Well deck

This article is about the traditional use of the term "well deck". For well decks in amphibious warfare ships, see Well dock.

USS William Ward Burrows on 6 July 1942. Her 3"/23 guns have been replaced with 3"/50 guns and the sponson in the forward well deck for the 50-foot motor launches has been removed. (The aft well deck is clearly visible forward of the poop.)

In traditional nautical use, well decks were decks lower than decks fore and aft, usually at the main deck level, so that breaks appear in the main deck profile, as opposed to a flush deck profile. The term goes back to the days of sail.[1] Late-20th-century commercial and military amphibious ships have applied the term to an entirely different type of hangar-like structure, evolving from exaggerated deep "well decks" of World War II amphibious vessels, that can be flooded for lighters or landing craft.

  1. ^ "Brief History of the U.S.S. Yantic". Michigan Tech Archives & Copper Country Historical Collections. Michigan Technological University. Retrieved 5 March 2012.