FLUTE, or FLUYT, is a kind of long vessel, with flat ribs or floor-timbers, round behind, and swelled in the middle; serving chiefly for the carrying of provisions in fleets or squadrons of ships; though it is often used in merchandize. The word flute, taken for a sort of boat or vessel, is derived, according to Borel, from the ancient flotte, a little boat. In the verbal process of the miracles of St Catherine of Sweden, in the 12th century, we read Unus equum suum una cum meribus magni ponderis introduxit super instrumentum de lignis fabricatum, vulgariter dictum fluta. Upon which the Bollandists observe, that in some copies it is read flotta, an instrument called by the Latins ratis; and that the word flutta or flotta arose from flotten or volten, "to float."