leadsman

American  

[ledz-muhn] / ˈlɛdz mən /

noun

• leadsmen
  plural

1. a sailor who sounds with a lead line.

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leadsman British  

/ ˈlɛdzmən /

noun

1. nautical a sailor who takes soundings with a lead line

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• leadsmen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of leadsman

First recorded in 1500–10; lead ² + 's ¹ + -man

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

leadsman leadsmen

No leadsman need stand in the bow to take soundings, for the navigator has an acoustic-electric fathometer to tell him, at the press of a button, how much water is beneath the hull.

From Time Magazine Archive

The anchor plunged over and the cable roared out, then a leadsman forward gave their soundings.

From The Pirate Shark by Fred J. Arting

"I don't know the words," replied her partner plaintively; "I only 'knows the toon,'" as the leadsman said to the Navigator.

From A Tall Ship On Other Naval Occasions by Bartimeus

Though she received nine shots in her hull, the leadsman was the only man wounded on board.

From The Three Commanders by Thomas Cantrell Dugdale

“Six fathoms!” came the voice of the leadsman from the chains.

From Across the Spanish Main A Tale of the Sea in the Days of Queen Bess by W. (William) Rainey

From forward, ghost voices of the leadsmen chanted the soundings.

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

At half a cable's length the voices of the leadsmen, inarticulate and faint before, could be clearly heard.

From H.M.S. —— by John Graham Bower

He could tell by the leadsmen that this was a man-of-war.'

From Tales Of Hearsay by Joseph Conrad

It seemed an age before the cry came from the leadsmen "by the mark five."

From The Narrative of a Blockade-Runner by John Wilkinson

One of the gorgeous ones remarked— 'I don't want to find fault with your leadsmen, but that's a good deal of water for Plum Point, it seems to me.'

From Life on the Mississippi, Part 2. by Mark Twain