Boat-plug, a wood, cork, or metal stopper, fitted through the bottom of ships' boats, wherewith to drain them of the water which may have been shipped or have leaked in while the boats were in use, or of rain-water. The Board of Trade require that each boat shall have two plugs—one a spare one—both to be attached to a fixed part of the bottom by lanyard or chain. To prevent accidents from the omission to restore the plugs, self-acting plugs have from time to time been devised, but have never been very extensively adopted. One of these inventions consists of a metal valve and fittings secured into the bottom of the boat, the valve being formed of a hollow truncated cone, which remains close against the valve seat by the pressure of the sea as long as the boat is water-borne; but immediately the boat, or that portion of it containing the plug, is out of the water, the valve falls by its own weight, and drains the boat effectively.
Boat-racing. See ROWING.