alphabet

Kedge

Definition of Kedge:

To move by means of a kedge, to warp.

To move ( a vessel, raft, etc.) by operating such an anchor.

There are places where steamboats can't beat th' current an' have to kedge up or wait for lower water. "Bring Me His Ears", Clarence E. Mulford.
He had succeeded, and the vessel now rode by a kedge that he could easily weigh by means of a deck tackle. "Jack Tier or The Florida Reef", James Fenimore Cooper.
The captain throws out a kedge anchor, and in a mysterious way we pull ourselves off by hawsers, as a man lifts himself by his own boot- straps. "The New North", Agnes Deans Cameron.
The Deal men, therefore, with seamanlike skill and resource, swung a kedge anchor clear of the vessel high up from her foreyard, and as the vessel drifted the kedge bit, and the bows of the vessel little by little came up to the sea, when her other anchors were let go, and in a few minutes held fast; then with a mighty cheer from the Deal men- lifeboatmen and lugger's crew all together- the Iron Crown half an hour afterwards was floated by the rising tide on the very top of the fateful sands; her hawser was brought to the waiting tug- boats, and she was towed- ship, cargo, and crew all saved- into the shelter of the Downs. "Heroes of the Goodwin Sands", Thomas Stanley Treanor.

Detachment

The act of separating; the thing separated; a body of troops, or certain ships, separated from the main body and sent on special service. ...