black-strake

The Sailor's Word-Book

The range of plank immediately above the wales in a ship's side; they are always covered with a mixture of tar and lamp-black, which not only preserves them from the heat of the sun and the weather, but forms an agreeable variety with the painted or varnished parts above them. Vessels with no ports have frequently two such strakes one above, the other below the wales, the latter being also called the diminishing strake.

Related Words