, and poising them on their looms horizontally in their rowlocks.—Look to your oars! Passing any object or among sea-weed.—Double-banked oars (which see).

OASIS. A fertile spot in the midst of a sandy desert.

OATH. A solemn affirmation or denial of anything, before a person authorized to administer the same, for discovery of truth and right. (See CORPORAL OATH.) Hesiod ascribes the invention of oaths to discord. The oath of supremacy and of the Protestant faith was formerly taken by an officer before he could hold a commission in the royal navy.

OAZE. Synonymous with the Ang.-Sax. wase when applied to mud. (See OOZE.)

OBEY. A word forming the fulcrum of naval discipline.

OBI. A horrible sorcery practised among the negroes in the West Indies, the infliction of which by a threat from the juggler is sufficient to lead the denounced victim to mental disease, despondency, and death. Still the wretched trash gathered together for the obi-spell is not more ridiculous than the amulets of civilized Europe.

OBLATE. Compressed or flattened.

OBLIGATION. A bond containing a penalty, with a condition annexed for payment of money or performance of covenants.

OBLIMATION. The deposit of mud and silt by water.

OBLIQUE-ANGLED TRIANGLE. Any other than a right-angled triangle.

OBLIQUE ASCENSION. An arc between the first point of Aries and that point of the equator which comes to the horizon with a star, or other heavenly body, reckoned according to the order of signs. It is the sum or difference of the right ascension and ascensional difference.

OBLIQUE BEARINGS. Consist in determining the position of a ship, by observing with a compass the bearings of two or more objects on the shore whose places are given on a chart, and drawing lines from those places, so as to make angles with their meridians equal to the observed bearings; the intersection of the line gives on the chart the position of the ship. This is sometimes called the method of cross-bearings.

OBLIQUE SAILING. Is the reduction of the position of the ship from the various courses made good, oblique to the meridian or parallel of latitude. If a vessel sails north or south, it is simply a distance on the meridian. If east or west, on the parallel, and refers to parallel sailing. If oblique, it is solved by middle latitude, or Mercator sailing.

OBLIQUE STEP. A movement in marching, in which the men, while advancing, gradually take ground to the right or left.

OBLIQUITY OF THE ECLIPTIC. The angle between the planes of the ecliptic and the equator, or the inclination of the earth's equator to the plane of her annual path, upon which the seasons depend: this amounts at present to about 23 deg. 27'.

OBLONG SQUARE. A name improperly given to a parallelogram. (See THREE-SQUARE.)

OBSERVATION. In nautical astronomy, denotes the taking the sun, moon, or stars' altitude with a quadrant or sextant, in order thereby to find the latitude or time; also, the lunar distances.

OBSERVE, TO. To take a bearing or a celestial observation.

OBSIDIONAL CROWN. The highest ancient Roman military honour; the decoration of the chief who raised a siege.

OBSTACLES. Chains, booms, abattis, snags, palisades, or anything placed to impede an enemy's progress. Unforeseen hindrances.

OBTURATOR. A cover or valve in steam machinery.

OBTUSE ANGLE. One measuring above 90 deg., and therefore beyond a right angle; called by shipwrights standing bevellings.

OBTUSE-ANGLED TRIANGLE. That which has one obtuse angle.

OCCIDENT. The west.

OCCULTATION. One heavenly body eclipsing another; but in nautical astronomy it is particularly used to denote the eclipses of stars and planets by the moon.

OCCUPY, TO. To take military possession.

OCEAN. This term, in its largest sense, is the whole body of salt water which encompasses the globe, except the collection of inland seas, lakes, and rivers: in a word, that glorious type of omnipotent power, whether in calm or tempest:—

"Dark, heaving, boundless, endless, and sublime, The image of Eternity."

In a more limited sense it is divided into—1. The Atlantic Ocean. 2. The Pacific Ocean. 3. The Indian Ocean. 4. The Southern Ocean.

OCEAN-GOING SHIP. In contradistinction to a coaster.

OCHRAS. A Gaelic term for the gills of a fish.

