Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 4-1 (October 2012)Joep Verweij; Wouter Waldus; André van Holk: Continuity and change in Dutch shipbuilding in the Early Modern period. The case of VAL7 and the watership in general.

Glossary

 


Bitt (beting)

A heavy post rising above the deck for either the belaying of heavy lines or to carry gear such as a windlass.

Bulkhead (schot, scheidingswand)

An internal wall for extra lateral strength and water tightness of the construction.

Carvel (karveel)

A term believed to derive from the Portuguese ship Caravela that has come to mean the method of ship construction where the hull planks are laid flush onto the frame timbers and are fastened to the frames, not to each other.

Caulk (breeuwen)

To render a hull watertight by forcing compressible material, such as moss or oakum, into the seam. Oakum is a mix of rope-like fibres and tar.

Ceiling (wegering)

Planking over the inboard surface of the frames.

Chine (turn of the bilge) (kim)

The area of transition from bottom to side. A sharp transition is called a chine, a rounded transition is called a turn of the bilge. The bilge is the lowest part in the hold of a ship or the flattest part upon which the ships rests when aground.

Clamp (klamp)

A general term for off-cuts or small pieces of wood used for temporary fastenings. In the context of the Dutch shipbuilding tradition, particularly those pieces used to fasten hull planking during construction, prior to fitting the frames.

Compass timber (krommer)

Naturally curved wood used for correspondingly curved elements in ship construction. In the watership it is positioned in the chine as a frame component to increase lateral strength of the hull.

Cutwater (loefbijter)

Most outward extension from the stem forward to improve course stability, cutting through the water when the ship is moving forward.

Deadrise (vlaktilling)

A term referring to the upward angle of the floor timbers as they run out from the keel towards the turn of the bilge.

Fife rail (nagelbank)

Plank with a row of fifes or fife bank used for belaying the ropes of running rig and other working gear.

Floor timber (vlakgang)

The lowest component of a ship’s frame running across the keel.

Flush built (gladboordig)

Planking of the hull laid flush, edge to edge, rather than lap-strake.

Frame (spant)

A transverse structural member made up of one or more components fastened to the interior surface of the hull planking and often the keel. Together the frame timbers form the framework or skeleton that gives the hull its lateral strength. The frame is made from several pieces each of which has a specific name i.e. floors or floor timbers, futtocks and top timbers.

Frame first (spant eerst)

A boat or ship built in such a manner that the frames are placed first to determine the shape of the hull as opposed to a shell first building sequence. Strakes are added later to the skeleton of frames.

Futtock (oplanger)

The timber between a floor and a top timber forming a frame.

Garboard (zandstrook)

The outboard plank next to the keel (garboard strake, the lowest strake of planking).

Hold (ruim)

The lowest space within the body of a ship.

Hull (scheepsromp)

The total ship construction without rudder, mast, rigging and other movable elements.

Keel or keel beam (kiel)

Central backbone timber of sufficient cross sectional area to offer longitudinal strength to the hull. In most cases a portion of it projects below the bottom planking and offers lateral resistance.

Keel plank (kielplank)

Centerline strake, often thicker than the adjoining garboards, but not sufficiently stiff to be considered a true keel.

King plank (schaarstok)

A heavy deck plank, often inlet for other timbers.

Knee (knie)

An angled or curved piece of wood used to connect various elements of the hull that lie in different planes. Knees set with one arm running down from the side, and the other running underneath deck supporting beams, are referred to as hanging knees.

Lap-strake (overnaads)

Strakes that overlap at the seams typically with the lower edge of the upper plank outboard. The planks are fastened together in the overlap area.

Luting (breeuwen)

As in caulking the purpose is to render a hull watertight, however the material (moss, animal hair, rope-like fibres) is not forced but laid into the seams. In lap-strake seams the material can be laid, but in between flush-plank seams it must be forced.

Metacentric height (metacenterhoogte)

The vertical distance between a ship's centre of gravity and its metacenter, for transverse or longitudinal inclinations. The height of the metacenter above the centre of gravity serves as a measure of the stability of a vessel. More metacentric height means more stability.

Rabbet (sponning)

A recessed channel cut in a timber to accommodate another, such as the V-shaped rabbet cut into the side of a keel into which the garboard is fitted or rabbetted.

Ribbands (sent, strooklat)

Length of timber (usually softwood such as pine) nailed along the outside of the frames at specific heights both to bind and support them during construction. As the ribband was carefully worked it would take up an even curvature as it passed over the standing timbers, effectively acting as a spline. It thus defined hull curvature for the insertion of the intermediate timbers.

Rider beam (on deck) (dekligger)

A heavy beam above the deck beam, with the deck planking in between. The rider beam and deck beam are both transverse timbers fastened to opposite ends of the hull.

Rig (Tuigage)

A term referring to the configuration of masts and sails where this accords to more or less standard patterns.

Scarf-joint (las)

A method of joining two pieces of timber end to end with a tapering overlap, generally so that the width and thickness of the timber is not altered.

Shell (scheepshuid)

The outside of the hull built up with strakes.

Shell first (huid eerst)

A boat or ship built in such a manner that the shell is built up first, thus forming an integral, watertight unit. Further stiffening or strengthening frame elements may be added later.

Sintel (sintel)

An iron staple with broadened head used to hold caulking materials covered with a lath into a seam. It is originally a Dutch and German word, but it now used by English speaking archaeologists and ship historians.

Skeg (scheg)

Stiffening timber positioned in the triangular areas between keel and sternpost or keel and stem. Skegs extend forward and aftward to increase the lateral surface area of stern and bow for better manoeuvring.

Spike plug (spijkerpen)

A small wooden dowel fitting in a hole, previously occupied by a square- shanked metal nail or spike used for general fastening purposes.

Stem (voorsteven)

The large timber scarfed onto the keel that largely determines the shape of the bow of a ship and into which the ends of the outer shell planking are rabbetted.

Stern (achtersteven)

The large timber set on the upper face end of the keel to which it is joined. It can be variously formed depending on the type of vessel, but commonly the ends of the outer shell planking are rabbetted into it in a similar fashion as with the stem, and the rudder is hung on its aft side.

Strake (gang)

A run of outer shell planking. The ship’s shell is made out of several parallel runs of planks either overlapping each other or edge joined side to side to one another.

Stringer (weger)

A thick internal plank running longitudinally along the hull. They can be either alternate with the ceiling planks or they are placed where extra strength is required, such as over a line of joints or under deck beams.

Treenail (houten pen)

Wooden dowel used for fastening timbers together.

Turn of the bilge (kim)

See chine.