Naut. Also 8 lubber-hole. A hole in the ship’s top, close to the mast, affording an easier way of ascent or descent than by climbing the futtock shrouds.
1772–84. Cook, Voy. (1790), VI. 1194. He becomes as much an object of ridicule, as a sailor who descends through lubber’s hole.
1792. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Peter’s Prophecy, Wks. 1792, III. 75. And yet, Sir Joseph, fame reports you stole To Fortune’s topmast through the lubber-hole.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, vii. He proposed that I should go through lubber’s hole.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 233. Pass a hawser … through the lubber’s hole.
