ˈwell-boat
[See well n.1 6 b.]
1. A fishing-boat provided with a well or tank for the storage and transport of live fish.
| c 1600 [see tode n.1]. 1614 T. Gentleman Engl. Way to win Wealth 19 And these be Pinks and Wel-boats of the burthen of fourty Tunnes. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xxx. 121 Others..get their living by selling fish alive, which to that purpose they keep in great well-boats. 1769 Pennant Brit. Zool. III. 301 They [carp] are there a great article of commerce, and sent in well-boats to Sweden and Russia. 1800 Colquhoun Comm. Thames xv. 438 Fish wasting in Well-boats at Gravesend. 1883 Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 211 Severn Fisheries Board..Model of Trunk or Well Boat. |
† 2. A flat-bottomed boat for landing troops and stores. Obs.
| 1692 Luttrell Brief Rel. (1857) II. 482 The 40 well boates built at Deptford, which carry about 20 or 30 oars each, to land men in shoal water. 1693 MSS. Ho. of Lords (N.S.) I. 187 An able seaman to take charge of the well-boats at Portsmouth and the stores to be put on board them. 1693 Lond. Gaz. No. 2926/3 Three of the Bomb Ships, with the Brigantines and Well Boats went in and Anchored within half a Mile of the Town. |