A Sea of Words

by Dean King

  Physician of the Fleet In the British Navy, the highest ranking medical officer assigned to a fleet.

  physiognomist One skilled in physiognomy, the art of reading character, temperament, and even the soul or the future, from the face, invented by the Swiss poet and mystic Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801).

  pianissimo Very softly, a direction in music.

  pianoforte A piano (from the Italian piano eforte, “soft and loud”).

  piastre or piaster A PIECE OF EIGHT, or Spanish dollar. Also, a small Turkish coin.

  piazza A public square or marketplace, especially in an Italian town. From the 16th to 18th centuries, an open space surrounded by buildings, such as the parade ground in a fort; also, a colonnade or covered walkway.

  pice or paisa A small Indian copper coin equal in value to 1/100 of a rupee.

  piece of eight A Spanish dollar or PIASTRE, made of silver and worth eight reals, or four British SHILLINGS.

  pier glass A large, tall mirror, especially one designed to fit a pier, or space between two windows.

  pig An oblong mass of metal, usually iron or lead, poured from a smelting furnace; an ingot. Also, short for “pig-iron,” crude iron cast in pigs. A “pig of ballast” was a pig of iron (rarely of lead) used as ballast.

  Pigot, Hugh (1769-1797) A Royal Navy Captain remembered primarily for his cruelty while commandingH.M.S. HERMIONE. The crew mutinied, killed most of the officers, including Pigot, and delivered the ship to the Spaniards. Dudley Pope’s book The Black Ship (1963) expertly recounts the event and its aftermath.

  pig’s trotters Pig’s feet, as food.

  pilau or pilaf A dish of seasoned rice with meat and vegetables.

  pilchard A small sea fish related to the herring but smaller and rounder, especially an edible species found abundantly off the coasts of Cornwall and Devon.

  piles Hemorrhoids.

  pillory A punishment device consisting of a wooden framework on a post with holes for the head and hands in which an offender was locked in order to be exposed to public ridicule, insult, and molestation. In Great Britain the pillory was abolished for everything but perjury in 1815, and entirely in 1837.

  pilot An experienced seaman who is specially qualified with local knowledge to bring a ship into port.

  pilot-cutter A CUTTER used by PILOTS to guide ships into port.

  pilot-jacket A pea jacket, a short double-breasted overcoat of heavy wool, now commonly worn by sailors.

  pilot-water A piece of water in which the service of a PILOT is necessary.

  pimping Insignificant, paltry, petty. In poor health or condition, sickly.

  pin The projecting bone of the hip, especially in horses and cattle.

  pinchbeck An alloy of about five parts copper to one part zinc used to imitate gold in jewelry, clock-making, etc. A cheap imitation. Counterfeit, spurious.

  Pindaric Of or pertaining to Pindar, a fifth century B.C. Greek poet; written in a style resembling that of Pindar. A Pindaric ode.

  pinion To prevent a bird from flying, especially by cutting off the pinion, or outer rear edge, of its wing. To disable by binding the arms; to shackle.

  pink Used at various times and with various meanings for a small narrow-STERNed and SQUARE-RIGGED ship employed primarily for COASTING, fishing, and as a warship, differing considerably among the Dutch, Danish, and Mediterranean types.

  pinnace A boat, usually with eight oars, carried on a MAN-OF-WAR; a small ship or ship’s boat, especially one used as a TENDER.

  pinny Colloquial name for “pinafore,” a sleeveless dress or apron fastened in the back.

  pintado A species of PETREL, also called cape pigeon.

  pintail A common species of duck with white, gray, and brown plumage and a sharply pointed tail.

  pintle A pin forming part of the hinge of a RUDDER, usually attached to the rudder and fitting into a ring or GUDGEON on the STERNPOST.

  pip One of the dots on playing cards, dice, or dominoes. Also, a fruit seed or pit.

  pipe The BOATSWAIN’S whistle, a silver pipe used by the boatswain to convey orders to the crew. Most orders had their own particular cadences by which they were identified. Also, the sounding of the boatswain’s pipe to call the crew. To escort to the accompaniment of a pipe; to convey orders by sounding the boatswain’s pipe.

  pipe clay A fine white clay that forms a ductile paste when mixed with water, used for making tobacco pipes, whitening leather, and, especially by soldiers, for cleaning white clothes; given to excessive attention to dress or appearance.

