hawseholes

The service had received serious injury by admitting men on the quarter-deck from before the mast; it occasioned there being two classes of officers in the navy -- namely, those who had rank and connections, and those who had entered by the "hawseholes," as they were described.

Frank Mildmay The Naval Officer Frederick Marryat 1820

At close range Bethany could see the anchor chains from the hawseholes plunging straight down into the sea.

Rescue Ferrets at Sea Richard Bach 2002

Every time the ship dipped to the wind, water forced its way through the locked gunports and rippled across the deck, and when she buried her bows into the sea a veritable flood came through the hawseholes and rolled down the sopping planks.

Sharpe's Trafalgar Cornwell, Bernard, 1944- 2000

Rhode Island, much to our satisfaction, it was strictly obeyed; for we would have lost our patience to be "interviewed" by fledgling naval heroes, many of whom had reached the quarter deck through the hawseholes.

The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner John Wilkinson

Boats and smacks arrive in such numbers before the northwest wind, that the harbour is full of noise and shouting, the plashing of the waves, the sound of furling sail, and the clanking of chain cables as they rattle through the hawseholes.

Chapter V 1917

The rumble of the hawser through the hawseholes was sweet music to their ears; and so intent were they upon the crowd on the dock, that they did not notice two long-boats which had put off from the man-of-war, and were pulling for the brig.

The Naval History of the United States Volume 1 (of 2) Willis J. Abbot 1898

"I say," I cried, as we rowed by an enormous junk, with high poop and stern painted with scarlet and gold dragons, whose eyes served for hawseholes; "think she's a pirate?"

Blue Jackets The Log of the Teaser George Manville Fenn 1870

Mutiny flew, as it were, out at the hawseholes, while discipline re-entered by the cabin windows.

The Crew of the Water Wagtail 1859

She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous black sides,

Westward Ho!, or, the voyages and adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the county of Devon, in the reign of her most glorious majesty Queen Elizabeth Charles Kingsley 1847

She has more than hawseholes in her idolatrous black sides, I think.”

Westward Ho! 2007