watermanship

[waw-ter-muhn-ship, wot-er-]

noun

1. the skill, duties, business, etc., of a waterman.

2. skill in rowing or boating.

Word History and Origins

Origin of watermanship¹

First recorded in 1880–85; waterman + -ship

Example Sentences

It would simply come down to watermanship, and guts.

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Those good judges who differ from him as aforesaid base their objections to his method chiefly on the ground that it requires rather a higher standard of watermanship to enable an oarsman so to govern his blade that he can immerse it more or less at will, and yet maintain the same outward action of body, only with more or less force employed, according to amount of blade immersed.

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Sculling and pair-oar practice tend to teach watermanship.

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He has a time-honoured screw, a dog’s-eared elbow, and yet he possesses what many of the better-finished oarsmen do not—watermanship—and can keep on at work in a rolling boat when many neater oarsmen are all abroad if the ship gets off her even keel.

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In the first place, it would seem to him better to try to raise the standard of watermanship to the system than to lower the system to meet the requirements of inferior skill.

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