Does anyone know what these are called

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lenskaraoke

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I've recently aquired a Cornish Lugger that needs some TLC. I've started work on her and one of the items I'm putting on is pictured below or you can click the link to get a bigger photo
http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/a...night/1001.jpg
The item pointed out by the red arrows are about 15" long and are like spindles and the items pointed out by the green arrows are the holders of the spindle type things
Does anyone know what the two items are called
 
and they live in a piece of timber called a rail, sometimes a pinrail. Some pins are fixed (i.e. not removable), some are easily taken out and used to bash unwary sailors on the head.
 
lenskaraoke said:
. . . . . http://i956.photobucket.com/albums/a...night/1001.jpg
The item pointed out by the red arrows are about 15" long and are like spindles and the items pointed out by the green arrows are the holders of the spindle type things
Does anyone know what the two items are called
Click to expand...

Firstly, the link does not take you to a larger photograph but to a series of 'snaps'.

Secondly, when I was taught in the Royal Navy, we had those on the whalers and cutters which we used to sail.

They are called Thwarl Pins. (Do not ask me how to spell the word, thwarl, Fwarle, Thwarle). The two words were always used together 'Thwarl Pin'.

edit: I have since found out that the word is 'Thole pin' or 'Tholepin' and now only refers to similar pins mounted in the gunwale, in place of rowlocks into which you place the oars when rowing.

The word offered by others are the 'modern' terms for the same thing. I think that 'Thwarl' is the ancient word from the 15 century onwards, until Sarabande and NormanE came along? :D

.
 
Last edited:
thole "peg," from O.E. þoll, . No record of the word in English from c.1000 to mid-15c.

In my 1964 Admiralty MofS, there is no mention of "thole", but rowlocks are pictured as U-shaped dips in the washstrake with one illustration showing a means of 'locking' the sweep in place. My father's 1937 MofS also has no mention of "thole" but has as similar diagram for rowlocks, with the word "crutch" being used for the metal U on a stem, inserted into a metal hole.

However, on the River Taw at Fremington Quay near Barnstaple, there are two Admiralty whalers, still in grey paint, with thole pins holes (pairs) in the washstrake, as a means of locating the sweeps. I saw them in September.

A pleasant diversion from the rain, DL :)
 
chasing the dust from my mind, I found this pic of the pulling boat in question.

Thole pins to P and S, and extra holes for'd.


P8230038.jpg
 
The green are kevels & the red are belaying pins... But they maybe called somthing else in Janner..
 
The red are indeed Belaying Pins and the Green could be described as a Pin Rail although that is normally a fixed structurer around the mast or along the bulwarks. Illustrated appears to be temp arrangement mounted on the shrouds or stays.

On the issue of "thole pins" etc pins are as described often in pairs but occasionally just a single one, "Rowlocks" are the cut out in the wash strake, usually lined with a brass strip to reduce wear and closed with a "poppet" and finally a "crutch" is metal [brass, bronze or iron] that fits into a hole in the gunnel to support the oar
 
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