OCTAGON. A geometrical figure which has eight equal sides and angles.

ODHARAG. The name of the young cormorant in our northern isles.

OE. An island [from the Ang.-Sax.] Oes are violent whirlwinds off the Faeroe Islands, said at times to raise the water in syphons.

OFERLANDERS. Small vessels on the Rhine and the Meuse.

OFF. The opposite to near. Also applied to a ship sailing from the shore into the open sea. Also, implies abreast of, or near, as "We were off Cape Finisterre."—Nothing off! The order to the helmsman not to suffer the ship to fall off from the wind.

OFFAL. Slabs, chips, and refuse of timber, sold in fathom lots at the dockyards.

OFF AND ON. When a ship beating to windward approaches the shore by one board, and recedes from it when on the other. Also used to denote an undecided person. Dodging off a port.

OFF AT A TANGENT. Going in a hurry, or in a testy humour.

OFF DUTY. An officer, marine, or seaman in his watch below, &c. An officer is sometimes put "off duty" as a punishment.

OFFENCES. Crimes which are not capital, but by the custom of the service come under the articles of war.

OFFICER. A person having some command. A term applied both in the royal and mercantile navies to any one of a ship's company who ranks above the fore-mast men.

OFFICER OF THE DAY. A military officer whose immediate duty is to attend to the interior economy of the corps to which he belongs, or of those with which he may be doing duty.

OFFICER OF THE WATCH. The lieutenant or other officer who has charge of, and commands, the watch.

OFFICERS' EFFECTS. The effects of officers who die on board are not generally sold; but should they be submitted to auction, the sale is to be confined entirely amongst the officers.

OFFICIAL LETTERS. All official letters which are intended to be laid before the commander-in-chief, must be signed by the officers themselves, specifying their rank under their signatures. All applications from petty officers, seamen, and marines, relative to transfer, discharge, or other subjects of a similar nature, are to be made through the captain or commanding officer. They ought to be written on foolscap paper, leaving a margin, to the left hand, of one-fourth of the breadth, and superscribed on the cover "On H. M. Service."

OFFING. Implies to sea-ward; beyond anchoring ground.—To keep a good offing, is to keep well off the land, while under sail.

OFF-RECKONING. A proportion of the full pay of troops retained from them, in special cases, until the period of final settlement, to cover various expected charges (for ship-rations and the like).

OFF SHE GOES! Means run away with the purchase fall. Move to the tune of the fifer. The first move when a vessel is launched.

OFF THE REEL. At once; without stopping. In allusion to the way in which the log-line flies off the reel when a ship is sailing fast.

OFFWARD. The situation of a ship which lies aground and leans from the shore; "the ship heels offward," and "the ship lies with her stern to the offward," is when her stern is towards the sea.

OGEE. In old-pattern guns, the doubly curved moulding added, by way of finish, to several of the rings.

OGGIDENT. Jack's corruption of aguardiente [Sp.], a fiery and very unwholesome spirit.

OIL-BUTT. A name for the black whale.

OILLETS, OR [OE]ILLETS. Apertures for firing through, in the walls of a fort.

OITER. A Gaelic word still in use for a sand-bank.

OJANCO SNAPPER. A tropical fish of the Mesoprion family, frequenting the deep-water banks of the West Indies.

OKE. A Levant weight of 2-3/4 lbs., common in Mediterranean commerce.

OLD COUNTRY. A very general designation for Great Britain among the Americans. The term is never applied to any part of the continent of Europe.

OLD HAND. A knowing and expert person.

OLD HORSE. Tough salt-beef.

OLD ICE. In polar parlance, that of previous seasons.

OLD-STAGER. One well initiated in anything.

OLD-STAGERISM. An adherence to established customs; sea conservatism.

OLDSTERS. In the old days of cockpit tyranny, mids of four years' standing, and master's-mates, &c., who sadly bullied the youngsters.

OLD WIFE. A fish about 2 feet long, and 9 inches high in the back, having a small mouth, a large eye, a broad dorsal fin, and a blue body. Also, the brown long-tailed duck of Pennant.

