A 19th century American boarding pike

[fernando]

The orlop is the lowest deck on a ship (except for very old ships). It is the deck or part of a deck where cables are housed, usually below the waterline. It has been suggested that the name originates from "overlooping" of the cables, or alternatively, that the name is a corruption of "overlap", referring to an overlapping half deck, similar to a balcony, occupying a part of the space of the lower deck from the ship. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word descends from the Dutch overloop of the verb overlopen, "to run (over); extend".
Down under, the Orlop deck of the Vasa, a 1728 Swedish ship of the line, in red.


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