coxswain
Sign in to saveAlso known as helmsman, steersman
The coxswain ( or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cock, referring to the cockboat, a type of ship's boat, and swain, an Old English term derived from the Old Norse sveinn meaning boy or servant. In 1724, a "cockswain" was defined as "An officer of a ship who takes care of the cockboat, barge or shallop, with all its furniture, and is in readiness with his crew to man the boat on all occasions." When the term "cockboat" became obsolete, the title of coxswain as
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 616 inbound references to coxswain, and connects out to Harry DeWolf-class offshore patrol vessel, French and World War II.
It is catalogued under the topic Marine occupations.
Vinony links it to 5 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- helmsman
Show 3 more facts
- Commons category
- Coxswains
- female form of label
- timoneira
- described by source
- Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition
via Wikidata · CC0
~6 min read
Encyclopedic overview
7 sectionsContents
- Rowing
- Royal Navy
- Naval cadets
- United States Coast Guard
- See also
- References
- External links
The coxswain ( or ) is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cock, referring to the cockboat, a type of ship's boat, and swain, an Old English term derived from the Old Norse sveinn meaning boy or servant. In 1724, a "cockswain" was defined as "An officer of a ship who takes care of the cockboat, barge or shallop, with all its furniture, and is in readiness with his crew to man the boat on all occasions." When the term "cockboat" became obsolete, the title of coxswain as the person in charge of a ship's boat remained.
== Rowing ==
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “coxswain” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.