Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Nautical A timber or girder fastened above and parallel to the keel of a ship or boat for additional strength.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A line of jointed timbers in a ship laid on the middle of the floor-timbers over the keel, fastened with long bolts and clinched, thus binding the floor-timbers to the keel; in iron ships, a combination of plates corresponding to the keelson-timber of a wooden vessel. See cut under keel.
- n. In iron ship-building, a longitudinal reinforcement of plates and bars in the interior of the vessel above the framing in the bottom. The center-line keelson, or center-keelson, is immediately over the keel, and is frequently built in combination with it. The simplest form is a girder entirely on top of the frames riveted to the reverse bars. The girder is formed of various combinations of plates, bulb-plates, and angle-bars. A box-keelson is one in which the plates and angle-bars are combined in a form of rectangular cross-section. A flat-plate keelson is formed by a flat plate laid on top of the frames and riveted to them and to the vertical keel-plate. There may be additional reinforcements of bars above the flat-plate keelson, or there may be a center-line bulkhead above it. (See cut at
keel , 2.) An intercostal keelson is one built up of a series of intercostal plates between the frames, the upper edges of which project above the reverse frame-bar and are riveted to a line of continuous plates and bars above the frame. A side-keelson is one in the bottom on either side between the center-line and the turn of the bilge. A bilge-keelson is one just below the turn of the bilge near the heads of the floors.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical A longitudinal beam fastened on top of the keel of a vessel for strength and stiffness.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Shipbuilding) A piece of timber in a ship laid on the middle of the floor timbers over the keel, and binding the floor timbers to the keel; in iron vessels, a structure of plates, situated like the keelson of a timber ship.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a longitudinal beam connected to the keel of ship to strengthen it
Etymologies
- First attested from 1611. Compare with Dutch kolzwijn, kolsem, Low German, kielswîn, German Kielschwein, Danish kølsvin, kölsvin, all with the same meaning. First part is keel while the second part is uncertain; possibly sill. (Wiktionary)
- Alteration (influenced by keel1) of Middle English kelswin, probably from Old Norse *kjölsvīn : kjölr, keel + svīn, swine, timber. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Before we recovered it we had nearly killed ourselves with exhaustion, and we certainly had strained the sloop in every part from keelson to truck.”
“We are going to place the keelson, and a dozen pair of hands would not be too many.”
“Pencroft, descended to the dockyard, and proceeded to place the keelson, a thick mass of wood which forms the lower portion of a ship and unites firmly the timbers of the hull.”
“A loose bottom was therefore laid a few inches above the lining on each side of the keelson.”
The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the 'Fram', 1910 to 1912
“These are connected to the keelson, to the beams, and to each other by iron bands.”
The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the 'Fram', 1910 to 1912
“Under the boiler and engine there was only room for one keelson.”
The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the 'Fram', 1910 to 1912
“The keelson is also of pitch-pine, in two layers, one above the other; each layer”
The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the 'Fram', 1910 to 1912
“In addition, there are under the beams three rows of vertical stanchions between decks, and one row in the lower hold from the keelson.”
The South Pole; an account of the Norwegian antarctic expedition in the 'Fram', 1910 to 1912
“From this plank keelson, the ribs were attached allowing the construction of the bottom and sides of the hull.”
“All of the boats were constructed using a plank keelson, a wide oak plank laid down the center of the boat from which the stern and bow posts were attached.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘keelson’.
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See cut under
A list of words with definitions directing us to "see cut under" (or "see cut at") another definition (with hilarity occasionally ensuing).
Compare compare-cut-under.spider, scorpion, spoonbill, spur, tooth, feather, gnat, beard, gyrate, astragal, jog, countercheck and 92 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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phrontistery - k
from phrontistery.info
kainotophobia, kaiserin, kakidrosis, kakistocracy, kakorrhaphiophobia, kalamkari, kaleidophone, kalology, kalon, kalpis, kalyptra, kame and 189 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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Some Ship-building Terms
Ship builders' terms, from stem to stern (these words aren't on the list).
coping, chock, filling, sponson, spale, shore, deck-beam, beam, round-up, shelf, ribband, sny and 248 more...
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Moby Dick
Words of interest from the book Moby Dick.
arrant, obstreperously, coffer-dam, farrago, rejoinder, counterpane, hamper, commend, grego, dreadnought, psalmody, expostulation and 85 more...
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The Aubrey/Maturin List I'm Gonna Mak...
I'm wading through Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels one by one, and someday, I'll wade through them again and list all the words I learned while reading them.
Edit: I started ma...studdingsail, carronade, mumchance, grumlin-futtocks, crosscat-harpings, holystone, sennit, orlop, orchitis, negus, kevel, altumal and 1112 more...
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azd's Words
adamantine, abatial, ablate, ablative, abrogate, accretive, acromegaly, acrostic, actinism, actinic, acuity, adduce and 968 more...
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Whaleworthy & Piratical Words
A list of favorite nautical words to be sprinkled liberally throughout speech for piratical or Melvillian effect.
batten down, back and fill, beamy, baulking, beckets, bilge, bold shore, boomjumper, breaker, larboard, abaft, ash breeze and 156 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, K
kirtle, knapsack, knobbly, kern, kaddish, knight, kaleidoscope, kindling, knell, knoll, kneecap, kindred and 50 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for keelson.
bilby
What do we plant when we plant the tree?
We plant the ship which will cross the sea.
We plant the mast to carry the sails;
We plant the planks to withstand the gales -
The keel, the keelson, the beam, the knee;
We plant the ship when we plant the tree.
- Henry Abbey, 'What Do We Plant?' Nov 12, 2008
yarb "We had better be going together over the ship, Captain," said the senior partner; and the three men started to view the perfections of the Nan-Shan from stem to stern, and from her keelson to the trucks of her two stumpy pole-masts.
- Conrad, Typhoon Mar 26, 2008
chained_bear "...they had of course scoured the frigate from truck to keelson..."
--Patrick O'Brian, The Thirteen Gun Salute, 206 Mar 4, 2008