Launch (boat)
A launch is a large motorboat. The name originally referred to the largest boat carried by a warship. The etymology of the word is given as Portuguese lancha "barge", from Malay lancha, lancharan, "boat," from lanchar "velocity without effort," "action of gliding smoothly" (said primarily of boats and turtles).
In the 1700s a launch was used to set the large anchors on a ship. They had a square transom and were about 24 feet long. In 1788 Captain Bligh was set adrift in the “Bounty’s Launch”.
Read more about Launch (boat): Thames Launches, Military Launches, Sports
Famous quotes containing the word launch:
“I had often stood on the banks of the Concord, watching the lapse of the current, an emblem of all progress, following the same law with the system, with time, and all that is made ... and at last I resolved to launch myself on its bosom and float whither it would bear me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)