coaming Naut.
(ˈkəʊmɪŋ)
Also 7 comming, 7–8 coming, 8 cooming, 9 combing.
[Origin uncertain; some identify it with combing, a spelling occasionally found in modern use, but not supported by early evidence.]
In pl.: The raised borders about the edge of the hatches and scuttles of a ship, which prevent water on deck from running below.
| 1611 Cotgr., Aileures, two beames that runne along the hatches of a shippe, and with the Trauersins make a long square hole, whereat the ship-boat is let downe into the hold; our ship-wrights name them, Comings, or Carlings. 1626 Capt. Smith Accid. Yng. Seamen 11 The hatches, the hatches way, the holes in the commings. 1762 Watson in Phil. Trans. LII. 629 Lightning, which..made several holes between the coomings of the hatches and the deck. 1835 Marryat Jac. Faithf. xi, Sitting down on the coamings of the hatchway. 1865 Daily Tel. 14 Apr., With combings and finishings of hard pine. 1883 G. C. Davies Norfolk Broads xxv. (1884) 188 Flying along with the wind abeam, and the water up to the coamings of the well. |
b. coaming-carlings: ‘those timbers that inclose the mortar-beds of bomb-vessels, and which are called carlings, because they are shifted occasionally. Short beams where a hatchway is cut’ (Smyth Sailor's Word-bk.).