Relating to a carvel or carvel-built ship construction method.
Derived from carvel, a type of ship with a smooth hull constructed by edge-joined planks rather than overlapping ones, from Portuguese caravela and possibly Arabic sources.
Carvel-built ships like Columbus's ships were stronger and faster than their overlapped-hull competitors, which is why this Portuguese shipbuilding innovation changed exploration forever—the design was so good it became the standard for ocean-going vessels.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.