davit
Other forms: davits
When a large ship has a small, onboard crane that lowers lifeboats into the water, that crane is called a davit. Oil rigs and cruise ships are examples of vessels that have permanent, fixed davits.
One of the less well-known facts about the Titanic disaster is that its crew wasn't properly trained on how to operate the davits. The lifeboats were boarded and lowered so slowly that the crew wasn't able to use every available lifeboat in time. Modern ships installed with davits make it easy to get passengers into these boats and get them into the water. Davit comes from David and a tradition of referring to objects with a person's name.
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a crane-like device (usually one of a pair) for suspending or lowering equipment (as a lifeboat)type of:cranelifts and moves heavy objects; lifting tackle is suspended from a pivoted boom that rotates around a vertical axis
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Vocabulary lists containing davit
In this non-fiction book, Walter Lord provides a detailed account of the Titanic's fatal collision with an iceberg and the behavior of the passengers and crew in the aftermath.
The oldest of her surviving mouse siblings, Helena recounts the adventures of her family when they hid in the trunk of a human to sail from New York to England.