Obs. Also -ett, -it. (See quots.)
From one or other of these 17th-cent. quots. the word and explanation are copied into subsequent dictionaries, the form being latterly altered to spirket, prob. by association with SPIRKETTING.
a. 1625. Nomenclator Navalis (Harl. MS. 2301), Spurketts are the holes or spaces betwixt the Rungs by the Ships sides fore and aft above and below.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 3. The Spurkits are the spaces betwixt the timbers alongst the ship side in all parts, but them in Howle below the Sleepers are broad boords, which they take vp to cleare the Spurkits, if any thing get betwixt the timbers.
c. 1635. Capt. N. Boteler, Dial. Sea Services (1685), 99. The Spaces betwixt the Futtocks, or betwixt the rungs by the Ships side, fore and aft, above and below, are named the Spurkets.
