LANCH, a peculiar sort of long boat, used by the French, Spanish, and Italian shipping, and in general by those of other European nations, when employed in voyaging in the Mediterranean sea.
A lanch is proportionably longer, lower, and more flat-bottomed than the long-boat; it is by consequence less fit for sailing, but better calculated for rowing and approaching a flat shore. Its principal superiority to the long-boat, however, consists in being, by its construction, much fitter to under-run the cable; which is a very necessary employment in the harbours of the Levant sea, where the cables of different ships are fastened across each other, and frequently render this exercise extremely necessary.