The belaying pin-system was an early type of quick-release cleating system.
The pins fit into holes in the fife-rail that are called "bung-holes"!




"Christopher Horner" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 01:30:00 -0500, Mike1
wrote:


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?


If the first pic on this ( http://www.tallshipbounty.org/belay.html ) page
is what you are talking about then, you're thinking of belaying pins, used
either for lashing/belaying running rigging, or motivating the crew.



--
Christopher Horner