The Collaborative International Dictionary
Bowgrace \Bow"grace`\, n. (Naut.) A frame or fender of rope or junk, laid out at the sides or bows of a vessel to secure it from injury by floating ice.
Wiktionary
n. (context nautical English) A frame or fender of rope or junk, laid out at the sides or bows of a vessel to secure it from damage.
Usage examples of "bowgrace".
It is mostly floe-ice, great flat sheets of no great depth, rarely more than our skilled whalers (and we have several aboard) and the bowgrace with which we are adorned can deal with.
They discussed the question of bowgraces, offenders, and of some very curious objects used by the Greenland whalers: and when they had exhausted the subject twice, the American, (a person from Poughkeepsie), said, 'That smart young fellow, your mate's aid de con, as you might say, is he a prize-fighter?