The Collaborative International Dictionary
Kentledge \Kent"ledge\, n. [OF. cant edge, corner, D. kant. See Cant edge, angle.] (Naut.) Pigs of iron used for ballast. [Written also kintlidge.]
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context nautical English) Weights (often scrap or pig iron) used as permanent ballast on ships. 2 A system of weights (usually concrete or cast-iron blocks) used for load-testing piled foundations.
Usage examples of "kentledge".
My breast has felt the last four-and-twenty hours as if a ton of kentledge had been stowed in it.
Others are stored against the inside of the hull-planks, under the kentledge, as you described.
To get at them, one would have to unload the ship entirely, pump out the unspeakable contents of the bilge, shovel out tons of shingle, and winch up the massive pigs of kentledge, one by one.
Outside the Kentledge pub, drunkards had vomited so often the pavement was starting to dissolve.