boatswain's chair

American  

noun

1. a seat composed of a plank suspended in a horizontal position from ropes, used by painters and other persons who work on the exteriors of buildings, ships, etc., while seated at a considerable height.

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boatswain's chair British  

noun

1. nautical a seat consisting of a short flat board slung from ropes, used to support a person working on the side of a vessel or in its rigging

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Etymology

Origin of boatswain's chair

First recorded in 1875–80

Example Sentences

Soon Mitscher had to transfer by boatswain's chair to the destroyer English, which flew his three-starred flag with unaccustomed pride.

From Time Magazine Archive

And, still holding on carefully, she pulled on the halliard with her free hand, until the boatswain's chair was far enough down again to go down of its own weight.

From The Clammer and the Submarine by Hopkins, William John

When they discovered that their only means of safety lay in making that perilous passage through the waters which overwhelmed the bight of rope in which hung the boatswain's chair, they counted themselves as dead.

From Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer A Romance of the Spanish Main by Crawford, Will

The boatswain's chair was then attached, and with the aid of a pair of strong horses, who pulled away at one end of the rope, the professor was hauled to the top of the rock.

From The Great Round World and What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 42, August 26, 1897 A Weekly Magazine for Boys and Girls by Bishop, Julia Truitt

He dragged the hawser in with some difficulty, made it fast to the cross-trees, and then rigged a kind of running boatswain's chair from a section of the loose rigging.

From The Harbor Master by Roberts, Theodore Goodridge