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.