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. β 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.[537]

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.

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.

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.

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.

POOR JOHN. Hake-fish salted and dried, as well as dried stock-fish, and[538] 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 Phocœna communis. One of the smallest of the cetacean or whale order, common in the British seas.

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.

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-BARS. Strong pieces of oak, furnished with two laniards, by[539] 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

PORTUGUESE. A gold coin, value £1, 16s., called also moiadobras.

PORTUGUESE MAN-OF-WAR. A beautiful floating acalephan of the tropical seas; the Physalia pelagica.

POSITION. Ground (or water) occupied, or that may be advantageously occupied, in fighting order.

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.

POSSESSORY. A suit entered in the admiralty court by owners for the seizing of their ship.

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.

POST-CAPTAIN. Formerly a captain of three years' standing, now simply captain, but equal to colonel in the army, by date of commission.

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.

POST OF HONOUR. The advance, and the right of the lines of any army.

POUCH. A case of strong leather for carrying ammunition, used by soldiers, marines, and small-arm men. Also, the crop of a shark.