Forms: 5 botswayne, 6 boteswayne, -son. boateswayne, 6–7 boteswaine, boatswaine, 7 boteswan, boateswaine, -son, batsuein, boatswayne, -son(ne, 7–8 boson, 7– boatswain. [f. BOAT + SWAIN, a. ON. sveinn boy, lad, servant. The alleged OE. *bát-swán is app. a figment.]
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. Shaks., 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’s-mate, a boatswain’s deputy or assistant; boatswain-bird (see quot.).
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.
