KETTLE OF FISH. To have made a pretty kettle of fish of it, implies a perplexity in judgment.
KEVEL-HEADS. The ends of the top timbers, which, rising above the gunwale, serve to belay the ropes, or to be used as kevels.
KEVELING. A coast name for the skate.
KEVELS, or Cavils. Large cleats, or also pieces of oak passing through a mortice in the rail, and answer the purpose of timber-heads for belaying ropes to.
KEY. In ship-building, means a dry piece of oak or elm, cut tapering, to drive into scarphs that have hook-butts, to wedge deck-planks, or to join any pieces of wood tightly to each other. Iron forelocks.
KEY, or Cay [derived from the Spanish cayos, rocks]. What in later years have been so termed will be found in the old Spanish charts as cayos. The term was introduced to us by the buccaneers as small insular spots with a scant vegetation; without the latter they are merely termed sand-banks. Key is especially used in the West Indies, and often applied to the smaller coral shoals produced by zoophytes.
KEY, or Quay. A long wharf, usually built of stone, by the side of a harbour, and having posts and rings, cranes, and store-houses, for the convenience of merchant ships.
KEYAGE, or Quayage. Money paid for landing goods at a key or quay. The same as wharfage.
KEYLE. (See [Keel].) The vessel of that name.
KEY-MODEL. In ship-building, a model formed by pieces of board laid on each other horizontally. These boards, being all shaped from the lines on the paper, when put together and fairly adjusted, present the true form of the proposed ship.