From Encyclopedia of Nautical Knowledge, Cornell Maritime Press, 1953 Cranky or Crank. Quality of being easily inclined; top-heavy; referred to a vessel having small initial stability, or indicating a comparatively high center of gravity and consequent inability to carry sail, or withstand other external lateral pressure, without heeling to unusually large angles; opposed to stiff. Due to her longer rolling period, a crank vessel is characterized by slow easy motion in a seaway, while a stiff one, in her tendency to remain perpendicular to the wave-slope, will act with a quick, jerky motion. The crank vessel is thus a comfortable "sea-boat," compared with the stiff one. Tender is another word for crank in this context. I might question the author's remark that a crank vessel is comfortable. If the ship is too crank, she rolls over, hangs, and when you wonder if she is ever coming back, she does, only to repeat the cycle...... I sailed from England to Finland on a coaster with steel plates as cargo = stiff. Coming back the hold was full of pulpwood and there was eight feet on deck so the ship was tender and we ran into a gale :-) For comfort, something between crank and stiff is probably best but this cannot always be achieved given the cargo available. Cargo stowage is an art; the first mate's job usually. A common westbound cargo on sailing ships carrying emigrants in the 1850s was railroad iron - those ships would have been stiff and quite uncomfortable. -- Harry Dodsworth Ottawa Ontario Canada af877@freenet.carleton.ca ----------------------------------------------------------------