Proper name for the cargo opening/covering?

[Jib]

What is the opening and covering to cargo hold called? It often looks to be a grate or lattice of wood. I know these can be pulled up for access into the hold so that cargo can be lowered in on ropes. Curious about the historic name for these coverings.

[callenish gunner]

Hatch

Edited April 4, 2010 by callenish gunner

[Daniel]

The hole is called the hatch, as Callenish said. The cover is called a grate or grating. Around the edges of the hatch are raised wooden projections called coamings; they help keep water from pouring into the hatch if waves break on the deck. In a storm, rain would fall through the grating if it were left uncovered, so you'd tie down a canvas tarpaulin called a batten over the hatch; whence the phrase "batten down the hatches."

[Captain McCool]

I thought the "battens" were the wooden pieces used to wedge down the tarpaulin, rather than the tarpaulin itself.

[Daniel]

I thought the "battens" were the wooden pieces used to wedge down the tarpaulin, rather than the tarpaulin itself.

I was wrong. "The wooden hatch-covers, or gratings, were placed in position and tarpaulins stretched over them. These were made fast to the sides of the coamings by nailing on long laths, or 'battens.'" Harland, Seamanship in the Age of Sail, p. 211.

He has an interesting note about the gratings, too: "On the topic of hatch-covers, Liardet (104) complains that they are 'inviariably used for every dirty thing that is done, and when needed, are found unserviceable.'" One such use being to tie up sailors for flogging, presumably.

[Jib]

Thanks ship mates! That was simple and I feet more than a little stupid asking the question.