Note 407 — AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF PHINEAS PETT (continued 2)
Reading edition
'A strake is the term for a seam betwixt two planks (as the ... ship heels a strake, that is one seam),' Mainwaring (1623). According to Blanckley (1750) the term was applied to 'the uniform ranges of planks on the bottom, decks and sides of the ships.' The ship was not to be heeled over further than would bring the sixth seam, or edge of the sixth plank, above water.