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.[523]

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.[524]

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.)[525]

PERMANENT RANK. That given by commission, and which does not cease with any particular service.

PERMIT. A license to sell goods that have paid the duties or excise.

PERPENDICLE. The plumb-line of the old quadrant.

PERPENDICULAR. A right line falling from or standing upon another vertically, and making the angle of 90° on both sides.

PERRY. An old term for a sudden squall.

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[526] 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.[527]

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.

PIG-TAIL. The common twisted tobacco for chewing.

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