Learn English – Old nautical word for the wooden pin you tie sail ropes to

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It serves as a kind of 'lynchpin', but another word for that.

You can also take it out and use it as a bat, to bash Pirate's heads in.

I think there are a bunch of them all around the bottom of the mainmast, or maybe they are along the sides.

Best Answer

Belaying pin:

  • A belaying pin is a solid metal or wooden device used on traditionally rigged sailing vessels to secure lines of running rigging. Largely replaced on most modern vessels by cleats, they are still used, particularly on square rigged ships.(Wikipedia)

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Belaying pin:

  • 1) A stout bar of metal or wood shaped so that the bottom half slips through a hole in a rail at the mast partners or between the shrouds, to which halyards may be secured. (The pin is removable so that a hitch that binds can be easily freed.)

  • 2) The pin can be used as a club, which gives the term a secondary ironic meaning: one can “stop” someone by hitting him with a belaying pin.

(The Dictionary of English Nautical Language Database)

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