Ketch n. Naut.
1. An almost obsolete form of sailing vessel, with a mainmast and a mizzenmast, -- usually from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons burden.
Bomb ketch. See under Bomb.
Bomb n.
1. A great noise; a hollow sound. [Obs.]
A pillar of iron . . . which if you had struck, would make . . . a great bomb in the chamber beneath. --Bacon.
2. Mil. A shell; esp. a spherical shell, like those fired from mortars. See Shell.
3. A bomb ketch.
Bomb chest Mil., a chest filled with bombs, or only with gunpowder, placed under ground, to cause destruction by its explosion.
Bomb ketch, Bomb vessel Naut., a small ketch or vessel, very strongly built, on which mortars are mounted to be used in naval bombardments; -- called also mortar vessel.
Bomb lance, a lance or harpoon with an explosive head, used in whale fishing.
Volcanic bomb, a mass of lava of a spherical or pear shape. “I noticed volcanic bombs.”