[email protected] wrote:
> 
> Does anyone know what a "Master sloop sweep" might be?  I know a sloop
> is a boat, but did someone actually sweep them?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Jan

Jan:
	It may be farfetched, but a sweep is also an oar, so maybe he was 
something on the order of a lead oarsman, or a coxswain ???
	In the sense you've stated, perhaps he was the coxswain of the crew in 
the days of sailing ships, and before steam tugs, who rowed a "tow-boat" to bring 
ships into harbor or alongside the pier/wharf.  
	For that matter, when sailing ships went "into irons", or weren't making 
headway because they'd lost the wind, or when the master of a ship wanted to go 
ashore, he might simply have been the that senior crewman responsible for the 
launch used to pull the ship or ferry the master about...a coxswain.
JIM MOORE

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