grab-rod

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun In ship-building, a rod or bar, fastened to a bulkhead or in the end of a hatchway, which, may be grasped in the hand to steady the body when the vessel is rolling; also, a horizontal rod fastened to the side of a war vessel a few feet above the water-line in the vicinity of the gangway-ladders, into which boat-hooks are hooked when holding a boat alongside the ladder.