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.[519]

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, [520]&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.[521]

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[522] 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.