Pinnace A pinnace is a light boat , propelled by sails or oars , formerly used as a `` tender '' for guiding merchant and war vessels . In modern parlance , pinnace has come to mean a boat associated with some kind of larger vessel , that does n't fit under the launch or lifeboat definitions . In general , the pinnace had sails , and would be used to ferry messages between ships of the line , visit harbors ahead of the fleet with messages of state , pick up mail , etc .   stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . Categories : Boat types | Water-transport stubs In other languages : Deutsch | Français | Lietuvių | Русский 