patache
Definitions
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- noun A tender or small vessel employed to convey men or orders from one ship or place to another.
Examples
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He was given a highly specialized vessel called a patache, which a French text defined in 1628 as “a small warship designed for the surveillance of coasts.”
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Having understood that the road from Montelimart to Grignan was inaccessible to four-wheeled carriages, we set off at four in the morning in a patache, the most genteel description of one-horse chair which the town afforded.
Itinerary of Provence and the Rhone Made During the Year 1819
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Three vessels of 200 tons each sailed out to the attack, and for several days they fired at the French corsair, which, being a patache of light draught, had run up the bay beyond their reach.
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Next day I was to follow him, but I broke prison in the night with the help of an Indian, and went down the coast in a stolen patache to a place where thick forests lined the sea.
Note
The word 'patache' is from the Spanish 'patache', of uncertain origin. The carriage sense is after French.
