a small open vessel, propelled on the water by oars or sails. The construction, machinery, and even Boating the names of boats, are very different, according to the various purposes for which they are calculated, and the services on which they are to be employed. Thus they are occasionally slight or strong, sharp or flat-bottomed, open or decked, plain or ornamented; as they may be designed for swiftness or burden, for deep or shallow water, for sailing in a harbour or at sea, and for convenience or pleasure. The largest boat that usually accompanies a ship is the long-boat, which is generally furnished with a mast and sails. Long-boats fitted for men of war are occasionally decked, armed, and equipped, for cruising short distances against merchant ships of the enemy, or smugglers, for impressing scamen, and other services. The barges, which are next in order, are longer, lighter, and narrower. They are employed to carry the principal sea-officers, as admirals and captains of ships of war, and are unfit for the open sea. Pinnaces exactly resemble barges, only that they are somewhat smaller, and have never more than eight oars; whereas a barge properly never rows less than ten. The cutters of a ship are broader, deeper, and shorter, than the barges and pinnaces; they are fitter for sailing, and are commonly employed in carrying stores, provisions, passengers, and the like, to and from the ship. In the structure of this sort of boats the lower edge of every plank in the side overlays the upper edge of the plank below, which is called by ship-wrights clink-work. Yaws are something less than cutters, nearly of the same form, and used for similar services. They are generally rowed with six oars. The above boats more particularly belong to men of war, as merchant-ships have seldom more than two, a long-boat and yawl; when they have a third, it is generally calculated for the countries to which they trade, and varies in its construction accordingly. Merchant-ships employed in the Mediterranean find it more convenient to use a launch, which is longer, flatter in the bottom, and better adapted every way to the harbours of that sea, than a long-boat. A wherry is a light, sharp boat, used in a river or harbour for carrying passengers from place to place. Punts are a sort of oblong flat-bottomed boats, nearly resembling floating stages. They are used by ship-wrights and caulkers, for breasting, caulking, or repairing a ship's bottom. A moses is a very flat, broad boat, used by merchant-ships among the Caribbee Islands, to bring hogsheads of sugar off from the sea beach to the shipping which are anchored in the roads. A felucca is a strong passage-boat used in the Mediterranean, and propelled with oars like sweeps. The natives of Barbary often employ boats of this sort as cruisers.

Boat-Bill. See Ornithology; Index.