POINTS, garcettes de ris, short flat pieces of braided cordage, tapering from the middle towards each end, and used to reef the courses and top-sails of a ship. See the article Reef.
POLACRE, a ship with three masts, usually navigated in the Levant, and other parts of the Mediterranean. These vessels are generally furnished with square sails upon the main-mast, and lateen sails upon the fore-mast and mizen-mast. Some of them however carry square sails upon all the three masts, particularly those of Provence in France. Each of their masts is commonly formed of one piece, so that they have neither top-mast nor top-gallant-mast; neither have they any horses to their yards, because the men stand upon the top-sail-yard to loose or furl the top-gallant-sail, and on the lower-yard to reef, loose, or furl the top-sail, whose yard is lowered sufficiently down for that purpose. See also Xebec.
POLE-AXE, a sort of hatchet nearly resembling a battle-axe, having an handle about 15 inches in length, and being furnished with a sharp point, or claw, bending downwards from the back of its head; the blade whereof is formed like that of any other hatchet. It is principally employed to cut away and destroy the rigging of any adversary who endeavours to board.
Pole-axes are also said to have been successfully used on some occasions in boarding an enemy, whose sides were above those of the boarder. This is executed by detaching several gangs to enter at different parts of the ship’s length, at which time the pole-axes are forcibly driven into her side, one above another, so as to form a sort of scaling-ladders.
POLE-MAST. See the article Mast.
Under bare Poles, etre à sec, the situation of a ship at sea when all her sails are furled, particularly in a tempest. See the articles Scudding and Trying.
POMIGLION, a name given by seamen to the cascabel, or hindmost knob of a cannon. See that article.
PONTOON, (ponton, Fr.) a low flat vessel, nearly resembling a lighter, or barge of burthen, and furnished with cranes, capsterns, tackles, and other machinery necessary for careening ships of all sizes. These are very common in the principal parts of the Mediterranean, but are rarely used in the northern parts of Europe.
POOP, dunette, (puppis, Lat.) the highest and aftmost deck of a ship. See the article Deck.
Poop-royal, dunette sur dunette, a short deck, or platform, placed over the aftmost part of the poop in the largest of the French and Spanish men of war, and serving as a cabin for their masters and pilots. This is usually called the top-gallant-poop by our shipwrights.