From "The Wrecj of the Whaleship Essex" : "........a sudden squall of wind struck the ship.....
and knocked her completely on her beam ends, stove one of our boats,and threw down
the cambouse

I could not find this word in any dictionary. I found the word in several sites. One mentioned
Lewis and Clark having a blacksmith cut up a cambouse into four inch squares of metal
which they traded to the Indians for maize to eat. Another site showed a pictrue of a guy
in a sort of cramped kitchen with pots and pans on what may have been a stove, captioned
"Zort dans sa cambouse". I could not find "cambouse" in any French dictionary.

Then I had a hunch, and looked up etymology of "caboose". Here's what I found:
caboose - 1747, from M.Du. kambuis "ship's galley," from
Low Ger. kabhuse "wooden cabin on ship's deck."
Railroading sense is 1861.

So am I a clever boy, and does the "cambouse" that was knocked down on the Essex by
the sudden squall mean the ship's galley ?

See if any of you can find "cambouse" in a dictionary.