  pipe one’s eye In nautical slang, to shed tears, cry.

  pipistrelle A small bat common in Britain and Europe.

  pippin Any of numerous varieties of apple, usually yellow flushed with red. A fruit seed or pip. A person or thing very much admired.

  pipit A ground-dwelling bird, brown above and lighter underneath, of the family Motacillidae, resembling the lark and common in most parts of the world.

  piquet or picquet A card game played with a deck of 32 cards (sevens through aces only) and in which points are scored on various combinations of cards and on tricks.

  pis aller Last resort (French).

  piscary The right of fishing.

  pitch Of a ship’s motion, the FORE-AND-AFT rocking created when a wave lifts first the BOW and then the STERN. A mixture of TAR and other substances used in CAULKing a ship’s deck or side seams to coat and seal the OAKUM.

  Pitt, William, the Younger (1759-1806) Son of William Pitt, first Earl of Chatham, the Elder Pitt, who had been the great prime minister during the SEVEN YEARS’ WAR. In 1781 the Younger Pitt entered PARLIAMENT at the age of 22. His reputation rose rapidly. He became Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1782 and First Lord of the Treasury in December 1783. Fighting tremendous opposition in Parliament, Pitt skillfully won the election of 1784. This and following elections made him one of the most powerful prime ministers in English history, keeping him in office without a break until February 1801. At that point he resigned in favor of his follower, Henry ADDINGTON, but resumed office in 1804. He remained in office until his death in 1806 and, after TRAFALGAR, was hailed as “the savior of Europe.”

  pixy-led Led astray by pixies, or elfin creatures. Lost; bewildered, confused.

  pizzicato In music, played by plucking the string of an instrument with the finger instead of using a bow.

  pizzle The penis of an animal. A whip made from a bull’s penis.

  plaice A European or American flatfish, popular for eating.

  plaid A long piece of twilled woolen cloth, in a cross-barred pattern, worn instead of a cloak or mantle in Scotland and northern England.

  plain-chant Early Christian vocal music, also called plainsong, consisting of melodies composed in the limited Gregorian scale and in free rhythm, and sung in unison.

  plane A lofty spreading tree with broad PALMATE leaves and bark that scales off in irregular patches, especially the Oriental plane, a native of Iran and the LEVANT, common in European parks and squares and along avenues.

  planksheer A continuous planking that covers the timber-heads of a wooden ship, in MEN-OF-WAR forming a shelf below the GUNWALE. Covering-board. Also, loosely, the gunwale.

  plantain-eater, also Turaco or Touraco or Lourie Any of the African birds of the family Musophagidae, placed with the cuckoos or separated as a distinct order. Some of the grayish species are known as go-away birds, in imitation of their calls. Some are gray, brown, and white, but the ten species of the genus Tauraco and the two of Musophaga have a remarkably beautiful red-and-green coloring. Long tailed and short winged, they spend their time entirely in trees in search of fruit, taking a few invertebrates. Ironically, they do not eat plantains.

  plash Shallow standing water, a pool made by rain; a puddle.

  pleat Strands of rope twisted into FOXes, or braided into SENNET.

  pledget A small compress, sometimes steeped in medicine, used to dress a wound or sore.

  Pleiades A cluster of sm
all stars in the constellation Taurus representing the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione, figures in Greek mythology. Six of the stars are visible to the naked eye; the seventh represents the oldest daughter, Electra, the “lost Pleiad.”

  plethoric Overloaded; swollen, inflated.

  plover Any of several gregarious wading or shore birds with long wings, a short tail, and a short, stout beak.

  pluck Courage and daring; boldness, fortitude, spirit; determination to keep fighting in the face of difficulty. To want pluck means to be a coward.

  plum-cake A cake made with raisins, currants, and often preserved fruits.

  plum-duff A boiled suet pudding containing raisins or currants.

  plummet A plumb; a SOUNDING-LEAD.

  plusher’s Rum remaining in the barrel after it has been served out.

  Plymouth A historic and strategic English seaport and naval base in South Devon at the western end of the English Channel that served as the starting point for numerous sea explorations and enterprises as early as 1311. A naval dockyard was developed there in 1689.

  Plymouth How or Hoe The famous coastal vantage point located at PLYMOUTH, England.

  pocket-borough A borough in Great Britain whose parliamentary representation was under the control of one person or family.

