The Seaman's Friend / Containing a treatise on practical seamanship, with plates, a dictionary of sea terms, customs and usages of the merchant service

by Richard Henry Dana

Paunch Mat. A thick mat, placed at the slings of a yard or elsewhere.

Pawl. A short bar of iron, which prevents the capstan or windlass from turning back.

To pawl, is to drop a pawl and secure the windlass or capstan.

Pay-off. When a vessel's head falls off from the wind.

To pay. To cover over with tar or pitch.

To pay out. To slack up on a cable and let it run out.

Peak. The upper outer corner of a gaff-sail.

Peak. (See A-peak.)

A stay-peak is when the cable and fore stay form a line.

A short stay-peak is when the cable is too much in to form this line.