key

The Sailor's Word-Book

I.


In ship-building, means a dry piece of oak or elm, cut tapering, to drive into scarphs that have hook-butts, to wedge deck-planks, or to join any pieces of wood tightly to each other. Iron forelocks.

II.

, or cay

[derived from the Spanish cayos, rocks].

What in later years have been so termed will be found in the old Spanish charts as cayos. The term was introduced to us by the buccaneers as small insular spots with a scant vegetation; without the latter they are merely termed sand-banks. Key is especially used in the West Indies, and often applied to the smaller coral shoals produced by zoophytes.

III.

, or quay.

A long wharf, usually built of stone, by the side of a harbour, and having posts and rings, cranes, and store-houses, for the convenience of merchant ships.

IV.

See kay

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