Sometimes the dead horse period was as long as a month, and when it ended the sailors would use bits and pieces of this and that to make an effigy of a horse, which they hung up, set fire to, and sent off in the water. This is what seamen call the lever that securely closes the hatch. Actually a sort of small shelter that was used to house people, presumably on the deck, when the ship was crowded. It could have originated in the days of the slaving trade. Two hundred years or so ago, straw mattresses were issued for the forecastle, where the crew slept.
Foxes too are twists of rope woven together to stop chafing aboard ship.
This was a pluglike device that was inserted into the hawsehole to keep seawater from coming in. It was considered lucky to have them flying nearby, and the petrels were especially esteemed because despite their small size, they were excellent and skilled travelers. Not a piglet, but a hand-bailer in the shape of a bucket. This type of railing had open planking to make good drainage possible, and it also allowed seawater to slosh the decks liberally, which kept clean the areas on which livestock were penned. This is a yesteryear word to denote the length of a goater, boat.