clinker-built

alternative clinkerbuilt

1. not comparablenauticalOf a boat or ship: where the hull planks overlap each other edge-to-edge, similar to shingles on a roof, and are secured by clenched nails or rivets for a strong, watertight seal.

   The Leopard in fact possessed no barge: nothing more than a little clinker-built jolly-boat, patched and pieced until scarcely an original plank was to be seen.

   1979, Patrick O’Brian, chapter 1, in The Fortune of War, paperback edition, London: HarperCollinsPublishers, published 2003, →ISBN, page 3

   5 more examples

   The British portion of the expedition were ordered to leave Kingston, in Canada West, as early in the year as possible, in a beautiful clinker-built boat for Toronto.

   1850, John J[eremiah] Bigsby, “Excursion the Seventh. Part I. Lakes Ontario and Simcoe, etc.”, in The Shoe and Canoe or Pictures of Travel in the Canadas. […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC, page 36

   The herring fishery in Scotland (undoubtedly the greatest fishery of the kind) is carried on from the shore. The larger number of the boats in use for many years past are open clinker-built boats, costing, with their suite of nets, about 200l.

   1882, J. G. Bertram, “The National Herring Harvest”, in Companion to the Almanac; or, Year-book of General Information for 1882, London: […] [Harrison and Sons] for the Company of Stationers, and sold by J. Greenhill, […], →OCLC, part I, page 53

   Ten years ago all the bawleys were clinker-built—that is, with the streaks overlapping each other, as in boats; but the new bawleys are now all carvel-built, the planks being placed edge to edge, so as to give a smooth surface, as in yachts and large vessels.

   1890 June 14 (indicated as 1891), G[eorge] A[lfred] Henty, “A Fishing Village”, in A Chapter of Adventures: Or, Through the Bombardment of Alexandria, London; Glasgow: Blackie & Son, →OCLC, page 21

   Q. Yes. When you refer to a clinker built boat, just describe that style of boat. That refers to one with a bow at each end and a sharp keel? / A. No, this boat that I had there in 1879 was a square stern boat, sharp bow of course. A clinker built is made by boards lapping over each other. It is like set-work you know.

   1912 January 30, Arthur C. Clement (witness), “Deposition of Arthur C. Clement”, in The People of the State of Illinois on the Relation of Charles S[amuel] Deneen, Governor, and William H. Stead, Attorney General, Plaintiffs in Error, vs. The Economy Light and Power Company. […] Supreme Court of the United States. October Term, 1913. (No. 179; 23,036), volume I (Transcript of Record), [Washington, D.C.]: [Judd & Detweiler], →OCLC, page 261

   But best he loved to go up the firth in the boat which Leif had made him—a finished, clinker-built little model of a war galley, christened the Joy-maker—and catch the big sea fish.

   1921, John Buchan, “Hightown under Sunfell”, in The Path of the King, London: Hodder and Stoughton, →OCLC, page 10

   Synonyms: clench-built, clinch-built, clincher-built, lapstrake