pinace

Pinnace entered English from French pinace in the 1540s, and the French word likely came from Spanish pinaza, derived from pino — pine, the wood from which these light boats were built. A pinnace was a small, fast vessel, typically carried aboard larger ships or sailing alongside them. They were the workhorses of the Age of Exploration.

When Hernán Cortés scuttled his ships in 1519 to prevent his men from retreating, the pinnaces were the first to go. When Sir Francis Drake harassed the Spanish Armada in 1588, pinnaces darted between the English fleet carrying messages. They were too small for battle but too important to leave behind.

By the 1700s, the pinnace had evolved into the captain's barge — a boat designated for carrying the commanding officer. The Royal Navy maintained strict protocol about who could ride in the pinnace and who had to take a lesser boat. Rank determined your vessel, and the pinnace was reserved for authority.

The word fell out of common use as steam replaced sail, but it survives in naval tradition and historical writing. When a novelist describes a pinnace pulling alongside a man-of-war, every reader who knows ships can see the scene — the small pine boat bobbing against the hull of something enormous.