Pinnace is also a boat, usually rowed with eight oars. See the article Boat.
PINTLES, certain pins or hooks, fastened upon the back part of the rudder, with their points downwards, in order to enter into, and rest upon the googings, fixed on the stern-post to hang the rudder. See Helm.
PIRATE, pirate (πειρατης, Gr.) a sea-robber, or an armed ship that roams the seas without any legal commission, and seizes or plunders every vessel she meets indiscriminately, whether friends or enemies.
The colours usually displayed by pirates are said to be a black field, with a death’s head, a battle-axe and hour-glass. The last instrument is generally supposed to determine the time allowed to the prisoners, whom they take, to consider whether they will join the pirates in their felonious combination, or be put to death, which is often perpetrated in the most cruel manner.
Amongst the most celebrated pirates of the north is recorded Alvilda, daughter of a king of the Goths, named Sypardus. She embraced this occupation to deliver herself from the violence imposed on her inclination, by a marriage with Alf, son of Sigarus, king of Denmark. She drest herself as a man, and composed her band of rowers, and the rest of her crew, of a number of young women, attired in the same manner. Amongst the first of her cruizes she touched at a place where a company of pirates bewailed the death of their captain. The strangers were captivated with the agreeable manners of Alvilda, and chose her for their chief. By this reinforcement she became so formidable upon the sea, that prince Alf came to engage her. She sustained his attacks for a considerable time; but, in a vigorous action, Alf boarded her vessel, and having killed the greatest part of her crew, seized the captain, namely, herself; whom nevertheless he knew not, because the princess had a casque which covered her visage. Being master of her person, he removed the casque, and, in spite of her disguise, instantly recognized her, and offered her his hand in wedlock[[42]].
PITCH, brai, (pix, Lat.) a composition, black, dry, brittle, and shining, which remains at the bottom of an alembic after the oil of turpentine is drawn off by distillation. It is used in calking a ship, to fill the chinks, or intervals between the planks of her sides, or decks, or bottom. It is sometimes mixed with resin, or other glutinous material. See Tar.
To Pitch the seams. See the article Pay.
PITCHING, tangage, (appicciare, Ital.) may be defined, the vertical vibration which the length of a ship makes about her centre of gravity; or the movement, by which she plunges her head and after-part alternately into the hollow of the sea.
This motion may proceed from two causes: the waves, which agitate the vessel; and the wind upon the sails, which makes her stoop to every blast thereof. The first absolutely depends upon the agitation of the sea, and is not susceptible of inquiry; and the second is occasioned by the inclination of the masts, and may be submitted to certain established maxims[[43]].
When the wind acts upon the sails, the mast yields to its effort, with an inclination, which increases in proportion to the length of the mast, to the augmentation of the wind, and to the comparative weight and distribution of the ship’s lading.