tarpawlin

It thundered too a little now and then in the same direction, but this was an every -- day occurrence in Jamaica at this season, and as I had only seven miles to go, off I started in a gig of mine host's, with my portmanteau well secured under a tarpawlin, in defiance of all threatening appearances, crowding sail, and urging the noble roan that had me in tow close upon thirteen knots.

Tom Cringle's Log Michael Scott 1812

It appears likewise, that he had exchanged his tarpawlin and quadrant among the Chaldeans, for the gorgeous insignia of royalty, and appears as

A History of New York 1809

a tarpawlin; we burnt the hair off the skin, and for want of any thing else fell to chewing the seal-skin.

A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Volume 17 Arranged in Systematic Order: Forming a Complete History of the Origin and Progress of Navigation, Discovery, and Commerce, by Sea and Land, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time Robert Kerr 1784

That he heard Captain Digby (my Lord of Bristoll's son, a young fellow that never was but one year, if that, in the fleet) say that he did hope he should not see a tarpawlin have the command of a ship within this twelve months "-- tarpaulin being the common name applied to a sailor in those days.

How Britannia Came to Rule the Waves Updated to 1900 William Henry Giles Kingston 1847