clinker: a standalone construct

In boatbuilding and nautical archaeology clinker (or clinker-built) names a method of hull construction in which the planks overlap along their edges, each fastened down onto the one below, so the shell itself provides much of the boat's strength before framing is added. McGrail's Boats of the world traces this lapstrake tradition, characteristic of northern European and Viking-age vessels, and contrasts it with carvel construction in which planks meet flush. The referent is a structural technique for assembling a watertight, flexible hull, identified by the stepped line of overlapping strakes, and it is an entirely separate construct from the fused kiln nodules that share its name.[1]

Unit

Overlapping-plank (lapstrake) arrangement of the hull shell

Recovery means

Not applicable

Measured by

Identified by the overlapping strakes and their land fastenings in surviving or excavated hulls