Nautical term for a curved or right-angled metal fitting or brace on a ship, especially one reinforcing a ship's structure.
Possibly from French cranche (hook, crank) or related to crank. Naval architecture terminology, possibly influenced by Dutch or French maritime engineering.
Ship builders used crances to reinforce corners where stress concentrated—they understood intuitively what physics would later prove: right angles are weak points, so you brace them with triangles and curved supports.
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