OLD WOMAN'S TOOTH. A peculiar chisel for stub morticing.

OLERON CODE. A celebrated collection of maritime laws, compiled and promulgated by Richard C[oe]ur-de-Lion, at the island of Oleron, near the coast of Poitou, the inhabitants of which have been deemed able mariners ever since. It is reckoned the best code of sea-laws in the world, and is recorded in the black book of the admiralty.

OLICK. The torsk or tusk, Gadus callarias.

OLIVER. A west-country term for a young eel.

OLPIS. A classic term for one who, from a shore eminence, watched the course which shoals of fish took, and communicated the result to the fishers. (See CONDER.)

OMBRE. A fish, more commonly called grayling, or umber.

ON. The sea is said to be "on" when boisterous; as, there is a high sea on.

ON A BOWLINE. Close to the wind, when the sail will not stand without hauling the bowlines.

ONAGER. An offensive weapon of the middle ages.

ON A WIND. Synonymous with on a bowline.

ON BOARD. Within a ship; the same as aboard.

ONCIA. A gold coin of Sicily; value three ducats, or 10s. 10d. sterling.

ONCIN. An offensive weapon of mediaeval times, consisting of a staff with a hooked iron head.

ON DECK THERE! The cry to call attention from aloft or below.

ONE-AND-ALL. A mutinous sea-cry used in the Dutch wars. Also, a rallying call to put the whole collective force on together.

ON EITHER TACK. Any way or every way; a colloquialism.

ON END. The same as an-end (which see). Top-masts and topgallant-masts are on end, when they are in their places, and sail can be set on them.

ONE O'CLOCK. Like one o'clock. With speed; rapidly.

ONERARIAE. Ancient ships of burden, with both sails and oars.

ONE, TWO, THREE! The song with which the seamen bowse out the bowlines; the last haul being completed by belay O!

ONION-FISH. The Cepola rubescens, whose body peels into flakes like that vegetable. It is of a pale red colour.

ON SERVICE. On duty.

ON-SHORE WINDS. Those which blow from the offing, and render bays uncomfortable and insecure.

ON THE BEAM. Implies any distance from a ship on a line with her beams, or at right angles with the keel.

ON THE BOW. At any angle on either side of the stem up to 45 deg.; then it is either four points on the bow, or four points before the beam.

ON THE QUARTER. Being in that position with regard to a ship, as to be included in the angles which diverge from right astern, to four points towards either quarter.

OOMIAK. A light seal-skin Greenland boat, generally worked in fine weather by the women, but in bad weather by the men.

OPEN. The situation of a place which is exposed to the wind and sea. Also, applied in meteorology, to mild weather. Also, open to attack, not protected. Also, said of any distant visible object.

OPEN HAWSE. When a vessel rides by two anchors, without any cross in her cables.

OPEN ICE. Fragments of ice sufficiently separate to admit of a ship forcing or boring through them under sail.

OPENING TRENCHES. The first breaking of ground by besiegers, in order to carry on their approaches towards a besieged place.

OPEN LIST. One of a ship's books, which contains the whole of the names of the actual officers and crew, in order to regulate their victualling. The crew are mustered by the open list.

OPEN LOWER DECKERS, TO. To fire the lower tier of guns. Also said of a person using violent language.

OPEN ORDER. Any distance ordered to be preserved among ships, exceeding a cable's length.

OPEN PACK. A body of drift ice, the pieces of which, though very near each other, do not generally touch. It is opposed to close pack.

OPEN POLICY. Where the amount of the interest of the insured is not fixed by the policy, but is left to be ascertained by the insured, in case a loss shall happen.

OPEN ROADSTEAD. A place of hazard, as affording no protection either from sea or wind.

OPERATIONS. Field movements, whether offensive or defensive.

OPHIUCHUS. One of the ancient constellations, of which the lucida is Ras-al-ague, one of the selected nautical objects at Greenwich. This asterism is sometimes called Serpentarius, its Latin name, instead of its Greek.

