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 4_s._ 3_d._ sterling. Also, a
Turkish coin of 40 paras, or 1_s._ 7_d._
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.
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.
"A nodding beam or pig of lead
May hurt the very ablest head."
PIG-TAIL. The common twisted tobacco for chewing.
PIG-YOKE. The name given to the old Davis quadrant.
PIKE. (_See_ HALF-PIKE.) A long, slender, round staff, armed at the end
with iron. (_See_ BOARDING-PIKE and PYKE.) Formerly in general use, but
which gave way to the bayonet. Also, the peak of a hill. Also, a fish,
the _Esox lucius_, nicknamed the fresh-water shark.
PIKE-TURN. _See_ CHEVAUX DE FRISE.
PIL, OR PYLL. A creek subject to the tide.
PILCHARD. The _Clupea pilchardus_, a fish allied to the herring, which
appears in vast shoals off the Cornish coast about July.
PILE. A pyramid of shot or shell.--_To pile arms_, is to plant three
fire-locks together, and unite the ramrods, to steady the outspread
butt-ends of the pieces resting on the ground. A pile is also a beam of
wood driven into the ground to form by a number a solid foundation for
building upon. A _sheeting-pile_ has more breadth than thickness, and is
much used in constructing coffer-dams.
PILE-DRIVER. A machine adapted for driving piles. Also, applied to a
ship given to pitch heavily in a sea-way.
PILGER. An east-country term for a fish-spear.
PILING ICE. In Arctic parlance, where from pressure the ice is raised,
slab over slab, into a high mass, which consolidates, and is often
mistaken for a berg.
PILL. (_See_ PIL.) A term on the western coast for a draining rivulet,
as well as the creek into which it falls.
PILLAGE. Wanton and mostly iniquitous plunder. But an allowed ancient
practice, both in this and other countries, as shown by the sea
ordinances of France, and our black book of the admiralty.
PILLAN. A northern coast name for the shear-crab.
PILLAR OF THE HOLD. A main stanchion with notches for descent.
PILLAW. A dish composed at sea of junk, rice, onions, and fowls; it
figured at the marriage feast of Commodore Trunnion. It is derived from
the Levantine _pillaf_.
PILLOW. A block of timber whereon the inner end of the bowsprit is
supported.
PILMER. The fine small rain so frequent on our western coasts.
PILOT. An experienced person charged with the ship's course near the
coasts, into roads, rivers, &c., and through all intricate channels, in
his own particular district.--_Branch pilot._ One who is duly authorized
by the Trinity board to pilot ships of the largest draft.
PILOTAGE. The money paid to a pilot for taking a ship in or out of port,
&c.
PILOT CUTTER. A very handy sharp-built sea-boat used by pilots.
PILOT-FISH. _Naucrates ductor_, a member of the _Scomber_ family, the
attendant on the shark.
PILOT'S-ANCHOR. A kedge used for dropping a vessel in a stream or
tide-way.
PILOT'S FAIR-WAY, OR PILOT'S WATER. A channel wherein, according to
usage, a pilot must be employed.
PINCH-GUT. A miserly purser.
PINCH-GUT PAY. The short allowance money.
PINE. A genus of lofty coniferous trees, abounding in temperate
climates, and valuable for its timber and resin. The masts and yards of
ships are generally of pine. (_See_ PITCH-PINE.)--_Pine_ is also a
northern term for drying fish by exposure to the weather.
PING. The whistle of a shot, especially the rifle-bullets in their
flight.
PINGLE. A small north-country coaster.
PINK. A ship with a very narrow stern, having a small square part above.
The shape is of old date, but continued, especially by the Danes, for
the advantage of the quarter-guns, by the ship's being contracted abaft.
Also, one of the many names for the minnow.--_To pink_, to stab, as,
between casks, to detect men stowed away.
PINKSTERN. A very narrow boat on the Severn.
PIN-MAUL. _See_ MAUL.
