the whole interior cavity or belly of a ship, or all that part of her inside which is comprehended Holder hended between the floor and the lower-deck throughout her whole length.—This capacious apartment usually contains the ballast, provisions, and stores of a ship of war, and the principal part of the cargo in a merchantman. The disposition of these articles with regard to each other, naturally falls under consideration in the article Stowage; it suffices in this place to say, that the places where the ballast, water, provisions, and liquors are stowed, are known by the general name of the hold. The several store-rooms are separated from each other by bulk-heads, and are denominated according to the articles which they contain, the sail-room, the bread-room, the fish-room, the spirit-room, &c.