yawlsman

English

Etymology

yawl +‎ -s- +‎ -man

Noun

yawlsman (plural yawlsmen)

1. One who sails a yawl.
   • 1885 August 15, “Round Flamborough Head”, in Chambers's Journal, volume 62, number 85, page 513:

     When the sun has sunk behind the Yorkshire wolds, its work begins; the lamp is lighted, and the clockowrk wound. Then the watch pacing the steamer's deck, Jack Collier taking his 'trick at the wheel, ' and the bluff yawlsman riding to his nets far out at sea, will see a tiny point of light grow and grow , until a brilliant beam of brightness flashes acrsss the darkness, and then dies down again and leaves all black awhile.

   • 1887, Edwin Lester Linden Arnold, Bird Life in England, page 225:

     This deduction of nearly one hundred million herrings shot away with the lives of the kittiwakes and gulls every season, under one line of cliffs alone, is a rough, unscientific perhaps, but nevertheless effective popular argument for the good cause, and should make the owners of the Sarah Jane, the Two Brothers, and every other North Sea yawlsman rub their chins reflectively and reconsider their ill-will towards the birds, or their willingness to show the gentlemen of the Sheffield furnaces and the Midland cotton mills the breeding-places of the fair while fowl that supply the life and pleasure of the great north seas.

   • 2010, Paul Kearney, Hawkwood and the Kings:

     Yawlsmen on the herrin run reported that Abrusio-bound ships were diverting to Cherrieros and even Pontifidad.

   • 2016, Charles A. Willison, A Boy's Service Under Sherman in the Civil War:

     This was finally effected by yawlsmen from the gunboats who were expert in shooting the rapids, and after several attempts succeeded in getting both off safely, but nearly exhausted.

See also

• yawler