ram-linen.

1664 E. Bushnell Compl. Ship-wright 14 A line stretched from the middle of the Sterne-Post to the middle of the Stem, called by Ship-wrightes, a Ram-line.

1711 W. Sutherland Ship-builders Assistant 27 A Ram-line made fast on the Stem and Stern-post, and weighed by some Device or other to steddy it.

1754 M. Murray Treat. Ship-building & Navigation ii. ii. 144 A small line, called a ram line, is stretched from the middle line of the stem, to that of the..post.

1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 8 Ram-line, a long line (thicker than common) used to gain a straight middle-line upon a tree or mast.

1815 W. Burney Falconer's New Universal Dict. Marine (rev. ed.) Ramline..a long line..sometimes used to form the sheer of a ship, and to set the beams of the deck fair.

1850 J. Greenwood Sailor's Sea-bk. 140 Ram-line. A..line..used for the purpose of forming the sheer or hang of the decks.

1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 559 Ramed, the state of a ship on the stocks, when all the frames are set upon the keel, the stem and stern-post put up, and the whole adjusted by the ram-line.

1927 G. Bradford Gloss. Sea Terms 138/2 Ram Line, one used for centering a spar in shaping it, and also in determining on deck the fore and aft line of the keel.

1986 D. H. Roberts tr. J. Boudriot Seventy-four Gun Ship 46 A plane is established by stretching a ram-line from the stem to the sternpost, and by stretching other lines transversely at right angles to the ram-line and touching it.