Definitions

Sorry, no definitions found. Check out and contribute to the discussion of this word!

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word chess-tree.

Examples

  • Two of her guns and the sheet-anchor were disabled, the bends on the starboard side completely shivered from aft to the forechains, the bulwarks from the chess-tree aft much torn, and the rigging cut to pieces.

    The Naval War of 1812 Or the History of the United States Navy during the Last War with Great Britain to Which Is Appended an Account of the Battle of New Orleans Theodore Roosevelt 1888

  • This advice corresponded with my own ideas, and I ran in-shore, gave them the stern boat and one of the larger ones, which held them all, and sent them away, leaving only one boat for the schooner, which was hoisted up on the starboard chess-tree.

    Peter Simple Frederick Marryat 1820

  • The seamen were, however, too well disciplined to take immediate advantage of my permission; they waited until we passed her, and just as the master put up his helm so as to catch her jib-boom between our masts, the whole broadside was poured into his bow and chess-tree.

    Peter Simple Frederick Marryat 1820

  • A few strokes of the axes were heard, and then the cable flew out of the hawse hole in a blaze of fire, from the violence of the friction, and disappeared under a huge wave, which struck us on the chess-tree, and deluged us with water fore and aft.

    Peter Simple Frederick Marryat 1820

  • The seamen were, however, too well disciplined to take immediate advantage of my permission; they waited until we passed her, and just as the master put up his helm, so as to catch her jib-boom between our masts, the whole broadside was poured into his bow and chess-tree.

    Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 Frederick Marryat 1820

  • This advice corresponded with my own ideas, and I ran in-shore, gave them the stern boat, and one of the larger ones, which held them all, and sent them away, leaving only one boat for the schooner, which we hoisted up in the star-board chess-tree.

    Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 Frederick Marryat 1820

  • A few strokes of the axes were heard, and then the cable flew out of the hawsehole in a blaze of fire, from the violence of the friction, and disappeared under a huge wave, which struck us on the chess-tree, and deluged us with water fore and aft.

    Peter Simple; and, The Three Cutters, Vol. 1-2 Frederick Marryat 1820

  • He then waited a little, and with difficulty forced the boat up against the strong flood-tide that was running, till at last he gained the chess-tree of the cutter, when he shortened in the painter (or rope that held the boat), made it fast to a ring-bolt without being perceived, and there he lay concealed, not daring to move, for fear of making a noise.

    Snarley-yow or The Dog Fiend Frederick Marryat 1820

  • Those who performed the duty were slung in ropes, that they might not be washed away; and hardly was it completed, when a heavy roll, assisted by a jerking heave from a sea which struck her on the chess-tree, sent the foremast over the starboard cathead.

    The Pirate Frederick Marryat 1820

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • In O'Brian, The Wine-Dark Sea, 91, it's spelled with a hyphen, but in A Sea of Words it's spelled chesstrees and defined as "Two pieces of wood bolted to the stem of a ship perpendicular to the ship's center line, one on the starboard and the other on the larboard, and used to extend the clew, or lower corners of the mainsail, to windward." (p. 142)

    March 14, 2008