Return to Naval Historical Center home page. Return to Online Library listing

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- GLOSSARY --

"PLUMB" BOWS

"Plumb" bows (also known as "straight" or "vertical" bows) rise essentially straight up from a ship's waterline. They were very common during the last half of the Nineteenth Century and the first decades of the Twentieth, especially on merchant steamships. During the earlier century they co-existed with, and gradually replaced, "clipper" bows. They were, in turn, largely superseded by raked and curved bows in the course of the 1920s and 1930s.

This page features a definition of the term "plumb" bow, with an appropriate illustration.


Example of a "plumb" bow (also called a "straight" or "vertical" bow):

"PLUMB" BOW, as seen on USS K.I. Luckenbach (ID # 2291) in 1919.

Cropped from Photo # NH 103051.

 


Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

Page made 17 March 2007