PLANE-CHART. One constructed on the supposition of the earth's being an extended plane, and therefore but little in request.

PLANE OF THE MERIDIAN. See Meridian.[532]

PLANE-SAILING. That part of navigation which treats a ship's course as an angle, and the distance, difference of latitude, and easting or westing, as the sides of a right-angled triangle. The easting or westing is called departure. To convert this into difference of longitude, parallel, middle latitude, or Mercator's sailing is needed, depending on circumstances. Plane-sailing is so simple that it is colloquially used to express anything so easy that it is impossible to make a mistake.

PLANE TRIANGLE. One contained by three right lines.

PLANETS, Primary. Those beautiful opaque bodies which revolve about the sun as a centre, in nearly circular orbits. (See Inferior, Minor, and Superior.)

PLANETS, Secondary. The satellites, or moons, revolving about some of the primary planets—the moon being our satellite.

PLANIMETRY. The mensuration of plane surfaces.

PLANK. Thick boards, 18 feet long at least, from 11⁄2 to 4 inches thick, and 9 or 10 inches broad; of less dimensions, it is called board or deal (which see), the latter being 8 or 9 inches wide, by 14 feet long.

PLANKING. The outside and inside casing of the vessel.

PLANK IT, To. To sleep on the bare decks, choosing, as the galley saying has it, the softest plank.

PLANK-SHEER. Pieces of plank covering the timber-heads round the ship; also, the gunwale or covering-board. The space between this and the line of flotation has latterly been termed the free-board.

PLAN OF THE TRANSOMS. The horizontal appearance of them, to which the moulds are made, and the bevellings taken.

PLANT. A stock of tools, &c. Also, the fixtures, machinery, &c., required to carry on a business.

PLANTER. In Newfoundland it means a person engaged in the fishery; and in the United States the naked trunk of a tree, which, imbedded in a river, becomes one of the very dangerous snag tribe.

PLASH, To. To wattle or interweave branches.

PLASTRON. A pad used by fencers. Also, the shield on the under surface of a turtle.

PLATE. In marine law, refers to jewels, plate, or treasure, for which freight is due. Thus, plate-ship is a galleon so laden.

PLATE. Backstay-plate. A piece of iron used instead of a chain to confine the dead-eye of the backstay to the after-channel.—Foot-hook or futtock plates. Iron bands fitted to the lower dead-eyes of the topmast-shrouds, which, passing through holes in the rim of the top, are attached to the upper ends of the futtock-shrouds.

PLATE-ARMOUR. Thick coverings or coatings for ships on the new principle, to render them impervious to shot and shell, if kept just outside of breaking-plate distance.

PLATEAU. An upland flat-topped elevation.

PLATFORM. A kind of deck for any temporary or particular purpose: the orlop-deck, having store-rooms and cabins forward and aft, and the[533] middle part allotted to the stowage of cables. Also, the flooring elevation of stone or timber on which the carriage of a gun is placed for action. Hence, in early voyages, a fort or battery, with well-mounted ordnance, is called "the platform."

PLATOON. Originally a small square body or subdivision of musketeers; hence, platoon exercise, that which relates to the loading and firing of muskets in the ranks; and platoon firing, i.e. by subdivisions.

PLAY. Motion in the frame, masts, &c. Also said of the marine steam-engine when it is in action or in play. Also, in long voyages or tedious blockades, play-acting may be encouraged with benefit; for the excitement and employment thus afforded are not only good anti-scorbutics, but also promoters of content and good fellowship: in such—

PLAYTE. An old term for a river-boat.

PLEDGET. The string of oakum used in caulking. Also, in surgery, a small plug of lint.

PLEIADES. The celebrated cluster of stars in Taurus, of which seven or eight are visible to the naked eye; the assisted vision numbers over 200.

PLENY TIDES. Full tides.

PLICATILES. Ancient vessels built of wood and leather, which could be taken to pieces and carried by land.

PLONKETS. Coarse woollen cloths of former commerce. (See statute 1 R. III. c.

8.

PLOT, or Plott. A plan or chart. (See Ichnography.)

PLOTTING. The making of the plan after an actual survey of the place has been obtained.

PLOUGH. An instrument formerly used for taking the sun's altitude, and possessed of large graduations. When a ship cuts briskly through the sea she is said to plough it.

PLUCKER. The fishing frog, Lophius piscatorius.

PLUG. A conical piece of wood to let in or keep out water, when fitted to a hole in the bottom of a boat. —Hawse-plugs. To stop the hawse-holes when the cables are unbent, and the ship plunges in a head-sea. —Shot-plugs.

Covered with oakum and tallow, to stop shot-holes in the sides of a ship near the water-line; being conical, they adapt themselves to any sized shot-holes.

PLUMB. Right up and down, opposed to parallel.—To plumb. To form the vertical line. Also, to sound the depth of water.

PLUMBER-BLOCKS. These, in a marine steam-engine, are Y's, wherein are fixed the bushes, in which the shafts or pinions revolve.

PLUMMET. A name sometimes given to the hand-lead, or any lead or iron weight suspended by a string, as used by carpenters, [534]&c.

PLUNDER. A name given to the effects of the officers and crew of a prize, when pillaged by the captors, though the act directs that "nothing shall be taken out of a prize-ship till condemned." (See Pillage.)

PLUNGING FIRE. A pitching discharge of shot from a higher level, at such an angle that the shot do not ricochet.

PLUNGING SPLASH. The descent of the anchor into the water when let go.

PLUSH [evidently from plus]. The overplus of the grog, arising from being distributed in a smaller measure than the true one, and assigned to the cook of each mess, becomes a cause of irregularity. (See Tot.)

