piggin n also peggin. Cp OED ~ 'small pail or tub' chief dial (1554-), EDD sb 1, DAE (1653-); SMYTH 527 'a little pail having a long stave, for a handle; used to bale water out of a boat.' Small wooden bucket made of staves, one of which protrudes to form a handle, used to bail water from a deep-keeled boat; SPUDGEL.
[1870] 1973 Evening Telegram 25 Oct, p. 3 Then you hear the splashing where they were bailing her out with the piggin if it rained the night before. 1897 J A Folklore x, 210 ~ a small bucket used for dipping water out of the dill and bailing their boats. [c1900] 1978 RLS 8, p. 24 Peggin: a bale bucket for a punt. [1926] 1946 PRATT 176 "The Cachalot": The second oarsman snatched and shot / The piggin like a shuttlecock, Bailing the swamping torrent out, / Or throwing sidelong spurts to dout / The flame. T 90-64 And there's the piggin, the round little keg with the one handle. C 71-128 ~ a wooden tub used to bail bilge water from a fishing boat. The piggin was made from staves one of which was longer than all of the others, and used as a handle. Piggins were hand made after the fashion of a small barrel (except of course, it had no cover), the staves being held together by two hoops. 1977 RUSSELL 153 One of us asked him how far off he drove. He said he didn't rightly know, because he had no way of measurin' the mileage, but on the mornin' the wind died out, he took his piggin and baled the boat out, then took his last cake of hard tack out of his bread box and ate it.
