for some inexplicable reason I have a block against remembering this word for a shipboard (or dockside?) crane.

the etymology is not helpful: Middle English daviot, from Norman French daviot, diminutive of Davi, David.

David <> crane ??

edit: it occurs to me that a similar word, derrick, might prove to be interesting...

obs. derrick hangman, gallows, fr. Derick, name of 17th cent. Eng. hangman

A derrick was named after a hangman? Yow.

David, which can be spelled Davet in French, means beloved. What that might have to do with a shipboard crane, I do not know. Maybe a Davet Somebody or a Somebody Davet invented them?

Dr. Bill points out that there are many types of davits: shipboard, waterfront, dockside - the bent posts that support the lifeboats and liferafts are also called davits.

here some pictures of some more:
http://www.davitmaster.com/default.asp

>>David<>Crane?

After looking at your pics of Davets, I wonder if it's because -- from the angle and extension -- some of them look like erect penises.

*Edit* That is, from David = beloved.

the bent posts that support the lifeboats and liferafts are also called davits. That's what I'd been thinking! 'Splains why I was a bit cornfused by cranes...

All you Davids out there (you know who you are!): you are indeed beloved to me. It has also always been one of my favorite guys' names.

What they looked like when I was in Uncle Sam's Navy.

http://www.m-i-link.com/dictionary/default.asp?term=davit