quarter-gunnern.
/ˈkwɔːtəˌɡʌnə/, U.S. /ˈkwɔrdərˌɡənər/ Nautical. Now historical.
A naval officer subordinate and assistant to the gunner.
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society > armed hostility > hostilities at sea > seafaring warrior or naval man > leader or commander > officer with specific duty > [noun] > gunnery officers
gunner1495
quarter-gunner1617
gunner's mate1708
gunnery-lieutenant1867
gun captain1901
gunnery jack1904
gun1916
1617 J. Taylor Dolphins Danger & Deliuerance 32 Wil. Moore quarter Gunner.
1627 J. Smith Sea Gram. viii. 35 The Master Gunner hath the charge of the ordnance..the rest of the Gunners, or quarter Gunners to receiue their charge from him.
1692 Order in J. Love Mariner's Jewel (1724) 120 Quarter-Gunner, Carpenter's Crew, Steward, Cook.
1702 Royal Declar. 1 June in London Gaz. No. 3815/2 The Trumpeter, Quarter Gunners, Carpenters Crew [etc.].
1769 W. Falconer Universal Dict. Marine (at cited word) The number of quarter-gunners in any ship is always in proportion to the number of her artillery, one quarter-gunner being allowed to every four cannon.
1804 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 12 476 One of his Majesty's frigates, on board of which her husband served in the quality of a quarter-gunner.
1846 A. Young Naut. Dict. 242 Quarter-Gunner, in a ship of war, an able seaman, generally one of the gunner's crew, appointed to act as his assistant under the gunner's mates.
1917 Fitchburg (Mass.) Daily Sentinel 26 Jan. 13/3 You no longer see the gray bearded boatswain's mate, quartermaster or quarter gunner about the decks of our ships.
1977 P. O'Brian Mauritius Command iv. 87 No more than a single shot went home—a shot almost certainly fired by one of the quarter-gunners.
2005 Western Morning News (Plymouth) (Nexis) 22 Oct. 34 [In the 1770s] he served as an able seaman on the Prince of Wales at Plymouth and then as a quarter-gunner in the West Indies.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2007; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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n.1617