Naut. a. One of two large timbers in a vessel that rise obliquely from the keel behind the stem, one on each side, and support the bowsprit, which is fixed between them; called also ballard timbers. † b. A windlass-bitt (obs.). † c. = KNIGHT 8 (obs.).
1711. W. Sutherland, Ship-build. Assist., 115. They are reev’d through Knight-heads, and so hal’d home.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Knight-Heads, two strong pieces of timber, fixed on the opposite sides of the main-deck, a little behind the fore-mast…. They are sometimes called the bits, and in this sense their upper parts only are denominated knight-heads,… being formerly embellished with a figure designed to resemble a human head…. Knight-heads, was also a name formerly given to the lower jear-blocks, which were then no other than bits.
1883. Century Mag., Oct., 946/2. Her cleanly cut and sweeping Yankee bows would be buried in a smother of foam clear to the knight-heads.
