Broken-backed or Hogged to Cap Scuttle

The condition of a ship when the sheer has departed from the regular and pleasing curve with which it was originally built. This is often occasioned by the improper situation of the centre of gravity, when so posted as not to counterbalance the effort of the water in sustaining the ship, or by a great strain, or from the weakness of construction. The latter is the most common circumstance, particularly in some clipper ships, owing partly to their great length, sharpness of floor, or general want of strength in the junction of the component parts.

Bum-kin, or, more properly, Boom-kin. A projecting piece of oak or fir on each bow of a ship, fayed down upon the false rail, or rail of the head, with its heel cleated against the knight-head in large, and the bow in small ships. It is secured outward by an iron rod or rope lashing, which confines it downward to the knee or bow, and is used for the purpose of hauling down the fore-tack of the foresail.

The weight or measure that any ship will carry or contain when fit for sea.

The joints of the planks endwise; also the opening between the ends of the planks when worked for caulking. Where caulking is not used, the butts are rabbeted, and must fay close.

That rounding of the body abaft bounded by the fashion-pieces; and, at the upper part, by the wing transom.

(On the sheer draught.) Curves, lengthwise, representing the ship as cut in vertical sections.

Hollow or arching upwards. The decks are said to be cambered when their height increases toward the middle, from stem to stern, in the direction of the ship's length.

A machine for lifting ships over a bank or shoal, originally invented by the celebrated De Witt, for the purpose of conveying large vessels from Amsterdam over the Pampus. They were introduced into Russia by Peter the Great, who obtained the model when he worked in Holland as a common shipwright, and are now used at St. Petersburgh for lifting ships of war built there over the bar of the harbor. A camel is composed of two separate parts, whose outsides are perpendicular, and insides concave, shaped so as to embrace the hull of a ship on both sides. Each part has a small cabin, with sixteen pumps and ten plugs, and contains twenty men. They are braced to the underpart of the ship by means of cables, and entirely enclose its sides and bottom. Being then towed to the bar, the plugs are opened and the water admitted until the camel sinks with the ship, and runs aground. Then, the water being pumped out, the camel rises, lifts up the vessel, and the whole is towed over the bar. This machine can raise the ship eleven feet, or, in other words, make it draw eleven feet less water.

A term signifying the inclination that anything has from a square or perpendicular.

Cant-ribbands, are those ribbands that do not lie in a horizontal or level direction, or square from the middle line, but nearly square from the timbers, as the diagonal ribbands. (See Ribbands.)

Cant Timbers, are those timbers afore and abaft whose planes are not square with, or perpendicular to, the middle-line of the ship.

Square pieces of oak, laid upon the upper blocks on which the ship is built, to receive the keel. They should be of the most freely-grained oak, that they may be easily split out when the false keel is to be placed beneath. The depth of them may be a few inches more than the thickness of the false keel, that it may be set up close to the main keel by slices, etc.

A framing composed of coamings and head ledges, raised above the deck, with a flat or top which shuts closely over into a rabbet.