"beril" of a ship?

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Wed Apr 25 12:11:06 UTC 2007


Thanks, Doug, for your investigation of and cautionary comments about
"barrel".  And now I won't have to read "Roderick Random" too!  -:)

I am going to consult one more expert.

Joel

At 4/25/2007 01:53 AM, Douglas G. Wilson wrote:
>>A correspondent on another list has pointed out that "barrell" OED2
>>sense 5.a can refer to a capstan or windlass (c1500, 1611, and
>>mid-18th c.).  (I simply missed this when I looked at the OED,
>>although in extenuation there are no instances of the spelling
>>"beril*" under "barrel".)
>
>I'm not convinced that "barrel" is likely, although I can't decisively
>answer the question myself.
>
>The word "barrel" appears elsewhere in Smollett's works, and it's spelled
>in the usual way (at my glance). And, as previously noted, the book is not
>full of weird or capricious spellings.
>
>When "beril" appeared in the 18th and 19th centuries, AFAIK, it was
>generally the same as "beryl" (meaning a jewel, also a mirror), as
>previously noted. I can't see how this can be relevant.
>
>It may be that there was some nautical item called a "beril", but if it had
>been obviously equivalent to "barrel" I suppose it would have been spelled
>"barrel" in Smollett's book.
>
>Anyway, I can't find any such nautical "beril", or any "beril" = "barrel"
>either, elsewhere right now.
>
>One might consider the possibility of a shortened version of some nautical
>expression; cf. "bosun" = "boatswain", "tops'l" = "topsail", etc. Could
>"beril" = "[something] rail", for example? Here is a description of a
>somewhat comparable event from Google Books (from 1860): "The sail flew
>into ribbons, and great pieces of canvas went flying to leeward. The
>weather topsail sheet drew the eyebolt out of the deck, carrying with it
>one half of the belaying rail ...."
>
>I suppose typographical error is always a possibility too.
>
>[Another version of the same event appears in Smollett's _The Adventures of
>Roderick Random_: "... one of the main braces broke, by the shock whereof
>two sailors were flung from the yard's arm into the sea, where they
>perished, and poor Jack Rattlin was thrown down upon the deck, at the
>expense of a broken leg." No "beril" involved in this version.]
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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