1465 in Manners & Househ. Expenses Eng. (1841) 201 For the drawenge of iij. kolkes [v.r. boltes] of iren for the halyher.

1485 in M. Oppenheim Naval Accts. & Inventories Henry VII (1896) 70 Colks [altered in MS from Cokks] of Iren, xxj.

1514 Inventory in C. S. Knighton & D. M. Loades Anthony Roll of Henry VIII's Navy (2000) 114/2 Garnettes with ij single polies with colkes of brasse.

1616 Acct. 19 Feb. in A. Farrington Eng. Factory in Japan (1991) II. 1332 Coake of brasse for woodden shivers.

1653 Court Bk. 16 Mar. in E. B. Sainsbury Calendar Court Minutes East India Company 1650–1654 (1913) 228 Brasse sheevers and coakes.

1750 T. R. Blanckley Naval Expositor 33 Four solid Truck Wheels, fitted with Iron Axle Trees and Brass Coaks.

1777 D. Lescallier Vocabulaire des Termes de Marine 20/1 Lignum vitæ sheaves with brass coaks, Rouets de gayac à dés de fonte.

1793 True Briton 22 Nov. (advt.) Old stores, consisting of..Cast Iron Shivers, with Brass Coaks.

1811 Edinb. Ann. Reg. 1809 2 442/1 When the coaks are inserted into the sheave, the drilling machine is employed to perforate the three semicircular projections of the coaks and the wood beneath, in order to fasten the coaks by copper pins put into these holes.

1862 B. J. Totten Naval Text-bk. (rev. ed.) 301 Coaks are also the metal holes in a sheave, through which the pin goes.

1902 Anglo-Amer. Encycl. & Dict. (1904) III. 531/2 The pin or pintle of a block of pulleys..passes through the bushing of the shell and the coak of the sheave, and is generally of iron, the sheave or wheel is generally of lignum-vitæ or of iron, and has around its circumference a groove for the rope, called the gorge. It has a bushing, called a coak, around the pintle-hole.

1984 Technol. & Culture 25 198 Spiral-grooved bell-metal coaks had been cast in two halves and copper rivets had been cut by gaged shears for insertion into the sheaves by hand.

1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 4 Coaks are oblong ridges left on the surface of different pieces of made-masts by cutting away the wood round them; the intermediate part is called the plain... Coak and plain is when a coak is formed, and a plain surface follows between that and the next. Running coaks are coaks continued the whole length along the middle... Chain coaks are formed one at the end of the other on the opposite sides of the middle-line.

1830 P. Hedderwick Treat. Marine Archit. 259 Make a mould for the foot of the stem with its cog or coak, scribing it so that it will fit very completely.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. at Coaking Coaks, or dowels, are fitted into the beams and knees of vessels, to prevent their slipping.

1884 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 5 215 In order to meet a vertical strain, such as the rise and fall of the waves under the bottom of a raft, shipwrights join the timbers not only with trenails but with dowels, or coaks, as they are also called.

1918 C. G. Davis Building of Wooden Ship 81 Coaking, a method of joining two pieces of timber, such as attaching beams or knees together with coaks or tenons, the purpose being to unite them solidly, so they will not pull or slip apart.

2008 Amer. Jrnl. Archaeol. 112 701/1 Two planks from the wreck do have dowel coaks, but these were inserted obliquely through the plank surface.

1717 W. Sutherland Britain's Glory: Ship-building Unvail'd 61 From 4 to 5, it is either Coak'd or Tabled.

1814 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 104 299 When the decks are thus laid, waterways..are brought upon, and coaked to the ends of the plank.

1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuilding xiv. 259 To make it [sc. the lower mast] up of several pieces which are Coaked and bolted to each other, and bound together by numerous iron hoops.

1918 C. G. Davis Building of Wooden Ship 94 It is generally formed of several pieces of hardwood coaked or tabled together edgewise.

1992 B. Unsworth Sacred Hunger i. 8 Here are the two parts of the spindle. D'you mark the taper on them? They'll be coaked together in the middle here, and bolted after.

1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 5 If the pieces coak or table together, the thickness of the coaks or tablings must be added to the former gage or spoiling.

1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 27 The heel-piece..coaks on to the heel of the lower tree, and the head-piece to the upper tree.

1717 W. Sutherland Britain's Glory: Ship-building Unvail'd 59 For although several Pieces put together cannot be so strong as an intire Piece, and that Tabling and Coaking (as it's term'd) may weaken, yet [etc.].

1821 J. Fincham Introd. Outl. Pract. Ship-Building 241 Circular coaking has been introduced instead of tabling.

1973 P. O'Brian HMS Surprise vi. 144 The coaking just above the cap is not what any of our friends could wish.