Naut. [AFTER- 4 b.] ‘The men who are stationed on the quarter-deck and poop, to work the after sails. Generally composed of ordinary seamen and landsmen, constituting, with waisters, the largest part of the crew, on whom the principal drudgery of the ship devolved.’ Adm. Smyth.
1826. H. N. Coleridge, 6 Months in W. Indies, 277. Even first lieutenants of the navy are generally sent into the after-guard.
1833. Marryat, Pet. Simple (1863), 89. Now, captain of the afterguard, bring a piece of old canvass and some sand here, and clean his teeth nicely.