OPINION. An experienced witness, who never saw the ship, yet may legally prove that from the description of her by another witness she was not sea-worthy.

OPOSSUM-SHRIMP. A crustacean, so named from its young being carried about in a sort of pouch for some little time after being hatched; the Mysis flexuosus of naturalists.

OPPIGNORATION. The pawning of part of the cargo to get money for the payment of the duty on the remainder.

OPPOSITE TACKS. Making contrary boards. Also, a colloquialism for cross purposes.

OPPOSITION. A celestial body is said to be in opposition to the sun when their longitudes differ 180 deg., or half the circumference of the heavens.

OPTICK. An old term for a magnifying-glass.

ORAGIOUS. An old term for stormy or tempestuous weather:—

"The storme was so outrageous, And with rumlings oragious, That I did feare."

ORAMBY. A sort of state-barge used in the Moluccas; some of them are rowed by 40, 80, or even, it is said, 100 paddles each.

ORARIAE. Ancient coasting vessels.

ORB. The circular figure made by a body of troops.

ORBIT. The path described by a planet or comet round the sun.

ORBITAL. Relating to the orbit of a heavenly body.

ORC. Wrack or sea-weed, used as manure on some of the coasts of England.

ORCA. A classical name for a large voracious sea-animal, probably a grampus. Anglicized as ork or orc; thus in the second song of Drayton's strange Polyolbion—

"The ugly orks, that for their lord the ocean woo."

And Milton afterwards introduces them—

"An island salt and bare, The haunt of seals and orcs, and sea-mews clang."

ORDER ARMS! The word of command, with muskets or carbines, to bring the butt to the ground, the piece vertical against the right side, trigger-guard to the front.—Open order and close order, are terms for keeping the fleet prepared for any particular man[oe]uvre.

ORDER-BOOK. A book kept for the purpose of copying such occasional successive orders as the admiral, or senior officer, may find it necessary to give.

ORDERLY. The bearer of official messages, and appointed to wait upon superior officers with communications.

ORDERLY OFFICER. In the army. See OFFICER OF THE DAY.

ORDER OF BATTLE. The arranging of ships or troops so as to engage the enemy to the best advantage.

ORDER OF SAILING. See SAILING, ORDER OF.

ORDERS. Societies of knights. (See KNIGHTHOOD.)

ORDERS IN COUNCIL. Decrees given by the privy council, signed by the sovereign, for important state necessities, independently of any act of parliament; but covered by an act of indemnity when it is assembled.

ORDINARY. The establishment of the persons formerly employed to take charge of the ships of war which are laid up in ordinary at several harbours adjacent to the royal dockyards. These duties are now under the superintendent of the dockyard. Also, the state of such men-of-war and vessels as are out of commission and laid up.

ORDINARY SEAMAN. The rating for one who can make himself useful on board, even to going aloft, and taking his part on a top-sail or topgallant-yard, but is not a complete sailor, the latter being termed an able seaman. It would be well if our merchant seamen consisted of apprentices and A.B.'s.

ORDINARY STEP. The common march of 110 paces in a minute.

ORDNANCE. A general name for all sorts of great guns which are used in war. Also, all that relates to the artillery and engineer service.

ORDNANCE-HOY. A sloop expressly fitted for transporting ordnance stores to ships, and from port to port.

OREILLET. The ear-piece of a helmet.

OREMBI. A small korocora (which see).

ORGUES. Long-pointed beams shod with iron, hanging vertically over a gateway, to answer as a portcullis in emergency.

ORIENT. The east point of the compass.

ORIFLAMME. The banner of St. Dennis; but the term is often applied to the flags of any French commander-in-chief.

ORIGIN. Merchant ships claiming benefit for importation, must obtain and produce certificates of origin, in respect to the goods they claim for. (See PRODUCTION.)

ORIGINAL ENTRY. The date at which men enter for the navy, and repair on board a guard-ship, or tender, where bedding or slops may be supplied to them, and are forwarded with them to their proper ships.

ORILLON. In fortification, a curved projection formed by the face of a bastion overlapping the end of the flank; intended to protect the latter from oblique fire; modern ricochet fire renders it of little consequence.

