Well, I learned something here. At first I thought this was a spelling mistake. I am familiar with the caravel type of ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish. I didn't know about "carvel". Turns out it's significant.
Well, I learned something here. At first I thought this was a spelling mistake. I am familiar with the caravel type of ship used by the Portuguese and Spanish. I didn't know about "carvel". Turns out it's significant.
Same here. I thought at first that it was a typo. Now, it could be that Caravel is some kind of alt-spelling or variant type, dunno. Clinker-built includes sewn boats, which is a very old tradition, but as tonnage went up, things changed.
Clinker hulls have the planks riveted together, typically with copper. Carvel hulls require calking, starting with fiber (such as cotton or okum) driven into a beveled butt joint with a carefully managed gap between planks and then a sealant (from tar to modern elastomers). Both leak like a seive when put into the water dry as the wood swells. If a carvel hull is too tight when dry, it can pop fasteners. Its assembly must be to much more careful tolerances in planking.
Came here to comment the same thing. Never knew about the carvels. Thought they were referring to Fudgie the Whale.