local. [Of obscure origin; perh. an alteration of STALL-BOAT, from association with STOW v.1 Cf. STOW-NET.
This view gains some support from the forms storbanting, storbatin, given in the Eng. Dial. Dict. as the Suffolk pronunciation of ‘Stow-boating, (1) dredging up stone at sea for making Roman cement (Kent); (2) fishing for sprats (Suff.).’ But the final l in stall is normally dropped only in northern and north midland dialects.]
A kind of boat used in fishing for sprats. Also attrib. Hence Stowboating vbl. sb.
1833. Rep. Sel. Comm. Brit. Channel Fisheries, 11. The Stow-boat Fishery, or Catching of Sprats for Manure. Ibid. There are at present from 400 to 500 Boats engaged in Stow-boating on the Kentish Coast only. Ibid., 58. How many men are there on board the stow-boats?
1883. St. James’s Gaz., 21 Dec., 6/1. It is to the stow-boats … that the London poor owe their chief supply of these valuable little fish.
