Obs. Forms: 5–7 cache, 6–7 catch, 7 katch, 7– KETCH, q.v. [ME. cache; prob. f. CATCH v. or sb.1 The later ketch is analogous to keg for cag, kennel for cannel, etc.
It may be the sb. CATCH1 (in ME. cach(e) in sense 4 ‘chase, pursuit,’ as YACHT is Du. jagt, jacht ‘chase, pursuit,’ for jachtschip, jageschip, in reference to its swiftness.]
A strongly built vessel of the galiot order, usually two-masted, and of from 100 to 250 tons burden. = KETCH.
1481–90. Howard Househ. Bks. (1841), 397. Rede oker to send be watyr with the sayd hoppes, in Ferdes cache of Brekemlynsey.
1561. Eden, Arte Navig., Pref. Fyshermen that go a trawlyng for fyshe in Catches or mongers.
1580. Sir R. Bingham, in Spenser’s Wks. (Grosart), I. 468. A small catch or craer of Sir William Wynters.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, II. 23. The river … is navigable … with Catches and small Barkes 30 or 40 myles farther.
1625. J. Glanville, Voy. Cadiz (1883), 116. Catches, being short and round built, bee verie apt to turne up and downe, and usefull to goe to and fro, and to carry messages between shipp and shipp almost with anie wind.
1642. Nicholas, Lett., in Carte’s Coll. (1735), 89. Sir John Hotham hath lately apprehended … one of the King’s caches.
a. 1693. Urquhart, Rabelais, III. lii. 429. Catches, Capers, and other Vessels.