PINNACE. A small vessel propelled with oars and sails, of two, and even
three masts, schooner-rigged. In size, as a ship's boat, smaller than
the barge, and, like it, carvel-built. The armed pinnace of the French
coasts was of 60 or 80 tons burden, carrying one long 24-pounder and 100
men. In _Henry VI._ Shakspeare makes the pinnace an independent vessel,
though Falstaff uses it as a small vessel attending on a larger. Also,
metaphorically, an indifferent character.
PINNOLD. A term on our southern shores for a small bridge.
PINS.--_Belaying pins._ Short cylindrical pieces of wood or iron fixed
into the fife-rail and other parts of a vessel, for making fast the
running-rigging.
PINTADOS. Coloured or printed chintzes, formerly in great demand from
India, and among the fine goods of a cargo.
PIN-TAIL. The _Anas acuta_, a species of duck with a long pointed tail.
Also, in artillery, the iron pin on the axle-tree of the limber, to
which the trail-eye of the gun-carriage is attached for travel.
PINTLES. The rudder is hung on to a ship by pintles and braces. The
braces are secured firmly to the stern-post by jaws, which spread and
are bolted on each side. The pintles are hooks which enter the braces,
and the rudder is then wood-locked; a dumb pintle on the heel finally
takes the strain off the hinging portions.
PIONEERS. A proportion of troops specially assigned to the clearing
(from natural impediments) the way for the main body; hence, used
generally in the works of an army, its scavenging, &c. Labourers of the
country also are sometimes so used.
PIPE. A measure of wine containing two hogsheads, or 125 gallons, equal
to half a tun. Also, a peculiar whistle for summoning the men to duty,
and directing their attention by its varied sounds. (_See_ CALL.)
PIPE-CLAY. Known to the ancients under the name of _paretonium_;
formerly indispensable to soldiers as well as the jolly marines.
PIPE DOWN! The order to dismiss the men from the deck when a duty has
been performed on board ship.
PIPE-FISH. A fish of the genus _Syngnathus_, with an elongated slender
body and long tubular mouth.
PIPER. A half-dried haddock. Also, the shell _Echinus cidaris_. Also,
the fish _Trigla lyra_.
PIQUET. A proportion of a force set apart and kept on the alert for the
security of the whole.--The _outlying piquet_, some distance from the
main body, watches all hostile approach.--The _inlying piquet_ is ready
to act in case of internal disorder, or of alarm.
PIRACY. Depredation without authority, or transgression of authority
given, by despoiling beyond its warrant. Fixed domain, public revenue,
and a certain form of government, are exempt from that character,
therefore the Barbary States were not treated by Europe as such. The
Court of Admiralty is empowered to grant warrants to commit any person
for piracy, only on regular information upon oath. By common law, piracy
consists in committing those acts of robbery and depredation upon the
high seas, which, if committed on land, would have amounted to felony,
and the pirate is deemed _hostis humani generis_.
PIRAGUA [Sp. _per agua_]. _See_ PIROGUE.
PIRATE. A sea-robber, yet the word _pirata_ has been formerly taken for
a sea-captain. Also, an armed ship that roams the seas without any legal
commission, and seizes or plunders every vessel she meets; their
colours are said to be a black field with a skull, a battle-axe, and an
hour-glass. (_See_ PRAHU.)
PIRIE. An old term for a sudden gust of wind.
PIRLE. An archaic word signifying a brook or stream.
PIROGUE, OR PIRAGUA. A canoe formed from the trunk of a large tree,
generally cedar or balsa wood. It was the native vessel which the
Spaniards found in the Gulf of Mexico, and on the west coasts of South
America; called also a dug-boat in North America.
PISCARY. A legal term for a fishery. Also, a right of fishing in the
waters belonging to another person.
PISCES. The twelfth sign of the zodiac, which the sun enters about the
21st of February.
PISCIS AUSTRALIS. One of the ancient southern constellations, the lucida
of which is Fomalhaut.
PISTOL. An old word for a swaggering rogue; hence Shakspeare's character
in _Henry V._