PAUL, elinguet, (epaule, Fr.) a certain short bar of wood, or iron, fixed close to the capstern, or windlass of a ship, to prevent those engines from rolling back, or giving way, when they are employed to heave-in the cable, or otherwise charged with any great effort. See Capstern and Windlass.
PAUNCH. See Panch.
To PAY, espalmer, as a naval term, implies to daub or anoint the surface of any body, in order to preserve it from the injuries of the water, weather, &c.
Thus the bottom of a ship is paid with a composition of tallow, sulphur, resin, &c. as described in the article Breaming.
The sides of a ship are usually paid with tar, turpentine, or resin; or by a composition of tar and oil, to which is sometimes added red oker, &c. to protect the planks thereof from being split by the sun or wind. The lower-masts are, for the same reasons, paid with materials of the same sort, if we except those, along which their respective sails are frequently hoisted and lowered; such are the masts of sloops and schooners, which are always paid with tallow for this purpose: for the same reason all top-masts and top-gallant-masts are also paid with hog’s lard, butter, or tallow. See Coat and Stuff.
PAYING-OFF, abattée, the movement by which a ship’s head falls to leeward of the point whither it was previously directed: particularly when, by neglect of the helmsman, she had inclined to windward of her course, so as to make the head-sails shiver in the wind, and retard her velocity. See also Falling-off.
Paying-off is likewise used to signify the payment of the ship’s officers and crew, and the discharge of the ship from service, in order to be laid-up at the moorings.
Paying-out, or Paying-away, the act of slackening a cable, or other rope, so as to let it run out of the vessel for some particular purpose.
PEAK, or PEEK, a name given to the upper-corner of all those sails which are extended by a gaff; or by a yard which crosses the mast obliquely, as the mizen-yard of a ship, the main-yard of a bilander, &c. The upper extremity of those yards and gaffs are also denominated the peak. Hence
Peek-haliards, are the ropes, or tackles, by which the outer end of a gaff is hoisted, as opposed to the throat-haliards, which are applied to the inner end. See Haliards.