ORION. One of the ancient constellations, of which the lucida is the well-known nautical star Betelgeuze.

ORISONT. The horizon; thus spelled by our early navigators.

ORLOP. The lowest deck, formerly called "over-lop," consisting of a platform laid over the beams in the hold of ships of war, whereon the cables were usually coiled, and containing some cabins as well as the chief store-rooms. In trading vessels it is often a temporary deck.

ORLOP-BEAMS, OR HOLD-BEAMS. Those which support the orlop-deck, but are chiefly intended to fortify the hold.

ORNAMENTS. The carvings of the head, stern, and quarters of the old ships.

ORNITHAE. An ancient term for the periodical winds by which migratory birds were transported.

ORTHODROMIC. The course which lies on a meridian or parallel.

ORTHOGRAPHIC PROJECTION. The profile, or representation of a vertical section, of a work in fortification.

ORTIVE AMPLITUDE. The eastern one.

OSCILLATING MARINE-ENGINE. A steam-engine where the top of the piston-rod is coupled with the crank, and the piston-rod moves backward and forward in the direction of the axis of the cylinder, while its extremity revolves in a circle with the crank.

OSCILLATING PUMP-SPEAR. A contrivance by which the pumps of a large vessel are worked, connected with a crank-shaft and fly-wheel, driven by handles in the same way as a winch.

OSMOND. The old term for pig-iron; a great article of lading.

OSNABURG. In commerce, a coarse linen cloth manufactured in Scotland, but resembling that made at Osnaburg in Germany.

OSPREY. The fish-hawk, Pandion haliaetus; Shakspeare, in Coriolanus, says—

"I think he'll be to Rome As is the osprey to the fish."

OS SEPIAE. The commercial term for the sepia, or cuttle-fish bones.

OSTMEN. A corrupted form of Hoastmen.

OTSEGO BASS. Coregonus otsego, a fish of the American lakes.

OTTER-PIKE. The lesser weever, Trachinus draco; also called sea-stranger.

OTTOMITES. An old term for Turks. See Shakspeare in Othello.

OUNDING. Resembling or imitating waves; used by Chaucer and others.

OUSTER LE MER. The legal term for excuse, when a man did not appear in court on summons, for that he was then beyond the seas.

OUT-AND-OUTER. An old phrase signifying thorough excellence; a man up to his duty, and able to perform it in style.

OUT-BOARD. The outside of the ship: the reverse of in-board.

OUT-BOATS. The order to hoist out the boats.

OUT-EARING CLEAT. This is placed on the upper side of the gaff, to pass the outer earing round from the cringle.

OUTER-JIB. In sloops, where the head-sails are termed foresail-jib and outer-jib, if set from the foremast-head. It is now very common for ships to set two standing jibs, the stay and tack of the inner one being secured at the middle of the jib-boom.

OUTER TURNS AND INNER TURNS. The outer turns of the earing serve to extend the sail outwards along its yard. The inner turns are employed to bind the sail close to the yard.

OUTFIT. The stores with which a merchant vessel is fitted out for any voyage. Also, the providing an individual with clothes, &c.

OUT-FLANK, TO. By a longer front, to overlap the enemy's opposite line, and thus gain a chance to turn his flank.

OUT-HAUL, OR OUT-HAULER. A rope used for hauling out the tack of a jib lower studding-sail, or the clue of a boom-sail. The reverse of in-haul.

OUT-HOLLING. Clearing tide-ports, canals, and channels of mud.

OUTLANDISH. Foreign; but means with Jack a place where he does not feel at home, or a language which he does not understand.

OUTLET. The effluent or stream by which a lake discharges its water. Also applied to the spot where the efflux commences.

OUT-LICKER. A corruption of out-rigger (which see).

OUT-LIER. A word which has been often used for out-rigger, but applies to outlying rocks, visible above water.

OUT-OARS. The order to take to rowing when the sails give but little way on a boat.

OUT OF COMMISSION. A ship where officers and men are paid off, and pennant hauled down.

