By statute 13 Geo. II. c. 4, judges and officers failing in their duty in respect to the condemnation of prizes, forfeit £500, with full costs of suit, one moiety to the crown, and the other to the informer. Prize, according to jurists, is altogether a creature of the crown; and no man can have any interest but what he takes as the mere gift of the crown.

Partial interest has been granted away at different times, but the statute of Queen Anne (A. D. 1708) is the first which gave to the captors the whole of the benefit.

PRIZE ACT OF 1793. Ordained that the officers and sailors on board every ship and vessel of war shall have the sole property in all captures, being first adjudged lawful prize, to be divided in such proportions and manner as His Majesty should order by proclamation. In 1746 a man, though involuntarily kept abroad above three years in the service of his country, was deemed to have forfeited his share to Greenwich.

PRIZE-ACTS. Though expiring with each war, are usually revived nearly in the same form.

PRIZEAGE. The tenth share belonging to the crown out of a lawful prize taken at sea.

PRIZE-COURT. A department of the admiralty court; (oyer et terminer) to hear and determine according to the law of nations.

PRIZE-GOODS. Those taken upon the high seas, jure belli, from the enemy.

PRIZE-LIST. A return of all the persons on board, whether belonging to the ship, or supernumeraries, at the time a capture is made; those who may be absent on duty are included.

PRIZE-MASTER. The officer to whom a prize is given in charge to carry her into port.

PRIZE-MONEY. The profits arising from the sale of prizes. It was divided equally by chart. 5 Hen. IV.

PRIZING. The application of a lever to lift or move any weighty body. Also, the act of pressing or squeezing an article into its package, so that its size may be reduced in stowage.

PROA, or Flying Prow. See Prahu.

PROBATION. The noviciate period of cadets, midshipmen, apprentices, &c.

PROBE. A surgical sounder.—To probe. To inquire thoroughly into a matter.

PROCEEDS. The product or produce of prizes, &c.

PROCESSION. A march in official order. At a naval or military funeral, the officers are classed according to seniority, the chiefs last.[546]

PROCURATION, LETTERS OF. Are required to be exhibited in the purchase of ships by agents in the enemy's country.

PROCYON. α Canis minoris, the principal star of the Lesser Dog.

PROD. A poke or slight thrust; as in persuading with a bayonet.

PRODD. A cross-bow for throwing bullets, temp. Hen. VII.

PRODUCTION. For obtaining the benefits of trading with our colonies, it is necessary that the goods be accompanied by a "certificate of production" in the manner required by marine law. (See Origin.)

PROFILE DRAUGHTS. In naval architecture, a name applied to two drawings from the sheer draught: one represents the entire construction and disposition of the ship; the other, her whole interior work and fittings.

PROFILE OF A FORT. See Orthographic Projection.

PROG. A quaint word for victuals. Swift says, "In town you may find better prog." It is also a spike.

PROGRESSION. See Arc of Direction.

PROJECTILES. Bodies which are driven by any one effort of force from the spot where it was applied.

PROJECTION. A method of representing geometrically on a plane surface varied points, lines, and surfaces not lying in any one plane: used in charts and maps, where it is of various kinds, as globular, orthographic, Mercator's, &c. In ship-building, an elevation taken amidship. (See Body-plan.)

PROKING-SPIT. A long Spanish rapier.

PROMISCUI USUS. A law term for those articles which are equally applicable to peace or war.

PROMONTORY. A high point of land or rock projecting into a sea or lake, tapering into a neck inland, and the extremity of which, towards the water, is called a cape, or headland, as Gibraltar, Ceuta, Actium, &c.

PROMOVENT. The plaintiff in the instance-court of the admiralty.

PRONG. Synonymous with beam-arm or crow-foot (which see).

PROOF. The trial of the quality of arms, ammunition, &c., before their reception for service. Guns are proved by various examinations, and by the firing of prescribed charges; powder by examinations, and by carefully measured firings from each batch.

PROOFS OF PROPERTY. Attestations, letters of advice, invoices, to show that a ship really belongs to the subjects of a neutral state.

PROOF TIMBER. In naval architecture, an imaginary timber, expressed by vertical lines in the sheer-draught, to prove the fairness of the body.

PROPELLER. This term generally alludes to the Archimedean screw, or screw-propeller.

PROPER MOTION OF THE STARS. A movement which some stars are found to possess, independent of the apparent change of place due to the precession of the equinoxes, the accounting for which is as yet only ingenious conjecture.

PROPORTION. In naval architecture, the length, breadth, and height of[547] a vessel, having a due consideration to her rate, and the object she is intended for.

PROPPETS. Those shores that stand nearly vertical.

PROSPECTIVE, or Prospect Glass. An old term for a deck or hand telescope, with a terrestrial eye-piece. (See Spy-glass.)

PROTECTIONS, on Paper, against impressment, were but little regarded. Yet seafaring men above 55, and under 18, were by statute exempted, as were all for the first two years of their going to sea, foreigners serving in merchant ships or privateers, and all apprentices for three years.

PROTEST. A formal declaration drawn up in writing, and attested before a notary-public, a justice of the peace, or a consul in foreign parts, by the master of a merchant-ship, his mate, and a part of the ship's crew, after the expiration of a voyage in which the ship has suffered in her hull, rigging, or cargo, to show that such damage did not happen through neglect or misconduct on their part.

