Antedating of "booby hatch"-nautical 1806

Sat Apr 24 23:45:12 UTC 2004

OED and MW share Dana's 1840 cite for a part of a ship.  

10 December 1806  _Edinburgh(Scotland) Weekly Journal_ 5/1

A poor copy, but I'll do my best.  Newspaperarchive.

<<When Devoe was taken taken (sic) up at sea, he ...been forty-four hours on(?) the booby-hatch, ...which time he not only discovered great...., but singular presence of mind.>>

The [...] represent word(s) that are not readable on the microfilm copy.

Sam Clements