K.
KAICLING, or KECKLING, a name given to any old ropes, which are wound about a cable, with a small interval between the turns, and used to preserve the surface of the cable from being fretted, when it rubs against the ship’s bow, or fore-foot. See also Rounding and Service.
KEDGE, ancre de touei, a small anchor, used to keep a ship steddy whilst she rides in a harbour or river, particularly at the turn of the tide, when she might otherwise drive over her principal anchor, and entangle the stock or flukes with her slack cable, so as to loosen it from the ground. This is accordingly prevented by a kedge-rope, that restrains her from approaching it.
The kedges are also particularly useful in transporting a ship, i. e. removing her from one part of the harbour to another, by means of ropes, which are fastened to these anchors. They are generally furnished with an iron stock, which is easily displaced, for the convenience of stowing them. See the articles Anchor and Warp.
KEEL, the principal piece of timber in a ship, which is usually first laid on the blocks in building.
If we compare the carcase of a ship to the skeleton of the human body, the keel may be considered as the back-bone, and the timbers as the ribs. It therefore supports and unites the whole fabric, since the stem and stern-post, which are elevated on its ends, are, in some measure, a continuation of the keel, and serve to connect and enclose the extremities of the sides by transoms; as the keel forms and unites the bottom by timbers.
The keel is generally composed of several thick pieces, (A, plate [I]. Pieces of the Hull) placed lengthways, which, after being scarfed together, are bolted, and clinched upon the upper side. When these pieces cannot be procured large enough to afford a sufficient depth to the keel, there is a strong thick piece of timber bolted to the bottom thereof, called the false keel, which is also very useful in preserving the lower-side of the main keel. In our largest ships of war, the false keel is generally composed of two pieces, which are called the upper and the lower false keels. See Midship-Frame.
The lowest plank in a ship’s bottom, called the garboard-streak, has its inner-edge let into a groove, or channel, cut longitudinally on the side of the keel: the depth of this channel is therefore regulated by the thickness of the garboard-streak.
Keel is also a name given to a low flat-bottomed vessel, used in the river Tyne to bring the coals down from Newcastle, and the adjacent parts, in order to load the colliers for transportation.
Upon an even Keel, the position of a ship when her keel is parallel to the plane of the horizon, so that she is equally deep in the water at both ends.
Keel-hauling, a punishment inflicted for various offences in the Dutch navy. It is performed by plunging the delinquent repeatedly under the ship’s bottom on one side, and hoisting him up on the other, after having passed under the keel. The blocks, or pullies, by which he is suspended, are fastened to the opposite extremities of the main-yard, and a weight of lead or iron is hung upon his legs to sink him to a competent depth. By this apparatus he is drawn close up to the yard-arm, and thence let fall suddenly into the sea, where, passing under the ship’s bottom, he is hoisted up on the opposite side of the vessel. As this extraordinary sentence is executed with a serenity of temper peculiar to the Dutch, the culprit is allowed sufficient intervals to recover the sense of pain, of which indeed he is frequently deprived during the operation. In truth, a temporary insensibility to his sufferings ought by no means to be construed into a disrespect of his judges, when we consider that this punishment is supposed to have peculiar propriety in the depth of winter, whilst the flakes of ice are floating on the stream; and that it is continued till the culprit is almost suffocated for want of air, benumbed with the cold of the water, or stunned with the blows his head receives by striking the ship’s bottom.
To KEEP, a term used on several occasions in navigation: as,
To Keep the land aboard, is to keep within sight of land as much as possible. See also Hold.
To Keep the luff, to continue close to the wind, i. e. sailing with a course inclined to the direction of the wind, as much as possible, without deviating to leeward. This is also called, keeping the wind. See Close-hauled.
To Keep off, alargeer, tenir le largue, to sail off, or keep at a distance from the shore. See also Offing.
Boat-Keeper, one of the rowers, who remains as a centinel in his turn, to take care of any boat and her contents, either when she lies by the shore, or along-side of the ship; or when she is towed astern of her.
KELSON, contre quille, a piece of timber, which may be properly defined the interior, or counter-part of the keel, as it is laid upon the middle of the floor-timbers, immediately over the keel, and, like it, composed of several pieces, scarfed together, represented by X, plate [I]. Pieces of the Hull. In order to fit with more security upon the floor-timbers and crotches, it is notched about an inch and a half deep, opposite to each of those pieces, and thereby firmly scored down upon them to that depth, where it is secured by spike-nails. The pieces of which it is formed are only half the breadth and thickness of those of the keel.
The kelson serves to bind and unite the floor-timbers to the keel. It is confined to the keel by long bolts, which, being driven from without through several of the timbers, are fore-locked or clinched upon rings on the upper side of the kelson.
KETCH, a vessel equipped with two masts, viz. the main-mast and mizen-mast, and usually from 100 to 250 tons burthen.
Ketches are principally used as yachts, or as bomb-vessels, the former of which are employed to convey princes of the blood, ambassadors, or other great personages from one part to another; and the latter are used to bombard citadels, or towns, or other fortresses.
The bomb-ketches are therefore furnished with all the apparatus necessary for a vigorous bombardment. They are built remarkably strong, as being-fitted with a greater number of riders than any other vessel of war; and indeed this reinforcement is absolutely necessary to sustain the violent shock produced by the discharge of their mortars, which would otherwise, in a very short time, shatter them to pieces. See Mortar and Shell.
KEVELS, taquets, a frame composed of two pieces of timber, whose lower ends rest in a sort of step or foot, nailed to the ship’s side, from whence the upper ends branch outward into arms or horns, serving to belay the great ropes by which the bottoms of the main-sail and fore-sail are extended. These are represented by fig. 3. plate [V].
