I was reading Cochrane's Memoirs of a Fighting Captain when I came across this:-
However, at 3.00pm, as a large settee was running into the mole of Ciotat, we discharged two shots at her, which went over and fell into the town.
I was momentarily disconcerted by the notion of a seat, for two or more people, with a back and usually with arms sailing around the Mediterranean, pursued by Cochrane's frigate, but I persisted and turned up a vessel with a very long, sharp prow, carrying two or three masts with lateen sails, which makes rather more sense.
This leads me to wonder why a settee (the vessel) is so-called. Its name can't surely be connected with the item of furniture, can it?