BREADTH

any particular place: it is usually distinguished into extreme-breadth, ligne du fort, main-breadth, and top-timber-breadth. See the explanation of the plane of projection, in the article Naval ARCHITECTURE.

As the sides of the ship are formed by a varicty of ribs, called timbers, and the areas of those timbers being of different breadths above and below, it is necessary to distinguish them in the construction, in order to form their several curves, and fix the corresponding pieces with more accuracy and precision. The part of every timber which encloses the greatest space from the middle-line of the ship's length, is therefore called the main-breadth; and the distance between the upper-part of the same timber and the middle-line of the ship's length, is called the top-timber-breadth.

As the ship is also broader at the midship-frame than in any other point of her length, the distance between her sides in the main-breadth of that timber, is called the extreme-breadth of the ship.

Reference Works