  Pocock, Nicholas (1741-1821) A British marine painter, whose eye for the fine detail of MASTS and RIGGINGS was trained while he was a merchant ship Commander. He is especially noted for his paintings of naval battles, many of which can still be seen at the National Maritime Museum in GREENWICH, England.

  point Each of the equidistant divisions on the circumference of the mariner’s compass, indicated by one of the 32 rays drawn from the center and used to identify the part of the horizon from which the wind blows or in which an object lies; the four “cardinal points” are North, South, East, and West, and the four “half cardinal points” are Northeast, Southeast, Southwest, and Northwest. Also, the angular interval between two successive points (one eighth of a right angle). See illustration with POINTS OF SAILING.

  point-device Perfectly correct; neat or nice to the extreme; precise or scrupulous.

  poke A bag; a small sack. Also, a pocket.

  polacca A two-or three-masted merchant vessel of the LEVANT and Mediterranean, the two-masted, or BRIG, version having square sails on both MASTS and the three-masted, or ship, version—also known as a polacre-settee—having a LATEEN sail on the FOREMAST and sometimes on the MIZZEN.

  polacre rig A square rig of the eastern Mediterranean in which the lower MAST, TOPMAST, and TOPGALLANT are made of a single SPAR, the upper YARDS being lowered all the way to the deck for FURLing.

  poldavy A coarse canvas or sacking, originally woven in Brittany and often used for sailcloth.

  Points of sailing The arrow pointing down at the top of the illustration above shows the direction of the wind. The ship m is sailing before the wind, or with the wind right aft; n and / have the wind one point on the quarter; o and k have the wind two points on the quarter; p and i have the wind three points on the quarter; q and h have the wind on the quarter, or six points large; f and s have the wind four points large, or two points abaft the beam; g and r have the wind five points large; e and t have the wind one point abaft the beam, or three points large; u and d have the wind on the beam, or two points large; c and x have the wind one point large; B and y are sailing close-hauled.

  The vessels shown on the right-hand side of the diagram are on the larboard tack, while those on the left-hand side are on the starboard tack. Those in the range from s to n and l to f are “quartering.” Those in the range from u to s and d to f are “sailing large,” or “going free.” The area at the top of the diagram into which a ship cannot sail is “dead.” (Illustration from Burney’s Dictionary).

  pole A ship’s MAST; also, the upper end of a mast, rising above the RIGGING. “Under bare poles” means with no sail set, with FURLed sails.

  poleax or poleaxe A battle-ax used until the end of the 18th century in naval warfare for such things as boarding, resisting boarders, and cutting ropes. In naval use it usually had a handle of about 15 inches and a spike at the back of the ax head that could be driven into the side of an enemy ship and used with other poleaxes as a ladder for boarding.

  pollack A saltwater fish of the cod family with a protruding lower jaw, popular as food in Europe and the United States.

  poll-parrot A parrot. From Polly, a popular nickname for a parrot.

  poltroon A spiritless coward; a mean-spirited wretch.

  Polychrest, H.M.S. An experimental craft with sliding keels and rudders and designed to carry a secret weapon: a missile that could destroy a first rate from a mile away, the testing of which cost the inventor, Mr. Eldon, his life. Equipped with twenty-four 32-pound carronades, she is rated a SLOOP instead of a post-ship by First Lord Melville in order to let Aubrey take command of her. The Polychrest is fictional.

  polyp Any of various coelenterates that have a cylindrical body and a mouth fringed with many small tentacles bearing stinging cells, as a sea anemone, jellyfish, or hydra.

  polypody of oak A widely distributed fern that grows on moist rocks, old walls, and trees.

  pommel The round knob on the hilt of a sword, dagger, or the like.

  pommelion A CASCABEL, or knob, on the BREECH of a muzzle-loading cannon.

