Also 7 billander, 7–9 bylander, 8 belande, belandre, billinder. [ad. Du. bijlander ‘a vessel with one large mast, sailing on the coast,’ ‘a lighter,’ f. Du. bij BY + land LAND. Adapted in Fr. as bélandre.] A two-masted merchant vessel, a kind of hoy, distinguished by the trapezoidal shape of the mainsail; used in Holland for coast and canal traffic.
1656. (title) The Opening of Rivers for Navigation … a Mediterranean Passage by Water for Billanders of thirty tun, between Bristol and London.
1666. Lond. Gaz., No. 37/4. Here are three small Billanders from Bruges in Flanders.
1676. Temple, Let., Wks. 1731, II. 351. Their baggage is already laden in a By-lander in this Canal.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., I. 128. Like bilanders to creep Along the coast.
1731. Bailey, Belande, belandre.
1755. Mem. Capt. P. Drake, II. iii. 62. I agreed for a Billinder, which is a kind of Dutch Vessel.
1833. Southey, Naval Hist. Eng., IV. 295. In little boats and bylanders to steal along the shore by night.
