DECKS

As all ships are broader at the lower-deck than on the next above it, and as the cannon thereof are always heaviest, it is necessary that the frame of it should be much stronger than that of the others and, for the same reason, the second or middle-deck ought to be stronger than the upper-deck, or forecastle.

Ships of the first and second rates are furnished with three whole decks, reaching from the stem to the stern, besides a forecastle and a quarter-deck, which extends from the stem to the main-mast, between which and the forecastle, a vacancy is left in the middle, opening to the upper-deck, and forming what is called the waist. There is yet another deck above the hinder or aftmost part of the quarter deck, called the poop, which also serves as a roof for the captain's cabin or couch.

The inferior ships of the line of battle are equipped with two decks and a half, and frigates, sloops, &c. with one gun-deck and a half, with a spar deck below to lodge the crew.

The decks are formed and sustained by the beams, the clamps, the water-ways, the carlings, the ledges, the knees, and two rows of small pillars, called stanchions, &c. See those articles.

That the figure of a deck, together with it's corresponding parts, may be more clearly understood, we have exhibited a plan of the lower-deck of a 74 gun-ship in plate III. And as both sides of the deck are exactly similar, the pieces by which it is supported appear on one side, and on the other side the planks or floor of which it is composed, as laid upon those pieces.

Plate III

Reference Works