Dead-flat

A name given to that timber or frame which has the greatest breadth and capacity in the ship, and which is generally called the midship bend. In those ship where there are several frames or timbers of equal breadth or capacity that which is in the middle should be always considered as dead-flat, and distinguished as such by this character +. The timbers before the dead-flat are marked A, B, C, etc., in order; and those abaft dead-flat by the figures 1, 2, 3, etc. The timbers adjacent to dead-flat, and of the same dimensions nearly, are distinguished by the characters (A) (B), etc., and (1) (2), etc.

Dead-rising, or Rising Line of the Floor. Those parts of the floor or bottom throughout the ship's length where the sweep or curve at the head of the floor timber is terminated or inflects to join the keel. Hence, although the rising of the floor at the midship-flat is but a few inches above the keel at that place, its height forward and aft increases according to the sharpness of form in the body. Therefore, the rising of the floor in the sheer plan is a curved line drawn at the height of the ends of the floor timbers, and limited at the main frame or dead-flat by the death-rising, appearing in flat ships nearly parallel to the keel for some timbers afore and abaft the midship frame, for which reason these timbers are called flats; but in sharp ships it rises gradually from the main frame, and ends on the stem and post.