^a tormenta: (Latin) instruments of warfare; the phrase here recalling the Nazi slogan of ‘guns before butter’.

The rest of this paragraph is in praise of the keel of a ship. The shipbuilding terms (many of them relating to medieval wooden ships) are glossed below.

ribs: outwardly and upwardly curved members to which the hull is fastened.

beams: horizontal transverse members supporting a deck.

tholing: enduring (verb).

tree-nail: a wooden pin used as a thick nail (doesn’t rust). Misprinted as ‘Three-nailed’ in the first edition.

strakes: the overlapping boards on a clinker-built hull.

garboard: the strake closest to the keel.

free-board: the height of a ship’s hull above the waterline.

capping: the top of the gunwale.

thole: a vertical wooden peg or pin inserted through the gunwale to form a fulcrum for oars when rowing.

flushed with seams: carvel built, i.e. the planks forming the hull do not overlap.

raked: at an angle to the perpendicular.

buffed: perpendicular.

bilge: a compartment at the bottom of the vessel designed to collect water.

carlings: short timbers running lengthwise which form part of the support for the deck.

athwart: at a right angle to the centre line, transverse.

tabernacle: a large bracket attached firmly to the deck, to which the foot of the mast is fixed.

stanchion: a vertical post near the edge of the deck to support a wooden rail or chain lifeline.

transom: the aft ‘wall’ of the stern. It may be nearly flat or raked or perpendicular.

knighthead: one of two timbers rising from the keel and supporting the inner end of the bowsprit.

king-plank: the centreline plank of a deck.

hawse-hole: hole through which passes the hawse, a large rope for mooring the vessel.

baluster: a vertical post to support a rail, often somewhat decorative.

cogginged, tenoned, spiked, plugged, roved, lashed: woodworking terms describing various different ways of joining the separate timbers which form the keel.

(DJ owned a 17th century manual of shipbuilding.)