  Pompey A nickname used by sailors for PORTSMOUTH, the English Channel port, the exact derivation of which is unknown.

  poop A short, raised aftermost deck of a ship, above the QUARTERDECK, found only in very large sailing ships. Also a ship is said to be “pooped” when a heavy sea breaks over a vessel’s STERN, a potentially hazardous situation in a GALE.

  poor fist A poor attempt.

  poor-rate A tax for the relief or support of the poor.

  popinjay An early name for a parrot. A woodpecker, usually the green woodpecker. Also, used contemptuously for a vain person who engages in empty chatter, an allusion to the parrot’s gaudy plumage or to its mechanical repetition of words and phrases.

  poppet A small or dainty person. A term of endearment for a pretty child, girl, or young woman; darling, pet. Also, one of the timbers used to support a ship at launching; a small block of wood that fits inside and supports the GUNWALE or WASHBOARD.

  poppy An annual or perennial flower with showy red, white, pink, yellow, or orange petals and capsules containing numerous small, round seeds. Some varieties contain OPIUM.

  porphyria In Blue at the Mizzen (p. 110), should be “porphyrio,” from Porphyrio porphyrio, the Latin name of the purple gallinule, a large RAIL with blue plumage, a red bill, and red legs.

  porphyry A very hard, fine red or purple stone with red or white feldspar crystals.

  portable soup A soup made from cattle offal, flavored with salt and vegetables and cooked down to hard, gluey cakes. With water added, it was used to make green vegetables boiled in it more palatable and to protect against scurvy.

  Port Admiral An ADMIRAL in command of a naval port and chiefly concerned with dockyard repairs, supplies, and administrative duties. Often the target of derision from the seamen under his authority as any commander would be who sent men to war while remaining behind in a comfortable and often corrupt town, yet was entitled to a portion of their spoils.

  Porte See SUBLIME PORTE.

  porter A dark-brown slightly bitter beer brewed from malt partly charred or browned from being dried at a high temperature.

  porter’s chair A leather armchair with a high back and an arched hood that protected a porter from drafts, used in the entrance halls of well-furnished houses, especially during the Georgian period.

  portion The part of an estate received by an heir. Also, a dowry.

  portlast The GUNWALE of a vessel; a YARD is said to be a-portlast when it lies on the deck.

  port-lid A cover for a porthole, or SCUTTLE.

  Port Mahon On the east side of MINORCA, the chief town and port of this strategic western Medi
terranean island and the object of many battles during the 18th century. Taken by the British in 1708 during the War of Spanish Succession, the port was captured in turn by the French in 1756, when Admiral John BYNG failed to relieve it. In 1762 it was restored to the British, who lost it again during the American Revolutionary War. Admiral COLLINGWOOD used the port as a base for his blockade of TOULON during the Napoleonic wars. With the demise of Napoleon, Spain regained hegemony in 1815.

  Port of Spain The chief port and capital of Trinidad in the WEST INDIES, with a sheltered harbor offering access to the island’s natural riches. Following the decline of Spanish power in the Caribbean, the port was the source of much rancor between the Dutch, French, and English.

  Ports Down Hill An open down approximately 600 feet high, it runs for seven miles along the coast opposite the islands of Portsea and Hayling and the harbor of PORTSMOUTH in southern England.

  port-sill The timbers that line the top and bottom of a gunport on a MAN-OF-WAR.

  Portsmouth In Hampshire, England, on the English Channel, the chief dockyard of the Royal Navy, with an ideal harbor and an anchorage nearby at SPITHEAD that is sheltered from the Channel by the Isle of WIGHT.

  posada An inn in Spanish-speaking countries.

  po’shay Contraction of “pony-shay.” See POST CHAISE.

  posset A drink made of hot milk curdled with ale, wine, or other liquor and sugar and spices, used as both a delicacy and a remedy for colds and other illnesses.

  possibile é la cosa, e naturale … E se Susanna vuol, possibilissima It’s possible, and natural.... And if Susanna is willing, most possible (Italian; sung by Figaro in act two of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro).

  post The upright timber on which the RUDDER is hung; the STERN-POST. Also, the mode of travel by POST CHAISE.

  post-boy See POSTILLION.

  post-captain or post The rank in the Royal Navy indicating the receipt of a COMMISSION as officer in command of a POST SHIP. This commission entitled a full-grade Captain (officially called a Post-Captain) to a MASTER, who was responsible for the navigation of the ship, as well as to position in the order of seniority on the list of Captains. The Post-Captain was distinguished from a MASTER AND COMMANDER, an officer of inferior rank who was given the courtesy title of Captain while serving as an acting Captain, and from a LIEUTENANT commanding an unRATEd vessel (a ship of fewer than 20 guns). Officially, the term “Post Captain” was used until 1824, at which time it was replaced with “Captain.” Officers appointed to command post ships and up were technically the only ones to be called Captains. But, unofficially, the courtesy use of “Captain” for a Master and Commander or Lieutenant commanding a smaller vessel continued.