Cockpit, in a ship of war, is the name still given to the compartment in the lower part of the ship where the wounded are attended to during action. The surgery and dispensary which contains the medicine chests for the ship's company adjoin the cockpit.
Cockpit
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 3: Catarrh to Dion, p. 323
Source scan(s): p. 0334