LANCH, a peculiar sort of long boat, employed by the French, Spanish, and Italian shipping, and in general by those of other European nations, when voyaging in the Mediterranean Sea. A lanch is proportionally longer, lower, and more flat bottomed, than the long boat; it is consequently less fit for sailing, but better calculated for rowing, and approaching a flat shore. But its principal superiority over the long boat 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, where the cables of different ships are fastened across each other, and frequently render this exercise extremely necessary.