boatswain
(ˈbəʊtsweɪn, usually ˈbəʊs(ə)n)
Forms: 5 botswayne, 6 boteswayne, -son, boateswayne, 6–7 boteswaine, boatswaine, 7 boteswan, boateswaine, -son, batsuein, boatswayne, -son(ne, 7–8 boson, 7– boatswain.
[Late OE. bátsweᵹen (Earle's Land Charters 254), f. bát boat n. + *sweᵹen, a. ON. sveinn swain; see bosun, bo'sun.]
1. An officer in a ship who has charge of the sails, rigging, etc., and whose duty it is to summon the men to their duties with a whistle.
| c 1450 Pilgrim's Sea-Voy. 21 in Stacions Rome (1867) 38 Bestowe the boote, bote-swayne, anon. 1463 Mann. & Househ. Exp. 191 To the botswayne of the Mary Talbot a jaket. c 1500 Cocke Lorell's B. (1843) 14 The bote swayne blewe his whystell full shryll. 1610 Shakes. Temp. i. i. 10 Good Boteswaine haue care: where's the Master? 1635 Brereton Trav. (1844) 165 Boatswain, corruptly called boseon. 1635 J. Hayward Banish'd Virg. 172 Obeying the boatsonne. 1685 Dryden Albion & Alb. ii. Wks. 1725 V. 396 The merry Boson from his Side His whistle takes. 1762–9 Falconer Shipwr. i. 694 Thrice with shrill note the boatswain's whistle rung. 1864 Tennyson En. Ard. 123 His vessel China-bound, And wanting yet a boatswain. |
2. The Arctic Skua (Cataractes parasiticus).
| 1835 Sir J. Ross N.-W. Pass. iii. 40 We also saw..many of the birds called boatswains. 1876 Davis Polaris Exp. xvi. 378 On the 14th, Joe shot a bird called a boatswain. |
3. Comb. boatswain-bird (see quot.); boatswain's chair, cradle, a board on which a sailor (or other workman) sits when at work aloft; boatswain's-mate, a boatswain's deputy or assistant.
| 1652 Proc. in Parl. No. 170 A Boatswains mate 1l. 15s. 1829 Marryat F. Mildmay xi, Among our killed, was a Dutch boatswain's mate. 1867 Smyth Sailor's Word-bk., Boatswain-bird, Phaeton æthereus, a tropical bird, so called from its sort of whistle. It is distinguished by two long feathers in the tail, called the marling-spike. 1894 Bo'suns chair [see bosun]. 1928 Daily Express 19 Nov. 11/7 When you have been sitting up in a bo'sun's cradle playing hell with a pneumatic riveter. |