a. and adv. Naut. [f. THWART prep. + SHIP sb.]
A. adj. Placed or fixed across the ship’s length. Thwartship tiller, a tiller fixed at right angles to the rudder.
1805. [D. Steel], Shipwright’s Vade-M., 139. Transoms. The thwartship timbers which are bolted to the stern-post, in order to form the buttock.
1829. H. L. Maw, Jrnl. Passage fr. Pacific to Atlantic, xi. 314. These pieces were extended laterally over the hold, resting on small thwartship timbers that were supported by stanchions from the gunnel.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 123. The ’thwartship pieces which frame the hatchways.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 228/1. The crew … manœuvers the craft by means of a five-foot thwartship tiller.
B. adv. From side to side of the ship; across the length of the ship.
1882. Nares, Seamanship (ed. 6), 242. The correctors … are bar magnets in … holes, thwartship,… within the binnacle.
1895. Outing (U.S.), XXVI. 481/2. The modern canoeist puts it [ballast] in his own weight, on the end of the plank extended thwart-ship to windward.
