According to Wikipedia, "the word boatswain has been in the English language since approximately 1450. It is derived from late Old English batswegen, from bat (boat) concatenated with Old Norse sveinn (swain), meaning a young man, a follower, retainer or servant. The phonetic spelling bosun has been observed since 1868."On oceanographic ships, the bos'n is the master of the deck. He (and very occasionally she) is in charge of all of the winches and lines and operations involved in launching and recovering equipment over the side of the vessel. The bos'n knows knots and rigging and shackles and winches and all kinds of other mariner stuff. On the Knorr, the bos'n, Pete Liarikos, is (and this is my opinion) the most ornery, salty, and cussedly lovable character on board. There is no harder worker, no tougher, and no better man on the ship. His loud, yes profane, outbursts only barely disguise his deep devotion to (and I suspect love for) his difficult work. Without Pete, we wouldn't have f'n noth'n.
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