re either said to be lodging or hanging. The former are fixed horizontally in the ship's frame, having one arm bolted to the beam, and the other across two or three timbers, as represented in the Deck, Plate CLXIX. The latter are fixed vertically, as we have described above. See also SHIP-Building, DECK, and MIDSHIP Frame.

KNEE of the Head, a large flat piece of timber, fixed edgewise upon the fore part of a ship's stem, and supporting the ornamental figure or image placed under the bowsprit. See SHIP-Building.

The knee of the head, which may properly be defined a continuation of the stem, as being prolonged from the stem forwards, is extremely broad at the upper part, and accordingly composed of several pieces united into one, YY (Pieces of the Hull, in SHIP-Building Plates). It is let into the head, and secured to the ship's bows by strong knees fixed horizontally upon both, and called the cheeks of the head. The heel of it is scarfed to the upper end of the fore foot; and it is fastened to the stem above by a knee, called a standard, expressed by & in the plate.

Besides supporting the figure of the head, this piece is otherwise useful, as serving to secure the boom or buntin, by which the fore tack is extended to windward; and by its great breadth, preventing the ship from falling to leeward when close hauled to much as she would otherwise do. It also affords a greater security to the bowsprit, by increasing the angle of the bob-slay, so as to make it act more perpendicularly on the bowsprit.

The knee of the head is a phrase peculiar to shipwrights; as this piece is always called the cut-water by seamen, if we except a few, who, affecting to be wiser than their brethren, having adopted this expression probably on the presumption that the other is a cant phrase or vulgarism.

Carling KNEES, in a ship, those timbers which extend from the ship to the hatchway, and bear up the deck on both sides.