Mortar-vessel, a class of gunboat for mounting sea-service mortars. Mortar-boats were a smaller kind. The most ancient form of mortar-vessel was the 'bomb-ketch,' convenient because of the length of deck without a mast. In the British naval service these several kinds of bomb-ships have ceased to exist.
Mortar-vessel
Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7: Maltebrun to Pearson, p. 321
Source scan(s): p. 0330