STERN-Pill, a long straight piece of timber erected on the extremity of the keel, to sustain the rudder and terminate the ship behind.
This piece, which is expressed by B in the pieces of the hull, Plate CCCCLIV. fig. 1. ought to be well secured and supported; because the ends of all the lower planks of the ship's bottom are fixed in a channel, cut on its surface; and the whole weight of the rudder is sustained by it.