[Derivation unknown: it has been conjecturally compared with BILANDER; also with BULLY-BOY.]
‘A Humber or east-coast boat, of river-barge build, and a try-sail; a bluff-bowed north-country trader, or large one-masted vessel of burden.’ Smyth.
1855. R. Knox, E. Yorksh., 62. Small flat-bottomed sloops called Billy-boys or Humber-keels.
1879. Hertf. Merc., 1 March, 2/7. The large tanned-sail barges, sometimes called billy-boys,… coming from Rochester or other places on the Kentish coast.
1884. Mehalah, viii. 116. The pay was too small to entice a youth, who owned a vessel, a billy-boy, and oyster pans.