OUT OF TRIM. A ship not properly balanced for fast sailing, which may be by a defect in the rigging or in the stowage of the hold.

OUT OF WINDING. Said of a plank or piece of timber which has a fair and even surface without any twists: the opposite of winding.

OUT OR DOWN. An exclamation of the boatswain, &c., in ordering men out of their hammocks, i.e. turn out, or your laniard will be cut.

OUT-PENSIONERS. Those entitled to pensions from Greenwich Hospital, but not admitted to "the house."

OUT-PORTS. Those commercial harbours which lie on the coasts; all ports in the United Kingdom out of London. (See CLOSE-PORTS.)

OUTREGANS. Canals or ditches navigable by boats.

OUT-RIGGER. A strong beam, of which there are several, passed through the ports of a ship, and firmly lashed at the gunwale, also assisted by guys from bolts at the water-line, to secure the masts in the act of careening, by counteracting the strain they suffer from the tackles on the opposite side. Also, any boom rigged out from a vessel to hang boats by, clear of the ship, when at anchor. Also, any spar, as the boomkin, for the fore-tack, or the jigger abaft to haul out the mizen-sheet, or extend the leading blocks of the main braces. Also, a small spar used in the tops and cross-trees, to thrust out and spread the breast backstays to windward. Also, a counterpoising log of wood, rigged out from the side of a narrow boat or canoe, to prevent it from being upset.

OUT-SAIL, TO. To sail faster than another ship, or to make a particular voyage with greater despatch.

OUTSIDE MUSTER-PAPER. A paper with the outer part blank, but the inner portion ruled and headed; supplied from the dock yards to form the cover of ships' books.

OUTSIDE PLANKING. Such are the wales, the plank-sheer, the garboard-strakes, and the like.

OUTWARD. A vessel is said to be entered outwards or inwards according as she is entered at the custom-house to depart for, or as having arrived from, foreign parts.

OUTWARD CHARGES. Pilotage and other dues incurred from any port: the reverse of inward charges.

OUTWORKS. Works included in the scheme of defence of a place, but outside the main rampart; if "detached," they are moreover outside the glacis.

OUVRE L'[OE]IL. A mark on French charts over supposed dangers.

OVER AND UNDER TURNS. Terms applied to the passing of an earing, besides its inner and outer turns.

OVER-ANENT. Opposite to.

OVER-BEAR. One ship overbears another if she can carry more sail in a fresh wind.

OVERBOARD. The state of any person or thing in the sea which had been in a ship.—Thrown overboard also means cast adrift by the captain; withdrawal of countenance and support.

OVER-BOYED. Said of a ship when the captain and majority of the quarter-deck officers are very young.

OVERFALL. A rippling or race in the sea, where, by the peculiarities of bottom, the water is propelled with immense force, especially when the wind and tide, or current, set strongly together. (See RIPPS.)

OVER-GUNNED. Where the weight of metal is disproportioned to the ship, and the quarters insufficient for the guns being duly worked.

OVERHAND KNOT. Is made by passing the end of a rope over its standing part, and through the bight.

OVERHAUL. Has many applications. A tackle when released is overhauled. To get a fresh purchase, ropes are overhauled. To reach an object, or take off strain, weather-braces are overhauled. A ship overhauls another in chase when she evidently gains upon her. Also, overhauls a stranger and examines her papers. Also, is overhauled, or examined, to determine the refit demanded.

OVER-INSURANCE. See RE-INSURANCE, and DOUBLE INSURANCE.

OVERLAP. A designation of the hatches of a ship; planks in clinch-built boats. Points of land overlap a harbour's mouth at a particular bearing.—To overlap, to fay upon.

OVERLAY DAYS. Days for which demurrage can be charged.

OVER-LOFT. An old term for the upper deck of a ship.

OVER-LOOKER. Generally an old master appointed by owners of ships to look after everything connected with the fitting out of their vessels when in harbour in England.

OVER-MASTED. The state of a ship whose masts are too high or too heavy for her weight to counter-balance.

