·noun A small anchor, with four or five flukes or claws, used to hold boats or small vessels; hence, any instrument designed to grapple or hold; a grappling iron; a grab;
— written also grapline, and crapnel.
, or grapling. A sort of small anchor for boats, having a ring at one end, and four palmed claws a...
The Sailor's Word-Book
That which is bent to the grapnel by which a boat rides, now substituted by chain. ...