PRIMING-WIRE, or PRIMING-IRON, a sort of iron-needle, employed to penetrate the touch-hole of a cannon, when it is loaded, in order to discover whether the powder contained therein is thoroughly dry, and fit for immediate service.
PRIVATEER, a vessel of war, armed and equipped by particular merchants, and furnished with a military commission by the admiralty, or the officers who superintend the marine department of a country, to cruize against the enemy, and take, sink, or burn their shipping, or otherwise annoy them as opportunity offers. These vessels are generally governed on the same plan with his majesty’s ships, although they are guilty of many scandalous depredations, which are very rarely practised by the latter.
PRIZE, a vessel taken from the enemy by a ship of war, privateer, or armed merchantman[[44]].
PRIZING, the application of a lever to move any weighty body, as a cask, anchor, cannon, &c.
PROTEST, an instrument, drawn up in writing, and attested before a justice of peace, by the master and a part of the ship’s crew after the expiration of a voyage, describing the severity of the said voyage, occasioned by tempestuous weather, heavy seas, an insufficient crew, or any other circumstances by which the ship has suffered, or may suffer, either in her hull, masts, rigging, or cargo. It is chiefly intended to shew, that such damages or misfortunes did not happen through any neglect or ill conduct of the master or his officers.
PROW, proue (pros, Lat.) a name given by seamen to the beak, or pointed cut-water of a polacre, xebeck, or galley. The upper-part of the prow, in those vessels, is usually furnished with a grating-platform for the convenience of the seamen who walk out to perform whatever is necessary about the sails or rigging on the bowsprit.
PUDDENING, bourrelet, a thick wreath, or circle of cordage, tapering from the middle towards the ends, and fastened about the main-mast and fore-mast of a ship, to prevent their yards from falling down, when the ropes by which they are usually suspended are shot away in battle.
The puddening, which is represented by fig. 1. plate [VIII]. is generally formed in the following manner: A small piece of rope, whose length is twice the diameter of the mast, is spliced together at the two ends, and being thus doubled and extended, a thimble is seized into each of the extremities. After this a large quantity of parcelling is firmly wound about its surface in such a manner as to make it gradually larger from the two ends towards the middle. It is afterwards, once or twice, served with spun-yarn throughout its whole length, to bind the parcelling more closely, and render it firmer and more compact; and the whole is completed by pointing it on the surface. Being then fitted with a laniard at one of the eyes, it is fixed about the mast by passing the laniard alternately through both eyes or thimbles on the fore side of the mast. See also Dolphin.
PULLING, a name given by sailors to the act of rowing with the oars.
PUMP, a well-known machine, used to discharge the water from the ship’s bottom into the sea.