OVER-PRESS, TO. To carry too much sail on a ship.

OVER-RAKE. When a ship rides at anchor in a head-sea, the waves of which frequently break in upon her, they are said to over-rake her.

OVER-RIGGED. A ship with more and heavier gear than necessary, so as to be top-hampered.

OVER-RISEN. When a ship is too high out of the water for her length and breadth, so as to make a trouble of lee-lurches and weather-rolls. Such were our 80-gun three-deckers and 44's on two decks, happily now no more.

OVER-RUNNING. (See UNDER-RUN.) Applied to ice, when the young ice overlaps, and is driven over.

OVER-SEA VESSELS. Ships from foreign parts, as distinguished from coasters.

OVER-SETTING. The state of a ship turning upside down, either by carrying too much sail or by grounding, so that she falls on one side. (See UPSET.)

OVERSHOOT, TO. To give a ship too much way.

OVERSLAUGH. From the Dutch overslag, meaning the bar of a river or port. Also, in military parlance, the being passed over in the roster for some recurring duty without being assigned to it in turn.

OVER-SWACK. An old word, signifying the reflux of the waves by the force of the wind.

OVERWHELM. A comprehensive word derived from the Ang.-Saxon wylm, a wave. Thus the old song—

"Lash'd to the helm, should seas o'erwhelm."

OWLER. An old term on our southern coast for smuggler. Particularly persons who carried wool by night, in order to ship it contrary to law.

OWN, TO. To be a proprietor in a ship.

OWNERS. The proprietors of ships. They are bound to perform contracts made by their masters, who are legally their agents.

OXBOWS. Bends or reaches of a river.

OX-EYE. A small cloud, or weather-gall, seen on the coast of Africa, which presages a severe storm. It appears at first in the form of an ox-eye, but soon overspreads the whole hemisphere, accompanied by a violent wind which scatters ships in all directions, and many are sunk downright. Also, a water-fowl. Also, the smaller glass bull's eyes.

OXYGON. A triangle which has three sharp or acute angles.

OXYRINCHUS. A large species of the skate family.

OYSE. An inlet of the sea, among the Shetlands and Orkneys.

OYSTER-BED. A "laying" of culch, that is, stones, old shells, or other hard substances, so as to form a bed for oysters, which would be choked in soft mud.

OYSTER-CATCHER, OR SEA-PYE. The black and white coast-bird, Haematopus ostralegus.

OZELLA. A Venetian coin both in gold and silver; the former being L1, 17s. 4d., and the latter 1s. 7d., in sterling value.



P.

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. 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.

PADDLE-BEAMS. Two large beams projecting over the sides of a steamer, between which the paddle-wheels revolve. (See SPONSON.)

PADDLE-BOX. The frame of wood which encircles the upper part of the paddle-wheel.

PADDLE-BOX BOATS. Boats made to fit the paddle-box rim, stowed bottom upwards on each box.

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.

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-BOATS. A peculiar Ceylon boat, for the conveyance of rice and other necessaries.

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.

PALLETTING. A slight platform made above the bottom of the magazines, to keep the powder from moisture.

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.

PALM-WINE. A sub-acid and pleasant fermented tropical drink. (See TODDY.)

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.

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 5-1/4d.; ten paoli make a crown.

PAPS. Coast hills, with rounded or conical summits; the lofty paps of Jura are three in number.

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. 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.

PARALLEL-BAR. In the marine steam-engine, forms a connection with the pump-rods and studs along the centre line of the levers.

PARALLEL OF LATITUDE. Is a circle parallel to the equator passing through any place. Almucantar is the Arabic name.

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. 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.

PARALLEL SAILING. Sailing nearly on a given parallel of latitude.

PARALLELS OF DECLINATION. Secondary circles parallel to the celestial equator.

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).

PAR-LINE. A term signifying the normal level of a barometer for a given station, or the mean pressure between 32 deg. and the sea-level, to which last the observations are all to be corrected and reduced.

PAROLE. The word of honour given by a prisoner of war until exchanged. Also, synonymous with word (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.

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-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.

