leadsman

1 9.9

A person on a ship who measures water depth with a weighted rope

noun

Archaic

: sondador

The leadsman measured the water's depth by casting a lead weight overboard.

Examples

A leadsman would throw the lead into the water in the direction that the ship was moving and yell, "Casting the lead." When the line touched bottom, the leadsman would yell, "By the lead fathoms." If the bottom was not reached, the sounding was simply, "No bottom at fathoms." The ship's officer would compare the soundings to his nautical chart to ensure the ship was in safe waters.

Academic text (2013)
This was accomplished by a leadsman throwing a lead weight attached to a line overboard to measure the water's depth.

Academic text (2013)
- Who's the leadsman?

The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985)
A leadsman would throw the lead into the water in the direction that the ship was moving and yell, "Casting the lead." When the line touched bottom, the leadsman would yell, "By the lead fathoms." If the bottom was not reached, the sounding was simply, "No bottom at fathoms." The ship's officer would compare the soundings to his nautical chart to ensure the ship was in safe waters.

Academic text (2013)
To ensure safe navigation, the leadsman would call out the depth readings to the captain.
During the night voyage, the leadsman carefully monitored the water depth using the lead line.

Surface Forms

leadsman singular

leadsmen plural

Morphology

leadsman = lead + man (semi-transparent) = lead + man

The compound 'lead' + 'man' directly indicates 'a man who uses a lead', but 'lead' in this nautical sense (a sounding weight) is specialized vocabulary that many learners may not know.

Etymology

The word leadsman comes from the heavy lead weight sailors put on a rope and the word man for the person who handles it. So a leadsman is the 'man' who drops the 'lead' to see how deep the water is, which is why he measured depth to keep the ship safe.