Pinnace (ship's boat)

As a ship's boat, the pinnace is a light boat, propelled by oars or sails, carried aboard merchant and war vessels in the Age of Sail to serve as a tender. The pinnace was usually rowed but could be rigged with a sail for use in favorable winds. A pinnace would ferry passengers and mail, communicate between vessels, scout to sound anchorages, convey water and provisions, or carry armed sailors for boarding expeditions.^[1] The Spanish favored them as lightweight smuggling vessels while the Dutch used them as raiders. In modern parlance, "pinnace" has come to mean an auxiliary vessel that does not fit under the "launch" or "lifeboat" definitions.

^ Cf. Knox, Dudley, ed. (1940). Naval Documents Related to the Wars with Barbary Powers, Naval Operations from 1802 to 1803. Vol. II. U.S. Gov't Printing Office. pp. 267, 270. (examples: "[a]t 5 sent our pinnace alongside of a French Man of War (lying at Tunis) with a letter to Consul Eaton ..."; "[a]t 8 the pinnace returned from the island, she found no bottom within 20 or 30 yards of the shore."; "[a]t 2 lower'd down our pinnace alongside of an American vessel lying in the bay. When the pinnace returned Lieu't Stewart gave us the following interesting news ...")(extracts from journal of U.S. frigate Constellation, Captain Alexander Murray, U.S. Navy, 6 Sept. 1802).

[1] Cf. Knox, Dudley, ed. (1940). Naval Documents Related to the Wars with Barbary Powers, Naval Operations from 1802 to 1803. Vol. II. U.S. Gov't Printing Office. pp. 267, 270. (examples: "[a]t 5 sent our pinnace alongside of a French Man of War (lying at Tunis) with a letter to Consul Eaton ..."; "[a]t 8 the pinnace returned from the island, she found no bottom within 20 or 30 yards of the shore."; "[a]t 2 lower'd down our pinnace alongside of an American vessel lying in the bay. When the pinnace returned Lieu't Stewart gave us the following interesting news ...")(extracts from journal of U.S. frigate Constellation, Captain Alexander Murray, U.S. Navy, 6 Sept. 1802).

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