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.

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, 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, 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.

PARTIZAN WARFARE. Insurrectionary, factional, and irregular hostilities.

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.

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.)

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. 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.

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.

PASSAGE. A voyage is generally supposed to comprise the outward and homeward passages. Also, a west-country term for ferry. (See VOYAGE.)

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.

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.

PASSED. The having undergone a regular examination for preferment.

PASSED BOYS. Those who have gone through the round of instruction given in a training-ship.

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.

PASSPORT. See PASS.

PASS-WORD. The countersign for answering the sentinels.

PATACHE. A Portuguese tender, from 200 to 300 tons, for carrying treasure: well armed and swift.

PATACOON. A Spanish piece of eight, worth 4s. 6d.

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.

PAULER, THAT IS A. A closer or stopper; an unanswerable or puzzling decision.

PAUL RIM. A notched cast-iron capstan-ring let into the ship's deck for the pauls to act on.

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.

PAUL THERE, MY HEARTY. Tell us no more of that. Discontinue your discourse.

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 buccaneering principle of hire, under the notion of plunder and sharing in prizes, was, no purchase no pay.

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 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.

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.

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.

PEA-BALLAST. A coarse fresh-water sand used by ships in the China trade for stowing tea-chests upon.

PEA OR P.-JACKET. A skirtless loose rough coat, made of Flushing or pilot cloth.

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.

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 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.

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. An early gun of large calibre for throwing stone-balls.

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.

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. An old word for shot or bullet.

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.

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. 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. See PENNANT.

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.

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. 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.

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.

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-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.

PERIODICAL WINDS. See MONSOON and TRADE-WINDS.

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.

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 deg. on both sides.

PERRY. An old term for a sudden squall.

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. See BLUE PETER.

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.

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 4s. 3d. sterling. Also, a Turkish coin of 40 paras, or 1s. 7d.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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."

PIG-TAIL. The common twisted tobacco for chewing.

PIG-YOKE. The name given to the old Davis quadrant.

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.

PIKE-TURN. See CHEVAUX DE FRISE.

PIL, OR PYLL. A creek subject to the tide.

PILCHARD. The Clupea pilchardus, a fish allied to the herring, which appears in vast shoals off the Cornish coast about July.

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.

PILE-DRIVER. A machine adapted for driving piles. Also, applied to a ship given to pitch heavily in a sea-way.

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. 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.

PILOTAGE. The money paid to a pilot for taking a ship in or out of port, &c.

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'S-ANCHOR. A kedge used for dropping a vessel in a stream or tide-way.

PILOT'S FAIR-WAY, OR PILOT'S WATER. A channel wherein, according to usage, a pilot must be employed.

PINCH-GUT. A miserly purser.

PINCH-GUT PAY. The short allowance money.

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.

PIN-MAUL. See MAUL.

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.

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.

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. 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.)

PIPE-CLAY. Known to the ancients under the name of paretonium; formerly indispensable to soldiers as well as the jolly marines.

PIPE DOWN! The order to dismiss the men from the deck when a duty has been performed on board ship.

PIPE-FISH. A fish of the genus Syngnathus, with an elongated slender body and long tubular mouth.

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. An old word for a swaggering rogue; hence Shakspeare's character in Henry V.

PISTOLA. A Papal gold coin of the sterling value of 13s. 11d.

PISTOLE. A Spanish gold coin, value 16s. 6d. 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.

PISTOL-PROOF. A term for the point of courage for which a man was elected captain by pirates.

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.

PISTON-ROD. A rod which is firmly fixed in the piston by a key driven through both.

PIT. In the dockyards. See SAW-PIT.

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.

PITCH-BOAT. A vessel fitted for boiling pitch in, which should be veered astern of the one being caulked.

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.

PITCH IN, TO. To set to work earnestly; to beat a person violently. (A colloquialism.)

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.

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.)

PITH. Well known as the medullary part of the stem of a plant; but figuratively, it is used to express strength and courage.

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.

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.

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.

PLACE. A fortress, especially its main body.

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.

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. 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.)