Note 1363 — THE COMMONWEALTH 1649-1660

The absence of all allusion to davits is stranger from the fact that they are found referred to, evidently as well known and in common use, in navy papers of 1496. They were then used for the anchors. It seems singular that in the intervening century and a half the principle had not been applied to hoisting in the boats. In the Nomenclator Navalis of 1625 (really Manwayring’s Dictionary) he speaks of boat tackles ‘wch stand one on the main mast shrowds the other on the fore mast shrowds to hoise the boat,’ and this plan was identical with that in use in 1514 (see Appendix A).