PLUVIOMETER, or Rain-gauge. A measurer of the quantity of rain which falls on a square foot. There are various kinds.

PLY, To. To carry cargoes or passengers for short trips. Also, to work to windward, to beat. Also, to ply an oar, to use it in pulling.

PLYMOUTH CLIMATE.

PLYMOUTH CLOAK. An old term for a cane or walking stick.

P.M. [Lat. post meridiem.] Post meridian, or after mid-day.

P.O. Mark for a petty officer.

POCHARD. A kind of wild duck.

POCKET. A commercial quantity of wool, containing half a sack. Also, the frog of a belt.

POD. A company of seals or sea-elephants.

POGGE. The miller's thumb, Cottus cataphractus.

POHAGEN. A fish of the herring kind, called also hard-head (which see).

POINT. A low spit of land projecting from the main into the sea, almost synonymous with promontory or head. Also, the rhumb the winds blow from.

POINT A GUN, To. To direct it on a given object.

POINT A SAIL, To. To affix points through the eyelet-holes of the reefs. (See Points.)

POINT-BEACHER. A low woman of Portsmouth.

POINT-BLANK. Direct on the object; "blank" being the old word for the mark on the practice-butt.

POINT-BLANK FIRING. That wherein no elevation is given to the gun, its axis being pointed for the object.

POINT-BLANK RANGE. The distance to which a shot was reckoned to range straight, without appreciable drooping from the force of gravity. It varied from 300 to 400 yards, according to the nature of gun; and was measured by the first graze of the shot fired horizontally from a gun on its carriage on a horizontal plane. The finer practice of rifled guns is much abating the use of the term, minute elevations being added to the point-blank direction for even the very smallest ranges.

POINT BRASS OR IRON. A large sort of plumb for the nice adjustment of perpendicularity for a given line.[535]

POINT-DE-GALLE CANOE. Consists of a single stem of Dúp wood, 18 to 30 feet long, from 11⁄2 to 21⁄2 feet broad, and from 2 to 3 feet deep. It is fitted with a balance log at the ends of two bamboo out-riggers, having the mast, yard, and sail secured together; and, when sailing, is managed in a similar way to the catamaran. They sail very well in strong winds, and are also used by the natives of the Eastern Archipelago, especially at the Feejee group, where they are very large.

POINTER. The index or indicator of an instrument.—Station pointer. A brass graduated circle with one fixed and two radial legs; by placing them at two adjoining angles taken by a sextant between three known objects, the position of the observer is fixed on the chart.

POINTER-BOARD. A simple contrivance for duly training a ship's guns.

POINTERS. Stout props, placed obliquely to the timbers of whalers, to sustain the shock of icebergs. All braces placed diagonally across the hold of any vessel, to support the bilge and prevent loose-working, are called pointers. Also, the general designation for the stars α and β in the Great Bear, a line through which points nearly upon the pole-star.

POINT-HOLES. The eyelet-holes for the points.

POINTING. The operation of unlaying and tapering the end of a rope, and weaving some of its yarns about the diminished part, which is very neat to the eye, prevents it from being fagged out, and makes it handy for reeving in a block, &c.

POINT OF THE COMPASS. The 32d part of the circumference, or 11° 15′.

POINTS. See Reef-points.—Armed at all points, is when a man is defended by armour cap-à-pie.

POINTS OF SERVICE. The principal details of duty, which ought to be executed with zeal and alacrity.

POLACRE. A ship or brig of the Mediterranean; the masts are commonly formed of one spar from truck to heel, so that they have neither tops nor cross-trees, neither have they any foot-ropes to their upper yards, because the men stand upon the topsail-yards to loose and furl the top-gallant sails, and upon the lower yards to loose, reef, or furl the top-sails, all the yards being lowered sufficiently for that purpose.

POLANS. Knee-pieces in armour.

POLAR CIRCLES. The Arctic and the Antarctic; 23° 28′ from either pole.

POLAR COMPRESSION. See Compression of the Poles.

POLAR DISTANCE. The complement of the declination. The angular distance of a heavenly body from one of the poles, counted on from 0° to 180°.

POLARIS. See Pole-star.

POLAR REGIONS. Those parts of the world which lie within the Arctic and Antarctic circles.

POLDAVIS, or Poldavy. A canvas from Dantzic, formerly much used in our navy. A kind of sail-cloth thus named was also manufactured in[536] Lancashire from about the year 1500, and regulated by statute 1 Jac. cap. 24.

POLE. The upper end of the highest masts, when they rise above the rigging.

POLEAXE, or Pollax. A sort of hatchet, resembling a battle-axe, which was used on board ship to cut away the rigging of an adversary. Also in boarding an enemy whose hull was more lofty than that of the boarders, by driving the points of several into her side, one above another, and thus forming a kind of scaling-ladder; hence were called boarding-axes.

POLEMARCH. The commander-in-chief of an ancient Greek army.

POLE-MASTS. Single spar masts, also applied where the top-gallant and royal masts are in one. (See Mast.)

POLES. Two points on the surface of the earth, each 90° distant from all parts of the equator, forming the extremities of the imaginary line called the earth's axis. The term applies also to those points in the heavens towards which the terrestrial axis is always directed. —Under bare poles. The situation of a ship at sea when all her sails are furled.

(See Scud and Try.

POLE-STAR. α Ursæ minoris. This most useful star is the lucida of the Little Bear, round which the other components of the constellation and the rest of the heavens appear to revolve in the course of the astronomical day.