KEY, quai, a long wharf, usually built of stone, by the side of a harbour or river, and having several store-houses for the convenience of lading and discharging merchant-ships. It is accordingly furnished with posts and rings, whereby they are secured; together with cranes, capsterns, and other engines, to lift the goods into, or out of, the vessels which lie along-side.
Keys, attalons, are also certain sunken rocks, lying near the surface of the water, particularly in the West-Indies.
KINK, a sort of twist or turn in any cable or other rope, occasioned by its being very stiff or close-laid; or by being drawn too hastily out of the roll or tier, when it lies coiled. See the article Coiling.
KNEE, courbe, a crooked piece of timber, having two branches, or arms, and generally used to connect the beams of a ship with her sides or timbers.
The branches of the knees form an angle of greater or smaller extent, according to the mutual situation of the pieces which they are designed to unite. One branch is securely bolted to one of the deck-beams, whilst the other is in the same manner attached to a corresponding timber in the ship’s side, as represented by E in the Midship-Frame, plate [VII].
Besides the great utility of knees in connecting the beams and timbers into one compact frame, they contribute greatly to the strength and solidity of the ship, in the different parts of her frame to which they are bolted, and thereby enable, her, with greater firmness, to resist the effects of a turbulent sea.
In fixing of these pieces, it is occasionally necessary to give an oblique direction to the vertical, or side-branch, in order to avoid the range of an adjacent gun-port, or, because the knee may be so shaped as to require this disposition; it being sometimes difficult to procure so great a variety of knees as may be necessary in the construction of a number of ships of war.
In France, the scarcity of these pieces has obliged their shipwrights frequently to form their knees of iron.
Knees are either said to be lodging or hanging. The former are fixed horizontally in the ship’s frame, having one arm bolted to the beam, and the other across two or three timbers, as represented by F in the Deck, plate [III]. The latter are fixed vertically, as we have described above. See also Building, Deck, and Midship-Frame.
Knee of the head, poulaine, a large flat piece of timber, fixed edgways upon the fore-part of a ship’s stem, and supporting the ornamental figure or image, placed under the bowsprit. See the article Head.
The knee of the head, which may properly be defined a continuation of the stem, as being prolonged from the stem forwards, is extremely broad at the upper-part, and accordingly composed of several pieces united into one, Y Y, plate [I]. Pieces of the Hull. It is let into the head, and secured to the ship’s bows by strong knees fixed horizontally upon both, and called the cheeks of the head, Z Z, plate [IV]. fig. 10. The heel of it is scarfed to the upper end of the fore-foot, and it is fastened to the stem above by a knee, called a standard, expressed by &, in plate [I]. Pieces of the Hull.
Besides supporting the figure of the head, this piece is otherwise useful, as serving to secure the boom, or bumkin, by which the fore-tack is extended to windward; and, by its great breadth, preventing the ship from falling to leeward, when close-hauled, so much as she would otherwise do. It also affords a greater security to the bowsprit, by increasing the angle of the bob-stay, so as to make it act more perpendicularly on the bowsprit.
The knee of the head is a phrase peculiar to shipwrights; as this piece is always called the cut-water by seamen, if we except a few, who affecting to be wiser than their brethren, have adopted this expression probably on the presumption that the other is a cant phrase, or vulgarism. It appears a material part of the province of this work to call the several articles contained therein by their proper names, and to reject those which are spurious, however sanctified by the authority of official dulness, or seconded by the adoption of dignified ignorance. Accordingly we cannot help observing, that when a term of art has been established from time immemorial, and besides being highly expressive, produces the testimony of foreign nations[[36]] to its propriety, nothing more certainly betrays a superficial understanding, than the attempt to change it, without being able to assign the shadow of a reason for this alteration. For although knee of the head, being invariably used by the artificers, is of course explained in this work as a term of naval architecture, wherein practice has indeed rendered it natural and intelligible; it is nevertheless very rarely used by seamen, especially in common discourse, unless when it is intended to impress the hearer with an idea of the speaker’s superior judgment.
KNIGHT-HEAD, or Bollard-Timber. See the article Head.
Knight-Heads, two strong pieces of timber, fixed on the opposite sides of the main-deck, a little behind the fore-mast, in a merchant-ship.
They are used to support and inclose the ends of the windlass, which accordingly is turned therein as upon an axis. As each of the knight-heads is formed of two pieces, they may be occasionally separated in order to take off the turns of the cable from the windlass, or replace them upon it. They are sometimes called the bits, and in this sense their upper-parts only are denominated knight-heads, which being formerly embellished with a figure designed to resemble a human head, gave rise to the name they have ever since retained. See the article Windlass.
Knight-heads, sep de drisse, was also a name formerly given to the lower jear-blocks, which were then no other than bits, containing several sheaves, and nearly resembling our present top-sail-sheet bits.
KNITTLE, eguillette, (from knit) a small line, which is either plaited or twisted, and used for various purposes at sea; as to fasten the service on the cable, to reef the sails by the bottom, and to hang the hammocs between decks, &c.
KNOT, a large knob formed on the extremity of a rope, by untwisting the ends thereof, and interweaving them regularly amongst each other. There are several sorts of knots, which differ in their form and size, according to the uses for which they are designed: the principal of these are the diamond-knot, the rose-knot, the wall-knot or walnut, some of which are single, and others double.
The knots are generally used to fasten one rope to another, by means of a small cord attached to the neck of the knot, called the laniard, which is firmly tied about both ropes. They are also designed to prevent the end of a rope from sliding through an eye, which the knot is intended to confine in a particular situation. See Beckets.