The Sailor's Word-Book / An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, including Some More Especially Military and Scientific, but Useful to Seamen; as well as Archaisms of Early Voyagers, etc.

by W. H. Smyth

KELT. A salmon that has been spawning; a foul fish.

KELTER. Ships and men are said to be in prime kelter when in fine order and well-rigged.

KEMP. An old term for a soldier, camper, or camp man. Also a kind of eel.

KEMSTOCK. An old term for capstan.

KEN, To. Ang.-Sax. descrying, as Shakspeare in Henry VI.:—

"And far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs."

—Ken, a speck, a striking object or mark.

KENNETS. Large cleats. (See [Kevels].) Also, a coarse Welsh cloth of commerce; see statute 33 Henry VIII. c. 3.

KENNING BY KENNING. A mode of increasing wages formerly, according to whaling law, by seeing how a man performed his duty.

KENNING-GLASS. A hand spy-glass or telescope.