Mike1 wrote in message ...
In old "pirate" movies, you'll sometimes see, during a fight, a man pull
out a special-shaped wooden pin or club and use it as a weapon.
Sometimes he has one or more on him, but often he yanks it from a
mounting bracket on the rail of the ship (where there appear to be many
of things, for, I presume, tying down lines to tack the sails).

Question: Do these pins have a specific name?

I heard some people call them bull pins, and dog pins.
They weren't used for tying down anything, that's
why they were always free, and pirates particulary
wanted to steal them. After you get the
sails up on those tall ships, you have to
tension the lines. The pins were used in
a turnbuckle type of a rig to tune the
sails after you got them up.