Clams Canino wrote:

Binicle, Binacle, ???

I know it ain't barnacle.

-W



The modern spelling is binnacle.

Binnacle: a box on the deck of a ship near the helm, in which the
compass is placed.

1622 Recov. Ship Bristol in Arb. Garner IV. 584 Watch the biticle,
attend the compass. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 11 A square box
nailed together with woodden pinnes, called a Bittacle,+and in it
alwaies stands the Compasse. 1684 I. Mather Remark. Provid. (1856) 65
The compass in the biddikil. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 458 Companion,
binnacle, in floating wreck, With compasses and glasses strew'd the
deck. [1769 I Dict. Marine (1789) F2 This is called bittacle in all the
old sea-books.] 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy xiii, Then they went aft to
the binnacle again. 1839 I Phant. Ship xli, The+shrine of the saint at
the bittacle. 1870 R. Ferguson Electr. 24 To place pieces of soft iron
or magnets in the immediate neighbourhood of the binnacle.

b. attrib.

1834 H. Miller Scenes & Leg. xxviii. (1857) 422 In inventing binnacle
lamps. 1856 Olmsted Slave States 142 The binnacle-compass was a sort of
fetish to him.


From the OED, Second Edition.



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