Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A cask, usually in the form of the frustum of a cone, fastened on the deck of a vessel to receive the salt beef and pork for daily consumption. Also called harness-tub.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Before daylight we were up again, and the steer was cut up and salted and in the harness-cask soon after sunrise.

    Robbery Under Arms 2004

  • Father came down to the hut while the brands were getting ready, and began to look at the harness-cask, which stood in a little back skillion.

    Robbery Under Arms 2004

  • The rest of the cleaning was divided among the crew; one having the brass and composition work about the capstan; another the bell, which was of brass, and kept as bright as a gilt button; a third, the harness-cask; another, the man-rope stanchions; others, the steps of the forecastle and hatchways, which were hauled up and holystoned.

    Chapter XXIII. New Ship and Shipmates-My Watchmate 1909

  • But even as to the salt beef, they are scarcely dealt fairly with; for whenever a barrel is opened, before any of the beef is put into the harness-cask, the steward comes up, and picks it all over, and takes out the best pieces, (those that have any fat in them) for the cabin.

    Chapter XXX. Beginning the Long Return Voyage-A Scare 1909

  • They peered into the harness-cask, and found it wasn't full,

    Saltbush Bill, J. P. 1902

  • For your bullock's in the harness-cask of Morgan Donahoo --

    Saltbush Bill, J. P. 1902

  • In what had been the steward's storeroom they found a harness-cask with bones and dry rust in the bottom.

    Great Sea Stories Various 1897

  • Martin came on deck with a worried face, and announced that, running short of salt meat in the harness-cask, he had broken out the barrels of beef, pork, and hard bread that he had counted upon, and found their contents absolutely uneatable, far gone in putrescence, alive with crawling things.

    "Where Angels Fear to Tread" and Other Stories of the Sea Morgan Robertson 1888

  • Once a "harness-cask," hostile to every sense, came trundled by waves eager to expel it from the vicinity of these oxless but scented isles.

    Confessions of a Beachcomber 1887

  • Father came down to the hut while the brands were getting ready, and began to look at the harness-cask, which stood in a little back skillion.

    Robbery under Arms; a story of life and adventure in the bush and in the Australian goldfields Rolf Boldrewood 1870

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