longboat

plural longboats

1. nauticalThe largest and thus the most capable of boats carried on a ship.

   So far we had had reason to rejoice in the escape of our longboat, which had received no damage from any of the huge seas which had come on board.

   1838, [Edgar Allan Poe], chapter VIII, in The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 83

   3 more examples

   But our Patron, warn’d by this Disaster, resolved to take more Care of himself for the future; and having lying by him the Long-Boat of our English Ship that he had taken, he resolved he would not go a fishing any more without a Compass and some Provision […]

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC

   We cast Anchor within a League of this Creek, and our Captain sent a dozen of his Men well armed in the Long Boat, with Vessels for Water, if any could be found.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “A Great Storm Described, the Long-Boat Sent to Fetch Water, the Author Goes with It to Discover the Country. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), pages 153–154

   The longboat, with seven of the crew, was picked up eighteen days after by H. M. gunboat Myrtle, and the story of their terrible privations has become quite as well known as the far more horrible Medusa case.

   1896, H[erbert] G[eorge] Wells, chapter I, in The Island of Doctor Moreau (Heinemann’s Colonial Library of Popular Fiction; 52), London: William Heinemann, →OCLC; republished as The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Possibility, New York, N.Y.: Stone & Kimball, 1896, →OCLC