certain cylindrical holes cut through the bows of a ship on each side of the stem, through which the cables pass in order to be drawn into or let out of the vessel, as occasion requires. They are fortified on each side by the hawse-pieces, a name given to the foremost timbers of a ship, whose lower ends rest on the knuckle-timber, or the foremost of the cant-timbers. They are generally parallel to the stem, having their upper ends sometimes terminated by the lower part of the beak-head; and otherwise by the top of the bow, particularly in small ships and merchantmen.