PROTRACTOR. An instrument for laying off angles on paper, having an open mark at the centre of the circle, with a radial leg, and vernier, which is divided into degrees (generally 90).

PROVE, To. To test the soundness of fire-arms, by trying them with greater charges than those used on service.

PROVEDORE [Sp.] One who provided victuals for ships.

PROVENDER. Though strictly forage, is often applied to provisions in general.

PROVISIONS. All sorts of food necessary for the subsistence of the army and navy. Those shipped on board for the officers and crew of any vessel, including merchant-ships, are held in a policy of insurance, as part of her outfit.

PROVISO. A stern-fast or hawser carried to the shore to steady by. A ship with one anchor down and a shore-fast is moored a proviso. Also, a saving clause in a contract.

PROVOST-MARSHAL. The head of the military police. An officer appointed to take charge of prisoners at a court-martial, and to carry the sentences into execution. The executive and summary police in war.

PROW. Generally means the foremost end of a vessel. Also, a name for the beak of a xebec or felucca.

PUCKA. A word in frequent use amongst the English in the East Indies, signifying sterling, of good quality.

PUCKER. A wrinkled seam in sail-making. Also, anything in a state of confusion.

PUDDENING, or Pudding. A thick wreath of yarns, matting, or oakum (called a dolphin), tapering from the middle towards the ends, grafted all over, and fastened about the main or fore masts of a ship, directly below the trusses, to prevent the yards from falling down, in case of the ropes by which they are suspended being shot away. Puddings are also placed on a boat's stem as a kind of fender; and also laid round the rings of anchors to prevent hempen cables or hawsers from chafing.[548]

PUDDING AND DOLPHIN. A larger and lesser pad, made of ropes, and put round the masts under the lower yards.

PUDDLE-DOCK. An ancient pool of the Thames, the dirtiness of which afforded Jack some pointed sarcasms.

PUDDLING. A technical term for working clay to a plastic state in an inclosed space, until it is of the requisite consistence for arresting the flow of water. A term in iron furnace work.

PUFF. A sudden gust of wind. A whistle of steam.

PUFFIN. The Fratercula arctica, a sea-bird with a singular bill, formerly supposed to be a bird in show, but a fish in substance, in consequence of which notion the pope permitted its being eaten in Lent.

PULAS. An excellent twine, made by the Malays from the kaluwi, a species of nettle.

PULL-AWAY-BOYS. A name given on the West Coast of Africa to the native Kroo-men, who are engaged by the shipping to row boats and do other work not suited to Europeans in that climate.

PULL FOOT, To. To hasten along; to run.

PULLING. The act of rowing with oars; as, "Pull the starboard oars," "Pull together."

PULL-OVER. An east-country term for a carriage-way.

PULO. The Malay word for island, and frequently met with in the islands of the Eastern seas.

PULWAR. A commodious kind of passage-boat on the Ganges.

PUMMEL. The hilt of a sword, the end of a gun, &c.—To pummel. To drub or beat.

PUMP. A well-known machine used for drawing water from the sea, or discharging it from the ship's pump-well. —Chain-pump, consists of a long chain, equipped with a sufficient number of metal discs armed with leather, fitting the cylinders closely, and placed at proper distances, which, working upon two wheels, one above deck and the other below, in the bottom of the hold, passes downward through a copper or wooden tube, and returning upward through another, continuously lifts portions of water. It is worked by a long winch-handle, at which several men may be employed at once; and it thus discharges more water in a given time than the common pump, and with less labour. —Main pumps.

The largest pumps in a ship, close to the main-mast, in contradistinction to bilge pumps, which are smaller, and intended to raise the water from the bilges when a ship is laying over so that it cannot run to the main pump-well. Hand-pump, is the distinctive appellation of the common small pump. Superseded by Downton and others.

PUMP-BARREL. The wooden tube which forms the body of the machine, and wherein the piston moves.

PUMP-BOLTS. Saucer-headed bolts to attach the brake to the pump-standard and pump-spear.

PUMP-BRAKE. The handle or lever of the old and simplest form of pump.[549]

PUMP-CARLINES. The framing or partners on the upper deck, between which the pumps pass into the wells.

PUMP-CHAINS. The chains to which the discs, &c., are attached in the chain-pump.

PUMP-CISTERNS. Are used to prevent chips and other matters getting to, and fouling the action of, the chain-pumps.

PUMP-COAT. A piece of stout canvas nailed to the pump-partners where it enters the upper deck, and lashed to the pump, to prevent the water from running down when washing decks, &c.

PUMP-DALES. Pipes or long wooden spouts extending from the chain-pumps across the ship, and through each side, serving to discharge the water without wetting the decks.

PUMP-FOOT. The lower part, or well-end, of a pump.

PUMP-GEAR. A term implying any materials requisite for fitting or repairing the pumps, as boxes, leather, &c.

PUMP-HOOK. An iron rod with an eye and a hook, used for drawing out the lower pump-box when requisite.

PUMPKIN, or Pompion. Cucurbita pepo, a useful vegetable for sea use.

PUMP SHIP! The order to the crew to work the pumps to clear the hold of water.

PUMP-SPEAR. The rod of iron to which the upper box is attached—and to the upper end of which the brake is pinned—whereby the pump is put in motion.

PUMP SUCKS. The pump sucks is said when, all the water being drawn out of the well, and air admitted, there comes up nothing but froth and wind, with a whistling noise, which is music to the fagged seaman.