"beril" of a ship?

[Charles Doyle]

What IS the distinction between "cask" and "barrel"? OED doesn't make one, referring to each in the definition of the other; yet they can't be ENTIRELY synonymous--can they?

In books from the 18th century and earlier, the spelling "beril" usually represents "beryl"--but that would obviously make no sense here!

For spellings of "barrel" the OED gives "4 barayl, 4-5 barele, 4-6 -ell(e, 4-7 -el, 5 barylle, 5-6 barrelle, 6 beryll, 6-7 barrell, 7- barrel."

The mystery persists . . . .

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 13:23:55 -0400
>From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>Subject: Re: "beril" of a ship?
>
>I might have wondered about "barrel" also, but an earlier part of the sentence explicitly describes a "cask of water [that] broke from its lashings and maimed sixteen men before it could be staved"; and the immediately preceding context is "one of the braces gave way with such a shock, as threw four men over-board, two of whom were lost, while the knee of a fifth was crushed in a terrible manner between the beril and the mast".
>
>So the cause seems to be the brace failing; Smollett uses the word "cask" elsewhere, not "barrel"; and I don't observe quaint spellings in this Smollett work ("Account of the Expedition Against Carthagena").
>
>Joel

>
>At 4/24/2007 12:52 PM, you wrote:
>>Probably a BARREL(?).
>>
>>--Charlie
>>____________________________________________________________
>>
>>---- Original message ----
>> >Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 12:42:02 -0400
>> >From: "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> >Subject: "beril" of a ship?
>> >>
>> >What, in the 18th century, was a "beril" on a naval vessel?  To
>> quote Smollett:  "the knee of a fifth [sailor] was crushed in a
>> terrible manner between the beril and the mast".

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