Also 8–9 trankey. [a. Pers. trānkeh, name in Persian Gulf for a pearl-diver’s net, or perh. its adjectival deriv. trānkī, applied elliptically to a pearling-boat.] A small undecked vessel used in the pearl-fishery in the Persian Gulf.
1727. A. Hamilton, New Acc. E. Ind., I. vii. 57. And then got Trankies (or Barks without Decks) and shipt what belonged to the English for Musskat. Ibid., 59. A sufficient Number of small Vessels, called Trankies, for their Transports.
1757. J. H. Grose, Voy. E. Ind., 28. Their trankys … are a kind of uncouth vessels, of seventy to a hundred tons.
1869. Latest News, 17 Oct. The wind had fallen very light, and the trankies had taken in their sails, and were being impelled along slowly by means of the sweeps.
